Quinn Angstrom
okay uhhhh let's talk about The Perfection. spoilers.
Quinn Angstrom
a 2020 netflix horror movie that just fucked up my entire mind
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thriller might be more approrpiate than horror
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content warnings
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uhhhhhhh let's see
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emeto, freaky bugs shit, abuse, rape? I think that covers it
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SO
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we start with our protagonist, a young protege super cellist
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who was forced to retire to take care of her terminally ill mother
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and ten years later is coming to a concert in Shanghai, showing off the latest brilliant students of her old teacher, Anton
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while there, Charlotte meets Lizzie, who became Anton's star pupil after she retired
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the two hit it off and hook up
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Charlotte notices that Lizzie and her both have identical tattoos - a small eighth note on the shoulder
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the next hungover morning, Charlotte gets Lizzie some ibuprofen and a bit of hair of the dog to get her going
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they have some street food and head off on a bus to I honestly forget where, they're on vacation
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during the bus trip, Lizzie gets increasingly sick
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throws up on the window
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to which Charlotte points out the uhhhhhhhhhh
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weird gross bugs in the vomit
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recalling a guy earlier at the concert who was sick with possibly some kind of contagion from the south
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the bus driver kicks them off the bus in the middle of nowhere
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bugs start burrowing out of Lizzie's hand, she's panicking and screaming an appropriate amount
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Charlotte responds by
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pulling out a fucking meat cleaver
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and going 'you know what you have to do right'
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Lizzie grabs the cleaver, swings it down at her right arm, and the movie stops
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rewinds
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to that morning
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shows the pills Charlotte described as ibuprofen
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with the warning of side effects nausea and hallucinations
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Charlotte stealing a meat cleaver from the street food place they stopped for breakfast
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Charlotte pointing out everything bugs-related before Lizzie notices it each time
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while she's under the effect of powerful hallucinogens
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and that's how Lizzie, star cellist, ended up cutting off her hand and being left on her own on the side of a mountain in China
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being kept alive only by an amateur tourniquet
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end act 1
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Cut to the academy where the two leads were trained!
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Anton is taking on a new student, showing her the Chapel - an acoustically perfect room where only the best of the best are allowed to play
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because hearing a perfect performance in that room is as close as a human can get to god
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that night, someone shows up at the gate - it's Lizzie, miraculously alive and missing her right hand
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Anton helps her recuperate and is very sympathetic to her plight
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but unfortunately, this isn't a charity, it's a music school
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so eventually he has to kick her out
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as a child prodigy cellist who knows nothing but music and who can no longer play
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it's very sad but he can't help her
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Lizzie, consumed by rage, hunts down Charlotte for revenge
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beats the shit out of her
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and drags her back to the Academy
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to hand over to Anton
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Charlotte and Anton talk
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Anton ponders that Charlotte must be unbelievably jealous of Lizzie to do that to her
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Charlotte says, no
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she did it to protect her
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from you
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and we get a glimpse of the backstory
Niamh Vibes
What the fuck
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and what that tattoo means
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if you get that tattoo, it means you're ready
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to be prepared
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for The Perfection
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an attempt to give a completely perfect performance in the Chapel
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but every girl he's trained had failed to play The Perfection
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time and time again
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and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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the penalty for playing imperfectly in that room is violent rape
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after anton knocks charlotte out, we cut to the next, horrifying scene, which I'm going to omit certain details of the stakes of for my own comfort
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but charlotte is chained to her seat in the chapel
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anton is there, lizzie is there, the enforcers are there
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play the perfection, charlotte
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she plays, beautifully, and fails, inevitably
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he retires to leave her to lizzie and the two enforcer dudes
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shortly after wards, the enforcers die
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of poison
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lizzie and charlotte kiss
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STOP
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REWIND
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AGAIN
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to charlotte immediately after getting lizzie to cut her hand off
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explaining why she did it, and how they were both brainwashed to think that the way the Academy does things is a gift
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and that this was the only way to ensure that Anton could never get at her again
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promising that the next time she needs him, Anton will not be there for her
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cut forward to Lizzie having just beaten the shit out of Charlotte
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"I should kill you"
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"But you were right"
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"We need to stop him"
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they were working together the whole time
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Cut to Anton in his office, listening to classical cello music while relaxing
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his assistant comes in
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falls over with a knife in her back
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the record playing in the background scratches and stops
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It's On
another song is put on
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it's Lizzie and Charlotte
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a bloodbath ensues
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trying to kill Charlotte, Anton stabs a knife all the way through Lizzie's left arm before being incapacitated by Lizzie
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through Charlotte's arm sorry
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final scene
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in the Chapel
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in the audience is Anton, hooked up to an IV
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his arms and legs have been cut off and his eyes and mouth are sealed shut
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on the stage, Lizzie, Charlotte, and a single cello
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Charlotte and Lizzie use their remaining one arm each to play a song
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credits
Dragomorph
i remember reading about this and thinking "Wait a gay ending that ends well(ish) for the gay protags? Sweet."
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yeah during the movie i'm like "man"
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"the gay couple betray each other and try to kill each other multiple times? :/"
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but no
kaylin
wow that's definitely a mindfuck
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one saves the other from their mutual abuser and then they team up for revenge
Dragomorph
I recall the horror nuts being into this one yeah
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I wasn't sure how to feel about the serial rape aspect of the story but like, I guess
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if you're gonna have a rapist in a movie
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that's how you end it
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the full i have no mouth treatment
Dragomorph
looking at pictures and wow a biracial couple too, that's rad
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yeah lizzie's black
dragon time
You get the high drama of betrayal AND the happy ending and several high octane OH FUCK the twist bits
Wild Child
oh nice
Wild Child
no fucking mercy for rapist man
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correct
Usagi
OH SHIT THIS TOOK A GOOD TURN
Usagi
destroy rapists :|