This review may contain spoilers.
This is an absolutely mind-blowing, mind-numbing, captivating film. I was blown away when it ended. There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said about this from a filmmaking perspective. It’s incredible all around: acting, directing, cinematography, sound design, editing. It’s a masterpiece film-wise.
But on top of that, it’s captivating with its ambiguous concepts and themes as well. I’m still thinking about what it means and the themes explored. Here are just a few thoughts:
One thing that really stood out to me is the difference between the normal world and the world of The Zone. In the normal world, the sepia color palette makes everything feel flat, sickly, and desperate. But the colors in The Zone are quite vibrant, though ominous at times. Also, the normal world looks lifeless, cold, and barren while The Zone seems to be brimming with life and warmth. What was so strange in this disconnect is that it almost feels as though the normal world is stranger and more undesirable than The Zone even though The Zone is being protected as though it were a threat. There is also a lot of talk about the danger The Zone threatens with at every moment. We certainly feel this threat with the way the film leads us with its shots and sounds, but we never really actually experience it. In fact, the normal world seems to present more threats than The Zone does. This was really strange to me, and I know there is something deep going on here. It’s almost as if the normal (maybe real world) is so bleak that something with life and color feels so strange when it should be normal. The existence of The Zone feels strange to the characters and the viewers not mainly because of something supernatural happening there but instead because the “real world” is so broken and lifeless.
What’s interesting is that the existence of a place so full of life should bring hope to a people so steeped in brokenness. But instead, they can’t even believe that there’s anything real or useful in it. The writer and professor are so high minded and used to their bleak reality that The Zone is more of something to be examined and even scoffed at. So the only thing in the film that should bring hope is used to highlight the hopelessness of man’s nature when left to itself. At one point, Stalker even begins quoting a passage of The Bible where some disciples are walking with the resurrected Christ and don’t realize it until he vanishes right in front of them. At the end of that story, upon the realization that they were with Jesus, these disciples say “did our hearts not burn within us?” (this part is not in the movie because Stalker stops quoting it abruptly).
That’s where the ending comes in. There are subtle hints that Monkey, Stalker’s daughter, is somehow connected to The Zone in some unsaid way. Her telekinetic power must be the result of this connection. That’s why I don’t think this movie is totally devoid of hope. The one person that has be ‘touched’ in some real and significant way displays supernatural power beyond comprehension of Writer and Professor. But we must decide what we do. We as viewers, like Stalker, live in a state where we must struggle with both the bleakness of reality and the possibility of something so powerful that it can give such abilities to his daughter. We must decide if we will believe in the possibility that the longing of our hearts could be transformed and fulfilled. And, like Monkey, though we are broken, we can taste and experience something greater.
