Episode 7 - Small Red Box
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Who doesn’t love a creepy ballerina story, right?
Ever since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated by music boxes, especially how slightly off they sound. No matter the song, it was always creepy to me, and obviously it stuck with me.
I wanted to do a music box story, added it to our master story list, but forgot about it for a while. I was writing one day, and the music box theme from Candyman came on my play list. A spark went off in my head, and immediately stopped what I was doing to map out what this episode would eventually become.
This episode kicks off with one of the rare times we DON’T have our main characters anywhere nearby. While the scene is technically a flashback, with Kathleen re-telling the story, I like messing with the narrative a bit. Despite the dialogue, we do rely on Jonathan’s narration a lot of times, and of course, with that, it means the story may be slightly skewed in his favor; how he interprets things and how he remembers it. Any chance we get to be able to see something from someone ELSE’S point of view, we jump on it.
Crafting this nice, sweet moment between a girl and her mother was fun, especially since it’s pretty straightforward; there is no horror, no drama, no comedy. Just a sweet family moment. Of course, that is, until things go off the rails at the end.
We spent a good portion of the first 6 episodes building up to the action. Jonathan lays the ground work, the main issues happens, we all get introduced to the problem, and go from there. Now that Jonathan has been back for a bit, and the trio are working together, there is no reason for so much set up. We can jump right in. We heard you guys on that, so don’t worry. Yeah, we know weird stuff is going on. Let’s get right to it. And now, we can!
But now we begin the gang’s role of becoming those guys and gals who solves weird mysteries. Obviously Ami is on board for it, since she suggested Jonathan and Buddy for this particular instance, and Buddy is all for it, because why wouldn’t he be?
But as Jonathan says as much, he’s not entirely convinced he can do anything to help. Yes, the typical reluctant hero, but wouldn’t you be, too? This phase won’t last long, because Jonathan does need to fully accept his role if he is to help against the coming darkness, but that doesn’t mean he is sure he is meant for this kind of thing.
Moving on, the villain of this piece could even be considered not a villain at all. Sure, she kidnapped a child and turned Buddy into porcelain, forcing them both to move as she sees fit…but to what ends? Her motives are never truly explained. Maybe the ballerina herself was cursed, once a person who turned into what she now is. Maybe she was lonely? Who knows. Maybe we’ll never know.
But that doesn’t make her any less creepy, does it? Someone mentioned when 7.2 came out that the imagery of her was much like Cabin in the Woods. And they are totally right. It didn’t even dawn on me at the time, but subconsciously, I must have plucked that from the film. I don’t recall if the one in the film had any back story, but she was definitely full sized, and human, right? So, apologies for borrowing her look, it wasn’t intentional! But, it’s still creepy as hell, isn’t it? I mean, I would be scared out of my mind if a tiny, porcelain ballerina with teeth for a face came after me!
Also, have to give a major shout out to Kori for the kick ass music box tune. It’s effective and creepy, especially when Andrew manipulated it in the mixing process. I will never open a music box again because of the two of them.
Next week, we begin Episode 8, titled Hooves in the Dirt, which picks up pretty much exactly where Episode 7 left off. Who is Chase Jackson, and what does he know about the Jersey Devil? I guess you’ll find out soon!
Until next time…
