Friday, November 4, 2011

Walled in - Horrible movie, one idea to use

Watched the movie Walled in. Oh man it was so bad. But at least I got one inspiration I talk about later in this post.. If you haven't seen this movie this post might include spoilers. Not digging too deep though. But in my opinion if you missed this movie you you didn't miss anything. (Layout in this post is a mess, gotta try to fix it later!)



In 1993, sixteen bodies were found entombed within the Malestrazza Building, a mysterious apartment complex built by one of the worlds most renowned, yet eccentric, architects. The killer was never caught. Fifteen years later, newly graduated structural engineer Sam Walczak (Mischa Barton of THE O.C.) arrives to prepare the site for demolition. But this massive concrete crypt is not entirely empty: Its halls are lined with secrets. Its rooms are filled with fear. And behind its walls, the ultimate horror has lay waitinguntil now. 


Above text is from the Youtube video description. Wow, movie actually looks okay. But no, movie sucks.


There were few residents left who were more or less strange. I think that strangeness was a bit forced and the characters were actually dull.
There was also random haunting what didn't suit in the movie at all. Dead girl whispering. But it was not a ghost story even though I almost thought it would be. No. In the end the story turned and was about this deranged boy who fell in love with Sam (main actress) and captured her. Oh, he also had earlier captured that crazy architect. What the heck?


The movie was a mess.


What a beautiful apartment and such a nice neighborhood.
Anyways, key features in the movie:
- House walls don't sync with blueprint. The house must be "hollow" in the middle.
- Boy is a kidnapping deranged little prick.
- Some people who live there are a bit strange, but nothing special about them.
- Old lady has architect's books held and oh wow Sam grabs one of them what contains the information she needs out of hundreds of books (I call that a lucky roll).
- None of the houses architect built has ever destroyed even though the whole city around them is smashed.
- Architect isn't actually dead what was official report, but deranged boy held him hostage.
- Architect forced Sam to murder him so he will be sacrifice for the house.
- Murdered ghost girl whispers and then is forgotten in the movie.
- There were hidden passages, so pervert architect could spy on people's bathrooms and deranged boy used it also to spy on Sam.
- Blah blah boring.


But the main element is this I could use:



Sacrifices For Buildings


When you sacrifice people and actually mold them inside the structures of the building, the sacrifices give "power" to the building. For example, enough these sacrifices means that the building doesn't collapse. In movie this crazy architect got the idea from ancient Egyptians (not sure if it is true).


You can use this basically in any genre of games. Here are few examples and plots:


Duke is building new castle and during the work villagers and workers disappear. Somehow characters are involved to investigate this. Maybe village chief wants travelling adventurers to use their experience to find out what is happening or maybe someone close to characters is lost.
Disappearing people are actually cast in castle walls to strengthen it with black arts. Duke wants castle to be invulnerable and unconquerable. Sacrifices of people will do this (it is up to GM is it actually true or just delusion). How will characters find the terrible truth and how will they solve it? By telling what duke is up to or slaying him?


There is a rumor about this pirate spaceship with shields that are rumored to endure even the biggest blasts. Player characters (marines for example) are sent to put stop for this unstoppable space ship. Stop the pirate activity, capture their captain for the court and find out what this revolutionary technology is (naturally authorities and military are really interested in it). The truth is, that every victim the pirateship captures is installed inside the spaceship structures making its shields unnaturally powerful. Maybe the restless souls captured inside the structures of this spaceship power the shields (soul energy enchants plasma or something). What will authorities do with this technology? Is superior defense power more valuable than human life? Will characters tell the truth or make a story because they morally think that human life will be used wrongly in future in the name of war?


Modern games can use this also. For example investigation. Building is teared down and there are bodies found. Characters are asked to investigate it. More bodies are found and there is always this one architect involved. Maybe you can give wrong leads to a certain construction company or something to make detective work more challenging. Give some in-game books to read for characters so they find out that this is ancient pagan custom to do enchant buildings. Depending on the setting it might work or just be crazy superstition. How will characters find architect? Is the architect lost, has he changed his identity, is he just sitting in his apartment drinking coffee? And what if he is not found (dead, disappeared, changed ID) but there is an apartment building built and people disappearing at that area...

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