storyteller
Superstar
I watched some...weird stuff this weekend. But each was good in its own way.
Possessor: Grabbed this one off the strength of a @Jello Biafra smiley review. The violence is a bit gratuitous, the plot is a bit confusing (seemingly on purpose for effect) and it felt like it was ready to end but decided to stretch itself in the late game...but then the conclusion really did wrap things up in an interesting way. This is a "the less you know probably the better" flick. I'll just say that the visuals were both the grossest and the best part of the film. It's a really unique flick and I could see fans jumping in for second and third watches to dig into subtleties masked by the violence and confusion of the first watch. That said; this ish was too brutal and dark for even my overly analytical ass to go back to at least in the short term.
Vivarium: I heard some twilight zone comparisons and that's up my alley. Vivarium wasn't what I was expecting going off the trailers. I expected it to be really subtle and slow, but it moves quickly and never stops to explain what's happening. So you just take the clues as they come and put together a weird puzzle. I kinda loved it tbh. For it's completely weird premise, it manages to smack a bunch of concerns and fears I've had going into adulthood. It's a modern Kafka story with a splash of Salvador Dali visuals. That said, there are no clear answers here so if you want absolute terms then this isn't gonna work. But it wasn't so vague that it became a choose your own adventure like I felt the Lighthouse did. It's not for everyone but I really enjoyed it.
The Killing of a Sacred Lamb: The closest thing to set in the normal world that I got was this movie which starts on a shot of an open heart surgery while orchestral strings play a forboding song in the background. Killing of a Sacred Lamb has been out for a few years and I've always heard good things. The cast includes Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman who both absolutely KILL IT in their performances. Farrell is a cardiologist who has started to look out for a teen boy that lost his father in an accident a while back. While Farrell brings that boy closer, his own children start to act sick but all the medical tests show nothing.
This is as uncomfortable as I've been watching a movie since Hereditary, maybe even moreso. It's a family going through a messed up situation and feeling completely powerless while also uncovering secrets that they've kept from each other through the trauma. It's got this bizarre way of handling dialogue where everyone is hella straight forward even about crazy dark situations and stories. The backdrop is this crazy intense score that makes normal interactions feel like they're hiding something too. It's got Greek Tragedy vibes for me. It's a gut punch of a flick, slow burning but constantly escalating.
To summarize: So yeah, a lot of psychological trauma heavy horror for me this weekend and I mostly stumbled into it. I'd recommend all three flicks, just not in close proximity. I broke up my viewings with Guy Ritchie flicks and binge watching the new season of the Last Kingdom. Vivarium and Possessor were firestick finds while Killing of a Sacred Lamb is on Netflix.
Possessor: Grabbed this one off the strength of a @Jello Biafra smiley review. The violence is a bit gratuitous, the plot is a bit confusing (seemingly on purpose for effect) and it felt like it was ready to end but decided to stretch itself in the late game...but then the conclusion really did wrap things up in an interesting way. This is a "the less you know probably the better" flick. I'll just say that the visuals were both the grossest and the best part of the film. It's a really unique flick and I could see fans jumping in for second and third watches to dig into subtleties masked by the violence and confusion of the first watch. That said; this ish was too brutal and dark for even my overly analytical ass to go back to at least in the short term.
Vivarium: I heard some twilight zone comparisons and that's up my alley. Vivarium wasn't what I was expecting going off the trailers. I expected it to be really subtle and slow, but it moves quickly and never stops to explain what's happening. So you just take the clues as they come and put together a weird puzzle. I kinda loved it tbh. For it's completely weird premise, it manages to smack a bunch of concerns and fears I've had going into adulthood. It's a modern Kafka story with a splash of Salvador Dali visuals. That said, there are no clear answers here so if you want absolute terms then this isn't gonna work. But it wasn't so vague that it became a choose your own adventure like I felt the Lighthouse did. It's not for everyone but I really enjoyed it.
The Killing of a Sacred Lamb: The closest thing to set in the normal world that I got was this movie which starts on a shot of an open heart surgery while orchestral strings play a forboding song in the background. Killing of a Sacred Lamb has been out for a few years and I've always heard good things. The cast includes Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman who both absolutely KILL IT in their performances. Farrell is a cardiologist who has started to look out for a teen boy that lost his father in an accident a while back. While Farrell brings that boy closer, his own children start to act sick but all the medical tests show nothing.
This is as uncomfortable as I've been watching a movie since Hereditary, maybe even moreso. It's a family going through a messed up situation and feeling completely powerless while also uncovering secrets that they've kept from each other through the trauma. It's got this bizarre way of handling dialogue where everyone is hella straight forward even about crazy dark situations and stories. The backdrop is this crazy intense score that makes normal interactions feel like they're hiding something too. It's got Greek Tragedy vibes for me. It's a gut punch of a flick, slow burning but constantly escalating.
To summarize: So yeah, a lot of psychological trauma heavy horror for me this weekend and I mostly stumbled into it. I'd recommend all three flicks, just not in close proximity. I broke up my viewings with Guy Ritchie flicks and binge watching the new season of the Last Kingdom. Vivarium and Possessor were firestick finds while Killing of a Sacred Lamb is on Netflix.
