Released in 1995, the classic movie "Brave's Game" is adapted from the best-selling children's book of the same name, through a board game that allows players to experience the jungle adventure for themselves, bringing a fresh and interesting experience to the audience, which has received unanimous praise from all walks of life and has also brought many influences to future films. Now, more than 20 years later, with the change of times, this series not only launched a sequel starring Dwayne Johnson, but also an innovative work with a strong tribute to Netflix's "Horror Cycle".
It's just that although it is a tribute, "Horror Loop" does not have the fun and funny of "Brave Game", but instead has a horror thriller like "Truth or Dare". The movie begins with a middle-aged man in a low position at home, who is always disliked by his son because he is obsessed with vintage items from 1980, and his wife never takes him seriously.
One day, however, he discovers a nostalgic video game called The Curser, which may seem ordinary on the surface, but has magical powers that can "affect reality" inside. While it made him feel novel at first, as the options given by the game became more aggressive, biting his wife's ear or his son's tongue? It also made it difficult for him to choose, and eventually he spread the game because he couldn't bear to see his family suffer. "Horror Loop" opens with such a shocking plot, which also makes the audience curious about the subsequent plot development.
Three months later, the heroine Kayla has repeatedly failed to apply for a job after dropping out of school, and even the work of being a cleaning staff in the "Destiny" company has faced many problems, in the case of financial constraints and her mother is deeply addicted to drugs, although she desperately wants to make changes and reverse her life, the situation is not as easy as imagined, and life can be said to be a mess.
The male protagonist, Isaac, is an engineer who works on the game and, like Kayla, wants to succeed on his own. One day they found the discarded video game "The Curser" in the garbage heap, which made Isaac, who loves retro items, very interested. In order to receive the bonus from the developer that can be paid for the game, they decided to start, but it was the beginning of a terrifying encounter.
From the first day when the waiter in the restaurant swallowed the fragment of her broken glass, causing massive bleeding from the oral esophagus to the next day when Kayla's mother was attacked by a huge bloodthirsty rat that appeared out of thin air at home, and finally forced to jump out of the window and be seriously injured, "Cycle of Terror" fully presents the horror situation caused by the game's control of reality, which not only brings a lot of horror and oppression to the audience, but also makes the two protagonists in the film decide to start facing up to the harm and negative impact of this game.
From the original reluctance to believe to understand the seriousness of the matter, although they do not know the working principle behind it, they feel incredible, but "Horror Loop" Kayla and Isaac, after learning that the game will be fixed at 2 o'clock in the middle of the night every day, also decided to investigate the situation and the mechanism behind "Curser" through the next level of the game, trying to get themselves out of the curse and life danger.
Among them, "Cycle of Terror" from choosing one of the blue and red doors, to Kayla entering the red door, the game creates an illusion through the nightmare that her brother Ricky once drowned in the pool, giving two options to save her brother or Ezak, in addition to letting the two protagonists know the malicious existence of the game itself, Isak is also in the process through his understanding of the retro trend, with the tone of the phone voice to find out the location of the "server" behind it.
And what's interesting about this movie is that they are here to uncover the truth and learn the process behind the game. In the end, the game's curse power stems from some ancient lost symbol that a man converted into an 8-digit command prompt character many years ago and wrapped it in the horror game of The Curser. The motivation behind this is the desire to bless yourself by casting curses on others.
So I like the way the final ending of "The Cycle of Horror" ends, not only in a way, but also creative and tense, just like the man at the beginning of the film is both a victim and a perpetrator, after Kayla defeated the great demon set in the game and successfully broke the level, she also used this curse game to deal with the evil neighbors who harassed their mother and daughter and all the bad guys in the world, bringing out the theme that the whole movie of "Horror Cycle" wants to tell.
Cycle of Horror shows the two sides of the "curse" and "gift" as one, and thus reflects many real situations in the real world. On the one hand, in addition to bringing out the real appearance of the weak and the strong in society, and the fact that some people gain is another person's loss, it also tells the audience that the same tool is handed over to different people, and its ultimate value will be determined according to the quality of the user. (Penguin: Film Critic Mtalk)
Overall, "Horror Loop" as a horror thriller version of "Brave's Game", but also through the creative ingenuity of the choreographer to make a new interpretation of the classic concept, not only a few bridges are indeed full of horror, the whole movie in addition to creating a horror atmosphere, but also through the mysterious power of the game itself, to create a sense of suspense behind the curious truth, so that the heroine can face the shadow of her own psychological trauma in the process of uncovering the truth, and finally put down the guilt and self-blame of many years. Tells a good story with a beginning and an end. Text/Rulu