First, the positives: the visual design and rhythm of this film are full of energy, which makes it fun to watch. It goes really over the top with the gore—I watch everything with subtitles, and I’ve never seen the word squelching used as much as this film does when describing its sound effects—but then I found myself desensitizing to the squirmy discomfort, to the point where I was giggling gleefully at the gruesome moments by the end.
Unfortunately, I found the storytelling to be weak otherwise. The Substance in the film causes the main character Elisabeth (Demi Moore) to “birth” a second, younger version of herself named Sue (Margaret Qualley). The rules that come with the Substance state that they “are one,” and that they must switch every seven days.
After watching the film, I couldn’t help but brainstorm about the possible permutations of the idea. In essence, the movie could have explored the concept in three ways, each with differing psychological consequences on the characters.
I had a good time with this horror thriller, especially for the first two-thirds. The performances from the trio of lead actors are all impressive, and the characters’ respective stances on religion are all well-represented. On the downside, the villain’s plot suffers from being overly convoluted—it’s a long walk just to make a philosophical point.
There’s a point that I want to think through, which will require spoilers, so stop reading if you don’t want to know.
I have fond memories of going to see this when it came out in theatres in 1998. Watching it now, I think I can see why… back then, I would have thought it was the coolest thing, when they introduce characters with a freeze-frame showing their name on the screen. And the scene where our main characters walk as a group in slow motion and glare smolderingly at all of the other students who have been taken over by aliens… so cool.
The way this film depicts high school students was exactly my image of what it meant to be cool when I was that age: be angry and swear all the time, and talk to teachers with no respect! And fighting off an alien invasion was exactly the kind of thing that I fantasized about as a kid.
How does it hold up? I think it’s still entertaining. And I couldn’t believe who was in the cast… Jon Stewart? Salma Hayek, who appears in only a couple of scenes? Daniel von Bargen, a.k.a. Mr. Kruger of Kruger Industrial Smoothing on Seinfeld?
The characters in this Korean supernatural thriller include a professional shaman and a geomancer. The former performs rituals that exorcise bad spirits and the latter is a specialist in finding the most auspicious plots in which to bury the dead. I got a kick especially from the film’s depiction of the rituals, which involve elaborate dances and musical chanting. On the other hand, I was left asking at several points, if they’re such experts and professionals, why are they doing the thing that will obviously lead to having a curse descend on them? Just leave that mysterious gravesite alone!
When the bad spirits are released, it leads to some effective scary scenes, where the ghost only appears fuzzily in the mirror. I did have some trouble following exactly what was going on sometimes, but that may be because of some specific Korean mythology that I don’t know much about.
Ultimately, the movie has an interesting message about the identity of the Korean people, and the long historical relationship between Japan and Korea. I don’t think I felt it, but I’m sure it would hit native viewers much more.
After being blown away by The First Omen, I just had to go back and check out the original film that launched the franchise. I guess it’s considered a horror classic, but I had never seen it before.
Surprisingly, the movie made me laugh a lot. I mean no disrespect; I would characterize it more as “laughing with” than “laughing at,” even though I’m sure the filmmakers didn’t intend to produce a comedy. I laughed because I was charmed… movies have evolved since the 70’s, and the rhythms and beats that were used to create suspense back then now seem over-the-top. Compared to horror movies today, everything—the acting, editing, sound—feels slower, but bigger, more theatrical. Especially notable was the score, which was not subtle at all, transitioning from idyllic melodies into Psycho-esque stings at the drop of a hat.
Again, that’s not to say that I didn’t like it. I enjoyed the ride. With older films, since they didn’t have the ability to cram special effects into every other scene, the handful of wow moments really stand out. I also got a kick out of learning the context of the references in The First Omen. I look forward to a future double feature, watching the two back-to-back.
I was a big fan of Lost while it was airing. I know it had its naysayers, because I used to passionately defend the show against them. With the benefit of hindsight, I can definitely see how the plot became a mess; it’s clear that the writers didn’t have it all fully planned out, and had to sacrifice many loose threads in order to bring the story to a conclusion. But I felt at the time, and still maintain, that the ending was emotionally satisfying on a character level, even if some/many of the mysteries went unexplained.
The same could be said of Servant, which also offers plenty of supernatural twists, albeit on a much smaller scale. (Instead of a whole island, with dozens of characters, Servant takes place almost entirely in one house, with a primary cast of four.)
I said in my previous comments that in the end, I only cared about the main emotional resolution, and the show delivered. (I was also right that it waited until the second-to-last episode to deliver it.) When Dorothy, the mother, finally realizes the truth that she’s been suppressing for the entirety of the show so far, it’s appropriately heart-wrenching, but also feels like a relief. It’s the only way they can move forward from the tragedy.
Nell Tiger Free as Leanne remains the MVP for me, even though I didn’t love the turn that her character takes in season 4, becoming a full-on evil wacko killer. She was much more interesting when her nature was ambiguous, even to herself. But the disquieted, damaged innocence that she carried in earlier seasons does return in the finale, which makes her fate bittersweet.
I’ll also shout out the rest of the main cast (Toby Kebbell, Lauren Ambrose, Rupert Grint). The show works mainly on the strength of their performances. They make the more ridiculous supernatural plot elements much more believable.
Godzilla, Alien: Romulus, American Fiction, Oddity, Furiosa, Blink Twice
Over the Christmas holiday season, I had more spare time than usual and got a chance to catch up with some recent movies, as well as revisiting some older ones.
I was so impressed with Nell Tiger Free’s performance in The First Omen that I sought out some of her other work. Servant is a suspense/thriller series on Apple TV+, and also boasts the involvement of M. Night Shyamalan, who I still have a soft spot for, despite the roller-coaster ride that his reputation has (not undeservedly) gone through over the years.
The show has four seasons, and I think it’s worth giving my impressions about halfway through. The premise alone is a great source of suspense: a couple welcomes a nanny, Leanne, to their home to care for their infant, but we find out that the baby is a doll, and that the actual baby had died sometime before. Substituting the child with a lifelike doll was the only way for the mother to cope with the loss, but her delusion is so deep that she went ahead with her plans to hire a nanny. When Leanne comes onboard, strange things start happening around the house, not least of which is the doll’s transformation into—gasp!—a real, live baby!
Leanne (played by Free) carries herself in a creepy, detached way. Her performance is one of the highlights of the show for me. She has the kind of face where the smallest change in expression can switch her vibe from innocence to malice, from fear to aggression, in a split second.
For this Halloween season, I caught up with a few horror movies from the past year. Although I enjoy horror films, I admit I’m too much of a scaredy-cat to go see them in a dark theatre with the big screen and loud sound. As a compromise, I wait for them to come out on home video so I can watch them in a less intense environment.
I’ve lately gone on a kick of revisitingmovies that have left a lasting impression on me. With that in mind, I rewatched this pair of Ari Aster films in quick succession, and my snap verdict is: Midsommar has gone up in my estimation, while Hereditary has gone down.
I don’t scare easily at horror movies, but part of the reason is because I tend to avoid seeing them in the theatre. The big screen and loud sound, along with being surrounded by the dark, would probably overwhelm me, and raise the fear factor beyond what I’d be comfortable with.1 This is all to give Hereditary the credit that it deserves: it freaked me the hell out the first time I watched it, even in the comfort of my basement man cave. On this second viewing, because I knew what was coming, it didn’t hit me much. I didn’t expect to be scared, but great horror can be rewatched because it offers more than fear2, and Hereditary didn’t.
Midsommar, on the other hand, opened up for me the second time around. I don’t think it was ever really that scary in the first place, more shocking and disturbing. Without the element of surprise, it becomes a fascinating exploration of how outsiders perceive “foreign” cultures, and the thin line between community and cult.
Things that connect the two films:
The lead actors, Toni Collette and Florence Pugh, are both great.
Corpses in Aster’s movies have a bloodless, rubbery quality that I “enjoy.” I can’t say they’re realistic, but they’re also not clearly fake. It’s like a gross, macabre version of the Yoda puppet in The Empire Strikes Back.
I’ll always remember the experience of seeing Signs in the theatre all those years ago. I propose that a recent, comparable film, No One Will Save You, didn’t feel very scary to me (though still enjoyable) because I watched it at home. ↩
