The story of "Magic House" resembles an experiment, one that considers a person's ability to withstand extreme situations and, furthermore, the explosive force generated by the subsequent collapse. To put it simply, it is how a couple who learned that their daughter was raped deal with and face the murderer who came to their home by mistake (completely similar to "The Virgin Spring"). As with all things that are out of reach, a suburban holiday home under a storm is a place the police and cell phone signals will never reach. What's more, in "Magic House", except for the opening scene, there is no law enforcement officer who can represent the law in a general way like the police. And in the beginning the police/law was already "killed" by the gangsters who robbed the prison. On the one hand, this is to highlight that the couple was initially in a situation where they had to do it, but on the other hand, it was to illustrate the weakness of the judiciary. Although the film does not question the impartiality of the judiciary, it is obvious that the judiciary has a place beyond its reach. It was "killed" early in the film. In many cases, the law needs a set of moral norms to supplement it, and When the two work at the same time, there will be some cases where the law has been violated but there are extenuating circumstances. In many revenge movies, the protagonist will be completely regarded as the righteous party, because they are absolutely excusable, and the law will rarely be brought out to suppress the protagonist. Although "Magic House" has completely blocked the existence of the law, on the moral level, the behavior of the protagonist is absolutely debatable, which is a groundbreaking place. The film uses half of the space to exaggerate the evildoers of the gangsters, and from the beginning of the revenge operation, the doctor and his wife are still in the nature of self-defense. But the problem is when they decide to take the initiative. Even in the end, when the doctor and his wife had the best chance of turning the culprit over to the police, they chose to lynch it instead—they put the head of the culprit in the microwave, and then turned on the power! And this is obviously not out of impulse, but deliberately and extremely vicious way to put people to death. Just like the "experiment" mentioned above, when the abuse of the daughter is beyond the parents' tolerance, people will become unreasonable and inconceivable at that moment. It is completely possible to ignore the crime of murder and unload the so-called moral burden, presenting a An almost atavistic bloodthirsty.
The new version of "Magic House" does not go further on the basis of the previous work. Today, when the audience's visual and psychological endurance has been repeatedly trampled on, the film has lost the shock it used to be, and it seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Moreover, the daughter's escape from death in the new version has greatly diluted the original impact and sense of despair. At least it can be predicted that the family may return to peace, rather than the lingering sound of despair that cannot be dissipated for a long time. I believe that what the film wants to show is not the self-defense of jumping over walls and rabbits biting people like in "Straw Dog" at the same time, but to create a change in the identity of the perpetrator and the victim---the vicious murderer has become a victim The object of fish, the gentle and polite doctor became the executioner under the glossy surface. As for this group of gangsters, they are really too strong and their fighting power is too strong, so that this kind of transposition has not been shown, and the psychological preparation time is too long. It was not until the end that the doctor carefully planned to blow people's heads off. If there is a major contrast in the situation between the two sides as soon as possible, and if the doctors and couples are given more initiative, the intensity of human torture will be stronger, and it may be more black and cult, but this is still very 70s, after all, there are " A Clockwork Orange" sits.
PS: The 1970s was really a violent "prone period". In 1971, there were the old version of "Magic House" and the famous "Clockwork Orange", and in 1972 there was "Straw Dog" by the master of violent aesthetics (I heard that "Straw Dog" also remake).
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