As in, part 2 of my review, because I feel like I had a revelation earlier that kind of upped my appreciation for the movie and I need to sort out my thoughts on it. Spoilers:

So early in the movie, there was a point where I looked to my kid who was watching with me, and I said “oh it’s a comedy”. It was when Joo-yun’s head was discovered, and they like put it in a box to bring it up out of the water and presumably to the morgue or whatever, and the dude carrying the box like trips, kinda, and drops it. Idk if I’m doing it justice by describing it but it was like slapstick almost.

Now, like obviously any horror movie fans we have our like obligatory there’s a head in a box “what’s in the box?” moment, and I was like huh cute shoutout to Se7en, maybe.

So earlier today we were joking about this scene and joking about Se7en (my kid had a surprisingly strong hatred for Gwyneth Paltrow considering most teens probably don’t think about her very much lol) so she actually though it was quite funny when her head was in the box too. And wait a minute… idk if I even mentioned this in my review but Joo-yun… wait for it… was pregnant. She literally begs her killer not to kill her because she’s pregnant. And. Soo-hyeun didn’t know she was pregnant, he finds out from the killer.

And it’s like. Logically, as I’m watching it, I’m aware these are parallels to Se7en (and a handful of other movies too, “please don’t kill me I’m pregnant” is common enough) but I’m not going anywhere with those parallels other than saying “oh neat”.

But like. I Saw the Devil is the last 10 minutes of Se7en in feature length. Soo-hyeun is Mills. Soo-hyeun became wrath. Not quick bullshit wrath, like Mills… but lengthy, stupid, inefficient wrath.

And tbh, that’s one thing that always kinda bothered me about Se7en. Wrath isn’t gonna shoot you in the head and kill you instantly. Wrath isn’t like this quick little efficient thing. It’s a deadly sin for a reason. It screws with you, it messes up your life, it destroys everyone around you. It isn’t rash, it’s not shooting one person in the heat of the moment, it’s anger so irrational that you do… what Soo-hyeun did.

I think Kim and Park saw what Fincher and Walker got wrong about wrath and gave us a two and a half hour long example. They said look, this is wrath. This is why wrath (and not anger or vengeance or murder) is a deadly sin. Because it destroys everything.

Mills shot the killer, he ended one life and “ruined” his own (although let’s be real I’m sure he didn’t get life in prison for that).

Soo-hyuen killed the killer, eventually. But also, his father in law almost died, sister in law did die, the killer’s parents and child were traumatized for life, and numerous other innocent people along the way were killed or traumatized.

Man, as I said below, this had been on my "to watch" list for a while. I have so many conflicting thoughts about this movie, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever have a fully formed, final decision but I'm going to try to get my thoughts out!

The premise is simple enough, standard revenge horror. NIS agent Soo-hyeun's fiance, Joo-yun, is kidnapped/raped/murdered by serial killer Jang Kyung-chul (brilliantly acted by Choi Min-sik of Oldboy fame). Joo-yun's dad happens to be a police chief and gets the inside scoop on some key suspects in the case. Cue Soo-hyeun going on an absolutely murderous rampage to get revenge, right? Except not totally right, because he doesn't seem super interested in killing anyone.

Soo-hyeun quickly narrows the suspect list down and identifies Kyung-chol as the killer, but instead of, you know, killing him or turning him in or something smart, he decides he wants to play a catch-and-release torture game. He wants to capture him, let him go, and hunt him down again and again. For funsies. SHOCKINGLY this doesn't really go well.

Spoilers under the cut.

Entertaining: 8/10 Scary: 1/10-- not the kind of horror movie that's "scary" Gory: 5/10-- moderate gore, I've seen this on a lot of "most brutal movies" lists so I had expected more but it's pretty middle of the road.

Common triggers: Rape, cannibalism

(I know I rated it an 8/10 for entertaining, which is true, so I guess I did like it, in the end. It was funny, for one thing, which I didn't expect, and the ridiculousness of some of the laughs was a nice contrast to the bleakness of the plot.)

🔵me when I randomly learn fine ass Lee Byung-hun is actually the main guy in I Saw the Devil but I haven’t ever watched it or any trailers, just seen people talk about it on Reddit and etc, so I didn’t know.

You know that meta-horror movie trope where the viewer is watching a particularly scary or gory movie and they have to put their hands over their eyes and peak out at the screen through the tiny gap between their fingers? Yeah, that was me with this movie. 

I don’t have a fear of heights, per se. I’m fine with flying. I’ve been parasailing a bunch of times and love it. Roller coasters don’t phase me. The only time I’m bothered by elevators in tall buildings is when they’re overcrowded. I don’t know if there’s a word for it, but tall, open air, structures? Bridges? Those window cleaning scaffolds on skyscrapers? And this fucking broadcast tower in the movie Fall? Yeah, if there’s a name for fear of those things, I have it. Thosethingsphobia. 

So that said, I knew going into this movie that it was going to make me pretty uncomfortable. It’s hard to classify this movie- it’s mostly thriller/suspense, but it has horror elements enough that I think I can say that it belongs on this blog. 

Fall is pretty minimal, and I love that about it. Most of the film is limited to two characters, friends Becky and Hunter, and one location, a tiny platform 2000 feet in the air. Becky, who watched her husband die in a rock climbing accident a year earlier, is struggling to move on with her life. Hunter, who was also witness to the accident, shows up as the one year anniversary nears, to try to snap Becky out of her depression and regain her love of life (and of climbing tall things, apparently). Hunter’s fab idea? A rusty, decades old TV tower in the middle of nowhere. What could go wrong?

The team make it up the tower, and we have some really stunning (and anxiety inducing) cinematography. We also have some ominous close ups on rattling nuts and bolts that affix the ladder they’re climbing to the tower. After some daring selfie stunts, they embark on their climb back down, only to have 200 feet of ladder disconnect from the tower and fall away. With no way down, the two women make multiple unsuccessful attempts to signal for help from their tiny 2000 foot perch. With no phone signal at the top, Hunter tries to draft an instagram plea for help, stuffs her phone in her shoe for protection, and then tosses it off the platform in the hope that it will pick up a cellular signal on the way down and her message will get out. 24 hours later with no rescuers, they realize their plan was unsuccessful. As the days pass, the situation becomes more dire and their attempts more desperate. More details and spoilers under the cut!

Entertaining: 8/10

Scary: 11/10 if you have a fear of heights/tall structures/falling/etc, otherwise 2/10.

Gory: 2/10

Common triggers: heights, falling, tall structures, implied suicidal ideation, mild gore, dive-bombing birds of prey

I’ve always said that I’m a fan of the horror genre, but the truth is, I just like scary movies. I want to be scared, terrified, frightened... not horrified. But there’s not really a sub-genre that encompasses “movies that are scary”, one- because any genre can be scary, and two- because we all have different thresholds of “scary”. 

I started seeing Soft & Quiet make the rounds among horror youtubers and tiktokers late last year, many of the reviews were light on details, they were of the “it’s better to go in blind” variety. I had a vague idea of the premise going in but that was all. I was a little dubious but the reviews generally seemed positive, several threw around superlatives like “best horror film of 2022″ and I figured what the heck, maybe there’s was a good opportunity for subverting expectations and all that jazz.

This movie is not scary in the “scary movie” sense. Which is fine, right? I mean even most scary movies aren’t really scary. (Are any of them really, truly scary at all?) Some horror fans want to be grossed out, others shocked, it’s all down to what feelings you want to experience during those 90 to 120 minutes of entertainment. So yeah, it’s not scary, it is horrifying. It’s a horror film in the purest and most technical of senses. Did I enjoy it? God no.

Some spoilers follow...

Haven’t watched this one yet but—

Did anyone see this and love it? I feel like I’m being gaslit by all the glowing reviews and praise. Like, I watched Heck and thought the concept was good for a YouTube short, but an hour and forty minutes of that? I just don’t know.

Part horror, part sci-fi, part western. Jordan Peele’s newest production, Nope, presents compelling commentary on the nature of fame, celebrity, and spectacle, wrapped up in an entertaining and genre bending hit.

(The details of this movie were kept so vague and under wraps that saying anything at all about it feels like dropping spoilers, so general warning for spoilers ahead.)

The film centers on Siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood, who own and operate Haywood Hollywood Horses, their family ranch where horses are trained to perform in the entertainment industry. Early in the film, thousands of random objects rain from the sky, killing OJ and Em’s father in what was reported as a freak airplane dumping accident. Some time later, as OJ struggles to keep the family business afloat, he’s forced to sell some of their horses to Jupe, the child actor turned entrepreneur who owns a western theme park nearby.

Then one night, OJ notices something strange in the night sky over the ranch- something fast and oddly shaped that moves silently behind the clouds. The siblings are convinced they’re witnessing a UFO and hope to capture it on film for a chance at fame and fortune. What happens next leads us firmly into horror territory as the siblings and a few sidekicks risk their lives in an attempt to document (and take down) the mysterious creature they’ve nicknamed Jean Jacket.

I’ve been a fan of Peele’s for ages now, and while I don’t think Nope is quite makes it to the magical and lofty heights of both Get Out and Us, this film is still very entertaining and showcases his skill at both comedy and tension building thrills. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer (who I vaguely remembered from stuff my kid watched like Nickelodeon movies and Scream Queens) give stand out performances. Steven Yeun and Brandon Perea were both stellar in their supporting roles as well, and I’m hoping to see much more of them both on the big screen.

What it is: Beautifully shot, thought provoking, original, funny, entertaining.

What it isn’t: Scary

Entertaining: 8/10

Scary: 1/10

Gory: 3/10

Common triggers: animal cruelty/death, eye trauma, drug and alcohol use.

Side note: One of the scientific consultants on the film, marine biologist Kelsi Rutledge, was interviewed on the Science Friday podcast (9/2/2022, episode 1) where she discusses the inspiration for the design of Jean Jacket, and it’s definitely worth a listen. One thing that stood out to me is the fact that while he gave a lot of creative freedom on the design, Peele was adamant that it he creature have a square eye. Once you learn more about the creature, what it represents thematically, and how to avoid being killed be it, that little tidbit just further highlights Peele’s genius.

Just finished I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid. A few thoughts:

Based on book reviews, it’s pretty polarizing

I wish I hadn’t watched the Netflix adaptation first, although I don’t know if I would have liked the book more or less in that case

That said, the movie diverges a bit from the book toward the end, and it’s worth a watch for Toni Collette’s and David Thewlis’s great performances

Solid 6/10 for me, I liked it enough to check out some of Reid’s other titles

“My story is not like a movie, I’ll say. It’s not heart stopping or intense or blood curdling or graphic or violent. No jump scares. To me, these qualities aren’t usually scary. Something that disorients, that unsettles what’s taken for granted, something that disturbs and disrupts reality — that’s scary.”

This self-referential quote from the book is a pretty good description of everything I look for in the psychological thriller/horror genre in general. I’m Thinking of Ending Things doesn’t quite live up to it’s potential in achieving this, in my opinion, but it’s definitely along the right lines.

Mulholland Drive, Primer, and to some extent Cam, gave me similar vibes as far as unsettling and disturbing, although those first 2 I’d rate much higher.

Common triggers: Suicide/self harm

Easing into my first review with a short movie.

This movie is 56 minutes long and I must say that may be one of my favorite things about it, and not in a “thank god it’s over” kind of way. A lot of horror endings strike me as drawn out, over explained, and too damn long. This movie is exactly as long as it needs to be.

Host is a new take on the old accidental demon summoning theme, set against the backdrop of quarantine and zoom-hangout culture that sprung up in the early days of covid. That baseline layer of anxiety and isolation heightens the claustrophobic vibe of the movie by lending a secluded, middle-of-nowhere atmosphere to each character’s home. (And unrelated, but I just watched this for the first time now in 2022 and it really made me nostalgic for a simpler time with regard to the pandemic, which is a horror story in itself).

What it is: low budget horror, jump scares, concise, entertaining. 

What it isn’t: thought provoking, super original (despite the set up), gory, nightmare inducing

Basically, if you read bad reviews about this movie, they were probably entirely accurate in their criticisms. Would I recommend? Absolutely. I’d say ideal watching conditions would be with a group of friends or a family movie night, horror like this is more fun in a crowd. I was entertained, jumped a few times, and it had one or two tropes that I personally just really love (more on that under the cut).

Entertaining: 6.5/10

Scary: 4/10

Gory: 1/10

Common triggers: suicide/self harm, alcohol