Lurker > Snake5555555555

Yes

Ghosts
Kirby

I pretty much wrote down the first things that came to my head.

I'm excited!

Yeah this season has been incredible so far. really enjoyed Ep 1 in particular. The enhanced horror aspects stand-out a lot as a total pastiche of Nightmare on Elm Street. Been a really emotionally-charged season, I feel like the performances across the board have taken another step up from previous seasons. Watching ep. 4 tonight.

Kommo-o didn't deserve this

If it's anything like Midsommar it will feel super quick!

Silent Hill 2

Hey, I wanted to ask, does anyone here watch Inside No. 9? It's a fantastic little British anthology series that covers horror, dark comedy, drama, or mysteries.

The recent series had an episode called Mr. King, and for anyone who loves Midsommar or folk horror they should try to track it down if they can.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/1/AAR-tQAADRmZ.jpg

There's always the ABCs of Death!

fortybelowsummer posted...

Noooooo!
Take from the yew tree. Feel no pain...

J/K awesome that it made the top 3 and it's nice to see some other #1 rankings.

Yeah I knew going in jc was obv going to have it as his #1 but I wasn't expecting yours too!

Blaziken posted...

How close are me and Red in the compatability stats? I feel like he's been my most reliable ally in this list.

How do I set that up? I've actually never done that in one of my rankings before.

Outlier
Tom Nook: 264
red13n: 242
Inviso: 222
PrinceKaro: 202
Suprak: 194
Plasmabeam: 192
FFDragon: 190
Snake: 184
fortybelowsummer: 158
jcgamer107: 153
BetrayedTangy: 131
rockus: 124
thesmark: 119
Lightning Strikes: 108
Johnbobb: 97

red and Vis continue dancing their way to Nook's formerly untouchable lead.

So, we have two films left Train to Busan vs. Get Out. I want to do both films on the same day, back to back basically, however, I may only have the time for one ranking tomorrow. So I'm going to skip a day, drag the tension out, and hopefully finish the project on Sunday. Get those Vegas bets in, this is the BIG one.

Storm
Mega /

Snake5555555555 posted...

during Attestupan the woman goes head-first and gets it over with, the man drags things out).

Loved this little catch!

Snake5555555555 posted...

Mysterious murder suicide? Nope never spoken of again.

Don't really get this complaint. It's pretty apparent it affects Dani the whole film. But I don't think anyone who went through something like that would keep going around mentioning it.

3. Midsommar (140 points)

Why I Chose It: Ari Aster's Hereditary was no doubt a hard film to follow-up, but his effortless Midsommar captured a whole different vibe - supernatural psycho-drama traded for sunny folk romantic-tragedy. While arguably less accessible than Hereditary, Midsommar nonetheless proved profitable, sparking a whole new generational obsession with folk horror films of the past that Midsommar was inspired by, and was one of the breakthrough films of actress Florence Pugh, who now stars in the MCU as Yelena Belova.

fortybelowsummer: 1
jcgamer107: 1
Snake: 1
Johnbobb: 3
Lightning Strikes: 6
Tom Nook: 6
Suprak: 7
Plasmabeam: 8
PrinceKaro: 11
rockus: 11
thesmark: 11
FFDragon: 12
BetrayedTangy: 16
Inviso: 22
red13n: 24

Fortybelowsummer - This one just smacks you in the face right off the bat with a powerfully emotional scene that sets you on edge. Then its one slow-burn-turns-into-a-jaw-dropping moment after another. Most scary movies rely, naturally, on the unknown of darkness, but Midsommar manages to be absolutely, uniquely terrifying in broad daylight. In many ways what happens to these characters is the worst thing you can imagine. If you walk into that idyllic Swedish enclave, it aint gonna be a good time for you. Florence Pughs performance is the best one out of all of them on the list. OK, I know I said that about Dafoe so they can be co-best actors. Both amazing. Midsommar comes in at the top of my list, number one amongst a group of great movies.

Jcgamer107 - Quite possibly the greatest movie I have ever seen. Not only is Ari Aster a visual genius, hes one when it comes to human behavior as well. There are so many little moments that perfectly capture the banality or stupidity of modern relationships, the movies actually funnier than most people give it credit for. The whole thing plays out like a dark millennial fairy tale, or the origins of a new religion, with the cults actions serving as the manifestation of Danis will, as Ari puts it.

Of course we get the general idea of what will happen when a group of Americans goes to visit a commune in Europe - whats interesting here is the very raw and realistic way we see Dani and Christians relationship fall apart, and the various metaphors within the cult which reflect this (e.g. during Attestupan the woman goes head-first and gets it over with, the man drags things out).

The opening left my jaw on the floor, and me wondering what could possibly be in-store next. I cant say enough about the ending: bombastic, operatic, biblical - just staggering in emotional impact and a total spectacle. Its the biggest possible exclamation point you could use to cap off an already brutal and turbulent journey. The section of score playing there is one of the most beautiful pieces of music Ive ever heard. Really the entire soundtrack is 10/10, and reflects the nature of the story: It is horrible and it is beautiful.

Snake - This isnt just one of the best horror movies of the decade, its one of the best horror movies Ive ever seen period. No hyperbole here. Aster had some solid ideas in Hereditary, but here in his folk horror magnum opus Midsommar, he really comes into his own in all aspects of horror and really just filmmaking in general. Folk horror has always been one of my favorite sub-genres, from Haxan, to The Wicker Man, to Kill List, and I think its because theyre so excellent at portraying this believable supernaturality through the mundane. Aster has a clear reverence for the genre himself, because he understands this perfectly. Though his transformation of the supernatural haunted house genre in Hereditary to something a little more artful didnt always gel well with me, in Midsommar - its a flawless idea. Were all familiar with the American horror tourist film - these loud-mouth, rambunctious, uncultured outsiders from the States get their just desserts after offending the locals. Slowly but surely Aster works his magic on the audience however, using the traditional template to inch us further and further into an assimilated nightmare.

Thats because it was faulty at the start; at the beginning, Aster tricks us, leading us out of the seemingly dangerous forest into the relative comfort of suburbia - except, a young woman and her parents lie dead in a murder-suicide. This leaves the womans remaining sister, Dani Ardor, the sole survivor, and the anxiety-riddled Dani an inconsolable wreck. This whole beginning sequence could be a short film on its own - filled with set-ups and pay-offs contained in its mini-narrative and yet later you realize just how experty Aster spoiled his own film in the first 10. This sequence has another benefit - shot in oppressive darkness, switching to the ever-bright Halsingland is a disarming change of pace. You think to yourself - okay fun road trip vibes, nothing scary happens in the daytime, this wont be so bad. And, as the film marches on, this sunlight keeps shining ever so menacingly, and as Danis mental state becomes more and more panicked and uncertain, this cheery sunlight clashes wildly with just how out of control the whole trip has become. Simple concepts like time and sleep become strange unknowns, breaking reality just as Dani and Christian, her aloof and distant boyfriend, become broken as partners and lovers over the course of the film - two parallels running side by side, complimenting each other until the cults machinations and their relationship inevitably collides once more, ending in this sort of cathartic ending for Dani part tragedy, part relief - her intense frown turning into smiling visage as Christian burns in a ritual sacrifice. Its an expression of confusion and questions raised - is Dani in shock? Is she genuinely part of the cult now? These questions are offered no answer, and thats for the best. The best horror always leaves you wanting more.

Midsommars broken reality is really just one way you can interpret the film - I also think its fun to interpret the film as a simple folky retelling of a slasher, the way the main characters are picked off one by one in increasingly brutal ways. Hell, or maybe its all a drug-induced hallucination from when Dani and the crew first arrive. Whatever your poison, I think Midsommar is an absolute treat - I can bathe in this atmosphere all day, the brief moments of pure shock never stop hitting hard, every performance is absolutely crazy amazing, and noticing new details each time that foreshadow this or that really show well thought out this film was, and its why I think Midsommar will only continue to move up my list of favorites as the years go on and Ill look forward to taking the journey time and time again.

8/10

1, 2, 9

Hardly the first time it missed coming after!

But speaking of:

Outlier
Tom Nook: 261
red13n: 221
Inviso: 203
PrinceKaro: 194
Suprak: 190
Plasmabeam: 187
Snake: 182
FFDragon: 181
fortybelowsummer: 156
jcgamer107: 151
BetrayedTangy: 118
rockus: 116
thesmark: 111
Lightning Strikes: 105
Johnbobb: 97

red and Vis slowly but surely following Tom with some more huge gains here.

Next film tonight.

Resident Evil news copium let's go

Didn't need to delete, I was done!

4. It Follows (142 points)

Why I Chose It: Sexuality & horror have intertwined since the genre's very beginning, but It Follows' unique approach to the subject made it an instant relatable hit. By personifying sexual transmission, It Follows was able to capture multiple generations' worth of coming-of-age anxieties thanks to its timeless period and setting, and it paid off with excellent reviews and again, another horror box-office success story.

Lightning Strikes: 3
Plasmabeam: 3
FFDragon: 4
Johnbobb: 4
PrinceKaro: 5
Snake: 5
thesmark: 7
Tom Nook: 7
BetrayedTangy: 8
rockus: 8
Suprak: 8
jcgamer107: 11
red13n: 17
Inviso: 25
fortybelowsummer: 27

Lightning Strikes - It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd.

This is a true horror classic that uses a very simple but interesting premise, the idea of an enemy that slowly walks towards you and kills you if it catches you, to the maximum effect. Every scene in this film seems like it could be hiding something, that the creature is just out of focus. What seems like just a random person or a character we know could turn out to be a horrifying monster, keeping you constantly on edge. The visual filmmaking on display here is superb. This is a film that is both near-perfectly crafted as a film, and extremely scary throughout.

I also really like how this film uses the sense of ambiguity in time period to weave a sense of timelessness in a unique way. Each character represents a different time period in their visual style and appearance, so you dont know when exactly this is taking place. I also enjoyed the social commentary on relationships and STIs - if only they were still called STDs so we could point out that the creature here literally is an STD, a sexually transmitted demon you could say. There isnt really much more for me to say on this film despite the fact that it is excellent. Just a fantastically executed film that is so good I find little else to discuss.

5/5

Biggest scare: The scene where the creature walks through the doorway in the form of a horrifying tall man is one of the single scariest images Ive seen in any recent film.

Plasmbeam - Top-notch terror and tension. The concept of playing Haunted STD Tag is brilliant, and the ghosts never stop being scary because of how relentless they are. Would probably be my #1 if the final act hadnt stumbled.

FFDragon - I left this movie and tried to get everyone I knew to watch it. It does so much while showing so little.

Johnbobb - I think 2014 marked a very pivotal change for the face of horror to come. Movies like this and the Babadook appeared, using monstrous horror as deep-seeded metaphor for very human issues, while never failing to followthrough on the monstrous horror itself for even a moment. It's the apperance of these movies, which found that unique balance between symbolic drama and horrifying thrill, that really set the stage for the emergence of some of the greatest horror directors we've ever seen in the likes of Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Jordan Peele, etc. What makes It Follows work so well is simultaneously because its threat is real, while simultaneously being so extraordinarily unreal.

PrinceKaro - A shapshifting ghoul follows people around only to turn their sights on whoever they sleep with. It is basically the personification of STDs into the form of a horror monster.

The rules and nuances of the Follower are laid out early on, and the film always abides by them save for a few inconsistencies in how fast the monster takes to get from one place to another. One thing of note is how the film mostly forgoes jumpscares in favor of the grim inevitability of the Follower's slow, relentless advance. Sometimes the audience can even see the ghoul before the characters even notice it.

This is something the doesn't really sound like it would be very good just from the description but it really really is. It takes the tired 'monster kills some kids' scenario and breathes some new life into it.

Snake - Still one of the best ideas of the decade. It Follows is like the best of 70s & 80s films with modern sensibilities - pure dread, an iconic villain, lots of sex, while having sleek performances and an eye for the simple things - setting, soundtrack, wardrobe. It all contributes to this vague anachronistic feel (honestly Im still intrigued by the seashell kindle/phone thing) that contributes to the films off-kilter horror. It Follows carves out its own horror niche with effortlessness timelessness, and its near-universal message of the horrors of unsafe sex, sexual abuse & manipulation, & sexually-transmitted diseases is personified viciously in IT - the scar of trauma, an unnamed feeling, following their victim wherever they go. Yet, its also about the chain of abuse, how victims can often create more victims, either unwittingly or tragically, very purposefully. It Follows messages still haunt and will continue to be relevant for as long as people suck about sex.

Thesmark - One thing I love is that the movie feels strangely out of time, given all the media people are consuming is very old (50s-70s), the retro-suburban feel to the locations and the excellent throwback synth score from Disasterpiece thats a mix between John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream. My guess is that retro-styling is not only evoking the look of old horror movies, but also maybe harkening to a more innocent time which is a running theme through the movie with the characters being nostalgic for an earlier, simpler time when they were kids, which feeds into the whole dangers of young adults having sex/STD metaphor.

I also love the look of David Robert Mitchells films, theyre saturated with color in a world where most studio movies are artificially desaturated; that, and most modern filmmakers think scary movies have to be dark and drab for atmosphere purposes, whereas he runs in the opposite direction to eye-pleasing effect (much like a lot of 70s-80s Italian horror). He also makes several flashier decisions (shot tight which makes sense for reactions/claustrophobia, lots of pans, we get first person shots, etc.), but the color grade is what stands out to me the most.

Tom Nook - The fun of a creative concept and minimalism. Less is more. The movie makes scenes of regular-looking people walking, end up being unsettling. An unstoppable force of death that is slowly moving and can be lurking anywhere. You can keep your eye on it, but never truly live because of the paranoia. This movie can be interpreted as a bunch of things really, which adds to how good it is. Best scene for creepiness was definitely when that tall dude walked through the doorway behind her friend.

Corrik7 posted...

Snake, I have an idea for you.

Top 10 from 90s, 00s, and 10s. All together for a ranking!

Definitely not a bad one especially with the new group we have here. I bet the order would change quite a bit from the initial results. Not sure when I'd have time to slot something like this in though!

Outlier
Tom Nook: 258
red13n: 208
PrinceKaro: 193
Plasmabeam: 186
Suprak: 186
Inviso: 182
FFDragon: 181
Snake: 181
jcgamer107: 144
fortybelowsummer: 133
BetrayedTangy: 114
rockus: 112
thesmark: 108
Lightning Strikes: 104
Johnbobb: 97

Watch your heads because Nook's still not done dropping huge outlier bombs. The rest is largely business as usual, with a few minor shake-ups, aside from of course red's huge ascent.

Next ranking tomorrow afternoon, maybe a little later than usual, not sure yet.

5. Hereditary (153 points)

Why I Chose It: The debut film of Ari Aster, his strong sense of direction, creepy vibes, and absolutely monstrous performances from the entire cast made Hereditary a stand-out film not only of its year, but the whole decade and arguably the whole canon of horror. It still stands as studio A24's highest-grossing film at $80 million, the rare critical and commercial horror darling that stands out as the crown jewel of their collection.

BetrayedTangy: 1
Suprak: 1
jcgamer107: 2
Plasmabeam: 2
thesmark: 3
rockus: 4
Lightning Strikes: 7
Johnbobb: 10
PrinceKaro: 10
FFDragon: 11
fortybelowsummer: 11
Snake: 15
Inviso: 17
Tom Nook: 29
red13n: 30

BetrayedTangy - As I was first reading over this list, I already knew this was going to be taking the number 1 spot. This movie not only changed my perspective on horror, but on film as a whole. Hereditary is a visual masterpiece that Ive gotten to experience several times now and it just keeps getting better. First off, the story just blows my mind, I love how the initial family dynamic establishes this unnerving atmosphere before anything scary happens. Then little by little the horror starts seeping in, especially with Charlie. Little things like her drawings, the pigeon scene, the clicking; theyre all signs of the classic creepy kid trope. This is where we start to think we have a good idea where the movie is going then pop! Her fucking head flies off. From this point onward the movie doesnt hold back at all. Each character starts handling their grief differently. As a result, they all become distanced and separated allowing Ellen and Joanie to start getting into their heads one by one before Annie finally becomes possessed and begins murdering the entire family including herself. Its absolutely horrifying and I love it for that Despite the movie containing very little action, the atmosphere and tension is all this movie needs to remain an insane thrill ride from start to finish. Theres so much more here I could go on about, but if I did, I would never finish these write ups and this one would end up looking like a 5-paragraph essay, so Im just going to call it here and take a well-earned break from writing haha.

Suprak - I LOVED this movie. This might wind up being my shortest write up, because honestly there are only so many ways I can think to say this is great. You know that really old SNL skit where Chris Farley would go you remember that one timethat was awesome.? Thats going to be my entire write-up here, I feel like. I know individual tastes vary so I dont know what the general consensus for here is going to be, but I went already after ranking stuff to see what sort of scores these movies had on Rotten Tomatoes, and I was shocked to find this had an audience score in the mid 60s. This is exactly what I want from a horror film and there really wasnt too much here Id want to change. It is interesting and unique and scary and mysterious and not afraid to get brutal but not overly reliant on it.

Just to give you a frame of reference here, the literal first thing I did after finishing this movie was google did Toni Colette get nominated for Hereditary because I felt like maybe she was and I just didnt remember it. It turns out she wasnt, and holy shit what an oversight because she is amazing in this. Just completely incredible. The entire cast here is absolutely bonkers good, but she somehow stands head and shoulders above them. This was, to me, one of the best performances in all of horror, of all time, full stop. That isnt to take anything else away from any of the other actors, because I felt like the acting and the casting here were both fantastic. The dads sort of subtle struggle of keeping the family together or the son screaming mommy as shes bashing her head on the attic or even Charlie, who was just fantastic casting. This is probably going to sound more insulting than I mean it to, but she was so weird looking and offputting just from her appearance that I cannot imagine anyone else being able to play that role as effectively as she did. Just from the way she looks you know something is up. Overall this feels like a movie where they got every single casting decision right, and where every single actor brought something important to their role.

I hate using the phrase slow burn because I feel like that tends to be a nice way of saying the first part of this is boring so try to stick with it, but I feel like it actually applies here. Theres a point in the middle of this film where I actually forgot I was watching a horror movie. I dont even mean that in a bad way, because it wasnt as if I wasnt enjoying it a lot still. But after the weird daughter character dies, I feel like there is maybe a 30 minute gap where I almost completely forgot the horror to it and the movie doesnt suffer for it in any way. Like Toni Colettes melt down at the dinner table where she is straight up screaming at her son is just so incredibly visceral and painful and raw that it feels like the most brutal scene in the entire movie, and I should probably bring up the fact that she literally saws her head off with piano wire at the end. There is a real interesting examination here on motherhood and loss and so many of those scenes after Charlies death are jaw dropping. I mean, the misdirect itself is great. I had assume Charlie was some sort of evil creature (not knowing what exactly) so I was ready for her to start doing some real evil stuff. So when she is summarily killed off with a straight up decapitation, my jaw quite literally dropped and I dont mean that as a turn of phrase. And then that scene after where the son just drives home and slowly crawls into his bed? Or when Toni Colette is sobbing and screaming she wants to die? What an incredible sequences of scenes. It is brutal and horrific but at the same time somehow very real and the movie does an amazing job with the family dynamic here as it feeds into the larger narrative.

Mario
Outrun

Sent rankings and write-ups!

Daredevil

Did I miss it AGAIN? I don't know how I keep managing to do that, sorry jc!

I'm an Urshifu fan

Stan The Man Lee

VVitch?!

Outlier
Tom Nook: 234
PrinceKaro: 188
Plasmabeam: 183
red13n: 183
Suprak: 182
FFDragon: 175
Snake: 171
Inviso: 170
jcgamer107: 141
fortybelowsummer: 127
rockus: 111
BetrayedTangy: 110
thesmark: 106
Lightning Strikes: 102
Johnbobb: 92

There's evil in this outlier as Plasma shoots way up in the rankings. Johnbobb remains as the only one sub-100 now.

Next ranking late tonight!

6. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (161 points)

Why I Chose It: The VVitch, Robert Eggers' debut film, represented the most clear shift in the decade to arthouse, elevated horror pseudo-blockbusters. A surprising box-office hit, The VVitch impressed even more with its fanatical attention to detail, religious subject matter, and star-making turn by a then unknown Anya Taylor-Joy.

rockus: 1
thesmark: 1
Suprak: 2
fortybelowsummer: 3
Johnbobb: 6
Tom Nook: 8
Inviso: 9
Lightning Strikes: 12
Snake: 12
FFDragon: 13
jcgamer107: 14
BetrayedTangy: 15
red13n: 16
PrinceKaro: 19
Plasmabeam: 30

Rockus - Pretty easily my favorite film in the group. The fact that its also a debut is pretty remarkable. From the period design, the attention to detail, and the work put into researching it for authenticity everything feels so carefully thought out that I would assume its the work of a more seasoned filmmaker. It also works on multiple levels. As a chilling atmospheric supernatural nightmare, as an examination of puritanical paranoia, and just on a purely sensory level with a great score and how good it looks. It also gave the world two of the biggest breakout stars in recent years with Anya TaylorJoy and Charlie as Black Phillip, becoming the most iconic animal star in recent memory.

Thesmark - The language, sets/location, cinematography, clothes, its just a wholly unique level of authenticity, filled with atmosphere. The cast (featuring the breakout performance for Anya Taylor-Joy) and the score fit perfectly too. Beyond just themes (arrogance/pride of man being able to conquer nature/the unknown, patriarchy and the place of women in young America (along with their burgeoning womanhood), the tension keeps rising so effectively, and theres a human element to all of it: the characters are not just there to be symbols for something. And what an ending! Ive seen The Witch a couple of times now and it continues to delight me and yes, it is my favorite film in the whole ranking.

Its funny, the only change I thought about for the movie is not to reveal whether the witches are real or not less than 10 minutes into the movie. Then again, there are plenty of movies like that where the whole thing rides the line between madness and the thing being real only for the movie to lose steam at the end once we know-moving it up to the beginning makes the film not about that anymore.

Suprak - Holy shit was this one bleak. The film opens up and in the first five minutes a baby is kidnapped by a witch and is then murdered with a large knife. And then things get worse. Thats as ok as the characters in this movie are going to get. Usually in horror movies there is some level of happiness. Like obviously the characters arent happy when theyre getting butchered but theres at least some point in the movie where the film is ok letting you know that happiness, as a concept, still exists and these characters felt that at one point. Not here. In The VVitch, happiness is a word that maybe one of these characters saw in a book one time and then fell to their knees and started to pray because they were afraid reading about it might be sinful. It is a heavy, dark film that just slowly beats you down and beats you down until you feel almost just as desperate in the family in the movie. And I think I love it.

I checked on Rotten Tomatoes after watching this, and the sort of common complaint from audience viewings was that it was just kind of boring and I can understand where they were coming from, even if I dont agree. Like, I was watching this and it was pretty clearly heading towards the end and I remember thinking to myself, I bet this absolutely bombed audience scores because it isnt really what youre expecting from something that markets itself as a horror movie. There isnt a spooky clown showing up and going BLARGHARGHARGHBOOOOO and you dont have any sort of demon popping up from the dark to bite someone in the throat or anything like that. If someone was to ask me if this was scary, Id probably respond with a No, but because it is more complicated than that. Where The VVitch succeeds, at least for me, was this constant and unrelented feeling of dread where I wasnt maybe jumping out of my seat, but I felt like I was clenching my jaw the entire time.

It is this really interesting focus on this one family and how they slowly lose their mind and turn on each other while none of them know what the hell is going on. The characters were great and I was shocked how much I liked this cast. I can see why this launched Anna Taylor Joys career and even the child actors were excellent. There are so many great scenes here and this was one of the films on this list where I really lost track of time. Like I felt like it just started and then all of a sudden I realized an hour had passed and they were coming up on the final act. I thought it might be hard to follow at first because of how close they try to keep the dialogue to the period, but it works really well to help reinforce the atmosphere and by the end I barely noticed. The atmosphere in this movie is excellent. I love how that hopelessness builds up over time, and at a certain point the which almost feels ancillary. You have the baby disappearing, and the corn is rotten and they cant catch any food and the father is letting Anna Taylor Joy take the blame and each thing adds up over time to the point where you are basically just begging for these people to have something go their way but it never does. The payoff is great too, and the scenes where the dad is begging for his kids to be spared for his pride or when he is asking Anna Taylor Joy to confess are just so good. Everything just builds on each other and it was so nice to sit down with a film where the horror comes from this creeping dread and hopelessness and not LOUD MUSIC JUMP SCARES BOO.

One thing I think I wouldve liked to change was the ending. I had one in my from roughly the two-thirds mark, where what I thought would happen is that everyone died and then Anna Taylor Joy would go back to town and everyone would burn her for being a witch. Which I thought would be a suitably dark and dreadful and bleak ending for such a dark and dreadful and bleak film. Like, there was no hope for her. All this bad stuff was happening and she knew it wasnt her and no one would even help her because they thought she was doing all this bad stuff that she was suffering from. Sort of an interesting here is why it was terrifying being a woman back then even if you want to assume you live in this history where witches are in fact real. So Im not sure I was entirely on board with the ending. I liked it up until she goes and talks to the goat but then, I dunno, it just didnt feel in line with what I thought the movie was up until that point. And maybe Im just misinterpreting something or I missed something. This was a film I really thought about for a while and it stuck with me more than most of the movies on this list. I dont know exactly, but I wanted it to close out on even more misery. GIVE ME THAT SWEET SWEET GRIEF, BABY. And maybe there is a little bit of that if you assume shes fallen so low she is now being sucked into something where she is going to be causing that same grief onto other families that absolutely tore hers apart. Maybe I sound like an idiot rambling here, but just, to me, it didnt quite stick the landing and I thought there could be a more clever way to wrap this all up. I feel like I could be missing something though, but fortunately this is one I plan on rewatching sometime soon so maybe Ill pick up on other stuff then.

Sylvie

Posting the next ranking shortly

plasmabeam posted...

I'm still waiting for a definition of "horror movie" we all can agree on.

In the previous topic, somebody said it's a movie that's "frightening," but that's way too subjective.

It was me! I don't know if one singular definition can exist. What I meant by a work should "attempt to be frightening" should not so much be seen from the audience's perspective, but from the intent of the author. Death of the author ensures not everyone is going to find the same things scary, and that's alright. At the same time, horror tends to target broader fears that many can relate to - death, deformation, existentialism, anxiety, depression, grief, torture, powerlessness - but most importantly, I think a sense of the unknown and unexplained plays a huge role in making something horror. The zombies make Train to Busan a horror movie because we struggle with what comes after death; if this mindless, hungering drone is what we become, the zombies become a threat because it's an undesirable outcome. That's the intent of the film - whether you personally find zombies scary anymore, or think they're totally overdone & overexposed is irrelevant. That's what I'm trying to get at when I say "attempt to be frightening".