Summary: A narrative that sets a tone, mood, setting, plot, theme, and characterizations at a deliberate pace is known as slow burn storytelling. When talking about stories told in the horror genre, creeping and crawling dread is what we seek out to make us uncomfortable and anxious. When it's done right it can be incredibly effective, when it's done poorly we risk boredom. We originally planned to talk about ghost movies. As things progressed though the theme of slow burn narratives came to the surface so we decided to take a look at a number of films that dole out the tension in a very deliberate way and discuss how and why it works. The whole thing kicked off with Ty West's newest offering The Innkeepers which exemplifies the concept of the slow burn. Does he stretch things too far (as House of the Devil had been accused of), or is he one of the few modern genre directors that has a firm grasp of horror pacing? You be the judge. We also talk about the 2004 French film Sainte Ange, Lucky McKee's The Woods, Deadline, Burnt Offerings (the definition of slow burn), and Sigaw (The Echo), a Philippines offering - all supernatural, all very paced in their presentation. Things wrap up with quick takes on some recent box office fare and we dole out some thank yous to the listeners. (Note: spoilers for Sainte Ange run 44:06 - 51:54) As always we welcome your comments: horroretc@gmail.com Voicemail (206) 337-5324 WWW.HORRORETC.COM
