Here are some explorations about the plot. Spoilers carefully read
1. What is "It"? What exactly comes at night? The
title of the article is taken from a trailer of a certain version of the movie. I think it is very clear. The it here is fear. Or more specifically, human suspicion and paranoia. Paul, played by Joel Edgerton, is a person full of vigilance and even suspicion. It can be said that it is his carefulness that makes the family possible. Save in the end times. Even at the warmest moment of the film, Paul deliberately told his son not to trust Will. It is not an exaggeration to say that the conflict and tragedy at the end of the film are entirely due to Travis's suspicion that Travis inherited perfectly from his father.
As for why comes at night is related to Travis' somnambulism, I will discuss it below.
2. Did Will lie?
If you have the above understanding, you will find that this is actually not important. Because no matter how you explain it, it doesn't affect the development and interpretation of the plot:
Will lied. Not only was his brother not dead, but he was lying in ambush nearby. After Will was arrested by Paul, he led Paul back to the trap of his father and brothers. Unexpectedly, he could ambush his relatives without saying a word. Will joins Paul's family to save his wife and use Paul's resources to make a living together. Later, Paul caught the guts after drinking, and the dead dog incident made the two families susceptible to each other. Will feels unable to keep the lie and decides to take his family and supplies away. After Paul learned about it, his suspicion increased and tragedy happened.
Will didn't lie. He has indeed been making a living with his wife, children and his wife's brother. After losing his relatives, he was forced to go out and explore, but was arrested by Paul. After working with Paul to solve the gangster on the road, I wanted to torture one of them, but Paul was shot to solve it by the overly vigilant Paul, which made him complain about him for a while, but made Paul suspect that he knew the gangster. Later, he uttered the truth after drunk and explained that he had made a mistake when he was tortured before saying that his own brother had died, which intensified Paul's suspicion. After the dead dog incident, the two families were jealous of each other. Will decided to leave at this time, Paul's suspicion increased, and tragedy happened.
No matter how you read it, they will all reach the same goal by different paths; no matter what the subsequent ending is, it is the result of accumulation of suspicion. From the very beginning, the director did not give the audience a God's perspective, but observed and interpreted it from the perspective of Paul's family. This kind of perspective will only let the audience know what the character knows, no more or no less, so that for any doubts (gangsters on the road, drunken talk, dead dog incident), the audience does not have more information than the character to make judgments. . In the category of plot, there is no "truth".
A similar understanding can also be applied to the many unanswered questions in the film: "Did the child get sick?", "What happened outside?", "What is the nature of the disease?", "Is there actually in the jungle? What creature?" These are questions deliberately left blank by the director. Because the answers to these questions are not important, the anxiety and suspicion conveyed by the questions themselves are the themes that the director wants to express.
3. Who opened the door? How did the dead dog appear in the house?
The difference between this question and the above question is that the director actually gave the answer clearly. The person who opened the door was Travis, who brought the dead dog and disease into the house. Here are the details:
• The last time Travis approached the red back door, the door was obviously locked, but he later insisted that the door was already open when he found it.
• Travis suffers from severe insomnia and sleepwalking. On the one hand, he confessed to Kim that he could not sleep at night. On the other hand, the nightmare scenes that appeared in the film many times, almost every time he wandered alone in the house or in the jungle. .
• Travis and the dog’s feelings surpass ordinary owners and pets: Travis often speaks to dogs alone in a friend’s tone; after the dog rushed into the jungle, Travis desperately rushed into the jungle to pursue it; the dog was Grandpa’s pet before his death, and Travis was right after his death. The dog said, "Don't worry about me taking care of you in the future." It can be seen that the dog is Travis's longing for Grandpa.
My understanding is that directly witnessing the terrible condition of grandpa after his illness and the shocking scene of being cremated has increased Travis' fear of the outside world. After that, every nightmare dream is actually the real scene of his sleepwalking in the house, plus the scene projected by his fear. In one of the nightmare scenes in the film, he walked into the depths of the jungle to witness his pet dog being hunted by an unknown creature and then turned to escape. In fact, it was the real scene when he sleepwalked out of the room and brought back the dog's corpse that night.
From this perspective, it also explains the meaning of It comes at night: the consequences of Travis' fear after the night strikes are no different than if there are monsters in the dark jungle at night. What's more terrifying is the suspicion and suspicion that fear brings, and it turns the brave and upright people (Paul's family) into full-fledged monsters (after killing the child by mistake, killing the mother without saying a word).
What comes at night is the overwhelming fear and the human captivated by it. The
film’s creation of the suspense atmosphere The
film’s depiction of the suspense atmosphere and fear psychology can be described as the most difficult to describe, it can be said to be one of the best suspense masterpieces in 17 years; however, the director secretly changed the concept of challenge. The audience’s traditional movie-watching habits inevitably seem a little clever. The long corridors flooding the film are a great technique for creating suspense. Once abused, it becomes inferior mystery. The director has been on the verge of danger.
That said, it is undeniable that the film's use of lenses is superb: a large number of coherent long shots create a slow and anxious creeping fear. At the beginning of the film, Paul tortures Will’s face-to-face conversation, instead of using the usual over the should angle of view to switch continuously, instead adopting a hand-held lens to slowly and gradually 360-degree surround. This method is more uncomfortable than straightforward and unobstructed alternate editing: in the process of surrounding the camera, there are always a few moments either the two sides of the conversation are not in the center of the camera, or the camera is hidden by the back of the character, and the audience cannot see it. To the character's face. However, the pace of the dialogue during the torture was suffocating, and important information was missed inadvertently. This method of handling creates an atmosphere of suspense to the greatest extent, allowing the audience to appreciate that the cooperative relationship between the two male protagonists is based on an extremely tense and suspicious background, which may collapse at any time. It also made the plot of the gangster attack that appeared immediately, shocking and predicting the audience, releasing the previously accumulated tension, and at the same time having a foundation to build further suspicion and suspense.
The atmosphere of the film is reminiscent of another very successful suspense thriller The Witch in recent years. It happens that the dark and horrible jungle plays an important role in both films. The film’s production and promotion of suspense is exquisite and rigorous. No matter how it is explained, it has enough details to support it. It is a masterpiece that requires afterthought to be further enjoyed, and it will inevitably offend many viewers who seek instant pleasure.
An actor
Joel Edgerton has always been an excellent actor who has been underappreciated. Movies in recent years include Warrior, The Gift and this It Comes At Night, each of which is commendable. His performance has always had a kind of restrained tension, without too much drama conflict and lines, he can show a role full of struggle and strength. The family man in Warrior, the creepy guy in The Gift, and the paranoid survivor in this movie all have similar introverted qualities, but they explode with amazing appeal at critical moments. Every work after him is worthy of attention.
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