MovieChat Forums > Hangman's Curse (2003) Discussion > The ending... (spoilers)

The ending... (spoilers)

posted 11 years ago by darksoulnohope
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The ending to a Christian film about a bunch of Goth kids who were actually portrayed with some sympathy (as they *were* actually being attacked for no other reason by the jocks than looking "Weird"), change completely to "Normal" at the end. It adds insult to injury when the Goth kids who are vindicated as (mostly) innocent change in the end into some Gap clothes, start hanging out (for no good reason) with the same jocks who tortured them, and are now Christians apparently. So according to the screenwriter, if you're attacked for being different than you deserve it and you need to become Christian and completely change who you are to conform to someone elses' standards. Apparently the author's book is worse than the film (I get from the other message thread and reviews) where the people who get "Redeemed" in the film are just plain killed, makes me think this author likes the idea of being a sadist towards anyone who doesn't conform with his religion and his idea of an acceptable personality/appearance.

[–] Injinn 9 years ago

That is assuming that all people who go down any clique-ish path are doing so out of a deeply held belief, and not simply as a reaction to their environment and the people with whom they have to associate.

Life is full of posers -- Christian and non-Christians alike. Some people choose to be anti-something (anti-establishment, anti-social, etc.) because they genuinely believe in railing against something they oppose; others only do it out of necessity -- because if they don't belong in the establishment, they have to belong somewhere.

That's the rule of survival: adapt.

The ending, while saccharine as hell, didn't come across to me like conformity was being hailed as the key to happiness. Ian and his friends, throughout the film, came across like outcasts for the sake of protection. That is why they even turned to a bizarre legend like Abel Frye. They were being singled out and were looking for something to even the score. When they weren't (being singled out), they didn't need the disguise anymore.

They weren't Goth-like for any other reason than the need to belong somewhere -- this DOES NOT apply to everyone in real life. Some people choose that willingly; that just wasn't the case in this film.

Again, there are a lot of people in real life that wear black and trend Goth for no other reason than to belong, while there are also people that do so because it fits who they are better. These guys just happened to be posers.