Well, three installments down. One part left. And this is a big one, as it is the finale.
You know, I really did enjoy liveblogging this. Because not every single thing I have to say about it had to be negative unless if it called for it (read: anytime Rex opens his mouth). Liveblogging something I loved was a refreshing change of pace.
This movie, also, had a good message. One that didn't beat you over the head with it, something that, say, The Prayer Warriors dreamed of making. The message in My Little Eye is subtle. And I'm sad that this is coming to an end, which means that I have to finish liveblogging some awful stuff after this. But...I started the party; now, I'm shutting it down!
Let's continue.
Previously, a lot of things happened. Travis left and was presumed dead. Danny, after giving a present to Emma, commits suicide by hanging. The group figures out that they're taking part in a snuff site with the depravity this side of...other depraved snuff films.
And why, yes. It is about to get even worse.
So let's finish this off with...
Part 4
The remaining group members gather in the kitchen. Outside, it's dark, and yes, security lights would trigger if anyone's there. Oh, wait, Rex finds an emergency flare. What will he do with it, you ask? Simple. Shoot it outside, namely on the roof.
But there's a problem. Rex doesn't want to go alone. So Emma decides to go with him. You know, it's nice and all to finally see the guy be less of a jerkass. Too bad that it happened all of a sudden, with no warning, and too freaking late!
Outside, Rex reassures Emma that it will work. Someone has to see it and call the cops. He even admits that, yes, good citizens do exist, and they knew one—Danny. Poor Danny.
Also, Rex gives Emma a penknife; yes, this will be important later. She admits that she never gave Danny a chance (gee, you think?), but Rex thinks that The Company didn't want to give him a chance (sounds pretty ballsy to say that, dude).
Oh, he adds that this, the whole thing, the entire game and the sadistic twists that occur, is not about her past. The Company wants her to think that. Gee, how reassuring. Why? Because Emma asks, "That's why they picked me?"
The answer...well, Rex just has a long pause. I'll have to say "yes" to that.
He decides that, at first dawn, they will leave. Together. Screw the prize money. And so, he sets off the flare. What a bold declaration of forced love. Ish. Though later on, the two head to a bedroom and fall asleep.
Cut to the living room. Charlie muses about how once they leave, she'll give Los Angeles another chance, and she was hoping that the webcast would be successful. Matt tells her that she's on prime time now, and since the Internet's global, she's always on prime time somewhere. The whole "huge in Japan" thing.
Here at TV Tropes, we have another term for it: "Germans Love David Hasselhoff".
Matt goes on to tell her how she knows how to be herself in front of the camera and to relax, and that's half the battle. The other half? Knowing how to shoot someone.
But there's a problem. Charlie isn't feeling relaxed right now. Matt decides to help her (awww!) by massaging her back.
And taking his jacket off, revealing his black tank top. Ooh.
Charlie says to Matt that he has everything. But one question remains. Why did he sign up for the reality webcast? Matt replies that it's the curiosity, to see how he feels. What, about the isolation? Nope. The fear, and to him, it feels good.
One may think that it's odd for Matt to say that. But the entire premise is built and based on that human fear. With all the stakes rising near the end, it could possibly mean that Matt is somehow immune to it. Everyone has different reactions to fear.
Also, by viewing this fear, it makes the viewers—the subscribers and us—as sadistic as The Company. How we are all voyeurs to this. Even if some of us want to save them from this terrible fate, in the end, we aren't as better as them. This is the only way, yes, that the otherwise-Idiot Plot would work, the "five people signing up for a reality webcast" thing. It delivers a powerful message that other works (such as "Act of God") would only dream about making—
- Matt: "Should I kill her now?"
(needle scratching record)
Wait...what?! Hell no, you can't, you're Carter Grayson—what are you doing to Charlie?!
(I stand there, jaw dropped to the ground, until Charlie dies. Yes, Matt's panting and, apparentally, weeping)
If...you didn't get that...Matt, upon saying that one hell of a Wham Line, places a plastic bag over Charlie's head, suffocating her. From this point on...all comparisons to Carter fly right out of the damn window.
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...Sean Cw Johnson. You Magnificent Bastard. I watched your scene!
No. I'm not fucking kidding! With this, the ultimate opposite to his famous Carter role, Sean managed to play against type! And succeeded beautifully! This is why I fucking love the guy: he can act, and he does that sudden shift to evil so awesomely, you'd never be able to expect it! Yes, he really can act!
...oh, holy shit. That...that was so frightening. And awesome.
- Matt: "Was that okay?"
Yes. Yes, it was.
Cut to the bedroom, where Rex wakes up with a cough. Silence. He walks down, being careful of possible dangers, and heads to the kitchen so he can get a drink of water.
After that...cue the Evil Dead video game music. Rex calls out Matt's name, but no answer. Our favorite manipulative bastard is hiding.
And yes, I did call Matt a manipulative bastard. Remember Danny's suicide in the last installment? In a deleted scene, Matt actually was the final catalyst, the last straw; telling Danny that, first off, what he did to Emma was wrong, and secondly, his grandfather might be dead after all. With those reveals, it's easy to see why Danny reached the Despair Event Horizon and killed himself.
It's also easy to see why they cut the scene out: it would have revealed Matt's true personality too early.
Anyway, Rex plays the video game, and Matt prepares himself with the axe. Yes, unlike Carter, Matt has no preferred weapon of choice. And then...right behind Rex...WHAM! Matt beheads him!
YES! OH, HELL YES! THE JERKASS IS DEAD!!
And yes, no matter if Rex changed his heart or not, he still had it coming. It's sad that I'm rooting for the villain instead of the heroes. Then again? The villain's played by the same guy who also played the very awesome and very heroic Carter Grayson.
Think about that for a minute.
Ahem! After killing Rex, Matt shoots the gun offscreen, waking Emma up. He tells her that "he" is here to get them. Who is "he"? Well, we don't know yet, because the two head to the attic, hiding.
Matt asks Emma if she hears "him". And he adds that he saw "him" get Charlie. But what about Rex? Well...not yet. Matt's more concerned about Emma now. And, despite her telling him about the door, Matt tries to kiss the frail girl, telling her that they belong together.
But she refuses his advances.
Big mistake.
Because, well...the best way to describe Matt now is...imagine Carter sacrificing himself by going to Hell the Shadow World in order to save Mariner Bay. Queen Bansheera decides to make him her puppet in order to still take over Mariner Bay, and a small part of her possesses him for all time. Somehow (magic, I guess—after all, we don't get an explanation to how Vypra was revived, let alone having a damn grave), he does get to Earth again, but he decides to change his name and life story because the Carter everyone knew was dead. And yes, he does get to keep only his rational thinking, presumably when Bansheera realizes how level-headed he is. But now that she possesses him, he's not all there anymore.
...well, that's my Crossover Crackpot Theory, and I'm sticking to it! :P
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. Matt tells Emma that "he's" out there...and calls for John. To screw with her, like he's been doing all this time. Then he slams the door and turns on the lights. Why? So they can see what he's going to do to her.
But hey, at least we get a Hannibal Lecture first.
- Matt: "All that John Riley shit in your journal? You actually believed you triggered his psychosis. After all this time, he'd battled his way through some frozen wasteland just to win a childhood bet. Rex was right. That's some fucking ego, Emma."
And what happens after that...(sighs)...look. Up until now, I liked Matt. Hell, We Are Our Avatars veterans may remember that I played him in one of my best moments, where he wanted to atone for his sins in the past! But...even with this...I cannot defend what happens next. I just can't.
What am I talking about? Matt tells Emma to get on the bed. At gunpoint. Then he forces her down and tries to rape her.
(shudders)
But it fails, because Emma stabs him in the back. Literally. He flees after she tries to shoot him, and he goes to a hall to get the penknife out.
On the other hand, even with Matt now a Complete Monster for crossing the Moral Event Horizon, my adrenaline was pumping during the beginning of the fight. Emma trying to fight for survival against an evil Carter Grayson was absolutely thrilling to see!
And I realize now that I Draco in Leather Pants'd him. Still...the atoning was the best thing I've ever done, with character development just as complex as this, so...I guess I reinvented him into an anti-hero?
Anyway! Emma tries to leave, still holding the gun. After a long sequence, she goes downstairs, and...HOLY SHIT! In a scene that actually made me jump, Matt gets Emma, but she escapes.
The chase is on.
Emma heads to the living room and screams when she sees Rex's severed head. But then, Matt is closing in on her, so she runs to a different room and slams the door. He tries to slice her with the axe, but she shoots him!
Hoist By His Own Weapon, anyone?
Matt screeches, "Oh, you fucking bitch!", as he tries to get up. Emma runs outside, where there is a policeman, played by Nick Mennell, who you may have seen in some recent horror film remakes. He tells her to calm down as she tries to explain to him that Matt killed everyone.
Some more questions are asked (if she set off a flare—yes, is there someone there—oh, hell yes, and he has an axe), he goes inside to find Matt as she stays. After another long sequence, the cop hears a clatter.
In the car, Emma waits, still scared. Then...oh, shit, Matt is near the door! Still in agony, he tells the cop to let him kill Emma. Why? He was in the house for six fucking months!
...and he used guns before in another universe. I do find it amusing that Matt used everything but guns. This, and his behavior, is as far away from Carter as he can get!
But the cop asks Matt what he himself has been doing for that length of time. Yep, you guessed it, the cop's in cahoots with The Company the entire time!
Emma freaks the hell out while Matt screams at the cop to give him the keys. The cop then asks the guy if he will bleed on her, but the psycho killer is still screaming that he can do it, he needs the fucking keys. But...the cop unlocks the car. Letting Emma go. And takes aim.
Then Matt screams a huge, anguished "NOOOOOOOOOO!". As Lightspeed Rescue's "Trial by Fire" and this film shows...Sean Cw Johnson, awesome actor, brilliant at the Playing Against Type, Power Rangers' king of the Anguished Big "NO!".
And then the cop shoots her. She's down. The bad guys, including Matt, win.
Whoo-boy, that was damned epic!
Cut to the kitchen. Matt, who's still hurt, pours champagne for himself and the cop in order to celebrate. They give a toast to The Company.
Matt asks if they'll be pleased, and the cop answers that he'll get a promotion, his own parking space, even! Well, good for him, provided that he doesn't get caught by the FBI.
The thing is? Turns out that The Company isn't an actual company at all. No office. No business cards. No brochures. "The Company" only consists of the corrupt cop, Travis, and very rich clients who love to screw the rules, because they have money. Presumably, Matt falls in the third category. Especially since that, likely, his entire life and his compassionate, heroic personality are lies he created by himself.
Damn, Matt turned out to be an epic, vicious troll.
As for the product? There's always five new people The Company can screw around with, always five suckers.
Matt thinks that there'll be four, provided that he recovers enough. Actually...I would be curious to see what would have happened had, indeed, he got better and went on to do another contest like this, being the "reigning champion" or some shit.
Oh, Emma's still alive. And she's placed into a small room, left to bleed to death. The cop sees her and notices how much of a wriggler she is. And yes, Travis is getting this.
Curious, Matt limps over to take a look, and...
Oh. Oh, hell no. For God knows what reason (shock value?), the cop shoots Matt in the head, killing him!
...that one horrible scene aside...they killed the only tolerable character I mostly enjoyed!
...
(the rage is building)
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
(takes a deep breath)
...thank God for alternate fan-continuations. Because when I played Matt in We Are Our Avatars (because...Actor Allusions and wanting to give the character a better ending), his fate was being sent to Hell for all of his crimes. Pikadevil's Hell, mind you, where he remained in the Fourth Circle, being an Evil Counterpart to Carter despite the two never meeting each other. Until nearly a decade after his canon death, where he antagonized Carter, who was then Catherine.
After he lost, Matt joined an evil version of Adrian Tepes, Alucard, as part of the Dark Avatars, and with that, he gained the powers of the long-thought-to-be-destroyed Red Cyborg Ranger. After he helped Catherine's group, he became human. His past eventually came back to haunt him as he struggled with trying to be good, not really comprehending it as of yet, and then he was rekilled.
Some time later, he helped the group beat Pikadevil, and he remained in limbo. But then, his corpse was used as a dangerous cyborg known as the Retconinator, with the titular device in his body, so supported because of his Morphing powers. Because of his body being used as a reality-warping device, Matt chose to help the group in order to finally rest in peace.
But something happened to him in that timeframe. Over time, he comprehended good and wanted to also right the wrongs he did in the course of his canon. He became nicer and much more willing to help, even sacrificing his life once to save Yoh during a Duel Monsters, well, duel. (Don't ask.)
Whenever he faced the Retconinator, sure, he was horrified at first to see his body being used like that. But he would have been dead many times over if not for his sheer determination, something he forged in not only the time spent with the group, but in Pikadevil's Hell. (After all, he had to survive through the devil's love of dancing somehow.)
In the final showdown, he fought for control and even battled in the center of the Retconinator's mind a few times, until he finally became one with the machine...and allowing himself to be killed for good thanks to the combined efforts of the group. Because of his self-sacrifice for the forces of good, he was fully redeemed, and he went to his Heaven. From there, presumably, the housemates that he killed eventually forgave him. And to top it all off, he became the Spirit Guardian of the Lightspeed Rescue faction.
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Yes, I know that this ending really didn't happen. But I reject your reality and substitute my own!
Anyway...after we see Matt's corpse, we cut back to the small room. Emma screams for help, and the movie ends with her falling to the floor, dead. And the credits show the housemates one last time.
So that was My Little Eye. And...despite a few plot holes and Rex, I loved the film. The acting is top-notch, the Playing Against Type was epic, and it gave an interesting message. About how we're all voyeurs, fascinated by this stuff. Check this film out if you have the chance!
Just don't expect it to be fast-paced. And even if you would do a fun "Hey, It's That Guy!" game with the cast (unknown actors, pfft, they're not all unknown, even when the film was released!) like me, expect it to be thrown out the window when the Wham Scenes occur. Because when it happens, all bets are off.
And yes, developing these doomed characters through their troubled pasts and fears? That's the entire point in order for the message to work. In my perspective, it worked very, very well.
So thank you all for joining me in the mostly-positive liveblog. It's been fun. And I hope that you learned something from this. I most certainly did, even when I first watched it years ago on cable. Aside from the message the director wanted to show? I learned one more thing.
With Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue and this, Sean really can act. It's a damn shame that he hasn't been in anything since 2006, where he provided several voices for the third Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA (yes, that did happen), and his fellow cast members in My Little Eye went on to do other things.
...maybe he'll appear in the eventual ''Gokaiger'' adaptation. Or make a cameo on a web review show (cough)Atop the Fourth Wall(cough). Now that would be crazy ironic.
This has been Rika Liveblogs: My Little Eye. Until next time, see ya!
...oh, you magnificent, awesome bastard.
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