Terrible! (Spoilers)

Hmmm, quite interesting...

I agree with you in concept because overall I felt that the film left me feeling pretty much the same way it did to you. I don't think QUITE as harshly as you do about it being so 'Terrible' and how did it get made; believe me, with the mountainous deluge of SWILL out there considered Horror, this one, however ineffective, doesn't even come close to the drivel that's out there.

BUT... With that said I DO basically agree with the different points that you made. I feel that the film was neither deep and truly mysterious enough to be interesting (a la David Lynch for example) and the ending and as you mentioned several places in the film did NOT explain really clearly what the HELL was going on and how it all tied together.

The ONLY thing I can come up with which 'explains' this 'story' is that the trauma and subsequent hallucinations had by the boy were indeed shared by the mother as per the condition mentioned at the hospital. And therefore the exact same thing was going on SOMEHOW (I guess by osmosis ) between Clive Owen and his daughter. Because the Mom DEFINITELY did see something in the face of the statue. So, we are left with only either a psychological or supernatural explanation to fit that, right?

All 'n all I was pretty underwhelmed; I agree with the other poster above who said it would have been FAR more effective if they had come up with a MUCH darker reason for all of this.

The 'last' poster who replied pretty fully to your 'complaints' did make some good points, but I don't think they really diffused the basis for your arguments. And, the usual, glib, and insulting 'Oh, I guess you need everything spoon fed to you' is of course insulting, arrogant, rude, tiresome, and a petty cop-out. BUT, he did say that he was very tired, so maybe he didn't intend to be quite so condescending I personally friggin' LOVE mysterious, vague, and deep films like David Lynch, etc., etc... where they are as ambiguous as hell but quite stimulating and thought provoking.

This wasn't one of them...

BUT AGAIN... I think that for some people, such as the last poster who replied in detail to your original post, the low-key subtlety was enough to entertain them and make them feel that they got something worthwhile out of the film. So, to that degree I guess we are really just talking about individual taste I suppose some people would consider that there was indeed enough 'substance' in this film, whereas for you and me it just didn't quite 'do it', that's all...

I have over 4000 films, many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK!

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Excellent questions--another good one is, "Why even make Clive Owen 'Spanish as a boy' anyway?" It's so random--they may as well have made him Chinese as a boy. In fact, he might as well have been a Massai girl.

Re the coworker, contra other comments, it is not at all clear in the film that the coworker died. It's maybe not that important, but it actually wasn't very important to put that scene in the film at all. In fact, it wouldn't have mattered if we never saw Clive Owen's character at work.

Re the possible "mother", that's also never made clear, and in fact, if it is supposed to be the mother, it just raises more questions. In that case the daughter and mother seem to have no connection whatsoever. It might as well be like the Omen's Damien and his unwitting adoptive mother--that's the same kind of relationship they seem to have. The mother is played much more like she's just a girlfriend of Clive Owen's who is maybe a bit uncomfortable with the idea that he has a kid. Bad directing/acting there, because it takes viewers out of the film and frustrates them as they try to figure out just what the deal is . . . when it turns out to not be a mystery for any particular reason.

The biggest annoyance in my opinion, though, is the Hollowface nonsense with Mia. Really, they wanted to have it both just be a fairly abstract metaphor AND a literal boogeyman at the same time, but the only way that gels is if you don't think about it analytically in the slightest, plus the supposed resolution just seemed like nonsense.


http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Your review is spot-on.
Even having a bunch of lame connections explained by a fanboy can't redeem this piece of crap movie.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

A: it's mystery and suspense.

B: movies don't have to be realistic or make sense, especially horror movies.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

The "twist", as much as it was, could be spotted about 15 minutes into the movie. We see a young boy and his mother in Spain and are given no connection with the British story, so an assumption must be made. The only assumption to make is that the boy grows up to be Clive Owen's character (another telling sign was the 1970's wardrobe in the Spanish story).

There are actually several twists in the film, the identity of Juan/John being only one of them. I figured that much out about halfway through the film, when he was told that Hollowface was a delusion he shared with his daughter (another twist in itself). But there was still a lot of story to figure out after that, including the mystery of of where that delusion had originally come from.

Why was literally nothing explained in the movie?

Pretty much all of the questions you listed are answered in the film, and made especially clear in the last few scenes (if you're paying attention). Basically...

Hollowface was a delusion that Juan/John suffered from as a kid, based on the traumatic memory of his abusive father coming home from prison, attacking his mother and accidentally dying. When he continued to hallucinate that Hollowface was stalking him, his mother (a religious and superstitious woman, wracked with guilt over the whole ugly incident) became convinced that they were actually being stalked by the father's spirit, and asked the priest for help. The priest attempted to give them a sort of "placebo" by ritually banishing the apparition, but inadvertently made things worse by reinforcing their belief that Hollowface was real. The mother then took her son and left Madrid, moving to England and remarrying. In order to finally "bury" the monster, little Juan wrote his story down (in English, the language of his new country) and hid it in the tree.

Cut to the present day. Juan/John is all grown up with a wife and kid. One day he rescues one of his workmates from falling, triggering the memory of how his father died that night (the reason the dangling workmate's face seems to disappear is because John is connecting the two accidents in his mind). Meanwhile, his daughter finds the story hidden in the tree and becomes fascinated with it (probably because of the mystery of how it got there). She takes up the story in her own mind and rewrites it, which leads to her beginning to have nightmares about Hollowface. At first she imagines him as a faceless version of herself, but then her father makes the same mistake as the priest did when he was a kid, and sets up a "ritual" to banish the monster (by burning the dummy on the lawn). Just like the priest's botched efforts, this only reinforces his daughter's belief in the monster. And since the dummy they burn is (perhaps subconsciously) based on his own memories of Hollowface, he's now placed that same image in his daughter's head, and they end up "sharing" the delusion from that point on.

Why is Hollowface so terrible at his job? He appears in both children's room several times and accomplishes nothing? Or is it because Hollowface is not literal, only a figurative extension of the father's repressed memories? we are lead to establish this ourselves.

The film suggests very strongly that Hollowface was simply a hallucination/distorted memory, and provides real-world explanations for everything - but still leaves a little element of doubt that maybe there was more to it. In fact the final line - "But now, after many years, he was free..." - had me thinking that maybe the delusion really was a manifestation of some vengeful spirit that had finally been laid to rest. Nothing wrong with a little ambiguity, anyway.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

agree, this movie was craptastic! another style without substance and too much cartoony CGI. A better story/script/director was needed here. the score and music cues were terribly contrived. We have seen it all before and done better. I give credit to the actors who seemed to really be giving it their best despite such poor material. I give it 2 stars, one for clive owen and one for carice van houten who I think are great.

"If you hate it when people post signatures they are 100% proud of and try to get others to join them, and are 100% proud of it, copy this and make it your signature"

reply share

add reply

formatting help

It was a dreadful movie, but not for the reasons you explained. I didn't see any significant plot holes.

The reason the boy didn't recognize his father is because, we can assume, he never saw him before. He didn't remember the events properly because he was scared, and his mother lied to him about it. This is called a confabulation. His mother shared the delusion due to stress induced psychosis.

Later in the movie, his daughter begins to imagine things that deep down she knows aren't real. She has nightmares which are encouraged by her father's unstable imagination. They both fed eachother the nightmare fantasy. The girl was vulnerable because of her age, and the father was vulnerable because it was previously his nightmare. At this point the movie sounds very far fetched, but that doesn't make any of this a plot hole.

Hollowface is ineffective because he isn't real.

A good point you raise is that the story found in the tree should be written in Spanish. They should have included a scene showing the girl translating it to English. That would have made the movie even slower than it is. They could have told this story in fewer than 20 minutes. The vast majority of this film is either redundant scenes or simply fluff. They really padded the hell out of this one.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

[deleted]