Really bad. I have no idea where these great reviews came from and how it’s made the money that it has. I give every movie a fair chance but this was seriously one of the worst movies I’ve seen in years. I truly wanted to like it and assumed that I would, but holy hell this was pure ass cheeks. Not scary or interesting, just plain stupid.
shareI thought it was fantastic. A certified top 50 Horror film of all time.
- The story has been done before but it's themes of trauma begets trauma are quite 'high brow' for what is essentially a popcorn film, chockfull of jumpscares. It's actually quite 'elevated horror'. Slap an A24 logo at the front with Ari Aster named as the director and the hipsters would wank themselves silly over how deep the themes are.
- The pacing was good and the film progressed at a nice steady pace. Never found myself bored.
- Good production values with some brilliant camera work. This is a proper 2022 production. The cinematography and video editing in this film couldn't be done 10-20-30 years ago. Technology and cinema are advancing.
- An unsettling and brilliant OST. The sound editing in this film was superb.
- Sosie Bacon gave a fantastic performance as the lead. Her performance as the lead is leagues superior to many final girl genre icons from yesteryear.
- The supporting cast was decent. Certainly by 'mid-budget' horror standards.
- The scare attempts were solid. Definitely scarier than the average horror film. Many of the best horror films of all time aren't scary whatsoever. For example I've never found The Exorcist, The Shining, Poltergeist, Night of the Living Dead, The Thing or Psycho scary. They're great films but just aren't scary to me and I saw all of them when I was in my early teens. So a film not managing to be scary isn't a death sentence.
Too each their own.
I thought your point about slapping the A24 logo was funny and true. I liked this movie a lot myself, as it delivered a lot of excellent scares, a strong rising sense of tension and suspense, and a terrific lead performance in Sosie Bacon.
But a few things hold it back from being one of my all-time favorites. I thought the attempts at humor were pretty awkward and for the most part didn't work for me. Then there is Jessie T. Usher's performance and character. His acting is a few notches below everyone else in the film, and especially in scenes next to Sosie Bacon, he's just completely unconvincing. That he plays the cliched unsupportive fiancee just makes it worse. (Spoilers) Frankly, it sucked that the two most likable characters in the movie meet a horrible fate while he acts like a jerk and just disappears from the movie without any consequences.
And then there's the ending, which going in hand with what a downer it is, it was just too obvious how it was going to end once the rules of the entity were set up, not to mention it was incredibly similar to the ending of a particular horror/thriller from the late 90s.
I don't want to sound too negative, because I liked this film a lot and give it an 8/10. It's just that it came so close to being a classic for me if not for the issues I mentioned.