Hm, well, like I said, this last decade has been pretty bad for the horror genre. But I'll try to think of some films that I genuinely enjoyed from that time period. And I acknowledge that most of these films have their own flaws
Karyn Kusama's The Invitation (part thriller)
Insidious
I Saw The Devil (part action)
Julia's Eyes
The first two VHS movies (I have a fondness for anthologies)
The Wailing
10 Cloverfield Lane
You're Next
Autopsy of Jane Doe
The Purge 1
Sinister
Unfriended
Let Me In
And probably a few more that I can't think of at the moment. Most of these I would consider good, not great. Some, I would even admit, may be considered bad by a lot of people. And I don't actually think It Follows is terrible, I just said that to annoy the other prick. It just doesn't live up to its potential and, for me, became more flawed with each viewing. I was indeed wowed the first time I saw it
But the story lazily avoids any real exposition and focuses too much on creating a creepy mood and atmosphere through the soundtrack and camerawork. Similar to, but not quite as bad as, The Witch. In fact, it's a consistent trend in modern horror movies to explain very little and just making what is essentially a creepy music video. Creating a sense of dread can be great, but you should have a solid story to back it up. One of my favorite horror films, Rosemary's Baby, does an amazing job of slowly building the tension and putting you in Rosemary's shoes and making you feel the paranoia and subtle terror. But it also has a perfectly coherent story and a satisfying payoff
reply
share
kuku (3510)
6 years ago
That's quite a irregular list
*Masterpieces*
I saw the Devil
The Wailing
Autopsy of Jane Doe
Let Me In
*Not Great, but Not Bad*
VHS movies (kind of bad movie but great guilty pleasure)
The Invitation
*Just Meh*
Insidious
Unfriended
The Purge
Sinister
(Julia's Eyes and You're Next yet to see)
Movies like The Wailing or Jane Doe are way over It Follows. But... Insidious? Sinister?? No way.
reply
share
cyberbob (3488)
6 years ago
Sinister is definitely not better by most standards. But I enjoy it for what it is, a very simple story with effective scares and a decent movie monster. And Ethan Hawke always delivers a solid performance. It is not great by any means, but it doesn't aim to be. I can accept a movie that doesn't have lofty ambitions as long as it does what it aims to do relatively well. I like Insidious for similar reasons, and because it's one of the few modern haunted house movies that isn't totally boring
It Follows, on the other hand, is a clearly ambitious movie from a multi-hyphenate filmmaker. It tries just about every trick in the book to impress viewers: Gory opening scene, literary references (what do they mean? I doubt anyone knows or cares enough to figure them out), scary grating music playing over slow-mo scenes, the shock of seeing the monster as a nude woman pissing herself, purposely ambiguous time period and futuristic technology, cliffhanger ending. Etc etc.
So if I see a movie with lofty ambitions, I judge it accordingly. Do I literally think all of the movies on my list are better than It Follows? No. Like I said, they have their own flaws. But these movies haven't been heralded by critics as masterpieces or examples of great filmmaking. From my list, only The Wailing has a better RT critic score than It Follows (the audience score is much lower)
reply
share