First published on the public account "Film Detective"
Public ID: ttyingtan
Author: Boss Qian
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This film is basically a fusion of two types of youth films and horror films. There is sweet love and a beautiful carcass.
Of course there are ghosts that scare people to death.
The protagonist of the story is named Ben, a 17-year-old boy. During the summer vacation, he came to his father’s town to work while taking a vacation. During the period, I was bullied by my local peers and I also met friends whom I could talk to each other.
According to normal development, there is a high probability that a sweet summer romance will be harvested. However, the neighbor's house seems a little uneasy.
This night, Ben was lying on the bed to sleep, but was awakened by the strange movement on the roof. I took a flashlight to look outside the house, and accidentally found a hole in the cellar of the neighbor's house.
weasel? Hare? In short, it looks like something broken by a wild animal. However, the wild is wild, but this humanoid figure is probably not a small animal.
A black shadow flashed past. Ben didn't see it too clearly, so he had to go home and continue to sleep. After returning home from work the next day, he found the little boy from the neighbor's house, Dillon , huddled in the corner of his room, looking horrified.
Just as Ben wondered how he ran in, the boy's mother came. Ti Long hurriedly begged Ben: Don’t open the door to her! I didn't understand what I meant, and went downstairs to check, but saw the boy's mother standing on the porch in a red and white floral skirt. The moonlight and the porch light shrouded her indistinct face, the picture was very weird and permeating. Hearing the sound, she raised her head and smiled faintly: Little brother, open the door. Please, brother is not stupid.
Needless to say, you can guess that 404% of this woman is possessed by ghosts. This is one of the skills of evil spirits in the film, parasitism. After killing people or animals, evil spirits can enter their bodies and temporarily use their bodies to act. It's a bit like our painted skin.
And Ti Lung was frightened when he saw his mother doing mechanical dance. It's a pity that the movie shows how evil ghosts break their bodies, but doesn't say a word about how to enter. At the end of the film, I played a wave of reversals cleverly, basically ruining this setting.
Tell the story. The next day, when I was thinking about asking Ti Lung to inquire, I found that he was missing. Asked the boy's father, he actually replied that he did not have a son. And judging from his dumbfounded look, it seemed that he really didn't know that he had a son.
This is the second skill of evil spirits, making people forget. Take Dillon as an example. After the evil spirit sojourns on his mother, he first gets a picture of their family portrait. Set up the magic altar (branches, deer heads) in the basement. If you want someone to forget, use a knife to scratch off the head of the photo. After this, the witchcraft is complete. The evil spirits can also lead Ti Long into her nest in the woods and enjoy it.
The setting itself is not amazing. But combining the role of Dillon is a bit interesting. He was playing outside the house twice in the film, and he was playing alone. What do you mean? He himself is a forgotten child.
Extending to the male lead of the film (there is a reversal spoiler below), he is also related to forgetting. Regarding this point, the director set up some small foreshadowings in front. When telling Ben’s story, "5 days ago" was typed on the screen, indicating that this was a memory; halfway through my mother called Ben and said a line: I miss you; when the boy’s mother came knocking on the door, it seemed It was talking to someone at the door first, and then looked up at Ben.
After the neighbor’s cellar was burned and the ceremony was destroyed, Ben came to his senses. It turned out that he also forgot someone. His younger brother.
When I watched it at the time, this reversal was quite shocking. But then I thought about it again, this reversal was good, but it was still a bit wasteful. This is why I am willing to show this film out. I feel that this could have been a good story. Take this reversal as an example, it seems to be a reversal set purely to cooperate with this forgetting mechanism.
For example, since Ben has put on a plaster + binoculars to spy on neighbors anyway, it would be better to simply borrow "Rear Window" a bit more. If in the previous plot, add some peeping to decrypt the addictive and cool meaning in it. Then let him find out that he was caught. In the flashback memory of the last book, he added some plots that his younger brother once asked him for help, but he ignored his younger brother's signal because of his intoxication and decryption.
Or just bury the foreshadowing of the younger brother's often overlooked by Ben and father directly in the front part. In this way, when the reversal is announced later, will it be more shocking if there is a causal relationship?
And this self, is he considered a forgotten person? Because there seems to be such a little meaning in the youth part of the story. Parents divorced, father had a new love, went to a town party but was tricked into embarrassing nude swimming... All kinds of things made Ben's heart depressed, and it also created a gap in the relationship between him and his father.
But the meaning ends here. Although the story line of Ben and his father is complete, it is more about trusting each other from not understanding and disbelief to the end. It is not well connected with the forgetting of the horror part. But I think it can actually be well connected. Ben alone tried his best to tell everyone that the boy was missing, but everyone else didn't even remember the person. If you can match the character of this role that is neglected and not valued. The sense of despair and powerlessness can be imagined. This film involves these points, but unfortunately it did not try to dig deeper. What a pity.
Let's talk about the horror part of the film. It is basically four words: anticlimactic. Can give an example to illustrate. Let’s take a look at the story of "The Girl without a Chin" in the old version of "The Grudge" (there is a high-powered picture oh dear). Mom went home and found that the two brothers and sisters who were supposed to be at home didn't know where they were. The house was empty. You know how terrible an empty house is. This is the first step.
The phone rang suddenly, and my mother picked it up. It turned out to be a classmate of his son at school and asked him if he had gone home. Mother smiled and answered no, at this moment a figure flashed quietly behind her mother. Mom thought it was her son who came back, but when she was about to shout, she lowered her eyes to see a pool of blood on the floor. The music is up, so should your goose bumps. This is the second step to pave the way.
Mother followed the blood stains up the stairs, and was shocked to see her daughter staggering upwards, covered in blood. "Orange dish?" She called out her daughter's name timidly. This is the third step of foreshadowing, that is, the mother and daughter are drawn to block the dark stairs, and the structure of the upper and lower levels also has its own sense of oppression. Then the director Shimizu Takashi also came with a girl who raised her eyes to look at the camera.
Finally, after this series of preparations, the girl turned her head. Turned his head. Head off. Up.
Boil the frog in warm water, and then suddenly hit it like thunder. Two words, excitement. In fact, "Forest Ghost" also uses this kind of progressive horror modeling routine, and it does a good job. From the beginning of the introduction, I will show you the evil spirits, but I will not show you the whole picture. Just keep tugging at you.
The settings of painted skin and forgotten are also amazing. Because it has something to do with bewitching and deceit, there is also an opportunity to explore human nature. But it's a pity that the appearance of the evil spirits after a long period of preparation is really unremarkable. The appearance is a very ordinary ghost image.
The behavior is similar to that of a wild animal. The mystery of the evil spirit created in the front suddenly disappeared. To be honest, I have forgotten her look now, but I will never forget the half-chin girl. The gap is too big.
All in all, it was supposed to be a good subject, and finally it became a well-regulated work. But there is still visibility. And you know, sometimes people get lonely at night. Whenever this happens, it is better to click on a horror movie and enjoy it at a loud volume. You will find that everything in the room is full of life in an instant. Every dark corner also seems to hide people silently accompany you. At this point, other types of films are incomparable.
Text/Boss Qian
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