Phenomenology of Spirits: Off-Screen Horror in Lucrecia Martel’s Films

This chapter analyses the sophisticated system of disruption embedded within the image in Martel’s work. On many occasions, the filmmaker has expressed her predilection for horror narratives: the horrific is always the sign of a difference that has been repressed and that returns in an uncontrolled and disturbing form. The horror genre lies at the edges of Martel’s films: it is what they could have been, and what they in some ways continue to be. If, in the end, the horrific is what remains beyond the frame (like a threat that is unfulfilled, or ruined, or disenchanted), it is because the filmmaker prefers to focus on the characters’ perplexity when they are confronted to a disruptive event. The camera never ceases to observe them, but it is somehow infected by their confusion. This uncomfortable perspective defines a form of realism that is sometimes negligent, sometimes indolent, and sometimes stirs up trouble.