MovieChat Forums > Circle of Eight (2009) Discussion > Sooo, what exactly is going on here? SP...

Sooo, what exactly is going on here? SPOILERZONE!

posted 14 years ago by bhobnine
8 replies | jump to latest

Stop here to avoid spoilage. That being said,
I can see why its direct to video, though technically its pretty good in its production values ( I liked that set, the acting is decent, pretty good camerawork, good sound),but screenplay-wise its lacking ( though has a few good lines) and seems to be full O holes. I tend to like movies that utilise the 'GROUNDHOG DAY' effect, ( having a charector need to repeat an event using some kind of time warp anomoly) but this one was rather lacking. I'm still trying to figure out a few basic things. First obvious question, WHY THE HELL ARE THESE 'GHOSTS' FAKING THEIR OWN DEATHS????? From what I gather, these 'limbo people' are trying to nudge Jessica towards a certain objective, that objective being that she has to die in the flaming room as opposed to falling out the window and thus somehow guiding the firefighters to the roof to save the uhhh dead people who then wouldnt be dead people. Ok, so lets say that is what they want, then I ask again, WHY THE HELL ARE THESE GHOSTS FAKING THEIR OWN DEATHS??? How is that going to keep her in the room? Perhaps if they worked on the element that she gave up on rescuing her little brother, using some kind of guilt trip, instead of drenching themselves with fake blood for some reason that makes no sense to me, it wouldnt have taken them 30,000 attempts at getting what they needed. That would have saved them a lot of toothbrushes.

" Pffft, my suspension of disbelief has higher standards than that"

[–] StephEff 14 years ago

I completely agree. I understood what they wanted pretty early on, the beginning of the movie which was clearly supposed to be a "teaser" just gave away the whole concept of the movie, so instead of trying to figure out what was going to happen, I tried figuring out why they were going about things the way they were. I kind of figured that they all died similarly to how they were pretending to die, but...obviously that didn't happen, since they all supposedly died on the roof (or...were supposed to?), so I honestly didn't get that.

I didn't understand how they were already dead if Jessica was supposed to die in the room and they died because she wasn't in the room, but then after she "changed" it, they were alive. Not to mention, I just don't see WHY they were so insistent on her dying instead of them. I mean, yeah, it makes sense that they didn't want to die, but pressuring her to die so they would live? :P Couldn't they have tried to keep her and Evan on the roof so they all lived? I don't know. It was just so thrown together. Not to mention, I didn't understand at all why Jessica and Evan's bodies weren't in the room. They were emphasizing so much that it's not the BODY that they're trying to preserve, but the spirit, so it makes no sense that the bodies were gone too, only the spirits would have moved on....

steph

[–] oceanaire 14 years ago

Both of you made some good points. One thing I noticed after going through it again, is that in the beginning of the movie when she's driving to the apartment, she's singing to a song that had the words, "I'm gonna set my soul on fire." Then later, as she's still driving, a firetruck is ahead of her and she slows down. As the firetruck turns, it does so in very slow motion. Also, during that scene, I could have sworn I saw a dark-haired girl with sunglasses on in the backseat on the passenger side. Probably a goof?

Another thing was when she was walking into the apartment, Evan said there no way she could carry the mirror by herself and he would help her later. Even the the manager brought that up to her and she just ignored it.

Another thing I don't get is when Jessica and Even and messing around in his room, one of his art? thingies looks like it's on fire. He freaks out and says that an experimental one and then tells her to leave.

I dunno...maybe I just didn't get movie.

I gave it a 2/10.

[–] AndrewRobertson 14 years ago

it wouldnt have taken them 30,000 attempts at getting what they needed.

903,259*

If Jimmy cracked corn and no one cares, why is there a song about it?

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mystery_Machine 14 years ago

This movie appears to be loosely based on Dante Alighieri's THE DIVINE COMEDY.*

*Please read my post under the topic "first post!" for more details on the similarities between this film and poem.

Jessica, the tenants of The Dante, and the two police officers are in Purgatory; where according to Dante - sinners are allowed to leave only when they have corrected the flaw within themselves that led to their sin(s).

From what I deducted from the attempts to fake their deaths, the Dante tenants were aiming at inducing emotion from Jessica. They felt Jessica was devoid of any feeling for anyone other than herself - which also seemed consistent in the drowning of her brother. By exposing her to gruesome deaths they hoped she would be moved into realizing how horrible they had died in the fire.

Assuming that in the original incident Jessica and Evan were not at the New Year's party, explains why the tenants made every intention to extend an invitation to Jessica to attend. Unfortunately, once on the roof top the tenants verbally attacked Jessica, only forcing her to leave.

It is either en route to or on the roof top, that one of the tenants makes a comment to the police officers something to the effect of, "since you're stuck with us for all eternity". It is this comment that leads me to believe that when Jessica initially threw herself from the window, the policemen fled to her apartment where the fire was visible and Evan's screams were audible. It was there that they perished, never able to evacuate anyone from the roof top.

In regards to the tenants insisting Jessica die in the fire, I don't believe that was their desire. I believe their objective was to steer Jessica into seeing the error of her ways - love of herself before others. In the end when Jessica is unable to free Evan, and she CHOOSES to perish rather than leave Evan to die alone, it is then and only then that Jessica REDEEMS herself.

There are two things however that do leave me scratching my head....

1) IF the Dante is in limbo, who were the two lesbians? And other than making out, what were they doing there? Just seems like a weak attempt to gratuitous sex to me. It's an unnecessary scene that doesn't move the story forward - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

2) Jessica's flashbacks regarding her brother help to establish her "sin", yet how does perishing in the fire with Evan allow her to save her brother?

[–] orachel54 14 years ago

I totally agree..the tenants were stuck, never moving forward either to true death or life as long as Jessica was jumping. But clearly, they're rather peeved with her both for causing the fire and for refusing their 900000 some attempts to redeem her regardless of the strategy they chose in that particular attempt. I'm guessing they were aware that there was a chance that if only Jessica would make the right choice, they didn't have to stay dead. Their only objective was to get her to make a selfless choice and stay with Evan (thus moving her along in her soul journey, since if she jumps she's just repeating the selfish act that she made when allowing her brother to drown) and for the most part, everything they did with regards to Jessica is to further that end. And they've refined it and tried a million different ways to move her along. That leads to the stupid gratuitous lesbians...the only bit of import in that scene is when the super guy stops video boy from filming them. His objection to the filming isn't on any moral ground, but rather something like "its counterproductive" or "its useless" or something like that. Clearly he means that getting rocks off filming lesbian broads isn't going to help any of the tenants with the Jessica situation and thus is a waste of time.

And as for second question...it doesn't have any effect on the brother at all. But in leaving Evan and jumping, Jessica repeats the same mistake that she made when she stopped trying to save her brother from drowning. As the brother lay dead, she was crying and begging that she just wanted to do it again..try to save the brother again. Cop says that can't happen, its too late. But then Jessica is faced with the same moral dilemma in the fire, and repeats her mistake..again and again and again. That loop won't end until she learns her lesson, at which point I'm guessing she and evan go on to some sort of afterlife (though the bodies disappearing is weird), the others go on to lead their lives, and the brother, sadly..still dead.

[–] horrorfanaticgirl 13 years ago

Can someone answer why at the end, when she was driving her car, everyone was turning to look at her? If it was only the tenants reliving it, then why is everyone outside the building reliving it? Or is the whole day in the entire world reliving the same day until she does what she is suppose to do?

[–] rick-604 12 years ago

I think the lesbians just broke in to the derelict apartment complex to mess around. Remember that it's not really occupied.

When Ed sees them on the camera he says "not again" which I took to mean that people had broken in before.

Why a ghost would want to film two women having sex is odd. And apparently the lesbians see Ed's face and then leave which is also odd since he's a ghost.

But I don't think think the writers really thought their premise through to be honest.