MovieChat Forums > Hidden (2015) Discussion > Selfish

Selfish

posted 9 years ago by BigJohn31
15 replies | jump to latest

I don't understand this new trend in horror, the very selfish "I'm more important than everything" trend. I just watched Hidden last night and was very disappointed. The acting wasn't the problem, the actors delivered their lines well enough. However, the girl was pretty terrible. But finding good child actors always seems nigh impossible.

The writing was pretty lack luster and cliched. And not the fun, familiar cliches but the "trying too hard to be different" type. Some of the lines the child and mother had were very painful and some of the choices in the film were painful as well. Some minor gripes, no escape plan, no weapons, no inspecting the food daily...for people wanting to survive and "live" it seems they were pretty casual about it. That to me shows weak writing.

Now when the film started I said to my friends, this film isn't bad but I sure hope the breathers are not just humans, or evil government, or some sort symbolism for them already being dead or something. The film from the start gave off the vibe it was going to go for a twist.

To me the twist was the worst part. What gets me is they automatically make the government ready to kill them on site, the trio don't really even discuss their condition so it is hard to feel any sympathy for them. Frankly the film was built with false sympathy and wasted good acting from the father during the Kingsville scenes.

However, I am more mad that if the government had to erect a wall, firebomb, and eliminate on sight while actively hunting them, the virus must be really damn bad. It makes the family really freaking selfish and the rest of the survivors selfish in the fact that they are endangering the rest of the world. The whole mother saying "they are scared because were different" is pretty damn lame and eye rolling. By the end of the film I could care less about the survivors and their plight, in fact I wanted them dead. What is it with movies such as this and Cabin in the Woods that humanity and the human race are secondary to one's own life and personal wants?

They could have presented several scenes to have their twist but make the survivors not seem so selfish. How about they mention trying to negotiate with the government or previous survivors saying they could control it but being murderer...but instead they nix that to save up for a twist ending that ultimately fails because any sympathy is gone.

[–] RoadSideAssistance 9 years ago

Yah, once they showed what the virus was I totally sympathize with the government. That's great that one family was able to control the rage (except when threatened) but how many people would realistically do that? There would be immediate carnage on every highway in the World. And it's obvious that the infected attack each other with the daughter attacking the Mom.

[–] acooper-155-739349 9 years ago

I feel the same, 100%. You hit the nail on the head.

[–] Seth_Rogue_One 9 years ago

They could have presented several scenes to have their twist but make the survivors not seem so selfish. How about they mention trying to negotiate with the government or previous survivors saying they could control it but being murderer...but instead they nix that to save up for a twist ending that ultimately fails because any sympathy is gone.

They weren't selfish, they were survivors...

Clearly the government had no intentions in negotiating anyways, they just bombed the city before they even knew who were infected or not and were just about to shoot their faces off before they started killing them off

When is killing not acceptable if not as self-defense and protecting your child none the less, give me a parent who wouldn't kill for their child and I'll just uhm say that that's a bad parent I guess lol

In the grand scheme of things humans lives are worth no more than the mutants, especially after it was shown that they can controll their disease

Sympathy is there and well-earned, the government can eat a dick

We crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

[–] seans_life 9 years ago

BigJohn31 the people in the bomb shelter or whatever were selfish? I guess you could say that in a sense but they were also being normal. They were surviving. They had the will to live. It is a normal instinct/will in the animal kingdom and for humans and since these people were part human or whatever no surprise they had the instinct/will to live.

[–] moonflame 9 years ago

It is selfish to want to live ?!

[–] BigJohn31 9 years ago

Yes, yes it is when you endanger others for your own reasons. When you jeopardize the greater good it is indeed quite selfish.

To the person who wrote that the "Government can eat a dick"...why because they were containing a ruthless disease that killed without recourse? Because one family found they could half-ass control their disease? They didn't even have total control by the way...they were a danger to the rest of the healthy people...the government was doing the right thing.

If you feel that this family should be pitied and heralded as survivors and heroes, I worry that if some giant epidemic that comes our way that cannot be cured, it'll be folks like you that endanger people following the rules trying to truly survive.

The chance of them control their emotions was too risky to not be contained. They would have been true heroes if they surrendered and accepted the fact that they were an extreme threat.

Plus, the movie was total heartstring cliched crap in the fact that of course government has to be some conspiratorial evil that is so mean. How do we know they wouldn't have run thousands of tests on these people to see the whys and hows? The movie automatically pushes that agenda that they are to be feared...it was weak writing.

[–] lennonforeveragain 8 years ago

I agree with you John. It reminds me of the "anti-vaxers" who eschew childhood immunizations. That's their right, of course, but it puts in harm's way every other person!

An intellectual carrot , the mind boggles

[–] herbstzeitlose 9 years ago

I absolutely agree.

[–] kolchak-thenightstalker 9 years ago

One could say that the government is selfish and acting in its own self interest. Do you really think the government cares about the citizens of the US or in protecting the continuity of government? everyone has a right to live.

if your family, your son or daughter was that family would you just let your daughter or son be slaughtered and just tell them, "you are about to die sweetheart but your death is for the greater good". yeah right. you would be begging for your child's life.

it is easy to sacrifice people when they are strangers. i know your opinion would change if it was a real world situation and it was your loved ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_BbtXj2P4g

[–] BigJohn31 9 years ago

The government was trying to contain a horrid disease from spreading that obviously had no cure and couldn't be controlled. The family barely kept it in check. So you want me to believe that this family and others are going to become emotionless robots to keep their change at bay...that's a mighty big roll of the dice.

And yes, yes I do believe in my government. They have provided many wonderful and useful services for me and my family in my many years of life.

And nice trying to tell me who I am and what I believe. I am more than prepared to give my life for the greater good if need be and my family, taught me such. If giving up my life means sparing that of countless others, damn right I would. If some great calamity struck, and it was down to the death of myself and my loved ones, because our lives were preventing a cure...we'd give them up freely. I don't speak like some hypocrite ready to "sell out strangers" like you imply if I'm not willing to do so myself.

And I love how you try to pull heart strings with words like "slaughtered". The family struck out first..the government wanted to take them (it was left up to the viewer if they were bad). But of course the poor writing is inferring evil...it was cliched drivel to pull your feelings and push the ever tired, evil big brother keeping us down spiel.

[–] Motoko_Kusanagi 9 years ago

It's pretty easy to judge when you're not in the situation they are in. The will to survive is strong, even when compromised by illness.

Also, the superhuman strength they have when angered is a good mechanism of the virus to enable the virus to spread. It would be no good if they could not survive long enough to infect others.

It doesn't seem necessary that the virus also altered one's survival instinct, but would explain "selfish" self-preservation vs. a morally-correct act of self-sacrifice.

[–] Green_Hornet 9 years ago

Well, you're a true hero that not only would kill yourself but your own family to save "mankind". Your "Jesus" stand is just pathetic.

Also, it's just a damn movie... and this GEM made possible one of the best TV shows of the decade: "Stranger Things".

So STFU and go save a squirrel.

Anamorphic Wide Post (2.35:1)

[–] mr_fuzzer-71843 8 years ago

What are you guys talking about?
Many diseases kill people that come in contact with the deceased.
Should we start killing people that get the next bird flu or should we indeed try to develop vaccines or other cures. You guys are insane.

[–] BigJohn31 8 years ago

Wow, I come back here and see this..."Jesus Stand" really...? "Pathetic"...? So self sacrifice for your family and mankind is now seen as a Jesus Stand and that's bad? ...no wonder this world is messed up. You're out there man.

"Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror".

[–] jneedleman 8 years ago

However, I am more mad that if the government had to erect a wall, firebomb, and eliminate on sight while actively hunting them, the virus must be really damn bad. It makes the family really freaking selfish and the rest of the survivors selfish in the fact that they are endangering the rest of the world.

I disliked certain things in this film, such as the unnecessary use of flashbacks to build to the cripplingly obvious plot twist when linear storytelling would have been less plodding. However, I didn't mind the implication that the central family's motivation to survive is potentially ethical and not "selfish."

The writing left the role of the containment crew open to interpretation.

When people say that the "government" (i.e., the force behind the containment team) is in the right, they're making assumptions, since we don't know anything about the containment crew's ultimate aims. Seen through the eyes of the infected, the military quarantine members looked like fascists of some kind and were ready to execute a mother and daughter even though the man giving the orders expressed regret. That POV is meant to establish empathy for people who don't normally receive it in films -- plague carriers -- but it also creates ambiguity about the crew's role. The purpose of containment could be to save the rest of humanity from a lethal or mass-murderer-creating disease, but it also could be to stop groups of ordinary people from becoming powerful enough to disrupt a fascist regime, or to allay the fears of people who anticipate the disease is deadly and destructive without fully understanding it.

Since the brothers who wrote and directed this flick also wrote and directed Stranger Things, I'd say they seem to be exploring the same theme: Extraordinary powers are given to humans cast in an awful light by their particular society and by powerful symbols of fear in any culture. Those same humans are capable of being humane and must learn to control their powers just as normal humans must. In the meantime, they are hunted, and their challenge is this: to stay alive in order to outlast or out-think the hunters, to perfect what they can do, and to learn to protect others from their power as thoroughly as possible.