Of all the horror or thriller movies based on a writer main character, perhaps the two most common settings are (1) the writer on a personal retreat to the middle of nowhere to overcome writers block and (2) the writers group. Together, these form the bulk of the writer-based movies in this genre. And why? Because both are fantastic places to tell stories of horror and terror.
The writer alone in an unknown place.
The writer surrounded by people he/she/they don't know who may or may not be just another writer.
Gripping stuff, this. In either setting, you have a writer off their beaten path, their normal process. And that always makes us vulnerable. Without our favorite chair, our comfortable distance to the coffee pot, our familiar surroundings and patterns, we feel off-kilter, sometimes unsure of our psychic footing (so to speak). That creates the perfect recipe into which to drop a dollop of fear and danger to a compelling movie.
But it also can create a real-world sort of writer-based terror in some. The idea of sharing our work may fill us with trepidation and self-doubt. The idea of listening to others more than the voices in our heads may irritate us or activate feelings of social anxiety. The mere rearranging of our routines and patterns for work may either disparage us or shut us down entirely. We may feel lost.
In this film, young author Zandra leads a writers' group charged with a weekend retreat to face the emotional truths of their writing. To amp up the tension, the retreat is being held on an island that is shut off from the mainland most of the day because of the tides that shut down the roads.
While the movie's focus is on the tension and eventually the borderline Giallo style murders, it's pretty accurate in regards to writer retreats and those who attend them. It also highlights quite a few of the issues that pop up at such retreats.
As far as the members, we meet them in a fairly common exercise for small groups, with members pairing up and then getting to know their partners and introducing them. It's a by the numbers activity lifted from the "How to Lead a Writers' Group" handbook, as are many of the exercises and group activities and writing assignments shown in the film.
They include: the older woman writing children's books, the older man writing his memoir of his time in the war, the avant-garde Artiste, the newby who thinks she may have what it takes, the horror writer obsessed with violence. They're all there.
And with them come their hang ups and the issues that add to the tension. They all tend to dismiss the woman telling tales of turtles (named after her kids) for children. The purveyor of "fine literature considers everything anyone else writes to be utter trash created purely for profits and not art. No one remotely tries to understand or appreciate the chosen genres or styles of the other writers. And the writer of the war story keeps waiting to be recognized for his stellar talent and story just waiting to be told. Throughout it all, the newby offers meaningless "critiques" that are primarily gushes over the ability to be there at all with the others.
At the heart of it all -- the relationships, the writing exercise, the killings, all of it -- is the idea of getting to the heart of and living (or writing) the truth of your feelings. Your feelings as a writer. The feelings of your characters. Getting all that onto your pages.
That's the goal, isn't it? Without getting to the truth of who you are as a writer and who your characters are and what they want, nothing in your work rings true, does it?
So, in spite of being a fairly by the numbers thriller, Writers Retreat actually has a lot to say about writers and the craft -- at least until the night of the slaughter.
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