Hell's Hospital: Where there is any cure, giving up treatment is victory!

"Hell's Hospital" is adapted from Ellen Poe's short story "The Therapy of Dr. Tal and Professor Fisher", the plot of the original book is very simple, the protagonist is invited to visit a lunatic asylum, and he becomes more and more aware of the strange behavior of the caregivers, and finally he finally understands that the identities of the patients and doctors in the hospital have been changed. Leaving the beginning and ending, the novel has only two main passages, beginning with the dean taking the protagonist around and telling a special "therapy" that is novel and chilling at first; the climactic scene takes place at the dinner table, the protagonist witnesses the doctors and nurses behaving more and more absurdly, and when he is confused, the real detainees rush into the room and rescue him from the unbelievable situation.

The novel has been adapted to the screen several times, starting with the French silent version in 1913 and the German version in 1932, which was mixed with another black cat, and has since been borrowed by Spanish, Polish, Mexican, and Czech filmmakers, and of all previous editions, the American version in 1973 was the best, although due to its low cost, it was submerged in a huge library of Ellen Poe. The original work adopts the style of the anecdote, the protagonist does not participate in the narrative, as a bystander, he hears a strange anecdote. Such a structure is well suited for short stories, but a protagonist without initiative is inappropriate on the screen and must be transformed into a typical heroic character who challenges tyranny, saves the victims, and completes the love chase, and Hell's Hospital succeeds in expanding the short story supported by a single idea into a fascinating suspense blockbuster.

The film adds a lot of realism to the thickness of the story, adding credibility to the absurd premise of the story: the madman's hospital exposes many problems, the boiler is not hot, the supply is lacking, there is "infidelity" among the madmen, the madman "dean" needs to train a disciple to inherit his rule; on the other hand, the imprisoned medical staff are plagued by diseases, and even if they flee, they are hunted and killed, unable to turn the tide in a storm like the end of the novel. The novel focuses on the table dance, the film is just to the point, said some vulgar jokes about sex, those that I remember the crazy game of challenging discipline and animal playing, failed to reproduce, this is more unsatisfactory. From the moment I saw the trailer, I was expecting a live-action interpretation of these scenes, which was skipped.

There is a branch line in the film where a young doctor played by Jim Sturges tries to treat a patient. Unlike the brutal and abusive "captivity" model of the legitimate dean and the "stocking" model of the fake dean's assigned functions, he has achieved a compromise between the two - through patience, respect, understanding and goodwill deception, to gain the trust and friendly cooperation of patients. Compared with the first two, such a humane treatment and treatment method is undoubtedly the most intimate for the audience today. The background of the film was drastically changed (the novel was written in the 1840s) and placed at the junction of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was a symbol of bidding farewell to the dark ages and ushering in a new dawn of medicine. At the end, the sky is high and cloudy, the sun is shining, and the warm picture of dancing in the Yerba Buena Manor also changes the previous gloomy, dirty, damp, and distorted visual impression. With the change of times, the ignorance and cruelty of the old era are also gone with the madhouse burned by the fire. Paradoxically, many Edgar Allan Poe novels end with the burning of the mansion, and "Dr. Thar" is rarely spared, but it is pulled back to this track by the movie, and I don't know whether to play or like it.

Strictly speaking, this film is not scary. The story is serious, but the atmosphere is not solemn, shrouded in carnival-like shouts and shouts, making people cry and laugh and a little creepy. To be precise, it is a feeling of torment surrounded by irrational circumstances. The film captures the essence of Edgar Allan Poe's novels, restoring how I felt when I first read Edgar Allan Poe's novels, wandering in the gothic vortex where life and death, reason and madness meet, gorgeously wrapped in crazy factors, the time bomb that destroys emotions seems to explode at any time, and everything is full of incomprehensible and deeply fascinating perverted attraction. If there is any horror, it is the fear that after reading it, it will also become subversive and insane.

Since the mystery of the original book is revealed in the first act of the film, the script reconstructs a new unexpected truth. Unfortunately, this film is too close to "Confinement Island" in terms of cass and story premise, and the ending is the same, it is difficult not to associate with this aspect. The creator has done a solid job in covering up, without the slightest hint of the protagonist's mental state like "Confinement Island", and even if the audience has suspicions in this regard, it is fleeting. A good suspense screenwriter is like a magician, covering up small actions with big moves, and in a bunch of crazy people who can see at a glance, a kind of person who is clever enough in disguise is completely unobtrusive. It seems that in order to be worthy of The name of Ellen Poe, this twist is like an extra insertion after the script is written, but it is dispensable, although it will not make people feel that the painting is enough, but it has not been able to make an emotional boost, and it cannot reach the realm of "Very Suspect", which is amazing. (Text/Fang Yunan)