The Lovely Bones is technically a supernatural thriller, but horror is more fitting. It may not have ghosts, jump scares, or other typical things you expect from a horror, but it is just as anxiety-inducing. And what’s more, it leaves a lasting impact. For many, The Lovely Bones was their first taste of “horror.” It traumatised them, and now that spooky season is here and they are revisiting it, they’re finding it’s just as terrifying as the first time they watched it. But why is that? What about The Lovely Bones is so scary?
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The Lovely Bones is based on the 2002 book of the same name by Alice Sebold, which is based on true events. In the book, Susie is raped and murdered by Mr Harvey, and the book goes into graphic detail about it. Sebold herself is a rape survivor and recounts the experience in her 1999 memoir Lucky. She was an 18-year-old college freshman when it happened, and on her way home (to her college dorm) like Susie.
The author also stated the book is loosely based on the real rape and murder of a young girl from Norristown, Pennsylvania in the 1970s. The young girl was also abducted from her parents, and Sebold wanted to write a story from the dead girl’s perspective. The Lovely Bones is terrifying because it tells the story of every woman’s worst nightmare; and some women’s reality. The fact female viewers see themselves in Susie — who is ordinary and smart — only makes the threat more real. If it could happen to her, it could happen to any of us. And what’s scarier than reality?
Speaking of Susie being an ordinary girl, Mr. Harvey is also an ordinary man, which makes the fact he’s a serial killer incredibly unsettling. Mr. Harvey is literally the guy next door; he wears knit pullovers and eats cookies, but he also builds traps and murders young women. He is not Michael Myers or Ghost Face, but his crimes are just as bad — if not worse. He is the embodiment of the heebie-jeebies, and he definitely put a fair few people off their neighbors for a while.
Mr. Harvey presents himself as a kind and considerate person. He is friendly to his neighbors, extra “kind” to the neighborhood kids, and cooperative with the police. He is not an obvious suspect like Mr. O’Dwyer, the man who Susie admits looks like a serial killer. (Realistically, Mr. Harvey looks exactly like a serial killer, but let’s overlook that for a moment). Susie has no reason not to trust him, so she does. But there are two sides to Mr. Harvey; the restrained, psychopathic side, and the unrestrained, monstrous side. Some of the most disturbing scenes in the movie oscillate between the two: the Mr. Harvey who plans and prepares (traps, alibis, stories), and the Mr. Harvey who breaks things and people. Combine them both and you have one very dangerous individual.
From the get-go there is a strong sense of foreboding in The Lovely Bones, a feeling as if something dangerous lurks around every corner. Ironically, on the second watch, viewers see that it does; at least in one scene. Susie is at the mall with her grandmother (Susan Sarandon) and she’s so busy checking out her crush (Reece Ritchie) that she doesn’t see Mr Harvey following her. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but lo and behold, there he is — walking past the shop window, and later on, watching from a distance.
Another ominous moment happens in Mr. Harvey’s hideout. He is telling Susie she has to stay, and she is desperately looking around when the camera fixates on a bobblehead toy. It is nodding “Yes,” as if answering for her; as if sealing her fate, or the universe is playing a cruel joke on her. Death pervades the movie, and Mr. Harvey’s presence is felt in every scene. At times the suspense is almost unbearable, especially when Susie’s sister, Lindsey (Rose McIver) breaks into Mr. Harvey’s house and almost becomes his next victim. Dread isn’t a good feeling, but it’s a good sign of a great horror.
Arguably, the scariest thing about The Lovely Bones is the stuff it doesn’t show. The movie leaves a lot to the imagination, including Susie’s murder. Viewers are left to wonder what happened to Susie in the hideout after Mr. Harvey closed the latch, but are helped out with suggestive imagery. For example, in the in-between Susie has a vision of Mr. Harvey in a bathtub in a blinding white room. The tiled floor is caked in mud and blood, and a knife lies on the nearby sink. The message is clear: Susie put up a fight and her murder was brutal and bloody.
A flannel covers Mr. Harvey’s face, and he removes it to wring out the filthy water. As he twists the fabric — the camera focusing on his hands as he does so — Susie wails. Could she have been strangled? It’s very likely he touched her, and not just because he does in the book. The way he strokes the charms on her bracelet (before throwing it into the river) suggests this, but that’s not all. Towards the end of the movie, Susie is finding out about Mr. Harvey’s other victims when she comes across Flora Hernandez (Stefania LaVie Owen) and says the following haunting sentence: “He’d only wanted to touch her. But she screamed.” Viewers are spared the gory details, but they’re disturbed all the same.
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