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Two of these are classic horror movies. One is ??? probably horror but no one's saying it with their chests. One is a biographical crime drama that's not actually horror at all, but it's about a female serial killer, so for the purposes of this post it squeaks in.
The Lighthouse (2019): Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are 19th century lighthouse keepers who go nuts while keeping their lighthouse. This is a critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning movie, and I am sorry to say that I heartily disliked it; imo it was one of those works of art that is so busy being clever and referential, it forgets to actually say a single word for itself. The production was gorgeous, though. It was shot in black and white with an unusual squarish ratio and the soundtrack was absolutely exquisite: grinding, ominious music; long silences; the endless beating of the sea and the violent, maddening blare of the lighthouse's foghorn. Enjoyable aesthetic experience. Plot-wise, fuck no.
Monster (2003): This is a biopic about Aileen Wuornos, an American serial killer who was executed in 2002 for the murders of seven men who picked her up for sex along highways in Florida. Possibly one of the most harrowing, heartstring-tugging things I have ever watched? Charlize Theron plays Wuornos with a desperately traumatised intensity as she pins all her hopes for love and salvation on her girlfriend Selby, who expects her to support them both through sex work while turning a blind eye both to the terrifying sexual violence Wuornos faces out on the streets and to the brutality of the solution she has found for her own safety. (Selby has her own issues: she's a young lesbian from an extremely strict, repressive middle-class Christian family. She is hopelessly naive and sheltered, completely unequipped to support herself alone but forced to leave her whole support network behind due to their homophobia.)
It doesn't feel right to have ~opinions on something that is true crime based, with families of victims still living. So all I'll say is that I can't actually imagine a version of the Aileen Wuornos story that wouldn't leave me feeling a high degree of heartache for her, whether she killed all those men because they tried to rape her (as she claimed) or out of pure hatred and greed. I daresay I'd be consumed by hate too if I'd led Wuornos' life.
The Fog (1980): On a small US coastal town's one hundredth anniversary, a mysterious supernatural fog rolls in to wreak vengeance for the sins of the founders. This is a fun, silly ghost story with a likeable main cast and some immaculate spooky vibes. I don't have much to say. The villains are ( SPOILER ) and I switched my brain off and enjoyed.
The Exorcist (1973): Twelve-year-old Regan gets possessed by a demon; her desperate mother, tired of endless rounds of agonising medical tests and psychiatric appointments that lead nowhere, finally enlists a Catholic priest to exorcise her. Father Karras has been suffering a crisis of faith, but helping Regan reignites the spark of his vocation. This is a wonderful, psychologically rich and nuanced film with a cast who are all impressively well developed; a lot is going on in their lives, and the plot is a little slow to start because of the time we spend getting to know them first, but I definitely don't think it was time wasted. Father Karras had an electric screen presence; every second he was on screen, my eyes were glued to him. (He was also a sad man with floppy dark hair who could throw a punch, so consider this parenthesis to be my legally mandated disclosure of bias. I am probably not eligible to serve on this jury.) I also loved Regan's mother Chris, and everything about the portrayal of Chris and Regan's mother-daughter relationship: Chris is a single mum with a busy career as a successful actress who relies on a great deal of hired help for childcare and home maintenance, but she is also shown to be a devoted mother. She and Regan deeply love, trust and moreover clearly like each other, and the movie manifested exactly none of the Oh No Working Mothers handwringing I was braced for when she was first introduced.
I did not, regrettably, find The Exorcist very scary, and am metaphorically pouring one out for it and all the other trailblazing movies that get so unfairly eclipsed by later, lesser movies rolling their flashy cars down that nice pre-blazed trail. I've seen all these scares before, and I haven't even been watching horror for that long. It has been too influential and as a sad result I'm too desensitised to fully enter into its intended atmosphere of supernatural terror. But even with all the shock value stripped away, it's still a genuinely excellent film that I'm glad to have watched and can see myself watching again. (And okay, fine, the crucifix masturbation scene did give me one decent-sized scare.)
The Lighthouse (2019): Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are 19th century lighthouse keepers who go nuts while keeping their lighthouse. This is a critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning movie, and I am sorry to say that I heartily disliked it; imo it was one of those works of art that is so busy being clever and referential, it forgets to actually say a single word for itself. The production was gorgeous, though. It was shot in black and white with an unusual squarish ratio and the soundtrack was absolutely exquisite: grinding, ominious music; long silences; the endless beating of the sea and the violent, maddening blare of the lighthouse's foghorn. Enjoyable aesthetic experience. Plot-wise, fuck no.
Monster (2003): This is a biopic about Aileen Wuornos, an American serial killer who was executed in 2002 for the murders of seven men who picked her up for sex along highways in Florida. Possibly one of the most harrowing, heartstring-tugging things I have ever watched? Charlize Theron plays Wuornos with a desperately traumatised intensity as she pins all her hopes for love and salvation on her girlfriend Selby, who expects her to support them both through sex work while turning a blind eye both to the terrifying sexual violence Wuornos faces out on the streets and to the brutality of the solution she has found for her own safety. (Selby has her own issues: she's a young lesbian from an extremely strict, repressive middle-class Christian family. She is hopelessly naive and sheltered, completely unequipped to support herself alone but forced to leave her whole support network behind due to their homophobia.)
It doesn't feel right to have ~opinions on something that is true crime based, with families of victims still living. So all I'll say is that I can't actually imagine a version of the Aileen Wuornos story that wouldn't leave me feeling a high degree of heartache for her, whether she killed all those men because they tried to rape her (as she claimed) or out of pure hatred and greed. I daresay I'd be consumed by hate too if I'd led Wuornos' life.
The Fog (1980): On a small US coastal town's one hundredth anniversary, a mysterious supernatural fog rolls in to wreak vengeance for the sins of the founders. This is a fun, silly ghost story with a likeable main cast and some immaculate spooky vibes. I don't have much to say. The villains are ( SPOILER ) and I switched my brain off and enjoyed.
The Exorcist (1973): Twelve-year-old Regan gets possessed by a demon; her desperate mother, tired of endless rounds of agonising medical tests and psychiatric appointments that lead nowhere, finally enlists a Catholic priest to exorcise her. Father Karras has been suffering a crisis of faith, but helping Regan reignites the spark of his vocation. This is a wonderful, psychologically rich and nuanced film with a cast who are all impressively well developed; a lot is going on in their lives, and the plot is a little slow to start because of the time we spend getting to know them first, but I definitely don't think it was time wasted. Father Karras had an electric screen presence; every second he was on screen, my eyes were glued to him. (He was also a sad man with floppy dark hair who could throw a punch, so consider this parenthesis to be my legally mandated disclosure of bias. I am probably not eligible to serve on this jury.) I also loved Regan's mother Chris, and everything about the portrayal of Chris and Regan's mother-daughter relationship: Chris is a single mum with a busy career as a successful actress who relies on a great deal of hired help for childcare and home maintenance, but she is also shown to be a devoted mother. She and Regan deeply love, trust and moreover clearly like each other, and the movie manifested exactly none of the Oh No Working Mothers handwringing I was braced for when she was first introduced.
I did not, regrettably, find The Exorcist very scary, and am metaphorically pouring one out for it and all the other trailblazing movies that get so unfairly eclipsed by later, lesser movies rolling their flashy cars down that nice pre-blazed trail. I've seen all these scares before, and I haven't even been watching horror for that long. It has been too influential and as a sad result I'm too desensitised to fully enter into its intended atmosphere of supernatural terror. But even with all the shock value stripped away, it's still a genuinely excellent film that I'm glad to have watched and can see myself watching again. (And okay, fine, the crucifix masturbation scene did give me one decent-sized scare.)
