One movie at a time! This is one that was on my Netflix watch later before I cancelled that service. Finally time to watch it! #OctoberMovieMarathon
o'pim'ions
Just a way to keep myself honest about the world and what I think. It's a way to make myself follow through with my promises.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 14: The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 13: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Saturday, October 12, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 12: They Live (1988)
Night 12 of the #OctoberMovieMarathon, a movie that Larry's been wanting to see:
SPOILERS BELOW THE POSTER!
SPOILERS START HERE!
Here's what happens: a guy moves for work, gets a construction job, goes to a homeless camp and across the street there's a church that's a front for a resistance because there are aliens controlling the whole world. Our main guy discovers this through sunglasses that let him see through the... illusions? Mind control?
On the way, he shoots up a bank, kidnaps a woman at gunpoint, gets into an entirely unnecessary and drawn out fist fight, gets guns from the resistance, goes to the bunker and kills a bunch of aliens, and takes out the disk sending their signal around the world. We end on a naked woman (full boobs) having sex with an alien who asks "What's wrong babe?"
It's like the movie is trying to be serious, but also is just very silly. There are a bunch of one-liners that do not land at all. Did you know the "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick some ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum" comes from this movie? Did you know it's delivered like wet cardboard? It's almost like the characters walk into a scene and think "I should say something cool" then blurt out something ridiculous.
It's astounding how good "The Thing" was and this movie came from the same director.
But I can believe it because I also can't get behind the theme of this movie either. A big idea is that all the commercials/shows/magazines/etc are there to keep everyone complacent and docile. And yet, a large majority of the things shown as examples of this are aimed at women. Fashion shows, press on nails, Lamaze class, who served what at dinner. We do see an alien talking to another guy about getting a promotion and just waiting for it to come- but do you see the disparity here?
And our main character (who isn't actually named in the movie) is just... some white guy? Perhaps it worked better in the 80's, but from a 2024 lens, I just can't buy the idea that he's supposed to be the everyman we can all relate to. Especially when he kidnaps Holly- YIKES. I couldn't even get behind his struggle to be unable to tell her what's happening because- you just JUMPED a woman in the parking garage with a GUN and made her drive you to her house after learning that she lives ALONE. That's the start of so many horror stories I cheered when she hit him and threw him out the window. I think maybe I was supposed to intuit that she was under the alien's control and that's why she was so calm about it? But that doesn't translate well, and especially not 40 years later.
Another idea is that it feels like the movie is clinging to the idea that all the problems in the world are "someone else's fault". In this movie, it feels like it's saying if the aliens weren't here things would be great. But if this movie were made today- there would be more about the people "selling out". There'd be something about profiting against your own people. Maybe even an insinuation that systemic problems may have started with aliens- but were perpetuated by people trying to game the system. I don't think the "one boogeyman" works as well as it once did. Or at least, it doesn't work for me. I have been reading a lot of books that challenge the ideas of revenge/getting even and if it's even possible... but that's a different post.
I think the memes that are lifted from this movie are funnier. This movie was terrible. Skip it.
Friday, October 11, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 11: Darkness Falls (2003)
I was donating platelets today and had a couple hours to kill, so why not take in a movie? Night 11 of the #OctoberMovieMarathon
SPOILERS START AFTER THE POSTER!
SPOILERS START HERE!
I think a lot of my problems stem from the story itself and the fact that technically, the story doesn't treat it's light/dark motif well. This review might be a bit wordy...
We get an opening monologue describing Matilda and her curse on the town before cutting to our main character Kyle. He's losing his last baby tooth (so probably a preteen in middle school). That night, he wakes up and catches a glimpse of Matilda. While he tries to escape he finds that if he's in light she cannot get to him. Sadly, his mother goes into his dark room to show him that no one is there and Matilda kills her. Kyle is blamed for his mother's death and is sent into foster care. The police chief is surprisingly cold to him considering the town is labeled a "small town". (Usually, cold police are for cities in movies)
At this point, there's a lot of opportunities. And with the scene with the bathroom/ghost looking cool I had hopes for this movie pulling off it's concept. It would be a technical challenge to be able to communicate the creature in the darkness and the characters needing to be in shafts of light while still allowing the audience to be able to see what you need them to see. This awesome type of shot is sadly, not repeated.
12 years later, Kyle gets a call from his childhood crush Caitlin- who's little brother is so afraid of the dark he won't sleep more than 10 minutes and claims "she" is coming to kill him. Kyle does return and faces a lot of flack from the people in the town who think he murdered his mother.
We now have Kyle, who's maybe 25 at this point. Caitlin, who's Kyle's age, has a little brother (Michael) who's... maybe 10? I'm totally fine with a large age gap between siblings, but Caitlin and Michael are at the hospital dealing with intense treatments. There is no mention of the parents at all. Where is Michael's parents? Why is his sister dealing with this? It almost feels like they wanted Kyle to come back to deal with the Tooth Fairy going after the next generation- but didn't want Caitlin to have a kid by someone else. After all, in the beginning of the film, Kyle and Caitlin are just starting to be an item- about to go to their first boy-girl dance together. And the way Caitlin acts to Michael is much closer to a mother than a sibling. All this could have been solved with a line about the parents being dead or something, but we don't get that. It's just Caitlin making the medical decisions for her brother and the parents just... aren't there.
And this leads me to the other part of the movie that bugged me. Kyle is shown to be taking lots of medications for depression, anxiety, and psychosis. And it's hinted that Michael is on the same path, since the doctor's are treating him the same way. But everyone is so... mean. Kyle reluctantly goes to a bar and is almost immediately physically attacked by a guy who thinks Kyle murdered his own mother. And I don't understand why this man is so upset by it. Is he just angry that murder happens? The way it happens it feels more like school bullying than anger at the justice system or something. It's weird and seems to only be there to excuse that guy's later death at the hand of the Tooth Fairy. Who I guess is after Kyle again now that he's back in town. And there's an interrogation scene where the chief of police pulls out Kyle's pills and says something to the effect of "you take anti-psychotics because you might become psychotic?" Which I'm sure is a real thing that happens to people which is just gross and rude and terrible.
While writing this, I looked at the Wikipedia article for this movie, and apparently there was a plan to have Kyle be more suspicious as a killer and the Tooth Fairy more of a twist reveal. I think that would have helped with how harsh the townspeople are to Kyle. Because from the audience's perspective, everyone is being really mean to someone who's mother was just killed in front of him!
And poor Michael is not given any comfort at all. At the end of the movie, the doctor suggests they put him in a sensory depravation chamber to "prove there's nothing in the dark"? I guess the idea being he'll face his fears and then be fine afterwards. But this seems like more harm than good because they also think Michael is causing the scratches he gets himself? So they have to strap him to a table?? And this is supposed to make him calm down??? It's much closer to the "cures" 1900s sanitariums had, which seem more like torture than something that would actually help.
Don't worry, Kyle ends up saving everyone and the Tooth Fairy is killed. The climax is not very exciting and felt like going through the motions. By the end of the movie I just didn't care anymore. I couldn't root for anyone. Kyle was boring, the townspeople were all horrible and mean, Caitlin and Michael were just kinda there... even the ghost doesn't get to do anything fun after the opening.
But the worst part is they had this concept of the creature only being in the dark- and the light being safe. But then we get weird moments where people get attacked instantly the moment they're in the dark one minute and being in the dark for awhile but being fine. And the ghost started off going after people who've seen her? But then she just starts killing anyone in the dark at all? There could have been a lot of interesting shots showing people in the light/dark and crossing that line. There is one moment where the ghost starts to reach and gets burned as soon as it's fingertips hit the light. But that's only one scene.
A frustrating movie, but nothing super duper bad. But skippable for sure.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 10: The Thing (1982)
Night 10 features me facing one of my movie fears- The Thing. I've never seen it, but I heard that it was super gory and scary and I have honestly been avoiding it... But Larry was home tonight and was able to accompany me- so I finally felt brave enough to watch it. #OctoberMovieMarathon
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
OMM2024 - Night 9: Hard Candy (2005)
And we are now caught up with the #OctoberMovieMarathon. I might have to pull double duty for the end of the month, but I can schedule posts to go day by day. But that's a problem for later- onto the film!
More of a thriller/action movie than regular horror, maybe a bit of Saw vibes? There's definitely some mystery to be solved and trying to figure out exactly how far things are going to go. 7/10 because it's not really my cup of tea, although it is well done. All the actors were great, the visuals are good, and I'm thankful for how tactful the camera was towards anything that might be too graphic. Very tasteful without feeling like "whoops we can't show this actually".
I'm not sure how much to give away, but if you've got an axe to grind against bad people- you'll enjoy this film.
SPOILERS BELOW THE POSTER!
SPOILERS START HERE!
First off, I was relieved that this movie wasn't NEARLY as graphic as I thought it was going to be with the R rating. I thought for sure it would turn my stomach, but instead we get more psychological thrills than visual. There is some blood and LOTS of gross insinuations about pedophilia though- so watch out if that's a no-go for you.
This was a fascinating twist on the victim/killer setup. I don't think I've run into another movie where I felt so conflicted on who to root for. Naturally, I'm 100% on the side of our protagonist, Hayley, but also- Jeff are you gonna get out of this one? Is someone going to discover what's going on? Will Hayley get what she wants? What's her endgame? I don't want it to be quick or simple because that would rob me of watching the movie.
And I did enjoy(?) being put in the spot of rooting for our torturer, especially since we're on her side from the start. There's no switch to "oh the torturer is sympathetic after all". Instead we get straight vengeance seeing a bad guy get his comeuppance. The bait and switch on the castration? Masterful. And I guess thinking back, it does track for what an actual (non-sociopathic) teenage might do... however, there is a part of me that thinks Hayley didn't go far enough, although the ending play was great.
In a twisted way, this movie is pure girl power. And if you enjoy that slightly-hopeless feeling that you get from Saw movies, but dislike all the gore- this movie might just scratch that itch.
OMM2024 - Night 8: Pontypool (2008)
Night 8! Make it a double feature tonight and we're back on track for #OctoberMovieMarathon