Tag: Horror

Immaculate

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Dora Romano
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: No, for the love of God, no

The opening foreshadowing shot shows a nun sneaking out from a convent in the middle of the night, and running away from that place, only to be caught by a group of nuns at the gates and her legs broken.
Cut to: Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) is a novice who has moved to a convent in Italy from a small town in The USA at the behest of Father Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte). Her belief in Christianity began at a young age when she was rescued from a frozen lake and died for 7 minutes. This rescue was understandably covered in news and got a bit of virality. And her faith and fate sealed for Christianity. At the convent, she goes about her life normally, making friends and trying to do good, but she also has glimpses of something sinister going on, and it involves the higher-ups (because, of course).

Have you seen Rosemary’s Baby? Yes? Then you have watched this film. Goodbye and good night.
If you haven’t, then watch that rather than this. This movie is the rehashing of same old faith vs fanaticism, where good Christian women are used and abused, and for some reason virginity and purity are equated and highly revered. While this genre of movies is supposed to use the concept of objectification of women as a source of horror, they at the same time unironically do the same thing. In this case for example, Sydney Sweeney regularly received comments about her good looks, is shown bathing with the fellow nuns, etc. “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain”.
If that was not enough, they have eerie shadows, abruptly cut scenes, and mockery of science (which is the biggest sin of all). Can we please collectively as a society decide we don’t want to weaponise nor demonise religion anymore? Thank you.

The only reason this movie is not a hot pile of stinking garbage is the lead, Sydney Sweeney. She has single-handedly carried the story, to the point where it became apparent she was trying antics to fill the spaces. There are too many scenes filled with screams, needless to say, unwarranted. She was carrying on the movie so she was over-doing things. Sad but forgivable. There is nothing particularly horrifying in this movie, and nothing we haven’t seen before. It takes a different path from Rosemary’s Baby but it is not impactful enough that it redeems itself, because by that time we have waded through a lot of scene-there-heard-that. Its 1.5 hour runtime feels at least twice as long, and it is no wonder it has a current rating of 2.9 on Google and that tells you everything you need to know. Don’t listen to anyone who says it is good, because it is not. Don’t bother.

Why The Autopsy of Jane Doe Is Good and How It Could Have Been Saved

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Olwen Catherine Kelly
Where to watch: Lionsgate Play
To watch or not to watch: It is a new concept and well done. Though it has its failings, it is worth checking out

Tommy (Brian Cox) and Austin Tilden (Emile Hirsch) are a father-son duo who own an operate a morgue and crematorium in a small town. The place has been with the family for generations but Austin doesn’t feel comfortable working with the dead all day long and is looking for a way out. One day, the town’s sheriff comes to their workplace rather late with a dead body of an unidentified female in her early 20s. She was found in a home where there were multiple homicides and bodies buried in the backyard. Hers was the only body they could not account for, she had no clothes on and no identification. As the father-son start working on the body, they find many inconsistencies – her blood flows from her body even though she is dead, her fingernails have peat under them which has not been found in that part of the country for centuries, her joints are broken but there are no external injuries, her lungs are scarred, but again no external injuries. In fact, they couldn’t account for any of her conditions without going beyond the obvious. They do continue the work despite the difficulties for humanity’s sake, only to find that maybe humanity is not always a virtue.

The concept of the movie is very fresh. It is also a masterclass in making a naked female in full view non-sexual! It is sometimes shocking to realise that there is a naked female on the table (an actual table) and there is no focus on sexuality. Kudos to the team for this.
The horror of the movie comes in slow waves, till it crescendos and ends – it starts with the disconnected finds on the Jane Does eternal body and really takes off when the autopsy reaches her internal body, where they find scar tissue on her lungs, completely blacked out lungs, flower of dathura (a hallucinogen) wrapped in a scribbled cloth, her tooth etc. It is jarring and the audience is left wondering about her life. The movie is also largely a two-parter shot mostly in a claustrophobic environment of the autopsy room. It adds to the creepiness and makes for an uncomfortable watch. In a good way.
There are still problems with it, and that’s unfortunate. The movie is filled with jump scares. For an idea which is this elevated, the jump scares are a cheap ploy (they are a cheap ploy nonetheless). There are some unexplained points, like what really could have happened to her, what is the end goal, what are her powers, and all. That would have made the movie stay on the subject matter. There is also this unnecessary short story of Austin’s love life, which takes about 10 minutes and add absolutely 0 to the movie.

There is something wrong with the people who make horror movies (excluding Peele, Ari Aster, A24 productions, and all). Or the genre might be difficult to execute, people who are in the business would be better equipped to comment on this. Given the tripe we have been served, the latter might be true. It is easy to fall into the trap of crescendo music which culminates abruptly, dark corners with a hint of something lurking behind it. The one movie which plays with shadows well would be Hereditary aided a million times by the perfect acting by Toni Collette. The fact that someone has taken a great concept of an alleged witch semi-dead wielding her powers, and made a lukewarm movie off it, is sad and disappointing. Maybe somewhere down the line someone decides to revive this movie with a remake and does it right. Also, can we please pick good concept movies executed badly and make them better? And not do the vice versa? Thanks.

Barbarian – Breaking the 4th wall differently

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis
Where to watch: Prime
To watch or not to watch: A must watch for all the thriller lovers, and non-thriller lovers. Will need a tolerance for violence

Tess (Georgina Campbell) has booked an AirBnB in Brightmoor, Detroit, only to find it double booked with Keith (Bill Skarsgard) already staying there. Since it was late, raining heavily and most hotels booked because of a convention, Tess decides to stay in the same house, albeit reluctantly. Keith is all thumbs trying to make Tess comfortable, going as far as to open a wine bottle only in front of her, in case she is suspicious of adulteration. They have a nice chat and the evening ends on a good note. The next day while inspecting the basement, Tess discovers a labyrinth of tunnels, a (creepy) room with a bed, video recording equipment and a bloody handprint, and encounters a vicious, ferocious creature, which looks like it slipped in the evolution after Homo erectus. In another world, AJ (Justin Long) is a struggling actor who has recently been accused of raping a fellow actor, which he vehemently denies. To pay for his legal fees, he decides to sell off his property, which is the same AirBnB.

This is a difficult review to write, difficult to know where to begin. It falls under the “Monster” category of horror movies. But, it is not the monster in the traditional sense, not even in the sense pictured in the movie. There is an adage “show, not tell” which makes a movie good. This one surpasses even that, in that that the true monster is actually to be perceived by the audience, from all the instances shown in the movie. Let me explain…

The movie has the regular tropes – a single, vulnerable girl in a house on a deserted street with a strange man who has previously portrayed predatory characters successfully. The house also has a basement, which leads to untold (perceived) horrors, with doors which have suspicious and irregular opening and locking mechanisms. The girl gets locked in the basement where the monster lives. And that’s the end of the tropes. What is truly beyond brilliance is the way the tropes have been used to blind the audience, to create a pre-conceived notion, only to be shown something so extraordinary that anyone would be horrifically surprised. This is how the movie and the director break the fourth wall. Spoilers ahead…

We have Bill Skarsgård, who is the stranger in the double-booked rental with Tess. He is terribly awkward and tried too hard to make Tess comfortable, almost as if he has no good intentions on his mind. He also has a lanky, towering visage, sunken eyes, added to he popular role of Pennywise which he portrayed with aplomb, we are predisposed to associate him with ill-will. We are inclined to believe the source of horror to be Bill Skarsgård.
Cut to: a carefree Justin Long cruising along a shore in a red convertible with top down, singing along to a beat-filled song. He gets a call to inform him that his female coworker has filed rape charges against him. He denies vehemently, and tries gather his already dwindling resources to pay for a lawyer. And, we as audience are rooting for him. After all, he is the one who played a lovesick boyfriend in Going The Distance, a sympathetic listener in He’s Just Not That Into You, he has to be the good guy.
Zach Cregger uses these already implanted notions and break the fourth wall. He is telling the user “You think Keith is evil. You think wrong”.

This goes beyond the actors, in truth. It is also questioning what we experience as regular people in our daily lives. A man with clear skin, charming smile and the gift of glib can be as big a threat, if not more, as someone who is apparently out to get us. And the female-attributed traits of acquiescence, quiet and caution are needed for survival in the world with monsters made by men. The real monsters are the men who use their powers to inflict pain on women and they end up creating bigger monsters than who they are themselves.