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My movie-watching roll has slowed a little, but I've still watched a few things over the last couple of weeks. One I hated so much that I'm not even going to mention it here because I want to let the memory fade (probably nothing anyone else will have deep feelings about, just this Scandinavian horror flick my library streaming app happened to be promoting that hit some squicks I didn't know I had). The other three are below!
The Craft (1996): Well, we can add this to the list of things I'm glad I didn't get into back in high school. It would have been my whole personality for, like, a semester at least. I would have been even more insufferable than I was during my Buffy phase. New girl Sarah falls in with a clique of three witchy misfits who, empowered by her natural gift for the occult, start using magic to solve their problems in increasingly dangerous ways. This film is an utter delight. Extremely nineties, extremely teen angst (but in a fond, earnest way), too campy to be truly scary but with a really fun and satisfying horror aesthetic. I have so many feelings about those poor downtrodden, miserable girls who tasted power for the first time and went mad with it. There was also some very tempting hateshippy tension between Sarah and Nancy, the coven's leader. I had a feeling if I looked this up on AO3 it would prove to be one of those comparatively rare fandoms where F/F dominates, and I was right; there is nearly as much F/F as all other categories combined. (On the other hand, there are only 125 fics total, which feels very unfair. Filing it away in my mind as a Yuletide option for later this year.)
Ringu (1998): Ring fan mutuals, I'm so sorry, I have failed you. :( I think probably this one was just too similar to its remake for me to enjoy watching them this close together. There were parts I liked better in this older version - especially the close-ups on the dead faces instead of those annoying barely-visible flashes the 2002 version does, and the fact that the little boy seems happier and better-adjusted in this one - but the suspense wasn't there and the production was less glossy, and I ended up getting interrupted in the middle of the well-digging-out scene and haven't bothered to go back. I might try again in a few years once my memories have faded?
Wake Up Dead Man (2025): When cultish Catholic priest/culture warrior Monsignor Wicks is murdered, suspicion naturally falls on Father Jud, the recently assigned assistant priest who has made no secret of his opposition to Wicks' vicious preaching style. The brainwashed congregation all turn on him, but Detective Benoit Blanc is convinced of Father Jud's innocence and enlists his help to expose the true murderer.
I think this might be my favourite Benoit Blanc movie to date. It's not as clever as Knives Out or as funny as Glass Onion, but it has so much heart and soul and kindness to it, even and especially when its tongue is planted firmly in its cheek. It is neither pro- nor anti-Catholicism; Wicks is a vile character who embodies the bigoted, exploitative, self-aggrandising side of the Church, while Jud embodies the earnest love, faith and self-forgetfulness of the Church as it should be. Not to be weird about an imaginary Catholic priest but Jud is also kind of hot, in a vaguely Adam Driver-ish way that's mostly ears and angles. I enjoyed his screen presence a lot.
The Craft (1996): Well, we can add this to the list of things I'm glad I didn't get into back in high school. It would have been my whole personality for, like, a semester at least. I would have been even more insufferable than I was during my Buffy phase. New girl Sarah falls in with a clique of three witchy misfits who, empowered by her natural gift for the occult, start using magic to solve their problems in increasingly dangerous ways. This film is an utter delight. Extremely nineties, extremely teen angst (but in a fond, earnest way), too campy to be truly scary but with a really fun and satisfying horror aesthetic. I have so many feelings about those poor downtrodden, miserable girls who tasted power for the first time and went mad with it. There was also some very tempting hateshippy tension between Sarah and Nancy, the coven's leader. I had a feeling if I looked this up on AO3 it would prove to be one of those comparatively rare fandoms where F/F dominates, and I was right; there is nearly as much F/F as all other categories combined. (On the other hand, there are only 125 fics total, which feels very unfair. Filing it away in my mind as a Yuletide option for later this year.)
Ringu (1998): Ring fan mutuals, I'm so sorry, I have failed you. :( I think probably this one was just too similar to its remake for me to enjoy watching them this close together. There were parts I liked better in this older version - especially the close-ups on the dead faces instead of those annoying barely-visible flashes the 2002 version does, and the fact that the little boy seems happier and better-adjusted in this one - but the suspense wasn't there and the production was less glossy, and I ended up getting interrupted in the middle of the well-digging-out scene and haven't bothered to go back. I might try again in a few years once my memories have faded?
Wake Up Dead Man (2025): When cultish Catholic priest/culture warrior Monsignor Wicks is murdered, suspicion naturally falls on Father Jud, the recently assigned assistant priest who has made no secret of his opposition to Wicks' vicious preaching style. The brainwashed congregation all turn on him, but Detective Benoit Blanc is convinced of Father Jud's innocence and enlists his help to expose the true murderer.
I think this might be my favourite Benoit Blanc movie to date. It's not as clever as Knives Out or as funny as Glass Onion, but it has so much heart and soul and kindness to it, even and especially when its tongue is planted firmly in its cheek. It is neither pro- nor anti-Catholicism; Wicks is a vile character who embodies the bigoted, exploitative, self-aggrandising side of the Church, while Jud embodies the earnest love, faith and self-forgetfulness of the Church as it should be. Not to be weird about an imaginary Catholic priest but Jud is also kind of hot, in a vaguely Adam Driver-ish way that's mostly ears and angles. I enjoyed his screen presence a lot.
