David Cronenberg - Scene Analysis

One of David Cronenberg’s favorite themes to explore on film is the combining of both gender characteristics into one character; she retains the victimization of a female character, yet her monstrous transformation forces her to adapt masculine qualities. Rose, even though she is the cause of the horrible outbreak, is a victim of a scientific experiment and has to feed on people’s blood seeing no other way to survive. When Rose realizes the possibility of her being the carrier of the disease she overcomes her survival instinct to feed on people and sacrifices herself for the good of the society. Narration in the final scene of Rose’s experiment allows the audience to see the story from her point of view, get inside Rose’s head and understand her reasons for sacrificing herself. Moreover, it builds the suspense up to the last seconds of Rose’s life. Mise-en-scene emphasizes Rose’s role as a victim in the film and guides the audience through her self-destruction.
Unrestricted narration provides us the key aspects of Rose’s sacrifice. During the whole film the audience has been aware of the fact that Rose is the carrier of the infection. When Rose tells Hart that she locked herself up with the guy whom she had bitten the audience automatically realizes that this is the end of Rose. As the scene keeps going back and forth between Rose and Hart’s phone conversation, the tension keeps rising as the audience and Hart know the inevitable fate of Rose. The phone is the only way of communication between Rose and Hart not just in the final scene but throughout the whole movie. It allows them to spend the last minutes together but at the same time separates them from each other, eternally. The fact that this scene uses subjective narration provides the audience with a lot of insight into Rose’s thoughts and feelings. She tells Hart that she is scared that she might have caused so many deaths. Even though we see that she is still hopeful of the result being positive she knows...