Hateful people have pity. At first, the image of the old man was quirky and grumpy. When you saw him chop the door with an axe, you might even think that he was crazy. When he spent the night in the basement, his "perverted" image was already deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. People always think that "seeing is believing", but what we see is the truth? As Xiao said in the film, "What people see is what they want to see." Sometimes what you see may only be part of the truth, and sometimes it's just an illusion. However, through the flashback of the movie (memories of the old man), we have slowly discovered things that are inconsistent with the old man’s inherent image:
1. He is gentle with his sick wife, and even tolerates her dancing at 3 in the morning.
2. People say that he has killed a dog, but he has a cat-implying that he is not an uncaring animal killer.
Why is the old man so weird? We can infer from the wedding photo of him and his wife (in military uniform) and the identity of his veteran that have been scanned more than once by the camera: he has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is manifested as a violent tendency. (Chopping the door), emotional management failure (domestic violence, irritability), etc. It can be seen that the old man blamed himself very much after his wife died, and coupled with his deep love for his wife, the old man basically stayed in the house and waited to die.
It can be said that the experiment of the two 2B youths was the last straw to crush the camel: a few haunted tricks coincided with several things related to the old man’s wife, making the old man think that his wife’s ghost summoned him, so this one did not survive. The man of the will resolutely went to death.
This movie has several very interesting "contradictory" contrast settings, one is the contrast between the old man's erratic image and his wife-loving behavior, and the other is the setting of the two protagonists as a pair of friends.
Ethan is a typical bastard, while Xiao is a rich top student. These two people who could not be able to fight are good friends, even after the experiment started, they were inseparable, which is actually very strange. After Xiao learned that Ethan had installed a camera in his room, his temper broke out and he exposed Ethan's true purpose for being so obsessed with the experiment: to retaliate against the old man who indirectly led to the divorce of his parents. And Ethan also yelled back without showing weakness: If it weren't for me, how could you have the current wind and water? This is the real idea in his heart. In fact, he despises this nerd and thinks that the other party is taking his light. It even makes people wonder if they were mixed together because Ethan was attracted to Xiao’s money and smart brain...
There is also an interesting comparison here. Xiao found out that his room was also equipped with a camera and furiously went into a rage. However, he and The two of Ethan not only peeped at the old man, but also conducted haunted experiments, even if he knew that this would bring serious consequences... He had double standards for peeping at others and being peeked at.
However, the biggest irony of this movie is that the two people who died of the old man due to voyeurism and haunted experiments finally escaped legal sanctions. Under the condemnation of public opinion, Ethan, who aspires to become an Internet celebrity, has no shame, and even proud that he has finally become popular.
In addition to discussing the harm of the psychological suggestion experiment to the experimental subjects, this film also discusses the terrible, sometimes fatal, nature of people's voyeurism and prejudice.
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