Strive to maintain an ambiguous atmosphere

Rachelle 2022-01-20 08:02:11

This thriller shortlisted for the "Director's Fortnight" in Cannes made me look forward to it for a long time, and I was deeply attracted by the poster when I first saw it. Is this character in the yellow coat a loyal or a traitor? Is it a man or a ghost? Coupled with this new Chilean director's debut work "The Maid" has received full praise, so this new work aroused my great interest. After watching it, they are disappointed and not horrified at all. The audience who focuses on the horror and bloody scenes will be even more disappointed. In my opinion, positioning as a psychological thriller is more pertinent.

In fact, the director seems to be hovering between the two extremes, trying to maintain an ambiguous atmosphere, a bit similar to the "Double Martha". First of all, the backgrounds of all the characters have no traceable source, which leads to the unclear faces and suspicious motives of all the characters. The subjective point of view of the heroine in the first half leads the audience into an extremely unfamiliar environment (Where is southern Chile? Who has been there?) The atmosphere of the scene and the emotions of the characters in this passage are well controlled, a kind of uneasy and secretive The atmosphere gradually penetrated. But unfortunately, this feeling was completely dissipated very quickly. When we clearly learned that the heroine herself was a "problematic" character, all the "demons" and "bad guys" around her were just speculations, indirect. The land completely overthrew the wonderful atmosphere of painstaking work in the first half.

Two key points were not handled satisfactorily. That yellow raincoat was originally a detail worthy of full play, but it was handled too perfunctorily; the hypnosis period was also the same. After all, it was the only clue that could find the root cause of the heroine’s final illness and collapse, but in my opinion But it seems feminine and pretentious and unbearable. Perhaps this is the effect the director wants to achieve, but this ambiguity caused the suspense and horror of the film to quickly diminish.

The only thing worth admiring is the director's photography skills and sound processing. The description of the natural scenery and still life at the beginning of the film, as well as the opening of the strange character (the camera actually shoots the lower body of the character), creates an ominous atmosphere first and foremost. The sound effects of all illusion scenes have a dark and mysterious feeling.

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Extended Reading

Magic Magic quotes

  • Brink: The next time you want your pussy eaten out, you can just ask me! I like pussy!

    Alicia: What the fuck?

    Brink: Shut up! You want them to know? Really?

    Alicia: What are you talking about?

    Brink: Shut up! You came into my room and you rubbed your pussy in my face. Who told you to? Why did you do that?

    Alicia: Get away from me! Sara!

    Sara: Hey, baby!

    Alicia: This freak grabbed me! He told me I rubbed my pussy in his face!

    Brink: She did! She did!

    Sara: Whatever! She didn't, man.

    Brink: She did! I swear she did!

    Sara: She did not, okay?

    Brink: Okay, she didn't.

    Sara: Fucking asshole!

    Alicia: I didn't. I didn't!

    Brink: She did.

    Sara: Okay.

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