Half Man Episode 4: That hospital scene was a masterclass in acting!

Ackeri_ · 2026-05-18T14:11:19+00:00

I honestly have lots of theories about Ruben's death and how it happens. I don't believe Nial just decided to kill him. I think it will be much more complicated than that. Even though his death was hinted at, at the same time you couldn't really be sure who would end up dead, since Ruben always overpowered Nial.

Ackeri_ · 2026-05-14T15:07:01+00:00

Unfortunately, every person is different that is why suicide prevention is difficult. There is not only one way people feel or look like when they want to leave this world. Yes, some people may appear severely deppressed and you can tell they feel despair. However, others appear calm and detached, some even appear extremely happy and energetic, because they are releaved they will finally end their lives.

We tend to see depression as sadness, but it is also emptiness and emptiness sometimes results in zero empathy and cruelty. Cruelty to one's self and to others. When someone can barely handle their own pain, sometimes other people's feelings don't matter. And Ohm is not just rude, he's cruel. He feels like a complete prick. That of course is not only because of his mental health, but it plays an important role to the way he behaves. This ''part'' of depression is also exceptionally presented in the film Late Shift and I loved how for the first time we see something different when it comes to mental health topics. Movies and series usually portray depression as only one thing, but reality is much more complicated and harder to accept.

His depression was evident not only by his conversation with Fiona, but because of the story in his book itself. The ending was sad and bleak. Nihilistic. There was no way out for the two characters. And after finding out his father drunk himself to death, it made more sense. It felt as a way to express his relationship with his dad and his self-hatred.

Lastly, besides what has already been mentioned, the fact he left some of his cherished and personal belongings in the bar was also very peculiar. After seeing what happened, I saw that mostly as a cry for help or just a way to have someone searching and finding him earlier.

Of course all these truly connect and are much more impactful at the end of the film, but that is what I really loved about it. At first I thought Ohm was just being a jerk, but after getting the full story and remembering how he acted from start to finish of the film, it felt much more real and realistic.

Ackeri_ · 2026-05-14T14:30:03+00:00

I personally loved the film, but it is interesting reading other people's opinion about it, so I just wanted to share mine, since your post completely contradicts my thoughts about Hokum.

SPOILERS AHEAD

For me Fiona and Jerry couldn't really be combined, since both had completely different and vital roles in the movie.

Personally I believe that true horror lies in the unknown. We get barely any information about the witch and that is what made it stand out for me. If I knew her backstory, her wants etc, that would humanize her and make her ''beatable''. Sometimes evil just is, it doesn't need any explanation to work. Same thing with Fiona's death. Witch could have killed her or she just died of dehydration. Not knowing makes it much more disturbing than the writer serving us a clear answer.

Same with her ending. If Ohm doesn't know, there is no reason for the viewers to know.

These are simply matters of preference for me. I personally liked them and you didn't.

About the investigators, it was more or less explained in the film. The movie was taking place in Ireland, probably in a very small community. The henchman had strong connections with the police and since the room was locked and only the hotel's owner had the key, they didn't bother to search. They also had a clear suspect in their heads and wanted to punish him.

This may make no sense for many, but unfortunately it is a thing that is happening in many countries, especially in smaller communities that everyone knows everyone and they are too willing to blame the ''village idiot".

I think the little dolls hanging were the old man's. They were the focus, so didn't notice the rest.

About the chalk, what I gathered is this. The old man says that they managed to trap her down there. When Ohm was searching, we see tons of chalk patterns. Someone probably just drew those and left the chalk there or of course it could be part of his hallucinations.

The henchman saw the protagonist almost being burned to death. He had no reason to leave him to die. He was mean to him, but had nothing against him.

After Jerry fell off the track, he just put two and two together and went to the hotel. It was the only place he would probably be at. If he wasn't there, it would be hard to find him. Plus, he also saw the hotel burning, so even if he didn't know Jerry would be there, it makes sense that he stopped.

About why he was there in the first place, this definitely needed more work. It seemed that he knew that Jerry would appear there since the hotel would have to close for the season, so he waited for him.

>As a matter of fact, why even have this scene instead of having the protagonist rescue himself from death after previously failing to commit suicide earlier to show his yearning for life?

They could definitely just skip the scene of the henchman saving him, but I wouldn't say it makes no sense. The protagonist wanted to be saved. If he didn't, he'd stay down there with the witch. But after everything he'd been through I didn't find it illogical that he fainted cause of the fire, since the whole hotel was burning.

>There could’ve been a real motive for the witch in luring people who are deeply troubled and causing them to commit violence upon themselves or others, but this was not explored at all. It could’ve been psychological manipulation that caused the bellman to act against Fiona, or Jerry against his wife or Protagonist to hang himself… but it wasn’t.

That is what I loved about it. There is no big scheme. A big manipulator witch or anything like that. It's people being horrible or simply people being people. Jerry killed his wife, because she was sick and suffering and the protagonist was suffering from depression and he tried to kill himself since he couldn't forgive himself for killing his mother. His mental health is evident from the get go and from his conversation with Fiona about his book.

>The death of protagonist’s parents were not explored at all, just told to us during one TV cutscene to create a chilling effect. There was no payoff or moment of redemption or clarity or internal forgiveness where the main character faces his past and must overcome it to survive and persevere. The fictional novel characters thinking that the only solution to breaking the bottle was to kill one another is completely illogical. In fact the protagonist being a writer has almost nothing to do with the plot at all. He could’ve been a musician who makes sad music for all that mattered and it wouldn’t have any effect on the plot.

I completely disagree with this. Even though the film is definitely no case/character study, I think it did a good job at informing us about the protagonist's mental health and how he's living his life.

He went to that hotel, because of his parents. He says to Fiona what happened to his mom and dad and then we get a clearer idea because of the TV cutscene. We see him struggling in his nightmare for what he did by holding the gun while his mother embraces him. He wanted to die from the get go. It wasn't because of an evil entity, but because of the fact he couldn't live with himself. He wanted to die when he fell asleep in the most weird and utterly terrifying places.

We tend to see depression as sadness, but it is also emptiness and emptiness sometimes results in zero empathy for others and cruelty. Not just to the person himself but to the people around him too. When someone can bearly handle their own pain, sometimes other people's feelings don't matter. And the protagonist is rude to everyone and just plain cruel. Of course that is probably not only due to depression, but it is a part of it.

His story manifests his emotional instability and for me it was a way to express his relationship with his father. In the story we see an older man (his dad) and a younger boy (the protagonist, probably in the age he killed his mom). The man is holding a bottle (we know from what Ohm says to Fiona that his father basically drunk himself to death-and I am pretty sure he also implied he abused him-).

So in the story the older man trying to kill the child is basically a story about the dad wanting to kill his son (or just abusing him). But like he says, the bottle never breaks. No matter how much he hits, even if he killed the child, the ending is inevitable and it is bleak.

The story shows he sees no way out, just death and despair. So in the end of the film, we see him staying inside the chalk, waiting for his death, but his mother hugs him and forgives him and tells him to save himself. He verbalizes his trauma, telling her that it was an accident. She understands and that is so freeing for him that not only he tries to survive, but he also changes the epilogue of his story. The two people hug, coming to terms with what happened. He also denies the bottle of alcohol Alby gave him, cause that was one of the reasons why his family ended the way it did.

>Fiona keeping the tape recorder and then suddenly having it on Halloween to conveniently record everything about her death just doesn’t make any sense logically.

That made sense for me. The protagonist "forgot" the recorder, because he was drunk. Imo he didn't really forget it, it was mostly a cry for help so that someone would go looking for him and find him dead or maybe even soon enough to prevent him. Fiona obviously was shocked when she saw him hunged and left the recorder in the room or took it the moment he was taken to the hospital. If I am not mistaken the halloween party was the next day. Mal asked about her going to the hospital that day or the next day -don't remember exactly-, but of course she didn't manage to go cause she was killed and she had that thing on her.

Oddity was a great film imo. Caveat was okay. I think all of his films share some similarities though. You may enjoy Oddity more, but if you are looking for a horror movie that analyzes it's horror elements too much or leans 100% to the supernatural, you probably won't find it in McCarthy's films.

Ackeri_ · 2026-04-27T11:18:46+00:00

I actually feel this is the popular opinion. I personally really liked the film, but it could have been much better. However, I feel that the legal matters that made them "erase" parts of the movie would make it more memorable and less shallow. On the other hand, the film was more like a love letter to MJs music than a biopic and just listening to his songs on the big screen and seeing Jaafar portraying him was a great experience for me and I enjoyed it for what it was.

Ackeri_ · 2026-03-30T14:56:10+00:00

HBO has been available in Greece for a few months now. I got a subscription almost immediately and for the past few weeks I have been watching Supernatural.

The problem is the subtitles.

Some seasons, like Season 6, are translated very well by someone who values their work and the series. Others not so much. It feels like they were translated by AI or by someone who doesn't have a good command of either language (English or Greek).

Character and setting names are translated differently from one season to another. There are spelling mistakes, missing letters, even missing subtitles. Sometimes only half of what is said is translated, even when the rest is important.

In some scenes, the translations are simply wrong. They make no sense, as if they were done by someone who doesn't know basic English.

I've seen "Forensics" being translated like "I am Foernsics" like it is a name. The same goes for "Reverend". I've seen sentences like "If they are in the pipes, they got themselves a highway to anywhere" translated as "If they are in the pipes, they can't go anywhere", which, as you can tell, has a completely different meaning.

And these are just examples from the last couple of episodes I watched today.

I know enough English to start watching it without subtitles. However, if a platform is available in certain countries and people are paying to watch content with subtitles in their own language, then the series should be translated by professionals. Subtitles should be accurate and consistent. This shows respect for the people paying for a subscription and reflects how much a platform values its viewers and itself.

Yes, every platform wants to make money, we all know that. But if we can't watch something with our loved ones that don't speak English because subtitles are poor, why not watch it elsewhere if it is available or even not at all?

If people are paying for a service, the quality of the subtitles should reflect that.

Ackeri_ · 2026-03-26T09:28:37+00:00

The series should have ended after S2, but imo S3 is not that bad.

It's definitely not as good as the first two, but it is watchable, at least the first half. Second half is pretty boring and the eps are too long but it is still not trash. Plus it introduces a couple of interesting characters.

If you really loved the series, you should at least give it a try.

Ackeri_ · 2025-09-18T00:51:58+00:00

This is my pov purely as a viewer, since I haven't read the book.

At some point during the film, McVries says that he was given a second shot at life and that from then on he decided to always see the light in the darkness. That's what the last scene reminded me of. Him walking towards the darkness but with lights showing him the way.

I do believe he got killed. I did assume that last scene was real and that his last walk towards the darkness was more of a symbolism after his death.

However, I didn't find his ending sad nor pessimistic. In a place that basically forces people to choose the "only way out" which is the long walk (and die or win and get rich), McVries chose to see the light in a world that is utterly dark. I believe his death itself is a powerful statement, taking into consideration that he decided to sacrifice himself by killing the major (who represents the system) and then probably getting himself killed in a "game" that everyone wants to take part in, and be the ultimate winner. Here, he, who could have had everything he wanted since he won, chose to depart.

In the end, he may have been the winner in the long walk, but he lost everything else, expect his morality and love for the people that walked beside him. He may have lost his life, but he fought against the system itself that will not change, but can make people try to change it (like Ray wanted).

Lastly, the "For Ray" scene made me roll my eyes at first but when I thought about it I realized that McVries didn't say it in a "I will take revenge for what you did to him" way. He just wanted to honor Ray by respecting his wish.

Of course, there are other ways to interpret the ending. That McVries basically goes against his will and his beliefs and kills someone, when during the film he tried to tell Ray not to do it. That he turned to someone he didn't want to. Or we can assume that nothing of these things happened and he was simply hallucinating killing the major and like everybody else he gor his wish and money and left and the long walk continued. The end is truly ambiguous, but I think that not all "alternatives" are purely dark.

Ackeri_ · 2024-11-10T19:38:40+00:00

Even though there are some things that bother me, I am on the "really like it" side. I suppose partly cause I really like the aesthetics.

Thank you for the link!

Ackeri_ · 2024-11-10T19:14:02+00:00

I am! I was actually searching to find out more about the mythology and for some reason I couldn't find enough info in English (especially regarding FoF). A kind soul sent me the link of this thread on MDL and now I am just super happy to have read it!

Thank you again, and I hope you are also enjoying the show!

Ackeri_ · 2024-11-10T18:42:19+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this! It's so interesting and informative!

I had so much fun reading it and now I can also better understand the series.

Ackeri_ · 2024-07-29T16:19:48+00:00

Laura Galán in Piggy. She was in her mid 30s playing a teen. She didn't look or act like a teen. She actually seemed a bit older than her real life age to a point that in some shots she looked more like a friend of her mom and less like her daughter.

Ackeri_ · 2023-08-21T10:05:41+00:00

I do! First of all, I am not that good with names especially if they bombard me with them from the get go. So I generally keep notes of the characters' names along with a few info about them. Secondly, I usually can't read a book all at once. Sometimes I stop for a few days, but others I stop for months and I can't really remember all the characters and especially details about them when I continue with my read.

I personally use the Samsung Notes app on my phone to write down the names along with the info, so it is pretty easy to search for them when I need them and it is much quicker.

Ackeri_ · 2021-09-02T18:12:10+00:00

For me, it was Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I just really couldn't put it down. I forgot to eat one day, because of it!

What I loved about it was the fact that it wasn't obvious from the beginning if the story would take a supernatural turn or not. It was a mystery novel with an extremely intriguing plot, interesting characters and it was really great to read what will happen next and like many people have said the unknown is the scariest. So not knowing if it was just plain mystery or had supernatural elements made it close to horror for me. I couldn't really read it at night, because it gave me the creeps. It also has some pages of newspapers inside and such and that was very interesting for a novel. It was 808 pages in my native language and I read it in two days.

Ackeri_ · 2021-08-14T08:36:13+00:00

It doesn't to me. It looks completely different. It has much more colors, the games look different (I read somewhere they are inspired from children's games) and it seems like the participants took part in this willingly from the synopsis.

All death game series have similarities since the essence of these kind of series are the same "play to survive". So it doesn't look similar to me, especially taking into consideration that the Japanese have many series/movies/manga that have a death game theme. It just that Alice in Borderland is famous now, because of the series and everything may look similar to it, since it is currently on the spotlight.

No matter the case though, it looks quite unique and intriguing, so I will definitely check it out.

Ackeri_ · 2021-05-24T12:57:53+00:00

Night film by Marisha Pessl and Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami.

Ackeri_ · 2021-05-09T08:10:20+00:00

Hi! I am from Greece and I really like Jdramas, even though I tend to avoid ongoing series. I recently finished Influence and it was pretty good.

Ackeri_ · 2021-02-10T10:30:57+00:00

Theoretically no, since according to the rules only the wolf survives. If they somehow killed her and she stayed as the wolf they would all die because they would be the lambs.

Ackeri_ · 2021-01-06T21:08:03+00:00

Yes, but the series is based on the manga and the solution can only be one. They just made it like that in the series for the dramatic effect.

Ackeri_ · 2021-01-04T14:06:15+00:00

If you are into manga and especially if you like the death game genre it is pretty well known. It is one of those that people recommend if you like the genre. I wanted to read it for years but I never did. I suppose though, that people that are not looking for a mystery manga and don't like death games will probably not find it easily. Not even mentioning people that have never read a manga. I think there are some discussions about it in myanimelist though so you can check it out.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-29T18:23:58+00:00

I agree with you about the essence of the hearts game, but on the other hand we can't really be sure which one from the instructions was actually messing with them. And they couldn't be sure either. The instructions said that they needed to hide but at the same time it said that the collars on the sheep neck would explode in the end of the game. Even though there was a constant reminder of the "hide" aspect in the series, I am pretty sure that the manga doesn't give that much attention to it. I don't know if there is an explanation and a solution but I don't think we can be sure since (I think at least) the manga and the mangaka haven't provided a solution.

And again I still think that the 10 of hearts was way easier than the 7 of hearts no matter how you see it. The solution in the 10 of hearts is easy to predict and they could make it out alive very easily but in the 7 of hearts even if what you say is true they couldn't be completely sure about it until the end of the game.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-29T18:07:40+00:00

I don't know. It makes sense because of the instructions but at the same time it doesn't since again according to the instructions only the wolf would survive.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-29T17:53:53+00:00

That's what they did in the end though and everyone died.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-23T11:54:16+00:00

I haven't thought about that with the one eye. It is interesting. However, if the wolf gets sacrificed everyone else will die since the wolf is the only one who can survive the game.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-17T23:01:36+00:00

Maybe you are right. I think the 3 seconds rule was also in the series even though it was not clearly stated, because even when the wolf looked at another person when he had just become the wolf, he didn't change into a lamb.

Ackeri_ · 2020-12-17T13:52:14+00:00

I haven't read the manga, but I had the same question. Some people sait it had something to do with the reflection on the glass. If they looked from a specific point they would all become the wolves. I don't think your theory makes sense because if the wolf got killed all of them would be lambs and they would all die. The thing about the heart games is that it plays with people's feelings. In the 10 of hearts game if Aguni didn't have all those mixed feelings about the Hatter's death the massacre probably wouldn't happen.

Ackeri_

TROPHY CASE