The scene opens with a long shot and all that we can gather from this shot is that the area is desolate, remote and isolated. There is a sign in the foreground which reads ‘Texaco’ informing us this desolate area is in Texas. We can see one building that we believe to be a petrol garage, there is a single car parked outside. This allows the viewer to realise that if anything does happen that it is unlikely there will be help available.
The next shot shows a mid shot of a fairly elderly man writing something down behind a counter, leading us to believe he runs the garage. He does not look threatening; he in fact looks rather vulnerable. This is because he is quite bent over and small, you also expect typical elderly men to be vulnerable. A dark figure walks into this shot and in a deep voice asks “How much?” , the elderly gentleman looks up and responds then continues to write. The shot now changes to a close up of the man who has walked into the garage, he is the customer. He proceeds to ask how much the ‘gas’ for his vehicle will cost; the elderly man changes the subject. The conversation so far has been fairly basic and nothing seems out of the ordinary, it does seem odd when the man changes the subject and asks “Been getting any rain up your way?”, the customer looks up, surprised.
His tone is now quite confrontational as if he has just been asked something quite personal. The man innocently responds to his query yet the mysterious customer asks him “What business is it of yours?”, this confuses the elderly gentleman and he tells his customer he did not mean any offence by asking. At this point the man looks vulnerable and shocked. This expression allows the audience to know that something bad may be about to happen and that this customer is not to be messed with. The use of the Over the Shoulder Shot makes the customer look even more intimidating and dark which have connotations with evil and death.
Despite the elderly man seeming to be very confused he continues the conversation yet their hushed voices and expressions indicate a sense of awkwardness. After some more conversation passes the man asks “Is something wrong?” to his customer. The customer persists in being confrontational and he is dressed in dark colours implying he may be the villain.
The elderly man tells his customer that he needs to be closing the garage and the customer asks what time he closes. The elderly man says “Now, we close now” to which the customer responds “Now is not a time, what time do you close?” The man seems to feel like he is constantly treading on eggshells and is unsure of what to say. He breaks eye contact for a short while to try and explain to his customer that is getting dark and he'll be shutting soon, this displays his discomfort. His customer seems to be acting very strangely and gives us the impression he may be a ‘psycho’ type character. If this is true then we could be expecting him to inflict some sort of harm on the elderly man.
The awkward conversation continues with the camera angles quickly changing from one person to another; the elderly man still seeming scared and vulnerable. The affect of the quickly changing camera angles gives a sense of frantic panic which could display the emotions felt by the elderly man. The elderly man tells the customer eventually that they shut at about 9.30pm and the customer tells him that he could come back then, but to his house round the back. This may make the viewer slightly confused but adds to our suspicions of the customer.
The dialog takes a turn for the worse when the elderly garage owner says that the garage was originally his wife’s father’s place. The customer seems disgusted and states “You married into it?” He persists with being rude and his glare changes to a much harsher one at this moment. His face turns sour and his eyebrows raise, his face is in shadow which gives him an even more evil look.
The conversation continues and then suddenly we get a close up on a screwed up peanut wrapper that the customer has placed on the counter. It uncoils, and it could be interpreted as a body uncoiling or some form of pain. From this shot the customer then says “What’s the most you’ve ever lost in a coin toss?” which is a fairly strange and unusual thing to say. The viewer is now led to be wandering why he is asking and what will happen next.
This conversation continues for a long time with the customer insistent that the man calls for what the coin will be. The elderly man does not wish to call it as he doesn’t know what he could lose or gain from this coin toss but his customer continues to make him. This is a very strange moment as the viewer is left utterly confused and left in suspense as to what is going to happen. The customer says after a rather long time “You stand to win everything, call it!” The customer is infatuated with the man calling the outcome of the coin and becomes quite threatening, the camera moves in closer and closer at this time giving a sense of isolation once more.
Does this mean that if the man calls incorrectly he will lose everything, including his life? The man eventually calls ‘heads’ and it then goes to a close up of the coin, it had landed on heads. The customer then says “Well done!” which is a very strange thing as he has been rather intimidating up until now.
The elderly man goes to put it into his pocket but the customer stops him and tells the man that if he puts it in his pocket it will get “mixed in with the others and become just a coin, which it is.”
At this point the customer pulls a rather strange face and then leaves, this leaves the elderly man severely confused. The effect of the man raising his eyebrows not only adds mystery but also suggests that the man should think about what has just happened.
The viewers and left wandering what would have happened if he had called Tails and why this man has made him take part in a coin toss.
I watched this film round my boyfriends house a few weeks back after realising his sister owned the DVD and I'd remembered we'd looked at the poster shown in Media one lesson. So, we watched it and I can honestly say I did not sleep that night. I'm not great with horrors or Thriller films but this was just... brilliant. I mean, not the fact it scared me to death but the acting, the plot and how things are carried out is brilliant... if you're into that kind of thing.
