The first "Invasion of Darkness" successfully portrayed a desperate nightmare with female characters. In my opinion, this film is also one of the most successful examples of claustrophobic and alien horror films since Ridley Scott's Alien. The key to the success of this type of film is not to render the atmosphere and portray terrifying aliens, but to firmly lock the clues of the story on the characters - in "Alien", a large part of the film was dedicated to Sigourney Way. Fu, and then the metal passages in the spaceship, the light and dark and the coincidental lights, in the very different scenes and the deadly sound effects, the aliens showed their faces half-covered with lutes. This nerve-wracking scheduling technique is unmatched in subsequent films, including Invasion of Darkness.
Although "Black" is difficult to rank among the predecessors in the thriller method, it has another outstanding feature, that is, the group portrait-style characterization. The atmosphere turns dark and the scene goes first, but the real horror is still ready to go, and multiple protagonists are used to transfer the atmosphere to avoid the feeling of being thin.
However, in Western thrillers, there are also many people who have ghosts, so that it is difficult to gather the strength of the crowd when faced with a desperate situation. In the end, everyone is in danger, and all the faces are turned into naked conspiracies, such as "Murder Cube". "Black" reflects the tension in the script here - simplifies the relationship between the characters and lays out a few clues, so as to remove the sense of conspiracy theory-style setting; for example, the story line is "group travel, encounter tragedy". Concise, and we knew from a long time that Juno took Sarah's corner, but they still smiled at each other and were friends, and modern people will not deny this. On this basis, the film grasps its own role: under the oppression of claustrophobia and aliens, the clue characters are in a passive desperate situation, and for the most primitive survival instinct, how do people become "inhuman" in their choices , how normal character relationships are distorted and subverted. Of course, this has also brought a negative effect, that is, the distortion and subversion in this film are expressed through violence, and the visual film is inevitably full of blood, which is difficult for the public to accept.
Returning to the theme promoted by the film, there is no "innocent" setting in this dark film. The alien creatures in the ground are brutal and brutal and only know how to kill, but what is really disappointing is that the characters who are difficult to save themselves finally rely on Hurt each other to win the hope of survival. In other words, in this film, people become the dark side of existence, and human nature collapses on such a naked and rude guideline. The ending is in harmony with this: Sarah, who wants to return to the human realm, finally made A big dream of rebirth, but it is a pity - in order to survive, no one is innocent, and no one can get the redemption of the world. This discussion of human nature is full of shock, but it is also too negative and rude.
What about the sequel to the movie? In fact, its name has already revealed some information: this is only the second half of the whole story of "Black". At the beginning of the sequel, the heaviest contradiction in the first episode was relieved: Sarah who escaped underground was rescued, and she was the only survivor. The life and death of his companion Juno is unknown, but he cannot escape the catastrophe. The awakened Sarah has selectively blocked the tragic memory of the underground, but you will realize that this is the only way for her to return to human society-since she has experienced that "inhuman" experience and choice , she is difficult to be saved by the light of humanity. The complex and abstract concept of this situation and "human nature" is reduced to a binary opposition by the film, and this logic can be justified under great despair, especially when the film wisely avoids conspiracy theories. Down.
The episode of Sarah's amnesia reinforces the potential point of view that the idea and direction of the film will never start from scratch, but closely follow the previous work. Pandora's box quickly leads the plot to a climax after Sarah's sudden "awakening". Yes, except for Sarah, who is indifferent and lonely in color and only knows her survival self, it is also a massive attack of cannibals and aliens, which broke out in the cave where the female companions were brutally attacked in the previous work. The key bridge is the miserable image left in the DV, and then through the night vision lens in the viewfinder, that dark and hopeless world returns.
Except for Sarah, Rios and Sheriff, who focus on conflicting characters, the three-person search and rescue team with a London accent seems to have a very limited role in promoting the plot, while the female policewoman Rios, who is full of motherhood but lacks tenacity, and the policewoman who is bent on searching for Juno Sheriff always lacks the natural sense of interaction in the transition of the scene. Compared with the previous work, many characters in the sequel have obviously weakened the collective concept of "group portrait", and the characters are more alienated. Part of the reason I believe is that the director wants to try new expressions in the sequel. For example, when the female search-and-rescue team member Cathy was trapped in the rock, the alien figure passing by in the gap, plus the close-up shots that emphasized the sense of presence, deepened the viewing. The personal experience of the "claustrophobic"; Sheriff's DV patrol with night shooting mode is also a performance attempt; and the greatest significance of the three-person search and rescue team is that when the triangular relationship between light and dark love becomes clear, they will face danger. Their actions in the real world—Greg, who was mortally wounded, first grabbed an electric drill and killed an alien in order to save his beloved Cathy. , then he is no different from Juno and Sarah who would rather bear others, but his desperate sacrifice just shattered the desperate proposition of the collapse of human nature, but transcended this boundless haze. Of course, you can also say that this is just Europe and the United States. It's just the simple logic of "where there is love, there will be miracles". And I think this old-fashioned dogma is really interesting because of the good story.
To live or to die, no one asks this question in the movie, or that those things that have become bloodthirsty and brutal because of the most primitive desire for survival are already unspeakably "human". But in these two opposing situations, there is also a gray area of fear, doubt, and despair, in which man being tempered to be "inhuman" seems to be the only solution to living - until Greg's love saves another life , but the price of maintaining humanity is that you can't protect anyone, including yourself. Therefore, after the "awakening", Sarah chose to hover on the edge of gray and black, and she gave a grand reason for abandoning Juno: "She had an affair with my husband, and she abandoned my friend." But she did not admit that in her How trivial these reasons are in a desperate situation. Yes, their desire is not to survive, but to return to the world, so human nature has left a little gray-black bottom line. And when Juno, who survived in purgatory, appeared, you could see the resolute and powerful look in her eyes—far overshadowing the instinctive and strong Sarah, who aimed the blade of her pick at Sheriff's neck He was silent, and her body and behavior were the same as the aliens in the underground; Sarah's behavior in the cesspool of shoving Rios to attack the aliens also showed that she had the same behavioral logic as Juno: "As long as you don't hinder my survival, I'll let you live", or "for my own survival, I may hurt you, because I may save you by living". This is the maximum limit that they can retain their humanity in a desperate situation.
Only in the face of hope and death, the most glorious and most easily collapsed human nature is long overdue, and it comes when it is at its most fragile and greatest. And because human nature, as a choice, is the most painful and arduous, in the desperate situation of "Black", hope and death have become a pair of companions. Facing the light of the exit, Juno, who was dying, should have died without hope, but she desperately bit the neck of the alien that was entangled in her—this was originally a deadly trick to kill by aliens, facing the gushing blood, anger Juno completely abandoned human dignity and picked up the pleasure of killing and revenge. It was precisely at this time that Juno apologized to Sarah-of course she was referring to the matter of taking Sarah's husband away, saying "It's okay" finally turned Jiujie into a cloud of mud. You see, at the end of the day, after countless doomsdays, the salvation of human nature is actually just such a trivial idea. Save others, redeem yourself, the vulgarity of the world makes this kind of Purdue brilliance always come in self-sacrifice, so we see Sarah screaming again, and then immersed in a crowd of aliens. By this time, Rios as the only survivor, her existence seems extremely insignificant.
However, as a "continuation" and "complement" sequel, Rios' near-death escape is indispensable. After 90 minutes of terrifying breathing and heartbeat, you may not remember the ambiguous blink of the old man when he sent everyone off the elevator. Yes, this kind of pre-laid conspiracy seems a bit cliché. Rios, who has seen the sun again, can only see the endless repetition of the forest, which makes the viewers who are amnesty at this time feel bad. Sure enough, the old man finally revealed the identity of his clue character at the end of the film. It turned out that he kept feeding the alien through the hole in the ground, which somewhat explained how the sightless alien hunted in broad daylight. But I think this move, together with the bloody scenes highlighted in many close-ups in the sequel, is superfluous, and the extra point is just a little more cult. In fact, in the first part of "Black", the description of the situation and intention has been perfected, and the sublimation of the major theme of redemption of human nature is constantly supplemented in the plot of the sequel. At the end, the setting is reasonable. Attributing this gloomy overall tone to a man-made conspiracy is a complete failure.
"Black" rarely describes and deconstructs the bottom line of human nature with a relatively serious attitude. In fact, with a serious theme, the film must have strong ductility. For example, in the sequel, a new plot was launched with new characters, and new discussions were issued. There is a noteworthy detail. After struggling underground for several days, Juno's behavior and even his attack methods were seriously "alienated". In addition to the close-up of the details of the aliens that resembled humans, this reflection method seems to be a kind of source of aliens. It is a pity that the film ended up using man-made conspiracy, but if it is really revealed in the film that the alien is a subspecies of human beings or even human, I am afraid that the management of this film is not willing to risk this world.
Such a film with a small investment and a narrow audience is indeed a big article to watch. At the beginning of the article, I mentioned that this is an appetizing film. Although there are hard to reconcile flaws in the plot and shots, it actually strengthens the aftertaste after watching. Therefore, I think it is not an exaggeration to say that this film is worth a try in terms of content and form.
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