SPOILERS BELOW MAIN SECTION OF THIS REVIEW (Warning will precede it)
The film centres on a somewhat disfunctional family reunited for Christmas at the family home. Characters range from the son and his girlfriend, the somewhat chavvy sister and her macho boyfriend, an overbearing militaristic father and wallflower of a mother and the cantankerous grandad. Straight away this presents a great opportunity for all these personalities to play off against one and other.
The film centres on an 'incident' that sees the entire cast trapped within the home, unable to leave as the result of some type of barricade which has entombed the house. After initially trying to escape the film pivots and begins to focus on the dynamic of the characters as they each find ways to cope with the trauma of their situation.
This in turn leads to plenty of conflict which I won't spoil here. The acting intially felt a little wooden and schlocky but I felt the story was written well enough for us to quickly warm to multiple characters which draws you in for the rest of the story. Much of the film becomes more of a character study into how people would respond in a crisis and while it has its moments of horror to some degree I would say this is a background theme for much of the feature.
Throughout the movie instructions are delivered to the family by way of the television. The orders range from the reasonable 'await further instructions' to the more boundary pushing which you will discover as you watch. Information for us (the real world viewer) is drip fed just enough to keep the hooks in. You want to know more! What is happening? What do these messages mean? How are they going to get out of this?
The ending (no spoilers yet) is what will divide people the most. Taken at face value it can seem outwith the rest of the story but with a little thought it does deliver a somewhat clever message by the time the credits roll.
All in all I thought this was an enjoyable watch although reading the other reviews I may be in the minority here. If you have roughly 90 minutes to spare I would recommend giving it a watch. It won't change your life but it may make you think.
SPOILERS BELOW
LAST CHANCE
HERE WE GO
I don't feel the need to go through the movie piece by piece as that will defeat the entire purpose of you watching it. What I am going to talk about is the contentious ending that seems to have so many people divided.
The big reveal comes late in the third act when we discover that the television houses a living creature made from what looks to be thick, black cable. This 'organism' is controlling the broadcast being fed to the family. Once this is shown to us the plot moves forward at a breakneck pace ultimately revealing that the walls surrounding the house are in fact also a living organism similar to what is in the television.
The entire cast that is still alive at this point is soon killed off with the exception of an unborn baby that is still alive in its deceased mothers womb. These cables (the monster) are sentient and they take control of the now dead fathers body, reanimating it in order to communicate with the surviving (soon to be dead) characters. It communicates directly with them through the father exclaiming "worship me".
They of course reject this notion and are quickly murdered and we soon realise this is one of those films where the 'bad guys' win. In a visiually interesting, if entirely unbelievable move we see the baby being born as the 'monster' manouveres a television in front of her. The screen flickers to life and the words "worship me" is displayed on a colourful screen before we fade to black and the credits roll.
Now if you take this is a swift left turn from the rest of the films themes which ruins an otherwise good feature I would totally understand. We are pushed to our limits with regard to suspension of disbelief on this one but the thing I feel like a number of other reviewers have either missed entirely or just failed to mention is the metaphor laden message we are being given here.
Throughout the entire film we are told over and over again that we must obey whatever the television tells us to do. One character even remarks that the "tv is Dads life" in a clever bit of foreshadowing given his later reanimating thanks to the television. I think a lot of people have taken this obey message to simply mean the surviving humans must follow and be subservient to these 'monsters' but as I'm sure you've now worked out based on what I've just said, I think the message is a far more relevant one to all of us!
Millions of people sit in front of their televisions night after night, consuming whatever is placed before us. Much of our understanding if the outside world comes neatly packaged for the consumer via programmes and advertising and like it or not, we consume all of it to some degree. I think the entire premise of the movie is a metaphor for our worship of the television. The 'monster' comes in the form of black cables similar to the tangled mess of plugs and wires that sit behind most of our own setups at home.
The walls around the house shut out the world around us, focusing our attention on the television allowing it to hold our attention even more. One of our main characters has the epiphany late in the movie that the 'monster', "needs us to survive". The same could be said for television. Without viewers it would sit dormant and powerless, unable to influence our lives in any way be that the stories it tells or the products it attempts to sell. If our devices were indeed sentient they would depend on us in much the same was as so many depend on it.
That is the message of the movie as far as I was concerned. Perhaps I have misinterpreted it entirely but looking at it in this way added a lot more depth to the ending which has caused so much division. Love it or hate it I still think the rest of the movie is worth your time and I would recommend anyone watch it at least once.
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