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Fridge Brilliance

  • Close examination of Marianna's "Conspiracy Board" includes a post-it note saying "INTERPOL BLOCKED". The reason that the incredibly British Klaxons are desperate to move business into Rust Bank? They've been blocked from building their private prisons anywhere else.
  • While the soundtrack is peppered with fantastic Punk classics, the theme playing during our intro to Belzer's Faire is particularly apt for a movie featuring the undead — it's "Ghost Town" by The Specials, which also played in the opening scene of Shaun of the Dead.
    • It also serves as a wonderful bit of Foreshadowing, as the song is about urban decay and unemployment, perfectly describing the condition of current Rust Bank before we even see it.
  • While it may not be the only reason for her White Sheep status, the fact that Siobhan was attending RBC Girls likely helped matters. Catholic teachings on charity and loving thy neighbour would stand in direct contradiction to the entire business model and practices of the Klaxons.
    • Not to mention Sister Helley's Biology classes tend to have symbolic themes connected to the story. The octopus connects to adaptability and Kat's status as the "odd one out" in the school; later, when Father Best announces that he's not dead, we see that Sister Helley has been teaching the class about pitcher plants - a type of carnivorous plant that tempts creatures inside it with enticing smells and then traps them for future digestion. A connection to Father Best's own fate as well as the overall theme of imprisonment within the film.
  • The effect of the hair cream is that it restores the dead to life — whether that's dead hair follicles, dead people...or dead (repressed) ambitions. The point of change for the demon brothers is when Wild starts eating the cream and convinces Wendell to do so as well, because doing so 'resurrected' their long-repressed plan to make their Dream Faire a reality.
  • There's another reason why the hair cream Buffalo Belzer uses doesn't fix his baldness permanently. What's one of the major causes for hair loss? Stress! Considering that most of his children have left and never returned, Buffalo Belzer has a pretty good reason to be stressed, and as long as they were gone, he was still going to be stressed about it.
    • Expanding on that, it makes Belzer a much more sympathetic character in that what we see of him up until he appears on Earth is that he's desperately attempting to keep up appearances and project an air of authority, possibly hinting as to why his Faire is so cruel. Even his treatment of Wendell and Wild is a malformed expression of his fear that they, too, will leave him and disappear into the world forever.
    • It's also notable that as a foil to Belzer, Mr. Klaxon is wearing an absurd hairpiece throughout the entire film.
  • Every antagonist in the film, despite their flaws, still tend to try and carry out any deals they make with other people. Wendell and Wild try to fulfill both their deals with Kat and with the Klaxons, and get frustrated and guilty when it becomes difficult to do both. Father Bests, despite raising the dead to have the Klaxons fund the RBC, never tries to pull the wool over their eyes and sticks to the letter of the deal. Even Buffalo Belzer, when offered his older children back in exchange for releasing Wendell, Wild, Kat and her parents, agrees amicably. The only exception to this is the Klaxons, who swindle both the demons and Father Bests, and are cemented as the film's true villains.
  • Raul's artwork depicts a female warrior protecting a child from a dragon. It's clear that the warrior represents his own mother; not only is she a fiercely adamant lawyer still trying to seek justice for the brewery workers for over a decade, and still tries to act as a leader to Rust Bank even if there's only a few residents left, but she is also very supportive of Raul's transition and corrects anyone who misgenders him. No wonder he sees her as a warrior!
  • The theme of rejecting the carcerial system applies beyond the Klaxon's school-to-prison pipeline plan. Note the chain of causation that kickstarts the film's action: Manberg uses Sister Helley to summon demons to trap demons in jars… demons who were the children of Buffalo Belzer. After hearing that his two remaining sons (the titular Wendell and Wild) intended to strike out with a fair of their own, he holds them prisoner in a misguided attempt to keep them from disappearing like the others… and they, out of resentment and anger, decide to leave for the Land of the Living (with the help of Kat) to build their fair there instead. No matter which way you look at it, none of the film's problems would have happened if not for an overly harsh prison system.

Fridge Horror

  • After discovering the effects of the hair cream, Wendell and Wild both briefly consider killing their pet Spark Plug to test it on him. They both immediately reconsider when Spark Plug gives them a set of Puppy-Dog Eyes. It's a good thing they decided not to kill him — the hair cream's resurrecting effects are temporary, so if they'd killed Spark Plug and brought him back, he would’ve ended up permanently dead regardless.
  • The Klaxons not only burned down the Brewery, killing 10 workers in the process, but it's directly implied that the downfall of the brewery cost a ton of jobs and contributed to why so many people left town. But it's not just that- the loss of jobs led to a bunch of empty houses and lack of income, so its entirely possible (and quite likely) that several families went into poverty or became homeless. The Klaxons aren't just murderers, but are directly responsible for five years of poverty and the near total collapse of a community!
  • When Kat faces memories of her Dark and Troubled Past in the redemption chamber, we see that she wound up in Juvie at one point for fighting back against a bully, resulting in the latter being pushed down a long flight of stairs. Since she was arrested for that, it can be assumed that the bully was either seriously injured, or even outright killed.

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