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| In a slaughterhouse containing animal carcasses (Source: Google Images) |
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The film starts with a female spider
eating a male spider after their mate. The spider in the film who is also the
femme fatale in the story is Christine, a hairdresser and widow of her three
husbands. She is likened to a spider because in nature, the female spider kills
her partner after they mate. That’s what Christine does in the film but it is
not shown that she is the one who killed her husbands. It’s like a quiet
murder. There is also a scene where Christine tells Gerard Reve that her back
is numb, telling us that she has a characteristics of a witch in the late
periods. Maybe, that’s how she does the killing, through witchcraft. She met Gerard and Herman and one of these two
will be the fourth man dead.
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| Gerard Reve woke up in a bad dream of castration (Source: Google Images) |
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| Gerard's vision of Herman in across (Source: Google Images) |
Gerard Reve, a gay writer went to his
out-of-town speaking engagement and while he travels, he saw series of visions
that tells what will happen in his future. While sitting in the train, he saw a
poster of Samson and Delilah holding scissors and a blood pouring in the wall.
He also saw a woman in blue carrying a baby. He thinks what does mean and when
he went off the train, he saw a casket claiming that it’s his name written in
the ribbon under the casket. Then, he saw another vision of a slaughterhouse
containing three animal carcasses and a bunch of roses, a living representation
of Christ on the cross that excites his sexual appetites, and the horrible
vision of his own castration. The visions he saw are symbolisms behind
Christine’s dark past and with those visions, he understands everything that
Christine is a witch. He also understands that with his faith, he is saved.
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| Gerard's discovery that Christine was married three times (Source: Google Images) |
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| The woman in blue holding a bunch of roses and a hidden key (Source: Google Images) |
Director Paul Verhoeven also illustrates
another key woman appearing in a blue raincoat and carrying red roses. I
ultimately ask myself what is the symbolism of that woman in film. I just
understand it in the last part where Gerard tells the doctor that he is saved
by Mama Mary, the woman in blue carrying roses.
