Session 9
I watched Session 9 last weekend. Excellent in many ways, but I was a little disappointed in the ending, particularly since The Machinist had such a great ending. It was otherwise a very good film. Intensely creepy but without relying on all that new horror quick edits/shaky/scratchy/flashy nonsense. I really think that if I could have seen it without comparing it to The Machinist, it would have been even better.

There was some discussion among my fellow viewers about its similarities to The Machinist, particularly that in both films the main character is the killer and doesn't know it. They are both films about what a person can convince himself he didn't do, creating alternate realities or repressing memories to protect themselves. I think the essential difference is that The Machinist, being primarily about the effects of guilt and the resulting insomnia and delusions, is far more internalized. There are entire scenes which may or may not be entirely in Trevor's mind. And as Trevor's guilt was accidental, there is some redmeption for him in the end. Session 9 however, is more external. We watch Gordon from the outside. Gordon hasn't forgotten himself, he's only forgotten an act, an act which he must have gone mad in the first place to have committed, so there is no redemption for him.

Of course, there are theories that all the guys working for Gordon were actually his own multiple personalities, but I don't think so. It would work, I suppose, for the murders, but I don't think his non-existant multiple personalities could have gotten that much work done! :) Apart from that, the guy who hired them, IIRC, he spoke to both Phil and Gordon at the same time, and refered to one in speaking to the other.

I think the reason this theory came about is that Anderson/Gevedon might have intended for the other characters to be personality types, anologous (somehwat) to those from Mary's sessions, adding layers to the story and a further parallel between Mary's story and Gordon's. Seems a very Anderson thing to do.

The more I think about and talk about it, the more I like it. I must see it again!

Have you seen the film? Any thoughts?