Despite my rating, this is actually a well made film. It has high production values, decent acting, stunning sets, and great sound. In the technical aspects it is well directed. Regardless, it was one of the most tormenting films I've ever seen. It was such a struggle to get through. I was checking how much longer I had left like seventeen times a minute, because I just couldn't take it.
This is a film that's told smart, executed well, but the portrayal itself is horrible. Long story short, fascism is wrong, end of story. But like the Purge, it's not enough to just say it, we gotta go through a whole mess of stuff to show you why it is. Basically fascists sexually torture nine boys and nine girls for four months in a mansion. And we're talking urinating in mouths, eating poop, three way intercourse, ejaculating on each other etc. The whole film is literally just scene after scene of that. It's nonstop. All of that, as we constantly are forced to endure stories about people going through the same stuff, but enjoying it. This film loves to emphasize each character's feelings on each scene. When they eat poop, the film describes in detail everybody's experiences with eating poop, and why they are fine with it. In a strange sense, it's well told and has some interesting insight, but that does not make it any easier to watch.
Honestly though, the film as a whole is kind of boring. It really is just a matter of how shocking can we be. When it's not being depraved, it's just people in a room telling stories. There's really not much else to it.
The problem with the film is that since it's on its own sick mindset, we as an audience aren't really on the same page, so we're just seeing random acts of violence, and not really anything else. There's no clear picture or goal the film projects, just that. David Lynch films do the same thing, but at least he gives us enough symbolism to let us know what to extract from the film. This one is just showing us that these people get off on this stuff, and that's it.
One thing I found interesting was how the perspective is of the fascists themselves instead of the victims. Instead of being a standard psychological thriller about escaping, it's simply just these fascist's sick perversions and their opinions on it. They're the main characters, and they're the ones we follow. I thought that was rather interesting.
At the end of the day, this is not one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but it's one of the hardest films I've ever had to sit through. It's pretty easy to hate this film. I don't hate it, but I would never want to watch this again, or would never recommend it to anybody ever. It's a well told film with an interesting insight, but it's way too hard to sit through and it's a one note theme that they just milk for an hour and 56 minutes.
This is a film that's told smart, executed well, but the portrayal itself is horrible. Long story short, fascism is wrong, end of story. But like the Purge, it's not enough to just say it, we gotta go through a whole mess of stuff to show you why it is. Basically fascists sexually torture nine boys and nine girls for four months in a mansion. And we're talking urinating in mouths, eating poop, three way intercourse, ejaculating on each other etc. The whole film is literally just scene after scene of that. It's nonstop. All of that, as we constantly are forced to endure stories about people going through the same stuff, but enjoying it. This film loves to emphasize each character's feelings on each scene. When they eat poop, the film describes in detail everybody's experiences with eating poop, and why they are fine with it. In a strange sense, it's well told and has some interesting insight, but that does not make it any easier to watch.
Honestly though, the film as a whole is kind of boring. It really is just a matter of how shocking can we be. When it's not being depraved, it's just people in a room telling stories. There's really not much else to it.
The problem with the film is that since it's on its own sick mindset, we as an audience aren't really on the same page, so we're just seeing random acts of violence, and not really anything else. There's no clear picture or goal the film projects, just that. David Lynch films do the same thing, but at least he gives us enough symbolism to let us know what to extract from the film. This one is just showing us that these people get off on this stuff, and that's it.
One thing I found interesting was how the perspective is of the fascists themselves instead of the victims. Instead of being a standard psychological thriller about escaping, it's simply just these fascist's sick perversions and their opinions on it. They're the main characters, and they're the ones we follow. I thought that was rather interesting.
At the end of the day, this is not one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but it's one of the hardest films I've ever had to sit through. It's pretty easy to hate this film. I don't hate it, but I would never want to watch this again, or would never recommend it to anybody ever. It's a well told film with an interesting insight, but it's way too hard to sit through and it's a one note theme that they just milk for an hour and 56 minutes.
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