#horror movie spoilers

[voidentitties]

Just watched "Old" for the first time (the 2021 movie about the beach that makes you old).

Was it a well-crafted, technically proficient film? No. Was it good? Probably not to most people. Did I enjoy it?

Immensely.

Highlights (spoilers):

Multiple scenes where characters stand around and just tell each other what's happening, in one of the most blatant disregards of "show don't tell" I've ever seen.

One of the characters is a famous rapper named "Mid Sized Sedan" (which I am obsessed with) and despite the group all going through this trauma together, and him sharing his actual name with someone pretty quickly, they all just continue to refer to him as Mid Sized Sedan.

One of the characters is established immediately as a doctor and is probably the least helpful doctor I've ever seen in a horror movie.

Toward the beginning of the movie a character exclaims she doesn't feel seen by her husband. Once on the beach, said husband begins to lose his eyesight. So like. Like he literally can't see her now.

The husband is an actuary and spends the whole movie pointing out the statistical improbability of things.

There is a dog and the dog dies. We learn this by someone announcing with no emotion "the dog just died" and everyone just moves on.

"he died from lack of attention!" That's a mood.

Toward the end a few characters are theorizing how to get off the beach, but put pause on that to build some sandcastles for a while. That's fine guys, you got lots of time. Oh wait.

Anyways 10/10 will show to everyone I know

[solarwreathe]

in another universe they could have been playing at the beach

[chloesimaginationthings]

“I assure you Mike, it's still me”

[novelconcepts]

I Saw the TV Glow is such a uniquely, devastatingly queer story. Two queer kids trapped in suburbia. Both of them sensing something isn’t quite right with their lives. Both of them knowing that wrongness could kill them. One of them getting out, trying on new names, new places, new ways of being. Trying to claw her way to fully understanding herself, trying to grasp the true reality of her existence. Succeeding. Going back to help the other, to try so desperately to rescue an old friend, to show the path forward. Being called crazy. Because, to someone who hasn’t gotten out, even trying seems crazy. Feels crazy. Looks, on the surface, like dying.

And to have that other queer kid be so terrified of the internal revolution that is accepting himself that he inadvertently stays buried. Stays in a situation that will suffocate him. Choke the life out of him. Choke the joy out of him. Have him so terrified of possibly being crazy that he, instead, lives with a repression so extreme, it quite literally is killing him. And still, still, he apologizes for it. Apologizes over and over and over, to people who don’t see him. Who never have. Who never will. Because it’s better than being crazy. Because it’s safer than digging his way out. Killing the image everyone sees to rise again as something free and true and authentic. My god. My god, this movie. It shattered me.

[the-irreverend]

I absolutely love the direction they decided to go with the black goo from Prometheus and how it ties into the themes of the film and the franchise.

Rook and Weyland wanted to use the black goo to make humanity better at colonization by ridding humanity of its weaknesses and limitations. But as a result, it creates a human without any humanity.

You even see that same theme in the chip that Andy used to "upgrade" himself with. He wanted to use it to better help the people he cared about, and yet in doing so he lost the care he had for them and tragically ended up becoming more like the cold machine that Weyland-Yutani wanted him to be.

Both the chip and the black goo are perfect metaphors for how people try to obtain, use, or embrace certain things to make themselves "more perfect" or gain more status and power in the system or society they're a part of. And yet by doing so, they lose the things that make us human and become more like mindless machines that think of nothing but serving a system that doesn't care about anything or anyone except those who benefit from it the most.

[danlous]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 2.05 "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape"

[fleurum]

the movie of all time 🐎

[ewehen]

when she autism on my fbi agent till i longlegs

[hesawifebeaterdanusethegun]

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

[jadeazora]

Cut out the phone call with Arven and the first part of Pecharunt's appearance, but the little "DONK!" sound and way the mochi just bounced off Kiki's forehead, and him touching where it hit, like "ow, that'll probably leave a bump tomorrow 😣"

Also, not something the stills can convey, but when Penny's talking, Kieran does a little "You have got to be kidding me" lean-forward and jaw drop. Like, these people are all going weird screaming "mochi mochi" and here y'all eating the suspicious mochi that strange Pokemon shot at you, what are you doing?!"

There's the fucking Pokemon Center nurse too giving zero fucks about any of the brainwashed insanity going on around town atm, just playing on her phone. Girl does not get paid enough to care:

[scre6m]

Tornado rating, it's not based on size or wind speed. The power we ascribe to it, it's based on damage. TWISTERS (2024) dir. Lee Isaac Chung

[waterwindow]

          "don't you wanna die for somethin worth dyin for?"

Emesis Blue scene redraw

[tea-n-ink]

Homesickness is where the heart is

[cat-napsss]

Grace and Carrie, just some good ‘ol god-fearing gals being pals

(My instagram and some other socials is @ cat_napsss but I forgot to save a copy with my tumblr @)

So I changed the original quote to “save our souls” instead of “spare my soul” because I get the vibe Grace and Carrie wouldn’t view it as being “spared” by the darkness but rather “saved” by it, both being given their power back over the other kinds of darkness in their lives

(And yes it’s gay they’re both sexually repressed good little christian girls what did you expect?)

The headcanon in my mind is that Grace met Carrie at their church and slowly starts to catch on to the abuse that’s happening to her over time. The rest— *cough* timeline *cough* —is in the air

(I have no idea how the quality is gonna look but hopefully it doesn’t get too crunchy 😭)

edit: cannot believe I’m only just now realizing that the pentagram is on the wrong side 🤦‍♀️ ah beans.

[superectojazzmage]

Just back from Alien Romulus and hoooo boy oh boy. Review/analysis.

Easily the best Alien movie since the first two, which isn't saying much, yeah, but it is legit a really cool and well-made movie, competing with Late Night With The Devil, Longlegs, and Cuckoo for title of my favorite horror movie this year.

In a lot of ways it's about harvesting the few good ideas from the post-2 movies that were squandered and doing them right, plus getting the series back to it's healthier roots, kinda the movie equivalent of someone doing physical therapy to get back in the saddle after an injury. This means it's not quite brand new ground like some may hope for and I've heard some people feel it gets a little derivative at points because of it. I can kinda agree and certainly understand that criticism, but I feel it does what it's aiming for really well and sets things up for future works to go in even crazier directions. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time to try and weld together the disparate post-2 movies in a way that brings the series back to a little coherency.

The atmosphere is really intense and cool, swinging between lovecraftian dread and build-up and high-energy chaos. The aesthetics and special effects are gorgeous, taking full advantage of the progress that technology has made since 2 plus really digging in to the used cassette future vibe of the older films. The characters are likable and actually intelligent (or at least understandable) in behavior like in the first two movies, so you care about what's happening to them instead of just waiting for them to get munched. The action and kills were really cool and creative, the cinematography in general was off-kilter in an awesome way - there's a definite attempt to make the movie feel claustrophobic and intimate. Fede Alvarez did a fantastic job in general, I'd love to see him do more with the series.

It REALLY cranks up the series' psychosexual, freudian, and sexual assault subtext, arguably to a point where it's just plain text. So if you're sensitive to stuff like that or if this is your first go at Alien, be warned for that.

More specific notes go under the header for spoilers. Highly recommend you go in as blind as you can.

Andy and Rain were wonderful leads, their dynamic was fantastic and Calie Spaeny and David Jonsson both turned in great performances. I direly hope they join the first two films' casts as "major" characters for the series going forward.

The effects to make Daniel Betts look like Ian Holms were quite possibly the one and only time the special effects failed. It looks very wonky, which is sad because Betts does a really good job copying Holms' mannerisms for Ash while still making Rook feel like a distinct character.

In addition to the usual themes of sexual unease, genetics, and parenthood, this movie adds in some really interesting themes of familial legacy, the rise of new generations, foundations, etc.. Andy and Rain are like Romulus and Remus of myth, orphaned and left to fend for themselves but growing into founders of a new age - both in-story with their carrying the XX121 substance and evidence of Weyland-Yutani's misdeeds to Yvaga and out-of-story with them being the protagonists of a new era for Alien. Likewise, the Offspring is the first example of an entirely new species, neither human nor alien but taking from the lineages of both through Kay and Big Chap, a Romulus-like founder of it's breed that will later bear fruit in Resurrection with the Ripley clone and Newborn.

I'm really not kidding when I say above that the psychosexual undercurrents are taken to the extreme here. This movie basically sees the ways the original film subtly pin-pricked at those themes, says "fuck that", and deliberately rubs it in your face in a way designed to make sure you can't ignore it. It wants you to be grossed out and to squirm in your chair and it knows exactly how to make it happen.

Alvarez noted in the lead-up to release that he took a lot of influence from Isolation and you can definitely see that in how he depicts the Xenomorphs and the general aura of the film. He further described it as a kind of halfway point between the first and second movies and you can also see that; it has the Lovecraft-style tension and horror of the first, balanced with the energy and action of the second, and it does a really good job finding a middle ground between Ridley Scott and James Cameron's styles while also doing it's own dance.

I mentioned way back at the start how the movie basically harvests the good ideas from 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant and gives them the room they deserve while dumping the bad. It does that in both terms of themes/style and continuity/lore. Concepts that those movies bungled like xeno-human hybridism, the black goo, genetic engineering as a focus, and so on are done here more creatively and competently. Themes that those films tried and failed to tackle are handled with significantly more grace. It has the atmosphere and characterization of 3 but none of it's baggage and needlessly depressive tone. It has the body horror and weirdness of Resurrection without taking it to the zany, embarrassing areas that movie went. The effects and creativity of Prometheus and Covenant without any of their awful writing and clumsy messages. Alvarez takes on kind of an Al Ewing-esque "repairman" writing style here.

The Xenomorphs are absolutely deranged in behavior compared to most portrayals, attacking like either cruel sadists or raging chimps and rarely bothering to take hosts. I'm not sure if such a reading was intended, but I got the vibe that the idea is Xenos raised without a queen or hive grow to be basically sociopathic like how real world predatory animals grown without parental figures become feral and dysfunctional. Which would also explain a lot about how the Xeno in the original movie, Big Chap, acts there.

The Offspring's design is fucking wicked and I love it.

One of my few major criticisms is that Big Chap died off-screen instead of getting more to do. What was the point of having him be alive at the start if he wasn't gonna be used beyond a backstory point to set up the main story?

All in all, a very impressive effort and a great return to form for the series that I recommend highly.

[dailyflicks]

Dan Stevens as Frank ABIGAIL (2024) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett