The Shrine

Well, not necessarily 2019 films: but I do plan a few.

My first one of the season is Zombieland, which is horror themed comedy. I am only a bit into it so far, but from what I can tell it’s satirical similar to Shawn of the Dead and the original Dawn of the Dead - although leaning toward Shawn of the Dead style comedy, or even House of the Dead. In this case, it’s a bit about a young man who is afraid of the world. He fears social interaction, talking to women, and public washrooms. That’s the underlying theme. The other part of it is From Dusk Til Dawn style violence.


The thing about Zombie films is I hate the idea of them, but somehow like almost every zombie film I have ever seen.

Don't we do this every year? Should be adding new films (like Hereditary). I haven't seen a newer horror (besides Hereditary) that I would recommend (EDIT actually Hellraiser: Judgment was surprisingly good) -- but my backlog is pretty huge right now (new Childs Play, Dead don't Die, IT 2, Haunt, Pet Semetary 2, etc).

Zombieland is awesome (one of my favorites); I can't believe you hadn't seen it (I hope the sequel is as good).

If I was lining up 5 Halloween movies for a personal list, I'd do: DemonKnight, The Exorcist, Monster Squad, Dawn of the Dead (78) and Dawn of the Dead (04).

Other considerations that don't make my list: Halloween 3, Creepshow, Poltergeist, Freddy vs Jason, Land of the Dead, Cabin in the Woods, House 2, Night of the Demons 2.

I intended to watch it, particularly given I’ve been a fan of Woody Harrelson since White Men Can’t Jump. This year’s sequel gave me a reason to watch it. I intend to watch that too.

I also finally got around to the Shining last night! And it surprises me that I haven’t seen this one to this date.

I can see the similarities to Hereditary. Not just in some of the plot elements, but in the style.

Like all Kubrick’s films, and many 70s style films, it’s not paced the best; coffee and a few drinks will fix that. Like many great horror films, this one was hated by critics of the time but then later became renowned. It’s not as scary as today’s horror films, but comparatively speaking, it’s well ahead of its contemporaries, and might even be the scariest horror film up until the Grudge in 2005 (which I’ll point out, is also fairly tame compared to much of today’s horror). Treehouse of Horrors 5 (Simpsons season 6 Episode 6) is much more amusing after watching the film.

Midsommar is another I plan to watch. Also from Ari Aster, who made Hereditary. I intended to watch it in theaters when it released back in the summer, but it never played in my small city... even though it played in virtually every other one around, even in towns significantly smaller than my own. Fuck Cineplex’s monopoly down here!


On a side note. What’s with American Psycho often getting listed as a horror film? It’s as much a horror film as The Cable Guy, Natural Born Killers, or In Bruges. While most horror films are also dark comedy (or have elements of it), not all dark comedies are horror films.

As an aside, this finally got me to watch the new Childs Play. A few minor gripes aside, it was pretty entertaining and actually made sense to do as a remake. Worth watching.

I finally got around to watching Get Out last night because I wanted to watch Us. Now knowing the twist, I wonder if there is a link between the two films based on what I know from the trailer? (don’t tell me!).

Anyway, this one is a bit of departure from current horror (see 10 Cloverfield Lane) in that it approaches it more like a late 70s horror by weaving in a bunch of genres and elements. So it's psychological, suspenseful, and satirical, but not particularly scary.

Without spoiling too much (although I might be the last person who's seen it on this board), it's a layered film. Upon reflecting, every scene is deliberately crafted to have two layers: the first one is the first time viewer ride through, and the second one is when you know the twist and motivations of the people; upon reflection and repeat watching.

Without spoiling too much: the top layer is about how Chris is out of his element. Every single person approaches him with a sort of reverse-racism, except for the blind guy. As soon as that happens, you see how he feels increasingly isolated. No one wants to genuinely connect with him, just kind of point out, “Hey, I love black people!” but there is a much more insidious meaning to it all, and that’s the second layer version of the plot hidden until the end of the film.

Midsommar Extended Director's Cut - onto films from this year! Yes, I watched a film released this year.

Compared to Hereditary, it's much more of a dark comedy film with funny, bizarre situations. A dark comedy where some people will laugh or find it amusing (much of the laughing in theater is due to “wow, I am in a room with a bunch of strangers watching something I REALLY shouldn’t be watching!”), but most will respond "what the &#&$ was funny about that?!?!?" For those who know Ari Aster's work, you'll know he has a dark and a messed up sense of humour. Like some of his shorts, he sticks in teen comedy/drama clichés; in this one, it is a teen break-up film. The difference: the film is set in the context of a commune cult which engages in ritualistic mushroom usage (among a lot of other things that I won’t spoil here). Suffice to say, it gets weirder and weirder as the film moves on.

In the opening Act, the protagonist Dani was going through some severe family issues, and her boyfriend Christian is representing himself to his friends as the victim in the whole thing. His friends clearly aren’t a fan of Dani. Essentially, anything bad that happens to Dani, Christian is the actual victim. Whenever Dani treats him nicely, Christian sees it as adding to his grief. As an example, at the beginning of the film Dani has a family tragedy. Christian is portrayed a bit as the victim here because now he can’t break up with her without looking like a douche. Any time Dani does something sweet for Christian, he sees it as her trying to make him feel like a douche. Essentially, Christian’s central conflict is he doesn’t like feeling like a douche; Christian is a douche, though.

Moving on, while in the cult, Christian is generally oblivious or at least ignores the fucked up stuff that’s going on. Dani aligns with the viewers in thinking that this cult is totally fucked. The film takes the viewers further into the insanity of what is going on. The tension builds by making things more fucked up and making the characters seem further in danger. This is accompanied by a lot of drug use. There’s a lot of funny moments too, the most on the nose comedy stuff deals with Will Poulter’s character (speaking of Poulter, he’s the star of Amazon’s upcoming 1 billion dollar LotR TV series).

While I really enjoyed all the scenes of the film, there is one I have to nitpick. The film takes place North of Stockholm, and there are 2 hours of pitch-black night. It doesn’t actually get this dark. It’s kind of like a long dusk/dawn period that lasts 4-6 hours. Like Eastern Canada, late June is almost always cloudy =) – as a note, it does get pitch-black out here, but that usually only lasts about 3 hours (between about 11:30 and 2:30) – on the downside, it is currently getting into the dusk period at about 4:30pm (no DLS time anymore!) in November.

Anyway! Some production notes about the DC. The film was originally 4 hours long, it was cut down significantly to this Director's Cut by Ari Aster since he realized there's no way a 4-hour film would be acceptable. The studio told him to cut it down further for the theatrical release, so most people saw an even shorter version. And while it may be intuitive to think a shorter film may be paced better, this isn’t always true: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers felt off in its pacing compared to its extended version, as did the Return of the King (to a lesser extent). Part of what happens is the secondary main cast doesn’t get properly developed, so in the shorter cut they feel more like filler moments and less significant; the result is the film feels less rich, less fascinating. On the other hand, the theatrical cut was well received, but like Hereditary, there were many who hated it. Why the hate for Ari Aster films? I would say that it’s mainly because it drifts from genre and formula norms. It’s not SO far off, though, for example, Aster’s inciting incidents are generally harder hitting than most – his films also escalate tension better than most (though, I feel particular horror directors are usually better at this, James Wan is another excellent example). I often dislike how sub-plot can take over a film (See The Revenant and Arrival), but if done right it can really enrich a film. Since the late 1970s/early 80s there seems to be this lingering opinion that sub-plot doesn’t work for theater films. A shame, IMO.

Anyway, here's the trailer - it shows scenes from throughout the film but the context is vague and misdirected enough that it doesn't actually spoil anything.