UPDATE: Discussing the original in a review discussing a literary adaptation of a film is very normal and cannot be avoided. Sometimes the original party gives a low score, not because the movie must be worse than the novel, but this adaptation happens to be worse.
The atmosphere in the first half of the rendering was good, but the second half completely collapsed.
It can be seen that I want to imitate the psychological thriller and gothic horror of Henry James' original work, but completely eliminate the very unique "ambiguity" of the original work. The original feels like a "garden of forking paths," haunted or psychotic?
If it's haunted, is it the ghost of the footman or the ghost of the former governess? Who is good and who is evil? Why is it haunted? What do ghosts want? What is the relationship between ghosts and two children? Do children love or fear ghosts? Possessed by ghosts or taught accomplices? Can only female tutors see ghosts? etc
If mental illness, who has mental illness? two kids? Housekeeper? Or a tutor? If one of them has mental problems, what is the cause? With so many people's perspectives, whose view is true? If a female teacher is mentally ill, will she hurt the children? etc
But here in the movie, none of that exists, the maze is used as a thriller of horse-riding chases rather than a way to weave a story, and even the most basic ambiguous pattern of haunting or psychosis is gone, the heroine Completely turned into a psychopath, at least to me the possibility seems overwhelming. Whether it's a gothic mansion ghost movie or a psychotic psychological thriller, this movie fails to do one thing well, and it creates an unintelligible story.
This film just borrows a character relationship from the original, and adds a lot of jump scares that are too old-fashioned (such as waking up from a nightmare, turning the doorknob, grimace in the mirror, footprints on the floor, unplugging the electricity There will be a sound, etc.). The characters turn into puppets from horror movies (beautiful, sexy but fragile and nervous heroines who are frightened, normal friends who set off the heroine's abnormality, sinister and dull old housekeepers, seemingly innocent but evil children, wet long hair Ghost with long nails).
In this kind of situation where the characters and fright points are very old-fashioned, I still want to make a story in the mist. I don't have any thought-provoking ideas. The only bright spot worth exploring is the "polysemy", but the director and screenwriter I didn't give it back to play, and in the end, I could only "pretend" to fail, and I couldn't please any audience.
In recent years, there has been a revival trend of literary horror films (such as "Hereditary Doom", "Ghost Book", "The Witch", "Get Out", "A Midsummer Nightmare", etc.), but these excellent horror films are all There are strong highlights, such as profound social reflection, unique audio-visual effects or rare themes, Universal and Vertigo are also big horror films, but this film is made like this, I really don’t know what the producers and distributors thought. of.
PS: The soundtrack of the movie is good, the heroine's clothes are also very good-looking, the two children are also good-looking, the house is well-arranged, and the shots are smooth. It is recommended that the director make more MVs in the future.
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