Oct 6

Oct 6 Horror Movies

One of the things I've mentioned in a couple of Devon and I’s discussions is that I’m not the biggest watcher of horror movies, I suppose the genre just didn’t grab me compared to other genres. That is not to say that I don’t watch horror movies I just don’t seek them out as much. One of the reasons might be because so many horror movies rely on some gimmick, which might be a cool idea but the movie built around this idea doesn’t make sense or there is no way to progress the story without a lot of convenience.

Some of my favourite horror films are those that build the tension and dread over time towards the horror that’s to come. The Shinning is one of my favourite movies to watch as it not only excellent horror, it is an excellent experience as we watch the descent into madness and the horrors of the Overlook Hotel.

In order to shore up the some of the gap in my horror movie watching I decided for October to set myself a simple task. I am going to watch four recent horror films, 1 each week, and write my thoughts and review of them here.

The four movies I have selected for this task are: The VVitch (2015), The Babadook (2014), It Follows (2014), and Oculus (2013).

Return to this post for the reviews.

Thanks for reading.

The VVitch

Before seeing this movie I had heard it was pretty good, and was glad I went in not knowing much more than it's about a family that lives near some woods during pilgrim/frontier times.

The VVitch was an excellent and enjoyable watch. The movie built great tension and dread throughout the entire runtime.

I was really surprised how quickly we are shown that there was an actual witch living in the forest near the family, it changes our view of the family’s interactions. We know that not only will the family be tearing themselves apart but they will also be assaulted by this outside force.

The story was well written in how whenever something terrible happens the common factor was the eldest daughter (Thomasin) being with the characters. This causes rifts between her and the family and her isolation from the others takes its toll. I liked how things she says are twisted by others and thrown back at her. All her efforts to follow a righteous path are no match for the twisted maddening situation.

All the elements really bring this movie together. The music is driving, isolating, and keeps the dread building. The cinematography shows us the isolation of this family and how claustrophobic the forest and living conditions are. The acting and dialog really brought it all together in a great way.

I highly recommend checking this movie out.

It Follows

I knew very little about this movie going into it. I had heard a few jokes about how it was about an STD, and that is pretty accurate.

The horror aspect of the movie is pretty straightforward and shown to be near unstoppable. I enjoyed the simple story and it did go in some directions I wasn’t expecting. It was very much worth checking out.

As I said it was a neat concept that when a cursed person sleeps with someone they pass on this curse which causes an entity to walk towards you that can look like any person, and if it catches you it kills you. If that happens it'll then hunt down the person that passed it to them.

So when the characters begin to track down the person who gave it to the main girl (Jay) I thought this was the direction it was going to go in, that they would spend a lot of the time going up the chain. But, the movie keeps it simpler and just focuses on the main group of kids and them trying to deal with this problem. I thought there was going to be more schemes about passing on the curse amongst the group because those that have been cursed can see the entity but are not the target, but Jay seems reluctant to curse others.

It really has some creepy moments and the terror that Jay lives in of people really comes across and has you questioning everyone on screen. I like how much of the cinematography is close up or following people it really helps build the tension.

The movie ends similar to the Ring, where the characters know they are cursed and how it works. They can pass it to others without their knowledge and try exist.

It was a cool little movie and I recommend watching it.

The Babadook

I had really only heard about this movie because of some jokes about its name and that it was creepy. I felt that the movie had a few creepy moments and some good acting by the lead actress.

Overall I'd say it was alright but I feel that there are better horror movies to watch.

I suppose I need to mention how the child actor was either so good or just terrible because I was annoyed every time he spoke. As I said I felt our main characters frayed nerves, and how she starts to question her own reality really came across in her performance.

I like the drab near monotone look of the movie from the outdoors being cloudy, and inside their home begin plain and grey. The way they transitioned from night to day showing how little sleep the characters are getting was a nice touch.

After the Babadook possess the main character it leads to the kid fighting back with homemade weapons and traps, with some yelling thrown in. I did like the effect of her throwing up black goo in order to expel the Babadook. It simply ends with them continuing to live with a weakened Babadook living in the basement that they feed worms to for some reason.

Felt that at the movie was alright and falls into that genre of we are stuck in the house and let’s have a lot of dream sequences to build tension, but it doesn't work. I felt bored much of the time rather than being drawn into the story.

Oculus

I decided to watch this movie because I remember when it was being released and I thought the premise was neat, thought there could be some neat stuff you could do with an evil mirror.

Not a new idea but I liked the setup that Kaylie implements to try and prove that there is something supernatural going on. And it was a neat dynamic to have her brother there and each remembering events differently from the past.

After watching I feel like it was alright but wasn't draw into the story as much as I would have liked.

The story is told in a way that we know there is a threat so it eliminates a lot of tension and that there may be a psychological element to the horror, many of the story or scare moments were obvious but there were a couple cool creep moments.

I didn't expect that the story was going to switch back and forth but I think it maybe could have been cut down to focus more on the adults trying to confront this thing that destroyed their lives. Because we know ahead essentially what's going to happen so I felt the future timeline was the more interesting one.

I thought that it was going to lead to some actual interaction with entities from the mirror but it simply messes with the characters heads as they split up and start to not follow their own ideas and safeguards.

In the end I feel like it had some familiar possessions stuff with some kids thrown in and couple neat scenes where the characters are unsure who or what they are interacting with. But it felt like a generic horror movie.

I enjoyed focusing on one genre and watching these movies with an eye to give some critical thoughts on my experiences.

Enjoy Watching.