I felt the same as you about the stinger when I first saw the movie. A kind of tension relief. It reminded me of seeing an incredibly grim and gruesome horror movie calle A L’interieur (“Inside”) and then being able to watch a featurette with the actresses laughing and talking about how much fun it was to work on the movie. A definite kind of tension relief. That’s gotta be what’s going on with that post-credits scene. It feels like the filmmakers goofing around.
But for repeated viewings, I’ve decided the stinger is goofy and I don’t like it!
Boy. I do kind of want to watch this again, but there are a couple of scenes I’d need to skip past. I don’t think I could sit through… that one… again.
Please tell me you’ve seen God’s Country, because the opening shot of that movie does something similar. And I’m similarly confused/fascinated by the point being made.
BTW, I disagree that there’s anything of questionable taste about the portrayal of the gypsies and the gold. I know someone brought it up upthread, and I didn’t share their discomfort. For all we know, the gypsy carnies are keeping it safe, protecting people from the curse. They don’t seem like a particularly wealthy group, so I didn’t get the sense it was implying they were greedy or evil. And I’m still not sure what was going on with the little girl, but handing her over to that morose sheriff character didn’t seem like much of a “rescue”.
I have not seen God’s Country! I’ll add it to the list.
Oh, this is an interesting point. I didn’t pick up at the time that the gold was cursed–but that makes total sense with Boone’s fate. Okay, that makes me feel a bit better.
And I agree. I was extremely uneasy about the girl’s fate both in Boone’s office, and then with the Sheriff. I don’t think she’s in for a happy reunion with her family.
How many movies would have that happen somewhere around the middle and then just leave it there? No further references to it, no one cares, irrelevant to the rest of the plot, it just shows up and randomly kills a major character, and it’s not even what the movie is about. I love that.
I’m not sure I think the Gypsies were protecting the gold because curse. But like I could see it. Just like I could see them cursing it to prevent it’s theft, since it likely represents a good way to transport a solid portion of their communal wealth. I guess Gypsies placing curses is cliche and arguably racist (I mean it’s a little racist, isn’t it), but I didn’t find it problematic here. It’s a story thread that has it’s own weirdness (wait, it’s really cursed ?!?) inside of a movie with other unrelated but also weird weirdness.
I spent part of this movie wondering if Thomas was special needs, and how that might tie into the plot. But I discarded that somewhere before the finale, as I recall, in favor if it being a variety of trauma (the depths of which come out in the finale, of course). But I might be remembering wrong, I saw this movie a few months before this thread and then read this thread and maybe nothing is real anymore IDK.
I said this in the general horror thread, but I had honestly come to believe Nick Stahl had died. I think I somehow confused some of his life with Brad Renfroe’s or something (contemporaries and they even started in that movie together, Bully I think it was?). I was happy to see he was not dead, and apparently is doing better after some rehab and sorting out some demons. I’ve always really liked him as an actor. I always felt like he stole the deeply flawed (but not entirely meritless) Disturbing Behavior (the scene where he breaks down the highschool social landscape to Marsden in the lunchroom is terrific).
And he’s really good in this. The leads all give strong performances, and Jake Weber is inevitable (and I want him to be in 50 more horror movies). All three children make you feel the depths of their trauma.
I mostly love the way this movie shifts (I don’t care to use the term “surprise” or “twist” here) after setting up the finale, all while staying true to the central themes. It’s about family and trauma. It’s just that when you think you know what the trauma is it loudly (but also subtly!) pivots.
