Chapitre 122: Chapter 122: I Choose Life
Not only was the head of operations in the theater trying to please the unremarkable middle-aged man, even the duty manager of the cinema rushed over upon receiving the news. Kevin Harland also approached, putting on a smile and greeting him. Though the middle-aged man only nodded lightly, Kevin felt extremely honored.
Watching the man leave the cinema, Kevin Harland couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. If he could achieve even one-third of what the man had in his lifetime, he would consider himself fulfilled.
As the middle-aged man named Mints exited the theater, a car immediately pulled up in front of him. He opened the door, got in, gestured to the driver to start driving, and then dialed a phone number.
"You overlooked a film!" his tone was very serious, "Starting tomorrow, immediately conduct a market survey specifically for 'Saw'. Also, establish a file on Murphy Stanton. Any film he directs in the future should be a focus for CinemaScore!"
Hanging up the phone, the middle-aged man proceeded to make several more calls, repeatedly mentioning "Saw" and Murphy Stanton. It seemed that he and his professional company had made a significant mistake regarding these two entities.
His name was Ed Mints, the founder of the renowned CinemaScore company!
It could be said that CinemaScore was the most authoritative film market analysis institution in all of Hollywood and even North America. Ed Mints' investigations and analyses did not involve artistic or other professional ratings; they focused solely on the market.
To ordinary moviegoers and even seasoned enthusiasts, the name Ed Mints was extremely unfamiliar. Only industry professionals knew about him and his company's capabilities.
He never attended premieres, and his name never appeared on Hollywood's power rankings. Yet, over the years, Ed Mints had made a huge contribution to the entire Hollywood film industry—his company, CinemaScore, provided invaluable box office reference information to the industry.
Unlike professional critics or the media, CinemaScore relied entirely on the market. Surveys were often conducted immediately after audiences watched a film, making the ratings based on audience word-of-mouth the best frontline market data.
CinemaScore's ratings were easy to understand: A meant success, B meant satisfactory, and C meant bad news, indicating an impending box office disaster. Generally, audiences rarely gave ratings below C for newly released films. If a film did receive such a rating, it basically meant it shouldn't have been in theaters in the first place.
Although already in his sixties, Ed Mints showed no signs of retirement. He maintained the habit of personally going to theaters to watch movies, experiencing frontline market conditions. In addition to mainstream commercial blockbusters, he also selected some low-budget films to watch.
Mainstream commercial blockbusters had large investments and attracted many audiences. Even if CinemaScore accurately predicted their box office performance, they often failed to attract much attention. Conversely, overlooked low-budget films, if identified as gems and accurately estimated in the market, could explode at the box office, highlighting CinemaScore's professionalism even more.
Ed Mints had accurately predicted that "The Blair Witch Project" would gross over $100 million in North America. At that time, almost everyone thought it was a miracle for such a bad film to make $50 million at the box office. The result surprised everyone, and Ed Mints proved the strength of CinemaScore.
A few nights ago, he saw the late-night trailer for "Saw" and found it intriguing. Tonight, he took the time to come and see it.
"Indeed, it was worth the trip!" he murmured to himself in the back seat of the car. "With a film like this, coupled with appropriate marketing, if it doesn't achieve good results, it can only mean a 180-degree shift in the taste of North American horror film enthusiasts."
Unlike ordinary audiences, Ed Mints paid attention to the director as soon as the movie started. When he didn't recognize or remember the director's name, he thought he might have been misled by the trailer, assuming it was a shoddily made B-grade film. However, after watching it, his thumbs were already up.
"The director's plot setting can stimulate the audience's imagination, making them wonder what would happen if they were in the characters' shoes," he recalled the movie, pondering. "This unknown element arouses the audience's interest in watching. Not knowing where they are, what will happen, everything is out of control—that's the most terrifying."
Ed Mints nodded in approval, quite recognizing the film. The director, Murphy Stanton, could be considered a breakthrough. Compared to traditional suspense horror films, he was more adept at mobilizing audience interaction and engagement.
"Murphy Stanton..." he repeated the name.
This unknown director was quite clever. He used the extreme fear of the human psyche combined with ruthless mockery to reveal, intentionally guiding the audience's inner questioning, thereby eliciting genuine chills from them!
It was simply masterful storytelling and atmosphere creation, something he hadn't seen in the past five or six years!
Ed Mints didn't think this was just a simple newcomer director. Even from the narrative technique of the film, it could be seen.
Not to mention the stunning cross-cutting, the natural and clever use of flashbacks, seamlessly integrating with the forward narrative, was extremely, extremely rare.
Murphy Stanton, the director, ingeniously used flashbacks to skillfully narrate the time and space of the police, the criminals, and the protagonist in a cyclical manner, making the plot more compact and pressing! Especially the intellectual battle between the police and the criminals, from the scene to the clues to the reasoning and then to the verification, kept viewers on the edge of their seats.
Even he felt the tension of the moment increase!
Sitting in the car, Ed Mints couldn't get the film out of his head, even for a moment.
In the film, every character's seemingly unrelated daily life unexpectedly had striking similarities under specific conditions! When the mystery was revealed, were those undergoing soul-searching the characters in the play or himself?
He shook his head; this was the director's smartest move, using the cruel interrogation of human nature to give the Jigsaw killer a so-called mission, giving his image a strange sense of sanctity.
"Faced with life and death, what is your choice? To live or to die?"
For some reason, Ed Mints thought of this question again. At first glance, it seemed very redundant, but what if additional conditions were added? What if it were a matter of life and death? The selfish ugliness of humanity collapsed at this moment. Perhaps only a madman could come up with such a soul-shaking theme...
"Murphy Stanton..." he whispered the name again.
From the 1970s to the present, he had seen countless movies, including many horror films. He had long been accustomed to expected scares like alien resurrections, Godzilla laying eggs, and psychopathic killers killing people for no reason. But the ending of this film, its unexpectedness rivaled that of "The Sixth Sense" two years ago. It left such a deep impression on him that he couldn't stop thinking about the film even now.
Of course, the film had its flaws.
For example, the backgrounds of the victims in several cases should have been described in more detail to aid the audience's understanding of the ending; although the ending was surprising and logically understandable, it lacked strong foreshadowing
, and the reveal of the trump card was a bit rushed; the performances of the actors were too stiff and formulaic, lacking a sense of brilliance; and the plot was too tight, lacking emotional buffering, keeping viewers on edge for ninety minutes straight, which could easily lead to fatigue...
Thinking of this, Ed Mints chuckled. He had never heard of Murphy Stanton before; he must be a newcomer director. Was he demanding too much from a newcomer director who had just entered the industry? After all, the film itself was not without flaws; it was definitely a brilliant work!
Even, if the film's operation went well, becoming a classic in the horror genre was not out of the question.
As the car slowly approached a mansion on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Ed Mints' phone suddenly rang. He looked at the number and furrowed his brow slightly.
He answered the phone, "Is there something urgent at this late hour?"
"BOSS..." his subordinate on the other end of the line spoke, "I've arranged manpower according to your instructions, but this film is only being shown in thirty theaters this weekend, and there's a consulting company gathering audience feedback."
Ed Mints asked, "Do they have any statistical data?"
"They have some, but it's not very accurate," the subordinate said as simply as possible, "Today's audience feedback data indicates a positive rating of nearly ninety percent!"
"Hmm," Ed Mints nodded, unsurprised, "Don't worry about what they're doing. Starting tomorrow, let's focus on our work!"
The car pulled into the mansion, and Ed Mints returned to his room, freshened up briefly, and prepared to sleep. However, he couldn't sleep, his mind filled with images of the Jigsaw killer rising to his feet. Though he had judged the setup of that scene as lacking, its unexpected impact had left too deep an impression on him, as if it were engraved in his mind and couldn't be erased.
The sun rose later on the West Coast than on the East Coast. Murphy had arrived early at Fox Searchlight. According to the agreement between the two parties, there would be a morning meeting every day during the screening period to report the situation and make necessary adjustments.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
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