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justinajpiwoni
Reviews
Under the Shadow (2016)
Under The Shadow: Worth a Watch
SPOILER WARNING
Sometimes parents should listen to their kids, especially when they claim they may be seeing something.
For a PG-13 movie, Under The Shadow (2016), sure knows how to build suspense. Although it is not as frightening as other ghost movies, it still has its fair share of jumpscares.
The movie takes place during the Iran-Iraq War, which dates back to 1980. The storyline focuses on a mother who is facing her struggles, especially when she is not able to pursue a profession in becoming a doctor. She feels that she has failed and that she is not in the right place, especially being stuck at home and raising her daughter. It does not help when she is left alone with her daughter because her husband is drafted to fight in the current war. Whilst her husband is away, her neighbors all start to leave one by one for their safety, whilst she remains, up until she realizes she is being haunted. All whilst dealing with that, she also has to face the struggles of being a woman in Iran, which is shown throughout the film.
Nonetheless, one can see the character development within the mother when she finally realizes that whatever her daughter is seeing, which ends up being the djinns, is essentially real, but only once she can see them herself. The buildup of this, dragged, however, it eventually got to the point.
The movie did a good job of showing how chaos ends up taking over. Their whole apartment ends up being destroyed whilst they look for this doll so that they can finally leave without continuing to be haunted. The messiness only explains the chaos that is constantly erupting, whether it be between the mother and daughter and their relationship, the djinns messing with them, the mother not knowing what is truly going on, etc.
Additionally, for the movie to end on such a cliffhanger, where the spirit may still end up being attached to the daughter due to the head of the doll being unattached and left at their apartment building, is nerve-wracking, especially when thinking they were finally able to escape.
All in all, the movie was worth a watch. Although it was not as crazy as some of the ghost movies today, it still has its impact.
The Babadook (2014)
The Babadook: Worth A Watch
SPOILER WARNING
The Babadook is a great representation of every child's greatest fear that surprisingly comes true for once.
Nonetheless, the film is nothing like the usual horror films that many are used to. The movie still builds on suspense, but instead, does not focus on the typical jump scares along with blood and gore, but more so psychological aspects.
That being said, the film focuses specifically on grief and trauma, mainly focusing on anything related to mental health. Amelia (Essie Davis), the main character, deals with the grief of losing her husband. She is stuck raising her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), on her own, and she cannot keep up with her son's high energy, especially when she still, cannot get over her husband's death.
Thus, relating to what the main character is dealing with, to include this as a horror film, the movie was able to portray the monster, the Babadook, as Amelia's trauma, specifically the unresolved trauma she has of losing her husband. As this monster takes over, we see the type of responses that humans have when dealing with grief and trauma, such as signs of depression, anxiety, isolation, disassociation, etc. Not many films can pull off such complex ideas behind the overall plot. Instead, it is the usual killing spree that has no real explanation behind it.
All in all, the film creates anxiety for the audience as it is nerve-wracking to watch, unsure of what will happen next since no one fully knows how the human psyche will react to something. Additionally, the monster itself is represented in a truly creative way. To think a child's fear of a monster creeping up on them in the middle of the night would be linked to unresolved trauma is something new.
Scream (1996)
Scream: Worth a Watch
SPOILER ALERT
If someone you do not know calls you, DO NOT TALK TO THEM. You would think people would remember that, but of course, we are watching a typical horror film, where everyone just lacks common sense.
That being said, Scream is one of the most known classics of the horror realm, and after watching it, I could understand the obsession. It follows the typical horror cliches we know about, but it is a classic.
Comparing it to past films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978), it follows the typical slasher film where there is a weapon, which in this case ends up being a knife, a killer, some form of shock, many victims, and a final girl. However, it is not as gruesome as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but a bit more graphic than Halloween. Something different was that the movie intermixed a lot of comedy into the film to change it from the usual seriousness that many past horror films incorporated. I believe if it was all serious, the movie would not be all that enjoyable.
One aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed was how Scream was more of a mystery as to who the real killer was. The movie tricks us into thinking that the final girl, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), was wrong about who the killer was, only to find out that she indeed was right in the end. Nice way to gaslight us into thinking that the character was not the killer when in reality, they were.
Get Out (2017)
Get Out: Worth a Watch
SPOILER ALERT
Always take into account the advice your friend(s) may offer you, which in this case, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), should have listened to his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery).
The first time I watched the film Get Out, I was on a flight, not giving the film my full attention, and so I was not that impressed. However, when I had to rewatch it for a class, I could not look away.
Get Out is not the usual horror film that many of us are used to. It challenged the genre and the usual old cliches and instead presented a new complex and much deeper story. For example, there was no extreme blood or gore, other than at the end when Chris is trying to escape, but nothing too extreme, there is no final girl or nudity, and the film simply lacks the stupidity that the characters in horror films have. More specifically, no one here is trying to investigate something strange which then gets them into trouble. Even though Chris starts to look deeper into why Andre (LaKeith Stanfield) is acting so weird, he has a reasonable cause to, and he is not trying to do anything that would get him into trouble.
That being said, the film does an extraordinary job of keeping the audience guessing at what comes next. Since it steps away from the usual cliches, no one knows what will come next. Although clues were given, the audience continued to remain in the unknown and had to continue thinking as to what the outcome would be.
All in all, Jordan Peele was able to create a movie that is both entertaining and yet also something that makes you reflect on a bigger societal issue, which is racism. Through different aspects of the film, it is clearly shown how oppressed black people are and how much they have to adapt to their environments.
And so, I recommend a watch. It may open your eyes to a new and quite real horror.
Fresh (2022)
Fresh: Worth a Watch
SPOILER ALERT
Fresh just adds to the horrors that females have to worry about when dating.
Fresh is a very well-liked film today, as it does not necessarily play much into the usual horror genre, but it combines horror with romance and some comedy. Although I would not say that this was so much of a comedy as it claims it was. It did indeed have dark humor and it was clear where some jokes were placed in the film, but in my own opinion, they did not fit the overall atmosphere of the film. The "jokes," at least to me, did not make me laugh. For example, when Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs) ends up killing Ann (Charlotte Le Bon), she makes some comments on how Ann was not a team player and instead lied to her about her husband. I felt that the lines were just out of place.
Nevertheless, the film does a great job of keeping the audience on their toes due to the unpredictability seen within many of the characters.
That being said, at the beginning of the film we get to know the main character Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who has struggled to find a possible suitor for herself, especially online. That changes when she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan) at a grocery store and she gives him his number. Whilst she gets to know Steve, we as the audience, get to know him too through her perspective, and so we too, see no red flags. We end up getting too tied into the romance aspect of it and are excited about the potential match that Noa might have. However, that all changes when we learn that our handsome and charming doctor will turn out to be a murdering cannibal. Additionally, even with our main character Noa, we see the confidence that she ends up getting in the film where she finally learns to stick up for herself. Back then she would let past contenders walk all over her, and yet with Steve, she finally fights him for her survival.
Focusing more on the details within the film, there is always a low-lighting setting, especially in the house where all the victims are being kept. It shows us that something is wrong because otherwise, the lights are always bright, especially outside of the house. Additionally, focusing on sound, a lot of the time it would be silent before chaos broke, or music would be playing that would in no way fit the theme of the current situation. This allowed us to be constantly misled about what was to occur next.
I truly did enjoy the movie, especially since we can see what happens next before some of the other characters do, always keeping the suspense at a high. I have to admit that I was expecting the movie to end with Noa becoming the new Ann, which definitely would have been a plot twist.