I thought the kid who played Peter was awful. Audience laughed a lot at scenes with him that weren't meant to be funny. I LOVE the very end and where it went, I wish that idea was laced throughout the movie more and not basically out of nowhere in the third act. (they slightly hint at weird shit going on with her mother, but it still felt like a big shift.) I thought the majority of it was just straight up whacky, rarely felt significantly creeped out or scared. I only watched the first trailer and avoided everything else, but the hype around it still set the bar way too high for me. I was pretty bored for a lot of it.
I have to say, I’m confused at how many comments I saw calling it humorless. I thought there was an interesting amount of black humor in there.
The ending idea is what I called at the beginning, if that changes how you feel about it at all. There are definitely signs before the third act. Also does anyone know a workaround for screenshotting apps like HBO or Netflix? I have the perfect niche knowledge to make a stupid yet amazing meme for this movie but I have no idea how people do screen caps without it being blocked.
Yeah...i need to talk about this movie. It felt like being in Toni Collette’s headspace for 2 hours, which is saying good things about the movie and a feeling of relief once it was over.
All of Peter’s text messages being about dicks and smoking pot were like straight out of a teen parody.
It’s like if the protagonists from United States of Tara and In Treatment got married and then didn’t realize they had wandered into another genre.
This is the first I’ve seen Wolff’s performance criticized. I thought he was really good. Sounds like you may have just had a bad audience...
What a fantastic film. Truly unsettling from the opening of the film with some seriously intense imagery. Honestly, what really caught my eye though was how well this was made. The editing, lighting and sound design were all so great. The fact that this is Aster's first film has me super excited to see whatever he does in the future.
He was great and my shitty audience laughed at him a lot. He played "pathetic" really well, thought it was a super realistic performance.
This was fantastic, just fucking jaw-dropping. The last sequence felt straight out of The Witch just infinitely more bleak.
My coworker and I were talking about how we felt certain audiences would most likely take some of the performances as laughable. That sounds kind of pretentious or elitist or something I realize, but I just think that if you’re used to Paranomal Acitvity or whatever, some of the acting could seem really absurd. Personally, I found the performances to be very believable. One issue I have with a lot of horror movies is how often characters fail to relay important information to one another just for the sake of the plot. What I loved about scenes like Annie finding the grandma in the attic is that she very realistically freaked out and was like, “there’s a fuckin body up there!” Or whatever. That’s exactly how I’d react lol. Also, the sound of Annie wailing when she finds Charlie in the car.....damn
Hmmm. I found this ending to be somewhat...beautiful?? A very similar ending to The Witch indeed, but I find The Witch’s ending far more bleak
I also really appreciate the cinematography. So many shots are framed as if we’re peering through a dollhouse and made things feel very surreal and claustrophobic. There were both exterior and interior shots where I genuinely couldn’t tell if they were of miniatures or not. Also, excellent use of shadows. I love that it’s possible to see certain scenes and miss that there is something peering in the corner.
Witch spoilers I dunno, I thought her becoming a witch at the end was a good, man fuck all of this I'm joining the coven type deal
I was genuinely surprised by Alex Wolff's performance. The scene in the car and in the house after Charlie dies was such a subtle, yet powerful performance. Then Collette just brings it home with her performance. Oh, and scene at the dinner table. I just love this movie so much.
I swear at the end when it zoomed on his face his nose pressed in like he was against glass or some kind of wall, adding to the blur between real and miniature. It went by so quickly though that I couldn’t tell for sure if I was really seeing that or not. One of many shots I want to pay more attention to on rewatch. And as for the performances, I feel the same way about this as I did The Babadook, although maybe even more here. If you see them as outlandish or over the top consider yourself lucky, because you clearly haven’t watched someone in the throes of grief or depression or mental breakdown. I actually burst into almost instant tears when Annie was writhing on the ground crying after Charlie died saying she wanted to just die and it was too much because of how completely that hit home. Peter also nailed the total disconnect aspect of these issues and the editing added to his performance immensely. Also on another note, I found the Wikipedia page for Paimon and I think it’s possible one of the creepiest aspects of the movie may double as a completely stupid pun. I would love to find something to confirm it but I doubt I will.
I left the theatre shaking and sobbed a bit on the drive home. This was just stunning in every way and the horror was suffocating. the accident with Charley shocked me, and the whole sequence after was so so devastating. I had a very quiet theatre but the dream scene where Annie tells Peter about how she tried to miscarry him elicited genuine gasps and a few people started crying.
I love that the trailer really only showed scenes from the first 15 minutes or so, with a couple that were being used to think it was something else. This movie gave me so many feels. I loved that it was basically two different movies and completely knocked out of the park both times. The middle hour or so from the big plot twist on is just an incredible view of a family grieving. I thought Gabriel Byrne did a great job as the dad trying to keep it all together and the scene of him breaking down in the car after almost running the red light hit me hard. Toni Collete obviously was phenomenal. The last 30 minutes or so was bonkers.
My only complaint are the fucking teenagers seeing this movie who insert themselves into the movie by doing that tongue clicking sound every opportunity when the theater is dead silent.