One of the most terrifying scenes of the last decade occurs in a British police psychological procedural thriller by the name of Luther, starring the formidable Idris Elba. In the first two (untitled) episodes of season three, the antagonist is a serial murderer by the name of Paul Ellis a mute, seriously deranged fetishist. Having come under the tutelage of an old school murderer, William Carney, Ellis is now enacting his own violent fantasies. Brought to disturbing life by actor Kevin Fuller, Ellis is a proper monster, all heaving sinews and set, crazed face. Masquerading as a hunched man with social issues, Ellis transforms when he removes his wig and glasses into an unstoppable brute. But the other villain of these episodes is director Sam Miller, teasing viewers with long, patient scenes with little sound effects or music. Ellis first victim gets ready for bed for some minutes before the monster is revealed, in a genuinely horrible moment, to be hiding underneath her bed the whole time. His second attack sees him scratching about in the attic, hiding under a dustsheet until his victim comes close enough to pull the sheet off, while in the third hes simply waiting in the wardrobe. It sounds simplistic but Miller and Fuller render it jaw droppingly horrifying. People across the United Kingdom were checking under their beds for days after the first episode aired.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
