Chapter 57: Movie
“Don’t go, don’t go. There are still Easter eggs.”
“I almost left but fortunately I didn’t miss the Easter eggs. Although the movie wasn’t that amazing, I still wanted to watch it until the end.”
In the theatre, many had got up and left. There were some who saw that there were Easter eggs and proceeded to sit back down to watch.
There were two Easter eggs in total. The first was related to the clown and was explained by the director while the second one was about Le Ling.
The clown’s appearance left a deep impression on Su Min.
During the Easter egg, the director explained that he had originally intended on having the magician take up a normal appearance, but he later felt that a clown was more stimulating
After all, with a performance like that, if the magician had the face of an ordinary person the audience probably would think that it was just a trick and they wouldn’t take it seriously.
This was also a way for the magician to avoid being recognised.
“The selection is random, and it can be good or bad. Unlike the few attendees during Le Ling’s performance, because of the magician’s greed, there was a much larger turn out for the show this time.”
“The presence of a clown was optional. To the ghosts behind everything, they just wanted to watch the performance and witness the emotions the audience goes through. Once the performance was over, his role was done, and he longer needed to exist.
And so, the clown would eventually turn into a pile of bones.
Even if Su Min and they didn’t deal that finalblow, the clown probably wouldn’t have lived long. The clown himself however probably was unaware of his fate.
The director also mentioned at the very end why the final performance involved vases. It was because these ghosts were victims that were killed to be turned into human sticks.....
When the second Easter egg came out, Su Min was filled with emotion.
Le Ling’s actor wore a uniform and appeared to be a fresh-looking young man. Without the make up in the movie, he no longer looked very feminine.
He didn’t explain much. It was all small details.
Because the movie only revealed certain scenes, much of the background information in the script wasn’t shown. Things like why he partic.i.p.ated in the last show and why he was selected wasn’t explained.
Le Ling’s parent had saved him. He left the show and, in order not to be found, he began to crossdress and live his life secretly.
But Li Chi Yu sent him tickets to the show evoking his past memories.
Le Ling had always wanted to return to find his parents’ bones and to bring them back to be buried properly so he didn’t stop Li Chi Yu.
He thought that it didn’t matter if he couldn’t return alive. He could just die together with his parents.
But the director naturally allowed him and Li Chi Yu to escape successfully. Le Ling then chose to surrender and gave himself a real ending.
Su Min felt that the director did this in order to allow the movie to pa.s.s through its check and be allowed to be screened.
He heard an audience at the front say: “If you didn’t go then this horror movie wouldn’t have been filmed.”
No matter how unreasonable a horror movie was, you must devise a reason for it.
Unlike the other movies, audiences were not very demanding of horror movies. A simple reason like this was acceptable.
After the end of the Easter egg, Su Min left the cinema.
Su Min went onto Weibo and searched the movie name. The search results returned with movie critic reviews and blogs.
He didn’t know which ones had experienced the movie holographically in the same theatre as him and they didn’t reveal it in their Weibo.
After looking through a dozen or so of them, one revealed himself.
“I was invited to watch “Death Show” holographically. I had watched the movie in advance normally and I thought I would be able to live until the end, but I ended up dying halfway. Oh, by the way, there was one person who managed to live until the end. Maybe the movie will be rereleased.”
Su Min’s heart fell. He suspected he was probably talking about him.
He looked at the comments. Most of them were making fun of how terrible the poster was at holographic viewing and others tried to guess who the person mentioned by the blogger was.
“You saw the movie yet you still died so quickly hahahaha. How embarra.s.sing. You should just stop being a movie blogger.”
“Which great master managed to survive until the end?”
“To tell you the truth, I also went for holographic viewing, but I voluntarily quit halfway through. It was too scary, and I also didn’t understand what was going on....... I guess I’m really not suited for horror movies.”
“Lived until the end? That person’s luck must be really amazing. The clown definitely didn’t select him. If he did, he definitely wouldn’t have lived until the end.”
“..............”
Su Min internally thought that he really was selected. He was just saved from it by Chen Su.
If not for Chen Su, he would have probably ended up as just a pile of human skin.
But after taking into consideration the clown’s previous actions, the clown may not necessarily kill him in the end and would instead do something else.
The clown had also turned out to be human which messed up the plot of the movie even more.
Because of this, Chen Su’s appearance was in line with the development of the movie. Once the second situation occurred, the following plotline was probably completely messed up.
Su Min left the cinema with the crowd.
Many people around him were discussing the comedy and science fiction films that were being aired at the same time. Very few were discussing “Death Show”.
With several good movies out at the same time, the box office sales for this horror movie probably won’t be as good as “Murder Island” last time.
In fact, Su Min felt that this movie wasn’t as good as “Murder Island” but, after thinking about it, he realised that it was already pretty good as it is.
For some, this may be considered a trashy movie, but he conversely quite liked it after his holographic viewing experience.
Perhaps the director had paid to be at the top of the hot topic listing, he saw a post on Weibo that happened to be related to the movie.
Su Min clicked into that hot topic.
“That’s why it’s better not to go to ma.s.s graves. Cremation is better. They’re burned completely so you wouldn’t see ghosts messing around.”
Seeing this, Su Min couldn’t help but laugh.
If they really were cremated, the movie probably wouldn’t be able to be filmed.
The one behind everything was the owner of that large grave who had been turned into a human stick. The other human bones belonged to those in the small mounds around it. If they cremated them, there wouldn’t be any bones to use to make the performance venue.
He took a ride back to school.
A broken electric fan turned its head in the dormitory room as Li Wenxin sat paralysed in his chair. He had a despondent expression on his face.
Hearing the noise, he looked up, “You’re back.”
He then looked back and continue to sit there lifelessly.
Su Min walked past him and asked curiously: “Did you break up? What’s with that lifeless look of yours?”
Li Wenxin sighed. “It’s worse than breaking up.”
For a moment, Su Min didn’t know the answer to it.
Li Wenxin rubbed his hands and said with embarra.s.sment: “To tell you the truth, I also went to experience it but I died in that vase. I’m now too traumatised to eat kelp.”
Su Min: “................”
That really was unfortunate. He didn’t manage to get through the second incident.
It was Li Wenxin’s first time experiencing holographic viewing of a horror movie and he didn’t expect this kind of outcome. He felt both respect and jealousy towards Su Min.
After the experience, he was no longer interested in watching it normally, so he went back to the dormitory.
Li Wenxin said emotionally: “If only I had a great master protecting me too.”
Su Min replied calmly: “You didn’t have one?”
Li Wenxin said loudly: “In any case I didn’t see him. Perhaps he was there but he didn’t appear. I’m not you.”
He had seen through it anyway.
Su Min mentally took note of that and then he heard Li Wenxin ask: “Do you want to have hotpot? I haven’t eaten yet.”
He refused: “I’ve eaten.”
Su Min had a very average appet.i.te. He had already had skewers so if he went for hotpot he would probably end up in hospital.
Li Wenxin was disappointed: “Okay then. I’ll go by myself.”
Su Min couldn’t help but laugh at his pitiful appearance. After he left with a better mood, Su Min went back to browsing through the comments.
Sometimes it is more fun reading through reviews than watching the movie.
“Poor rating. There wasn’t anything interested. Especially that clown, it’s so old school now. Can’t they use something new instead of pulling out something from 800 years ago?”
“In the end, the one surnamed Le was a man. Where’s the promised female protagonist? My feelings were cheated. I originally wanted to become a fan of the actress but now I’m taking it back.....”
“There probably were eyes in the corridor of the hotel but I didn’t see it. It was pretty scary when Zhou Qing Qing was taken away.”
“The ending was too simple. It came very abruptly. I think the director probably didn’t plan things well enough or maybe they couldn’t think of a better way to end it.”
“The most memorable scene was when the wife was stabbed to death. With danger looming over his head, he probably didn’t expect a twist like that.”
“That clown was probably a psychopath. He smiled like he’s crazy.”
“............”
The scene involving Luo Zhanshen and the darts surprised even Su Min let alone the others.
He originally didn’t know how he managed to get the darts onto the words and he only managed to find out after watching the movie through a normal viewing experience where they revealed the scene through first person.
As it turned out, he had peeked.
The performance took advantage of him psychologically. From Luo Zhanshen’s perspective, with him being able to peek through the blindfold, he not only could leave without killing, he could also have the chance to walk away with some amazing prizes. With this, he naturally would be enticed.
But there was a twist.
With the length of the dart, if it hit Yellow Hair, it would not penetrate to the other side.
He didn’t want to kill others, so he ended up killing his wife. If he had hardened his heart and killed Yellow Hair, his wife wouldn’t have died.
You couldn’t say that he was good or bad. It was just a play with his heart.
After experiencing three horror movies, Su Min had become able to calmly read through the movie plots and comments.
As for whether he could pa.s.s scoring this time, he didn’t feel too strongly about it. At most he would feel a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to see it rereleased.
Unless he was given a disc with the original content.
***
Three days later, a message came from New Century Cinema.
“【New Century Cinema】 Audience Member Su Min h.e.l.lo. The scoring for your partic.i.p.ation in “Death Show” three days ago has been released. It has reached the rerelease standard and the release schedule has been set. Please log in online and we will give you your new movie tickets....”
Su Min skilfully logged into their official website and saw that the scoring for the movie was lower than the last movie.
But he had expected this. Afterall, the ending for this movie wasn’t great. The twist at the end of the last movie was very impactful so it resulted in a high scoring.
He even suspected that he probably wouldn’t be able to exceed that score in the future.
If he was actually a celebrity in the entertainment industry, he probably would be considered as going downhill in his career after being unable to star in a movie as impacting as his breakthrough role.
The director was probably too lazy, and the story description wasn’t changed.
But a new poster was released. In the dark background, the clown stood on the stage smiling while the audience sat below. Sitting in the first row was the four of them.
The person in charge again gave him a call. He mentioned the incident with the movie critics and apologised to Su Min.
Su Min didn’t mind it. He wasn’t angry at that time: “It’s okay, I didn’t think much off it. No need to apologise.”
The person in charge laughed. He then asked him if he would go watch the rerelease.
Although he felt that Su Min would probably go, he still had to ask. In the off chance that he wasn’t going, he would then be able to deliver the news to the others on his end.
Su Min didn’t hesitate: “I’ll go.”
The person in charge was relieved. He was afraid that he wouldn’t come because the scoring this time was lower than the last one.