1922

Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, 1922 is a new released American horror-drama film. 1922 is the sixth film adapted from Stephen King’s novels in this year. Stephen King is a well known author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. My blog post Gerald’s Game is another horror film based on King’s novel of the same name. Both Gerald’s Game and 1922 were based on the protagonist psychological activity.

1922 is about how a selfish father destroyed his own family. The main protagonist in this movie is a farmer, Wilfred who killed his wife, Arlette, with aid from his son Henry in order to keep their land. Wilfred and Henry murdered Arlette and throw the corpse into a dry well. Arlette's body was bitten by thousand of rats. Their son Henry became quiet and soon started to hate the murder, which made his girlfriend Shannon concerned. Henry and Shannon ran away after Shannon was discovered to be pregnant and was required to stay in a religious institution and then give away the children.

In the winter, Wilfred’s house became infected with rats, and he has his hand amputated due to the infection caused by rats. In the other scenes, Shannon was shot when they robbing people, and she died in the next morning, followed the suicide of Henry. Coincidentally or deliberately,  their bodies were tore by rats like Arlette’s body. Wilfred finally decided to move into city, however his rest of life was accompanied by rats. The whole movie was composed of scenes of rats: rats were biting the corpse, rats were standing on the bed, which makes the audience sick.  

This movie  can be considered as a reflection of the urbanization in the United States. With the process of industrialization, the urbanization rate increased dramatically in 1920s. Due to the industrialization, which made a great impact on the traditional agriculture, many farmers moved to cities to seek for the opportunity. However there always some old fashion people like Wilfred chose to stay in his land and protect their lands. There is nothing wrong to keep their land, but the protagonist in this movie should never protect his land by murdering his wife, and according to the movie, the land should belong to his wife. Wilfred’s way to teach children is totally unacceptable. How could a father tell his son to murder their beloved family.

I feel Stephen King likes to teach people something in his works. In 1922, the protagonist wrote down his confession and kept saying there always ways to solve problems. However, it was too late for Wilfred to realized that he could solve the conflict between selling the land and keep it.

In conclusion, 1922 has a good story reflecting the history and telling people there always more than one way to solve the problem. With the compact but flat storyline, film 1922 is neither a good nor a bad movie.