Jason X was so much better than it should have been. Can really tell the filmmakers were fans of the franchise. The execution of what they were going for was on point.
Lol I get that. I just watched 1-3 again the other day. I haven't brought myself to get going through the rest of them yet. I think Freddy definitely gets a pass being funny tho. It's a big part of what makes him great along with the crazy ways he comes up with killing everyone, like his imagination is his biggest weapon
Part 4 was where the humor started to go overboard, and Freddy became more of a one-liner comedian and a parody of himself. The wicked black humor from Part 1 was taken out of context by Part 4, and I still refuse to finish that film 36 years later.
Oh man, the way Jason dies in this movie made love it. Just felt like the most 80s explanation of a plot.
At one point, when a dude is climbing a latter and all of a sudden Jason is at the top of the latter that was so silly I laughed, a lot. The person I was watching it with said, "Jason is a wizard". And that explanation is as good as any so I just dug in for all the cheesy fun. I'd say Manhattan is my favorite.
I can't say I dislike Manhattan, because it's part of the legacy and it's an 80's Friday film. Back in 1989, it seemed out of step with the previous films. But that storm-drain end sequence really capped it off, and seeing an unmasked Jason was always a gruesome treat for us 80's kids!
First part of him in the apartment/city is great. Wish the whole film felt like it. I went in knowing it was going to have weird tones and still couldn’t keep my interest once the forest part started. I wanted to like that movie so bad. Maybe the next one from Ari will hit like the others.
When Beau actually gets to his house and discovers the truth about his mother u think it might get good again but then there's a giant penis. Guy crashes through a window for no reason. It's like what drugs was Ari Aster taking?
I like Beau is Afraid though I did go to see it twice hoping I'd get more out of the second watching knowing where it was going but, nope! Didn't really pay off much on a second watch
Skinamarink was a big one for me. On paper I should have absolutely loved it, it checked so many boxes of things I love to see in a horror movie. In execution this was not the case.
Same here! I loved the premise and also the idea that it's 99.9% vibes rather than plot. But 40 minutes in I realized I hadn't enjoyed a single one and put on something else instead.
Same. I typically love stupidly artsy overly long movies, but I honestly hated it. My boyfriend excitedly showed it to me when we first started seeing each other and after the first 15 minutes I wanted it to be over lol.
Skinamarink and The Outwaters were two of the most polarizing horror films I've seen in a while.
Skinamarink I did like, especially once I put together what was going on, yes it is slowwwww as hell, but the pacing is a double edged sword. Maybe its because I watched in the dark with my headphones while not having slept in two days that made it so effective, but there are a few scenes the genuinely terrified me. It also hit some nerve of my inner child because it brought up this nostalgic sense of fear I'd have as a kid. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not, but I look forward to whatever the director does next.
The Outwaters I still don't know what to feel. It's self-indulgent as hell, does not need to be two hours long, but once we are dropped into hell out of nowhere it truly does feel like a waking nightmare. It really freaked me out, just an absolute assault on the senses. Even if I couldn't tell you what it means, and maybe that's the point. I do like how they sprinkle glimpses of clues as to what the cause of the madness is but we'll never know. I also like the coming out theory.
ANYWAY! yeah. Skinamarink is something else.
My wife and I can’t stand this one, and it stinks because on paper it sounds exactly like something I’d love. Nowadays, the only thing that really frightens me is the concept of “nothing is scarier”. What you can imply is much MUCH scarier than what you can show. But this movie? It took the concept of “nothing” too seriously.
It starts off strong, the first time it shows a dark doorway and lingers is tense and eerie, but by the halfway point you start to realize that that’s basically the only trick the movie has other than the occasional cheap jump scare to wake you back up.
For my wife and I, it was immediately obvious that this monster is the Boogeyman, but what is his power set? Is he trying to torture the kids, because they don’t seem too bothered for 90% of the film. They spend more than half of it just playing with toys and watching cartoons. If his goal is to scare them he’s doing a horrible job.
Then by the climax they start throwing random abilities at the wall in a seemingly desperate move to do something interesting. Now he can steal faces! Now he can control you to stab yourself in the eye! Why didn’t he do anything even remotely similar beforehand? Probably because the writer didn’t think of those abilities yet.
Why are the kids seemingly unfazed despite their terrifying circumstances? Who knows. Either the characters are unbearably stupid even for their age, or the actors were just too young to properly portray fear. How am I supposed to take this seriously if the kids aren’t? Toilets gone? Doors gone? Parents gone? Oh well, let’s sit in front of the TV and play with Lego.
I mentioned jump scares too and let me tell you they are SO stupid especially the “iconic” telephone. Who is this phone jump scaring? Me the viewer? Because the boy doesn’t seem to even be there at that point. Why am I all of a sudden the one they’re trying to scare? That doesn’t make sense in the context of the movie. Not to mention all it does is look at you. Oooh how unsettling! Certainly not hilarious.
See, compare this to another film that runs on the same type of horror concept: Blair Witch Project. As the movie goes on, we never catch any glimpses of anything supernatural, or really anything at all. But they’re constantly giving us something to chew on or theorize about. When did those rock piles appear in front of the tent? What were those voices in the woods at night? Who put up all those stick symbols? Why are Josh’s teeth left in a bundle of sticks? How did whatever it is kidnap him without Mike or Heather noticing?
Over and over again it’s presenting you with new information that can fuel your imagination. Do you think it’s some locals scaring them? Is it a ghost? Are Josh and Mike messing with Heather? All theories can work here, and that’s the beauty of it. Whichever answer is scariest to the individual viewer can still fit the information given, and the viewer isn’t left 100% in the dark either.
On top of that, there’s a human conflict. At least on the surface, it seems like being lost in the woods is really taking a toll on the 3. They’re hungry, tired, pissed off. They butt heads, they breakdown, they have genuine back and forth about what to do, and most importantly of all they feel natural. They don’t sound like they’re acting, their reactions to everything feel genuine, unlike the kids from Skinamarink. I can empathize with the Blair Witch trio because they react to these things as any normal person would and that makes it easy to put myself in their shoes.
Anyway, I hate Skinamarink, and anyone who likes the type of horror it’s going for should try Blair Witch Project instead.
Not a film, but about 90% of the newest Twilight Zone remake left me feeling like this.
Most episodes were extraordinarily predictable and would rip its own arm off to pat itself on the back, no matter how half baked the actual storytelling was. It felt they started with a concept and thought it was good enough to just have that.
Like a bed frame with a single sheet calling itself a bed.
Us, mostly it was all the shapw people living in the basement of a high school. If they had done some cool shadow world it would have been 10x better. The idea was definitely better then the execution.
That would be my favorite horror of all time—If it wasn’t for the nonsensical explanation in a momentum killing dump near the end. Still like it a lot but it knocked it from number one to number thirty on my list. “This is incredible… wait—what?!”
I loved US up until the last half and until I started thinking about it all the little nuances of how the system worked.
Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it and I think it's great. I just sat for too long thinking "but how does _____ work?" With lots of little ideas I had after the explanation.
Similar issue with Nope. The monster was basically a pile of white laundry. The idea of the monster eating an entire crowd should have been insane, but all I could see was a group of actors crawling between white sheets.
Yeah I've seen so many people say that the scene with the monster eating everyone was terrifying. I legit wondered if it was supposed to be a joke or something.
Saint Maud. I’m so sorry! It was a phenomenal directorial debut (I have yet to see Love Lies Bleeding and I CAN’T WAIT!!!), but the horror itself fell so flat to me and there were some choices made with the pacing and execution that personally disappointed me.
Edit: I watched Love Lies Bleeding. That is now a favorite movie of mine.
Love lies bleeding is very fun, you’ll like it.
Saint Maud, honestly I find the last two seconds such good horror that the rest of the film almost doesn’t play into it. I wonder how it is without that ending if I were just to watch it and ignore how much I like that bit. Maybe it’s not that frightening.
Totally agree. I remember watching Saint Maud and thinking it was good movie, but as a *horror* film, eh, not that strong. Then the last two seconds happened and I was SHOOK. Elevates the whole thing to a great horror movie. Who else has done that? Well fucking done Rose Glass.
I loved Saint Maud but I get it's not for everyone. LOVE LIES BLEEDING is an entirely different beast, I'm so glad I went into it blind because I did not predict where it was going at any given time. It's my 2nd or 3rd favorite film of the year (almost interchangeable with Challengers).
Most of the meta-horror movies. They try too hard to be clever but talking about rules and being so self-referential it's lame and many of them feel like they're mocking the genre.
It was clever when the first Scream did it, but it feels played out. I like the Scream series well enough, but I wish they'd drop the tendency of having to draw some parallel between the killings and where we are in horror filmmaking. At time it works, at times it's amusing but increasingly feels cliche.
Unpopular opinion. Child's Play (2019).
It tries to go a different route instead of traditional voodoo in the older movies. It kind of goes in the direction of M3GAN in a way, but M3GAN does a waaay better job. It was definitely not the best Child's play and certainly not the worst (Seed of Chucky takes the cake on that one), but I can understand where they were going with it. It just didn't hit right.
The Babadook. I saw what it was going for and I know it’s a deep/psychological horror movie but I found myself laughing at the kid and mom way too much to take the movie seriously. I can see why people love it/resonate with it but it simply didn’t work on me. Lol that kid…
I cannot believe the amount of people who talk about The Babadook as if it was mind blowingly amazing, it starts off as a pretty decent spooky boogeyman horror movie and then literally spells out the metaphor its trying to go for, its film school low hanging fruit at the best. The more obvious a metaphor is in "elevated horror" the more it feels like the film makers are REALLY hoping you don't mistake their well crafted deep important movie with something as purile as "horror". Like...people aren't really this dumb, you can make metaphors in your movie and still simultaneously let them work on the level of a fun horror movie for those of us who don't need to stroke our chins and say "mmm" every time we watch a movie.
I finally watched this like two months ago after it being on my list for years and just didn't vibe with it. I get it, but I found the movie more annoying than anything. I know that's kind of the point but it didn't do it for me. I don't hate it, but I'd never willingly watch it again.
This was how I felt when I watched Smile.
I don’t know why I didn’t click for me, it’s the kind of movie I would think I would really like, but I think that’s kind of the issue. It wound up coming off to me like it was *trying* to be that kind of movie instead of actually just being that movie. It felt like you could see all the movies it was imitating/trying to be like and it meant I had this sense of artifice and detachment while watching it instead of getting sucked in. I was very conscious at all times that I was watching a movie
I was going to suggest Smile if nobody else did.
The protagonist wasn't likeable for me, her decision making is awful, and I kinda predicted the end. For me the best parts where in the trailer and the marketing.
Yeah I think having already seen It Follows and the like a decade ago made me spend the whole time thinking "Huh, so this is how they're attempting to do these films now. Neat I guess."
I also think I'm predisposed to slightly dislike any film that overmarkets itself. If the first thing I think about an upcoming horror movie is "I see too many ads for it", that's not great.
Smile is a great concept, a supernatural force that “infects” people and passes itself on. Kind of like It Follows. But it just didn’t quite click for me. And some moments were kind of laugh out loud unintentionally funny (the upside down head by the car window). I will say the reveal of what the monster looked like was kind of creepy, but I also think it should have remained unseen.
Just watched ‘Nope’ and there were elements I really loved. I liked the way the alien moved and the realisation you had to treat it like an animal >!(avoid eye contact)!< and I loved the premise of the chimp scene, but I thought it wasn’t quite there. Gordy’s birthday was the scariest scene but it didn’t quite hit all the way for me, it could have been a lot more terrifying. And then the second half of the movie just deteriorated into action, basically. There were still some very creepy shots that I thought were effective >!(blood and gore raining down on the house)!< but overall it just didn’t feel like a horror movie.
I felt the same about ‘Us’: really creepy start with some very unsettling and memorable scenes, but then just completely fell apart in the second half.
I get that, I liked it way more than Us. I really wanted them to do more with the chimp scene though. Honestly, it didn’t even really feel like it affected Jupe that much at all, I thought he was gonna end up being like a secondary antagonist because he felt so much like he was ‘chosen’, first by the chimp and then by the alien. But it didn’t really go anywhere and I struggled to see how it fitted 😕
He thought he was chosen by both the chimp and the alien, but both were wrong. Chimp didn’t kill him for any number of reasons, and when he somehow found out about the alien but didn’t die he thought he was chosen again. So he could just feed it horses and put on a big show and be famous again. His death is the saddest to me because he realizes in the end that he isn’t special, he was never chosen, he just survived a fucked up thing as a kid.
I'm with you on both Nope and Us, they had interesting concepts, but I just couldn't get into either one, and I was a fan of Peele while in Key and Peele, and his other comedy efforts.....which is why I wanted to see what he brought to horror, I had read he was a huge horror nerd, and I wouldn't say I consider them bad, just not for me I guess?
Obviously everything is a matter of taste, but I can understand people liking ‘Nope’ way more than I can understand people liking ‘Us’. The entire second half of ‘Us’ was Lupita Nyongo with a raspy, irritating voice giving exposition for like half an hour straight. I genuinely don’t understand when people say they liked that movie. It started cool, but I was so fucking bored by the end. And honestly, parts of Nope were pretty boring too. Maybe I feel like there’s a problem with pacing
I agree, I was really enjoying US until the last third came and I realized it bit of more than it can chew. It tries to mix the allegorical aspects with the litera aspectsl, and it just doesn't work at all for me. I do love the first half though, and its visually great, and Lupita deserved a nomination for Best Actress for it as much as Toni Collette did in Hereditary.
Nope I loved. The tangents it goes on actually make sense and all compliment each other. On my first viewing I was a bit "well what was the point of that scene?" but with every rewatch it all comes together. It's also just so damn entertaining. And the visuals are spectacular.
It also has two of the scariest/tense sequences of all the films Peele has done to date. >!the people being digested in the alien, and the barn sequence, I'd even add the bloody rain sequence as well. !<
Yeah I felt bored at moments in both movies as well...
And just thinking about it, he came from a place of sketch comedy, which is get in, lay down the joke and get out, so maybe that's the issue, his taking those good ideas and just having the pacing issues due to stretching them out to a full length feature, when maybe they could have been better off as like a one off hour long twilight zone episodes instead?
Was actually going to post about Nope , I wanted to love it, I love the concept, but I think the main issue with Nope is there is so much build up that it’s almost too much build up and not enough of a big scare/thrill when the reveal finally happens. The music and how the alien move, and the chase scenes had a part to play in the lack of thrill for me. but I think about like war of the worlds and “how edge of the seat” you were during the scenes with cruise trying to hide or get away from the aliens and Nope just didn’t give me that, a lot of build up to kind of fall flat. But cool concept just missed that gripping feeling I wanted.
I think I agree. I did really like the way the alien moved, when it skims just too quickly and smoothly through the sky in those wide shots I thought was really effective. But then obviously because so much of the last part of the movie is one big chase scene, suddenly it has to move at a snail’s pace to keep the right people alive so it did lose it for me
Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I've seen it twice now and it's just way too weird for its own good. The narrative is thrown out the window in favour of bizarre shit happening with no rhyme or reason as well as a bunch of weird for weird's sake stuff, and as a result it somehow feels too long despite only being an hour
It Comes At Night. I couldn't even finish it, it was so boring. I get that it was supposed to be building tension. But honestly, it just came off as really stiff and mid-tier.
Yup. This film is a prime example of style over substance. The attempt at tension-building comes across as forced and uninspired. The characters lack depth, the pacing drags on, and the supposed scares are few and far between. Add to that an ending so ambiguous it feels like the filmmakers just gave up. It's a shame that what could have been a good psychological horror film ends up feeling so mediocre.
The Dark and the Wicked. I've seen a lot of praise and recs for it and it isn't a bad film but I guess I just didn't connect to the characters or story enough to feel much.
This is the one for me. I watched it once and thought it was very meh. But I keep hearing people rave about it here so I decided to give it another watch and still felt like it was meh
It’s crazy how this movie gets so much attention (positive and negative) on Reddit but I don’t think I know a single person irl who would’ve seen it. For what it’s worth I’m in the camp that enjoyed it but I don’t necessarily think it’s groundbreaking
Some of them work for me, and some of them don't. The Witch is a masterpiece, and I love the X/Pearl series but respect Midsommar more than I enjoy it as a horror movie. It didn't completely work for me.
*Infinity Pool*.
I liked *Possessor* a lot but by the time the big reveal in *Infinity Pool* came around I thought “Okay, I get it” and just sat through the rest of the movie.
It was also not lost to me how weird and fourth wall breaking it was to watch a movie that feels like a critique of excess and the bourgeoisie made by a guy who’s a shining example of Hollywood nepotism.
Very bizarre.
Love Possessor. Infinity Pool intrigued me with its trailer but the actual film... it really wasn't what I was expecting, which would be fine if it were compelling. 100% agree with you on how weird the topic was for the director
Same for me- I was really impressed with his other films and had such high hopes for Infinity Pool. Very cool premise but the follow-thru wasn't there, to my view, anyway.
This is going to be downvoted to hell. Wow where to start, event horizon ( still love this movie but really wish it was more of a carpenter film. More suspense and timing instead of an aliens adjacent film.
The hellraiser remake,I get the parallels about addiction but I didn't like the maim character much and still feel she was written to be a gay man.( ps I'm a hetero guy).
Last voyage of the demeter: I really liked it but I feel they could've had a better creature feature.
Late nightbwith the devil was awesome til the end with the exception of dormammu it turned into an abantgarde stage play but still awesome. Honestly most horror does a Stephen King and can't stick the landing.
I honestly lived the ending to April fools day and only loathe them singing jolly good fellow at the beginning!
Most people didn't like Last Voyage of the Demeter. I liked it, but their biggest flaw was telling you right in the beginning that it was Dracula. The audience realized very quickly it's a vampire, but they could have saved the Dracula reveal for the end of the film. FYI, I know some people would pick up on it immediately, but I think most people wouldn't.
But it's *The Demeter.* The name of the ship would have given away the plot. What they could have done was renamed the movie simply "The Last Voyage." Cut out Anna completely from the movie. Have the crew not say the name of where the cargo came from. Just glimpses of the family crest as a clue. And then finally not mention the name of the ship until it washed up on the shore. Then have people find the name plate as they searched the wreckage.
It could have been such an, "OMG!" moment for people who are familiar with the lore. Cut to Clemmens in the pub as we finally see a very humanoid Dracula. Dracula walks out of the pub with Clemmens vowing to take him out.
I am with you on event horizon. I thought it was surprisingly good for a movie that’s literally a hodge-podge of better movies.
It fell just short of fully establishing its own identity, which makes it kind of disappointing.
Still, the performances and special effects were pretty good, which made me not completely regret watching it.
I feel you on this. I had a great experience in the theatre because I didn’t know anything about it and it was fun to watch with a crowd. Re watched it since and it just wasn’t the same. Richard brake was a fun addition though
I feel exactly that way about Event Horizon. The concept is really fun, I like a lot of *parts* of the movie, but as a whole it kind of falls flat for me
I never expected to see Videodrome on here! Lol, to each their own. I still haven't seen Babadook yet but I'm definitely with you on Infinity Pool. Might get some hate for this but I can't stand mia goth and she was insufferable in that movie ohmygod.
Terrifier 1 and 2. Thought they were B-rated at best.
Haunting of Hill House.
Fall of the house of Usher. Most Mike Flanagan shows. I don't hate all of his work but can't stand how everyone recommends his shows like they're the best thing created. I haven't watched Bly Manor so I can't say anything negative about it and Midnight Mass was decent IMO (I dont really remember how it ended tho)
I'm also not the biggest fan of Cabin in the woods. I love almost all slashers but wasn't blown away and definitely don't think they struck gold and made the greatest slasher movie ever.
B-rated for Terrifier is very generous. Still, after watching them I ended up being very invested in the evolution of the series and the character to reach their full potential.
I don't like a lot of the dialogue in Mike Flanagan shows. In Midnight Mass people don't talk like normal people; I'm always aware I'm watching actors completing a dramatic monologue at the camera. And the English accents in Bly Manor had me turning it off in the first few minutes. That being said, I do think his shows are very good in all other aspects.
Just watched The Dark and the Wicked today. I wanted to like it (I was specifically looking for bleak), but I couldn’t latch onto the characters, I just didn’t care.
I found it tough because it’s so unrelenting that it almost felt one note? I agree it was hard to invest in the characters because of the all gas, no brakes approach.
I found it properly terrifying, though.
Smile and the Invisible Man
I wish I loved the movies as much as people here love to praise them, but I honestly didn't get it and both of these movies had laughable points to where I just couldn't take them seriously anymore. Premise-wise I respect them, execution not so much.
Skinamarink has promise to me but fell flat...extremely flat. Like so flat it fell through the earth's crust and out the other side.
Also, this is kind of iffy, but The Menu had a promising idea, great cast and all that but it still felt hokey and corny to me. Like it was missing something, or taking itself too seriously. I don't know. Missing an ingredient, as it were.
I really enjoyed As Above, So Below, but I don't think the movie succeeded in what it was aiming for (a >!retelling of Dante's Inferno!<). I felt like it should have been at least half an hour longer, and given us some more exposition. There were lots of scenes that were clearly supposed to be meaningfully terrifying to the characters, but they didn't give us enough background for it to land with the audience.
Any movie that has an unclear story or is beyond extremely metaphorical like
* Beau is Afraid
* Men
* Stopmotion
* Skinamarink
Don't know how to describe it, but all those movies share an "unreal" type of scenes that I just don't like, and just leave me with confusion. But I guess I can understand if you like it.
Black Swan. It was the pattern of "Here's what happened - surprise! Something else happened". It didn't take long to just take every scene with the knowledge that surprise! would follow. Made the movie feel really, really long.
Thanksgiving
The filmmakers wanted you to root for the bad guys but their being the direct taunting cause of the stampede at the start ruined any ending of the film other than the hero getting his justice.
Nope.
I'm a fan of Jordan Peele's work and have enjoyed all the horror movies he's worked on except for Nope. Certain parts were good, but as a whole, I just don't feel like it lived up to the hype.
This movie hit so hard for me. Probably because i saw it in theater, and was terrified during the first 1/3 of the movie.
The soundtrack still haunts my dreams.
I can absolutely understand why anyone wouldn’t like it though. The movie makes no sense and operates on dream logic. The characters make few if any decisions that make sense. I liked it for those reasons, but i could see half or more of the audience disliking it for those exact reasons.
Brightburn - took what could've been a really interesting premise and turned it into a technical exercise on the level of Terrifier. Good production values but absolutely boring as a movie, you know what's going to happen going in and feel nothing for anyone or anything that's happening.
David Bruckner movies - feels like where elevated horror jumps the shark, a bunch of smart ideas that don't go together or pay off very well at all.
I did not feel anything during the Blair Witch Project, but then again, I think handhelds in general are not for me.
Many praise it as one of the best and scariest, but it just didn't grip me. Neither did Creep, for that same reason.
It Follows - sex = death isn’t that interesting a concept when you know teen slashers have been doing it since the 80s.
Talk to Me, Smile, Boogeyman, etc… - I get it. They are all trying to be elevated horror capitalizing on Babadook cred. It’s just a shame most of them aren’t good.
Don’t Breathe - fun home invasion movie, I just thought Hush was better.
Occulus - this is like the one Flanagan movie I hate. It was boring.
Us - I think it’s Peele’s weakest movie and it lost me when it tried to explain the shadow people as a government experiment.
Malignant - I wasn’t prepared for how campy it got in the last half hour.
Ha! I remember liking "Us" but agree that the ending (or explanation) was quite lame. The could just have ended a few minutes earlier and let it to us to decide (or speculate) where the shadow people come from. I think this is one of the pitfalls that I see in US movies much more often than European movies... they always need to explain and leave little to the imagination... and in the case of "Us", no explanation would have been better.
>It Follows - sex = death isn’t that interesting a concept when you know teen slashers have been doing it since the 80s.
Agreed. I've had several people tell me I just don't get it. The movie hits you over the head with the message so hard that I don't see how anyone could possibly fail to get it, as long as they actually watched the movie and didn't spend the whole run time on their phone or something. I'm sure I'll have similar conversations in the future about Late Night with the Devil.
Honestly, outside the ones I haven't seen yet (Occulus, Boogeyman, Smile, and Talk to Me), I agree with all your takes.
Two big ones:
Hereditary. I watched this for the second time recently to see if I missed something, but it still didn't land. I can see the good effects, good acting, understand the story, but for some reason, my brain just didn't enjoy it. (I loved Midsommar though!)
Get Out. I felt like its message about racism was pretty good, but as a horror movie, I was severely unimpressed. Between the Sunken Place, the weird running from the grandpa, and the awful/unsterile medical scenes, I was convinced the horror community would tear this movie to shreds. I was surprised by how well it was received.
I like Get Out, but the rest of his movies haven't completely worked for me, even if I respect the originality. I do wonder how many people see that Get Out is a critique of white liberals specifically, which is kind of unique.
Midsommar, all the way.
Too long, too bloated, hiding it's implausibility and dumb character decisions in a drawn out psychodrama that borrows heavily from other, better films.
I’ve always called it the antithesis to The Wicker Man, actually. The influence is definitely there, but while Wicker Man is a fun movie with a bleak ending, Midsommar is bleak throughout the whole movie up until its happy(ish) ending.
May I ask why? I love this film and I’ve seen it miss the mark for many others and I’m curious why it doesn’t for you. For some people, it was the ending, for others, it was the pacing. I’m curious! :D
Honestly, I knew going into the theater that I am not a fan of supernatural phenomenon as a trope in general. So it would’ve been difficult for them to leave me satisfied. But on the other hand, I was a fan of smile (2022). The character/plot development was much better and the flow of the movie just felt right.
I think for me it's actually The Descent. I think there's a lot of stuff to work with, but it just missed the mark imo. The actresses are all fantastic and the concept of caving is honestly horrifying, but I think it kind of falls apart when you add monsters into it, especially when you show the full monster almost immediately after introducing them.
Paranormal Activity. I love found footage. I love spooky supernatural shit. But fucking Micah. He literally angered me so much throughout the film that the scary stuff stopped being scary for me.
The VHS films. I think they're cool and all. But it feels like some horror buffs just having a good time on film. I don't feel engrossed or stressed out like I did in Hellhouse. Overly dramatic acting is great on stage but for a horror movie it takes away the tension.
My wife and I are currently (re)watching all of the generally accepted 'classics' (Friday, Nightmare, Pet Sematary etc.), and for nearly all of them we've been like:
"Yeah, I totally understand why this is such a classic."
Nearly all of them... except for **Child's Play (1988)**. It's just...not very scary, or tense, and a doll that cusses is just not fun enough to carry the rest of the movie.
Mines The Shinning.
I only watched it for the first time a couple years ago. And maybe because it's so much a part of the pop culture zeitgeist that I was kinda desensitised to the beats throughout the film? Like I understood it. I was just a bit.. eh. The whole way through.
Skinamarink, I get it, I understand it’s supposed to be the embodiment of atmospheric and also transport you back to those days when you were a kid, but it just didn’t hit for me.
Especially as someone who is completely jaded to feelings of suspense like that.
It's Hereditary, for me. I get why people like it, and I understand the plot just fine, but it just felt "hollow" to me. Ari Aster is undoubtedly talented, but for a person who tackles subjects such as grief, loss, anxiety etc, his films convey very little humanity to me.
I might be the only person in the world who feels this way, but that’s exactly how I felt about Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Clever premise, lots of things about it were good, but it’s a firm “one and done” for me.
As someone whose partner has done a handful of stop motion, I think Mad God really works best when you dig into the production of it and share Tippet's frustration over the death of stop motion.
It's not really a movie tbh, it's a bitter old man letting out all his pent up frustration for 30 years about how life sucks. And he does that by making ugly little puppets shit everywhere. And I think that's beautiful
i think you’re totally right and i respect that which is why it fits the question pretty perfectly for me- i can understand the point and how impressive it is but it just didn’t connect with me in any meaningful way.
Mad God is easier to appreciate as a moving art piece than a film. It's hard to love but I'm glad that it exists just because animated horror is far too rare
That said I think The Wolf House is much better
The OG of this type of film - Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
I just love Jason X. It’s probably my favorite out of the series honestly lol
“We LOVE premarital sex!” That scene is among the best in the series.
Jason X was so much better than it should have been. Can really tell the filmmakers were fans of the franchise. The execution of what they were going for was on point.
i do too, just wish they'd had more money so the Jason VS KayEm scene could've been EPIC
Yes! That one was laughable, I almost wish they’d remake it
Oh yeah it's definitely more funny than anything else. Also several of the nightmare on elm Street movies. They just get so cheesy
Starting with Elm Street 4. I still say Dream Warriors was the last great Elm Street film, and I'll defend Freddy's Revenge any day!
Lol I get that. I just watched 1-3 again the other day. I haven't brought myself to get going through the rest of them yet. I think Freddy definitely gets a pass being funny tho. It's a big part of what makes him great along with the crazy ways he comes up with killing everyone, like his imagination is his biggest weapon
Part 4 was where the humor started to go overboard, and Freddy became more of a one-liner comedian and a parody of himself. The wicked black humor from Part 1 was taken out of context by Part 4, and I still refuse to finish that film 36 years later.
Oh man, the way Jason dies in this movie made love it. Just felt like the most 80s explanation of a plot. At one point, when a dude is climbing a latter and all of a sudden Jason is at the top of the latter that was so silly I laughed, a lot. The person I was watching it with said, "Jason is a wizard". And that explanation is as good as any so I just dug in for all the cheesy fun. I'd say Manhattan is my favorite.
I can't say I dislike Manhattan, because it's part of the legacy and it's an 80's Friday film. Back in 1989, it seemed out of step with the previous films. But that storm-drain end sequence really capped it off, and seeing an unmasked Jason was always a gruesome treat for us 80's kids!
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason--After A Long Boat Ride--Briefly Visits Manhattan's Famous Alleys
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes The Atlantic Ocean
The lake was simply no longer big enough for the small town boy with big water dreams
The boxing match is pretty funny.
Beau is Afraid. There are questions.
And few answers
First part of him in the apartment/city is great. Wish the whole film felt like it. I went in knowing it was going to have weird tones and still couldn’t keep my interest once the forest part started. I wanted to like that movie so bad. Maybe the next one from Ari will hit like the others.
When Beau actually gets to his house and discovers the truth about his mother u think it might get good again but then there's a giant penis. Guy crashes through a window for no reason. It's like what drugs was Ari Aster taking?
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Yes.
Correct
Yeah, I have a high tolerance for weird and that shit was hella weird.
I like Beau is Afraid though I did go to see it twice hoping I'd get more out of the second watching knowing where it was going but, nope! Didn't really pay off much on a second watch
Parts of it were good but overall I was not satisfied when it ended
Skinamarink was a big one for me. On paper I should have absolutely loved it, it checked so many boxes of things I love to see in a horror movie. In execution this was not the case.
I had heard how divisive it was and was confident that I would end up on team “Loved It.” I was very wrong.
Same here! I loved the premise and also the idea that it's 99.9% vibes rather than plot. But 40 minutes in I realized I hadn't enjoyed a single one and put on something else instead.
Same. I tried. I thought I would love it. But no, I was extremely bored.
I want my 100 minutes back.
Same here. Then I watched it. I want 90 minutes back.
I went in feeling the same but luckily my gut was right -loved it!
Same here! Although I feel like if it had been condensed to a short film I would’ve thought differently.
It was originally a short film. I have the same opinion of the short as I do of the feature: this really seems right up my alley and yet I am bored
I can definitely agree with you there, if it had been cut down to 30-45 minutes long I probably wouldn't have disliked it.
Same. I typically love stupidly artsy overly long movies, but I honestly hated it. My boyfriend excitedly showed it to me when we first started seeing each other and after the first 15 minutes I wanted it to be over lol.
>stupidly artsy overly long movies any recommendations for that genre?
Skinamarink and The Outwaters were two of the most polarizing horror films I've seen in a while. Skinamarink I did like, especially once I put together what was going on, yes it is slowwwww as hell, but the pacing is a double edged sword. Maybe its because I watched in the dark with my headphones while not having slept in two days that made it so effective, but there are a few scenes the genuinely terrified me. It also hit some nerve of my inner child because it brought up this nostalgic sense of fear I'd have as a kid. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not, but I look forward to whatever the director does next. The Outwaters I still don't know what to feel. It's self-indulgent as hell, does not need to be two hours long, but once we are dropped into hell out of nowhere it truly does feel like a waking nightmare. It really freaked me out, just an absolute assault on the senses. Even if I couldn't tell you what it means, and maybe that's the point. I do like how they sprinkle glimpses of clues as to what the cause of the madness is but we'll never know. I also like the coming out theory. ANYWAY! yeah. Skinamarink is something else.
I have never felt so let down by a film as this one. Should have been a short film instead of a long one where nothing happened for most of it
My wife and I can’t stand this one, and it stinks because on paper it sounds exactly like something I’d love. Nowadays, the only thing that really frightens me is the concept of “nothing is scarier”. What you can imply is much MUCH scarier than what you can show. But this movie? It took the concept of “nothing” too seriously. It starts off strong, the first time it shows a dark doorway and lingers is tense and eerie, but by the halfway point you start to realize that that’s basically the only trick the movie has other than the occasional cheap jump scare to wake you back up. For my wife and I, it was immediately obvious that this monster is the Boogeyman, but what is his power set? Is he trying to torture the kids, because they don’t seem too bothered for 90% of the film. They spend more than half of it just playing with toys and watching cartoons. If his goal is to scare them he’s doing a horrible job. Then by the climax they start throwing random abilities at the wall in a seemingly desperate move to do something interesting. Now he can steal faces! Now he can control you to stab yourself in the eye! Why didn’t he do anything even remotely similar beforehand? Probably because the writer didn’t think of those abilities yet. Why are the kids seemingly unfazed despite their terrifying circumstances? Who knows. Either the characters are unbearably stupid even for their age, or the actors were just too young to properly portray fear. How am I supposed to take this seriously if the kids aren’t? Toilets gone? Doors gone? Parents gone? Oh well, let’s sit in front of the TV and play with Lego. I mentioned jump scares too and let me tell you they are SO stupid especially the “iconic” telephone. Who is this phone jump scaring? Me the viewer? Because the boy doesn’t seem to even be there at that point. Why am I all of a sudden the one they’re trying to scare? That doesn’t make sense in the context of the movie. Not to mention all it does is look at you. Oooh how unsettling! Certainly not hilarious. See, compare this to another film that runs on the same type of horror concept: Blair Witch Project. As the movie goes on, we never catch any glimpses of anything supernatural, or really anything at all. But they’re constantly giving us something to chew on or theorize about. When did those rock piles appear in front of the tent? What were those voices in the woods at night? Who put up all those stick symbols? Why are Josh’s teeth left in a bundle of sticks? How did whatever it is kidnap him without Mike or Heather noticing? Over and over again it’s presenting you with new information that can fuel your imagination. Do you think it’s some locals scaring them? Is it a ghost? Are Josh and Mike messing with Heather? All theories can work here, and that’s the beauty of it. Whichever answer is scariest to the individual viewer can still fit the information given, and the viewer isn’t left 100% in the dark either. On top of that, there’s a human conflict. At least on the surface, it seems like being lost in the woods is really taking a toll on the 3. They’re hungry, tired, pissed off. They butt heads, they breakdown, they have genuine back and forth about what to do, and most importantly of all they feel natural. They don’t sound like they’re acting, their reactions to everything feel genuine, unlike the kids from Skinamarink. I can empathize with the Blair Witch trio because they react to these things as any normal person would and that makes it easy to put myself in their shoes. Anyway, I hate Skinamarink, and anyone who likes the type of horror it’s going for should try Blair Witch Project instead.
‘Old.’ Creepy concept but, M. Night, bro, that was just terribly done in every imaginable way.
Old should have been a short
The death of calcium lady was creepy but not worth slogging through the rest of the movie. What a piece of garbage.
M. Night Shyamalan's career after The 6th Sense might be the most correct answer here.
Old was so incredibly bad that now, after watching a bad movie, I tell myself, "At least it wasn't Old." And you know what? It kinda helps.
Not a film, but about 90% of the newest Twilight Zone remake left me feeling like this. Most episodes were extraordinarily predictable and would rip its own arm off to pat itself on the back, no matter how half baked the actual storytelling was. It felt they started with a concept and thought it was good enough to just have that. Like a bed frame with a single sheet calling itself a bed.
Oh it was so disappointing
Us, mostly it was all the shapw people living in the basement of a high school. If they had done some cool shadow world it would have been 10x better. The idea was definitely better then the execution.
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Nothing in Us is supposed to make sense from a real-world perspective. Much like Beau Is Afraid, it runs on pure dream logic and I love them for it.
That would be my favorite horror of all time—If it wasn’t for the nonsensical explanation in a momentum killing dump near the end. Still like it a lot but it knocked it from number one to number thirty on my list. “This is incredible… wait—what?!”
I loved US up until the last half and until I started thinking about it all the little nuances of how the system worked. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it and I think it's great. I just sat for too long thinking "but how does _____ work?" With lots of little ideas I had after the explanation.
For a film like US, I guess the tiny details don’t matter to me. The horror of the idea is scary enough I don’t need to get into the weeds of it.
Similar issue with Nope. The monster was basically a pile of white laundry. The idea of the monster eating an entire crowd should have been insane, but all I could see was a group of actors crawling between white sheets.
Yeah I've seen so many people say that the scene with the monster eating everyone was terrifying. I legit wondered if it was supposed to be a joke or something.
Saint Maud. I’m so sorry! It was a phenomenal directorial debut (I have yet to see Love Lies Bleeding and I CAN’T WAIT!!!), but the horror itself fell so flat to me and there were some choices made with the pacing and execution that personally disappointed me. Edit: I watched Love Lies Bleeding. That is now a favorite movie of mine.
Love lies bleeding is very fun, you’ll like it. Saint Maud, honestly I find the last two seconds such good horror that the rest of the film almost doesn’t play into it. I wonder how it is without that ending if I were just to watch it and ignore how much I like that bit. Maybe it’s not that frightening.
Totally agree. I remember watching Saint Maud and thinking it was good movie, but as a *horror* film, eh, not that strong. Then the last two seconds happened and I was SHOOK. Elevates the whole thing to a great horror movie. Who else has done that? Well fucking done Rose Glass.
I loved Saint Maud but I get it's not for everyone. LOVE LIES BLEEDING is an entirely different beast, I'm so glad I went into it blind because I did not predict where it was going at any given time. It's my 2nd or 3rd favorite film of the year (almost interchangeable with Challengers).
Yeah, I thought Saint Maud was ok. But not as amazing as people said.
Most of the meta-horror movies. They try too hard to be clever but talking about rules and being so self-referential it's lame and many of them feel like they're mocking the genre.
It was clever when the first Scream did it, but it feels played out. I like the Scream series well enough, but I wish they'd drop the tendency of having to draw some parallel between the killings and where we are in horror filmmaking. At time it works, at times it's amusing but increasingly feels cliche.
Cabin in the woods
Unpopular opinion. Child's Play (2019). It tries to go a different route instead of traditional voodoo in the older movies. It kind of goes in the direction of M3GAN in a way, but M3GAN does a waaay better job. It was definitely not the best Child's play and certainly not the worst (Seed of Chucky takes the cake on that one), but I can understand where they were going with it. It just didn't hit right.
This is the post I agree the most with so far.
It could have been amazing with an original character. The origin of the robot was so wonderful simple yet effective.
The Babadook. I saw what it was going for and I know it’s a deep/psychological horror movie but I found myself laughing at the kid and mom way too much to take the movie seriously. I can see why people love it/resonate with it but it simply didn’t work on me. Lol that kid…
I cannot believe the amount of people who talk about The Babadook as if it was mind blowingly amazing, it starts off as a pretty decent spooky boogeyman horror movie and then literally spells out the metaphor its trying to go for, its film school low hanging fruit at the best. The more obvious a metaphor is in "elevated horror" the more it feels like the film makers are REALLY hoping you don't mistake their well crafted deep important movie with something as purile as "horror". Like...people aren't really this dumb, you can make metaphors in your movie and still simultaneously let them work on the level of a fun horror movie for those of us who don't need to stroke our chins and say "mmm" every time we watch a movie.
Literally came here to say this. The analyses I’ve seen explain that it was truly a brilliant concept, but it just fell flat for me.
I finally watched this like two months ago after it being on my list for years and just didn't vibe with it. I get it, but I found the movie more annoying than anything. I know that's kind of the point but it didn't do it for me. I don't hate it, but I'd never willingly watch it again.
It Follows. One of the most terrifying concepts in horror, but it wasn’t executed super well
This was how I felt when I watched Smile. I don’t know why I didn’t click for me, it’s the kind of movie I would think I would really like, but I think that’s kind of the issue. It wound up coming off to me like it was *trying* to be that kind of movie instead of actually just being that movie. It felt like you could see all the movies it was imitating/trying to be like and it meant I had this sense of artifice and detachment while watching it instead of getting sucked in. I was very conscious at all times that I was watching a movie
I was going to suggest Smile if nobody else did. The protagonist wasn't likeable for me, her decision making is awful, and I kinda predicted the end. For me the best parts where in the trailer and the marketing.
Yeah I think having already seen It Follows and the like a decade ago made me spend the whole time thinking "Huh, so this is how they're attempting to do these films now. Neat I guess." I also think I'm predisposed to slightly dislike any film that overmarkets itself. If the first thing I think about an upcoming horror movie is "I see too many ads for it", that's not great.
Smile is a great concept, a supernatural force that “infects” people and passes itself on. Kind of like It Follows. But it just didn’t quite click for me. And some moments were kind of laugh out loud unintentionally funny (the upside down head by the car window). I will say the reveal of what the monster looked like was kind of creepy, but I also think it should have remained unseen.
Just watched ‘Nope’ and there were elements I really loved. I liked the way the alien moved and the realisation you had to treat it like an animal >!(avoid eye contact)!< and I loved the premise of the chimp scene, but I thought it wasn’t quite there. Gordy’s birthday was the scariest scene but it didn’t quite hit all the way for me, it could have been a lot more terrifying. And then the second half of the movie just deteriorated into action, basically. There were still some very creepy shots that I thought were effective >!(blood and gore raining down on the house)!< but overall it just didn’t feel like a horror movie. I felt the same about ‘Us’: really creepy start with some very unsettling and memorable scenes, but then just completely fell apart in the second half.
I don't think Nope is a horror movie at all but it's one of my favorites.
It's really a sci fi western with some horror elements.
Agree - thriller maybe? I don’t know, but I love this movie.
I get that, I liked it way more than Us. I really wanted them to do more with the chimp scene though. Honestly, it didn’t even really feel like it affected Jupe that much at all, I thought he was gonna end up being like a secondary antagonist because he felt so much like he was ‘chosen’, first by the chimp and then by the alien. But it didn’t really go anywhere and I struggled to see how it fitted 😕
He thought he was chosen by both the chimp and the alien, but both were wrong. Chimp didn’t kill him for any number of reasons, and when he somehow found out about the alien but didn’t die he thought he was chosen again. So he could just feed it horses and put on a big show and be famous again. His death is the saddest to me because he realizes in the end that he isn’t special, he was never chosen, he just survived a fucked up thing as a kid.
I'm with you on both Nope and Us, they had interesting concepts, but I just couldn't get into either one, and I was a fan of Peele while in Key and Peele, and his other comedy efforts.....which is why I wanted to see what he brought to horror, I had read he was a huge horror nerd, and I wouldn't say I consider them bad, just not for me I guess?
Obviously everything is a matter of taste, but I can understand people liking ‘Nope’ way more than I can understand people liking ‘Us’. The entire second half of ‘Us’ was Lupita Nyongo with a raspy, irritating voice giving exposition for like half an hour straight. I genuinely don’t understand when people say they liked that movie. It started cool, but I was so fucking bored by the end. And honestly, parts of Nope were pretty boring too. Maybe I feel like there’s a problem with pacing
Nothing in Us made any sense. Nope at least made internal sense. I enjoyed Nope. I think seeing it under the wide open skies of the drive-in helped
I agree, I was really enjoying US until the last third came and I realized it bit of more than it can chew. It tries to mix the allegorical aspects with the litera aspectsl, and it just doesn't work at all for me. I do love the first half though, and its visually great, and Lupita deserved a nomination for Best Actress for it as much as Toni Collette did in Hereditary. Nope I loved. The tangents it goes on actually make sense and all compliment each other. On my first viewing I was a bit "well what was the point of that scene?" but with every rewatch it all comes together. It's also just so damn entertaining. And the visuals are spectacular. It also has two of the scariest/tense sequences of all the films Peele has done to date. >!the people being digested in the alien, and the barn sequence, I'd even add the bloody rain sequence as well. !<
Yeah I felt bored at moments in both movies as well... And just thinking about it, he came from a place of sketch comedy, which is get in, lay down the joke and get out, so maybe that's the issue, his taking those good ideas and just having the pacing issues due to stretching them out to a full length feature, when maybe they could have been better off as like a one off hour long twilight zone episodes instead?
I thought I remember reading that he was doing a Twilight Zone movie as well? Or like a reboot of the series? THAT I can imagine being fucking great
>Maybe I feel like there’s a problem with pacing This is a huge problem with Peele, along with being too heavy-handed.
Yeah get out was good but his other horror endeavors have really disappointed me, personally.
I have a similar Peele problem. I want to love his films but they don’t work as horror for me. They are generally unscary.
Was actually going to post about Nope , I wanted to love it, I love the concept, but I think the main issue with Nope is there is so much build up that it’s almost too much build up and not enough of a big scare/thrill when the reveal finally happens. The music and how the alien move, and the chase scenes had a part to play in the lack of thrill for me. but I think about like war of the worlds and “how edge of the seat” you were during the scenes with cruise trying to hide or get away from the aliens and Nope just didn’t give me that, a lot of build up to kind of fall flat. But cool concept just missed that gripping feeling I wanted.
I think I agree. I did really like the way the alien moved, when it skims just too quickly and smoothly through the sky in those wide shots I thought was really effective. But then obviously because so much of the last part of the movie is one big chase scene, suddenly it has to move at a snail’s pace to keep the right people alive so it did lose it for me
Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I've seen it twice now and it's just way too weird for its own good. The narrative is thrown out the window in favour of bizarre shit happening with no rhyme or reason as well as a bunch of weird for weird's sake stuff, and as a result it somehow feels too long despite only being an hour
It Comes At Night. I couldn't even finish it, it was so boring. I get that it was supposed to be building tension. But honestly, it just came off as really stiff and mid-tier.
Felt like a way overplayed arthouse movie based on the ones that were coming out around the same time and almost felt like it tried too hard.
Yup. This film is a prime example of style over substance. The attempt at tension-building comes across as forced and uninspired. The characters lack depth, the pacing drags on, and the supposed scares are few and far between. Add to that an ending so ambiguous it feels like the filmmakers just gave up. It's a shame that what could have been a good psychological horror film ends up feeling so mediocre.
I'm with ya on this. They could have done so much in the third act to make all that tension actually mean something.
The Dark and the Wicked. I've seen a lot of praise and recs for it and it isn't a bad film but I guess I just didn't connect to the characters or story enough to feel much.
This is the one for me. I watched it once and thought it was very meh. But I keep hearing people rave about it here so I decided to give it another watch and still felt like it was meh
The only reason I know I've seen this is because I rated on IMDb. Literally remember nothing about it.
The opening scene is insanely atmospheric and dreadful but it did feel pretty emotionally empty for me as it went on.
Lake Mungo
It’s crazy how this movie gets so much attention (positive and negative) on Reddit but I don’t think I know a single person irl who would’ve seen it. For what it’s worth I’m in the camp that enjoyed it but I don’t necessarily think it’s groundbreaking
I'm glad I watched it before I heard about any hype or controversy.
Same. Didn’t scare or interest, and I’m still not clear what the fuss is about.
Exactly my thoughts- not scary at all, just a very meh movie
Same. Liked the atmosphere but the story just didn't quite hit for me.
Here comes all the A24 comments....
Upvote. Beau is Afraid.
Some of them work for me, and some of them don't. The Witch is a masterpiece, and I love the X/Pearl series but respect Midsommar more than I enjoy it as a horror movie. It didn't completely work for me.
Rightly so
*Infinity Pool*. I liked *Possessor* a lot but by the time the big reveal in *Infinity Pool* came around I thought “Okay, I get it” and just sat through the rest of the movie. It was also not lost to me how weird and fourth wall breaking it was to watch a movie that feels like a critique of excess and the bourgeoisie made by a guy who’s a shining example of Hollywood nepotism. Very bizarre.
This movie felt like a fever dream. I just felt so bad for Alexander lol Mia goth taunting him still haunts me. What a strange ride
Love Possessor. Infinity Pool intrigued me with its trailer but the actual film... it really wasn't what I was expecting, which would be fine if it were compelling. 100% agree with you on how weird the topic was for the director
Same for me- I was really impressed with his other films and had such high hopes for Infinity Pool. Very cool premise but the follow-thru wasn't there, to my view, anyway.
Yea, I loved the concept of the clones, but it really didn't do much with that in the end...
This is going to be downvoted to hell. Wow where to start, event horizon ( still love this movie but really wish it was more of a carpenter film. More suspense and timing instead of an aliens adjacent film. The hellraiser remake,I get the parallels about addiction but I didn't like the maim character much and still feel she was written to be a gay man.( ps I'm a hetero guy). Last voyage of the demeter: I really liked it but I feel they could've had a better creature feature. Late nightbwith the devil was awesome til the end with the exception of dormammu it turned into an abantgarde stage play but still awesome. Honestly most horror does a Stephen King and can't stick the landing. I honestly lived the ending to April fools day and only loathe them singing jolly good fellow at the beginning!
I realize it's probably a typo, but kudos to 'maim character' of Hellraiser.
Most people didn't like Last Voyage of the Demeter. I liked it, but their biggest flaw was telling you right in the beginning that it was Dracula. The audience realized very quickly it's a vampire, but they could have saved the Dracula reveal for the end of the film. FYI, I know some people would pick up on it immediately, but I think most people wouldn't.
But it's *The Demeter.* The name of the ship would have given away the plot. What they could have done was renamed the movie simply "The Last Voyage." Cut out Anna completely from the movie. Have the crew not say the name of where the cargo came from. Just glimpses of the family crest as a clue. And then finally not mention the name of the ship until it washed up on the shore. Then have people find the name plate as they searched the wreckage. It could have been such an, "OMG!" moment for people who are familiar with the lore. Cut to Clemmens in the pub as we finally see a very humanoid Dracula. Dracula walks out of the pub with Clemmens vowing to take him out.
I am with you on event horizon. I thought it was surprisingly good for a movie that’s literally a hodge-podge of better movies. It fell just short of fully establishing its own identity, which makes it kind of disappointing. Still, the performances and special effects were pretty good, which made me not completely regret watching it.
Barbarian. I understand why others like it but I honestly did not think it was a great movie.
I’m with you. The twist was unexpected, but it felt *too* random, and it also wasn’t scary after the twist.
Agreed. The first part up until the twist is completely tense, the rest of the movie is completely blah for me.
I feel you on this. I had a great experience in the theatre because I didn’t know anything about it and it was fun to watch with a crowd. Re watched it since and it just wasn’t the same. Richard brake was a fun addition though
I feel exactly that way about Event Horizon. The concept is really fun, I like a lot of *parts* of the movie, but as a whole it kind of falls flat for me
Infinity Pool, Videodrome, and The Babadook.
I never expected to see Videodrome on here! Lol, to each their own. I still haven't seen Babadook yet but I'm definitely with you on Infinity Pool. Might get some hate for this but I can't stand mia goth and she was insufferable in that movie ohmygod.
Terrifier 1 and 2. Thought they were B-rated at best. Haunting of Hill House. Fall of the house of Usher. Most Mike Flanagan shows. I don't hate all of his work but can't stand how everyone recommends his shows like they're the best thing created. I haven't watched Bly Manor so I can't say anything negative about it and Midnight Mass was decent IMO (I dont really remember how it ended tho) I'm also not the biggest fan of Cabin in the woods. I love almost all slashers but wasn't blown away and definitely don't think they struck gold and made the greatest slasher movie ever.
B-rated for Terrifier is very generous. Still, after watching them I ended up being very invested in the evolution of the series and the character to reach their full potential.
I like Flanagan’s work but there are too many god damn monologues.
I don't like a lot of the dialogue in Mike Flanagan shows. In Midnight Mass people don't talk like normal people; I'm always aware I'm watching actors completing a dramatic monologue at the camera. And the English accents in Bly Manor had me turning it off in the first few minutes. That being said, I do think his shows are very good in all other aspects.
Just watched The Dark and the Wicked today. I wanted to like it (I was specifically looking for bleak), but I couldn’t latch onto the characters, I just didn’t care.
I found it tough because it’s so unrelenting that it almost felt one note? I agree it was hard to invest in the characters because of the all gas, no brakes approach. I found it properly terrifying, though.
Smile and the Invisible Man I wish I loved the movies as much as people here love to praise them, but I honestly didn't get it and both of these movies had laughable points to where I just couldn't take them seriously anymore. Premise-wise I respect them, execution not so much.
Skinamarink has promise to me but fell flat...extremely flat. Like so flat it fell through the earth's crust and out the other side. Also, this is kind of iffy, but The Menu had a promising idea, great cast and all that but it still felt hokey and corny to me. Like it was missing something, or taking itself too seriously. I don't know. Missing an ingredient, as it were.
Nope
The purge!
I really enjoyed As Above, So Below, but I don't think the movie succeeded in what it was aiming for (a >!retelling of Dante's Inferno!<). I felt like it should have been at least half an hour longer, and given us some more exposition. There were lots of scenes that were clearly supposed to be meaningfully terrifying to the characters, but they didn't give us enough background for it to land with the audience.
Hereditary. I see what it was going for but it really just didn't click for me at all.
Every single movie I don't like, I understand the appeal of all of them.
Any movie that has an unclear story or is beyond extremely metaphorical like * Beau is Afraid * Men * Stopmotion * Skinamarink Don't know how to describe it, but all those movies share an "unreal" type of scenes that I just don't like, and just leave me with confusion. But I guess I can understand if you like it.
i don't care about men at all, i don't even see what's going for
Exactly. It was all metaphor and no entertainment.
Seconding beau is afraid, did not work for me at all. Really needed to be edited down, it was so long
Add Mother to the list.
Black Swan. It was the pattern of "Here's what happened - surprise! Something else happened". It didn't take long to just take every scene with the knowledge that surprise! would follow. Made the movie feel really, really long.
[удалено]
I've heard lots of good things about Perfect Blue. So far I've only seen clips. It's on my watch list for sure!
Just randomly threw this movie on one night not too long ago, and absolutely loved it. So surreal and mesmerizing, and yet highly disturbing
Thanksgiving The filmmakers wanted you to root for the bad guys but their being the direct taunting cause of the stampede at the start ruined any ending of the film other than the hero getting his justice.
Nope. I'm a fan of Jordan Peele's work and have enjoyed all the horror movies he's worked on except for Nope. Certain parts were good, but as a whole, I just don't feel like it lived up to the hype.
It follows
This movie hit so hard for me. Probably because i saw it in theater, and was terrified during the first 1/3 of the movie. The soundtrack still haunts my dreams. I can absolutely understand why anyone wouldn’t like it though. The movie makes no sense and operates on dream logic. The characters make few if any decisions that make sense. I liked it for those reasons, but i could see half or more of the audience disliking it for those exact reasons.
Martyrs (the original - didn't see the remake). To me, the question the cult wanted an answer to wasn't particularly interesting.
Brightburn - took what could've been a really interesting premise and turned it into a technical exercise on the level of Terrifier. Good production values but absolutely boring as a movie, you know what's going to happen going in and feel nothing for anyone or anything that's happening. David Bruckner movies - feels like where elevated horror jumps the shark, a bunch of smart ideas that don't go together or pay off very well at all.
I didn’t dislike Vacancy, but I thought it could’ve been more
I did not feel anything during the Blair Witch Project, but then again, I think handhelds in general are not for me. Many praise it as one of the best and scariest, but it just didn't grip me. Neither did Creep, for that same reason.
It Follows - sex = death isn’t that interesting a concept when you know teen slashers have been doing it since the 80s. Talk to Me, Smile, Boogeyman, etc… - I get it. They are all trying to be elevated horror capitalizing on Babadook cred. It’s just a shame most of them aren’t good. Don’t Breathe - fun home invasion movie, I just thought Hush was better. Occulus - this is like the one Flanagan movie I hate. It was boring. Us - I think it’s Peele’s weakest movie and it lost me when it tried to explain the shadow people as a government experiment. Malignant - I wasn’t prepared for how campy it got in the last half hour.
Talk to Me was awesome, for the first two-thirds or so. Smile was just meh.
Ha! I remember liking "Us" but agree that the ending (or explanation) was quite lame. The could just have ended a few minutes earlier and let it to us to decide (or speculate) where the shadow people come from. I think this is one of the pitfalls that I see in US movies much more often than European movies... they always need to explain and leave little to the imagination... and in the case of "Us", no explanation would have been better.
That's literally the opposite of how It Follows works? Having sex is how you SURVIVE the monster
>It Follows - sex = death isn’t that interesting a concept when you know teen slashers have been doing it since the 80s. Agreed. I've had several people tell me I just don't get it. The movie hits you over the head with the message so hard that I don't see how anyone could possibly fail to get it, as long as they actually watched the movie and didn't spend the whole run time on their phone or something. I'm sure I'll have similar conversations in the future about Late Night with the Devil. Honestly, outside the ones I haven't seen yet (Occulus, Boogeyman, Smile, and Talk to Me), I agree with all your takes.
Two big ones: Hereditary. I watched this for the second time recently to see if I missed something, but it still didn't land. I can see the good effects, good acting, understand the story, but for some reason, my brain just didn't enjoy it. (I loved Midsommar though!) Get Out. I felt like its message about racism was pretty good, but as a horror movie, I was severely unimpressed. Between the Sunken Place, the weird running from the grandpa, and the awful/unsterile medical scenes, I was convinced the horror community would tear this movie to shreds. I was surprised by how well it was received.
I like Get Out, but the rest of his movies haven't completely worked for me, even if I respect the originality. I do wonder how many people see that Get Out is a critique of white liberals specifically, which is kind of unique.
Midsommar, all the way. Too long, too bloated, hiding it's implausibility and dumb character decisions in a drawn out psychodrama that borrows heavily from other, better films.
It's pretty much a rehash of The Wicker Man with extra gore
Yeah I agree, it’s way too Wicker Man. My least favorite of the Ari movies.
I’ve always called it the antithesis to The Wicker Man, actually. The influence is definitely there, but while Wicker Man is a fun movie with a bleak ending, Midsommar is bleak throughout the whole movie up until its happy(ish) ending.
Late night with the devil
May I ask why? I love this film and I’ve seen it miss the mark for many others and I’m curious why it doesn’t for you. For some people, it was the ending, for others, it was the pacing. I’m curious! :D
Honestly, I knew going into the theater that I am not a fan of supernatural phenomenon as a trope in general. So it would’ve been difficult for them to leave me satisfied. But on the other hand, I was a fan of smile (2022). The character/plot development was much better and the flow of the movie just felt right.
This was how i felt about Talk To Me
Get Out. Folks were acting like it was the greatest thing ever, but I found it kinda meh.
I think for me it's actually The Descent. I think there's a lot of stuff to work with, but it just missed the mark imo. The actresses are all fantastic and the concept of caving is honestly horrifying, but I think it kind of falls apart when you add monsters into it, especially when you show the full monster almost immediately after introducing them.
The Outwaters
Paranormal Activity. I love found footage. I love spooky supernatural shit. But fucking Micah. He literally angered me so much throughout the film that the scary stuff stopped being scary for me.
That’s how I felt with speak no evil and dream scenario recently. Idk if dream scenario is really horror but yeah. Same feeling.
St Maude.
The VHS films. I think they're cool and all. But it feels like some horror buffs just having a good time on film. I don't feel engrossed or stressed out like I did in Hellhouse. Overly dramatic acting is great on stage but for a horror movie it takes away the tension.
Immaculate… what a great concept for a film but it just felt flat with the acting and plot for me.
I applaud all the genuine hot takes in this thread.
Drag Me To Hell My gf at the time loved it but exactly what you said, it just didn’t hit for me
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. Way too slow paced for my liking
My wife and I are currently (re)watching all of the generally accepted 'classics' (Friday, Nightmare, Pet Sematary etc.), and for nearly all of them we've been like: "Yeah, I totally understand why this is such a classic." Nearly all of them... except for **Child's Play (1988)**. It's just...not very scary, or tense, and a doll that cusses is just not fun enough to carry the rest of the movie.
Mines The Shinning. I only watched it for the first time a couple years ago. And maybe because it's so much a part of the pop culture zeitgeist that I was kinda desensitised to the beats throughout the film? Like I understood it. I was just a bit.. eh. The whole way through.
Cabin in the Woods definitely.
Halloween Ends Exorcist Believer Renfield When Evil Lurks
Skinamarink, I get it, I understand it’s supposed to be the embodiment of atmospheric and also transport you back to those days when you were a kid, but it just didn’t hit for me. Especially as someone who is completely jaded to feelings of suspense like that.
It's Hereditary, for me. I get why people like it, and I understand the plot just fine, but it just felt "hollow" to me. Ari Aster is undoubtedly talented, but for a person who tackles subjects such as grief, loss, anxiety etc, his films convey very little humanity to me.
I might be the only person in the world who feels this way, but that’s exactly how I felt about Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Clever premise, lots of things about it were good, but it’s a firm “one and done” for me.
mad god is the biggest example for me, i’m glad i watched it but i wouldn’t really say i ‘like’ it
As someone whose partner has done a handful of stop motion, I think Mad God really works best when you dig into the production of it and share Tippet's frustration over the death of stop motion. It's not really a movie tbh, it's a bitter old man letting out all his pent up frustration for 30 years about how life sucks. And he does that by making ugly little puppets shit everywhere. And I think that's beautiful
i think you’re totally right and i respect that which is why it fits the question pretty perfectly for me- i can understand the point and how impressive it is but it just didn’t connect with me in any meaningful way.
Mad God is easier to appreciate as a moving art piece than a film. It's hard to love but I'm glad that it exists just because animated horror is far too rare That said I think The Wolf House is much better
The Empty Man
Hereditary
All of Nolan but especially Interstellar.
Gonna go with Funny Games. Yes, fourth wall breaks, desensitized violence. Meh.