For the last blog post of the semester, I wanted to do something special. So today, I have 3 films from one of my favorite genres, Horror. Don't worry, I will continue to write after the semester is over and introduce some new ideas to the blog.
Coraline
"When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked-up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her."(Letterboxd)
From the director of one of my favorite animated flicks, The Nightmare Before Christmas, comes Coraline, a charming and spooky modern fairy tale with gorgeous stop-motion animation.
Henry Selick is a master of stop motion and it continues to show in Coraline. So many sequences in this film look absolutely incredible. The animation prowess is especially shown when the other world begins collapsing. The absurd amount of detail present in how the world unravels and fades away is nothing short of astounding. My jaw was on the floor multiple times due to how good the animation is.
While this film isn't really a horror film, it still has a lot of horror elements. It has that spooky vibe similar to a ghost story. And the scenes in the other world also have this unnerving feel to them. Like something is just not right. Of course, I have to talk about the sinister "other mother". Her subtle manipulation of Coraline and the other children before her is nothing short of terrifying. She knows so much about Coraline, which indicates that she is watching Coraline at all times. And her spider-like transformation at the end of the film is pretty creepy.
The script is super tight with no filler dialogue or unnecessary exposition dumps. The film expertly balances comedy, drama, and horror in a way that's very hard for most other movies. There are a lot of funny bits in this movie that pleasantly surprised me.
The script is excellently delivered by the film's fantastic voice cast. Every single actor brings tons of personality and energy into their characters. Dakota Fanning does an especially great job as Coraline. She imbues the character with a rambunctious and sassy feel that is a nice break from the darker moments of the film.
A phenomenal stop-motion film with a dark but endearing story.
Score 8.5/10
The Blair Witch Project
"In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found."(Letterboxd)
I already know this film can be divisive. Some people absolutely love it and others despise it with every fiber of their being. As for me, I'm leaning toward the love side.
The cinematography is shockingly great. The movement of the camera is intentional, but they don't feel that way which is very impressive. The film only shows bits and pieces of the forest around them, never giving us a full look through the woods.
Compared to other found footage films, this one feels the most authentic. Everyone acts like normal people. The main three feel like actual college students getting lost in the woods. This adds to that feeling of authenticity.
The film doesn't utilize obnoxious jump scares at any point which was incredibly refreshing. Instead, the film focuses on the atmosphere of the woods and how it affects our main characters.
The real horror of the film isn't the witch, it's the rapid descent into madness that grips our three main characters. At the beginning of the film, Heather, Mike, and Josh are just normal film students. Their journey into the woods is essentially a death march leading them to their unavoidable doom. They antagonize each other throughout the trip and just get worse and worse until the end of the film. The breaking down of their minds is where most of the horror comes from.
Of course, that horror comes directly from the great acting of all three main characters. All three do a fantastic job of portraying their anger and fear toward each other and the circumstances around them.
I love how the film doesn't answer any of the audience's questions. It doesn't tell us if the witch exists or if some random people are messing with them, or any other possible answer to the events in the movie. The film presents multiple possibilities for the answer, but never directly provides one. This adds to the horror of the film because your brain will inevitably try to fill in the gaps and likely come up with something for terrifying than what the film could portray.
I can see how some may not like this film, but I personally love it.
Score: 8.5/10
Sweet Home
(Only trailer I could find that advertises both the movie and NES/Famicom tie-in game. For this review, I will be focusing on the movie)
"A TV production crew are making a documentary about the infamous painter Mamiya Ichiro. When they start filming at his old home, they come under attack from the ghost of the painter’s wife."(Letterboxd)
Probably the most obscure film I've reviewed so far, but still influential in a big way. This film and its tie-in video game were the direct inspiration for the first Resident Evil game. However, the game serves as the bigger inspiration of the two. Still, there is a distinct similarity in the settings of both properties and the sinister forces that roam within those settings. Although, instead of zombies and mutants, Sweet Home goes for a more supernatural angle.
The ghost of Mrs. Mamiya takes the form of the shadows of the house for most of the movie. I think that is a super unique way to portray a haunting. She does have a ghastly ghost form at the end which also looks phenomenal.
The practical effects and set design in this movie are the stars of the show. The mansion feels so distinct from other similar settings in other horror movies. The lighting hides so much of it from sight that we only bits and pieces of the house. Even at the end of the movie, I wasn't at all familiar with the mansion or its layout. It feels like another world entirely, separated from normal reality. This film does a great job of using its atmosphere to make the audience scared, rather than using cheap jump scares.
There are a few jumpscares, but they feel earned and properly build up tension. It also helped that they aren't accompanied by a generic scream or loud booming sound effect.
And those practical effects are fantastic. The melting bodies of a few of the mansion's victims were simultaneously disturbing and incredibly impressive at the same time. And the final appearance of Mrs. Mamiya's ghastly form rendered with a full puppet was nothing short of incredible. The great effects are attributed to Dick Smith, a makeup artist for films such as The Exorcist.
The music is another standout. While the music at the beginning is way too upbeat and happy, it gets much more moody and creepy towards the middle of the film. That's when it really gives me the vibe of the earlier Resident Evil soundtracks which I love. I love how it sounds, especially in the climax.
The weakest part of the film was definitely the characters. They all felt very flat with little personality. I did like the father-daughter relationship between the main characters and the final girl Akiko was fun to watch. Also, the pacing at the beginning is a bit too slow and some of it could have been cut out.
I did enjoy this movie, but I think that the characters and pacing could have been a bit better.
Score: 7/10
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