Dear Creative LazyWeb-sters:

[mlerules]

A friend is currently mulling over an idea for a film with a completely off-stage main villain. This is what he says and I'm spreading the question further w/this post:

I can think of a couple of examples of this that, in my opinion, don't work well (Blair Witch Project springs to mind, as does one horrific Enterprise episode), but I'm at a loss for examples of people who've done it well. As a general rule, if the audience doesn't ultimately confront the villain (vicariously through the main characters, of course) they're left feeling unsatisfied with the narrative. But for every rule there's an exception, so I'm sure they must be out there.

So, can anyone out there come up with an example (preferably on screen, but also in prose, and preferably in science fiction, comedy, or drama and not horror) where the non-appearance of the antagonist is either not a hinderance or actually an enhancement to the storytelling?

Comments

[ericgriffith.livejournal.com]

Ah the X files T.V. show. Well don't forget that the alien conspiracy was actually a sub plot. It was the motivation for why Mulder did what he did. The vast majority of the shows were about he and Sculley finding the monster or person behind the problem of the day. The antagonist was witnessed and then it died, was killed or "taken care of" by the smoking man crew. Then there was the movie The X files (a good demonstration of what I was trying to say). The movie showed you the antagonist right up front.

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

Another series with a good overarching [sub]plot involving an unknown or nebulous antagonist was Alias. While the beginning seasons of the show were better at this than the later seasons, even in the later seasons while you saw all the different characters, there was enough uncertainty about what their roles really were that it was essentially like having the antagonist "hidden in full view" half the time.