The Strangers only materialise generic objects like food on a silver plater etc. but they where handcrafting personal objects like ID's, pictures, mementoes. It suggests that they have a limit on how detailed an object they can create via Tuning. The Bathhouse might have been a privilege Dr Streamer got for himself for working with the Strangers (he is the only one we see using it) disguising it as something he likes while providing a potential safe space from the aliens.
I completely agree with that analysis and was what I was gonna comment lol The doctor wanted a safe place of his own and that's why they granted him that only luxury
I always just assumed that the strangers were dying because they were not able to adapt to changing environments and they assumed human beings could adapt due to them having a "soul". They evolved to force their environment to adapt to them but that's no longer working. Therefore, discover how the soul works and then you can have the ability to adapt.
In Ancient Celtic mythology, the spiral was the symbol for the unraveling of a mystery, of the journey from ignorance to enlightenment. Most ancient cultures had similar meanings for a spiral. The Greek concept of a spiral representing perfection, golden ratio...also saw it as the evolution of the universe. It was the balance of growth and decay. An old man is dying while an infant is growing. Night is receding while daylight is emerging. I think it's meant to imply the fall of the strangers and the birth of humanity. Antiquated features (darkness, hive mind) are dying while new features (light, individuality) are taking their place.
yeah. I agree. It's not very integrated into the plot. It's better than the rose in hell raiser (also a great review of yours). I'm just glad to see a movie use imagery outside of the usual bag of hack tricks (stigmata, cross, rose falling to the ground, balloon flying away, any biblical story that an eight year old would recognize). btw have you ever seen 1982 possession. I think it fits so well with your channel and it is a great movie. Isabelle adjani's performance blew me out of the fucking water. I think she's either a genius or a nut case because no one else could pull off her role. It's Lovecraft month gold.
I always thought it was just a touch of arrogant cruelty, or mockery, of their human subjects. Like they're advertising the cage that is their lives, and teasing them with a clue about it's real nature.
Maybe. But doesn't that go against their cold, calculating behavior? If they've invested so much in this experiment, that level of sadism would would be pretty reckless. I guess you could argue that this race does behave paradoxically. For all of their hive mind, inhumanity, their seems to be very human tendencies towards arrogance and cruelty. Perhaps it fits a species that has only partially grasped human emotion. A child understands anger and fear before he understands love and compassion.
A few of them certainly fit the mannerisms of "cruel". Mr Hand? The one whose name I forget played by the child? They seemed to particularly relish their "job", so to speak, before coming into contact with John.
Maybe the spirals have some kind of very low hypnosis property that allows to keep humans under the dream's influence, instead of waking up, when they notice something too abnormal or too shocking ? Maybe the Strangers hoped they could manipulate someone into playing the serial killer role over and over, instead of snapping out of the dream, when he realizes he's in front of an actual corpse ? The spirals keep him pulled in the dream, by hypnosis.
17:50 It's been a very long time since I saw that movie, but, maybe, just as you mentioned with the ring scene, they can't just do whatever they want and expect humans to go with it, if it doesn't feel natural enough. Sure, most people are married and all the Strangers need to do is change who they think they're married to, for a single day. Sure, most people live in a house or an apartment or a hotel room and the Strangers just need to change where they think they live, for a single day. However, when it comes to water, it's so much more difficult, as almost every single person takes a bath or, at least, a shower, every day. Try making them think they don't wash themselves. It just won't work. However, not everyone goes to the beach, quite often, so it's easier to remove the beach beyond the city than running water in town. It's like a dream : you can only suspend your disbelief for so long, before you are forcefully expelled from your own dream, once you realize too many things are off. Also, I thought that, since the Strangers had a special deal with 'pool guy', he would be allowed a few privileges (just like Cipher asked to have privileges, in the first Matrix movie, as payment for his betrayal). And what better to ask for than the one thing that would guarantee you the Strangers can't harm you ? It's his insurance and, coming from them, it's a sign of good faith.
Just saw this at a local theater playing it for its 25th anniversary. I've always known about this movie (and it's connections to "the Matrix") but knew nothing of the story or even who starred in it. Needless to say, my mind is blown. This film is a masterpiece and criminally underrated. I'm gonna have to watch it at least a dozen times so that I see all the symbolism and references it uses. One thing I will say that I loved is that one of the main "hooks" in the score is a small piece from Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". It's those bigger bombastic moments where the strings get really loud (if you've seen Disney's "Fantasia", it's the music piece from when the T-Rex is fighting the Stegosaurus).
I first watched this movie when I was about 14, it was on at 10pm on a rather random channel. I was immersed from the beginning. It confused me at times, but never made me lose interest. I had mixed feelings at the end. I rewatched it a few years back once more, and now I am in love. Jennifer Connolly helps too hehe. However, the ambiance and the whole design of the movie is amazingly done!
I'm a big fan of this movie and I love how people interpret things so differently in what they see. :) I always imagined that the conveyor belt of small items and trinkets wasn't just about the strangers creating and changing objects of identity (as Chazz30000 mentioned) but also about gathering the memories from them or studying the effects of why the humans emotionally connect to them, and studying how humans react to them changing them when they swap around the humans. The interesting thing for me in that scene was that they're not just creating these objects, but taking old pre-owned objects and altering them. It's part of the experiment, it's part of their study of human identity, emotion, and the soul.
you made a uzumaki reference !!! :D I'm glad to see people knowing about this- it's so so amazing. And scary. Actually, just thinking about the title makes me uneasy...
With the creating of objects, I don't think the Strangers can do that exactly. I think what they do is draw on those objects from somewhere else deep in the machine, bringing them to where they need them to be through the physical city. This is why the doors seem to seep in through the walls and the buildings grow up through the ground. So them altering the objects in their base is them preparing those objects to be sent out to where they are summoned to later.
One of my favourite films, I've been a fan of this movie for years. It's such a shame that it shares its title with a latter, really bad film, that people always think I'm referring to when I tell them they "have to see it because it's so good." I always thought the bathhouse was there because Schreiber needed/liked it (for obv reasons) and the Strangers let him keep it because they needed his help. The cast is magnificent IMO and, I too, adore Richard O'Brien - who is one of my favourite actor/writer/composer/singer(s) - and he definitely showcases the film! BTW, I stumbled across your channel via the Lovecraft reviews, and ended up watching them all. I must admit many of the films reviewed I would never have watched on my own, but def enjoyed them via your analysis (and sometimes LOL-funny comments). You have a knack for synopsis/commentary clips, and apparently I'm not alone in believing this.
If this movie isn’t based on a book then it must be one of the most original Hollywood movies ever made, makes me sad that directors aren’t this creative anymore
By the by, I think I can offer an explanation for the memories in liquid form- a reference to intelligence, more specifically, fluid intelligence. Fluid is the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific actions. It also specifically involves being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems. The ability however is lost when we reach our late adulthood, so applying this to the film, in a sense, the Strangers are keeping us as soft and malleable as children.
I can see a definite connection with the Men in Black / John Keel's Ultraterrestrials, not only in terms of appearance, but in the way they do not quite seem to 'get' how Humans work. Thanks for an in-depth review that makes me want to watch this film again :)
I thought the Bath House was a concession to Dr. Shreiber, to keep him happy in working for the strangers. The reason I say this is because he is literally the only person we see use that bath house.
The city actually is a spiral-while we don't get a straight overhead look at it, we do see a map of it when Mr. Book is proposing the night's changes. I think the spiral is more of a motif than a real clue, referencing the process of creation, such as spiral galaxies. I didn't really like this film that much on first viewing; the director's cut improved that immensely by not giving away so much at the start. I still feel the alien nature of the strangers is given away a bit too early; if we hadn't seen that Mr. Hand's...hand was empty when he knocked out the hotel manager, we'd have assumed he was chloroformed, and then been surprised later to see otherwise. And I find offering up some vague notion of a soul to be a bit of a cop-out. But damn, those visuals. And O'Brien's conversation with Jennifer Connolly by the river is a great scene, melancholic and creepy all at once.
Maybe the Strangers have to make the stuff to be able to conjure it in the city. They aren't materializing things out of nothing, just pulling it from a space like zero space technology from ultraviolet.
I love that intro, every time I come back to your reviews I really enjoy it. It's not really my style of music that I would usually like to be honest. But it grew on me, and now also gets stuck in my head from time to time. Plus I'm a musician and play a lot of stringed instruments, and I like that lead guitar riff a lot. Who sings it and what song? Also I've watched this review a lot of times, and I'm glad you showed me this movie. Happy Halloween.
I have loved this movie since I first saw it in the theater 26 years ago (gods above, that makes me feel old!). I distinctly remember laughing out loud when Dr Schrieber injected John with the childhood memories of being trained to use his powers, as I found it to be an incredibly subversive way for the doctor to utilize the memory replacement tech against the strangers. I feel like I rarely see movies use their own plot devices so well.
I could be totally wrong, but regarding the Strangers' assembly line arranging belongings by hand, I assume that part of what the movie is getting at is that human memories are complicated. If they were easy to understand, the Strangers would not require layers upon layers of the same events practiced with different iterations as they do. I feel like part of what they were doing was melding humanity into a similar collective hive-mind. Essentially then, why human memories are different are emotions. Emotions can be highly attached to details such as objects. So the more they purposefully convince everyone, in every iteration, that *this* object is part of *your* memory this time, the more a collective memory of a whole is established and the less extraneous variables need to be contended with. Essentially, the purpose of this experiment, then, is to create a shared narrative in which everyone could be any person in it at any iteration. Then there is no need to worry about individualization. And it hadn't occurred to me until watching your review, so I may need to see it in context. I agreed with you about the terrible dubbing of the couple when I watched the film. However, could it be that the film presents the scene that way because you were seeing behind the curtain from the perspective of the Strangers? Since, essentially, each night they just cast different actors in the same roles, is that supposed to be how they perceive these interactions? We see actors portraying highly emotional characters but the dubbed voices are barely engaged; is that because the audience knows this is just the final scene of a play that will repeat tomorrow?
This is one of my favourite movies, and the DC is far, far better since it doesn't spoil the big damn reveal. As for the thing about the Strangers making objects by hand, maybe the objects need to already exist for them to manifest them into the city later?
To answer two questions: First, why the Strangers created objects by hand. It should be noted those objects were PERSONAL ones; licences and identification, purses and wallets, jewelry, things with a close personal connection to the possessor. It's possible that creating such objects using their powers causes some kind of alienating effect that puts their subjects off and thus requires manual action to keep the "personal touch," so to speak. Second, the existence of the bath house. While the Strangers dislike (or are perhaps negatively affected by) large amounts of moisture, their experiment requires as "normal" a human environment as possible. Since their "laboratory" is based on a human city, keeping everything in the environment as "normal" as possible would be necessary to prevent outliers and anomalies. Creating Shell Beach and an ocean access would be beyond their tolerances, but a controlled environment like the bath house would be a reasonable allowance.
The first still frame you had of Rufus Sewell in the bath tub made me laugh for some reason, he looks like he just realised he left the oven on. "Holy shit."
hehe yeah true but one thing with rufus sewell in dark city but it might be in other films is his eyes seemed to be working independent of each other, like one eye was remembering and other was looking to the future,. its kind of strange.
Do you ever plan to review the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise? I can imagine you'd have much to say about why every film after the original is a disappointment in some form.
I feel the spiral is based on the fact the city itself was on a spiral pattern, just hard to notice it when the buildings are so different from one another. You see it when the strangers are looking over mini map of the city. I think the spiral is symbolic to the strangers, like how they are dying and their spiral of life is ending.
I also want to add that when it comes to certain items, like the ones we see being looked over by the strangers, that they might assume that certain objects might hold the key to their experiments. Ya they can make a person take a newly created object and say it has been in that person's family for generations, but it might not be the same as if the person had an actual object they "bonded" with. The reason why things like pools and water exist is again part of the experiment. The strangers might not like water but they know humans do and they would see use of having it around. Such as why Shell Beach was advertised but did not exist, to make humans more comfortable. I feel the reason they swap people around is mainly due to the experiment, seeing if they change certain people around in a different setting maybe something would happen. They might have heard about the human soul from the doctor and think it is key to saving the strangers lives. They might not know fully what the human soul is. The spiral, I feel is the strangers symbolic thing, perhaps it means more to them then it does to humans. Like how in most movies aliens would have strange symbols around for various reasons. To the strangers the symbol might be of great importance.
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. I watched it before The Matrix having rented it on VHS as a 90s preteen from the local video rental place three blocks away from my house. Also, I've always thought Kiefer Sutherland to be DAF since first witnessing him in Stand By Me when I was even younger.
To me, the symbolism of the spiral is simply that the spiral is the city. Like with Dr Schreber's spiral maze for mice - the city is a spiral labyrinth, for studying humans in. A labyrinth from which there is no escape. And look at the big round table in the center of the strangers sanctuary (at 18:38 of this video) It is clearly a spirale maze with a lot of black building models on it - symbolizing the city. The city might not look like a spiral in the final scene with the detective. But it is still circular. And if you think about it, a city in of itself can very much be like a labyrint. You just got to remember that it is a much more advanced maze with whole buildings moving around.
Okay that still doesn't explain why the strangers would want to point all that out to people, regardless of the symbolism, after all they may have convoluted plans for people but none of them would be helped by people knowing the cities is all fake.
Deusdaecon Reviews for what it's worth I saw this one when in first Came out. With the Strangers doing their experiments to discover the human soul - and at this point my perception of this story is that the audience will get out of it what they invest. The ever expanding spirals - or growth of eternity - those that permit the perception, the audience is theoretically a widening expanse of the spiral, included in the complexity of Dark City. The Strangers - to my perspective yes are a dying species but the complexity of expanding eternity and the soul, are a step that the hive mind and near insect like limitations of the Strangers must be absorbed into if their species is going to step from a repeating circle to the growth of the spiral. The limitation of their nature - whether acknowledged or not condemns them to the circle of repetition until the species disappears. Some stories are bound by the framework of their nature, the complexity of the human soul or thought allows the possibilities to to expand and that maybe a hive can grow beyond the cage of their nature. This probably ends up sounding to purposefully contrived which is not my intention I have enjoyed your reviews, as many times people wouldn't even have a theoretical discussion of existence and I just finally gave up bothering to try. I am glad to find your reviews and hear such Considered observations Thank you for sharing, it's nice that older gems are not forgotten.
I need to see the Director's Cut because the version I saw, he left the hooker after she made an off hand comment about a killer on the loose, and I always assumed he was scared he may hurt her.
The spiral reminds me of Containment Breach with the doctor/Class D who was researching the "Spiral Gestalt" I wonder if Dark City inspired this plot point in the game.
Deusdaecon Reviews you're welcome. I especially loved your Lovecraft month ( just picked up the complete fiction a few weeks ago) and The Mummy review. absolutely love that film
I think this film is underrated and Richard O'Brien was certainly the stand-out performer, though I think Kiefer Sutherland did a good job too. As for the repeated spiral motif, it's my opinion that it represents the path that the humans are on, that they are stuck in a continuous loop and need someone to liberate them.
and in my head the one guy does get out theres a split second where he disappears. editing for the movie? or intentional : 3. lol. yeah i know its the editing let me dream.
The Strangers' species' bodies were too vulnerable and fragile, and potentially had issues with recreation. Human bodies are sturdier, but lack the tuning ability and the connection to the hivemind. So Strangers needed to figure out what makes human mind different from their own, and how can they turn a human into one of themselves.
well, alex proyas actually wrote a much more detailed and complicated script for this movie but they made him simplify it because they thought that the film wouldn't do great if it was 'too complicated'. what a shame. still one of my top 10 movies ever.
Maybe they have to do things are primitive leave because unfortunately the two nansie was not ready to make it look as though they could just do it on a whim
Just a thought but the physical objects the strangers personally give people could be because they can't make objects look used anything they make is brand new like fresh of the assembly line new
well we don't know what happen to the real earth so he could also go searching for it, if he has full control of the city he could possibly pilot it too, but thats just an assumption that it had ship like qualities.
I don't see how not understanding the stranger's origins and motivations helps. Why did they take over human bodies? Why do they need to understand souls? How is their experiment even testing the soul? There's too many questions and not enough answers that make me think it's just for the sake of style.
@@Hb2N Why did they need dead human bodies? If souls come from creators then why are they messing around with humans? Wouldn't they want to talk to the creators?
You know I have theory about the alien parasites but before I do I find it funny that the aliens in this movie and the aliens in the M Night Shyamalan movie Signs have the same weakness and that is water anyways my theory is this the reason why they can't get rid of all the water is because well they're not Gods they're just aliens and plus they're possessing imperfect creatures which are human beings so it's probably limitations to what they can and can't do depending on who they possess and plus think of it this way water can see pin and leak through anything so you can kind of think of it like that I don't know it's just a thought
its a mock up of what hellraiser might be like if they were made by universal i have another with christopher lee as pinhead as if hammer horror made hellraiser
They are humans as said very clear in the movie , They are humans from the future per say who over time forget what the human soul is. This is why they do what they do in the hope to find the human soul and there so safe the human race. They are not good or bad just trying to live but stopping them means a 12 money loop.
Future is the world word , They say in the film when a human does die they enter a new state of being kinda like Haven but one can also die in this state as well. They are on the last state due to forgetting what there soul was when fully human.
no one ever says that, theres no mention of heaven or time travel (outside of the freezing people) or future humans, or different states of being or anything like that unless we've seen different movies, thats not the plot of dark city, schreber tells murdoch directly the strangers are extraterrestrial beings using dead humans as a host, they have a hive mind so a experimenting with individuality in the hopes of finding something that will help there dying race to survive.
I recall them saying they are from the after life per say where they did die again and again like the after life of the after life per say. I always did take that to mean they are human are once was human. However i may need to watch it again as i did see when it did come out.
You talk about the Director's cut being vastly superior but it makes me stop and think; Are there ANY movies you can think of where the original cuts are better than the director's cut?
The preparation of items, and the strangers being able to "create" object i always saw as more as some displacement of the objects, they have to prepare the items, and when they appears, they simply called the prepared object for it'S use... Anyway it's how i interpreted it
The Strangers only materialise generic objects like food on a silver plater etc. but they where handcrafting personal objects like ID's, pictures, mementoes. It suggests that they have a limit on how detailed an object they can create via Tuning. The Bathhouse might have been a privilege Dr Streamer got for himself for working with the Strangers (he is the only one we see using it) disguising it as something he likes while providing a potential safe space from the aliens.
I completely agree with that analysis and was what I was gonna comment lol The doctor wanted a safe place of his own and that's why they granted him that only luxury
I always just assumed that the strangers were dying because they were not able to adapt to changing environments and they assumed human beings could adapt due to them having a "soul". They evolved to force their environment to adapt to them but that's no longer working. Therefore, discover how the soul works and then you can have the ability to adapt.
In Ancient Celtic mythology, the spiral was the symbol for the unraveling of a mystery, of the journey from ignorance to enlightenment. Most ancient cultures had similar meanings for a spiral. The Greek concept of a spiral representing perfection, golden ratio...also saw it as the evolution of the universe. It was the balance of growth and decay. An old man is dying while an infant is growing. Night is receding while daylight is emerging. I think it's meant to imply the fall of the strangers and the birth of humanity. Antiquated features (darkness, hive mind) are dying while new features (light, individuality) are taking their place.
Dosent really explain why the strangers would also draw the spiral though, and seemingly encourage it in murdoch
yeah. I agree. It's not very integrated into the plot. It's better than the rose in hell raiser (also a great review of yours). I'm just glad to see a movie use imagery outside of the usual bag of hack tricks (stigmata, cross, rose falling to the ground, balloon flying away, any biblical story that an eight year old would recognize). btw have you ever seen 1982 possession. I think it fits so well with your channel and it is a great movie. Isabelle adjani's performance blew me out of the fucking water. I think she's either a genius or a nut case because no one else could pull off her role. It's Lovecraft month gold.
I always thought it was just a touch of arrogant cruelty, or mockery, of their human subjects. Like they're advertising the cage that is their lives, and teasing them with a clue about it's real nature.
Maybe. But doesn't that go against their cold, calculating behavior? If they've invested so much in this experiment, that level of sadism would would be pretty reckless. I guess you could argue that this race does behave paradoxically. For all of their hive mind, inhumanity, their seems to be very human tendencies towards arrogance and cruelty. Perhaps it fits a species that has only partially grasped human emotion. A child understands anger and fear before he understands love and compassion.
A few of them certainly fit the mannerisms of "cruel". Mr Hand? The one whose name I forget played by the child? They seemed to particularly relish their "job", so to speak, before coming into contact with John.
Maybe the spirals have some kind of very low hypnosis property that allows to keep humans under the dream's influence, instead of waking up, when they notice something too abnormal or too shocking ? Maybe the Strangers hoped they could manipulate someone into playing the serial killer role over and over, instead of snapping out of the dream, when he realizes he's in front of an actual corpse ? The spirals keep him pulled in the dream, by hypnosis.
17:50 It's been a very long time since I saw that movie, but, maybe, just as you mentioned with the ring scene, they can't just do whatever they want and expect humans to go with it, if it doesn't feel natural enough. Sure, most people are married and all the Strangers need to do is change who they think they're married to, for a single day. Sure, most people live in a house or an apartment or a hotel room and the Strangers just need to change where they think they live, for a single day. However, when it comes to water, it's so much more difficult, as almost every single person takes a bath or, at least, a shower, every day. Try making them think they don't wash themselves. It just won't work. However, not everyone goes to the beach, quite often, so it's easier to remove the beach beyond the city than running water in town. It's like a dream : you can only suspend your disbelief for so long, before you are forcefully expelled from your own dream, once you realize too many things are off. Also, I thought that, since the Strangers had a special deal with 'pool guy', he would be allowed a few privileges (just like Cipher asked to have privileges, in the first Matrix movie, as payment for his betrayal). And what better to ask for than the one thing that would guarantee you the Strangers can't harm you ? It's his insurance and, coming from them, it's a sign of good faith.
Just saw this at a local theater playing it for its 25th anniversary. I've always known about this movie (and it's connections to "the Matrix") but knew nothing of the story or even who starred in it. Needless to say, my mind is blown. This film is a masterpiece and criminally underrated. I'm gonna have to watch it at least a dozen times so that I see all the symbolism and references it uses. One thing I will say that I loved is that one of the main "hooks" in the score is a small piece from Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". It's those bigger bombastic moments where the strings get really loud (if you've seen Disney's "Fantasia", it's the music piece from when the T-Rex is fighting the Stegosaurus).
I first watched this movie when I was about 14, it was on at 10pm on a rather random channel. I was immersed from the beginning. It confused me at times, but never made me lose interest. I had mixed feelings at the end. I rewatched it a few years back once more, and now I am in love. Jennifer Connolly helps too hehe. However, the ambiance and the whole design of the movie is amazingly done!
One of my favorite movies by far
I'm a big fan of this movie and I love how people interpret things so differently in what they see. :) I always imagined that the conveyor belt of small items and trinkets wasn't just about the strangers creating and changing objects of identity (as Chazz30000 mentioned) but also about gathering the memories from them or studying the effects of why the humans emotionally connect to them, and studying how humans react to them changing them when they swap around the humans. The interesting thing for me in that scene was that they're not just creating these objects, but taking old pre-owned objects and altering them. It's part of the experiment, it's part of their study of human identity, emotion, and the soul.
This movie's like Lovecraft mixed with the Matrix and gentle nod toward Film Noir. I'm quite amazed I never heard of it before.
you made a uzumaki reference !!! :D I'm glad to see people knowing about this- it's so so amazing. And scary. Actually, just thinking about the title makes me uneasy...
Agreed! It's definitely worth a review at some point, even if it's not a legit good movie as yet... :)
With the creating of objects, I don't think the Strangers can do that exactly. I think what they do is draw on those objects from somewhere else deep in the machine, bringing them to where they need them to be through the physical city. This is why the doors seem to seep in through the walls and the buildings grow up through the ground. So them altering the objects in their base is them preparing those objects to be sent out to where they are summoned to later.
One of my favourite films, I've been a fan of this movie for years. It's such a shame that it shares its title with a latter, really bad film, that people always think I'm referring to when I tell them they "have to see it because it's so good." I always thought the bathhouse was there because Schreiber needed/liked it (for obv reasons) and the Strangers let him keep it because they needed his help. The cast is magnificent IMO and, I too, adore Richard O'Brien - who is one of my favourite actor/writer/composer/singer(s) - and he definitely showcases the film!
BTW, I stumbled across your channel via the Lovecraft reviews, and ended up watching them all. I must admit many of the films reviewed I would never have watched on my own, but def enjoyed them via your analysis (and sometimes LOL-funny comments). You have a knack for synopsis/commentary clips, and apparently I'm not alone in believing this.
Thank you very much I really appreciate that and I'm glad you enjoyed the videos.
One of the most underrated films from the 90s.
Ah Dark City
Great review Btw
Ito is a master at getting under your skin, like geez Louise.
If this movie isn’t based on a book then it must be one of the most original Hollywood movies ever made, makes me sad that directors aren’t this creative anymore
By the by, I think I can offer an explanation for the memories in liquid form- a reference to intelligence, more specifically, fluid intelligence. Fluid is the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific actions. It also specifically involves being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems. The ability however is lost when we reach our late adulthood, so applying this to the film, in a sense, the Strangers are keeping us as soft and malleable as children.
I can see a definite connection with the Men in Black / John Keel's Ultraterrestrials, not only in terms of appearance, but in the way they do not quite seem to 'get' how Humans work. Thanks for an in-depth review that makes me want to watch this film again :)
I kind of always thought of this film as if The Matrix was written in the 1950s.
I hate you
@@justwannabehappy6735 ok
This is probably one of the best scifi movies ever! Haven't seen it in a while... great review! Attention to detail is paramount!
This takes me back.
It's been a long time since I've seen this movie.
I thought the Bath House was a concession to Dr. Shreiber, to keep him happy in working for the strangers. The reason I say this is because he is literally the only person we see use that bath house.
The city actually is a spiral-while we don't get a straight overhead look at it, we do see a map of it when Mr. Book is proposing the night's changes. I think the spiral is more of a motif than a real clue, referencing the process of creation, such as spiral galaxies.
I didn't really like this film that much on first viewing; the director's cut improved that immensely by not giving away so much at the start. I still feel the alien nature of the strangers is given away a bit too early; if we hadn't seen that Mr. Hand's...hand was empty when he knocked out the hotel manager, we'd have assumed he was chloroformed, and then been surprised later to see otherwise. And I find offering up some vague notion of a soul to be a bit of a cop-out. But damn, those visuals. And O'Brien's conversation with Jennifer Connolly by the river is a great scene, melancholic and creepy all at once.
Maybe the Strangers have to make the stuff to be able to conjure it in the city. They aren't materializing things out of nothing, just pulling it from a space like zero space technology from ultraviolet.
I mention and recommend this movie at every opportunity.
I love that intro, every time I come back to your reviews I really enjoy it. It's not really my style of music that I would usually like to be honest. But it grew on me, and now also gets stuck in my head from time to time. Plus I'm a musician and play a lot of stringed instruments, and I like that lead guitar riff a lot. Who sings it and what song? Also I've watched this review a lot of times, and I'm glad you showed me this movie. Happy Halloween.
Glad you enjoy it!, Also the song is Look at me by a German band called Die! she said.
Thanks for asking
@@deusdeaconReviews thanks for answering
I have loved this movie since I first saw it in the theater 26 years ago (gods above, that makes me feel old!). I distinctly remember laughing out loud when Dr Schrieber injected John with the childhood memories of being trained to use his powers, as I found it to be an incredibly subversive way for the doctor to utilize the memory replacement tech against the strangers. I feel like I rarely see movies use their own plot devices so well.
I saw this movie when it came out and now I can't find it anywhwere! I'm super psyched to see you review it
I could be totally wrong, but regarding the Strangers' assembly line arranging belongings by hand, I assume that part of what the movie is getting at is that human memories are complicated. If they were easy to understand, the Strangers would not require layers upon layers of the same events practiced with different iterations as they do. I feel like part of what they were doing was melding humanity into a similar collective hive-mind. Essentially then, why human memories are different are emotions. Emotions can be highly attached to details such as objects. So the more they purposefully convince everyone, in every iteration, that *this* object is part of *your* memory this time, the more a collective memory of a whole is established and the less extraneous variables need to be contended with. Essentially, the purpose of this experiment, then, is to create a shared narrative in which everyone could be any person in it at any iteration. Then there is no need to worry about individualization.
And it hadn't occurred to me until watching your review, so I may need to see it in context. I agreed with you about the terrible dubbing of the couple when I watched the film. However, could it be that the film presents the scene that way because you were seeing behind the curtain from the perspective of the Strangers? Since, essentially, each night they just cast different actors in the same roles, is that supposed to be how they perceive these interactions? We see actors portraying highly emotional characters but the dubbed voices are barely engaged; is that because the audience knows this is just the final scene of a play that will repeat tomorrow?
This is one of my favourite movies, and the DC is far, far better since it doesn't spoil the big damn reveal.
As for the thing about the Strangers making objects by hand, maybe the objects need to already exist for them to manifest them into the city later?
To answer two questions:
First, why the Strangers created objects by hand. It should be noted those objects were PERSONAL ones; licences and identification, purses and wallets, jewelry, things with a close personal connection to the possessor. It's possible that creating such objects using their powers causes some kind of alienating effect that puts their subjects off and thus requires manual action to keep the "personal touch," so to speak.
Second, the existence of the bath house. While the Strangers dislike (or are perhaps negatively affected by) large amounts of moisture, their experiment requires as "normal" a human environment as possible. Since their "laboratory" is based on a human city, keeping everything in the environment as "normal" as possible would be necessary to prevent outliers and anomalies. Creating Shell Beach and an ocean access would be beyond their tolerances, but a controlled environment like the bath house would be a reasonable allowance.
The first still frame you had of Rufus Sewell in the bath tub made me laugh for some reason, he looks like he just realised he left the oven on. "Holy shit."
hehe yeah true but one thing with rufus sewell in dark city but it might be in other films is his eyes seemed to be working independent of each other, like one eye was remembering and other was looking to the future,. its kind of strange.
Do you ever plan to review the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise? I can imagine you'd have much to say about why every film after the original is a disappointment in some form.
Maybe but considering that I can't stand any of those films including the original that might be shocking for people.
That makes me curious. Why do you feel so?
Don't worry, you won't receive censure from me.
Bath house exists so the Strangers don't have to put up with smelly subjects.
i'm going to have to put this on my list and move it up it seems a little confusing but really interesting.
I feel the spiral is based on the fact the city itself was on a spiral pattern, just hard to notice it when the buildings are so different from one another. You see it when the strangers are looking over mini map of the city.
I think the spiral is symbolic to the strangers, like how they are dying and their spiral of life is ending.
I also want to add that when it comes to certain items, like the ones we see being looked over by the strangers, that they might assume that certain objects might hold the key to their experiments. Ya they can make a person take a newly created object and say it has been in that person's family for generations, but it might not be the same as if the person had an actual object they "bonded" with.
The reason why things like pools and water exist is again part of the experiment. The strangers might not like water but they know humans do and they would see use of having it around. Such as why Shell Beach was advertised but did not exist, to make humans more comfortable.
I feel the reason they swap people around is mainly due to the experiment, seeing if they change certain people around in a different setting maybe something would happen. They might have heard about the human soul from the doctor and think it is key to saving the strangers lives. They might not know fully what the human soul is.
The spiral, I feel is the strangers symbolic thing, perhaps it means more to them then it does to humans. Like how in most movies aliens would have strange symbols around for various reasons. To the strangers the symbol might be of great importance.
FYI: You meant 1920's speakasies. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. I watched it before The Matrix having rented it on VHS as a 90s preteen from the local video rental place three blocks away from my house. Also, I've always thought Kiefer Sutherland to be DAF since first witnessing him in Stand By Me when I was even younger.
To me, the symbolism of the spiral is simply that the spiral is the city. Like with Dr Schreber's spiral maze for mice - the city is a spiral labyrinth, for studying humans in. A labyrinth from which there is no escape.
And look at the big round table in the center of the strangers sanctuary (at 18:38 of this video) It is clearly a spirale maze with a lot of black building models on it - symbolizing the city.
The city might not look like a spiral in the final scene with the detective. But it is still circular. And if you think about it, a city in of itself can very much be like a labyrint. You just got to remember that it is a much more advanced maze with whole buildings moving around.
Okay that still doesn't explain why the strangers would want to point all that out to people, regardless of the symbolism, after all they may have convoluted plans for people but none of them would be helped by people knowing the cities is all fake.
Deusdaecon Reviews for what it's worth I saw this one when in first
Came out. With the Strangers doing their experiments to discover the human soul - and at this point my perception of this story is that the audience will get out of it what they invest. The ever expanding spirals - or growth of eternity - those that permit the perception, the audience is theoretically a widening expanse of the spiral, included in the complexity of Dark City. The Strangers - to my perspective yes are a dying species but the complexity of expanding eternity and the soul, are a step that the hive mind and near insect like limitations of the Strangers must be absorbed into if their species is going to step from a repeating circle to the growth of the spiral. The limitation of their nature - whether acknowledged or not condemns them to the circle of repetition until the species disappears.
Some stories are bound by the framework of their nature, the complexity of the human soul or thought allows the possibilities to to expand and that maybe a hive can grow beyond the cage of their nature.
This probably ends up sounding to purposefully contrived which is not my intention
I have enjoyed your reviews, as many times people wouldn't even have a theoretical discussion of existence and I just finally gave up bothering to try. I am glad to find your reviews and hear such
Considered observations
Thank you for sharing, it's nice that older gems are not forgotten.
I need to see the Director's Cut because the version I saw, he left the hooker after she made an off hand comment about a killer on the loose, and I always assumed he was scared he may hurt her.
The spiral reminds me of Containment Breach with the doctor/Class D who was researching the "Spiral Gestalt" I wonder if Dark City inspired this plot point in the game.
i think the containment breach sounds like was more inspired by uzumaki, but you never know.
Watched this movie too long ago, and it's been filed away as a weird dream until today
love your reviews. keep it up
Thank you very much.
Deusdaecon Reviews you're welcome. I especially loved your Lovecraft month ( just picked up the complete fiction a few weeks ago) and The Mummy review. absolutely love that film
Ah kool well give it a few weeks and the next H P Lovecraft month should be pretty soon its about due.
of course I know all about junji ito Uzumaki is a horror classic
He wipes away his tears with a blue handkerchief...
I think this film is underrated and Richard O'Brien was certainly the stand-out performer, though I think Kiefer Sutherland did a good job too. As for the repeated spiral motif, it's my opinion that it represents the path that the humans are on, that they are stuck in a continuous loop and need someone to liberate them.
Oh, wow, Daniel P. Schreber! Now that's a reference I didn't get when I saw this movie for the first time.
the looping city reminds me of something i saw in a manga before though i cant remember the name.
and in my head the one guy does get out theres a split second where he disappears. editing for the movie? or intentional : 3. lol. yeah i know its the editing let me dream.
One of my favorite movies
Can you review fright night?
Deusdeacon needs to review the wailing
That’s a neat trick but you can only do it once is gold
I know it's been out a while, but does anyone know what the ending theme of this video is?
I’m pretty sure it was just something playing over the films credits, might be on the film soundtrack if your looking for it.
28:57 - 29:01 Duel of sorts or Duel of the Fates?
Never see/heard of this film before, that's a really good concept for a series if they ever needed a new one on tv
like the new logo. to the point and what not. also, never seen this movie so...
Couldn't find any info on the song bumstead played
Great review. All the spiral stuff reminds me of the anime Gurren Lagann where the spiral represented the power of evolution I think.
The Strangers' species' bodies were too vulnerable and fragile, and potentially had issues with recreation. Human bodies are sturdier, but lack the tuning ability and the connection to the hivemind.
So Strangers needed to figure out what makes human mind different from their own, and how can they turn a human into one of themselves.
18:16 hey look it's linkara! He's a man, punch, wears a purty hat!
I remember richard from the Crystal Maze game.
well, alex proyas actually wrote a much more detailed and complicated script for this movie but they made him simplify it because they thought that the film wouldn't do great if it was 'too complicated'. what a shame. still one of my top 10 movies ever.
Maybe they have to do things are primitive leave because unfortunately the two nansie was not ready to make it look as though they could just do it on a whim
I wonder if the director's cut explains the spirals
Bumstead was the surname of Dagwood and his wife Blondie in the Blondie comic strip, tho I don't know if that has any relevance here.
My instinct says no
Considering that you know all of whats going on after having seen it, the movie is surprisingly re-watchable.
There's a new Uzumaki movie coming next year.Will you review it?
probably not, I don’t do new releases and I know next to nothing about junjis itos work
Okay thanks for answering.
Isn't Bumstead a name from the comic strip blondie?
Well, where do you find most spirals? Outer space.
Thx to you i have a new fav movie that i probably wouldn't have watched
I remember watching this movie when I was young, 5he visuals where attractive but I knew there was more to it.
I love this film.. thanks for the great review
The movie was made a long time ago you have to factor that in
I saw this movie at about 10 I believe. It surprisingly, didn't confuse me.
Just a thought but the physical objects the strangers personally give people could be because they can't make objects look used anything they make is brand new like fresh of the assembly line new
My question is if Murdoc will create a new Earth?
well we don't know what happen to the real earth so he could also go searching for it, if he has full control of the city he could possibly pilot it too, but thats just an assumption that it had ship like qualities.
I don't see how not understanding the stranger's origins and motivations helps. Why did they take over human bodies?
Why do they need to understand souls?
How is their experiment even testing the soul?
There's too many questions and not enough answers that make me think it's just for the sake of style.
@@Hb2N Why did they need dead human bodies? If souls come from creators then why are they messing around with humans? Wouldn't they want to talk to the creators?
I saw this in the theaters, I was the only person there. It was awesome.
Love to see your thoughts and review of Mulholland Drive. A movie that definitely needs 2 views!
How do a request a review??
through my Patreon page www.patreon.com/DeusdaeconReviews, right now the requests are sold out though, but it will be opening up sometime soon.
Deusdaecon Reviews thank you! Also great review 👍🏻
Blank Slate - fifth movie (Dana Curvy comedy)
You know I have theory about the alien parasites but before I do I find it funny that the aliens in this movie and the aliens in the M Night Shyamalan movie Signs have the same weakness and that is water anyways my theory is this the reason why they can't get rid of all the water is because well they're not Gods they're just aliens and plus they're possessing imperfect creatures which are human beings so it's probably limitations to what they can and can't do depending on who they possess and plus think of it this way water can see pin and leak through anything so you can kind of think of it like that I don't know it's just a thought
This is very lovecraft
I thought this was based on the Japanese Anime Wicked City, I stand corrected
A Junji Ito movie now I imagine that would be good horror movie.
they exist and they suck :v
@@morganaschmitt515I agree. I've seen the anime adaptation of Junji Ito's manga.
I saw this movie as a kid and I thought it was a Hellraiser movie, because of the strangers being in leather.
Yeah I can understand the visual similarities there.
its ironic mister quick wasnt fast enough.
That Hellraiser poster with Bela Lugosi on it confuses me. Lugosi wasnt even alive when when Hellraiser was even written..... The fuck bruh??!
its a mock up of what hellraiser might be like if they were made by universal i have another with christopher lee as pinhead as if hammer horror made hellraiser
This kind of reminds me of the movie "Brazil".
is Die She Said your band?
No not at all, I'm just mates with the band and they kindly let me use their music
They are humans as said very clear in the movie , They are humans from the future per say who over time forget what the human soul is. This is why they do what they do in the hope to find the human soul and there so safe the human race. They are not good or bad just trying to live but stopping them means a 12 money loop.
so the part where they said that they are alien creatures inhabiting the bodies of dead humans, where does that fall into this theory ?
Future is the world word , They say in the film when a human does die they enter a new state of being kinda like Haven but one can also die in this state as well. They are on the last state due to forgetting what there soul was when fully human.
no one ever says that, theres no mention of heaven or time travel (outside of the freezing people) or future humans, or different states of being or anything like that unless we've seen different movies, thats not the plot of dark city, schreber tells murdoch directly the strangers are extraterrestrial beings using dead humans as a host, they have a hive mind so a experimenting with individuality in the hopes of finding something that will help there dying race to survive.
I recall them saying they are from the after life per say where they did die again and again like the after life of the after life per say. I always did take that to mean they are human are once was human. However i may need to watch it again as i did see when it did come out.
i can guarantee, they never say that, because i would've mentioned at least once, i seriously think you are misremembering the film.
I enjoy the asthetic of this film but I'm not a huge fan of the performances or writing, the crow is really the only proyas film I like
I love that movie.
Reminds me of Ito Junji’s work
Me, too.
Why the spirals?
Clearly it's Junji Ito's "Uzumaki".
I think there would be a lot more body horror if so.
I actually prefer Dark City to the Matrix
You talk about the Director's cut being vastly superior but it makes me stop and think; Are there ANY movies you can think of where the original cuts are better than the director's cut?
Ryan Brennan Donnie Darko, the directors cut is pretty unnecessary
I never saw that one but I can imagine that it'd only make the movie more convoluted.
Only ones I can think of where I preferred the theatrical versions are Little Shop of Horrors and Star Wars.
Strangers= Uncle Fester fashion club.
As you and I both know...
The preparation of items, and the strangers being able to "create" object i always saw as more as some displacement of the objects, they have to prepare the items, and when they appears, they simply called the prepared object for it'S use... Anyway it's how i interpreted it
Yay Uzumaki
This movie is underrated and is better than "The Matrix". I saw it in the theater.