Happy Halloween dear friends and readers! Once again, it is that special and spooky time of year: time for a review of this year's creepy movies!
As is our grand tradition, for today's post our usual 1 - 5 rating scale will be augmented with the scary/intense rating system of 1 - 5 exclamation points thusly:
! = not at all scary
!!!!! = so scary!
Let's dive right in!
"Us" (2019)
Rating: 3 Scary Rating: !!!!
If you remember my extremely enthusiastic reaction to "Get Out" (2017), you can probably imagine how sincerely excited and hopeful I was for director Jordan Peele's second foray into feature-length horror. I WAS SO EXCITED--so much so that I dragged Husband to a showing on opening weekend, convinced it would be worth the effort to see "Us" with a large audience.
I wasn't wrong about the value of seeing the movie with a big opening-weekend audience--they absolutely enhanced our viewing experience, but unfortunately not because the movie was everything I'd hoped. While "Us" was absolutely inventive and at times pulse-pounding, as you'd hope a good horror movie would be, it was also over-burdened with an unfocused and confusing plot and backstory. Compared to the taught and bracing social commentary of "Get Out," to my chagrin "Us" left me feeling a bit fuzzy-headed by its over-complicated universe and distracted by its plot holes. What helped save our viewing experience was the very entertaining laughter and mockery deriding the unintentionally funny bits of the movie from our fellow moviegoers. I would definitely still recommend seeing it, but with dampened expectations compared to "Get Out."
"Deliver Us" (2017)
Rating: 2 Scary Rating: !!
This year's documentary entry! While unsettling, because it lacks any narration or interviews to give its footage more context and explanation, "Deliver Us" unfortunately doesn't deliver as much intensity and intrigue as I'd hoped it would. Don't get me wrong--it's definitely still unsettling to watch footage of actual rites of exorcism--but this film could have delivered so much more.
"The Endless" (2017)
Rating: 3 Scary Rating: !!!
While the moderate production value of this movie might be a bit distracting at first, the cult/sci-fi/horror mash-up "The Endless" certainly makes up for that with an interesting premise that reveals itself gradually throughout the course of the film. It doesn't pack a huge horror punch, but it's definitely tense and intriguing!
"Joker" (2019)
Rating:1 Scary Rating: !!
Long ago, I bemoaned the boatload of emotionally monotonic films fixated on the soulless male psychopath. Well, here we are again. To "Joker"'s credit, it is in possession of a discernible a plot arc--there is a beginning, middle, and end, and by the film's finale the titular Joker has arrived somewhere very different than where he began. That said, I just can't help but be extremely bored by the mercilessly flatlined emotional arc of this film and films like it. To use what is definitely a Mom word, this movie is so concertedly and aggressively grim I can't help but roll my eyes at it. I needed some emotional variation--humor, a flash of hope or sadness, something--to break up the monotonous two hours of bleakness of that comprise this movie, and it never came. But they threw in some violence, so I guess at least it's a bit scary?
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)
Rating: 2 Scary Rating: !!!*
* Scariness not based on the movie's original scary intent.
This year's throw-back-y entry! This year, Husband and I watched the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" for our annual evening of jack-o'-lantern carving. It was a perfect selection--campy and fun. However, it was definitely and unintentionally alarming when we had a simultaneous moment of revelation about the intention behind the film's conceit: that it was a pro-McCarthyist film, not anti. Watching the product of an industry that was profoundly negatively impacted by Communist blacklisting and fear mongering is certainly a bit dizzying and creepy--but again, not for the reasons originally intended!
That concludes this year's scary movie offerings! I hope you all enjoy a holiday that is precisely as fun and frightening as you wish it to be!
{Heart}
