‘Glass’ movie review
By Sonam Kaloti, Arts Editor
Glass fully immerses you in your fears.
The film stars Bruce Willis as David Dunn, Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, and James McAvoy as The Horde. It was directed by Manoj Nelliyattu “M. Night” Shyamalan and released on January 18.
The Horde is a group of about 24 different personalities portrayed by McAvoy. One of these personalities is Hedwig, an eternal nine-year-old. He is extremely lovable and naïve, making him my favourite character. He is characterized by his heavy lisp and random dancing outbreaks. The Beast, another of these personalities, is the main antagonist of the film. The Beast’s sole mission is to protect Kevin Wendell Crumb, the original boy behind The Horde.
You are taken into the past and relive the very tragic backstories of the main characters—some of which involve being abused (a steam iron scene is still playing in my mind), losing loved ones, and being bullied.
Camera angles in this movie are experimental and used in an uncommon fashion. Sometimes you are walking behind a character’s head, making you feel as though you are in the movie experiencing the events firsthand. With this, the surrounding view is limited. The movie makes great use of humans’ fear of the unknown, using darkness to obscure your view.
Suspense is heightened by skillful use of silence, as well as sounds of storms and ticking clocks. Audio is vital in this movie; paired with the immersive shots, you feel all the scenes personally. Glass does a fantastic job of capturing common fears and making them come alive. You experience drowning, being eaten alive, being shot, and many more terrifying scenarios.
Glass, as a sequel to previous films Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016), brings back main characters and intertwines them to form a new storyline. However, if you haven’t watched the previous movies, following the story is a difficult task. I, myself, had only watched Split when it first came out, but two years later I didn’t remember enough to easily follow along. In fact, 50 minutes in I still didn’t know what was going on due to the sheer number of storylines happening at one time (luckily, 25 minutes later the plot points finally started falling into place).
The intentions of characters finally begin to unravel close to the end of the movie. The plot twists are set up very well throughout the movie, making it seem like you could have figured it all out on your own.
Alongside the relatable fears that you must experience in an all-too-real fashion, a lot of the motivations and sentiments are relatable as well. One example is the envious cry of, “There just can’t be gods amongst us. It’s just not fair!” by a mortal character in the film.
Due to the vast storylines that, though difficult to follow at first, serve as mirrors of the darker aspects of our lives, Glass creates the immersive experience that all horror-thriller movies aspire to capture. Glass is a recommended watch, but I would suggest watching Unbreakable and Split first in order to fully understand and enjoy the sequel.
