Director Roxanne Benjamin specializes in horror films. Her paintings touch the heart, awaken dormant fears and make you remember terrible legends about monsters hiding in the shadows.
Roxanne Benjamin deftly plays with ancient human fears. It would seem that man is the king of the world, but we are still lost in front of phenomena that we are not able to explain. If we were one on one with nature, face to face with what civilization protects us from: a terribly creaking forest, wild animals, absolute vulnerability – could we maintain composure? The film Body at Brighton Rock is trying to find the answer.
What is the movie Body at Brighton Rock about?
Wendy is a mountain reserve worker. She is timid and ill-prepared for walking on difficult hiking trails, but fills in for a friend so that she can meet a guy and goes on patrol. At first everything goes well, but soon she gets confused due to her poor knowledge of the terrain and takes a wrong turn.
Having lost the map and completely lost, but still not realizing it, Wendy climbs the mountain, takes a photo and sends it to her friend. She excitedly clarifies where she wandered, because this is not a mountain located on the route, and also asks who is depicted in the background of the photo. Wendy discovers the corpse of a man with a disfigured face. Did he fall off the cliff and crash? Or was there a murder here? Unknown.
She panics and calls for help. Help seems close, but it turns out that Wendy has crossed the valley in the wrong direction. Rescuers are six hours away from her, they will arrive only in the morning, and she will have to cordon off the place around the corpse and spend the whole night near it.
Wendy, afraid of every rustle, pulls herself together, explores the area and finds the tent of the deceased. Every second she sees monsters behind the trees. She suspects that the killer is prowling somewhere nearby. Her suspicions are strengthened when, upon returning, Wendy discovers a suspicious man near the corpse.
Explanation of the meaning of the film Body at Brighton Rock
The meaning of the movie Body at Brighton Rock by Roxanne Benjamin. What meaning did the director put into the film Body at Brighton Rock? Let’s take a closer look. At first glance, the film is simple and simple, but it has a deep subtext.
man against nature
How much does it take for a person to feel helpless? Loneliness, lack of tools, weapons and the elementary ability to go back to the big world will be enough. People control nature, recycle it and make it work for themselves, but comfort has spoiled them, and they are overly confident in their safety.
Society conquers nature, but what does one person mean? A grain in a millstone. The film shows this very clearly: we are predators in megacities, not forests.
One on one with death
Some cultures have a tradition of spending the night next to the dead. From there, a lot of legends went, how the dead were rowdy, mocked at the “escorts”, and they completely turned gray in the morning.
Death has always fascinated humanity. Fortunately, we spend most of our lives away from it, but even the thought of it can inspire horror. What to say if you have to spend the whole night looking her in the eyes? The film tells about an unexpected and unwanted collision, when there is no way to escape, and the mind arranges a riot and raises terrible superstitions from memory.
Death Path is a film about the meeting of the living and the dead. The fact that the dead does not need to scream and deliberately frighten, it terrifies the living simply by its sinister image and the prediction of an inevitable future.
From what’s inside, no hiding
Wendy is a fearful person who sees danger even where there is none. In every spider she sees a black widow, behind every bush she sees a maniac with a knife. For the most part, the threat does not exist outside, but inside her, and this fictional sword of Damocles prevents Wendy from thinking rationally and making the right decisions.
She prepares to fight, but all aggression is directed outward, while the enemy, destroying her composure and driving her mad, lurks inside. If monsters reside in the head, they cannot be defeated by brute force.
Ending explanation Body at Brighton Rock
Throughout the film, Wendy is shaking with fear, preparing to repel the blow of an invisible killer, fighting zombies in her dreams, and finally confronts reality – a bear that has tasted human blood. A huge beast attacks, injures her leg, but in a fit of desperation she gathers her courage and fights back: she squirts out a special deterrent gas, and then completely burns her.
Rescuers arrived in time to see how the bear runs into the forest. They calm Wendy, wrap her in a blanket, treat her wounds, and in the meantime, a specialist determines that the man was torn apart by a bear, and finds out the identity of the deceased. It turns out to be a local hunter, and when Wendy sees his photo, she goes into shock. This is the man she saw next to the corpse!
An unexpected mystical ending harmoniously brings all the topics raised in the film to a common denominator. Wendy’s fears were well founded but misinterpreted, which brings us to the main point of the film. You can’t run away from fears, but you can’t let them consume your mind.