Quicksand movies trial#
Quicksand movies series#

It also didnвЂ™t hurt that the budget for a quicksand sequence is basically nothing: just get yourself a big sandbox and have your actors pretend to sink in it.ДЄn article in Slate from ten years ago that tracked the rise and fall of the quicksand trope found that employment of the clichГ© in film and television reached its apex in the late sixties, which was much later than I would have guessed, since in my mind IвЂ™d always associated it with thirties-era adventure serials (evidently, I was way off, which is definitely the first time that has ever happened). After all, there are few things more universal than the need to not get swallowed by the earth and not die. The introduction of quicksand into the heroвЂ™s path provides some much-needed excitement in a dragging second act, with very little exposition required (beyond, perhaps, вЂњHey, quicksand existsвЂќ) and with very little chance of confusing the average viewer. The second explanation for quicksandвЂ™s popularity, I think, is mainly how easily it inserts itself into any adventure-adjacent film. The colonial era obviously predates the invention of cinema by a century or two, but the late nineteenth century saw a surge of the trope in literature, to the point that even respectable authors like Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle (in the seminal Hound of the Baskervilles, no less) were making use of quicksand. Compared to some of the wilder tales from explorers, the concept of sand that sucked you down to your doom was barely even a stretch. In the first place, the so-called Age of Explorationв„ў (also known as the Age of Evil Colonialismв„ў) lit up the public imagination with the idea that there were endless possibilities for what could be found in the world-everything from sea monsters to fountains of youth to headless people with faces in their chests. I think the answer to the first question is twofold. If quicksand is really so dull, though, how did it become such a popular trope in cinema? And how did it disappear just as quickly (no pun intended, because IвЂ™m not a hack)? While quicksand can and does kill people from time to time, it never does so by swallowing them up never to be seen again the best it can hope to do is hold you in place until you die from dehydration or exposure -one of the slowest and least dramatic deaths possible. You can try as hard as you want to sink in a substance denser than you, but itвЂ™s not going to happen. You might get stuck in the stuff, but you wonвЂ™t sink in over your head as a mixture of water and rock, quicksand is far more dense than even the most ardent anti-masker. Quicksand, while it exists, is exceptionally rare, requiring a rather unusual confluence of ingredients (sand, water, clay, salt) to mix in the exact right ratios to the extent that it exists, itвЂ™s not all that dangerous. While quicksand can and does kill people from time to time, it never does so by swallowing them up never to be seen again the best it can hope to do is hold you in place until you die from dehydration or exposure.Д®xcept, youвЂ™re a Smart Person of the Internet Eraв„ў, so you know that none of that is true. In a matter of minutes heвЂ™ll have disappeared and his quest will all be for naught.

Then, without warning, the very ground gives way beneath his feet! He reaches for a branch, a vine, anything-but itвЂ™s no use! HeвЂ™s being sucked down, down, into the earth. If you were born sometime between the fifties and the eighties, you know the trope well: the hero trudges confidently through the wilderness, whip in hand, smirk on face, ready to take on whatever nature throws at him. He plucked me out of a pit of confusion, even out of the quicksand he placed my feet on a rock and established my steps.

HarringtonВ looks at one of the random obsessions to have gripped the public mind in the recent past, and tries, in vain, to make sense of it all.

Quicksand movies series#

This series has received two wins and one nomination.Every other Wednesday in Fads!Crazes!Panics!, Luke T.

Jeanette Holmgren as Margareta Sager-Crona.

Arvid Sand as Lars-Gabriel 'Labbe' Sager-Crona.

Quicksand movies trial#

' After a tragedy at a school sends shock waves through a wealthy Stockholm suburb, a seemingly well-adjusted teen finds herself on trial for murder.' -Official Netflix synopsis Cast and Characters