While analysing ‘The Creature from the Lake’ I thought it would be very interesting to analyse it through the context of the hero’s journey, as I had already started reading ‘The Writers Journey’ before my group assigned roles. I took the stages of the hero’s journey.
Here are some of the notes I took while reading ‘The Writers Journey’ and while rewatching the film with the context of the hero’s journey.
The Hero’s Journey is not a discovery but rather an observation made by Christopher Vogler to make reviewing screenplays easier; it acts as a guide rather than a strict step-by-step manual.
“Nothing matters but the instinctive choices of the heart and soul of the artist.” Christopher Volger
The Hero’s journey is used as a more liberal guide in ‘The creature from the Lake’ Christopher Volger himself said this in an interview with Film Courage “I chopped it up into 12 stages. It could be 10 or, as Campbell put it, 32.” and this is the case, as it doesn’t follow the 12 stages.
It’s like changing gears in a car, you can skip a few, if it suits the story.
The purpose of the ordinary world stage is to introduce the characters, the world in which they are living, and, essentially, what’s been going on there before the viewer arrives.
In ‘The Creature from the Lake’, it follows these stages: the ordinary world, the call to adventure, the approach, and the resurrection.
So I identified these stages by these specific moments in the film, which correlates to Volglar’s findings.
The ordinary world
The purpose of the ordinary world stage is to introduce the characters, the world in which they are living, and, essentially, what’s been going on there before the viewer arrives.
I was able to identify it from the moment the film started. With the man on the fishing boat in the lake, it’s dark, eerie, and foreboding, it’s a very impressive curtain fall and sets up how this world is set in mostly realistic logic. The ordinary world here sets up how shelby is secondary to Jack; she’s overworked, she’s not thanked and she’s treated as replaceable by Jack, and this is a stark contrast to the end of the film
The ordinary world is set up quite well with the film opening on a M.S. of Jack standing against his van with a painting of his show on it, which immediately and effectively sets him up as the heroine of the story. Even his character design sets him up to be the stereotypical hero with a muscular build and broad shoulders, which is reminiscent of early 2000s monster hunter shows in a sort of mockumentary fashion. However, this set-up is a red herring, as Jack is a false hero. The true hero in this short is Shelby, the camerawoman.
The call to adventure
The call to adventure is subtly hinted at in the title sequence, where we can see a shadowy figure swim away in the murky green water, which shows that there is a physical special world.
The most obvious nod to the story’s progression into the call to adventure is when the creature finally appears and the adventure begins. The creature is a problem, and it needs to be taken care of. This is essentially the sounding horn that the adventure has begun because, when entering this stage, the hero or heroes are faced with a challenge or a problem, and that is exactly what the creature is.
The call to adventure sets the stakes, and in this case, that’s getting eaten.
The approach
Volger also refers to the approach as the ‘getting to know you’ stage, where the flaws of the characters get revealed or we get a deeper understanding of our hero as a person. Impressions change for the audience.
Impressions change quite a lot for the audience during this stage. I would say this stage begins shortly after Jack wakes up and takes claim for defeating the creature. We can see Shelby start to change; she looks disgusted and angry at Jack for the first time in the film. She’s beginning to realise she deserves more, she’s had enough of being taken advantage of.
Meanwhile, Jack changes for the worse. In response to Shelby standing up for herself, he becomes angry, his false self is shed, and it reveals that he’s actually more of an antagonist, he’s a false hero.
The resurrection
Vogler describes this stage as a kind of final test for our hero, and as a result, they are transformed into a new person, for better or worse.
I’m pretty confident about this stage being present in the film.
The final test, so to speak, for Shelby is the creature coming back and eating Jack alive. Shelby is confronted with the possibility of death and prevails. She understands now that she deserves more than to be a lackey, and to show her transformation, she blows up the creature with Jack inside, and she walks away, washed of her past. She has gone through her resurrection and is born again as a more confident person.
I believe we all contributed fairly equally to the research process. However, were I to start this project over again, I would delve further into the hero’s journey by reading/researching more about Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ since it is what inspired Vogler to create ‘The Writers Journey’. I would also have pushed harder to meet in person with my group for at least two presentation rehearsals, as I know we went over the 10-minute mark.
I tried to ensure everyone in the group was doing something they were interested in or had experience in; for example, two members of our group didn’t have any experience in film analysis, so I suggested doubling up on certain topics so that they would be working more closely with people who already had experience in that area.
I believe this group project went really well. I feel we all communicated and worked together effectively, and it is probably the best group work experience I have ever had.
References
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). 12 Stages of Hero’s Journey ,Christopher Vogler. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/oNNaMuBOxv4?si=peBSmLqApszfd3fb [Accessed 14 Feb. 2024].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). 8 Common Character Types Writers Should Know – Christopher Vogler. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0fEdNWwcG0 [Accessed 14 Feb. 2024].
Vogler, C. and Internet Archive (1998). The writer’s journey : mythic structure for writers. [online] Internet Archive. Studio City, CA : M. Wiese Productions. Available at: https://archive.org/details/writersjourneymy00vogl [Accessed 14 Feb. 2024].