I recently saw a post, I believe it was in a Facebook horror group, about a movie from 2005 called Tideland.
I’m going to start this off by saying, while I understand that he is influential, I am not familiar with much of Terry Gilliam’s work. I have specific tastes in media, and the only other movie I’ve seen of his, at least as far as I can tell, is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and, beyond the notable fact that it was Heath Ledger’s final film, I don’t really remember it, save for finding one of the characters extremely grating, and getting in a car accident leaving the theater. So I’m going to be talking about Tideland just on its own as a film, not speaking on a director I know very little of.
My short review of Tideland would be this: It felt as if a Tim Burton storyline landed in a universe created by Rob Zombie. Again, I’m not comparing Terry Gilliam or his work to either of these two very niche directors (both of whom I enjoy very much, though I think I burnt myself out on Burton a bit as a teen), but that was my immediate observation. The fantasy aspect of the storyline, along with the quirky, eccentric personalities of the characters, very much reminded me of something Tim Burton would create, while the gritty, uncomfortable, extreme environment of it put me in mind of Rob Zombie’s style. As someone whose favorite media genres are horror and fantasy, Tideland was the mashup I didn’t know I needed.
Tideland is actually a very bleak story, at its core. A little girl named Jeliza-Rose (I love that name!), expertly portrayed by Jodelle Ferland, who would have only been around ten at the time, is the lonely, isolated child of drug-addicted parents, whose only friends seem to be a collection of bizarre-looking Barbie heads that seem to represent different aspects of herself, and give her counsel and company when she needs it. When Jeliza-Rose’s mother, known only by the nickname “Queen Gunhilda”, dies of an overdose, she and her father, Noah, retreat to Noah’s old family home in Texas…where he ODs and dies their first night there, unbeknownst to poor Jeliza-Rose, so used to her parents being high to the point of unresponsiveness, that she assumes he’s just in a stupor and will eventually come back around. Jeliza-Rose continues to go about her own business, retreating deep into her imagination, where everything is an adventure, and eventually meets her eccentric, if not terrifying, neighbor Dell, a taxidermist blind in one eye from a bee sting, and Dell’s brother Dickens, who is developmentally disabled as a result of an apparent brain surgery for epilepsy.
Dell is an absolutely twisted character, cruel yet sentimental, and Dickens is both endearing and terrifying at the same time. The really crazy thing about this movie is that not a single one of these characters is anything even close to sane, yet they all seem so so happy to revel in their insanity. It never once crosses any of these people’s minds, even under the most extreme circumstances, such as performing taxidermy on a human body, and yes, even engaging in incest, that anything at all is wrong with their lives. The fact that Jeliza-Rose is so happy to be out playing with her little doll heads, engaging in conversation with the ominous Dell and going on adventures with the obviously delusional Dickens, and then coming home to her father’s decomposing body, is absolutely heartbreaking, yet strangely endearing. There’s a certain strength to this little girl not just simply succumbing to her demons and fears. Though the ending of the movie is ambiguous, I would like to think that, once removed from the twisted, drug-addled, incestuous environment she was in, perhaps Jeliza-Rose overcame it all, and grew into a well-adjusted adult. Maybe even a child psychologist of some sort. Though the movie is long over and we'll never know, I'm still rooting for her.
Tideland doesn't necessarily have a central plot, either. It's simply a snapshot of this little girl's life, and a deep dive into her vivid, yet trauma-warped, imagination. I suppose you could consider finding out that Dell and Dickens are actually related to Jeliza-Rose and Noah a bit of a plot twist, but for me it was fairly obvious from the jump. I've seen enough backwoods horror movies to know that everyone is related in these situations. And, quite frankly, these characters just come across that way; the product of inbreeding and a sense of undying loyalty that only exists in these types of stories.
Since watching this movie, I have read even more reviews of it, and one thing I keep seeing is that there are several people who seemed to find Tideland the most disturbing movie they've ever watched. That's interesting to me, because I really didn't see it that way, personally. It has its uncomfortable moments, particularly when Jeliza-Rose starts to fall in love with Dickens, a grown man, and, technically, her uncle...including kissing scenes between an adult and child was a bit much, but at the same time, Dickens was meant to have the mentality of a child, so while still uncomfortable, it wasn't the same as watching a fully-formed adult groom a little girl. The fact that Jeliza-Rose was largely the one initiating most of their romantic encounters was honestly more sad to me than it was disturbing. This is a little girl with no life experience, having been isolated from most of the world for her entire existence, falling in love with the first male to give her positive attention aside from her father. It's more a statement on this poor child being affection-starved than anything, a point that is reinforced at the end of the movie, after Dickens succeeds in blowing up the train that passes by every night, as he perceives it as a monster, and Jeliza-Rose is found among the wreckage and taken under the wing of a woman traveling alone. Her confusion at this stranger's kindness is quite possibly the saddest moment in the entire story. It's bleak, but I wouldn't call it disturbing. (It's also implied that Dickens was in an incestuous relationship with his own mother as a child, which would have led him to believe that these sorts of situations were the norm.)
Something else that's interesting to me about this movie is that it really drives the point home that "normal" is situational. As I said previously, I don't ever get the impression that any of these characters, however strange and messed up their situations may be, is actually unhappy. They are all just going about their lives, and truly don't know any better, for the most part. As deranged as it is, it kind of proves that it's possible to make the best out of any situation...and also that it's unfair to judge someone when you know nothing about their circumstances. The delusions of Jeliza-Rose and Dickens, and even the dark, twisted nature of Dell, are all very much a product of their environment and upbringing. While you can't exactly condone the way these people were living their lives, it's hard to truly pass judgement on them, especially little Jeliza-Rose, when you see the hand they were dealt.
Also, while Jeliza-Rose's situation was certainly extreme, I can definitely relate to retreating into my imagination in a similar way to how she did. While my upbringing wasn't nearly as harsh and chaotic as Jeliza-Rose's, I was an only child and a loner through and through. I didn't often have anyone to play with, so my imagination was truly my best friend. It probably still is, to be honest. I was alone quite a bit as a child, but I rarely recall ever feeling truly lonely. I kept myself occupied by coming up with stories about everything around me and inventing adventures for myself and my doll and toy friends to go on, much like Jeliza-Rose did. In my mind, I was doing everything my peers did, except I was literally doing it in my mind. Even as I got older, I would still sometimes imagine a different version of myself, and the friendships I might have with different people if my personality were a bit different or my social skills more developed, very similarly to how Jeliza-Rose initially imagines Dell as her best friend almost immediately upon meeting her. There's something to this movie that I think will speak to all of us who grew up as super imaginative kids, despite the dark, twisted nature of it all. If you've ever needed an escape, ever needed to believe that you could be something more than you are, you just might find Jeliza-Rose relatable. And watching her retreat into her imagination, seeing the worlds she's built for herself, on some level makes the overall tone of the movie less bleak, less "disturbing", as people say.
I'm not sure how to really categorize this movie, ultimately. It's not quite a horror movie, yet the undertones are too horrific for it to just simply fall into the category of "fantasy", or even label it as a drama. There's not enough of a driven storyline to make it any sort of thriller or suspense film, and the story just stops, without telling us what happens to Jeliza-Rose, so it's certainly not a "coming of age" tale, either. Yet somehow, at least for me, it just worked. Somehow, Tideland managed to appeal to the part of me that loves a dark, twisted story, as well as the part of me that longs to get lost in a fantasy. I felt like this movie was speaking to both my adult self, and my inner child, at exactly the same time, in the exact same language. I know that Tideland is not for everyone, but I'm grateful that it found me, all these years after its initial release. I'm still amazed that it passed me by for this long! I may even read the book soon if I can find the time, as I just don't feel ready to take my head out of this story just yet.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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