Eek! Summer!

By Elaine Dutka

Aug. 9, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

“Evil is here,” said Daniel Pyne, co-writer of Jonathan Demme’s critically acclaimed remake of the Cold War thriller “The Manchurian Candidate.” “Bad things can happen. Working on the film, it was a struggle to stay ahead of the headlines.”

As director Renny Harlin puts it: “With danger lurking around every corner, reality is infinitely more frightening than a journey into science fiction or fantasy.” The current climate of uncertainty could, he believes, actually benefit his “Exorcist: The Beginning” -- a prequel to the 1973 horror classic, due to open Aug. 20.

These are indeed tense times. And historically, in such times, American audiences have gone to the movies, where fictional fright is easier to confront than reality. Psychologically taut films, like roller coasters, do have a cathartic effect. For audiences, it’s in the form of relief -- at least momentarily -- from the daily headlines; for filmmakers, it’s in the form of healthy returns at the box office.

In the last three weeks alone, thrillers of one type or another have taken in $274 million, including this weekend’s No. 1 film -- Michael Mann’s meticulously made “Collateral,” which follows an ordinary cab driver (Jamie Foxx) who becomes ensnared in the machinations of a narco-trafficking cartel when he picks up a hired assassin (Tom Cruise). The film made $24.4 million. “Open Water,” the weekend’s other new thriller, from director Chris Kentis, did extremely well in only 47 theaters, averaging $22,000 per screen (compared, for example, with “Collateral,” at $7,654 pre screen). The Sundance Film Festival hit took a relatively low-tech approach in telling the story of a couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) struggling to stay alive in shark-infested waters when a scuba-diving boat leaves them behind. Lions Gate plans to expand the film significantly next weekend.

M. Night Shyamalan’s rustic chiller, “The Village,” has made $85.7 million, “Manchurian Candidate” is at $38.5 million and the high-tension espionage movie “The Bourne Supremacy” has taken in $124.3 million to date.

A regular Joe

Two strangers isolated from the world, sitting just feet apart. That’s ripe with dramatic potential, maintains “Collateral” writer Stuart Beattie (“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”). Taking a cue from Alfred Hitchcock, he placed an ordinary character in an extraordinary situation to help audiences identify with the character.

“The suspense comes from wondering if Foxx’s character can find the strength in himself to take a gun and confront pure evil at the end,” said Beattie. “To a viewer, it’s only scary ‘if it can happen to me.’ ”

Kentis took a similar approach, casting unknowns as an everyday couple whose vacation goes horribly awry. Posing simple but life-or-death questions (“Should we try to swim to the boats or not?”) he makes viewers reflect on what they would do in that situation. He also adopted the “less-is-more” approach perfected by Steven Spielberg in arguably the most potent of shark films: “Jaws.”

“What’s unseen is scarier than what’s seen,” said Kentis. “That’s why we shot primarily on the surface of the water, from the characters’ point of view. These competent professionals, used to being in control, are suddenly at the mercy of the ocean. While they can’t miss the violent tail moves of the shark, they can’t see what’s under or around them.”

For “Exorcist,” evil comes in the form of the devil. “Once you show him, all the air goes out of the bag,” said Harlin. “And I left part of the screen black when a character entered a forest or a dark house so people can paint with their imaginations.

“Even with music, I was careful not to fill everything up because it can dilute the tension. In ‘Psycho,’ there’s the screech of high strings in the famed shower scene -- but not as Tony Perkins approaches.” It’s the power of silence.

Harlin (“Deep Blue Sea,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4”) was brought in after Warner Bros. deemed Paul Schrader’s cut of the movie insufficiently scary. Rather than adopting a Band-Aid approach, Harlin wanted a completely new script. Still, with audiences reared on MTV and fantastic special effects, sustaining suspense isn’t easy. While many people regard the original “Exorcist” as one of the most frightening films ever, he says, a 17-year-old might find it slow.

“Suspense is all about focus -- camera angles -- and rhythm,” Harlin said. “One frame, 1/24th of a second, can make all the difference. In action, you build a scene to a climax, making it as spectacular as possible. In a thriller, you keep it simple, torturing the audience by having them watch a scene unfold without any relief or cuts.”

In terms of storytelling, thrillers also play by different rules, “Collateral’s” Beattie points out. In a western, you might have a cowboy sitting at a campfire revealing how he got there. But inserting an expository speech into a thriller, he maintains, is always a mistake.

“You have to reveal character through action” -- not by “ ‘the mystery of me’ speech, which grinds the action to a halt,” said Beattie, whose second thriller, “Derailed,” starts shooting in October. “The best thrillers are grounded in the moment rather than unraveling the mysteries of the past -- though I guess that’s what ‘Manchurian Candidate’ is about.”

Screenwriter Pyne (“Pacific Heights”) acknowledges the challenge of updating the Cold War classic. The story of a soldier (Denzel Washington) racing to uncover a brainwashing conspiracy aimed at capturing the White House is a bit “melodramatic” and “slightly campy” by today’s standards, he suggests.

“The film has been ripped off so much -- the assassin in the rafters, for instance -- that I had to create twists on twists, playing against audience expectations,” said Pyne. “And rather than answering every question, I left some things ambiguous.... Did Denzel’s character see his pursuer on the train or not? In suspense, you withhold as much information for as long as you can, which is what creates anxiety. The goal is to create boxes that are hard to get out of.”

Still, a great thriller is less about plot than the interaction of characters, the writer maintains. “I approached ‘Manchurian’ as a Greek tragedy -- the tale of a mother [Meryl Streep] and son [Liev Schreiber] and how she tries to keep him. Hitchcock, too, was all about character and relationships. ‘Notorious’ dealt with the issue of trust while ‘Vertigo’ focused on a man’s obsessiveness and how they used his weakness.”

People vary in their tolerance for fear, the filmmakers note. Playing to those on the lower end, Kentis framed his ending alongside closing credits rather than depicting it full-screen. Pyne used humor -- scenes of Streep’s hard-boiled New York senator chomping ice or toying with people, for instance -- as a release valve for the tension.

In a way, thrillers and comedy are joined at the hip, Harlin asserts. “Suspense is almost the evil brother of humor,” he said. “Developing a suspense theme is like telling a good joke. Each has a setup and a surprise twist or punch line which, if your timing is right, elicits a scream of terror or laughter.”

The directors all have a favorite thriller of their own: Beattie favors Larry Kasdan’s “Body Heat,” while Kentis, not surprisingly, opts for “Jaws.” One of Harlin’s favorite suspense films, “Don’t Look Now,” may get a second life. The director has been trying to interest studios in a remake of the Nicholas Roeg film.

No matter how the current crop fares, the genre is here to stay. “Everyone loves a thrill,” said Beattie. “That’s why we go on roller coasters.”

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total

*--*

*--* Collateral $24.4 $24.4

The Village 16.6 85.7

The Bourne Supremacy 14.1 124.3

The Manchurian Candidate 10.8 38.5

Little Black Book 7.0 7.0

I, Robot 6.3 126.7