You're right, I totally forgot about the bruises! But yeah, those would definitely be consistent with him wandering around in the woods. The way the first forty minutes are set up is interesting: on one hand, most of what the movie focuses on was orchestrated by Matthew, but then the credits show you that there was another layer to that. Next time I watch, I'll have to keep an eye out for Alice - especially in the original manipulated photo!
The cell phone footage was the scariest thing I've seen in months, no lie. I was already really tense because of the movie's habit of sloooowly going into a close-up shot when Alice showed up in the pictures. It would get me afraid that she was about to move or jump at the camera or something. So when she got right up into the cell phone at Lake Mungo and stopped for about ten seconds, I had almost started to relax... AND THEN SHE LUNGED AND I DIED OF A HEART ATTACK. (And the visual of drowned Alice with her empty eye was creepy enough as is.)
Hee, I know what you mean about not knowing what to say about that moment at first. I've had a night of (fitful) sleep to think about it, and I guess it got me on two levels, and the way it scared me while I was watching was different than the way it scared me later. When I was watching, it was more about the visual, the shock factor, and the tension finally breaking. But what got me later was the idea - which was really creative, actually - that Alice literally saw her own death coming for her. I keep thinking about that line where she says that she thinks something bad has already happened to her, but it hasn't caught up to her yet, and I get chills. I've never seen death portrayed like that before, and it was enough to keep me from looking at any mirrors in the dark last night!
I don't know how to spoiler tag, so, um. THAR BE SPOILERS, Y'ALL
The cell phone footage was the scariest thing I've seen in months, no lie. I was already really tense because of the movie's habit of sloooowly going into a close-up shot when Alice showed up in the pictures. It would get me afraid that she was about to move or jump at the camera or something. So when she got right up into the cell phone at Lake Mungo and stopped for about ten seconds, I had almost started to relax... AND THEN SHE LUNGED AND I DIED OF A HEART ATTACK. (And the visual of drowned Alice with her empty eye was creepy enough as is.)
Hee, I know what you mean about not knowing what to say about that moment at first. I've had a night of (fitful) sleep to think about it, and I guess it got me on two levels, and the way it scared me while I was watching was different than the way it scared me later. When I was watching, it was more about the visual, the shock factor, and the tension finally breaking. But what got me later was the idea - which was really creative, actually - that Alice literally saw her own death coming for her. I keep thinking about that line where she says that she thinks something bad has already happened to her, but it hasn't caught up to her yet, and I get chills. I've never seen death portrayed like that before, and it was enough to keep me from looking at any mirrors in the dark last night!