I think this movie is best watched with well-managed expectations. I saw the high Tomatometer rating, learned that Whedon was involved, and saw one sentence of a review saying the less you know, the better. Based on that, I went in blind, expecting an 11. In reality, I think this is more in the range of “you can wait and rent this, and it’s enjoyable,” than “OMG, go see this kickass movie as soon as possible!”
I think the biggest issue is that it’s all clever glib references and winks, with no real substance. Compare it to two of may favorite movies ever, which are also parody/homages with lots of references: Young Frankenstein and Shaun of the Dead. I think those two are head and shoulders above this film because they remembered to construct an actual, honest-to-goodness movie that stands on its own, with engaging characters and a solid story, and *also *had clever glib references and winks.
I felt like you couldn’t really get in touch with the cabin crew because almost from the beginning, you know that they’re not acting like themselves, and I found myself kind of hoping for a lot more story involving Richard Jenkins and company.
I also felt like once you figure out even the rough outlines of what’s going on (which happens in what, the first 20-30 minutes?), you realize that you can’t root for anyone in the movie!
Still, I’d recommend this. It’s a really good movie. It’s a lot of fun, if without much substance. If you go in with that expectation, I think you’ll have an awesome time with it. I’m definitely watching it several more times just to look more closely at all the goings on downstairs. There was some golden stuff in those scenes!
Oh, by the way, did anyone else think perhaps Marty would turn out to be an actual, factual virgin, and the girl would wind up fulfilling the role of The Fool when the werewolf ate her, so that ultimately they would appease the gods anyway? It would have fit in well with “We work with what we have.”
I also want to say that I loved loved loved the Japan story, and Bradley Whitford’s reaction to the resolution of it!
The moment where you have the technicians “watching a horror movie” that’s occurring in real life on a giant TV screen and praying for boobs, then getting chastised for wanting this is the moment when everything started to click into place for me.
[spoiler]They made it sound like sabotage was the reason that the cave-in didn’t happen when it was supposed to. And the stoner was supposed to be more out of it because his pot was dosed, but Amy Acker’s character said something about how she discovered the pot was actually immunizing him to the “puppetmasters” influence.
So I was expecting there was someone who wanted them to escape or whatever and we’d hear about that, but nothing like that was brought up. Did I miss something? Or are we supposed to assume someone wanted to bring about the end of the world, but it doesn’t matter who it was?[/spoiler]
Or at least one male ass Very disappointed that “Virgin” (which aparently just means the less slutty girld) put the creepy painting back up just as Scholar was takining in underwear off, especially since he knew damn well she could see him through the mirror. :mad: TV Tropes summed this movie up nicely; SCP: The Movie. The DVD/Blu-Ray damn well better have come good commentary tracks (otherwise what would be the point of renting it).
I was a little surprised that “The Director” was… …actually just the site director. At first I just assumed it was Satan.
I’m also consused by… …why the cave-in didn’t happen. Was it just Fool randomly messing with wires that caused the short, or was someone else sabotaging it?
I agree the ending really sucked. Fool & Virgin just sit back and condem 7 billion people to die so something else can take it’s place? :dubious: Is th
Just got back from seeing it. I’m in the camp of, “it’s a good, fun ride, but ultimately hollow.” I wouldn’t compare it to Evil Dead 2, so much as something like Drag Me to Hell.
I did enjoy the back and forth between the cabin and the other side. Some very Whedon humor there. I loved the big climax, you know what I’m talking about. But there was an almost cartoonish quality to it, that since this wasn’t a movie that took itself seriously, neither could I.
As for the ending, perhaps cliche, but I would’ve liked a more eff’d up note like:
The stoner scoots up next to the not-so-virgin, lighting up the joint. They have their banter about her almost shooting him, then they exchange apologies and he shoots her in the head. Then, as the Ancients become still and contented once again, he admits he’s never been laid. Toke
END.
I’ve seen other people suggest that too, but for me personally, that ending would have bothered me a bit.
First, the virgin archetype pretty much always means a girl/woman, both in horror movies and in western myths in general. The scholar or fool could maybe be either gender, but the virgin archetype would pretty much have to be filled by a woman.
Second, he’s be talking the whole movie about the puppetmasters and conspiracies and such. I would find it unlike his character to play into what the company wants by killing another one of his friends. Even though no one from the company would be around to see it, and it wouldn’t be what they’d expect, it would still result in what they were wanting in killing the group for sacrifices to appease the old gods.
The ending I had expected was a little different:
Since the girl had the gun, I had expected her to say something about not playing their games and shooting herself in the head.
makes no sense. They go through all that trouble defeating the powers that be, to choose to just end it all, and be tormented forever by these evil gods? Makes all the prior heroics meaningless.
I can’t really argue with you. I didn’t love the ending, but I don’t know how I would have changed it to something better. And I enjoyed the rest of the movie enough that the ending being a little questionable doesn’t bother me too much.
The Fool already had a misanthropic streak, so it was perfectly fitting for his character to let the world burn, and the Virgin had just watched two of her friends die, and had been tossed the head of the third as a present. After hours of torment and an admission that they’re just cattle, she probably had little loyalty to humanity in those last moments. Were I in the same situation, I’d probably do the same.
I didn’t really get the impression the pot was sabotage. I thought it was just an oversight, but I did wonder about the cave-in as well, and definitely got the impression that there was some sort of subterfuge afoot. At first, I thought it might have been the guard in the control room, but I think it just supposed to be the Fool causing some sort of short in the system? I’d have to watch it again to be sure.
Perhaps the new black guy, who seemed to really disapprove of the whole thing. Maybe that ended up on the cutting room floor. They just dropped his storyline.
[spoiler]They said there had been a power reroute from upstairs.
Since downstairs seemed to be hell, I took upstairs to be heaven and was thinking that God was manufacturing the return of the evil gods for some kind of confrontation.
But then that line never seemed to get explained or further pursued so I have no idea.[/spoiler]
I think I have answers about upstairs/downstairs, the pot, and the tunnel:
[spoiler]“Upstairs” is the cabin. The lab is below it, hence the elevator/graves that deliver the monsters. IIRC, people in the lab also refer to “Downstairs,” which would be the tablet room and the god-pit below. (Earlier in the thread I referred to the lab as downstairs, but I suppose we should call it the Mezzanine or something.)
Marty’s pot - I didn’t catch exactly what Amy Acker said, but it was clear to me that the Chem Lab screwed up. It fits with the gist of Acker’s dialog, and it fits with Hadley’s quip early on that the Chemistry guys screwed up the ritual last time. They were supposed to treat his weed to make Marty dumb and suggestible, but (I think) he bought new stuff or used a different stash, so he was resistant to the mindfuck.
So Marty found the camera in the cabin, and when the zombie redneck family member (totally different thing from plain “zombies”) grabbed him, he fell into the grave and eventually found the control panel. He just started screwing around with it randomly, and caused a short or something that prevented the tunnel cave-in.
The comment that the problem originated “upstairs” alerts them that Marty not only survived but is messing with their systems.[/spoiler]
As I mull it over, I think I’ll have more fun re-watching this, knowing that it’s not really going toward a satisfying ending, but just enjoying all the fun stuff along the way. Once they set up the parameters of what’s happening, I don’t think there could be a really satisfying ending. It’s too bad, because I would have loved to see more with the lab folks, especially the morally upright security guy. It was a shame that never went anywhere.
I loved the movie, but I have to agree with those who said that the choice made by the Virgin and the Fool at the end didn’t really make much sense. Thematically, yes; any ending other than that would’ve been anticlimactic. Realistically, though, they’re going to die anyway- why take the world with them?
I mean, sure, they were probably pretty damn pissed off at the whole situation, and disgusted with humans in general. But didn’t they have families, loved ones? I can see the Fool not really caring… but the Virgin? No way.
Hell, if I’d been the Fool, I would’ve shot myself- how often does anyone get the chance to sacrifice themselves for the entire world?
But as I said, I loved the movie. I even loved the ending.
Those are possible answers, but I’m still not sure. Maybe it’s not supposed to be clear.
It’s true that the Chem lab had screwed up before. And that Marty was messing around with wires and that could have messed something up. Though I’m not sure how that would work out with the timing.
But don’t forget that all the other countries failed. Including Japan which previously had a 100% fatality rate but this time had no deaths. It could be coincidence that all the countries screwed up on the same year, including Japan and the US which had previously done so well. Maybe you could connect that to the free will discussion they had in the movie. Or it could be someone Upstairs was giving all the events a slight nudge in the direction of failure. I had the impression that there were all the satellite offices where the arenas and sacrifices were, and Upstairs would be the head office like in New York or London or somewhere. But I wouldn’t be able to say that’s definitely right, and Upstairs could also plausibly just mean where the cabin was located.
On another note, there was something else I was wondering about, though it doesn’t affect the plot.
In previous years after whatever monster was released and killed the sacrifices, how did they get the monsters back in their cubes? It made me laugh thinking about the redneck zombies or the sugar plum fairy or any of the other ones trapped in a net and looking very irritated about going back into their box.
Regarding the spoiler discussion:[spoiler]The fool short-circuited the tunnel. He even mentioned it in the dialogue when he was showing the virgin the controls, though he didn’t say the tunnel specifically because he couldn’t know what it was he shorted out.
The cabin being upstairs makes perfect sense, though I wasn’t smart enough to piece that together.
All the failures at once isn’t all that coincidental, since the early conversations led us to believe that everyone in the world is essentially incompetent except Japan and the US, and the US botched their effort in 98. That Japan failed is a surprise but not inconceivable.
EDIT: Also, in the scene with Amy Acker explaining the chem screwup, she said they missed one of the fool’s stashes and that’s the one he’d been smoking the whole time so he wasn’t getting any of the mind control.[/spoiler]
Presumably that’s what the legions of security personnel and military liason is for. Given enough firepower it’s probally not that hard too wrangle one monster or three (granted that dept probally has the highest fatality rate.).
Since the ritual has to be completes by sunrise maybe sunlight weakens or destroyes them and they eventual make their way back underground on their own. Also since it doesn’t appear the controllers have any control over the montsers once they’re released there must also be situations then they have to intervene to ensure nobody dies before the Whore and that the Virgin outlives everyone else. I don’t think it really matters what order the other 3 die in.
Oh, and regarding what happened after shit hit the fan…
…what possible purpose would a big red switch that releases everything in the stables at once serve? :dubious: Other than Rule of Funny I can’t think of any reason the staff would ever need to do that. A big red switched that detonated a nuke would make more sense. And was the senior controller trying to do as a last resort? Gas everything?
I think that most of the opertions have alot smaller budgets and fewer resources than Japan and the US. Just imagine how stretched for cash and bogged down by mismangment Athens is. Or how much money Mumbai insistes on spending on music & dance numbers.
I’d kinda like to see a comic (or at least some fan fiction) dealing with some of the past sacrifices. Just how did things work out that last time the Killer Unicorn or Merman were summoned? And what the hell is Kevin?
And what the hell is Kevin?