Out with a Bang indeed.
David Fincher's no stranger to Nightmare Fuel-laden stories, but if there ever was an occasion where simply saying "the whole movie" could qualify, it's Gone Girl.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The media and their treatment of the "Amazing Amy" case, probably one of the most damning portrayals of media since Network. The way some of Nick's actions are used by them as solid proof he killed Amy, despite being simply shell-shocked reactions anyone could have, and the flip-flop at the end when they believe Desi kidnapped Amy, is creepy as hell.
- How the film deconstructs Double Standards skewed in the favor of women by presenting them through Nick's POV and how Amy herself knows and takes advantage of them. (Nick himself is far from being a saint, but still.)
- Amy, aka the Demoness of Disproportionate Retribution. Especially regarding her fake rape accusation to an ex-boyfriend; for a slight, she fucked up his life forever.
- The box-cutter scene, the end result of which is depicted in the page image. But let's not leave out how it builds up. Even as the scene focuses on Amy and Desi having sex, the music
creates a lurking dread in its distant pulsing that drains the eroticism of the moment, making it feel less like lovemaking and more like two animals in the wild — a manipulative predator and her unwitting prey. Then, as the sex intensifies, the music builds — and when Amy actually does the deed, the pulsing reaches its loudest and angriest as the scene starts to quickly Fade In and out of each shot, leaving you terrified to see what happens next. - The fact that Amy ends the film with barely a chink to her armor.
- The scene where after Desi leaves his house, Amy then ties a rope around her ankle, dunks the front of her lingerie in red wine, then crawls towards where she knows there's a camera and begins to scream and presses herself against the glass. The way Rosamund Pike contorts her body, the music and the entire visual is incredibly unsettling — you know it's an act, but Amy still looks like she's not pretending.
- All of Amy's attempts to frame Desi after he's taken her in are nothing short of the very worst forms of determination. For one, Amy has already framed an ex-boyfriend for rape before the plot began, but it gets worse considering the lengths she goes to in order to frame another man to create the public idea that she was kidnapped and abused in his house; Not only did she act like Desi's prisoner in the above-mentioned camera footage, she would later forcefully insert a wine bottle INSIDE OF HERSELF (thankfully with a Discretion Shot, but you can tell what she is doing) to further the idea of Desi raping her once she was brought to a hospital to treat her "injuries".
- Even if you know that Amy is a complete psychopath who lied about most of the events of the diary, Rosamund Pike plays her as such a kindly, doe-eyed innocent in flashbacks that you still find yourself feeling sorry for her and taking her side. It's pretty nightmarish having a fictional character so thoroughly get in the audience's head that a lot of the arguments and controversy surrounding the book and the movie are all based on people forgetting that Amy's worldview is supposed to be wrong.
- He's not in it for very long, but there's something really creepy about Desi. Especially the scene where Amy isn't acting like the perfect houseguest he wants, so he confiscates her things, then when she moves to stand up, he looms over her and says robotically, "I'm not going to force myself on you." ...his face and tone really do not add any sincerity to what he says.
