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Oct. 16th, 2019 09:44 pmHad a couple picture-perfect fall days and now it's all November weather in October: gray and drippy. Which, hey--I'll take what I can get. Also! There's been progress on the list of horror-ish movies.
I planned on starting with The Witch, since it's the only one still available on Netflix. Of course then I decided that I didn't really want to watch it that much, since I'd already rewatched it some time back in August or September and also it's the kind of movie you need to be in just the right mood for. Anyway, I poked around on Netflix and decided to try The Ravenous, which is a French-language Canadian zombie movie that's kind of one part artsy Walking Dead and one part the single Catherynne M. Valenete short story I've ever clicked with, The Days of Flaming Motorcycles. People get chomped up and strange, maybe-altars of random household objects get built, and it was all very good and very, very understated, to the point that you wish it weren't quite so understated. (I especially would've liked more elaboration on the found-family dynamic that develops between the two main characters and the little girl they rescue from an abandoned farmhouse--it's supposed to be the heart of the movie [I think?], and it's great for what it is, but still. So. Understated.)
And then I finally checked Midsommar off my list of movies-everyone-keeps-telling-me-to-watch-and-I-really-should-watch. It was very long (I think I might have rented the extended cut by accident)! It could've been shorter! It was also gorgeous, and brutal and nasty in a way that got under my skin and that I'm still thinking about, which was all I wanted out of it to begin with. Dani was fantastic. Christian was pitiable in the end even though honestly I had zero interest in him otherwise. Pelle was pretty much your ideal romance-novel boyfriend, if your ideal romance-novel boyfriend was also part of a trippy Swedish death cult. I don't quite buy that the ending leaves Dani any more empowered than she was to begin with (because, well, trippy Swedish death cults), but it does leave her free of Christian, and even though the movie's not not saying anything about her empowerment, I don't think, I also don't think it's especially interested in boiling itself down into one easy theme or interpretation. (I also think that I just got through midterms week and even if there is One True Theme, I'm way too much of a wreck to find it.)
I planned on starting with The Witch, since it's the only one still available on Netflix. Of course then I decided that I didn't really want to watch it that much, since I'd already rewatched it some time back in August or September and also it's the kind of movie you need to be in just the right mood for. Anyway, I poked around on Netflix and decided to try The Ravenous, which is a French-language Canadian zombie movie that's kind of one part artsy Walking Dead and one part the single Catherynne M. Valenete short story I've ever clicked with, The Days of Flaming Motorcycles. People get chomped up and strange, maybe-altars of random household objects get built, and it was all very good and very, very understated, to the point that you wish it weren't quite so understated. (I especially would've liked more elaboration on the found-family dynamic that develops between the two main characters and the little girl they rescue from an abandoned farmhouse--it's supposed to be the heart of the movie [I think?], and it's great for what it is, but still. So. Understated.)
And then I finally checked Midsommar off my list of movies-everyone-keeps-telling-me-to-watch-and-I-really-should-watch. It was very long (I think I might have rented the extended cut by accident)! It could've been shorter! It was also gorgeous, and brutal and nasty in a way that got under my skin and that I'm still thinking about, which was all I wanted out of it to begin with. Dani was fantastic. Christian was pitiable in the end even though honestly I had zero interest in him otherwise. Pelle was pretty much your ideal romance-novel boyfriend, if your ideal romance-novel boyfriend was also part of a trippy Swedish death cult. I don't quite buy that the ending leaves Dani any more empowered than she was to begin with (because, well, trippy Swedish death cults), but it does leave her free of Christian, and even though the movie's not not saying anything about her empowerment, I don't think, I also don't think it's especially interested in boiling itself down into one easy theme or interpretation. (I also think that I just got through midterms week and even if there is One True Theme, I'm way too much of a wreck to find it.)