Movies: Horror Movie Discussion

[PK Cronin]

Longlegs (2024) - 3/10

The most incompetent FBI agent ever tracks down the most bizarre serial killer ever. This felt very derivative of The Silence of the Lambs. I couldn't help but compare them and it did this film no favors whatsoever. Where Jodie Foster's character was likable, Maika Monroe's is boring. Where Anthony Hopkins was genuinely creepy, Nic Cage is just weird. Where 'Silence' was suspenseful and engaging, this is just tedious. It's only 100 minutes, but it felt like 3 hours. I think that even the director realized how boring it was during the editing process because he inserted little jump scares and unsettling imagery throughout seemingly just to keep the audience awake. It didn't work. I still turned it off to go to bed early twice. Nothing makes sense or is satisfying. For example, Monroe's character spends a lot of time cracking the killer's code and finding his pattern, but it's not made clear how she finally does it and it ends up making no difference, anyways. The hunt is resolved without it and the mystery is explained in a voiceover, without any indication of how that it was all figured out. It's just an unsatisfying exposition dump. Overall, the film felt like style over substance, with more attention paid to copying the look and feel of an A24 film than to the writing. It did have one thing going for it, though, and that was the marketing. It made it seem a lot more original than it was.

I haven't read your review but saw the score and am sad. I've been waiting to catch this one and had high expectations.

 

[Satans Hockey]

I haven't read your review but saw the score and am sad. I've been waiting to catch this one and had high expectations.

This movie was my biggest disappointment of the year horror wise. The marketing was so good for it and the movie fell completely flat for me. It's not even a horror movie, it's a crime mystery / thriller more than anything else.

 

[shadow1]

Black Friday (2021) - 4/10

Toy store employees come under siege from zombie Black Friday shoppers.

This ensemble cast includes Ivana Baquero, Ryan Lee, Stephen Peck, Devon Sawa, and Michael Jai White as retail workers at the struggling toy store We Love Toys. They're managed by snooty Jonathan (Bruce Campbell) and frantically prepare for the hordes of people waiting outside their doors for Black Friday sales. Unknown to the group, an alien parasite has spread, turning the store's deal shoppers into bloodthirsty zombies. The crew works to secure the store and find a way to escape...

Black Friday was directed by Casey Tebo and written by Andy Greskoviak. The movie was filmed in one month, shot inside an abandoned Babies 'R Us. How does it fare?

Not well. Black Friday is a horror comedy that's light in both genres. On the horror side of things, the creature design actually looks pretty decent, but the gore was a huge letdown. Almost every human death is off-season, showing the audience blood splatter or an organ falling to the ground rather than any carnage. The undead largely rely on shooting a web-like substance that looks like silly string, which adds insult to injury. Even as a person who doesn't love gore, the lack of it hurt the movie. The characters are so painfully generic that a disembowelment or two would've helped raise the stakes and make the audience feel something for them.

On the comedy side of things, there is obvious social commentary potential. It'll come as no surprise when I tell you this ain't Dawn of the Dead (1978). There's a low-hanging fruit joke here or there, but in general, this movie's setup is severely underutilized. And that's not just on the subtext side of things. You'd think our characters would be using the toys to defend themselves, Dead Rising (2006, Video Game) style. Not only does that not happen, but our heroes spend most of the movie hiding in the back warehouse. They may as well have set the events at a USPS store, especially considering how infrequently the group has to deal with more than one zombie at a time.

Black Friday tries to do a The Breakfast Club (1985) thing mid-way through the events, and it's probably the most interesting part of the movie. The problem is the revelations from the pow-wow just create manufactured interpersonal tension rather than promoting much character development. You learn a little more about them - particularly Bruce Campbell's character - but mostly learn what they think of each other. And rather than the goth and the prep coming together and understanding each other's perspective, we instead get characters that previously liked each other bickering. It feels forced and like missed potential.

Overall, Black Friday is a deal you'll want to miss. A concept that had the potential to be a social-commentary-laden Dead Rising homage, the film is instead a generic zombie siege movie...where the undead shoot silly string out of their mouths. Black Friday had a small theatrical run, earning $1,581 against its unknown budget.

 

[Osprey]

I haven't read your review but saw the score and am sad. I've been waiting to catch this one and had high expectations.

I wouldn't recommend against watching it, since it's all subjective and I have a tendency to dislike movies that others liked, but I would recommend lowering your expectations. Maybe you'll like it better if you aren't expecting it to be the best horror movie of the year (much less last 10 years), like the marketing made it sound.

Black Friday (2021) - 4/10

I don't understand why studios even bother making PG-13 "horror" movies. They severely limit the whole appeal of the genre just to make them accessible to 13-16 year-olds who would have no problem getting into R-rated movies and would rather see them, anyways.

Black Friday would've been better if they'd just made it R and more like Evil Dead, IMO. The whole reason that I was excited for it is that it looked and sounded kind of like a continuation of Army of Darkness, with Ash working at S-Mart for another 30 years and becoming manager, only for zombies to invade the store again. Instead, Bruce's character is an unlikable wimp, not the hero. I just read that he signed on after filming began, so his character probably wasn't even written for him. I suppose that it's similar to how the casting of Nic Cage became the marketing for Longlegs, even though his role is no bigger than Bruce Campbell's in this.

 

[Osprey]

Kaun? (1999) - 7/10

During a thunderstorm and with a serial killer on the loose, a woman's doorbell rings.

Urmila Matondkar stars as an unnamed woman/Ma'am, a single woman who is passing the time at home during a thunderstorm. After hearing a news report about a serial killer, the doorbell rings. Outside is Sameer (Manoj Bajpayee), a businessman who says he was sent to the house to meet with his business partner Mr. Malhotra. The woman tells him he has the wrong address, but trapped in the pouring rain and claiming to have locked himself out of his car, Semeer becomes more insistent on being let inside...

Kaun? was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap. Varma, mostly known as a romantic director, went against type directing this horror movie, which was shot in only one location and filmed in 15 days. How does Kaun? fare?

Essentially, this is a much better version of When a Stranger Calls (1979). Don't get me wrong; What a Stranger Calls has a classic opening 20 minutes, but the rest of the film is below-average filler. With Kaun?, the premise of a creepy stranger is stretched over an entire runtime, and it's executed very well. The film is suspenseful and unnerving from start to finish.

You might wonder how the premise in question could be stretched over an entire 90+ minute run time. Well, Kaun? has a lot of twists and turns along the way. This movie isn't cut and dry. The filmmakers are constantly messing with your head, making you question how events went down. It's a simple premise that they do a lot with. The performances are outstanding, particularly Manoj Bajpayee. He's memorable as the creepy and neurotic Sameer.

I feel like this is another movie I should bump up a star (as I mentioned with 1988's Pin), but I want to let it marinate longer. I do think there are some minor things I take issue with, but all of them come towards the end of the film, so I won't discuss them. The ending is very good, and most of my complaints are of the nitpick variety, so don't let my comment steer you away.

Overall, Kaun? is great. I had never heard of this movie, and it was blind luck that I watched it (I had sat down to watch something else that I thought was available but wasn't and randomly found this film). If you're a fan of either of the 'Stranger Calls' movies, this one is a must-watch. But I recommend it to almost any horror fan in general. I couldn't find any budget or earnings information for Kaun?.

I enjoyed this last night, but for a very different reason than you. It was hilarious. I expected a suspense/thriller/horror and got a comedy, instead.... except that I think that they were trying for the former rather than the latter. I couldn't take it seriously with the overacting, absurdity and every other word of dialogue being "ma'am." In fact, the title should've been Ma'am?, not Kaun?. For me, it was "so bad it's good." I won't ever watch it again, but I'll always laugh when I think about it, and for that, alone, it was worth watching.

 

[Nakatomi]

I enjoyed this last night, but for a very different reason than you. It was hilarious. I expected a suspense/thriller/horror and got a comedy, instead.... except that I think that they were trying for the former rather than the latter. I couldn't take it seriously with the overacting, absurdity and every other word of dialogue being "ma'am." In fact, the title really should've been Ma'am? instead Kuan?. For me, it was a "so bad it's good" film. I won't ever watch it again, but I'll always laugh when I think about it, and for that, alone, it was worth watching.

haha, between these two reviews, this just moved to the top of my "must watch" list!

 

[Osprey]

haha, between these two reviews, this just moved to the top of my "must watch" list!

You say that, but I bet that you figure that you'll probably never be able to find it, anyways. Well, the joke's on you, cuz it's on YouTube.