Human Is Horror

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2015)

I am a fan of horror films, but this drama / thriller manages to be scarier and more horrifying than the branded horror ones. It reveals how brutal and violent some people can become, while some others try to be moral and sane. I have this effect almost in every one of David Fincher's films, especially "Seven", "The Game", "Zodiac". He digs into the dark side of human heart, and found. I believe Fincher use a few selected unusual individuals as a platform to tell his stories, but it somehow feels a lot more universal than that. He makes us feel that these dark sides are all over and not at all unusual. Look at the character of Amy. Hers is not what one would easily come across. But we feel most natural to see her roaming around and planning her next sick moves. This is David Fincher's gift. He tells someone's story, and it becomes everyone's story. I am not native to the US, so I can't critique on how realistic it is as an American story. I saw some bashing at this film, perhaps to get its rating down a notch or two. But it feels real and around for me. An article is recently released on how and why Americans are so attracted at killing themselves. There is a linkage between the article's thesis and this film's plot line. A very free society has its weakness: it is so free a weak soul can feel so unattached and get blown away by just a breeze. In fact, I had been in the US for a few years, and start to understand how ordinary and un-winnable it feels to be an average American. The country has achieved a great success as a society, millions still yearn to go there, and yet it keeps pushing people for more and more. Is this by way of explaining random shootings, school killings, and serial killings in the US? If so, "Gone Girl" should be renamed as "All Gone" or "Almost Gone" to be appropriate.