A few days ago, a Chinese-language horror film that has been anticipated for the year finally arrived. Before
was launched, it was dubbed "the scariest movie in Taiwanese film history" and "the most powerful horror movie in 2022", making the audience's expectations skyrocketing.
But after it went online, its reputation quickly dropped, and it even received a lot of infamy.
What is the quality of this movie? Where did it go wrong?
Today, let’s talk about it -
curse
Director: Ke Mengrong
Screenwriter: Ke Mengrong / Zhang Zhewei
Starring: Cai Genyan / Huang Xinting / Gao Yingxuan / Lin Jinglun Wen Qingyu / Peng Haiyi / Huang Ling / Song Yanmin
Release date: 2022-07-08 (China Taiwan Network)
Film length: 110 minutes
As early as last year, the trailer of "Curse" was released, which aroused expectations on the Internet.
After it was released in Taiwan, China, in March this year, it was rated as high as .1 by the audience.
But as it went online a few days ago, its reputation has dropped to .8 points.
Strictly speaking, this is a pretty good score in a horror movie.
But compared with the high expectations of most viewers, this score seems unsatisfactory.
And it was given a low score. In addition to its own level being inconsistent with everyone's expectations, there is another important reason, which is that the way it is presented makes some viewers feel offended.
"Unlucky" not only became a high-frequency word in Douban's short comment area, but also became a hot search on a certain platform.
In the end, even the leading actor had to come forward in person and responded to this statement in a joking way.
Indeed, people with religious beliefs will have a deeper sense of immersion when watching this movie.
Even if you are an atheist, the gimmicks of this film adapted from real events, the "mock documentary" shooting method, and the rituals and runes of strange forces and gods in the film will make you feel evil and numb.
Next, let me illustrate the story in the film.
Warm reminder:
There are spoilers and some scary pictures (processed) below, so please watch with caution.
At the beginning of the film, the heroine Ruo Nan faced the camera and told her story.
Six years ago, she violated a terrible taboo and suffered bad luck ever since.
Her parents and relatives all suffered misfortunes and even died unexpectedly as a result.
Now six years have passed, Ruonan's life seems to be gradually returning to normal.
Being single, she picked up her daughter Duoduo from the foster care center and named her Chen Letong.
If the man teaches her to draw, read, and write her own name, the mother and daughter live a warm and happy life.
But the good times did not last long. Shortly after Ruonan took Duoduo back, strange things happened one after another.
For example, there is a sudden power outage at home, the refrigerator door opens by itself, the toilet flushes automatically and so on.
The most terrifying thing is that Duoduo's spirit has begun to become abnormal. She claims to have seen "bad things" (dirty things) in every corner of the house...
As the situation becomes serious, Ruonan's life has once again fallen into chaos.
She planned to move, but on the day the agent came to discuss related matters, another strange thing happened.
Duoduo seemed to be inspired by a mysterious force and suddenly began to talk to herself.
When Ruonan wasn't paying attention, she walked up to the rooftop alone, picked up a sharp tool and pried open the door of a room on the top floor.
This room is filled with various Buddha statues believed by the people.
After Duoduo entered, she found an old-fashioned DV inside and watched the content shot inside.
When Ruonan discovered Duoduo, Duoduo had already finished watching the video and suddenly became unwell. After
was sent to the hospital for treatment, it was already too late. Duoduo was diagnosed with paralysis of both legs.
Everything around Ruonan seems to be developing in the worst direction...
Seeing this, I believe everyone will have doubts:
What was filmed in that DV? Why do people who see it bring bad luck and disaster?
This is actually the most important suspense throughout the entire film.
And the whole movie also tells us the taboo that Ruonan violated six years ago through narration, which was the content captured on the DV.
Six years ago, Ruonan, her boyfriend A Dong, and her friend A Yuan jointly operated an adventure video account.
They often go on adventures to various weird places and shoot videos, and then upload them to the Internet.
On this day, they returned to Adong's hometown and wanted to take pictures of the local sacrifices folk customs.
This is a remote small village, where the locals retain the language and customs of their own ethnic group.
When Ruonan first arrived in the village, an old woman came to visit and read Ruonan's palm.
After some observation, the old woman told Ruonan that the child in Ruonan's belly had been chosen by the Buddha's mother and she wanted to donate her name to the Buddha's mother.
It turns out that in this village, the deity they worship is called the Mother of Buddha.
Anyone who has worshiped the Buddha Mother must donate his or her name to the Buddha Mother. From then on, he or she cannot call out his or her real name in the village.
Even people who have left the village have to come back every ten years to worship.
That night, everyone in the village began some kind of mysterious sacrificial ceremony.
Ruonan and his party found a little girl with runes written all over her body. This little girl claimed to be the person chosen by the Buddha's mother.
One of her ears was cut off and dedicated to the Buddha to bless the entire village.
In addition, they also saw mysterious altars and bizarre blood stains on the ceiling in the village.
The biggest mystery about this village is an underground passage that is said to be absolutely forbidden.
But Ruonan and the others did not give up and still came to this restricted area.
Because Ruonan was feeling unwell and her lower body began to bleed, she could only wait outside. A Dong and A Yuan entered the passage with a DV.
After a while, A Yuan rushed out of the passage like crazy.
He became mentally broken, began talking to himself, and then jumped to his death from a height.
And Adong was still in the passage. When the villagers found out, they pulled Adong out of the passage. He also died tragically.
After this incident, two members of the expedition trio died tragically, and only Ruonan survived.
She put the DV that filmed the interior of the tunnel on the top floor and suppressed it with various Buddha statues.
She originally thought that life would gradually return to normal, but she did not expect that six years later, strange things would happen again in her life.
For this reason, she told the camera the story of her experience at the beginning of the film.
And her purpose is to let everyone in front of the screen recite a certain spell with her to pray for her and Duoduo to get rid of disasters.
But, is this really the case?
Is this set of mantras and gestures learned from the village really used for blessing?
As the plot progresses, the story takes a turn.
The person in charge of the foster care center, Xie Qiming, , felt very sympathetic after learning about Ruonan and Duoduo's experiences.
He helped investigate the incident that year, repaired the damaged video in the DV, and consulted a master in Yunnan.
Finally, he took a video to tell the truth:
It turns out that the big black Buddha worshiped in that village is the god of curses.
Anyone who worships the Buddha Mother will be cursed and bring bad luck.
The only way to resolve it is to spread the curse and let more people share the impact of the bad luck.
The big black Buddha Mother is enshrined in the inaccessible tunnel. Her face is the center of the curse and is covered by a piece of red cloth.
Anyone who looks at its face will be cursed.
This was also the reason why A Dong and A Yuan died, as well as later the psychologist, police and others.
After telling the truth, Xie Qiming also hit his head and died in front of the camera.
Seeing this, we will find that Ruonan has been cheated.
Because the incantations and gestures she learned from the villagers were actually spreading curses rather than blessings.
But is it really so? Is Ruonan really innocent?
As the plot progresses, we discover a deeper and more mind-numbing conspiracy.
It turned out that six years ago, after Ruonan came back from the village, she went to the master for help.
In other words, she already knew the truth about the curse.
And the Duoduo she brought back was actually the child she gave birth to during her pregnancy.
She has worked hard for so long just to play a big game.
There is a detail here that can also prove it. In that DV, a scene was recorded after the accident between A Dong and A Yuan.
Ruonan, who was pregnant and had red lower body, was fed toad water by the little girl with runes on her body and said a word to Ruonan.
Perhaps at this moment, if the child in a man's belly is selected by the Buddha's mother, and a certain contract is signed.
In other words, this film presented from a first-person perspective is actually Ruonan's conspiracy from beginning to end.
She painstakingly cultivated the image of a single mother, let everyone watch her video, won everyone's sympathy, and then started to implement her plan.
was the only person who survived and signed a contract with the Buddha Mother. Her purpose was to involve more people and share the bad luck caused by the curse.
The reason why she did this was not only for herself, but also for Duoduo.
Because she had already developed mother-daughter feelings while getting along with Duoduo, and she didn't want her to be hurt even more.
So at the end of the film, we can see Ruonan returning to the center of the curse.
She took a picture of the Buddha's face and spread it to everyone who watched the video, in order to minimize the impact of the curse.
And this scene is also one of the most nerve-wracking and uncomfortable scenes in the entire film.
As a movie with "adaptation of real events" gimmick, "The Curse" actually has little to do with the original incident.
only uses the "God's upper body" plot from , but has a completely new adaptation of the story.
All the religions, Buddha statues, mantras, etc. in the film were created and designed by the main creative team and are not from reality, so you don’t have to worry.
Of course, in order to achieve the frightening effect, the creative team also took great pains.
They researched many religions, folk customs, Buddha images, etc. in Southeast Asia and India before creating the image of the Big Black Buddha.
More than 20 versions of the Buddha’s face alone were designed, and the version that resembled amethyst in the film was finally confirmed.
This actually draws on the "empty fingers" and "lotus pod breasts" that were popular on the Internet in the early years, in order to enhance the horror effect and cause the audience's psychological discomfort.
The last thing worth mentioning is the way the "Curse" mockumentary was shot.
It uses first-person, hand-held photography to allow the audience to immerse themselves into the story, thus enhancing their sense of involvement and achieving an immersive effect.
This is not the first time, there have been such good films as " Blair Witch ", " Kun Jiam " and "The Evil".
On the basis of the pseudo-documentary, "The Curse" added many exquisitely processed lenses and angles to make up for the shortcomings of blurry lenses and poor angles, but this reduced the sense of reality.
In addition, shortcomings such as messy editing, a lot of deleted content from the feature film, and confusing narrative caused by back and forth narration all led to the final decline in reputation.
But overall, "The Curse" can be regarded as a surprising Chinese horror film in recent years.
If you are a horror movie lover who does not believe in evil, this movie is definitely worth watching.
