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Identity-Part II
* note: Spoilers included *
Because I never actually got to understand the story fully for what it was, it had always been a matter of deep curiosity and futile obsession.
But finally, I put it to rest when August and I watched it that night at my house. And it was completely worth the chills.
There are these 10 characters who happen to find themselves in the same motel on one very dark and very stormy night. Accidents happen and roads get flooded that prevent them from leaving.
Now the strange things start.
One by one, the characters start dying. At first, it appears that there's a serial killer on the loose (and there happens to be a convicted murderer stuck in that motel too) but then the murders start getting weird. On each victim is found a motel key with the first victim getting the key to Room "10" and counting down.
Whether the deaths are murders or accidents, each victim carries the next number as the deaths are being counted down.
At the same time, a sub-story is unfolding in a meeting among psychiatrists, lawyers, a judge and a convicted serial killer who's murdered 4 people some years ago.
His mum was a prostitute after his dad left and used to make him wait in dingy motels while she does the deeds. He was a kid then. One night, his mum was murdered and there was no one to rescue him from the motel until he was found by cops who took him under custody.
The psychiatrist says he developed multiple personalities from then.
Back at the motel, the remaining survivors decide to see if they have anything in common between them, like in the movie "Ten Little Indians" (if I remember correctly, it's from an Agatha Christie's novel but I may very well be wrong!) where 10 people were stuck on an island, started dying mysteriously and realised they have some connection between them.
So they find out they are all born on the same date.
Then John Cusack goes through all their identity cards and realise their names all include a name of a state.
It's so messed up and surreal it completely tears your idea of what you know apart. Something is wrong. This isn't just a serial killer story.
Then the bodies start disappearing. All those who have died, disappeared.
+++++
As it turns out, the 10 characters at the motel are all different personalities of the convicted serial killer, the one in the sub-plot.
The psychiatrist had staged a story for these 10 multiple personalities to meet where they will kill one another off in that story - the one unfolding at the motel.
The crux of the matter is, John Cusack, the good guy personality, has to ensure the serial killer personality is killed and not be left as the dominant character, in which case, the convicted serial killer in real life (but what's real anyway?) will be lost for good.
+++++
"Identity" is well-filmed. The continuous downpour adds a feeling of overwhelming heaviness and helplessless to the characters involved. Everything seems staged at the motel. You simply can't escape. Even when you have, you find yourself back at the motel.
It's like dreaming a dark nightmare and being fully conscious it's a nightmare but you are completely helpless because you just can't awake. In those times, even though you know you are dreaming, the fear is real and the desperation, intense. You are caught up in what's happening in that nightmare and you cannot fight it, but only to go along to see what happens next. You can be the next to die, or escape, until the unknowing darkness/evil catches up to you. You can keep running... but you just can't awake.
And what if the reality you wake up to isn't that bright either?
posted by Philothea @ 10:59 am
