STOKER — A Thriller to Die For

Chan-wook Park’s 2013 film, Stoker (2013) is a beautiful masterpiece consisting of gorgeous imagery, strategic camera movement, wonderful story and character development, and a great touch of Alfred Hitchcock’s beloved suspense. Within this analysis, I will touch upon how this film creates suspense and how it relates to the story, structure, and character arc; as well as how the film use imagery to convey a message, and if Stoker can be viewed as a ‘Coming of Age,’ film.

How Does the Film Create Suspense?:

• Character Development: In the beginning of Stoker, our protagonist, India (Mia Wasikowska) comes off as an innocent and particularly untainted young woman. Wasikowska’s child-like essence via her natural face and modestly dressed body, especially indicated in the film through her shoes, really helps the audience to believe this attribute to India’s character. She is naive, broken, and a bit lost when we are first introduced to her after her father dies in the first act. The only character trait in which doesn’t seem to fit is that she is a hunter, and is an especially talented shot. Other than that, she doesn’t seem to know entirely who she is, what her history is, nor who her family is. After her uncle Charlie comes, however, she begins to gain a little bit more of her understanding. Near the end of the second act, we discover that Charlie and India have been connected ever since she was born. He understand completely who she is and falls in love with her from the very beginning. They are both mentally unstable in a way in which they are delightfully satisfied both holistically or sexually through violent actions. India doesn’t understand this about herself until Charlie comes along. Once he arrives, she begins to understand her body more and truly feel whats moves throughout it, especially once she believes him and her mother are having relations. Before this, a spider slowly crawled up her leg and into her skirt, which I believed to symbolize her innocence or call from heaven, and by her being curious about such sexual affairs, slowly caused her to lose her innocence. After she has her sexual awakening after her uncle Charlie, ever so seductively joins her in a duet on the piano, India is truly curious for more. This is when we start to see India’s darker side shine through. After she seeks Whip out and takes him back into the woods for a bit of a sexual adventure, she bites his lip and draws blood. This is the instance in which India is brought into her reality and her unknown satisfaction. When Charlie comes from out of the blue to save India from Whip continuing to rape her, he snaps his neck, and him and India drive back home in complete and seemingly normal silence. After India discovers that Charlie not only killed Whip, but also her former house maid and aunt, India goes to the bathroom to take a shower. When she is stripped of her clothes, she hopes to feel clean and that the realization of what happened, as well as her new found understanding of herself (which is the satisfaction of murder), is all a figment of her imagination.

Once she steps into the shower and understands that her sins nor her fate can be washed away, she cries, and takes the first step into accepting who she is by masturbating to the scene of Charlie killing Whip while he was on top of and inside her. It isn’t until after India uses the key that Charlie had given her for her birthday to open a drawer in her father’s study, that reveals to her just who Charlie was and his yearning to have a relationship with her, due to their similarities. After Charlie confesses to India, he gifts India her 18th pair of shoes — heels. These heels are meant to signify her adulthood, and ultimately her final acceptance of who she is and who she is to become. After she plays her hand at being one with Charlie, she decides to run against him, and play her own ballgame. She becomes and independent killer, which was her ultimate destiny — one with Charlie’s. India’s character development created incredible suspense in the sense that you never truly knew how she was going to end up due to the lack of understanding she had of herself. It isn’t until the end, when you discover that Charlie and India share the same traits, such as hating being touched, making snow angles, and having an incredible thirst for violence, that you realize which route she is destined to go down.

• Story and Structure: Regarding the structure of the story, and the story itself, from the very beginning, mystery and suspense arise. First we see India, adventuring around her estate aimlessly, to find a box waiting for her in the tree that wishes her a happy birthday. After she discovers this, we transition into the funeral of her father, while her uncle awaits on the top of the hill with the sunset, without a tear in his eye — very interesting. It is hardly a coincidence that mysterious uncle Charlie arrives from Europe right as his brother dies, and then suddenly becomes the man of the Stoker house. It is automatically an assumption that he had something to do with his brother’s death, and there is no second guessing when it comes to him being a murderer after we see him kill the aunt in the beginning of Act Two. The fact that Charlie is so obviously a murderer doesn’t add suspense to the story, but it adds depth and detail to the true situation at hand — India’s venture into adulthood. The main suspense comes from India discovering who Charlie is, while in the mean time discovering herself, and that she is female embodiment of Charlie’s tainted mentality. As we venture through India finding herself, suspense arrises after she stands up for herself for the first time and ends up stabbing Pitts in the hand with her drawing pencil. From this point on, we wonder just where this is going and who she will become along with all of her odd and reclusive characteristics. As the story goes on, suspense comes from understanding if India will end up more like Charlie, and in the end, if they will become lovers and partners due to their estranged compatibility and his obsessiveness. Before Charlie and India plan to set out on their own together, Charlie plans to kill India’s mother, but after India blows Charlie’s brains out with the hunting skills she learned from her actual father, we discover that India is independent and she will continue on with her mental rampage, all on her own. In my perspective, all along Charlie was trying to be a fatherly/friendly/loving figure to India, and ultimately replace her father in her life, but with the skill and love her father gave to her throughout, Charlie’s plan backlashed, and India stood her ground for her father and family at the end, instead of falling into Charlie’s plan/trap — which is where the main suspense of the story came through.

• Stillness and Blocking: Personally I believe stillness to be the most suspenseful and horrifying characteristic in a film that is wishing to achieve that goal. If a character who is suspicious or is completely in the know of being dangerous and sadistic, is still and kind, suspense is automatically drawn to them because if they aren’t raging and obvious, you never know when death may come knocking on your door. In Stoker, both Charlie and India are still and silent creatures, who are graceful and subtle with every movement they make. Whether it be Charlie coming to return Gwendolyn’s phone, and then choking her with his belt, or India stabbing Pitts with a pencil, biting Whip’s lip, or shooting the Sheriff straight between the eyes, all are done with a completely calm and straight face, and you don’t see it coming until it’s too late. After the stabbing happens for the first time with India and Pitts, it automatically puts the audience on their toes for what may be coming next. Another example of this would be when Evelyn calls Charlie up to her bedroom to tell him to keep away from India. The audience already has the idea that he is going to kill her, but as he creeps into the doorway of her room, kind and still as can be, and they stand right across from one another in conversation, the subtlety and stationary blocking creates the suspense of his moment of attack and how he will do it. Also, the fact that each Charlie and India have such kind voices and faces, with very calm intonation and word choice, one could never tell if they were angry or about to pounce.

• Length of Scene and Editing: Most scenes in Stoker cut frequently between different shots and frames while the scene continues on. The scene is usually driven by dialogue or a reaction to what is going on within the scene, as small bits of information are given to you. As the scene continues to cut, with each cut moving you a step forward in the story, the suspense builds to you wondering what you will see next, and what the characters will do. The editing creates suspense through pacing, and have the audience begging for a reveal. For example, when Charlie brings home ice cream for India, Charlie and Evelyn’s conversation voices over the intercutting of them speaking and India taking the ice cream down to the basement. During this scene, we cut from shot to shot of India’s journey to the freezer, the lights swinging, and her slowly making her way through this terrifying passage, while Evelyn and Charlie are upstairs in the bright light having a chipper conversation. The scene ends with an overhead shot of the freezer revealing only meats, and soon to be two tubs of ice cream — even though the fast paced cutting made you to believe that India would find something more sinister in there. However, after it is revealed that Charlie is a murderer when he goes to kill Gwendolyn, India is hungry for a midnight snack and goes to get some ice cream. After she is mid bite, she thinks to look deeper into the freezer to find the head of her former house maid. India is surprised, but not completely torn apart. The film continues to have several reveals and builders of suspense through it’s sense of pacing and editing which truly makes it effective storytelling with a camera.

Visual Imagery and Conveying of Message:

In Stoker, there are several different circumstances in which the visual imagery are compelling, motivated, and absolutely stunning. Park knew exactly what he wanted shot and how he wanted it done throughout the entire film, and the ending product really created a true understanding of what artistic filmmaking and editing can be. One particular scene in which stuck with me is when India is brushing her mother’s hair, while it transitioned into the grasslands of the marsh where India had been hunting with her father. While this scene is going on, both India and Evelyn are sexually interested in Charlie, and the tension between the two is higher than usual. While the India is digging deeper into the speech towards her mother, the suspense of her waiting to shoot the duck with her father also climbs higher and higher. As the two scenes intercut, and India’s monologue continues, the suspense thickens, and the cutting quickens, and with India ending on the line “Sometimes you have to do something bad in order to refrain from doing something worse. After this, Evelyn jolts back in fear of what her daughter may do to her. In my mind, this imagery is relevant in the way that Evelyn is the duck in the hunting scene, and by India brushing her hair, she is put in a vulnerable position being under India’s control, just as the duck is, as it is being stalked by India and her father. Just as the bullet is the relief in suspense after India shoots the duck, the line she speaks to her mother serves as the same.

Stoker As a Coming of Age Film:

In my perspective, Stoker can easily be viewed as a “Coming of Age” film. The story is primarily about India coming out of her adolescence on her 18th birthday, slowly discovering who she is throughout the film, and achieves this goal and acts on it, at the end. By receiving the same pair of shoes every single year of her life on her birthday symbolizes her lack of change and growth, apart from size, throughout her prior 17 years of life. After she receives the key on her 18th birthday, the door has opened for her to discover who she is when Charlie arrives. Through his actions, she begins to see and feel things differently from how she had before. She can be touched, she can engage in sexual activity, she understands that violence and subtlety in such, has a great deal to do with who she is, and after she uses the key to unlock the true answers to her past, she truly has discovered who she is and the history behind herself and her family. After Charlie knows that India understand just who she is, he knows that they can finally be one together, so he gives her, her 18th birthday present — heels. The heels represent adulthood and a drastic change and realization within India’s life. When India puts the shoes on, it is clear to her who she is, and what she must do in order to fulfill her life’s destiny. When the time comes that Charlie and her are about to flea to New York though, Charlie plans to kill Evelyn. In order to stay true to her family and her father, she understand she is to be independent and carve her own path, so she comes and shoots Charlie with her hunting rifle — the only part of her that she knew and shared with her father, and kept that trait true to the rest of her personal duties — killing with a gun instead of a belt. Although, she did keep Charlie’s belt around her waist along with her mother’s clothes to never forget where she came from, and to never forget how she discovered who she was and what she was meant to do.