Good suspense films are adrenaline rushing, sobering and refreshing.
Recently dug up a treasure film of 2019, the plot is high-energy, the plot is brain-burning, and the narrative technique is clever -
The Man in the Labyrinth
The man of the labyrinth
At the beginning of the movie, a flower girl puts lipstick on the glass of a car, and suddenly, as soon as the door opens, the girl is sucked into the car by a mysterious force.
When the girl woke up again, she was already lying on a bed in the hospital observation room.
A white-haired doctor appeared in front of her, calling himself Dr. Greene.
Green told the girl that her name was Samantha, who had been kidnapped by kidnappers for 15 years, was found fainting on the side of the road, and then called the police and was taken to the hospital.
But because of the long prison sentence, mental oppression and drug control, her memory was confused and many things were not remembered.
Greene needs help to recover her memories and find the kidnappers.
According to Samantha's recollections, she remembered that the place where she had imprisoned herself was like a labyrinth, with gray walls on all sides, no way out, no bottom.
She had been walking for a long time, tired and sleepy and hungry, when she found a cube game on the ground, and she began to be forced to play various games, and only by completing the level could she get food, clothes and water.
In the process, the kidnappers never showed up.
The more you play to the back, the more difficult the problem, Samantha does not always get food, the game fails, she can only starve and freeze.
Once, when she was so thirsty that she didn't even spare the stinking toilet water, she even had to kill another girl in order to survive.
But no matter what Samantha did, the labyrinth seemed to have no end, helplessness, dazedness, despair, and filled her.
What makes the film special is the bilingual, bilingual narrative, in which Samantha and Greene talk in English, while the other narrative line is in Italian.
The protagonist of this line is a private detective named Zhenke.
The elderly Zhenke has been tormented by illness for several years, and the doctor asserts that he only has a few months to live, that he has no love, and that on this day, he is ready to swallow a gun and commit suicide.
Suddenly, he was drawn to the news of Samantha's rescue on television.
It turned out that 15 years ago, Samantha's parents had entrusted him with the search for his missing daughter, but at that time, he hated that the honorarium was too small and pushed it away.
Today, the girl is rescued, but the kidnappers are still at large.
Therefore, Zhenke decided to help the police find the robber before dying, which can also be regarded as "paying off the debt".
With years of work experience, Zhenke quickly found the police.
The police said he had only seen Samantha fainting on the side of the road, and not far from him, a rabbit-headed monster was watching them motionlessly.
Because it was too dark, the police could not tell whether the other party was a person or a ghost.
Zhen ke didn't have time to think too much, and quickly drove to the Missing Persons Center, where he was going to search for all cases related to rabbits.
Here, he discovers that a man named Robin Basso has had the same experience as Samantha.
Robin was kidnapped when he was 10 years old, and although he was rescued three days later, his temperament changed drastically and he was abandoned by his biological parents.
Later, Robin was sent to the foster home, and during that time, the backyard of the foster home suddenly had a lot of rabbits that had been tortured to death.
To investigate further, Zhenke went to the foster home where Robin had been adopted.
The old woman in charge of the foster home told him that some of the children here once lived in dark dungeons, eroded by darkness, and even after being rescued, their personalities would be distorted.
They called these children the "Children of Darkness."
The old woman even gave Zhenke a comic book left by Robin.
At first glance, the book looks unremarkable, but under the reflection of the mirror, the cute rabbits in the book have turned into vicious-looking demons and monsters.
Zhenke inhaled a cold breath, and he suddenly realized that Robin could be the one who kidnapped Shamamsan and had been spying on them.
However, before he could think about it, the rabbit-headed man sent a video to Zhenke, who captured Zhenke's lover and abused her to death.
When Dangke rushed to the lover's house, in addition to the lover's body, he also found a man who was seriously injured.
The man, who claimed to be a dentist, was dazed at home and had already been lying here when he woke up, and the man claimed to recognize the kidnapper, who was his own little Paul.
The development of the case has been basically clear here, Robin is the rabbit head man, because of the large birthmark on his face, he changed his name to Paul, and wore a hood when committing the crime, just to hide his eyes.
But is this really the case?
For a mid-level suspense film, if the ending is only like this, it is too dramatic, the parallel narrative of the two lines is the biggest trick of the film, when you wonder if Samantha's line is useless, the reversal comes.
When Dangke finds Paul, he suddenly realizes that something seems to be wrong, Paul is not really Robin, and the person lying in the bathtub is Robin.
Robin stabbed himself in order to blend into the hospital and capture Samantha to continue the torture.
All this is recognized by Zhen ke, and with his help, the police quickly take robin down.
But it's not over yet.
Observing Samantha in the ward, with Greene's help, she gradually remembers her past, such as when she gave birth to a child in the dungeon.
But when the camera turns, it is another intensive care unit, an injured girl is lying on the bed, the police call the girl Samantha, and The doctor outside the ward is a young and handsome young man.
And the previous "Samantha", one by one, walked out of the ward, she fixed her eyes on what kind of hospital was here, and it was clear that it was still the maze with no end in sight.
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In fact, the director's two-line narrative is to facilitate the telling of two kidnapping cases that are one year apart.
The first is the kidnapping of Samantha, the real Samantha was imprisoned by Robin for 15 years, and after being rescued, Zhenke helped the police to capture Robin.
So what about the fake Samantha and the white-haired old man?
In fact, the fake Samantha is a female policewoman, she is pursuing a case of a perverted kidnapper, who expected to be caught.
The old man who imprisons the policewoman in the maze is the biggest boss of this film, and he likes to play with the "prey" he has caught in the palm of his hand and enjoy the perverted pleasure.
He did this only when he was inspired by watching Samantha's news, and then brainwashed the policewoman, injected psychotropic drugs, and manipulated her makeup to make the policewoman believe that she was the missing and rescued Samantha.
Of course, the policewoman does have a child in real life, and I have to say that the big boss is also thoughtful.
In fact, this big boss not only attacked the police, but also caused Robin's psychological distortion.
He uses comics to seduce one unworldly child after another, causing these children to eventually become "children of darkness" and take pleasure in abusive control when they grow up.
In this movie, two old drama bones gave wonderful performances.
One is the actor of the big boss, the two-time Oscar-winning emperor Dustin Hoffman;
One is Tony Servero, who plays a private detective, who has performed well in "The City of Beauty" and "Them".
Overall, the film is still quite brain-burning, and there are no urine spots in the two-hour movie.
In terms of creating a horror atmosphere, it is even more remarkable, and the background music is out, which makes people sweat and stand upright, which is a masterpiece of suspense thriller.