Released in october 2001
Produced by: Lionsgate Films
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Directed by: Brian de Palma
Screenplay written by: Brian de Palma, Mark Daly
Executive producers: edward pressman, frank giustra
Budget: $15 million
Cast:
Anne Hathaway as Jennifer Simpson
Lacey Chabert as Charlotte
Anna Paquin as Laura Harrington
Sophia Bush as Anne
Nancy Allen as Ms. Mary/Mary Barrows
Mark Hamill as Simon Barrows
??? As Scissorman/Bobby Barrows
SUMMARY
When young Mark Daly, a scriptwriter who only did low budget indy films and a dark comedy that saw limited release, went to japan as a christmas gift along with his geeky friends in 1997, he would never have imagined that a fateful trip to a video game store would change his life forever.
As he visited the store, his friend james Yukimura, who worked as a translator of manga at Viz Media, presented to him the PS1 version of the original clock tower video game. He remembered being fascinated with the cover art, how inviting, yet disturbing it was.
Playing on their hotel room's PS1, Daly played through the game, with Yukimura translating the story to him as they played. He played many video games before, but he never played one so scary and stressful! In fact, he thought that it would make a pretty good movie, wht with its slow pace and tight plot.
He then began writing the first drafts of the movie script with Yukimura's help, Spending the whole of 97 and 98 going to studio after studio, each and every producer in hollywood wanting nothing to do with such an obscure and niche Licence and project.
Thinking his script wasn't up to snuff, he returned on the typewritter, except inspiration started becoming rare...that is, until he played another playstation game: Silent hill.
Enamored by the more psychological take on horror that silent hill proposed, as well as binge watching a twin peaks marathon and watching Eraserhead, Daly began rewriting the script, toning down the occult aspects and adding most notably the relationships between the girls as well as the tragic depictions of the barrows and the infamous "Danielle" Scene.
With that second draft in hand, Mark toured studios again. this time, however, he would find a suitor. During a party he attended with his friend and producer Andy Richards, mark was introduced to Frank Giustra, founder and producer of emerging studio Lionsgate films, and Famed director Brian De Palma, whom Giustra wanted to direct a separate film produced by lionsgate. He showed the two his script, and the two were impressed, Especially De Palma, who even helped revise a few details of the inexperienced writer's script to present to Giustra and american Psycho Producer Edward Pressman at a Lionsgate meeting.
And thus, the Clock Tower movie was born.
De Palma and the studio spent the whole of 99 and 2000 working on and filming the picture, including on-location shots filmed in california's napa valley, as well as having a cast of young, relatively unknown actresses surrounded by experienced actors Mark Hamill and Nacy Allen. Filming finished in fall of 2000, while post-production finished in summer 2001, the movie finally released on friday october 26th, 2001.
After an initial box office result of $24 million, a slight profit over their $15 million budget, the movie would quickly increase its profile as positive word of mouth, mainly coming from Horror fanatics and Moviegoers that normally don't play video games, would see its stock rise, but it's not until De Palma's friend Steven Spielberg praised the movie on Siskel and Ebert that the movie really started taking off. Eventually, more and more people began going to theaters to watch it, making Clock Tower the Sleeper Hit of 2001, with the movie making way more money via VHS and DVD copies than in theaters, a similar path to success as John Carpenter's The thing (1982). It also helps that the home video version of Clock Tower was released at the same time as the boom in similar types of psychological horror flicks such as the ring and ju-on: the grudge.
And safe to say, it's easy to see why this movie became one of this generation's most influential horror films! Back to the roots that made him famous (Carrie, Sisters), De Palma brings a slow-paced, hitchcockian/french new wave approach that was a much needed breath of fresh air in the endless seas of horror movies following the fast-paced, jumpscare-filled, MTV generation-pandering "Scream" mold of the time period. Instead of going for cheap scares, De Palma makes us witness each and every minute of the slow and dreadful descent and decay of the relationships between the main group of victims composed of orphans Jennifer (Anne Hathaway) and her 3 friends Charlotte (Lacey Chabert), Anne (Sophia Bush) and Laura (Anna Paquin), as well as the despicable, yet sad tale of the movie's antagonists, The Barrows family, as the secrets of the Eponymous Clock Tower are discovered one by one.
It was a bold decision, going for an unknown actress who never appeared in a single movie before, but De Palma and Daly knew during the auditions that young Anne Hathaway was the one to play Jennifer. With De Palma and her co-stars allen and Hamill's experience and guidance helping her and the other young actresses massively, the girls pulled off solid, convincing performances, with the standouts being definitely Chabert's rough-yet-sensible tomboy with a certain subtle hint of homosexuality in her interactions with jennifer, especially in her emotional monologue to Jen about her past and their friendship, which almost reads like a hidden declaration of love, which makes her soul-wrenching death by Mary (nancy allen)'s hands even more poignant,as well as sophia bush who, thanks to De Palma and hamill, pulls out a good performance as the confident and caring-looking, but ultimately selfish and cowardly Anne, whose death scene is a very memorable moment of the film: the image of a mentally-beaten Anne, depressed after finally realising that her attitude led to things getting worse, crawling in front of the courtyard's pond, her reflection on the water, reminiscent of the famous painting of narcissus, before the camera switches underwater, where we see each and every step of Anne drowning in the pool, watching her expressions of pain and suffocation as life slowly drains out of her body as the pool gets filled with blood from a scissorman stabbing, being among the most haunting scenes in the film.
But it is the main star hathaway, as well as The most famous name on the bill, Mark Hamill, that truly shines in this film. Hathaway is very convincing as this soft-spoken and sensible, yet determined young lady trying to get her and her friends out of this creepy mansion, and she bring her character's story arc to life with an eerily realistic portrayal of Anxiety disorder, which, given what we know now of hathaway's own struggles with it, is perhaps no surprise.
Meanwhile, despite being the biggest name in the movie at the time of its release, Mark Hamill only appears in one or two scenes, yet he definitely made it count! His simon Barrows chills the bone of any moviegoer, his sulking, Cerebral demeanor pretty reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal lecter, and he even sneaks in a small, darker-toned pinch of his Joker voice during his show-stealing monologue about Simon and Mary's mutually abusive relationship and the "cradle under the stars". However, Unlike Lecter, Hamill's performance is tinted with sadness and sorrow, you can really feel the regret in his words as he spoke to hathaway, who sells the entire speech with her facial expressions, showing both fear, disgust and sympathy to the broken, tortured soul inside the crass Dungeon cell.
Normally, when a horror movie has a villain like the Scissorman, they usually go the typical "slasher" route. De Palma thought otherwise, and opted to use a page out of his idol hitchcock's book by not showing the threat for almost the entire movie, constantly building up our villain using shadows, camera tricks and generally keeping him in the dark, only witnessing the aftermath of his gruesome murders. Finally, at the end of the movie, when Mary and Jen confront each other, we finally see what the famous scissorman looks like, and again, de palma and daly subverts expectations by having our slasher villain not as an intimidating force of nature, but a young man...a deformed, unstable mess of a young man, the product of Mary and Simon's abusive relationship that turned cute little Bobby Barrows into a tragic monster (further emphasised by the excellent makeup job on Bobby's face, reminiscent of horror legend Lon Chaney's Phantom of the opera) , and also took the life of his stillborn sister Danielle.
Speaking of the latter, the story of Mary and her unborn child's fate is masterfully told through Nancy Allen's performance. We see her go from caring and generous, yet eery Surrogate mother to a broken, insane woman mad with grief and resentment through the film, and it's as emotionally painful as it is frightening. The scene where Jennifer finds the aformentionned "Cradle under the stars", which turns out to be a cradle containing the Fetus of the stillborn Danielle, is not only a direct nod to David Lynch's Eraserhead, but Hathaway's terrified and hurt expressions followed by Hathaway preaching for God to have mercy on Danielle's soul really sells it.
And what about the ending? After Jen finally arrives at the final floors of the castle to access the clock tower, Mary finally catches up with her and is about to blow Jen's brains out before Scissorman arrives and finally has his revenge, killing mary by stabbing her and making her walk back right into a fatal electric schock (a scene that many in the audience cheered for), before focusing on Jennifer, looming to finish the job.
After a tense and spectacular stair climbing scene, Jen reache dthe clock tower first, only to sprain her ankle while trying to run. With nowhere to go, she panicks as Scissorman slowly approaches her, scissor snapping repeatedly in anticipation as he went for the kill.
But then, in a last ditch effort, Jen grabbed the rope and pulle dwith all of her remaining strength, making the bells toll loudly and making both her and Scissorman's ears suffer from the loud ringing.
A mad scissorman in pain danced wildly with his hands on his ears, his scream of death completely absorbed by the loud bells as he fell to his death.
Jen simply fell on her knees, covering her bleeding ears, the bell tolling louder and louder.
And then...silence...
Followed by white noise...
Jen, who was kneeing in pain mere minutes before, removed her hands from her ears, not knowing where she was and not feeling anything in her ears anymore.
She slowly stood up and walked, with difficulty from her sprained ankle, towards the edge of the clock tower.
The sound of the bells was the only sound heard through the final minutes of the film as Hathaway looks at the endless series of moutains in the distance, showing that there is nowhere to go now, that there is no safe haven...
She then delivers an epic Thousand-yard stare at the camera.
Then, the screen slowly fades to black...
...cue credits.