#lmk if you watch/like any of these movies! especially donnie darko!!

[elleroodles]

el’s october movie recs!

so! new thing! i am a raging cinephile and have lots of thoughts on lots of movies so this is going to be an opportunity to dump them! usually this will be a lot more put together but since i wanted to get one out for october (hi big horror movie fan here) i’m shoving one out to get this ball rolling!

(since most of these are horror movies, i threw in a cut just in case! due to the short notice, there’s no visuals, but you can never be too careful! these normally won’t be cut and the formatting will be way different!)

EL’S #1 OCTOBER MOVIE REC!

donnie darko dir. richard kelly 2001

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): death, cp, manipulation, implied sex, lots of swearing, blood, shooting

WHY IT’S SO GOOD: if you know me, you know that i am wholly, completely in love with donnie darko. it’s my favorite movie of all time, and i doubt it will ever be topped. no movie has made me feel so human. it’s not a comforting feeling, not by any means, but one that makes me feel so much emotion. it’s immensely quoteable, with both hilarious lines and somber ones, and most of the concepts brought up will make your head spin. don’t expect to understand it on your first watch. it also has one of the best movie soundtracks, perhaps ever.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: troubled teenager donnie darko is a sleepwalker played by baby faced jake gyllenhaal: that much is clear up front. after his life is turned upside down by a freak accident, donnie is told the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. illegal wacky shenanigans insue!

EL’S OTHER OCTOBER MOVIE RECS!

hereditary dir. ari aster, 2018

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): dude, it’s ari aster. please please please proceed with caution. it’s hard to put warnings without spoiling the entire second act, but familial death and cults are two big ones

WHY IT’S GOOD: it’s not an exaggeration to say this movie wrecked me. i can genuinely say this is most horrifying movie i’ve ever seen. i don’t regret watching it, the cinematography, acting (toni collette deserves every award for her ‘i am your mother!’ speech), writing, and directing are incredible. i’ve learned so much from this script, this movie has been wonderfully made. and the story is so gut wrenching, so dark, depressing, anxious and lonely, and that energy seeps into the audience. the visuals are horrific in the most shocking of ways (this movie does not stray away from body horror, y’all. proceed with caution) and in the most raw of ways. it’s an unrepeatable experience, and it’s should stay that way.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: when the matriarch of the graham family dies, her secret unravels with her death, sending her daughter’s family spiraling

train to busan dir. yeon sang-ho, 2016

CONTENT WARNINGS: zombie apocalypse, violence, blood, death, people with daddy issues will cry their eyes out

WHY IT’S GOOD: once you can break the subtitle barrier, you have access to the saddest movie ever made. this movie is phenomenal. impeccably made, written, directed, acted, shot, you name it, train to busan did it right. it holds the title as saddest movie i’ve ever seen, and one of the most hopeless. it hit hard in all the right spots, and i’ve never felt so lost. plus i like zombies.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: businessman/distant father seok woo and his daughter soo ahn board a train to busan admist an outbreak of the living dead

the cabin in the woods dir. drew goddard, 2011

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): violence, blood, death, drug use (weed), horniness(?), some scary monsters

WHY IT’S GOOD: it’s so dumb, i love it so much. it’s kind of a scary movie-esque look at the genre, except a little bit more unironically cheesy. the overarching concept is fascinating, as well as it’s extremely meta take on the ‘final girl’ trope. leaning as heavily into stereotypes as it does with the main cast of characters could either end in a disaster or a delight, and i personally loved it. good luck predicting the final celebrity cameo!

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: a breakfast club reminiscent group of college kids go to stay in an isolate cabin in the woods. what could go wrong?

shaun of the dead dir. edgar wright (my favorite director!), 2004

CONTENT WARNINGS: zombies, cartoony violence, some swearing i think?

WHY IT’S SO GOOD: here’s a good october movie for all you romcom lovers out there! christened as ‘a romantic comedy. with zombies.’ on letterboxd, shaun of the dead lives up to that. since it’s an edgar wright movie, you know the soundtrack is stellar, and the use of music is very wright-esque as well. where the other zombie move on this list takes itself very seriously (and for good reason), this movie takes itself as a joke. the portrayal of a zombie apocalypse being a mild inconvenience is hilarious, and shaun’s oblivion to the world around him plays that trope up to the extreme.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: london is overtaken by zombies! oh no! how unfortunate!

and that’s it for this month! thanks for reading till the end, and i’ll see you in a week or so with some good movies for november!!