I was just writing about this re The Shining last week!
I think there's also a type of dad that can be found in some of these movies that shades into something else, men who are convinced that their families are the thing that stands between them and their full potential - the family becoming not a symbol of the thing to be protected or saved through Masculine Competence, but rather the thing that gets in the way of whatever the dad's true calling is.
In The Shining, Jack views his duties (both to his job and to his family) as obstacles on the path to his writing career; a similar sentiment can be seen in Anatomy of a Fall, which isn't explicitly a haunted house film but is certainly haunted by the husband's rage. In the end, it comes down to the same thing that this post is discussing: a man's inability to face, articulate, and accept that he can't do something he's scaffolded his entire identity on thinking he can do.
This is great stuff. It's interesting because the idea that your paternal duties get in the way of your destiny should be a theme of more of these, but because the fathers are otherwise uninvolved in the raising of the child (you see the mom wrangling the kids out of the car while the dad struts onto the front lawn and says something about how he's gonna put a tire swing here, or whatever) it doesn't concern them. They're free to flit around their haunted basement while mom gets clocked by an invisible supernatural entity.
I hadn't thought of Anatomy of a Fall as a haunted house movie, but now that you articulate it, it feels like it should fall within a subcategory. Cursed ski chalet movies, perhaps.
The "dad as hero" instantly brought to mind Marky Mark's recent film for appletv+ - "The Family Man." And then I thought about how he actually plays this role in all of the Transformer movies too ...
I loved thisssss. I’m def least fluent in this genre but seems to me you hit it all with cutting crystal clear salience per usual. Also reminded me of another horror movie I watched yesterday, an Instagram reel wherein John Mayer describes wanting badly to get married because he thinks the apex of intimacy is a woman saying “ask John - he’ll know what to do. He always knows just what to do.”
Worth it for this line alone: "I’m doing things in Canva you wouldn’t believe:
Yeah that poster is incredible Celia !!! 😂
I was just writing about this re The Shining last week!
I think there's also a type of dad that can be found in some of these movies that shades into something else, men who are convinced that their families are the thing that stands between them and their full potential - the family becoming not a symbol of the thing to be protected or saved through Masculine Competence, but rather the thing that gets in the way of whatever the dad's true calling is.
In The Shining, Jack views his duties (both to his job and to his family) as obstacles on the path to his writing career; a similar sentiment can be seen in Anatomy of a Fall, which isn't explicitly a haunted house film but is certainly haunted by the husband's rage. In the end, it comes down to the same thing that this post is discussing: a man's inability to face, articulate, and accept that he can't do something he's scaffolded his entire identity on thinking he can do.
This is great stuff. It's interesting because the idea that your paternal duties get in the way of your destiny should be a theme of more of these, but because the fathers are otherwise uninvolved in the raising of the child (you see the mom wrangling the kids out of the car while the dad struts onto the front lawn and says something about how he's gonna put a tire swing here, or whatever) it doesn't concern them. They're free to flit around their haunted basement while mom gets clocked by an invisible supernatural entity.
I hadn't thought of Anatomy of a Fall as a haunted house movie, but now that you articulate it, it feels like it should fall within a subcategory. Cursed ski chalet movies, perhaps.
"His goal isn't just to protect his family, his goal is to prove that he always could protect them."
Now I want to rewatch every film and see if the motivations for protecting are selfish or selfless - love the piece so much.
Thank you for reading!! Let me know if you have any others to add to this genre.
The "dad as hero" instantly brought to mind Marky Mark's recent film for appletv+ - "The Family Man." And then I thought about how he actually plays this role in all of the Transformer movies too ...
I think he plays this role in all his movies and all of his delusions (e.g. he would have stopped 9/11 etc.)
So damn good!
I loved thisssss. I’m def least fluent in this genre but seems to me you hit it all with cutting crystal clear salience per usual. Also reminded me of another horror movie I watched yesterday, an Instagram reel wherein John Mayer describes wanting badly to get married because he thinks the apex of intimacy is a woman saying “ask John - he’ll know what to do. He always knows just what to do.”
Oh my god 🫣 he is a real life jumpscare