Heartlessed Special Rant-view
This article contains some spoilers of a really horrible movie. If you’re actually interested in watching it, do it at your own expense and stop reading. But if you, like me, hated those damn movies being a waste of money and energy, then my friend, this is for YOU.
This is a different stuff than what I normally wrote about. It’s not really a film review, but there are some paragraphs that talked about a certain film. You’ll see what I mean when I reached it.
The day began a good day. I finished my paper, which gave me endless pains for a whole week. I did well on a test that I really thought I’m gonna fail on. So in celebration, I went to the movie theatre in the local mall. I was going to watch Let Me In, the vampire film adapted from the Swedish best seller, Låt Den Rätte Komma In, whose Swedish film adaption happens to be one of my favorite films of all time. It premiered about two weeks ago, but I couldn’t go due to a variety of reasons. You can tell, I’m really excited, and I even planned my next heartlessed review for it.
So I took the bus, with my money ready, finally got there, and guess what? They weren’t even showing it!!! I’m already shocked already. I know it’s not doing well in box office...but...
Then I saw something that would add insult to injury. You’re not gonna believe this. I wish I had a camera so I can record this, but oh well. You see, on that day the theatre plays a bunch of films: The Social Network; The Town; Legends of Ga’Hoole ......just your popular, money-making movies of the month. And then, there’s Case 39.
Now, before I start to get all emotional because of that, let me give you guys a little mini-review here. Case 39 premiered the same day as Let Me In, on Oct, 1st. It is orginally set in 2008, but got pushed back for TWO YEARS before this release (that should be an indication fo how bad it is). But because it’s released in some other countries (like Australia and some European countries), I was able to get a DVD during summer. It costs abot 6 bucks, pretty cheap. I thought it’s a good deal. Little did I know how I’ll regret this decision later.
The plot of Case 39 involves a social worker (Renee Zellweger) who rescues a girl (Jodelle Ferland from Silent Hill and Tideland) from her parents, who are really more than just abusive. They wanted her straight dead. So Zellweger rescued the girl, Lilith (which is actually the name of a demon-what parent in the right mind would name their child after that??), and taking pity of her, adopted the girl. But of course, the girl is no ordinary girl. Soon people around her began to die in “gruesome” ways, and Zellweger had to fight for her own life.
The plot is at best mediocre. The sub-genre of “creepy little girls” is once again exploited here, with the fact that Ferland herself is almost a poster girl for that kind of role. But unlike another “creepy girl” film Orphan, which offers a pretty creepy explanation of the girl’s evil behaviour, the film balantly throws out a supernatural explanation and basically says, “That’s why we’re so lazy with convering up those holes, because the girl isn’t human and can do lots of stuff. DEAL WITH IT.” And the ending is as abrupt as it’s gonna get. After so many demonstrations of the girl’s power and so many failed attempt by Zellweger to get rid of her, the solution is really simple: just lock her in a car and drown her in a lake. Can a demon get drowned? At this point, I don’t even know anymore (not to mention during one point of the film, it is said that in order to get rid of her, you have to put her to sleep). Maybe it’s preparing for a sequel. The only thing that is enjoyable in this film is Jodelle Ferland, who once again delivers the chill factor under her fragile and sweet appearance. But even that gets a little old, since Ferland’s major roles in the past are all creepy little girls.
All right, all right, maybe I’m being a little unfair here. And now that sitting there typing these words, I ain’t even that mad an more. The fact that Let Me In also exploits “creepy little girl” factor kinda washed my point down a bit. The two films opened with fairly same results on the opening day, with Case 39 slightly ahead (I guess lots of people do ship it after all). Considering its bad history/quality, I gotta give some credits to Case 39.. And it’s probably not the director’s fault, since he also happens to be the guy who directed Pandorum, one of the best sci-fy horror films last year. I can almost imagine how much meddling Hollywood bosses have in it just looking at its troubled release history.
Nevertheless, I just think it’s unfair that Let Me In got taken out while Case 39 stays on. I mean, it’s not like one is generating much more money than the other. And Let Me In has so, so, so many reasons to come up as a superior film than Case 39. I guess what nailed the coffin for Let Me In is due to the fact that it’s a remake. But I mean come on, there are some good remakes once in a while, like The Departed. Let Me In certainly fared better with the critics than Case 39 for one. Bottom line, I just can’t find a logical explanation to this situation. Oh well, perhaps I never will.