ben-zayb
2018-06-26, 11:50 AM
I just saw the movie tonight, and came in 99% blind*
Let me start by admitting that the film legit scared me, up until the last 15 minutes. And am I glad that this film isn't oversaturated with jump scares and gory violence, which rely more on sprints of shock and awe. This movie is more of a fear marathon, keeping the aura of dread and suspense most of the movie. I felt like I'm being slowly choked to death.
I felt like the horror aspect is carried mostly by the brilliant shooting (is that the term?) and score. The lead actress was also believable and great here.
There are lots of foreshadowing in this movie. Also lots of symbolism, even in "regular day" scenes like school. To be honest, this movie could've ended two ways at least, and with the way they used unreliable narrative I thought the alternate possibility would have been more fitting.
There are plenty of set up for the cultist narrative, and in the end they played it straight as supernatural horror as the director intended (apparently in an interview). However, it just didn't work for me at all, as it left me with more questions than it answers for things that made no sense even after the reveal, like the husband suddenly being burned and Peter already being possessed in school even before Paimon left Anne's body.
On the other hand, the ending that turned out to be the red herring was the mental health narrative, which could have still meshed well with the film. It was also set up well, considering the title (yeah, I know it applied to the supernatural too), the explicit exposition of mental health history, and the series of tragedies that could have aggravated mental disorders.
Annie could've easily been the one who set fire to her husband and dug her mother's corpse, as foreshadowed. Peter could've just gotten broken with all these things happening to him.
All in all, I still enjoyed watching it, but the last part is just too hollywood for me. This is still easily more headed to a better direction than most of the horror movies regurgitated for the GA. I might not go see it anymore for a 2nd time, despite this probably being just the kind of film that may give a better audience experience on repeat viewing.
* I actually just knew about it yesterday after visiting RT for an entirely different movie. The raw rating piqued my interest so here we are.
Let me start by admitting that the film legit scared me, up until the last 15 minutes. And am I glad that this film isn't oversaturated with jump scares and gory violence, which rely more on sprints of shock and awe. This movie is more of a fear marathon, keeping the aura of dread and suspense most of the movie. I felt like I'm being slowly choked to death.
I felt like the horror aspect is carried mostly by the brilliant shooting (is that the term?) and score. The lead actress was also believable and great here.
There are lots of foreshadowing in this movie. Also lots of symbolism, even in "regular day" scenes like school. To be honest, this movie could've ended two ways at least, and with the way they used unreliable narrative I thought the alternate possibility would have been more fitting.
There are plenty of set up for the cultist narrative, and in the end they played it straight as supernatural horror as the director intended (apparently in an interview). However, it just didn't work for me at all, as it left me with more questions than it answers for things that made no sense even after the reveal, like the husband suddenly being burned and Peter already being possessed in school even before Paimon left Anne's body.
On the other hand, the ending that turned out to be the red herring was the mental health narrative, which could have still meshed well with the film. It was also set up well, considering the title (yeah, I know it applied to the supernatural too), the explicit exposition of mental health history, and the series of tragedies that could have aggravated mental disorders.
Annie could've easily been the one who set fire to her husband and dug her mother's corpse, as foreshadowed. Peter could've just gotten broken with all these things happening to him.
All in all, I still enjoyed watching it, but the last part is just too hollywood for me. This is still easily more headed to a better direction than most of the horror movies regurgitated for the GA. I might not go see it anymore for a 2nd time, despite this probably being just the kind of film that may give a better audience experience on repeat viewing.
* I actually just knew about it yesterday after visiting RT for an entirely different movie. The raw rating piqued my interest so here we are.