5 top films like the Ring where screens aren’t a barrier to characters
- Sherlock, Jr is a Buster Keaton classic, The Purple Rose of Cairo remains one of Woody Allen’s most entertaining films, and Ring is J-horror at its best
- Arnold Schwarzenegger dishes out the action and pithy one-liners in Last Action Hero, while Poltergeist may put you off television for good
The longer we remain in lockdown, the more time we spend in front of our screens, immersing ourselves in fictional worlds to escape the monotony of our reality.
These five favourites of ours examine what happens when characters step out of – and sometimes into – the screens that should otherwise bind them.
1. Sherlock, Jr (1924)
A wonderful early example of breaking the fourth wall, Sherlock, Jr sees Buster Keaton’s lowly cinema projectionist dream of stepping into the mystery he is screening and assuming the role of master detective.
The transition begins with a masterfully choreographed sequence showcasing Keaton’s genius as a physical performer. He is repeatedly caught out by a series of unconnected match cuts in the film playing around him: stepping through a doorway only to fall down a flight of stairs; sitting on a bench only to find himself on a rock in the ocean. It’s a brilliant subversion of cinematic grammar, which in 1924 was still a relatively new concept.
The film within a film features numerous classic sequences of cinematic trickery, including an astonishing game of pool, and a high-speed chase with Keaton perched on the handlebars of a riderless motorcycle. When the projectionist finally wakes up, he again takes his cue from the hero on-screen, and embraces his beloved as both films fade to black.
2. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
No film bridges the gap between the movies and the real world better than Woody Allen’s Depression-era comedy. Mia Farrow’s downtrodden housewife escapes her day-to-day misery with regular visits to the cinema. When Jeff Daniels’ dashing archaeologist Tom Baxter spies her in the audience, he literally steps off the screen to comfort her.
Enchanted by the real world, Tom refuses to return, leaving the other characters in limbo, unable to continue the film without him. This sets off a scramble by the film’s studio heads, filmmakers and actor Gil Shepherd (also Daniels) to put things right.
Allen packs his Oscar-nominated screenplay with witty observations about Hollywood censorship, the notion of authorship and the importance of escapism.
Farrow has wonderful chemistry with both Daniels incarnations, guiding the naive Baxter through reality, while simultaneously being swept off her feet by Shepherd the charismatic matinee idol. Even today, this remains one of Allen’s most enduringly insightful and entertaining films, in large part because he is not in it.
3. Last Action Hero (1993)
Trading Allen’s pithy satire for car chases and one-liners, Last Action Hero takes the premise of The Purple Rose of Cairo and blows it sky high.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the height of his box office appeal when he re-teamed with director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) to develop a high-concept fantasy script from red-hot screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon).
A magic movie ticket transports a teenage boy (Austin O’Brien) into the world of his favourite action hero, Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger), a world where the heroes never die, guns never run out of bullets, and bad guys always get what’s coming. But when villainous Charles Dance gets hold of the ticket, he magics himself into the real world, and Jack must follow.
A notorious box office bomb on first release, Last Action Hero fares better on re-examination. Black’s script is packed with in-jokes about his favourite genre, and some intelligent subtext about the importance of consequences.
4. Ring (1998)
The supernatural breach between our world and the ones we pore over is not always a pleasant one, as any poor soul who has seen Hideo Nakata’s J-horror classic can attest.
How J-horror classic Ring (1998) compares to its US remake
In a sequence that has become a horror movie classic to rival the shower scene in Psycho, the video shows the contorted, long-haired figure of Sadako climb out of a well and advance towards the camera, only to crawl out of the television screen into the real world where she literally scares her victim to death.
Never has a warning about the all-consuming and isolating power of our screen addiction been so viscerally realised.
5. Poltergeist (1982)
There has been much speculation over who really directed 1982’s horror blockbuster, with many sources suggesting that writer-producer Steven Spielberg had more creative input than director Tobe Hooper. Regardless of who held the loudhailer, the message comes through loud and clear: “Kids, too much TV is bad for you.”
The angelic Heather O’Rourke stars as Carrie Ann, youngest member of the Freeling family, who begins talking to the static on her television set, only to be sucked through the screen by a malevolent spirit.
Parents Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams call in a team of paranormal investigators, who discover that the gogglebox has become a portal into another dimension populated by spirits from the Indian burial ground beneath their house … or something.
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