The films that Cage starred in in recent years are really unbearable. The last one I watched was "Mandy" in 2018. Looking at the posters, I can see the similarities between the two: the dazzling red and pink on the screen, The composition of the characters is a triangle as a whole, and "Mandy" simply puts the characters in a triangle;
As far as the content of the film is concerned, both rely on soundtracks and colors to create a bizarre atmosphere, filled with styles that are difficult to understand or incomprehensible to most audiences. "Mandy" is a cult movie, which means it's a rave for a small group of people.
"The Color of the Stars" is adapted from Lovecraft's novel "The Color of the Stars". As a loyal fan of Cthulhu mythology and Lovecraft, I think if you like Cthulhu mythology, you must not miss it this movie.
Put a few sentences of the original text of "Alien Color" to enter the state
Arkham West Region
towering mountains
dense forest in the valley
Deep in the forest, no one has ever set foot in
in a deep, narrow valley
the tree leans badly
slow flowing narrow stream
never touched the halo of the sun
When I entered the mountains and valleys to investigate the new reservoir
People tell me this is a place of evil
while in Arkham
Because it's an old city
full of witch legends
So I thought
Evil must have been handed down by grandmothers whispering to their children over the centuries
But then when I saw with my own eyes the jumble of dark valleys and slopes extending westward
All wonders are eclipsed
other than that
it's an ancient mystery
...
The whole movie has a weird style from the very beginning, like some kind of ceremony held by Lavinia that does not belong to any religion, and the totem tattoo on the feet of which religion is unknown.
The camera's angle of view has also become abnormal several times. For example, when the son is lying on the side of the well and looking at the bottom of the well, the angle of view at this time is from underwater, and some kind of creature or something we can't understand is watching them;
Immediately after the family had dinner, Nathan went to the basement to get wine. The camera image stayed for a few seconds after Nathan left the basement. Most of the time in the rest of the room, the position of the camera was fixed . Stare at the family .
Triangles appear several times in the film, such as the tiara on the back of Lavinia's head, the window frame in the attic where her mother works, and the one where Lavinia's blood dripped on a book when she slashed herself with a knife during the second ritual. The symbol can also be seen as a triangle.
At first I thought it was a symbol of family relationships. Both Nathan and his mother realized that they were becoming more and more like the older generation they used to hate. Nathan broke his promise to live on the farm where his father used to be, and his mother began to become more and more because of her daughter. One complaint kept on rambling, and the relationship between daughter Lavinia and their two sons, the former indulging in rituals, the latter one indulging in marijuana and the other still fresh.
The window frame of the attic where mother Teresa worked was like a way for the family to communicate with the outside world, and when the mother and son were "joined" and placed in the attic, the triangular window frame was more like a cage imprisoning the family. And the triangle in the previous daughter's book also hinted at the impending danger (i.e. the union of mother and son).
The last time the triangle appears, is the cloud in the sky at the end of the whole movie, like the window frame in the family's attic, at this time it has become a cage, manipulated by some supernatural force, the flying mantis Past also hints at this maddening curse and nightmare that can't be shaken no matter what.
There is also a metaphor for the family's house in the movie.
First, they lived in a two-story building with a basement. Teresa worked in the upper attic. This attic alluded to the family's connection with modern society. From the beginning, the signal was not good, and customers lost customers. Later, they simply disconnected from customers. Contact, this process is also the process in which the family is constantly isolated by alien forces, until the massacre in the attic, they completely lost outside assistance and contact, and finally when the "big bang" pull-up camera, there is only endless surrounding. primeval forest.
The living room and kitchen on the first floor and the outdoor are the small society formed by the family, but starting from the blood-red flower by the well, their family began to gradually infiltrate, and then bloody eggs, severed fingers, The growing number of spooky flowers in the yard also hints that the family's psyche is constantly being eaten away by erosion . By the time Teresa and her son suffered the "lightning", the bizarre flower had already covered the treetops (seemingly alluding to a higher attic as well).
The two sheds where the alpacas eat, milk and sleep outside, I seem to be referring to the family's will to resist and fight. For example, at the beginning, Lavinia discovered that Benny was smoking marijuana in the shed where she was milking. Benny's behavior can be seen as a resistance to his father's discipline, and Lavinia at this time came after being blamed .
The invasion of alien forces also appeared in the shed at first. The alpacas merged together like "The Thing". When the "lightning" was shot from the shed, the will of the family seemed to be exhausted. The scene where the alpacas are shot by Nathan again looks like the family 's last struggle.
Eventually, they accepted reality and began to think about running away, but it was too late.
I don't have a definite conclusion about the well and basement, just express my guess
The well was invaded from the very beginning, and the explosion of the alien power also came from the well. It was like the foundation and core of this power. From the very beginning, when the foundation was laid, the flower grew by the well. This kind of The power began to slowly penetrate and spread, combined with the "water pollution" mentioned in the movie, and the sink in front of Lavinia was full of blood, as if "water" was used as a medium . And when it finally erupted from the well, the family was left with Lavinia who was almost under control, and it was at this time that this force had completed its infiltration into the family .
As for the basement, I guess it may be the "core" (or "core", forgive me for my lack of words), and finally the hydrologist rushed into the basement and escaped the "explosion". After that, it was already devastated, and the evil force finally completed the final blow to the family. When the hydrologist crawled out again, I thought of "rebirth" at first, but it didn't have anything to do with the movie at all, and then I thought that it might be some kind of "handover", and that force wanted to use the hydrologist ( Maybe he didn't know it) into modern society to start the next invasion.
Summarize
As for the Cthulhu mythology, I have always liked its style that is different from ordinary horror novels. It is rarely some kind of concrete monster. More often, its scary things are often abstract, like a certain A color, such as this movie, or some mysterious power that is empty, invisible and intangible. The writing style of the novel is also inclined to the description of various adjectives. You can read the original text attached at the beginning. One after another adjective gradually renders a weird and terrifying atmosphere . Because of this, the visual change of Cthulhu Mythos is very difficult. That's what makes it special, as opposed to a normal horror novel, and it's also fascinating.
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