I've read some interpretations that Christine actually has an eating disorder and the "lamia" is all in her head!
The scam artists are a con and are preying on her mental illness, the séance is a sham hence why her BF couldn't go and San Dena doesn't really die but it is only faked!
All the food and oral references, a handkerchief down her throat, a fly buzzing around her "empty" stomach, her fat girl farm background and the fact that she never actually eats throughout the film is quite compelling.
Quite farfetched but some good arguments for it.
I loved the guillotine scene and the car fight scene; especially when Ganesh coughs out the rule and shatters the window
Hi, I didn't see your post before I posted above.:)
I don't think that it's far fetched at all.
It fits rather snugly and I think the symbolism is so strong that it's more likely to be than not.
There are some directors who do like to play with stories which have a hidden subtext and play with symbolism to provide a double meaning to a story.
Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick to name just two.
There are some directors who do like to play with stories which have a hidden subtext and play with symbolism to provide a double meaning to a story.
Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick to name just two.
The difference being, of course, is that Scott and Kubrick both got somewhat more effective results when they did horror.
well , yeah I see what you mean . My feeling is that the script was written with all that subtext in mind , but the actual execution of the film is mostly comedy so kinda works against a serious subtext I feel .
I like it tho , but I did get sick of all the vomitting/swallowing !
yea it was ok, i would'nt go out and buy it..I have seen it on dvd when it came out, and today after taping it..The girl in it reminded me of my cousin, but she has dark hair
That it's about a woman with an eating disorder, and all the horror events in the film she experiences are actually hallucinations from her own imagination.
If you like the film, then watch it again with this in mind.
It is hinted at various points in the film that she used to have an eating disorder. In one bit her mother is said to have had an addiction. She wants to fit to a certain image and conform. She doesn't want to be like her mother.
Look at all the horror scenes with the old gypsy woman. Just about ever horror effect is based around stuff coming out of Allison's mouth, or going into her mouth, lots of throwing up stuff, and stuff like the entire old woman's arm going into her mouth.
Almost like a symbolic suggestion of a bulimic cycle where someone gorges food and throws it up again.
The fly in her stomach, possibly suggesting that she 'ate' the fly, so now she needs to throw it up again.
In one scene the grand daughter of the old gypsy woman asks Allison if she used to be fat, Allison affirms this, to which the grand daughter says "Yes, I can tell".
Why else would a line like that be written into the script? Such a strange exchange, there would need to be a reason for the writer to think to put that in at all.
Then at dinner at her boyfriend's home with his parents.
Addiction is brought up in conversation with his mother (It is said to be alcohol to be precise in this case).
Then the scene with the cake on the plate in front of her. This I think is very telling indeed. An encounter with food of course.
What does she see in the piece of cake? An eye, looking right back at her. As though the eye is a symbolic metaphor judging her as she's about to eat something.
Then the seance scene. her boyfriend isn't even there. Which may suggest that it never even happened as he wasn't there to witness it.
She even tells the mystical helper guy that he's full of shit. That to me is quite possibly a clue.
The grave scene. Again, she's stuffing the envelope into a mouth.
There are several scenes within the film that are clearly hallucinations, as she experiences events and then everything suddenly goes back to normal. She expereinces these strange things, but I think that in just about every single scene except the seance, no other character is physically affected by these events. Several of the horror scenes are actually where she's on her own. No one else around to experience them.
I wasn't sure about this theory but it fits rather well.
It was only when I considered the eye in the cake that the theory was sold to me. That symbolism is too strong for me to just dismiss.
Even if this theory isn't true, which I think it is, it would still be an interesting film nonetheless simply because it can be read this way.
This is very interesting. Thinking about it there are more obvious non-symbolic signs too. She gets big sandwich lunches for her colleagues but we don't see her have anything other than water when she visits the boyfriend and then a masssssive mug of coffee back at the bank. The only thing we do see her eat is ice-cream when she's at her lowest, classic gorging in order to help her deal with those demons. And the size of that cake....
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Hi, I didn't see your post before I posted above.:)
I don't think that it's far fetched at all.
It fits rather snugly and I think the symbolism is so strong that it's more likely to be than not.
There are some directors who do like to play with stories which have a hidden subtext and play with symbolism to provide a double meaning to a story.
Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick to name just two.
well , yeah I see what you mean . My feeling is that the script was written with all that subtext in mind , but the actual execution of the film is mostly comedy so kinda works against a serious subtext I feel .
I like it tho , but I did get sick of all the vomitting/swallowing !
its more tongue in cheek, comedy stuff..
So what did you think to it?
yea it was ok, i would'nt go out and buy it..I have seen it on dvd when it came out, and today after taping it..The girl in it reminded me of my cousin, but she has dark hair
This is very interesting. Thinking about it there are more obvious non-symbolic signs too. She gets big sandwich lunches for her colleagues but we don't see her have anything other than water when she visits the boyfriend and then a masssssive mug of coffee back at the bank. The only thing we do see her eat is ice-cream when she's at her lowest, classic gorging in order to help her deal with those demons. And the size of that cake....