Fear is at once both a straightforward and complex emotion. When people think of horror movies, many may immediately think of the jump-scare-a-minute, I-Know-What-Michael-Myers-Did-Last-Summer-on-Elm-Street types that tend to invoke the most overt fear response: the instinct toward fight or flight when a jump scare succeeds in suckering you, but horror films can also invoke a sense of dread or disgust, as well as fascination.
For me, horror isn't just about that adrenaline rush. Horror takes me to my emotional limits. Good horror threatens to unmake me and the best horror takes me closest to the precipice: dangling me over the edge without actually dropping me into permanent insanity. A few have dropped me temporarily into the abyss--I have metaphorically bled out after some horror films and have learned what limits I don't want to go beyond. But still, going to those edges is what it's about for me. True joy and love do that for me as well--take me to my limits, that is. The heights of joy and love are just as precarious and can take me just as far, even if it's in the opposite direction, because I know that the higher I go, the farther I may fall.
The 2016 movie We Go On takes me to my most relentlessly visited cliff edge: the hope, fear, and fascination of what lies beyond death, particularly the possibility that nothing does. There are creeps, scares, and twists in this movie, and they exist alongside a larger, moving, and surprisingly well-acted story.
Miles is terrified of dying. Trauma early in his life plays out in his nightmares and generally plagues his waking life with anxiety. In an effort to combat his fear, he places an ad offering $30,000 for definitive proof of life after death (knowing full well he'll have to sift through a lot of fakes).
"You know how every year or two there's a headline that pops up about an asteroid that's maybe on course to crash into Earth and kill us all, right? And then they say 'whoops, nevermind, it'll miss us. Death from space is cancelled.' And we get that relief? We go on about our lives like there's no asteroid.
But that's insane. Because really there is still an asteroid. And we should be afraid. Because we all have one coming and it's on a 100% guaranteed collision course with you. Your world will end. We don't get to know when. All we know for sure is that it never misses."
After several debunkings and disappointments, he responds to a voicemail message from an unknown caller that answers his question in a way he never expected, with a burden he can never be rid of.
The title We Go On seems to be in reference to the idea of our souls going on after death, and maybe it partially is, but it's also about the absurdity and necessity of going on about our lives even though we know that any day might be our last. Finding the reasons to continue to go on.
Let's get to the knit.
One of the people who answers Miles' ad is a reluctant medium. On their first meeting, she's wearing a black, rectangular shawl that features an overall diamond (or maybe it's squares, depending on how you wear it) pattern with stitches running through it that give a mesh or netted appearance.
We can see from the front view that long black fringe runs along both short ends of the rectangle but not along the long edge as we can see in the photo from the back.
It is difficult to tell the thickness or weight of yarn being used without being able to paw at the piece in person, but it seems likely that it is a fingering or lace weight yarn to get the fine, openwork lace in between the thicker outline of the squares. The fringe may be done with a thicker yarn or possibly doubled or tripled up.
This mesh/lace look can be created either with knit or crochet:
Top, L to R: Olive Diamonds / photo & pattern credit: Drops Design (crochet, free); Mini Bubbles / pattern by Kieran Foley (crochet), photo credit: chiaraz; Chaukor / photo & pattern credit: Sandhya S. (knit, free)
Bottom, L to R: Diamond Mesh Lace Wrap / photo & pattern credit: Krista Werbil (knit); Diamond Lace Wrap / photo & pattern credit: June Gilbank (crochet)
When Miles visits the medium again, she is wearing a knit vest with an elaborate pattern on the back. The top half of the vest is ribbed in something like a 1x4 pattern, where most of the fabric highlights the purl stitches, creating knit ridges. These are so pronounced that they may be knit through the back loop that makes the ridges stand out even more.
This technique is known as twisted rib (not to be confused with the twisted stitch technique mentioned below, which is also not to be confused with what happens when you mount your stitch on you needle backwards, resulting in 'twisted stitches' Confused yet?)
This pours into a geometric pattern that gives the appearance of being cabled or possibly a twisted stitch pattern (although a closer-but-too-blurry-to-tell inspection reveals that there's possibly something even more complex going on here involving long loops).
The diamond pattern continues down the second half of the vest before ending in two inches of ribbing to match the inch of ribbing at the arm openings.
Knit the look by downloading the free Diamond Cluster Waistcoat pattern here!
(Left: photo and pattern credit: Diamond Cluster Waistcoat by Myra Mortlock)
Miles' mom looks more than a little concerned for his sanity as she listens to him recount his latest supernatural encounter. She's wearing a top with a "feather and fan" design to the stitches, that looks easy to wear with a wide v-neck, half-length sleeves and some positive ease.
Knit (or crochet) the look:
Below, L to R: Golden Fern / photo & pattern credit: Valentina Randon (knit, free) ; Feather and Fan Top / photo & pattern credit: Rebecca Averill (crochet, free) ; Mama Christa's Feather & Fan Shell / photo & pattern credit StevenBe (knit)
This horror movie may look like it's got all of the run of the mill elements: mediums, ghosts, a paranormal hoax or three, but it truly stands out from the pack. Between the authenticity of excellent acting, the relatable earnestness of the characters, and the poignancy of the story (not to mention the spooks and the twists--yes, twists, plural). Don't overlook this one!
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