After the shit hit the fan…[spoiler]
Senior controller? If you mean Richard Jenkins, he was trying (and succeeded) to open an escape hatch. Though I might just be forgetting what you’re referring to.[/spoiler]
On the other hand, just think how much more experience Athens and Mumbai have at completing these sacrifices.
As for the failures, just because Japan has a perfect record doesn’t mean that everybody else fails most years. Maybe most years 8 out of 12 locations completed their sacrifices and the Japanese just never missed.
Not a perfect movie, but I loved it. I’ll certainly watch it again.
A few of the touches I appreciated were:
[spoiler]The big betting board, and specifically how some departments were rooting for themselves in the betting. I saw that “Alien Beast” was bet on by the Bio-Med department, and “Angry Molesting Tree” was bet on by the Wranglers.
The appearance of the Unicorn and the Merman in the free-for-all.
“Good zombie arm.”
The scene with the trap door and the basement. Just, all of it. “The wind must have blown it open” “Does that make any sense to anyone?” “There’s some more, but it’s in latin.” “Ok, I am drawing a line in the sand, here. Do not read the latin.” And the scene of all of them just about to interact with the necklace, puzzle box and conch before the Virgin starts reading from the diary.[/spoiler]
I was disappointed that
the elder gods were not octopus-like in form
By the way, did anyone manage to catch what Tom Lenk’s (the Intern’s) sign said on the monitor?
The mention of Angry Molesting Tree reminds me - there were at least three specific references to Evil Dead movies (AMT and Deadites on the whiteboard, and the cabin itself), as well as a lot of thematic similarities. Did any other specific movie get that many?
If you are so inclined, IO9 has a greatinterview with Drew Goddard that talks about all the little Easter eggs and asides you might have missed.
I LOVED it, but then I know two of the people who worked on it.
After I saw it on opening night at the Hollywood Arclight, and we went upstairs to the bar, they introduced me to Joss Whedon who came to watch the flick with the audience. 
Just seen it and got a question:
Why would the gods be appeased by the Fool being shot by the people organising the ritual? It seems to make no sense, with what the rest of the necessary preparations imply. If it was that easy, you would expect the men with guns to show up right away to avoid the sequence being broken.
It wasn’t just necessary that they die, they also had to suffer. The suffering had already happened in spades leaving death as the only requirement.
Loved it. I thought it was far and away better than other movies in this genre. I don’t quite understand the complaints that there wasn’t enough substance? I was clearly rooting for our heroes, and the way they handled the options they were given was interesting and added a layer of depth. I also appreciated the commentary about how youth is treated in our culture and how that is shown in pop culture itself.
And I laughed my ass off at The Angry Molesting Tree. It shows up on the whiteboard (it was the only one I caught) and then in the elevator
What i didn’t understand is how the japanese schoolgirls fit into the whole slut athlete scholar fool virgin mold. Those were hopefully all virgins so unless they went by different rules it makes no sense.
I think different cultures have different rituals. I think there was some mention of that.
Did each culture have different Elder Gods, or was there just one set that could be appeased in a variety of different ways?
Yeah, it was explained in the dialog:
Sigourney Weaver, who made up for not being in the Prometheus trailer by being in the movie that came after the trailer, explained that “Each culture has its own ritual” but that the important elements be that the victims be young and that they suffer.
I wondered that as well. I think it would make some sense if the details of the ritual varied by culture. And if they are sacrificing a group of small kids every year, it might go some way toward explaining Japan’s high clearance rate.
There was some mighty fine RV stunt driving in the tunnel scene, but I want to know how they turned that thing around on that one-lane mountain road.
When they came out of the tunnel the RV was sideways on the road, there looked to be plenty of room to turn.
An enjoyable movie, in the grand tradition of Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Now perhaps Mr Whedon could offer us something that unsettles, disturbs, unnerves, instils fear - in short, a horror film.
DigitalC: It wasn’t that every location had to follow the same rules, but rather each location had to follow their cultures rules for what the gods wanted. So the various scenarios were culturally dependent.
ETA: Oops, missed the next page of responses.
And now that I’m thinking about it one small issue:
[spoiler]Where’d they get the super technology of the force field at the tunnel? Other than the magic god stuff everything else was essentially real technology. Except for that.
That might have come in handy for isolating parts of the compound. Of course, not having a button to release every monster into the compound would have been handy too.
[/spoiler]
Not exactly…
…They all have to suffer, and except for the Virgin they all need to die (her death is optional as long as it’s last). The Fool’s clearly suffered; besides as that point they were in a desperate panic as all the other rituals had failed.
Regarding the different…
…Elder Gods; they clearly predate the different cultures they’re attached to. I wonder if they just adapt a new culture as it rises and an old one withers away. Presumably they’ve also been demanding more elaborate sacrifices over time too.