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Reviews
The Nightingale (2018)
Unexpectedly fresh take on the "overcoming prejudices" trope
I love the dynamic between the two leads. Very quickly Clare and Billy get past their respective racisms. Clare starts out unabashedly racist, which is rare in a protagonist. Billy too is understandably weary of whites. They are both mutually adversarial, but slowly come to realize that they are not so different after all, and that they both have suffered under the heel of the British. Few things are so effective in unifying different people than common hatred.
Beyond that, the movie looks gorgeous. Natural, but at the same time different, largely because of the unique aspect ratio.
The story is brutal, but in a disturbingly matter of fact way. Sometimes the antagonists straddle the line between comically evil and believable, but then again so I imagine many real people did in 19th century Australia.
I loved that they included some of the aboriginal spiritualism and ritualism in there. The only thing I can point to that I didn't like is the length. It could have been 20-30 minutes shorter without losing much.
Eli (2019)
Original and effective even as the first two acts follow the tropes
I won't spoil anything, but I will say that 'Eli' has horror elements that I have never seen before. It's competent through to the end, where it straddles the line between originality and goofiness. But even this was done well enough to where I chose to look past the goofiness.
While the setting of an old house is standard horror fare, the set up, not to mention the good child acting, are not. Eli is not high-culture horror. It's a good old fashioned horror movie done in a unique way. I had no idea what to expect, especially given that it just popped up on netflix, but for once I walked away really happy that I took a chance on a netflix horror movie.
Climax (2018)
Surreal but realistic horror which exceeded my low expectations.
In a lot of discussions, people will explain that they find movies about break-ins, serial-killers, torturers and the generally non-supernatural as scarier than movies about supernatural evil. I have always disagreed, until I watched this movie.
I expected some sort of horror show. Instead I got a slow (very slow) descent into madness. While I think the movie could have lost 20-40 minutes easy, I did enjoy it more than I expected. Losing control of my mind is much scarier than an intruder. There's bottomless horror there that you can do nothing about but endure and hope to retain your sanity.
The cinematography is never boring. Most shots are long and mesmerizing. I often caught myself wondering how long a shot had lasted, only for it to just continue.
There were a couple of great horrifying moments in the movie, which I will not spoil. But the pacing detracts from my overall enjoyment. The middle is great, everything else dragged.
The Wind (2018)
Disappointing
I had high hopes for this movie. The trailer reminded me of The Witch (2015), which is one of my favorite horror movies. But The Wind never grabbed my attention. I told myself that it only had a slow start, but by the end I was simply waiting for it to be over. I thought the two main leads had good performances. I haven't seen Ashley Zukerman in much, but I loved him in Manhattan.
The cinematography was good, some silhouetted shots stood out. The music, especially when something scary happened, didn't really fit.
The story grabbed me at points, trying to uncover the puzzle. But there's really not much to it. If you go in with lowered expectations, and you're into the idea of a slow horror mystery, then there might be something for you here. Otherwise I wouldn't really recommend it.