Short movie - Monsters.

I wonder what people think about this short movie?

I think it is very well done, for about 12 minutes.

I would say more for an opening post, put it would be a massive spoiler.

Let's just say it begins in an apocalyptic cellar with monsters outside.

A scenario we already know from several recent movies ...

Following posts may however include spoilers.

Spoiler alert ...

So this about an enforced one-child policy.

Far-fetched?

What if they say, the planet's over-populated you may only have one child?

The second-child?

Get in the van ...

The planet can't support a spare.

a reply to: halfoldman

Wouldn't an easier solution be to put a bullet in mom or dad?
The kid can stay.

a reply to: Bluntone22

It's not resolved what happens to the kid(s).

Although there are echoes of Anne Frank's writings here, it's not clear they (the kids) will be "exterminated".

Maybe they're brainwashed Khmer Rouge or Maoist style, and they will be back to enslave or execute their parents?
Take the big house and everything for the year zero, and the revolution?

a reply to: halfoldman

The only reason for a one child policy is population control likely to conserve resources.
The kids are taken to be exiicuted.

a reply to: Bluntone22

OK, your interpretation.

I say they are forced to become state property, and future enforcers (or soldiers for the system).

The other kids look way too calm and ordered to be exterminated.

Besides, they would have done it already.

In that sense; "future monsters".

a reply to: halfoldman

A kind of ironic perpetuation of "monsterhood".

The fascist state takes a child as a means of taxation.

If it was a male-child around that age, we could say, yeah that happened in history all the time, they just called it "conscription".

People hiding their sons in cesspools and pig-dung for months so the press-gangs wouldn't find them, and send them to the front.
Still common-place in world War II.

Well whatever the meta-narrative, or debatable outcome:

It's unlikely to be pleasant.

Especially as a female, even if survival does occur ... I mean look what happened when ISIS took Yazidi women and girls.

And that wasn't exactly 70 years ago.

And I think here the modern suburbia makes an ironic backdrop.

If we saw this story on CNN, BBC or Sky News the past two decades with people living in clay houses and tents, would it still shock us?

So it's a visual and thematic interrogation on several levels.

a reply to: halfoldman

I watched the vid before reading your spoilers. Very well made and a surprise twist at the end. Thanks for sharing!

But ... but there's people outside driving fancy cars and vans.

Aha, but you see, that's why nobody can have a second child.
You see we all wanna keep our lifestyle.

And honestly, more of us would rather have a nice car than a whiny teenage daughter.
So we've come to a collective conclusion ... sweetie, you're not going to like this ...

Material prosperity means a severe intrusion in human fertility.

Is that the message?
That's one possible interpretation.

OK it suddenly happened, this apocalyptic one-child state.
But that's a cool basement.
I'd voluntarily stay in there until I was 75, we just need to grow some different plants.

Yeah at ninety-five Halfoldman comes crawling out the basement.

Say, this herb is growing all over for the past 40 years.
It's like the jungle down here!

Anybody got a lighter?

originally posted by: halfoldman
Spoiler alert ...

So this about an enforced one-child policy.

Far-fetched?

I thought it was far fetched.

Despite the guide stones and a stack of propaganda, a quick glance around you will probably confirm that we aren't actually overpopulated.

In China they tried an enforced one child policy and now they are regretting it. The Chinese government are now going the other way and trying to get a little bit of population growth because the economy needs it. Problem is, now everyone is conditioned towards population control and it's hard to get a boom going again.

There is a similar decline in population happening in the US and other 1st World countries. Population control is a problem that swings wildly from boom to deficit. A one child policy would produce a world where overproduction abounds easily because everything is geared to make and sell more without limit.

Imagine something similar to what happened in Detroit with the auto industry, affecting everything, all goods and services, across the entire country.

Is there a flush toilet in the basement?

If the monsters come I'll cover myself in Vaseline and pop up in a another bathroom.

"Eek! Oh hi sweety! Sorry, the monsters are here! So mommy's gonna get the toilet brush and ram you down right to where you just came from. We Love you!"

That's the real horror for me: extreme cruelty here becomes the lesser of two evils.

Or does it?

One-child policy hey?

So why doesn't my brother go live in the basement?

I know he'd love to, just bring him booze and snacks and you know what every day.

But how do you explain the disappearance of a son, and the appearance of a daughter?

Easy, we're so progressive as parents we flew to Thailand, and that's our daughter.

But son, that means you must stay in the basement, you may never come out!
Cool dad, roll down the barrel!

Although I think what's implied here is a femicide, under a one-child policy.

That applied once, but whether it will apply today, everywhere still, or in a soon imagined future is not clear.

The bias may already be for a female only-child.

But I doubt they'll have a 1970's apple-pie son.

Hey neighbor, we had a deal - one prom my son goes as the lady, and next prom your son goes as the lady.

We got a shortage of females around here.