I no longer remember the shock when I saw this movie for the first time. The strange ways of death were the shadow of childhood, which made me believe that human life is so fragile.
"Reaper is Coming 2" is the sequel to the previous title "Reaper is Coming 1", and it's actually the same in terms of plot. As in the previous one, a girl named Kimberly had a foreboding that a tragic traffic accident was about to happen, so she got in the driveway and saved the lives of a group of people. But the god of death would never give up, so a group of people gathered together to discuss countermeasures. They find the survivor from the previous movie and get a reminder to save the life of an unborn child together to resist the fate arranged by the god of death. As a result, although the goal was fulfilled, it still ended in death.
The art of death
First of all, as far as the positioning of the thriller is concerned, the horror atmosphere of this film is very well done. All the death details designed by the god of death are placed in front of the audience. A pair of scissors and a ring around may be killing people. The murder weapon, danger surrounds the character at all times. Under the rendering of this environment, the audience will be led into despair a little bit to achieve the best horror effect. This is the artistic value of this film. John Willett, who once served as the art director in the "Reaper Is Coming" series, also said: "The challenge we face is that we have to present something creepy, and at the same time you have no name, we don’t want to adopt something obvious. Techniques such as weird lens angles, peculiar light and dark colors, but hope to focus on the subtleties.” And looking at the domestic horror films with shocked faces or various inexplicable sound effects, and Comparing, the creativity of the main creative team stands out.
In addition, in terms of the setting of suspense, the film is also remarkable. If there is no suspense in the "Reaper Is Coming" series, it is because the story only hints at the way of death, but does not imply whether the characters can survive, because there is no escape and unavoidable escape.
In this story, the black people in the funeral home said that using the newborn’s life to survive can be said to provide a solution. First, the protagonist and the audience are led astray, so that everyone thinks that a pregnant woman can stop giving birth to a small life. Death cycle. It turned out that the pregnant woman was not in a car accident, so the birth of a little life was useless. The announcement of the final ending originally meant "putting to death and resurrecting", and brought the whole movie to its climax again.
I personally feel that "Reaper is Coming 2" has an irreplaceable role in the entire series. The first is to confirm all the deaths of the characters in the first part. Even the first female protagonist who lives in a mental hospital where an accident is extremely difficult cannot survive. Since then, he has declared an inevitable death in the hands of the god of death. Secondly, for the first time in the story, the use of new life to fight against the god of death was opened. This approach provided hope for the audience, although it eventually dragged them into deep despair.
Philosophy and Psychology in "Reaper is Coming 2"
Everything seems to be unreasonable in the "Reaper Is Coming" series, but it is full of murderous logic.
First of all, this movie is full of fatalism . People are mortal for no reason. Even if it is temporarily avoided, it is impossible to escape death in the end. Despite this, the second part is the most rebellious one in the entire series. The heroine not only asks for help from her predecessors, but also relies on her own analysis and judgment to save the lives of others, and also tries to defeat her destined destiny. Although this kind of effort has never been realized in the series, it still shows people's perseverance in the face of absurd fate.
And this unreasonable manifestation is that the god of death clearly wants people to die, but it gives each protagonist the ability to foresee death before the accident, and give signs before every death. However, once the protagonist leads seven or eight people to resist, the god of death will intensify, using various seemingly subtle accidents to take people's lives one by one, and it has even evolved into a kind of murder that is a bit "outrageous into anger" .
Even though it seems so overbearing, the god of death has always followed his own logic of killing: what may happen will definitely happen. And this is also the famous "Murphy's Law" some great similarities, " if there are bad things can happen, no matter how small this possibility, it will always happen, and cause the maximum possible loss." Is also In this way, the god of death can use all kinds of small accidents around him to create a series of killings.
It is this inner unity of rationality and irrationality that makes the entire series have a strong sense of conflict and always maintains the sense of horror as a horror film.
This is the same method used to create "horror" in horror films. Common horror films are divided into two types. One is to use sensory impact to bring fear to people. This kind of horror film brings people the visual effect of flesh and blood. It brings people's physical discomfort. Come the feeling of horror. The other is suspenseful horror , which aims at people’s fear of the unknown. This category is represented by ghost films. "Reaper is coming" uses anthropomorphic techniques, although there is no real murderer in the whole story, while retaining the above two characteristics, compared with other horror films, it has more rich elements and even more. Have something to watch.
Why do we love watching horror movies?
But there are still many people who don't understand the meaning of horror movies.
In fact, horror films have a recreational function that other films cannot replace. According to the famous psychologist Freud's theory, he believes that all human behaviors and activities are determined by unconsciousness and desire. Humans have two instincts, one is survival instinct , and the other is death instinct. The survival instinct strongly pursues the pleasure of the senses and the satisfaction of physical needs, while the death instinct urgently pursues destruction, aggression, and even self-destruction. Such as cruelty, confrontation, attack, and even killing between people.
And I personally think that these two instincts can be unified and reconciled to a certain extent when watching horror movies. Because of the virtual nature of the movie, it guarantees that people can reasonably experience the horror under the premise of enjoying the safety, and get the stimulation that needs to be endured in life, thereby releasing the pressure in life and feeling the direct life experience. Therefore, horror movies are actually one of the indispensable flavoring agents in human life.
Secondly, most people start thinking about philosophical issues from the issue of death.
Think about it carefully, don’t we, like the protagonists in "Death Is Coming", face a mortal end in a short life?
The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus said: "The most terrible evil is death, but death has nothing to do with us, because when we are alive, death does not exist; when death comes, we no longer exist. NS."
Confucius also said: "If you don't know how to live, you know how to die."
But I think that death is inevitable for humans, a race with limited life . Knowing death is for a better life and to strengthen our belief in life. Therefore, movies like "Reaper Is Coming" have even more meaning for their existence.
In general, I think this series actually only needs these two parts, and the extra is just changing the soup and not the medicine. The first part, with its freshness and creativity, can give people a spiritual impact and show people’s powerlessness in the face of death; then use the second part to expand the first part, describe people’s resistance, and finally form a closed loop. Can raise the subject of death and life to the level of thinking. And this is enough to become a classic.
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