Monday, March 16, 2009

An OK scary movie

I heard a lot about Them ( not the giant ant movie) a French horror movie set in Romania. I thought it was reasonably entertaining, not great, but was reasonable. The movie centers on a French couple living in a large dilapidated mansion in a Romanian forest. They have a nice evening together and then some strangers attack the house. They hide and then flee and terrible events occur. It was nicely atmospheric, but the ending wasn't as shocking as it was supposed to be. For a better claustrophobic horror movie, check Neil Marshall's The Descent.

I quite liked the medium for watching the movie though. I used the streaming feature on Netflix and it was great. The stream was quick and the video quality was decent, certainly good enough. I will be doing that again.

12 comments:

Jen said...

Did you hear that there is a Descent 2 in the works?

Tripp said...

I did, and I must confess I am worried. My main concern is that it will spoil the ambiguity of the movie's ending.

Did you see Descent?

Jen said...

Yeah, I did. And I love it. Its plot holes aside, it's a very terse & tense horror movie. And psychologically, it's nearly pitch-perfect.

I agree wholeheartedly about the fears of the sequel spoiling the ambiguity of the ending. Just curious though, did you see the US or UK release?

Tripp said...

I saw the UK version, as I waited for DVD. US studios must think American audiences are afraid of nuance.

"Terse & tense," well stated.

Jen said...

I agree (re: the US version) - although I heard in the director commentary that he was okay with the US ending because it evoked that Texas Chainsaw Massacre feeling: yeah, she got away, but she was utterly broken.

There has been a dearth of good horror movies lately. Which is sad.

Have you ever seen the original Black Christmas? Probably my favorite horror movie ever.

Tripp said...

Yes, the horror movie field is poor at the moment. I am hopeful though. The torture porn movement appears to have died and the trend is towards scares over gore. No gems yet, but the direction is good.

The original Black Christmas is my favorite as well! Billy's voice is so creepy and that ending! It was perfect visually and aurally.

Jen said...

Everyone I have shown Black Christmas to jumps at the hair-pulling scene, men & women both.

That and the close-up shot of the eye--chilling!

But yeah, Billy's voice is extremely creepy.

Man. We have awesome taste!

Tripp said...

Ah, the eyeball, it is incredible how mad it looks. The actor really managed to get lunacy in a tiny space. The sound helped too.

Yes, we truly are blessed with fine taste.

Jen said...

Oh, I meant to ask if you have seen "Let the Right One In" -- I saw it in January and started reading the book several days ago. So far, the book is good. I loved the movie; highly recommended.

Tripp said...

I haven't although I really want to see it. I have been waiting to read the book first. I would rather the movie than the book be spoiled, but based on your "good" versus "loved" maybe I should just go see the movie.

Jen said...

Well, I won't say I loved a book until I'm finished with it -- so that's the primary reason for the difference. But so far, it is quite good. Much less genre than I'd anticipated (not that genre is a bad thing, it's just not what I'd have expected).

But I found the movie absolutely wonderful and would definitely recommend starting with it, especially if you're back-logged with books. It (the movie) made me want to re-read Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation.

Tripp said...

Wow, I know it is from the thoughtful Swedes, but it is rare for a horror film/book to drive you to read philosophy. Must be a good one!

OK, I am going to go ahead and Netflix the movie.