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<\/a><\/p>\n\nDirected by Chris Long
\nWritten by Trey Callaway<\/i><\/p>\n
After the grim and tense family drama of “Shadow,”<\/a> it is definitely time to lighten the mood. <\/p>\n The theme of the day is pranks. Everyone here is pranking someone. Everyone. The whole “Monster of the Week” starts out as a prank. Dean and Sam prank the Ghostfacers guys. Dean and Sam prank each other. Unfortunately, the whole “prank” element of their relationship, which is such nice shading, a nice counterpoint to all of the seriousness – is one of those one-off things never mentioned again. In some alternate universe lives Cassie and Sam and Dean putting frogs in each others’ beds. So it ends up feeling a bit contrived, as is, contained in one episode. It’s not contrived, in and of itself, but having it never come up again doesn’t help. Supernatural<\/i> is a show with a continuum, and things carry over from episode to episode. Dean is a red-meat-lover and a pie-lover. It’s a character thing, it’s been going on for episodes. They didn’t just add that to the plot of one episode and then never mention it again.<\/p>\n The one-off thing reminds me of one of the earlier episodes of The Sopranos<\/i>, where Meadow – suddenly – randomly – with no mention of it in any episode up until that point – is on a soccer team, and Tony Soprano is – suddenly – randomly – a huge soccer fan – cheering at his daughter’s games – and Meadow – suddenly – randomly – has a best friend who is very troubled – and then we realize why – and it has to do with the soccer coach, and blah blah, and it all happens in the space of one episode and that is just not the style of the show, and it really stands out. It makes it seem like a Very Special Episode of The Sopranos<\/i>. There are certainly plot things, even character things, that are introduced and then dropped. You know, you float something out there to gauge the reaction. You see what “sticks”. That’s common practice. For example: the Ghostfacers. They’re introduced here in “Hell House,” and were so popular that they are still returning for episodes 9 seasons later. But if the audiences had hated the Ghostfacers, we never would have seen them again. That’s the breaks. Tough business. It’s a meritocracy ONLY. <\/p>\n I bring up John Stamos as a case in point later in this re-cap. His entire career, enormously successful, is due to audience reaction to what was basically a one-off episode of General Hospital<\/i>. I mean, obviously, he is very smart and played that card as right as you could possibly play it \u2026 he realized the opportunity that was being handed to him (that he earned, for being so memorable in that one episode) \u2026 and ran with it. <\/p>\n \n So to set up the fact that pranking was this huge deal in Sam and Dean’s relationship as kids, and then to never mention it again \u2026 It makes it seem too much like a plot contrivance as opposed to an organic character thing. They usually do a better job of connecting the dots. Now, it’s obvious that Sam and Dean tease each other. Their teasing dynamic is part of the reason the show works so well. They find each other funny, they find each other stupid, they love it when the other one is thrown off his game. It’s so perfectly siblings-ish, and was certainly my main “way in” to this story. <\/p>\n Anyway. We’re about to move in to the giant final arc of the Season, which could not be more serious and upsetting. So it really was time to goof off a bit, for the characters, and for the show itself. Like Dean says to Sam, “You need more laughter in your life.” <\/p>\n Don’t we all, Dino.<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n TEASER<\/big> \n \nOne of Supernatural<\/i>‘s most classic horror movie openings: Four frightened teens in the darkness with flashlights, seen through the trees, being stalked by a handheld camera, as they squelch down a muddy country lane. They approach a GREAT set of the scariest most derelict house ever. Craig Thurston is the leader, telling them his cousin told him about this house. Oh, Craig. Are you related to the Trickster? Because you are a mischief-maker. <\/p>\n There’s a nice small moment, also out of the horror movie playbook, where a guy says to the girl, “Want me to hold your hand?” She takes his hand. And then he ruins it by saying, “Are there any other parts I can hold?”<\/p>\n This man is an example of what I used to refer in college as “Back Rub Boys”. These were guys who would offer to give you a back rub – “You look tense” – but they were always up to no good. I preferred guys who had the confidence to just freakin’ come on to me. I still prefer that. I reserve the right to turn someone down, but don’t try to TRICK me into letting you TOUCH me by telling me I look tense and do I want a back rub? This guy is a clear Back Rub Boy. And when he says that, she whacks his arm and walks off without him, which is exactly what I used to do in college too. You want to touch me? Invite me out to dinner\/drinks. You might get lucky if you play your cards right. The nickname spread through the theatre department. So someone would say to me, “What do you think of so-and-so?” I would reply, “Look out. He’s a total Back Rub Boy.” “Okay. Got it.” <\/p>\n Inside the house, flashlights reveal weird symbols on the stone walls. Thurston leads the way into the cellar. <\/p>\n “They say it lives in the root cellar \u2026” Who’s “they”? It becomes The Question as the episode goes on. <\/p>\n And of course the loud skeptic is the one who gets sucker-punched by the hanging girl behind him. Skeptics don’t fare well in horror movies. <\/p>\n By the way: “Hell House” is the gold-standard of the “Gross Stuff in Jars” motif.<\/p>\n 1st scene<\/big> Huge sign: TEXAS TOWING & SALVAGE. And voila, we are in Texas. A grey and rainy Texas. The Impala hurtles by. <\/p>\n Blue Oyster Cult’s “Fire of Unknown Origin” is blasting. Speaking of Blue Oyster Cult, please seek out Roadie<\/i>, starring the wonderful Ron Eldard. He plays a guy recently fired from his roadie job with the Blue Oyster Cult. My review here.<\/a> And I interviewed Ron Eldard about the film.<\/a> Blue Oyster Cult are not in the film (although Eldard actually did work as a roadie for one night backstage for one of their shows, and they filmed it, the footage being used in the film) – but they are referenced constantly. Of course, Blue Oyster Cult was used as background for one of the best sequences in Supernatural<\/i> history<\/a>.<\/p>\n But here BOC actually play a role in the plot, so the soundtrack is full of them!<\/p>\n Sam is asleep. Dean is bored. Dean puts a plastic spoon in Sam’s drooling mouth, and takes a picture of it. Then turns up the music, starts singing along, and does some rockin’ air drums. I never get enough of Dean doing air drums. Thankfully, we get a lot of it.<\/p>\n \n The funniest thing about the whole Prank Motif is that both of them are HORRIBLE sports about it; they both are Easy Targets wearing signs saying “MAKE FUN OF ME.” Neither of them laughs anything off when the joke is on them. Both of them are ultra-serious about their own dignity. So to have it compromised, to be pranked, is infuriating. And that’s why the pranks escalate, of course. Because they both are so gettable. <\/p>\n Sam is pissy to the max. “We’re not kids anymore, Dean. We’re not gonna start that crap up again.” <\/p>\n A certain phrase comes to mind.<\/p>\n \n \nThe pranks in this episode are so LAME. Nothing too elaborate, nothing too huge. So both of them getting so annoyed about them is very entertaining, and makes them seem like “special snowflakes”, a phrase I never associate with Sam and Dean. <\/p>\n Both of them can dish it out, and neither of them can take it. And I’ll just say this: two episodes from now is “Provenance”, where Dean gets laid multiple times with multiple ladies in the space of one night, and expresses concern that Sam needs to be having more fun (in a beautiful scene, actually, a really good relationship scene). Dean and Sam have never talked like that before – ever – and both of them are in brand new waters with it. It’s well-written and well-performed. Sam snaps, annoyed, “Why do you want me to hook up, man?” and Dean says, and it’s almost out of his mouth before he knows what’s happening – “Maybe you wouldn’t be so cranky all the time.” It’s too intimate, it’s about sex in a really grown-up way, it obviously hits a nerve, and they both sort of back off from it. I love that scene. Anyway, the continuity here works, in terms of a larger Season-wide Arc, where you can see patterns of growth and change operating, sometimes in invisible ways. Sam is pretty cranky. An orgasm a day helps keep the doctor \u2026 blah blah. So it’s just kind of funny to see how downright ANGRY Sam gets at the pranking. Same with Dean, but Sam’s reactions are way funnier. He is wound up so tight. Sam so could be a humorless prig, and thankfully Padalecki lightens the mood with his line readings, his dry delivery, and all of that \u2026 but you can certainly see the danger with the character. He could be a nonstop drip. It’s a danger that is counter-acted by Dean’s sheer force of personality, his absurdity, his Life as Performance Art thing. I’ll be getting into that. But it’s the contrast that is fun to watch, and it’s the contrast that sort of pushes both of these recalcitrant independent characters into new territory, territory they NEVER could have entered if Dad was around. <\/p>\n Sam threatens to get Dean back (oooh, scary, Sam), and Dean says he’s bored, they’re driving through East Texas, no scenery, so could Sam please fill him in on whatever the hell case they’re about to work. <\/p>\n Sam’s using all kinds of language like “legend has it,” which is not like him. That’s amateur language, not hunter language. Sam says they appear to be dealing with a “misogynistic spirit” who strings up girls in an old farmhouse. But by the time the cops arrived after this last one, the corpse was gone. Dean is skeptical. Maybe the kids were just yanking everyone’s chains. Sam isn’t sure, after reading the kids’ “first-hand accounts.” All of this is strange to Dean, where the hell is Sam getting his information?<\/p>\n So there’s the real plot of the episode: Sam is pranked by the Ghostfacers website, who were pranked by Thurston and his cousin. And on it goes. The ramifications of this are not really explored in an in-depth way, although I really like Sam’s final comment in the episode as they watch the house burn: “It makes you wonder how many of the things we hunt exist because people believe in them.” It’s a powerful concept, a powerful thought (thought-form?), and gets into some of the larger thornier issues later, when we start entering into the search for God, and angels, and all of that faith stuff. Taking things on faith goes against the grain for Dean and Sam (Dean, especially). In “Hell House,” you could see how easy it would be to be “punked” by an urban legend. You would have to be very careful about the sources you use. And here, as of yet, they don’t have Bobby to rely on for back-up.<\/p>\n And then, too, in “Hell House,” there is the amateur factor. We have discussed this before in comments sections, and how infuriating it is when amateurs try to move on into the hunter’s world without the proper respect. The Ghostfacers are amateurs. Passionate amateurs, but amateurs. Sam and Dean encounter amateurs from time to time, enthusiasts, and they can’t help but hold these people in contempt. More often than not, Sam and Dean are gonna have to bust in to save the amateur’s ass. They don’t appreciate that. Amateurs make work for them. <\/p>\n It’s kind of another side of one of the elements of the show that I love: how often they meet up with academics who are experts in a certain field, but have no belief in what they teach. So they’re helpful, somewhat, in terms of background, but always fall short when it comes to having to actually HANDLE the djinn or the Nordic god or whatever it may be. Dean and Sam actually believe – no, they KNOW \u2026 so come on, people, don’t just read the damn books, open your damn eyes. <\/p>\n I love how Sam and Dean cruise along in an almost-alternate reality, of belief and pure action, and very little of it touches our “real” world. They are grubby superheroes, doing the dirty work behind the scenes to keep us all safe. Meanwhile, tenured professors lecture on djinns and treat it all as a Story. Of course now, with Metatron, maybe the whole damn thing, the earth, the human experiment, the whole thing, is a story. One we write as we go, or one where we just play out our predestined parts. It’s the crux of the matter for Sam and Dean: whose story is this, what role do they play, and can they choose to step OUT of this particular story? Who assigned them these roles in the first place? Fuck THAT. WE get to pick, nobody else. “Hell House” is kind of a spin on that idea: our own participation in the narratives of our lives. Yes, it’s also totally silly, but it’s an idea they return to again and again (seen through different Prisms. I know: the Prism again. But it’s important, especially with 9 damn seasons.) <\/p>\n Sam reluctantly admits that he searched out some local paranormal websites, and Dean’s reaction is a predictable eye-roll. Sam is even more embarrassed to give the website’s name, wincing as he says it: “HellhoundsLair.com.” Poor Dean has zero idea how terrified he will eventually be of the mere mention of the words “hell hounds”. <\/p>\n This appears to be a real driving scene, as opposed to projection, but either way, there are nice blurred-out effects in the back windows, something that Supernatural<\/i> has down to a science by now. It’s beautiful.<\/p>\n \n Dean is contemptuous. Sam is laughing. Yes, it’s ridiculous. But maybe there’s something to it. Sam then speaks the subtext, as he sometimes does: “We let Dad take off- which was a mistake, by the way \u2026” In the meantime, they might as well keep working. Find something to hunt. It’s interesting how often it is Sam taking the lead like this. He would prefer to have something to do, to stay busy. Too much time off leads to too much time thinking about that other life he had, that OTHER story he was participating in.<\/p>\n 2nd scene<\/big> I love how this next section is cut together. The editing\/directorial team don’t use this technique that much. The only other time they’ve used it in this particular way is in the “Clap Your Hands” episode, the clear nod to X-Files<\/i>, with a “mockumentary” vibe to it, where people talk right into the camera, one after the other. It’s even funnier here because each kid is telling it differently: the girl had red hair, no, brown hair, she was still alive, no, she was dead. Right into the camera, with utter conviction. <\/p>\n \n \n \n “There were \u2026 Pentagons on the wall\u2026” says Back Rub Boy. And of course Back Rub Boy has to say that the dead girl was “kind of hot.” Typical. <\/p>\n We see Sam and Dean taking all this in. They are stunned. <\/p>\n “Who told you about this?” asks Sam.<\/p>\n Quick cut to all three kids sitting together on the same bench, saying in unison: “Craig.”<\/p>\n \n Nice and elegantly put together scene. Quick, efficient, funny.<\/p>\n 3rd scene<\/big> There really is a resemblance.<\/p>\n \n \n \nSam says that they’re doing an article about “local hauntings”. Because of course, clearly, that is a two-man assignment. Who says newspapers are dead?<\/p>\n Thurston suddenly looks serious and a tiny bit freaked. But he’s acting. The prank is still in operation. He’s been questioned by the cops. He told them the same story. <\/p>\n As Sam listens, Dean pulls an album out of a nearby bin.<\/p>\n \n \nKansas’ Point of Know Return. Funny on so many levels. (Also, I see a little tab for Link Wray, who is one of my favorite singer\/songwriters ever.)<\/p>\n 1. It’s Kansas. “Carry on my wayward son”, and all that. \n So Craig tells the sad Depression-era story of desperate farmer Mordecai who had 6 daughters. Mordecai ended up killing his daughters because he didn’t want them to starve, blah blah, and now his ghost haunts the property and strings up any girl unfortunate enough to go inside. Sam and Dean listen, impassively. They’re such pros at their job, they know something is just \u2026 not quite right. Beautiful shots of both guys listening. Like good homicide detectives, or anyone involved in forensic analysis: they listen on another level. A supersonic level. <\/p>\n \n \n Dean’s question is: “Where’d you hear all this?”<\/p>\n That is the question. <\/p>\n On another level, a performance level, Thurston seems like he’s reciting. Like he’s telling a ghost story. It’s “off”, and both Sam and Dean sense it. Well played, on all sides. <\/p>\n “That girl was real and she was dead. This is not a prank,” says Liar Liar Pants on Fire.<\/p>\n 4th scene<\/big> \n \nIt’s moody and terrifying-looking. The color scheme is monochromatic, blacks and blues and greys. Dean and Sam approach through the mud. Dean mutters, “So much for Curb Appeal<\/i>.” Because, of course, he watches Curb Appeal<\/i>. Just like he watches Oprah, cooking shows, Dr. Sexy<\/i> and Spanish soap operas. If it’s on, he watches. And not only does he watch, he absorbs. He is the perfect audience member. It is not hard at all to imagine him agog in a movie theatre, chomping popcorn, lost in the story, whatever it is. <\/p>\n Like this.<\/p>\n \n \nThat is Dean, as audience member. <\/p>\n He’d get lost in Wild Bunch<\/i> and he’d get lost in Notting Hill<\/i>. <\/p>\n Dean busts out the EMF but the power lines are screwing up his readings. As Sam and Dean talk on the front “lawn,” they are seen, creepily, from inside the house. Once inside, the camera sort of circles around, around them, and around the walls, in a dizzying effect, revealing all of the symbols painted there. Dean says Mordecai was a “tagger,” but Sam observes about one of them: “The reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries, but this sigil of sulfur didn’t show up until San Francisco in the 60s.” Naturally I had to hit Google, and found all kinds of weird shit<\/a>. That picture of the “Black House” is terrifying. <\/p>\n Good for Padalecki for totally rattling off that nerd-ball information, making it totally seem real to him, real to Sam, something Sam knows a lot about, and isn’t afraid of sharing it. He is good at what he does. And Dean is stopped in his tracks by the monologue. His comment: “I know exactly why you never get laid.”<\/p>\n Sam certainly walked right into that one. Look out, Sammy. That kind of commentary is only going to intensify. <\/p>\n \n The set is deep, dark and scary-looking. I like the Winchester brothers best when they are framed in darkness and grime. It is their natural milieu. I wrote about Dean never feeling clean in my first post about him. It’s not hard to understand why. His reveling in his room at the Bunker, short-lived though it may have been, had to do with it being his own, of course, but also how CLEAN it was. He has never been fully clean in his life. His showers can never be long enough. And Sam? Well, he’s got a secret in his blood, something he doesn’t know about yet. His dirtiness is not exterior, but interior. There’s one scene in Season 8, where they go track down Metatron, and he reminisces about Dean reading to him when he was a kid, the story of the Knights of the Round Table, and how even back then he knew he could never go on a “quest” because somehow he knew he wasn’t “pure” enough for it. His pain is heart-wrenching. DIRT. Surround them in dirt. A metaphor for how that cleanliness theme operates in their lives. Seeps into them. <\/p>\n Dean sees a symbol on the wall and it stops him in his tracks. He knows that symbol. Sam notices that the paint is still fresh. Dean says he “hates to agree with authority figures of any kind”, which is rich, considering his “Yes, sir” behavior in the last episode, where he eagerly submits to the authority of his father. Just one of those beautiful layers of complexity that Ackles adds to his part. What we SAY is often not the truth, or it’s a half-truth. How we see ourselves is often not accurate. There’s no need to “protect” Dean from those contradictions. Or, I have no interest in that kind of commentary. It’s boring. I love contradictions, and I love characters who can’t quite see themselves clearly. It gives the actor so much room for subtext, and leaves a lot of room for the audience. In many respects, yes, Dean is a rebel. He says he wants to “blow his brains out” thinking of growing up in suburbia<\/a>, he treats cops with cocky contempt because he obviously is smarter than they are and they just get in his way, and he flashes around fake IDs without blinking. Fuck authority. But on another level that is so deep it is almost cellular, he YEARNS for an authority figure. He YEARNS to be told what to do. From our contradictions, our flaws, arise drama. Conflict. <\/p>\n Their little pow-wow is interrupted by a sound in another “room”. On high alert, they hustle towards the sound, and burst into the room, suddenly blinded by light beams, and two \u2026 guys standing there. Holding cameras and lights. <\/p>\n And here they are, the Ghostfacers. <\/p>\n \n I love the Ghostfacers. I know they are also despised in some quarters. Tee hee! Let’s bring it on! I love them for all kinds of reasons, but the main one is from an actor standpoint: these are young actors, coming on what is essentially a guest-spot, and they own it so completely, knock it so out of the park, that more episodes featuring them are to come, and it’s still going on. This is the DREAM of young actors trying to get on a series. You want your character to “hit”. I mean, hell, it worked for John Stamos. The guy had a glorified walk-on on General Hospital<\/i> and they were so bombarded with letters saying WHO IS THAT GUY???<\/i> (I should know, I wrote one of those letters, I was in junior high) that they made him a regular, and the guy has literally – literally <\/em>– never been out of a job since. THAT is a success. Both of these Ghostfacer actors understood the humor underlying their roles, understood the pathetic posturing going on, and infused their line-readings with a kind of goofy mixture of deadpan seriousness, and total Fear. They work great together. No wonder they “hit” with audiences. Yes, they are annoying, and they usually mess up whatever Sam and Dean are working on, but Sam and Dean without obstacles would be nothing. Just haircuts and jawlines. <\/p>\n Also, it is awesome and funny (and refreshing) seeing Sam and Dean having to deal with these sheer IDIOTS, who treat THEM like they’re morons. The Ghostfacers consider themselves professionals and sneer at Sam and Dean with puffed-up (and yet somehow anxious) superiority, a vibe that the two brothers almost never experience. Even the most hostile foes they meet don’t treat them like they’re IDIOTS. The Ghostfacers do. It’s very funny. <\/p>\n The Ghostfacers are Ed (A.J. Buckley) and Harry (Travis Wester). And, of course, they are warped mirror images of the Winchesters. Ed is clearly the leader, the Dean guy, and Harry is the bumbling sidekick (Sam). In their first meeting with the Winchesters, Ed and Harry (who probably are made fun of by everyone else in their lives) realize they are in the presence of amateur ghost-hunters, unlike themselves, and so their egos EXPLODE instantaneously. They put on a whole act, a sort of “Yeah, man, this is what we DO, this is who we ARE” thing, and yet they are so clearly lying, and “acting”. It’s like being in the presence of a pompous person who is lording it over you, trying to make you feel bad about yourself, and the behavior is so obvious you can’t believe that so-and-so actually thinks they will get away with it. Like, you HAVE to know how obvious you are being, right?? <\/p>\n Quick story: At last year’s Ebertfest, it was my first time going, and I was shy, and also in the first stages of recovery from my super romantic old-fashioned Nervous Breakdown. My mother came with me. So I was doing my best, and actually had a blast, and met up with some old friends, none of whom knew what was going on with me, and that was actually a relief. I got to sit and have lunch and talk about movies and feel normal for a change. They cater lunch to the people with VIP badges (i.e.: special guests, filmmakers, actors, writers) in a nearby community center, so on the first day of the festival I made my way over there. It was packed. I saw my friend Steven Boone. I feel relaxed with him, so I went over and sat with him. He is so nice, so sweet, and he also has shyness, so we feel comfortable with each other. He was sitting with another guy, whom I had never met before. Steven Boone introduced me to him: “This is Sheila O’Malley. She’s a playwright and a film critic.” Apparently this guy is also a film critic and he runs some huge film festival in Bangkok or something – I don’t give a fuck, actually, because he was so rude, and therefore I don’t care what he does or who he is. I operate on a purely quid pro quo basis. He did not smile when he was introduced to me, he did not seem interested in who I was, he did not want me sitting there, his vibe was palpably unfriendly. He had been having a good time schmoozing with Steven Boone, and had no interest in me. He decided, on sight, that I couldn’t offer him anything. And instead of saying anything even halfway polite, I would have taken a “Hi, nice to meet you,” this guy said, staring at me: “So which is it?” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I said, “What?” He said: “He said you’re a playwright and a film critic. So which one is it?” It was so unfriendly that I wasn’t even sure it was occurring, and so I chose to be totally friendly in return, and pretend it wasn’t happening. I laughed and said, “See that’s the thing. I don’t feel I have to choose.” And I don’t. Why should I? Steven and I started talking, and he sat off to the side, eating his lunch in exile, neither of us talking to him. And he did not speak to me for the rest of the film festival. No loss there for me, because he obviously was an asshole. He was so threatened by his status, and the hierarchical structure of the event, that he made the grave mistake of assuming that because he had never heard of me, I wasn’t worth knowing. <\/p>\n Good manners are a way to prop up our social interactions with one another, take the edge off of our latent suspicion of one another. Saying “Nice to meet you” is not just a formality. You actually need to mean<\/i> it when you say it. That’s what good manners are all about.<\/p>\n So back to the Ghostfacers, and why I love these two actors’ performances. They manage to suggest, in 2 seconds of screen-time, before we even know who they are, that these are guys who are pretty much morons, and are probably treated as such by everyone in their lives, and so when they are in the presence of someone new, they RACE to “show off” to that person: this brand new person doesn’t know we were made fun of all through school, that our parents think we are losers, that girls stay away from us. Yay! Someone new to show off to, someone who doesn’t KNOW about us. <\/p>\n Dean and Sam clock it right away and start having fun at the guys’ expense. They play along, in other words. Leading them on, letting them hang themselves. These four actors have so much fun in this scene. There are cross-glances between Sam and Dean, and neither Harry or Ed notice, because they are far too pompous, being ultra-casual about their EMF. I think the key to why the Ghostfacers really work, as a comedic duo, is that they overlay their sheer bumbling amateurish-ness with a pompous “over it” energy. “Yeah, whatever, here’s my EMF, I’m totally over <\/em>the EMF \u2026” But you know they are NOT “over” the EMF, they think they are the coolest people ever to know how to work an EMF \u2026 and yet they try to SEEM casual. <\/p>\n And then there’s the way Ed whips the Ghostfacers business card out at Dean, all while looking away, in a faux display of humility. You just know that Ed is so stoked that they have real business cards. He is NOT “over” his business card. He thinks it is the coolest thing ever to have a business card. But he knows somehow that he has to play it cool, and so he tries, but fails miserably. <\/p>\n Sam glances at the card, and sees the HellhoundsLair.com URL. “You guys run that website,” says Sam.<\/p>\n Harry explains to Sam and Dean what an EMF is. He can barely contain his sense of his own awesome expertise. Padalecki has a hard time not laughing out loud, and some of his reaction shots make him look absolutely to-die-for gorgeous<\/i>. Sam can be pretty grim. He’s intense. When he loosens up, when he finds something funny \u2026 sparks seem to fly right off him into the camera.<\/p>\n Ed admits he has never seen a ghost, but he did see a vase fall off a table once all on its own. He whispers portentously, “Something like that changes you.”<\/p>\n Sam has this long silent reaction shot to that. He’s “acting,” too. He’s acting like, “Wow. You guys have really been in the shit, haven’t you. I am impressed.” He can barely keep a straight face, but he’s giving it his best shot.<\/p>\n \n 5th scene<\/big> \n \nIt’s a short scene, exposition, where they both fill each other in on what they learned. Boring, essentially, so the “walk and talk” format gives it some energy, life, spontaneity. <\/p>\n Sam didn’t find any record of a farmer named Mordecai who killed his family. And Dean didn’t find anything else out from the cops. Too bad there wasn’t an Amy to sleep with. Dean is annoyed by the whole thing. Clearly they are being “pranked” by the Ghostfacers, in some way; they probably made up the whole thing on their stupid website. Enough. He’s ready to go out drinking. <\/p>\n Dean gets into the Impala, and Sam hangs back, eager as a little kid, so you know a prank is coming. Dean turns on the car, and the radio blasts some blaring un-Dean-like salsa tune, the windshield wipers flip into action, and Dean hurries to rectify the situation, and he is so pissed off that, again, a certain phrase comes to mind. <\/p>\n \n \nSam is laughing and triumphant, Dean is unamused, calling the prank “weak” (I agree with him there). <\/p>\n \n 6th scene<\/big> But it is eloquent that the young lady would rather go into Mordecai’s Hell House<\/em> and look for a Creepy Jar<\/em> than make out with that boy. <\/p>\n As she walks through the house, we hear her breathing coming high and panicked through the darkness. There’s some kind of slashing sound in another room. Instead of, you know, running for her damn life, she instead calls out, nervously, “Hello?”<\/p>\n Because, of course, this is how people behave in horror films. Like idiots.<\/p>\n Jill goes down into the cellar, with a closeup of dried-up chicken feet hanging from a rafter in the foreground. Charming. Down into the root cellar she goes, with the Gross Stuff in Jars looming in between us and her. It looks like nasty month-old sweet and sour chicken. The scene is dark as hell. Poor dumb Jill goes and picks up a jar and then, startled by a loud sound, drops the jar which shatters at her feet. She’s hyperventilating now, and suddenly, behind her, we see a towering figure. What happens next is very effective, and very chilling. The figure attacks and she starts screaming: and as she continues to scream, she is hoisted up into the air, a rope around her throat, feet dangling. Worse, and I say this as a glasses-wearing chronically-blind human, her glasses fall off, land on the floor, and we see Moredecai’s big-ass foot crush them. It’s Hitchcockian, that shot. It made me think of this famous shot from Strangers On a Train<\/i> (1951).<\/p>\n \n Her death is really lingered on, her screams are heart-rending, and it looks absolutely terrible. Yes, she is an idiot, but she didn’t deserve this. <\/p>\n Damn you, Ghostfacers. <\/p>\n Damn you, Thurston Howell III.<\/p>\n \n 7th scene<\/big> I love the following moment, because it shows their professionalism, professionalism being the willingness to admit they don’t know everything. Sam asks Dean (and it is so interesting how often he defers to his brother, looking to him, saying, “What now?”, asking him to weigh in: Yes, they are partners, but the hierarchy is clear, with Dean on the top – at least at this stage). Sam asks Dean, “What do you think?” <\/p>\n Dean looks at Sam, with no annoyance, no ego, nothing but openness. “I think maybe we missed something,” he says.<\/p>\n Nice.<\/p>\n Back to the crane shot of the house, which then blends into the same angle, same scene, only a night-time setting. Time has passed. Mist is rolling in. Crime scene tape is across the rickety porch, a cop car sits in the mud, its lights swirling. But the activity has slowed down. The crane pulls down to reveal Sam and Dean crouched in the bushes nearby, hiding from the meandering patrolman with a flashlight. The way they both are filmed, in total darkness, with light touching off their profiles, shows great confidence. Some of that has been lost in later seasons, when the light brightened, got colorful, cheesier, music video-ish. Now, I’m not interested in complaining, at least not as a default stance. People who only know how to complain are boring. At least to me. I’ll certainly mention things I don’t like, in episodes old and new. The show is good enough to be able to “take” criticism, the thing is not a “house of cards” that will tumble if looked at critically. Even when I’m reading a review of something I LOVE, I want to see that critical faculty to still be in operation. Otherwise I lose trust. Hell, I’m a critic. People sometimes pay me to write what I think about things. I like to analyze, pick apart. I’m not trying to “ruin anyone’s fun” by pointing out when something doesn’t work for me. I also love to celebrate, I love that most of all, but I’ll call it like I see it. <\/p>\n That being said, what I do want to point out is that the darkness of the first season is something else, man, and more striking the more I look for it – it’s so bold, and confident, in terms of tone and mood. It is a Mission Statement, an Artistic Statement, it is letting the audience know “This is who we are and what we are interested in.” Supernatural<\/i> cast these two incredibly good-looking lead actors, and in these early seasons, they had the total confidence to NOT light them in a flattering way. Or, hell, to not light them at all! Lighting like that helps us focus on the REAL story, and helps to tell us what is REALLY important. It’s also super-artistic, but that’s just gravy.<\/p>\n \n \nYes, these guys are gorgeous. And we’re going to get a big ol’ beefcake shot of Sam’s hot body later in the episode (a rarity, it’s really the only example of its kind) \u2026 but the show isn’t ABOUT that. Their looks are downplayed, if anything, treated as a casual given, and they have fun with messing with our expectations and implicating us the audience in what we want to see. But I appreciate a good-looking man filmed in a way that treats him casually, almost like his looks are incidental. It’s very very interesting.<\/p>\n Like this.<\/p>\n \n \n Basically, shots like that leave us wanting more. It also plunges us into THEIR world, which is very dark, as opposed to our own. Nothing is ever lit fully. You can’t ever see the full picture in one fell swoop. <\/p>\n Dean’s attention is drawn by a familiar sound off down the lane, the buzzing of an EMF, and suddenly they both see the Ghostfacers, stumbling along in the dark towards the crime scene. The Dilettante Brigade is at it again and are going to mess up their plans of somehow breaking into that crime scene. The Ghostfacers are bickering, holding flashlights and cameras and EMFs. <\/p>\n Dean, acting on instinct, calls out in a booming voice, “WHO YA GONNA CALL?” (Hilarious.) The cops, startled, whirl around and see the Ghostfacers standing there. A chase ensues, which gives Sam and Dean a chance to run across the mud and into the house undetected. Once inside, the brothers are all business, moving quickly, they don’t have much time, pulling shotguns out of the duffel bag. Framed in the dim blue light coming in from outside. It’s beautiful. <\/p>\n \n \nDean takes one look at the mysterious symbol on the wall again, and explodes: “Where have I seen that symbol before. It’s killing me.” <\/p>\n They go down into the cellar. Dean picks up one of the Gross Jars and says, “Hey, Sam. I dare you to take a swig of this.” The maturity level between them is always on the verge of careening into pre-pubescence. This is how it is with siblings. Sam, again, doesn’t laugh it off and says, almost pissed, “What would I do that for?” (As my Dad used to say to us kids when we were getting all pissed off at each other: “DON’T TAKE THE BAIT.”) And Dean’s reply is: “I double dare you.” <\/p>\n \n I love it when the brothers are not cool, but instead are annoying and immature. It’s also fun because they are in the scariest atmosphere possible, with chicken feet and gross jars and a dead girl was just found here, and their blood is barely racing. They are so used to it that “I double dare you” is a totally normal thing to say in that environment. <\/p>\n Then, of course, their brotherly affection is interrupted by a sound coming from the root cellar, so they both race over and charge in, in that SWAT team way they have, wielding flashlights as well as guns in a way that makes you know that they have been doing this since their hands were so little they barely fit around the flashlight. It’s second nature. Also, again: you can barely see what the hell is going on. Great look and feel. <\/p>\n SPN does a lot of fun stuff with the “reveals” of monsters. Monsters wait off-camera, and the camera swoops around Sam or Dean, going first this way, so you see nothing is behind them, and then THAT way, when suddenly the thing is revealed. So the monster has to step in place in time for the camera to pick up on it. It’s gritty, dirty, low-tech “special effects” and they use it all the time, and I always love it. Repetitive? Yes. But it becomes a style thing, and it’s great. The technique gives the illusion that something is materializing out of nothing, when really all it is is an actor wearing scary makeup hiding off-screen and then stepping onto their mark right before the camera swoops back. <\/p>\n Their eyes are drawn to a little cupboard nearby, and Sam reaches out to open the door. A tiny flood of rats scamper out, freaking and grossing Dean out. <\/p>\n “I hate rats.” I just re-read 1984<\/i>, and Winston Smith’s horror of rats, and how it is used against him in interrogation came to mind. Hide your weaknesses. They make you vulnerable.<\/p>\n And then in a really cool and scary shot, we suddenly sense a figure looming up behind Sam, and we see the gleam of a raised axe over Sam’s head. But it really does seem that Mordecai has come from out of nowhere. The brothers turn, see the dark figure, and blast him repeatedly with rock salt. The cops, chasing down the Ghostbusters outside, are clearly wearing ear-plugs. But Mordecai doesn’t respond the way they expect, he persists, before de-materializing. Freaked, Sam says, “What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?”<\/p>\n They race for the stairs, in total darkness, and are attacked again. You can’t even see Mordecai. The brothers fall, and the shelf of Gross Jars collapses, glass shattering and gross sweet-and-sour sauce splashing everywhere. The rats will have a field day. Dean finds himself knocked on the floor, all as Sam basically Gladiators it up with Mordecai, who is clearly THERE, has some corporeality, his axe can actually hit things, in other words. Sam, while fighting, shouts at Dean to get out of there (badass). We see Mordecai, he’s wearing overalls, he’s a big lumbering presence. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, outside, the Ghostfacers have returned, having lost the cops. They tiptoe towards the house, like guys playing Paintball, with all their heavy-duty manly gear. Harry wants to go, but Ed convinces him to stay. “Let’s find our center \u2026” suggests Ed. It’s that kind of ridiculous line that makes me love the Ghostfacers.<\/p>\n \n And they reach the front porch just in time to see Sam and Dean come barreling on out, running for their lives. Ed and Harry stare into the darkness of the door, and they murmur: 8th scene<\/big> \n But it’s the interior that is the masterpiece.<\/p>\n First of all, there’s a statue of an armadillo on the desk where Sam is working. There are long-horns on the walls. The walls look like they’re faux adobe, like it’s an old 19th century mission or something. Dean is on the bed in the background, scribbling the symbol that is driving him crazy onto a notepad emblazoned with the motel’s logo and address. Sam is busy at his laptop. <\/p>\n \n \n “I thought the legend says Mordecai only went after chicks,” says Dean. Dean, don’t ask questions if you might not like the answers. <\/p>\n Sam, again, “takes the bait”, and is openly annoyed at the dumb-bell teasing. <\/p>\n Sam goes over the legend again, reading HellhoundsLair.com. Speaking of which, the web design is awesome. <\/p>\n \n \nIt was an actual website for a bit.<\/p>\n Sam noticed that Mordecai had slit wrists, which doesn’t make sense to him, because supposedly Mordecai hung himself. Dean noticed the same thing. Glad you guys are on top of it, because during that scene I didn’t notice jack-squat. Sam also doesn’t understand Mordecai swinging an axe around. What does that have to do with the original legend? If Sam knows anything, he knows ghosts. This is a “Lore” scene, essentially, with the brothers thinking\/contemplating\/throwing-around-theories. I love these scenes, repetitive as they can be, boring as they may be. I love them because it features THOUGHT, and thinking <\/em>is the most interesting thing you can see an actor do on camera. Supernatural<\/i> allows for that, allows for confusion\/chaos to be built into the process. We see them working shit out. Researching, discussing, Nerd Nerd Nerd, the both of them. <\/p>\n They both are disturbed by the same things. Yes, they are getting on one another’s nerves in this episode. It’s almost like the whole Dad-Chicago thing has destabilized them, once again. They have both regressed. To, essentially, slap-fights in the back seat of the car as Dad drove gloomily up front. “Hell House” is a classic “one-off” episode, but there is continuity, and by that I mean, emotional continuity. Because, look out, the next episode is “Something Wicked”, with our first extended flashback to childhood. It’s almost like in “Hell House” they are already approaching that emotional landscape by bickering and pranking and snarking. Dad isn’t there to say, “Boys, knock it off.” And then, even more interesting, the episode after “Something Wicked” is “Provenance,” and, to my mind, that is the most mature we have seen either of them yet, at least in connection with one another. It features one of my favorite scenes in the first season. So after “Something Wicked,” with its deep and disturbing glimpse of the shit Dean took as a child \u2026 we move into “Provenance,” where he steps up to the plate and actually tells Sam that he’s worried about him, and it’s okay, no big deal, but maybe you should have some fun. It’s okay to have fun. It’s extremely grown-up. So maybe we need to get the regression out of the way before we can even GET to that point in “Provenance”. I like that small Arc. <\/p>\n Sam discovers a new post on the Hellhounds site, where someone has added new information, saying that Mordecai was actually a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Dean is listening but he’s also staring at the symbol on the notepad, as though by his sheer force of thought he can figure out what that damn symbol is. Suddenly he sits up. The light has dawned. <\/p>\n \n 9th scene<\/big> Dean says, “Craig, I realized the symbol didn’t mean anything. It’s the logo for Blue Oyster Cult.” Thurston’s back is to Dean, his head down. <\/p>\n I love how Ackles plays this next bit. He knows he’s in the presence of the guy who caused all of this: Dean isn’t sure how it works yet, he’s not sure how it happened, but he knows that the Morrissey punk is the author of it. Instead of being threatening or serious, he plays it very softly, with a smile. It makes him seem terrifying. <\/p>\n \n “You into BOC, Craig? Or just scaring the hell out of people?”<\/p>\n Gentle smile. “So why don’t you tell us about that house. Without lying through your ass this time.” Another small smile, a little shrug.<\/p>\n Scary. <\/p>\n Padalecki and Ackles are tall. Directors have talked about how difficult it is to frame them, especially with co-stars who, usually, are over a FOOT shorter than these guys. Most actors are short. The tall ones are rare, the Vince Vaughns, the Leo DiCaprios. Most actors are in the 5’8″, 5’9″ range. In comparison, Padalecki and Ackles are towering monsters. In a shot like this, the height discrepancy is used to great effect. <\/p>\n \n \nSo Thurston finally comes clean, and tells the story of how he and his cousin Dana, on break from college, thought it would be funny to trick out that abandoned house as though it was some kind of Satanist weird place. As he speaks, we get a fragmented flashback section, an effect Supernatural<\/i> doesn’t use often. It’s very well done. We see glimpses of Thurston and his cousin nailing up the chickens feet, and spray-painting symbols on the walls and floors, symbols from her theology textbooks and, oh yeah, albums as well.<\/p>\n \n \nIt was just a joke. But then “those two guys” (Harry and Ed) put it on their website and “it took on a life of its own.”<\/p>\n Now that “that girl” is actually dead, Thurston is freaked out and upset, pleading his case: “We made the whole thing up, I swear!”<\/p>\n Sam and Dean don’t belabor the point, and don’t punish him any more than he is punishing himself. They turn to walk out, and Dean whispers to Sam, “If none of it was real, then how do you explain Mordecai?”<\/p>\n 10th scene<\/big> Armadillo? Check.<\/p>\n \n God bless you, set dressers. Look at that detail.<\/p>\n Dean goes over to Sam’s bag and takes out a packet of itching powder, a wicked grin on his face. Meanwhile, Sam calls out from the shower that he now has a theory about what is going on. He thinks they’re maybe dealing with a Tulpa. And, well, this is really interesting!<\/a> So then I Googled “thought forms” and all kinds of stuff came up, and I like this painting especially, by Mario Martinez.<\/p>\n \n \nWe’ve heard of “thought forms” before, in “Skin,”<\/a>, in that weird moment at the Impala when Dean-shifter corrects Sam’s memory of something. “It was a thought-form, a psychic projection, remember?” I like the thought of thought forms, and like the thought of some collective concentration actually having the ability to change reality. It’s a nice concept anyway, and there’s a lot of interesting art out there trying to capture what that actually means or would look like. <\/p>\n Naked Sam babbles from the shower about “Tulpas” and “thought forms”, all as Dean, giggling to himself, sprinkles itching powder into Sam’s Underoos. Suddenly, Sam emerges from the shower, surprising Dean, and surprising us, due to his sheer Mr. America Naked Splendor. Sam’s talking about a “thought form” but all I can think about is his ACTUAL form, and how the hell Sam would have a body like that, living on French Fries and never working out. BUT NO MATTER. <\/p>\n \n \nThe Sam-in-Towel moment stands out in the Supernatural<\/i> lexicon. It’s actually funny, in that way: it’s a bone (so to speak, a big fat BONE) thrown to the howling masses who want to see more skin. They gave us Dean’s “skin” in “Skin,” although that was gross and disturbing, and we also saw his sculpted pewter-armor breast-plates in “Route 666”<\/a>, but in general, both of these guys wear T-shirts, flannel shirts, and jackets. Buried in layers. We’ve discussed the vulnerability before, their sense of their own vulnerability. You don’t really relax if you do this kind of work. It would be like living in combat conditions. Like Jeremy Renner in Hurt Locker<\/i>, sitting on his bunk wearing his Bomb-Defusing Helmet, even when he’s off-duty and wasted. Best to be ready at all times. High alert.<\/p>\n Sam’s body is not almost over-the-top. It is totally over-the-top. <\/p>\n It reminds me of the hilarious moment Emma Stone has when Ryan Gosling first takes off his shirt in Crazy Stupid Love<\/i>. She stares at him and exclaims, “Fuck! Seriously? It’s like you’re photoshopped!”<\/p>\n \n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nRichardson, Texas
\nTwo months ago<\/i><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“They say?”<\/p>\n
\nInterstate 35
\nPresent day<\/i><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nA total American Graffiti<\/i> type scene, with cars pulling in and out of a parking lot, and a giant lit-up burger joint called Rodeo Drive, a packed teen hangout. Dean and Sam, who sometimes seem quite young (and seem very young in this episode, what with all the pranking), seem like Old freakin’ Guys compared to the Teenagers in the episode. And that Impala, chugging down the drive-thru lane, looks like an emissary from the Black Lagoon of Weird Older Guys Chillin’ at Places Populated by Teenagers. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Pentecostals \u2026” adds Skeptic.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSam and Dean walk into a local record shop. It clearly isn’t a set, it’s clearly a location shoot. The whole thing brings back memories. Member record stores?? The setup of the store is the exact same setup of Tunes in Hoboken, where I shop for vinyl. So here’s Mr. Craig Thurston, in his hip retro-type outfit, greeting Sam and Dean. Dean introduces themselves as reporters with a Dallas paper. Craig, acting all cool and on equal ground, says, “Hey, cool, I write for my school’s lit magazine,” and Dean’s response is so mean and so funny: “Good for you, Morrissey.” <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n2. Dean hails from Kansas.
\n3. Dean loves the band Kansas. Cracks me up.
\n4. The title of that album has all kinds of resonance for the Winchester brothers and where we are at in Season 1.
\n5. Wizard of Oz. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt opens with a terrific establishing shot of the Hell House. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNo interior library scene in this episode, which makes me sad – although they will MORE than make up for it with the motel room decor we see later. But the library is indeed mentioned, and as a librarian’s daughter, I am always pleased to see the underlying invisible message of “PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE IMPORTANT AND USEFUL.” God bless you Supernatural<\/i> for that alone! We see Sam emerging from the public library, meeting up with Dean on the sidewalk. And now we are treated to another great “walk and talk” scene, done in one, where the brothers walk down the sidewalk, turn the corner, and come to the Impala. I love the “walk and talks”. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nListen. If you sing the praises of a haunted house, it will draw teens from the Tri-State Area, that’s just a fact of life. So now we get another scene like the teaser, where three kids approach the Hell House in the dead of night. They had been playing Truth or Dare, and one of the kids (Agam Darshi) picked “Dare”. She has to go into the house and retrieve one of the Gross Jars from the basement. If she fails to come through on her Dare, then she has to make out with the boy. Again, with the sexual harassment, with a guy wanting to TRICK a girl into kissing him. Boys, just learn proper Courtship Techniques, seriously, you’ll have much better luck. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe following early morning, we are treated to a stunning swooping crane shot outside the Hell House. There are cop cars, EMTs, and mud. Sam and Dean approach into the frame, as a body is being removed from the house on a gurney. The color scheme is brutal, blacks and greys and browns. The Winchester palette. They ask a guy what happened and he says that the cops think the girl hung herself. Nobody understands it. She was just given a full ride to the University of Texas, she was a straight A student. It makes no sense.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Would you rather it was a ghost?”
\n“Yes.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Sweet Lord \u2026”
\n“\u2026 of the Rings \u2026”
\nAnd then take off, running, straight into the arms of the cops. I mean, honestly, guys. <\/p>\n
\nMotel Room. My favorite yet, although the disco room is yet to come. They’re in Texas. And so of course it is a Western-themed motel. Here is the exterior. Brill.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“It does.”
\n“Well, that explains why he went after you, but why me,” says Dean.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBack to the record store. Thurston Howell III is now slumped over his counter, drinking coffee, an eloquent change in poster\/demeanor from the first scene in the store, where he insouciantly and casually tried to dominate the intimidating “journalists” who were asking him questions. Now he looks like shit. Sam and Dean enter, and we see them in the background, looming black silhouettes, doom for anyone who encounters them. Dean pulls an album out of the rack, moving towards Thurston. Sam is looking at Dean, which makes me think that Dean did not enlighten Sam on what he was thinking during the drive over. Dean just needed to check the album first, to make sure before he went in for the kill.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe sound of the shower going in the Adobe-Western-Long-Horn-Cattle-Bullshit Motel, and Dean enters the room, calling out, “I’M BACK.” <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n