Got myself up on some of the backlog that I'd been wanting to catch. Half-watched Lake Mungo, I've tried a few times and it has never grabbed me. I think we're too far removed from docu-style horror for me to feel the impact and I probably went in knowing too much for the mystery bits to hit like they should. I probably woulda liked it within the zeitgeist of when people were hyping it originally, but I was nodding off throughout. no score
Moved on to something more active and new...They're Inside...which wears its inspirations on its sleeve. This is the Strangers through a found footage prism. The masks, initial knocking on the door and escalating attempts to get close or "inside" are all like cheap knockoffs of Stranger Things. The found footage aspect is where they try to insert background for characters and get us to care but it all came off shallow to me. That's mainly because character traits don't really make much difference in the scenario, it's just window dressing and I still didn't care about anyone. You also get characters behaving with bad logic to get themselves into trouble; gory kills but nothing creative about them; and just plain bad dialogue. They close off using exposition to tell us about motivations of characters and there's even a point where two characters talk about why the twist is supposed to work for the narrative. Also the scenes go with these heavy cuts with dramatic orchestra music in the background that makes it all feel more pretentious than it should. It's like a movie that had a collection of interesting elements but too many to connect meaningfully. The writers had a bigger idea but didn't land it imo, I would give them another shot because they aimed for something legit but whiffed. 3/10
Then I caught Velvet Demon which is one of those joints you spoil by getting into. I'll just say that the spectacle aspects are flames, it's beautifully shot and a lot of story is told through imagery rather than dialogue. It's also loaded with threads that aren't explained for you but can be interpreted a few ways to tell a cohesive story. The best part is that it kinda plays straight and realistic for most of the first half but gets more and more surreal as the lead actress gets dragged deeper into the LA model rabbit hole. There's also deliberate ambiguity to everyone's intent throughout...you don't know who means well, who has ulterior motives and what those motives are; so it's a paranoid watch through. Ironically, I could see this one being seen as pretentious too and the dialogue is also pretty on the nose in ways that make it less than realistic. But it worked for me. I dug the movie, it didn't scare me but it did fit the bill of an uncomfortable exploration into an innocent person's psyche almost like a modern and stylized The Witch. 6.5/10
Finally, the one movie that I feel safe calling flat out good Black Mountainside. This one has some legitimate Lovecraft inspirations almost out the gate, with ancient unexplainable artifacts popping up to be decoded. That's followed by characters getting sick or having their sanity slip and you're left to figure out if people are going crazy or if something darker is at hand. What I loved about it was that they let you into pretty much everyone's head for a while; the guys who are hearing and seeing things included. There's no need for jump scares because you're watching these dudes unravel in a scary situation that has enough grounding in reality to make you wonder. It's an impending dread film where you can see the ugly coming a mile away but stick around to try and get deeper answers. I assume they worked with a limited budget off of a couple of things...the embodiment of the madness could take you out of the horror honestly, weak design and they also give a little too much "voice" to it. They go less is more on a lot of periods where you only get a flash of what happened, but you see other people react to it. That ish is WAY more effective than showing you a poor design. But besides that, I really loved this one. Lovecraft horror is rarely done well and this one hit every key point. The Thing definitely played some inspiration but it's a completely different experience. 9/10
Don’t know what it’s about. Don’t care. Already bought my ticket
