It's a sickening lack of noise, particularly as the next sound we hear is the monster mowing Hee-bong down, killing him instantly. That silence persists as Hee-bong turns around there's no panic in his face, just a sort of acceptance as he waves to his children to keep running. Hee-bong goes down to the riverbank to finish off the creature, but as it comes charging down the path and he pulls the trigger, there's silence. The first time the family confronts the monster, Gang-du tosses his father a rifle that he says has one bullet left. The Host kills off two of its principal cast (and this is a spoiler, if you haven't seen the movie yet), and both scenes use silence to drive the emotion home. The warmest and the most horrific moments are both set to silence. It hits all of the usual adventure/horror movie beats, but it seems to be less about building up tension through use but making it more obvious when it drops out. The film's score underlines the thin genre line that the movie treads (the truck scene is scored by music that could have come out of a Ghibli film, given how well it conveys a sense of adventure). Even through the grief, Hee-bong can be seen trying to pull down Nam-joo's shirt in a bid to preserve some of his daughter's dignity. As the family gathers in front of the memorial that's been set up for the victims of the monster's attack, their sheer emotions cause them to collapse, deteriorating into wailing and writhing as a pack of paparazzi close in. This sort of detail also manifests in one of the movie's funniest - and most upsetting - scenes. There's the empty ramen bowl he's been using as a piggybank, too, as he tells her he's been saving up to buy her a new cellphone we see him cradling it in numb silence in the immediate aftermath of the attack. We've seen Gang-du walking behind Hyun-seo and holding up her backpack even as the straps are still around her arms, just to save her from carrying the weight. Hyun-seo's still trying to get to her feet behind him, and then, within the next second, she's gone.Īgain, this works as an opening gambit, not just because we now know what the stakes are, but because we've already been made to care. When he does, he resumes running, but slowly, the camera pans back to reveal that the hand he's holding doesn't belong to his daughter, but to another young girl. The camera follows the movement of his arm as he fumbles in the grass to take Hyun-seo's hand again. As the monster continues to wreck the riverside park, Gang-du spots Hyun-seo and grabs her hand in order to keep her with him as they run for their lives.
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