MovieChat Forums > The Lost Weekend Discussion > The mouse and the bat (spoiler?)

The mouse and the bat (spoiler?)

posted 13 years ago by rivergirl301
4 replies | jump to latest

When he was got out of the hospital and started hallucinating, that mouse and bat scene was one of the scariest things I have ever seen, including any horror movie. The way he was smiling at that cute little mouse and then out of nowhere, a bat comes flying through the room. Then all you see is the blood trickling down the wall. I don't know how anyone could have written that scene unless it was something they had experienced themselves in an alcohol-induced hallucination.

[–] rgcustomer 13 years ago

While the blood was shocking, I didn't find that scene scary in the least.

And Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, but I don't think anyone's suggesting he was attacked by a giant spider earlier in his life. Give writers some credit. It's their job.

I think the scene is one of the weakest in the film, because they didn't have the ability to execute it properly. It was obvious that it wasn't a bat, just from looking at it. It's one of the key directing errors that even masters make, because their ego pushes them to it. But if you can't film an effect properly, you need to have the maturity to skip it.

If I was hallucinating a bat, I assure you it would be a real bat, not a prop.

[–] sth78 12 years ago

If I was hallucinating a bat, I assure you it would be a real bat, not a prop.

Assure as much as you want, but the things you see when you are hallucinating during alcohol withdrawal, are not anatomically correct. Never ever! They rather tend to come out of the environment, e.g. wallpaper pattern that turns into a snake, or a black spot on the ceiling that starts to grow legs and resemble a spider. Then they vanish or turn into something else when you think they are trying to reach you.

They can also be other things, like headless sheep, or more unidentifiable objects, like a plant starting to grow fangs etc. But they never turn into their natural counterparts. They are moulded by your brain who is projecting them, and since the brain is severely confused and agitated when hallucinating due to alcohol withdrawal, it would not even be able to get the fine details right.

I'm with Rivergirl on this one. That was a scary scene. Even for a scene that was filmed in 1945.

[–] AssetsonFire 12 years ago

You're assuming that there is a 'proper' way to film something.

~.~
I WANT THE TRUTH! http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/

[–] 12 years ago

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