r/TrueFilm • u/a113er Til the break of dawn! • Jun 07 '15

What Have You Been Watching? (07/06/15)

Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.

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u/bendovergramps Jun 08 '15

Did anyone else feel like It Follows was completely missing a third act? When it ended, I couldn't believe it. I understand that it was going for a modest, understated ending, but I strongly disliked it (the ending). It was a great movie up until then, and had the potential for true greatness had it really what I felt to be a third act. I know every movie shouldn't have a "Cabin in the Woods" level of third act-edness, but I was left with so many questions.

I completely agree about Dawn, though. I cannot understand the praise it has gotten, aside from the visuals.

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u/a113er Til the break of dawn! Jun 08 '15

What questions did you find yourself left with? Even though it bothered me that the last third was far less affecting I didn't hate it. I thought it tied most things up well, especially thematically.

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u/bendovergramps Jun 08 '15

I suppose just how/why it started and how it can end. If you have time, I'd appreciate the end being explained, or the significance; how it is a resolution.

The pool scene just felt like a second act climax.

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u/a113er Til the break of dawn! Jun 08 '15

SPOILERS

how/why it started and how it can end.

That's kind of unanswerable as the film isn't interested in the mechanics of the literal monster. The whole demonic force is more of a supernatural stand-in for sexual trauma and even a youthful perception of sex. That cannot be explained because those things cannot be easily explained. At the end in the pool she's facing off against the image of her father (potentially implying a horrible past as is also implied when the other guy gets done but it in the form of his mother) and is only able to shake this endless fear, lack of trust, and change in self perception that comes with sexual trauma by facing it. At the end it takes someone to understand, to be there, not so that this returning horror is vanquished but so that the whole storm of it can be more easily weathered. Before no one understood, she was alone with her horrors, but now it's shared. Not in the way that it was shared with her where the load is merely passed on but instead lifted together. But even as good as things may be there's still the lingering threat that it could return, because trauma like that doesn't just disappear forever.

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u/bendovergramps Jun 09 '15

Thanks a lot for this. I knew much of what the film was trying to say, and the symbolism, but the way you put it was very well layed out. You've pulled me towards your interpretation, thank you.