Kicking starting the horror season early because I skipped it last year!

THOUGHTS

I wish I hadnt already had the majority of Barbarian spoiled because I think the unspooling was probably SOMETHING

I actually think Barbarian ruled

I've seen a handful of articles desperately trying to reverse engineer it into elevated horror and I'm like

bro

a horror movie can be good without being "prestige"

and this movie was NOT ELEVATED

If anything it an extreme throwback, breaking out all the tropes, but in reall smart, unexpected ways. It also feels like it knows it's kind of dumb and absurd and is completely unashamed of that fact

Once again I am imploring non horror fan film writers to not write about horror the way they do

Barb literally has a shot of Jane Eyre one scene, and that's intentionally hamfisted, not Deep

the scrabbling to assign prestige to even schlocky movies that have a budget and are just....well made? implies a lack of understanding that virtually every horror movie ever made is

a PILE of metaphors and social commentary

that's just, horror

Right? Metaphors are not unique to prestige horror

absolutely not. you can tell when someone is new to horror when they think THATS what defines prestige horror

this movie felt like a big homage to Wes Craven tbh, all the same notes: Really Fucked Up, really weird, lots of broad, obvious social commentary, VERY FUNNY

I was surprised by how funny and satirical it was!

barbarian was really good but it was not elevated HAHAHA

I really liked Barbarian, but I agree with you in a lot of ways it's more like a getting back to basics horror movie. Which isn't bad! It's just like, we are going to blatantly wallow in our barely veiled symbolism.

YEAH LMAO

it simply. had a budget

SKINAMARINK ON THE OTHER HAND

I did know the general vibe but honestly I was still surprised by

HOW inaccessible and weird it was

I cant say I LOVED it but I liked it and i really respect it

no one could possibly be prepared for how uninterested in being a regular movie that film is LMAO

It definitely is not like anything I've ever seen and is extremely evocative of both being a child and the almost impossible to capture surrealism of dreams and memory

the more I sit with it the more I'm like wow

the balls on that director

I also watched Birdbox!

which was solid, a fun time. Defintiely not GREAT but it was like, if The Quiet Place was the movie it wanted to be

I do think I'll watch Bird Box Barcelona

god that is. a perfect description of birdbox i think yeah

YEAH big same feels on skinamarink. i got really attached to it for a film that i don't know that i actually enjoyed

YEAH exactly

its definitely a film that I will be thinking about for awhile and maybe an interesting foray into like....movies that arent really intended to be "enjoyed"?

at least not in any conventional sense

I almost thought I was gonna bounce like 20 mins in

it's so assaulting to everything we expect of....a movie

it's hard not to get a sort of Overly Esoteric Student Film reaction from it but

I think that's a disservice

theres also something to be said for the fact that unlike a lot of experimental indie horror that blow up, and are subsequently retread over and over (see like, Blair Witch or Paranomal Activity)

I dont....see this movie being something we're going to be seeing a lot more of

at least not in mainstream spaces