Thrilling Escape Scenes in Film

    This was such a good movie! I have seen so many movies with similar themes such as Fresh (2022) and Ready or Not (2019). I was fascinated by how well the actors portrayed this story, specifically in the scene where Rose is speaking on the phone with Rod. She keeps empty facial expressions, as if she is in that hypnotized trance, while adding emotion to her voice to seem as if she cared. I wasn't suspicious of Rose though until she couldn't find her keys and then I knew. I loved how the opening scene ties into the story as well. I went back to rewatch the opening scene after Chris took the car and saw the mask from the beginning. I was rooting for all of those captured people to find their way out and I was so sad they all ended up dying (except Chris of course, who survived). 

    The music really added to the story as well. I love when thriller/horror movies use music as important elements because it makes the story even more memorable, in my opinion. The song "Run Rabbit Run" plays on the theme of Chris needing to escape when he takes the car to drive away. It played at the beginning of the story from the car and replayed as he stole the car, like as he was "running away". I also loved the use of screeching from violins to keep the suspense. Noises and music played such a significant part, like with the teacup sound to trigger the hypnosis. I was picking this up as perhaps a Jordan Peele move, like if he enjoys using sound in his films. 

    I felt like it was a little rushed at the end though. It seems when Chris was escaping, it was really fast and easy for him to kill the family members. In escape movies, it normally takes a while for the characters to escape but it didn't take Chris long. I could come to the conclusion that this was done on purpose, like everyone was hypnotized and they weren't in the right mind to fight back. Other than that, I loved the pacing of the movie as well. I was intrigued the whole time and I kept coming up with questions that I was waiting to be answered. I thought the story would end very differently, though. I thought they were going to make a connection to police brutality when the cop car showed up at the end. The scene looked like Chris was attacking Rose and I thought the movie was going to make a statement by having Chris go to jail just because it looked like a black man attacking a white woman. I am glad, however, that it was Rod who came to get him. That left a much better taste to me because I wanted Chris to survive. It was also very sad when Chris couldn't kill Rose. He was in a position to do it but he ended up just leaving her, which reminds the audience that he was in love with her before he knew she was crazy. Overall, this is my favorite genre of film (thriller/suspense) so I really ended up enjoying this.