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

[jimkeller.livejournal.com]

I really like your interpretation that The Ring is the true antagonist. It's ever-present, and ultimately is what the characters need to overcome and destroy. But by having it be an inanimate object, it very much creates the sense that the villain is a disembodied force, without leaving the reader dissatisfied (beyond the usual complaints about Tolkien's meandering narrative style, of course).

[argentla.livejournal.com]

The film make this point fairly explicit, particularly in The Fellowship of the Ring, where the allies start bickering at Rivendell, and you see their argument reflected in the surface of the Ring, as the whisperings of the inscription drown out the dialogue. Frodo looks at it and realizes that it is fomenting the conflict, directly or in directly.