Ok, let's see...
First of all, SPOILERS AHEAD!
Then:
Jake is told by a slightly older peer (read: not friend) that the dead rabbit in his backyard was killed by zombies. To anyone in jaded Adult Land, this observation sounds outlandish, but to this naive boy, the only way this damage could have been done is by the mysterious creature known as the zombie. His only knowledge of the elusive zombie is the other boy's description and a Zombie FAQ that the boys print off of the Internet. Every time Jake gets stressed out (there are many times, since his parents are recently seperated and still fighting openly over new love interests and custody agreements), he thinks he notices zombie-type noises coming out of his closet. Every time Jake reads a new line from the FAQ, he hears that same description coming from said closet. Things get worse once he catches the tail end of "Night of the Living Dead" one night on tv and sees what "real" zombies look like, and after he overhears his mother mention that the old owner of their house was an undertaker. So, the movie goes on and on and on, with Jake witnessing the collapse of his parents marriage, his name-calling peer who just happens to be the son of his mother's best friend, and a drunk babysitter who hits the cooking sherry as soon as the mother leaves for a night on the town with her new Real Estate salesman beau. The end comes when Jake's father confronts Mr. Real Estate in their front yard. The zombie (who happens to look just like the NOTLD zombies, of course) has come out of the closet and is now battling Jake and chasing him around the house, dumping cereal and getting Jake to take the blame when his mother shows up. It's now that we are allowed to know tha the zombie can only be seen by Jake, and mysteriously hides whenever other non-dead humans have the nerve to show their faces. The very end has the parents in the backyard, arguing over Jake's apparent lunacy, while Jake himself runs circles around them, all the while screaming because his invisible zombie is chasing him in the open and his parents are doing nothing to help him. Finally, Jake sits on the ground and listens to his parents try to decide what to do with him. THE END.
Seriously, that's the end. Now, I get what the symbolism is supposed to mean, and how the imagination of a 7 year old can be stretched into infinity, but the point of the movie was totally lost on me. What did the kid learn? How did he change? Jake confronted his fear... then what? I just couldn't wrap my mind around that part. Maybe I accidentally fell asleep and missed something important, without realizing it?
Ah, whatever. Ninety minutes of my life and blah, blah, blah.
I've got two good posts in me and I just wrote my third...
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Starduster
14 years ago
Does every movie that you see have a neat and tidy ending on it?
"And they lived happily everafter", doesnt apply here.
The boy is damaged. The parents dont even know it or care, at least the mother doesn't. She is too busy trying to fina ANYTHING to make her ex husband out to be the "monster" here.
The boy hopes to "slay" his demons (zombies in this case) but he cant; no matter how much he tries. ITS HIS PARENTS who are terrorizing his life. His parents friends are terrorizing his life. A no good babysitter, a slightly older "friend" who is FORCED into his life.
If the movie went on for another hour and a half you would see more of the same, because that is what Jake sees day in and day out.
At this point, even if the parents stopped all of the fighting and arguing, Jake would need therapy to undue the damage already caused.
This is a movie for PARENTS. For people who fight in front of their kids. For people who dont listen or dont really care about how their turmoil is destroying their kid or giving him any sort of chance of "normal" if there is such a thing.
A kid in this environmnet stands a very poor chance of developing a good relationship when he grows up. He has no idea of what a "good" relationship is.
He will always be facing a "monster" in his life and sadly one day, he may become a "monster" as well.
This movie may not apply to EVERY viewer. There certainly are good people, and even people who maintain decent relationships in situations of a divorce.
The worst case senario is those who view this and think that it doesnt apply to them, when THEY are the source of the problems.
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denise1234
12 years ago
Starduster^
*SPOILERS*
Very good posting! You obviously 'got' what many people missed.
This is a devastating critique on the effects of divorce on a young child, presented from a unique perspective of the child.
This movie doesn't use a Lifetime drama way of portraying:
How emotionally neglected such a child may feel in this situation.
How manipulated a child can become in such a situation by the adults around him. It's too much how the mother drums up farfeteched 'abuse' by the father to suit her own needs while being oblivious to the abuse of other adults she puts in charge of her son (e.g., her good friend who slaps him and calls him names; the drunken babysitter).
How ignored the child's concerns are by the adults so enmeshed in all THEIR 'drama'.
How the child has so little power/control over his life, that he would rather feel some measure of control by battling a 'zombie' -- the imaginary monster in his closet but oh so real to him, than the reality of his life -- the 'real' horrors he must face, but ones he cannot devise weapons against nor ones for which he has an FAQ sheet about.
The ending was tragic and I think this would be a good film to show couples with children who may be contemplating a divorce.
"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois
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