I loved the surprise bummer ending. It was genuinely startling and nexpected.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything.

The ending saved it a little

You're looking at it all wrong. What makes the film so terrifying is that she doesn't escape, the thought that we could be smart and go against the odds and fight back and still lose. And that's reality. Do you know how many smart women (and men) get kidnapped daily? The scariest part of this movie was the end, and seeing all those carts, because sexual trafficking is actually a huge problem in the world and this happens more than you think.

Mentioned this on another thread, but here's your typical Hollywood ending (if some A-lister that likes to make his or her own rewrites were to be part of the film:
Girl saves her friend, kills the bad guys, sends a nuclear bomb in the box timed to go off as soon as its opened by the bad guys on the other side. End Credits
Sound better? Personally, I don't think so. There are enough typical Hollywood flicks with this kind of ending (
Taken
anyone? not a diss on that movie cause I like it, but it isn't very realistic).
I'm your average ordinary everyday, jorgeegeetooo!

I have a feeling this is why the movie has such a low rating. In terms of the acting, direction, plot, etc. it deserves more than 5.7. I can only conclude that many people are rating it 1 because they were upset/angry at the ending, basically reacting emotionally rather than giving it an objective rating.

No, these characters did not. It is one thing to be too scared to fight back like Andy supposedly did. That is fair enough.
It is quite another to have the complete upper hand (with a gun in your hand) and decide for reasons of your own that you rather not finish off your presumed rapists. She could have shot her presumed rapist(s). She chose not to, willingly and of her own choosing. She has to live with that. Probably not for that long though.

da mous said: Scary movies are supposed to do a good job of scaring us, give us a character we can identify with, then let us all breath again by allowing that character we identify with survive!
Well part of your definition is right. Horror films are supposed to horrify us, and happy endings are far from horrifying.
Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God. ~Author Unknown

I tend to AGREE
Its stil a movie, not real life
Mel should have been able to kill the driver in the final scene and survive
there could have been some final post script to report on how many woman are sold into slavery and don't survive
It would have been nice to have that payoff at the end where Mel is free and not sold into slavery

Anyway, back to my original rant.. What really, REALLY bothered me about this movie was the ending. The good girl, the smart girl, the girl with the forgiving heart, the girl who kept fighting back, deserved to survive. She earned it!
Too predicatable. And this is the reason why the genre is nothing but a shadow of it's former self.
Before you watch a horror movie all you need to do is read about it first. Find out of there are women in it. If they are in it, one of them will be there at the end once it's all done. They will survive because that is the way it has been done for three decades now.
I am extremely thankful to the movie makers for the ending we have. It is better than your idea of how it should end. Your train of thought is what is killing the genre. Do us all a favour please and don't go making any movies anytime soon with that attitude. That girl didn't deserve to survive anymore than the rest of them. It's a horror movie FFS.
The ending is a breath of fresh air in an extremely stale genre.
"You're a funny man, Sully, I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last."

"Scary movies are supposed to do a good job of scaring us, give us a character we can identify with, then let us all breath again by allowing that character we identify with survive!"
I agree with that up until the first comma. And I agree with you that the ending of this movie is about as scary as anything gets. What is scarier than lingering fear, though? I think that the ending was easily the most impressive part of this movie.
Also, if she had survived, the movie would have made the slave trade seem less grim than it did with its actual ending.

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When someone has killed 2 people and you have the upper hand with a gun, you shoot. You do not ask questions, you do not second guess, you shoot. Even facing the worst possibilities, it's self defense, and no jury would convict her. All in all, you shoot. No doubt about it.
-i totally agree.
"I need more sex, OK? Before I die I wanna taste everyone in the world."
-Angelina HOlie

Sure, there were some dumb moments, but, for the most part, these characters acted the way most regular people would react when confronted with some aggressive, crazy dude with a gun.
No to belittle your opinion, but when I finally manage to get the gun away from the crazy dude, the first thing I'd do is shoot him in the face. The second thing I'd do is shoot him in the face again.
And assuming that didn't go as planned, after the shuttle bus crashes and I'm the first to wake up and I get my hands on a knife, what I will not do is get out of the bus. What I will do is slit the throats of the two psychos as to ensure my safety and know for certain they won't get right back the hell up and take me hostage again.
I'm sorry, but I just can't stand by any movie where characters do stupid things that I wouldn't do. Yeah, I'd be scared in that situation, but if I see an opportunity I sure as hell am going to take it because I know I'm dead meat if I sit and do nothing.
http://stuffblackpeopledig.wordpress.com/

"Scary movies are supposed to do a good job of scaring us, give us a character we can identify with, then let us all breath again by allowing that character we identify with survive!"
The only requirement for a scary movie is that it scares you, and after that all bets are off. A happy ending might be what you personally want out of a scary movie, but that by no means makes it a requirement for the genre. Saying what a horror movie is "supposed" to have, beyond being scary, is all your personal opinion.
There are plenty of horror movies that don't have happy endings, and they're still obviously horror movies. Maybe not ones you specifically want to see, but still.

The beginning of the movie was good, and believeable, the end was fabulous, because it made sense. If you go through all that and can't win, you almost deserve to get sent to East Asia. When someone has killed 2 people and you have the upper hand with a gun, you shoot. You do not ask questions, you do not second guess, you shoot. Even facing the worst possibilities, it's self defense, and no jury would convict her. All in all, you shoot. No doubt about it.

I think the end saved what was a pretty mediocre 3rd act. The entire scene in the warehouse just dragged on too much and it took the girl way too long to realize what was happening. Throw a happy ending on that and I don't think I'd have liked the movie.

I can NOT believe that the OP said: "Honestly, if it wasn't for that goddamned heavy handed ending, this would be one of my favorite scary movies."
I would love to know what other Scary films are on your list of Favorites
It's such a shame our friendship had to end. Purple Rain. Purple Rain

They've been doing it for years, so they probably know what they can get away with
Except if they would really do this the way they did in the movie, they would get caught shortly after the first time. This would NEVER work.

Sex slavery does exist in the States. We don't have formal brothels like they do in Asia, but it exists underground. I used to do work for an org working against the trade, and some of the material they showed us mentioned that strippers and prostitutes are sometimes sex slaves. Also, I saw a story on (I think) 60 Minutes that described an American girl who made friends with some girl in her class at school. The second girl invited the first girl over to her house, then the second girl's parents drugged the first girl and locked her in the basement. Then, they charged people to have sex with her for some long period of time.
I think part of the point of this movie is that the inner city is shamefully lawless and uncaring. Nothing happened after the grocery store checkout lady viewed the video tape. No police cars were anywhere. The bad guy ran over one of the good guys twice in the parking lot right outside the grocery store's window-filled front side. And, these guys just wrapped two bodies up and tossed them over a bridge. They've been doing it for years, so they probably know what they can get away with. Maybe this is a wakeup call about the lawless nature of the inner city.

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" Pretty hollow victory, since they'd probably rape & kill her, & everything in between. Suicide would be the only alternative. Those slavers aren't paying for corpse. "

• Hollow? the whole point why he kept her so safe was that he needed to preserve her looks. If they found out she was damaged, the man would get in serious trouble. It's a self-sacrifice, but one that would get her some revenge, it's what I'd do anyway..

her face cut open from the broken glass of the torch she had just broke.
Pretty hollow victory, since they'd probably rape & kill her, & everything in between. Suicide would be the only alternative. Those slavers aren't paying for corpse.
Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!

I know!
I atleast wanted her to kick the crap out of the driver! He was stabbed, shot and involved in a car crash with no seatbelt she was quite healthy, not a scratch on her and taller than him. She could have definately beat him up.
I think a good ending is:
When the men return to pick up their 'prize' they find Mel on the floor, her face cut open from the broken glass of the torch she had just broke.
I would have liked that.