I recently rewatched the family film Matilda from 1996 and just felt I had to write about what is a high contender for the most tense scene in movie history. I kid you not.
Directed by Danny Devito, and based on the classic Roald Dahl, the story is about a little girl called Matilda Wormwood (played by Mara Wilson) who discovers she has amazing telekinetic powers. Unfortunately for Matilda, she also has parents who don’t really care about her, and the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, at the school she attends is one of the worst and scariest villains from all of fiction.
Luckily for Matilda, she has a very friendly schoolteacher in Miss Honey, and this brings me to what has to be one of the most tense scenes I’ve ever seen.
Matilda learns that Miss Honey is actually the niece of Miss Trunchbull, and through some scenes explaining her backstory, we learn that Miss Honey had a tragic upbringing. Her mother passed away when she was young, and her aunt, Miss Trunchbull then moved into her and her father’s home. Not long after, her father killed himself which takes the story suddenly to a very dark place and goes even darker with the implication that she believes that her father, Magnus, was actually murdered.
Miss Honey would grow up and get her own place and have a happier life as a schoolteacher, but she longed for a doll which was still in her childhood home, which was now in the possession of ‘the Trunchbull’.
Matilda comes up with the idea that they should go into Trunchbull’s home and retrieve the doll, but of course as soon as they’re inside the house, the Trunchbull returns home.
The sequence that follows is essentially a horror film. If you don’t remember or believe me, go back and watch it. The only thing that stops it from being complete horror is that the music, whilst completely old school horror, has enough of a light element to keep it from being absolute terror!
As Matilda and Miss Honey go into the house to get the doll, we see Trunchbull return to the home as her car, which Matilda’s father (played by Danny Devito) had sold her. With Matilda and Miss Honey with the doll, we suddenly hear Trunchbull scream “Wormwood!” And a dramatic musical sting hit. This is the first hit of horror, as it turns out Trunchbull is just screaming at Matilda’s father down the phone, but the way it’s shot would have you believe that Matilda had been found by Trunchbull.
This is just the beginning.
What follows is a lengthy scene of creeping point of view camera shots, crooked angles and tense music as the film gets you holding your breath for Miss Honey and Matilda, hoping they’ll escape without being seen.
As they’re upstairs Trunchbull notices that the lid of her box of chocolates has been moved and this alerts Trunchbull that someone is in her house.
We then follow a shot of her shadow going up the stairs which calls back to the famous shadow of the vampire in the German silent movie Nosferatu, which was the first telling of Dracula on film.
The music is heavily string focussed which calls back to the likes of the Psycho soundtrack and there are several shots that zoom into objects or people’s faces, such as when the Trunchbull questions ‘who’s in my house’.
Despite being set entirely during daylight, the sequence uses loads of shadowy shots and angles which either show Matilda and Miss Honey hidden around corners from the Trunchbull, as the imposing Trunchbull pursues finding the intruders.
There’s even an example of an impossible shot where both Matilda in the foreground and the Trunchbull creeping up in the background are both perfectly in focus. This is a trick where it’s actually two shots composited together as one or the other would be in soft focus to film both.
The sense of danger and threat in this scene is so well done. Matilda and Miss Honey are quickly separated, and they have to work cunningly to avoid being caught. Matilda has the advantage of being small, whilst Miss Honey has the advantage of knowing the house back to front.
As Matilda knocks things and makes noise we see the Trunchbull chase after her, only for Miss Honey to throw a shotput ball and make Miss Trunchbull change direction just before she catches up to Matilda.
We see Matilda attempt to escape the house but find the back door is nailed shut as if to keep zombies out.
Trunchbull jumps over the balcony at the top of the stairs, and we see that Matilda is hidden under the kitchen table. Trunchbull correctly figures out where Matilda is and in one of the lighter moments of the sequence just as Matilda is about to be caught, the camera cuts to show Trunchbull move back the tablecloth and not find Matilda there. The next shot shows that Matilda is comically and implausibly hidden under the ceiling of the table (that may not be a correct term).
Trunchbull then sits at the table and proceeds to sling a large kitchen knife into a chocolate cake to gorge herself on, with her feet underneath Matilda who is trying to hold on to the underneath of the table.
We see Miss Honey at the doorway, and she spots Matilda’s hand slipping on the table leg, and we get a look of fear on Miss Honey who slams the front door as a diversion for Matilda to escape.
Relentless as this sequence is, it doesn’t end there. As the Trunchbull reaches the front door, having picked up a hammer throw ball to use like a medieval mace, to pursue the still unknown intruders, she suddenly stops.
Like an animal, the Trunchbull sniffs the air, having picked up on the scent of Miss Honey and Matilda and doubles back to go after them. We see Matilda follow the sound of where Trunchbull is stomping up the stairs when we suddenly hear that there is clattering of sound coming from behind Matilda.
Matilda looks on in fear as we see pots and brooms tumble down the stairway, which is revealed to be Miss Honey having come around to find Matilda. The two of them head through a door by the side of the stairs into the cellar as we see Trunchbull also coming down the stairway in hot pursuit.
Still not safe, we see that Miss Honey finds a heavy chain and padlock preventing them from exiting the cellar. With them seemingly trapped Trunchbull makes it into the cellar and declares ‘Some rats are going to die today.’ Literally, there is almost no dialogue in this whole sequence and when there is, Trunchbull makes it clear that her intent is to kill the intruders.
With only seconds to spare, we see that Miss Honey and Matilda spot a window that they can escape from, and we get rapid zoom shots that show that Trunchbull realises that the intruders have escaped through the window, much to Trunchbull’s disappointment.
But it’s still not quite over. Even though Trunchbull cannot fit through the same window that Matilda and Miss Honey fled through, Trunchbull then tears the heavy chain with her bare hands, and we cut to outside where Miss Honey and Matilda let out a little fearful yelp as they see the cellar doors come flying open with a burst of dust. They run, but even though they are out the house, they’re not safe yet.
The ending of the sequence shows Trunchbull singing the hammer throw ball to cut through trees as if using a machete to cut through trees in the jungle and then swing the hammer throw to smash a stone statue which Miss Honey and Matilda are hiding behind. We get a final POV shot from Trunchbull as we see Matilda and Miss Honey cowering just behind the smashed statue.
As Miss Trunchbull storms off in frustration, things start to go quiet leaving just the panting of Matilda and Miss Honey who have truly escaped a nightmare.
For me this is one of the best tense chase sequences and horror presentations in any film I’ve ever seen, and it’s in a children’s film directed by Danny Devito. Who would have guessed that?
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