I haven’t played this one but I have played Airdorf’s FAITH (and part of the sequel), and those chunky pixels are scarier than they have any right to be. Great sound design, too.
Wow, is that really a horror movie with a video game tie-in? That’s not, I mean, Friday the 13th or something? Color me intrigued.
I agree here. I had to go get the plot explained to me after. It’s not completely incomphrehensible or anything -I followed somewhere between 80% - 90% and just needed to get the you know what when explained.
It’s well acted too. Ultimately I’m not sure I liked it either, but I think horror fans should see it and there’s a lot to recommend it.
I’ve had The WInd sitting in a browser tab for awhile now. Maybe this weekend, once I get my sound issues sorted.
Just watched a little film called We Go On about a guy who’s afraid of death and offers a $30k reward to anyone who can definitively prove that there is an existence after you die. So he places an ad in the paper and the movie is about his escapades afterward.
Tell the truth, it’s not really much of a horror film as there’s no jump scares or gore or other staples of the genre. It’s more of a spooky mystery thriller sort of thing. I thought the script was pretty good, and the two main actors ended up being a lot better than I’d hoped. The fella is Clark Freeman, who I’ve never seen before, but who looks sorta like the guy from Prison Break; his mother is played by Annette O’Toole, who played Martha Kent in Smallville. She did a great job. Their interactions felt real. Of course it’s because the material they had to work with was surprisingly decent.
At any rate, I recommend it if you’re looking for a low-key spooky kind of film.
Annette O’Toole, Clark Freeman, and John Glover (who played Doctor Ellison in this) were all in Smallville. It was decent. Mostly carried by the acting, which was pulled off by a couple of real vets - O’Toole and Glover.
I never watched Smallville so I was unaware that the other actors were in there too.
A while ago I watched The Waililng and also A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, and since both were mentioned recently I would like to throw in that both are recommended.
Yesterday afternoon I watched The Wind and although that title might make you think it’s take 2 on The Happening, it’s about 3.5 orders of magnitude better than Mark Wahlberg’s flick. When watching it I was struck at how otherworldly the frontier could feel at that point in our history. Thanks for bringing it to my attention guys!
Oh no.
One was enough, thanks.
I’m with you, man. The first one and the anthology thing he did with Art the Clown was enough for me forever.
Kristy - liked it.
The Beach House - a well shot, moody kinda slow burner (well for the first act and a half) about a guy and his GF who show up at his esttanged dad’s beachouse only to find out an old friend of the dad’s has showed up with his wife. The two couples get along well but they witness a strange phenomenon that evening after some drinking and some edibles, and from there the movie starts to really take shape, in sofar as there’s a shape to take. Not quite as much substance as I was hoping for. Also, there’s a nonsensical bit in the middle (a very well shot scene but the character’s actions make no sense).
Devil’s Gate The female lead from Center Stage, William RIker, Jess from Gilmore Girls, an Ashmore, and Bridget Regan wander onto the set of a horror movie, which isn’t strong enough in script or execution to make me care. Regan is wasted, Riker is barely there (probably a good thing, although he’s not bad or anything; I admit I kept expecting us to cut to a scene where he was playing Jazz trrombone),l the rest of it is decently acted. The story and it’s turns didn’t do it for me, rendering the entire affair moot.
The problem with The Beach House, which I kind of liked, is that it’s about THE WRONG TWO CHARACTERS. I loved Jake Weber and the woman who played his wife. The other couple, who unfortunately the movie is about, were flat and dull. Seeing them attempt chemistry with each other was just painful. Seeing them wrestle with existential angst and cosmic horror was laughable.
But I liked what the script was attempting, I liked how much they accomplished with such a low budget, and I really liked the conclusion. A middling horror movie with a good conclusion earns a lot of goodwill from me!
-Tom
Man, I don’t get you and @telefrog. I tracked this down based on his earlier post. Haley Bennett is certainly lovely, but I am so over watching young women run from killers who always magically know where to appear…until they don’t because the movie’s about to end so now the tables have to turn.
And it’s all so dumbly contrived. At one point, she’s at an indoor swimming pool, at night, with the lights out, running from a killer. Rather than, say, leaving the pool area and running away, or hiding behind the seats in the spectator area, she gets in the pool to hold her breath and hide underwater. Worst hiding strategy ever. And don’t get me started on her McGuyver napalm trick. Sheesh.
Anyway, I thought Kristy was – at best – entirely forgettable.
-Tom
I don’t think it’s in any way dislikeable. I almost mentioned Phase IV in my little writeup, because I think there’s a kinship there - 2nd cousins or something. I’m not a huge Phase IV fan but I can appreciate wrangling with existential angst over some well shot footage and not using as much dialog as humanly possible (quite the opposite) to fill the space.
It really is well filmed and the script - well, the core premise - is intersting.
But I think you are correct here:
Weber’s a gamer and I can’t recall ever not enjoying him in something. He’s excellent here. In particular, the scene on the beach with the young GF he just absolutely slays.
If they want to focus on the younger couple, then within the confines of the movie (that is, a movie where we’re not going to have a ton of dialog outside of the dinner scene and maybe a few other key scenes) then you need to have the kid/their relationship do. . . anything? That part early where you find out he and the girl are actually sort of estranged themselves makes it seem like that’s going to be part of the proceedings but that gets dropped completely. So all you get is his dinner chitchat and then he only exists in the rest of the movie to give his girlfriend some motivation to do stuff. That character needed to be rewritten (and maybe recast), or like you said focus on the old couple instead.
Mind you, I think a contrast of the angst between the old and young couples is important to the proceedings. It’s just that the young couple isn’t written well enough (and maybe acted well enough, although I think the girl was decent) to hold up their end of the bargain.
As for the beach scene:
The shot of Weber heading out into the water is amazing but I felt like that made no sense wahtsoever in context. I mean, I can totally see that if his wife passes, or something happens to her. Because he was already basically heartbroken, having walked a very long, terrifying, and difficult road through his wife’s terminal illness. But she was alive and he was so protective of her that felt like a clash from a narrative standpoint.
But holy shit it’s such a great scene otherwise, the scene of the movie (I though the end was very good).
It also bothered me that the girl doesn’t notice all the “pods” just sitting on the beach. WTF. Although there was a great piece of body horror from her stepping in one.
I feel like had they focused on the older couple, or done a better job with the younger couple (or maybe a little of both), I would be talking about this being “one of the top films of the decade” at minimum.
The execution was close, but it wasn’t close enough.
I enjoyed it’s moodiness and enjoyed Bennet’s performance/her character. Hiding in the pool is dumb but so is a roving band of killers (cyber cult or otherwise; I agree that distracted from the overall). Agree with @Telefrog that Greene was good with an understated but menacing performance.
It certainly wasn’t amazing.
I watched Train to Busan last night. What a fun zombie movie that is. It seemed like the cast had a blast making it as there was a real sense of lightness and joy.
I’m not a horror movie aficionado so I hadn’t seen the heaping piles of zombies imagery before.
Not really a horror movie, but I watched Freaks (2018, no relation to the 1932 film) on Netflix last night. No idea what prompted me to watch it, but I ended up quite liking it. It’s anchored by a (then) 9-year-old actress who totally carries it. Don’t know what else to say without spoiling anything! I’m posting it here because, even though it isn’t horror, it is a bit gory at times.
Freaks was entertaining, and I agree it’s more of a … sci-fi thriller than a horror. Worth watching nevertheless.
Don’t think you followed up on this?
I just got done watching The Rental. Well acted and I think the direction was pretty good. I felt like it was a bit of an odd duck, though.
And maybe more than a touch coincidental.
What makes you says it’s an odd duck? I didn’t think it did anything memorable (actually, Toby Huss’ body getting stuck on the side of the cliff was a cute bit). But otherwise, it just felt like a typical “let’s make bad decisions after someone hits his head” movie that also decided to be a “creepy killer stalks young people” movie.
I did appreciate the acting and script for the characters having realistic reactions to the events. They played like actual characters and not just the usual killer fodder. Which is why The Rental ultimately worked, even if I did think it was pretty conventional.
Ah, that’s why I know her! I like The Rental so much more now. I also really love when Toby Huss shows up. That guy is one of those character actors who just makes me smile. I loved him in Lynn Shelton’s last movie, Sword of Trust. Vintage Huss!
-Tom
Mostly this. It’s not so much that it did a headfake (which I am typically ok with), but rather that it was a very casual head fake, and it wound up being very conventional both ways (if well acted, and I agree, well written in terms of the character reactions to everything being very grounded and well done).
But also
How lucky for the killer to stumble into such a juicy social situation! Must be nice for him to be able to spice up his usual killing weekend with a bit of drama and playing with his food more than normal?
And just a little bit. . .
The extended sequence showing off the new place before the “shock” killer entrance, just felt slightly out of place to me. I liked the cleanup bit, but don’t think there was anything gained from the rest except he’s normally a very efficient killer except this one time where he played with his food a bit.
It was not an odd duck in an interesting way, I guess I should have said. And I’ve seen much worse first time directorial efforts.
The Wind up next for me.