So I went into watching Resurrection blind, outside of knowing the synopsis:
Margaret's life is in order. She is capable, disciplined and successful. Everything is under control until David returns - that is - carrying with him the horrors of Margaret's past.
That synopsis had me thinking I had a good idea of what I was getting into. I was kinda right. It's a slow burn with a long run time, and for the first 30-40 minutes, it was a well acted movie but didn't do much that surprised me. But I stuck it out off the strength of Rebecca Hall (from the Night House) and one freaky dream sequence.
Then things got weird...but not in a bad way.
Yall know the approach, this is a character coming unraveled while people around her are in the dark. But Rebecca Hall has this long monologue breaking down some of what we didn't know and...damn! She kills the monologue and her story sets the stage for a CRAZY second-half to this movie.
It's still deliberately paced, but that made the tension and dread build up without any proper release. You're not getting a jump scare and a bit of chuckling before the next scene. It's all just an uncomfortable spiral. The movie's kinda carried by Hall who puts together a performance that's really strong (I need to see the Pearl monologue to compare because Hall's should really be getting talked about too). Look at this...she's going through it!
And then the payoff...all these kinda horror movies come down to how you feel about the payoff. This one REALLY WORKED (for me at least). It was ambiguous enough to want to discuss it, but also had plenty of clues to have a good idea what's going on. More importantly, this was a horror joint that I assumed I knew what to expect.
That just meant I wasn't ready. It went way extra from what I had been expecting.
It's probably in my top-five this year, but this has been a stacked year of movies.
X, Smile, Barbarian, Resurrection, and Incantation are my November favorites. But there are movies like the Sadness, Nope, and Terrifier 2 that would probably have an easy spot in almost any other year...and I've still gotta watch Pearl and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.