Apr 2020
Now that Tromafreak mentioned the movie in his top 100 (calling it the best horror from the last 20 years or one of the best) and it's still in the running in the movie KO on MovieMeter, again a certain question popped up. One I have been wondering about not long after I had seen the movie the first (and still the only) time.
I had been critical of the movie. I reckon it is shocking. And I must say I was into it until about 45-50 minutes. I'm not saying it was great but it kept me curious enough to know what it was all about. And the revelation came why these girls were tortured to death. I was like yeah all right (still wondering if the motivation of the bad guys was either clever or just plain stupid but in the end I went for the latter) now we know and we still have like 30 or more minutes to go?
I was like the only thing that can happen next is that our main girl is going to endure similar torturings the old lady had been talking about. And that's what happened and as expected she was going to be that chosen one who could make the revelation the whole organisation was waiting for. The viewer waited for nothing since the old lady doesn't reveal anything and just commits suicide.
Of course those beatings and the crap she has to eat are not fun to watch but it gets so repetitive that its becomes tedious and boring (instead of shocking me more). It became more of an annoying exercise in patience to see if there is still anything interesting the movie could tell me. That didn't happen. For me it didn't matter if those scenes went on 5 minutes or half an hour. I already knew why, I already got the point, get on with it. I don't see the purpose to stretching it to such length with that knowledge you already gave me. To shock me until I looked way, well that didn't work. The movie went pretty fast from the start but the revelation came way too early, it stagnated and came pretty much to a halt and eventually there was no conclusion. Ok all in my point of view of course
Similar feelings I had with the final scene of Megan is Missing. It sucked for the girl but after 1 minute I knew she is not going to be rescued there is no point in stretching that scene for so long (to me anyway).
Anyway that's what I been wondering, no one else expected the main girl was going to be tortured? I haven't read or heard anyone predicting this.
I don't think I lack empathy but I think I'm still too aware I'm just watching a movie. Yesterday the local news showed some images of people in Ecuador literally dead on the street because of the Corona virus. That was very shocking to me.
I had been critical of the movie. I reckon it is shocking. And I must say I was into it until about 45-50 minutes. I'm not saying it was great but it kept me curious enough to know what it was all about. And the revelation came why these girls were tortured to death. I was like yeah all right (still wondering if the motivation of the bad guys was either clever or just plain stupid but in the end I went for the latter) now we know and we still have like 30 or more minutes to go?
I was like the only thing that can happen next is that our main girl is going to endure similar torturings the old lady had been talking about. And that's what happened and as expected she was going to be that chosen one who could make the revelation the whole organisation was waiting for. The viewer waited for nothing since the old lady doesn't reveal anything and just commits suicide.
Of course those beatings and the crap she has to eat are not fun to watch but it gets so repetitive that its becomes tedious and boring (instead of shocking me more). It became more of an annoying exercise in patience to see if there is still anything interesting the movie could tell me. That didn't happen. For me it didn't matter if those scenes went on 5 minutes or half an hour. I already knew why, I already got the point, get on with it. I don't see the purpose to stretching it to such length with that knowledge you already gave me. To shock me until I looked way, well that didn't work. The movie went pretty fast from the start but the revelation came way too early, it stagnated and came pretty much to a halt and eventually there was no conclusion. Ok all in my point of view of course
Similar feelings I had with the final scene of Megan is Missing. It sucked for the girl but after 1 minute I knew she is not going to be rescued there is no point in stretching that scene for so long (to me anyway).
Anyway that's what I been wondering, no one else expected the main girl was going to be tortured? I haven't read or heard anyone predicting this.
I don't think I lack empathy but I think I'm still too aware I'm just watching a movie. Yesterday the local news showed some images of people in Ecuador literally dead on the street because of the Corona virus. That was very shocking to me.
Yes the ending is purposefully ambiguous. The knowlege that Anna acquired through her transcendence, through her ordeal and suffering of whether there is or isn't an afterlife is purposefully kept hidden from the audience. And when she tells Mademoiselle, the old woman realises that this kind of knowledge is too great for those unwilling or unable to suffer for it and so decides to kill herself instead of passing it on.