Funniest moment to me was how intense it was when the possessed mom crawled into Justine's car and the expectation of her being stabbed only for a lock of hair to be stolen before we cut to the next chapter. So much wtf laughter in my theater. It was wonderful. Also, the way Gladys ran from the kids was straight out of Scooby-Doo.
ok that's a lot of words to respond to something I didn't say lol! I'm not saying these things weren't explained in the movie just that the explanations were, imo, very silly and fall apart the more you think about them like: if I was the witch I simply would not have magicked a dude into committing very bloody murders in broad daylight while running in the same way the kids did past half the town right after I had a public meeting with him. because y'know if any of the characters in this film acted like normal people that would just be instant proof that Justine wasn't in the wrong and didn't deserve the witch hunt (although the plot about the whole town turning against her pretty much went nowhere in this anyway). also since the witch had Justine’s hair for most of the movie couldn't she just... make her walk into traffic and have everyone think it was an accident instead of doing the most public hit of all time? as is the Marcus attack is the only thing that gets Justine and Archer working together long enough that they can go to the house and... help by nearly getting killed repeatedly I guess? I'm still unclear about what them showing up was meant to contribute to Alex doing what he did, I guess the witch went down into the basement for a bit to jumpscare Brolin? seems like literally nothing else they did there really had much of an impact on events at all
I mean, you said "why did we spend all this time with Justine if her only contribution by the end was to nearly get choked out by three different guys? why did the witch even bother sending her shooters after Justine when she was pretty much useless and if anything the Marcus attack in broad daylight made it way more likely that she'd get discovered?" Asking "why did these things happen?" is not at all the same as saying "these things were explaind but I think the explanations were silly and fall apart" Yes I'd agree, this is a plot hole as she could've gotten rid of Justine much easier/less conspicuously. I think Gladys's conspicuousness ends up making a lot of the plot not that sensical from the jump, like I said in my other post about Alex's parents. Though (and I'm not saying you're saying this, it's just another thought that came to me just now) I don't think Gladys's plan ever actually involved trying to pin anything on Justine in the first place, that's just how it incidentially played out. She only cared about Justine when she started snooping around Gladys had no idea that Archer was/would be involved in anything prior to him showing up at the house, she only knew about Justine. And like I said, I'm not sure how you think Alex would have ever had a chance to do what he did without Justine and Archer going into the house. Alex's entire POV section made it pretty clear that he felt completely helpless throughout the entire ordeal, and I'm not sure how you think he would have solved everything if Gladys hadn't been distracted for as long as she was. Obviously Archer and Justine had no idea that (or anything) would happen and I think in general throughout the movie they're both shown to be well-meaning but way in over their head in every way (and they're the main characters for much more thematic reasons in the first place; I don't think the movie would have been half as interesting if it was all just from Alex's perspective), but that's not at all the same thing as saying that they didn't contribute anything to the resolution of the plot in the end.
“I can believe a witch who can control people with a hairy bloody stick but they lost me when nobody checked in on Alex’s parents” Not @ing anyone in here - love you all - just enjoy the fictitious film, no need to pick it apart
Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with this discussion. It’s not like anyone is unnecessarily shitting on the movie for no reason, even though I personally didn’t mind the elements that bothered some of the critics in this thread. Conversation is good, and a movie that’s structured like this is of course going to elicit opinions!
??? Yeah because there’s a clear difference between accepting that a movie has a supernatural element and recognizing that, even with that supernatural element present, the actions of the characters should still make actual sense within the world of the movie With this particular thing, the biggest issue is that the movie explicitly sets it up in the beginning that everything in Alex’s life was, from an outsider’s perspective, completely above board. The reveal of what actually happened heavily betrays that. It’s not nitpicky when it’s a core component of having the story make any sense — nobody in that town should have given a second thought about Justine when everything with Alex was the infinitely bigger red flag Saying “just enjoy the fictitious movie” is really condescending to the movie itself, as if it’s just some dumb mindless theme park ride
I don’t think that comes close to explaining away how a relatively small town would have a seemingly completely normal married couple simply disappear overnight *prior* to the disappearance of the kids, and nobody else would say anything / give up on it after a month lol Again, the entire opening premise was that, from the perspective of the parents/townsfolk, Justine was the suspicious one and not Alex. If the explanation for that is really is just “the cops took everything Gladys said at face value,” then I don’t know how that doesn’t just come off as bad screenwriting that forgot where it started. Archer doesn’t trust the cops to be competent from the start, yet he still fixates entirely on Justine and never even thinks about Alex until Justine points it out to him It’s like on par with that line from the showrunner of Game of Thrones everyone mocks him for, where he was like “I guess Dany just kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet” lol
And that’s fine, I feel like I made it very clear that there are holes that don’t bother me either. But then don’t mock/criticize me for having the gall to simply discuss the parts that did bother me
Oh yeah, saying “I can believe a witch who can control people with a hairy bloody stick but they lost me when nobody checked in on Alex’s parents” is certainly not mocking, sure thing lol
Sorry but can never stand the “just enjoy things” crowd. It’s usually just people who are annoyed everyone isn’t saying 10/10 instant classic. It’s a fine movie that’s well made but also pretty flawed. It’s ok to say that.
From “I certainly was not ever intending to mock you” to “K” the second I point out how very blatantly you were mocking me lol. You can just apologize, it’s okay, I’m not gonna hold it against you man
It is not a film that is grounded in reality. It is a fairy tale and an allegory. I don't mind people discussing the film or its flaws at all, truly, I just find about as much value in the CinemaSins level of dissection as I do the "let people enjoy things" statements
I find issues with the pacing. I find issues that the movie is about grief but doesn’t seem all that interested in exploring those themes. Supernatural elements are generally not my bag, especially when they’re kept under wraps as part of the twist. Longlegs had the same issue. The performances are good, Creggar knows humor and horror, he knows where to put the camera. I don’t think he’s put it all together yet. 3/5 stars. It’s fine. He’ll make better movies, I believe that. Probably won’t make my top 25 of the year and that’s ok, it’s a good time at the cinema.
The vibes here are bad today!!! Brb, gonna go wrap some hair on a stick and shake things up for y’all