Last week, Plant High School Film Club won club of the week, an award for clubs who have done something spectacular for our school. Generally, the film club chooses which movie they want to watch, then waits two weeks for everyone to watch it. Fast forward two weeks to last Wednesday, when the film club met up to talk about their latest movie deep-dive, Suspira.
Suspira is a classic 1977 horror film where Suzy, an aspiring dancer, travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives on a late storm night, no one lets her in, and she sees Pat, another student, fleeing from the school. However, when Pat reaches her apartment, she is murdered. The next day, Suzy is admitted to the school but has difficulty settling in. She hears noises and often feels ill. As Suzy becomes more paranoid and the murders pile up, Suzy attempts to uncover the terrifying secret history of the place and the mysterious cult populating the school grounds.
The meeting opened with the film club student council distributing sign-up forms for the club, then split into small groups to share opinions on the movie.
Although I’m not a member, I wanted to get the whole experience, so I joined a group and listened to their In-depth discussion on the film.
One student shared, “You can tell the way the light and shading is angled throughout the movie is done in a very specific way… They’re using something most other filmmakers would disregard to make their movie incredibly unique.”
While another student agreed, adding,” Yeah, I definitely agree with that. A very central thing that was occurring within the movie was the lighting…A lot of the film is very reliant on the lighting where it has to be very dimly lit, or it has to be red, or it has to be green, or else it wouldn’t have had as much of an emotion or as much fear and anxiety created throughout the film.”
Afterward, the club members left their small groups and joined together to have an extensive open discussion; the club’s president got the ball rolling by asking the question,” What was everyone’s favorite aspect of the movie? “
This was promptly answered by a member saying,” Yeah, I feel like a lot of the scenes in Susiria are just very visually appealing and also just like captivating almost because of the way the soundtrack kinda of pulls you into the scenes.“
After each member was given a chance to share their thoughts and opinions on the movie, the film club president asked everyone to provide the movie with a score, one through five, and although not everyone reviewed the movie positively-most members are not fans of horror movies- nevertheless, they agreed it was a good watch for a viewer looking for a good scare.
The meeting concluded with everyone turning in their admission forms and heading home, but don’t worry! If you are interested in joining, feel free to talk to Mr. Taylor in room 215 about how to join or find out more information at https://www.instagram.com/phsfilm/ .
Aside from being a fantastic club to meet new people, the film club is built around the idea of students discussing movie genres they are passionate about. Film club is not just about watching movies; it’s about sharing what you’re passionate about. As I watched the members talk about their favorite parts of the film, I could tell how engaged and entranced they were in their discussion, barely noticing when the meeting ended. It can be hard to find people you connect with, but I believe film club creates a natural environment that doesn’t feel forced or awkward for students to find people with similar interests. Again, if you would like to join, feel free to talk to Mr. Taylor in room 215 about how to join or find out more information at https://www.instagram.com/phsfilm/ .