Mark Kermode called horror films with long moments of nothing and occasional jump scares 'cattleprod cinema' because they are paint-by-numbers fare that has no wit, no engagement and no interest in any sort of thematic depth. But that's what many people think of when they think of horror films nowadays and that's terrible. We also shouldn't have to accept ludicrous notions like 'elevated/sophisticated horror'. Horror as a cinematic genre had tons of sophistication since its beginnings and, unlike the Western and a whole bunch of other genres, it has stuck around from the beginning of Cinema until today. It is also true that it is polarizing as a genre.
People can like junk food all they want and it's nice every now and then but it's not good for them to only eat junk food. All I ask of them is not to try to present me with a chocolate bar and convince me that eating chocolate all day is healthy...because it isn't.
Polarizing responses are actually quite good because it means that the quality, ideas and merits of the film (or lack thereof) will be debated for quite some time and that discussion might help keep the film in the public's consciousness and maybe over time the film might get reevaluated by the people who dislike it now.
Here is an extremely interesting, spoiler-filled discussion of the film between Mark Kermode and Robbie Collin who both had different reactions to the film:
I know I’ve already said it, but god this movie is heartbreaking. Once you get an opportunity to watch this again after the initial shock of terror and confusion is kind of gone, it hits very heavily. Seeing the characters spiral down like that is just shattering.
But the audience this time around was truly awful. During the last few minutes I felt so miserable and uncomfortable, and I don’t really know if it was the movie or the audience who made me feel that way.
I kind of... have a somewhat of an incoherent idea on why the audiences haven’t been responding to this very well and how it correlates to the horror genre and our lives in general, but it’s prob bull and I wouldn’t be able to communicate it well. lol
I know I’ve already said it, but god this movie is heartbreaking. Once you get an opportunity to watch this again after the initial shock of terror and confusion is kind of gone, it hits very heavily. Seeing the characters spiral down like that is just shattering.
But the audience this time around was truly awful. During the last few minutes I felt so miserable and uncomfortable, and I don’t really know if it was the movie or the audience who made me feel that way.
I kind of... have a somewhat of an incoherent idea on why the audiences haven’t been responding to this very well and how it correlates to the horror genre and our lives in general, but it’s prob bull and I wouldn’t be able to communicate it well. lol
I might have had too high expectations going into this, because I was kind of let down at the end. It's a good movie, but I do not understand the major praise it has gotten. Maybe it's just me.
The acting was incredible and the sound design and score haunting. But it just felt really cheap to me at so many times. How many slow push/pull shots were there? And how many times did the boy turn around slow as fuck to look at something out of frame? In the third act it was pretty much every single shot with him in it. There were also too much explanation going on. More 'show, don't tell' please.
I loved the first (and half the second) act, and had it been there in terms of pacing and level of craziness, then I think I would have loved it. Guess I just didn't expect it to dive so deep into the spiritism shit (which I'm usually not a fan of anyways). Maybe I expected it to be closer to Get Out or A Quiet Place where 90% of stuff that happens are 'normal' or just slightly odd, but this was too much silliness.
I'll give it a 7/10 which isn't bad, was just hoping for more.
Man I was really into this throughout. My kind of horror. Final sequence was... eh, still processing. Makes sense when you go back. But still not sure about it. On par with The Wailing honestly, in terms of how it made me feel and how it makes my skin crawl just thinking about sleeping tonight.
