Shout by Sandra Crespo Sanchez
VIP8I had high hopes for this movie since it has two of my favorite people in it but I was still surprised by how great the movie was. Funny, smart and elegant both in cinematography and writing, it’s just amazing. I won’t stop recommending it.
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This was my experience exactly! I couldn't resist Kendrick and Lively working together, and in a mystery! I thought it was awesome, loved the ending and the aftermath, and I have finished not 5 minutes ago and already recommended it to 4 other people!
If I was 12 and it was 1986 I'd have given it a 9/10 and watched it again already
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@mr-sackamano Right? As an adult, it feels pretty clear that I'm not the targetted audience, but my inner-tween definitely appreciated it! :)
This is a very gross movie. Really, really gross. Just remembering makes me shudder.
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@talifreya People drooling, spitting, picking their nose, etc. It's a lot of it! Things I particularly rather not watch people doing.
Shout by Sandra Crespo Sanchez
VIP8I really hated this movie, the characters were poorly constructed, especially the male characters. All of them manipulate Elle throughout the whole movie, telling her what to do and pushing her around when it suit them.
The worst part for me though was how lightly they treated Noah’s violent side. Lee wondering if he had hit Elle was incredibly painful to watch, and when he slams the car to make her come inside she really does seem frightened. He is a violent character that doesn’t change at all, just says a few nice words at the end to “make up for everything”. Lee gets some sort of redemption by helping Elle, but Noah doesn’t, and I don’t think that’s the message we want kids to get from movies like this one, that your boyfriend loves you because he gets into fights “for you” or that he manipulating you and other people around you is something sweet and a proof of how much he cares about you. That’s wrong, and this movie take on that is completely horrible and misleading.loading replies
@sandrac13 I really hated how they tried to make the "He gets into a fight for me" thing seem romantic and caring. Truth is, when a person is violent with others, they will eventually turn their violence to the ones they love, if they do not get it checked.
Most of the fiction I've been exposed to involving Puritanism and witchcraft has revolved around the idea that the hysteria surrounding witchcraft in the New World birthed a greater evil than any actual witchcraft ever did. What Robert Eggers' debut film does so masterfully is blend the human frailties that come to the fore when witchcraft-related hysteria emerges with a palpable, thick and dread-filled evil that soaks into the entire film.
Much has been written of the lengths Eggers and his crew went to to ensure historical accuracy and they certainly do a magnificent job of creating an ambiance that never allowed me to relax while watching. The characters speak in quasi-Biblical tongues, their hair lank, their countenances sullen. It's a hard life they've chosen for themselves and it's made all the harder when Samuel, a baby, disappears.
The titular witch is used sparingly and two of her three appearances are images that will stay with me for a long, long time. Eggers does well to find a balance between not showing too much and showing enough to suggest a horror beyond what's shown directly: blood and fat, pale moonlight on gnarled skin, a weathered hand.
The cast are all extraordinarily committed and I admired just about every performance in the film. I was especially impressed by Harvey Scrimshaw - he perfectly plays a young man on the cusp of adolescence, questioning himself, his religion and the environment around him. The ensemble scene around him while he suffers from possession is the high point of the film and this is in no small part because of his staggering performance, veering from thrashing in the throes of a fit to religious ecstasy.
There was one point in the film where I was given a fright outright but what's so effective is the atmosphere of dread that's slowly and carefully increased throughout. I've been thinking about the film for days, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. Many commentators, on the site and others, were sorely disappointed that it didn't reflect the more prevalent trends in horror at the moment but I'm glad that this film has carried on a tradition of horror that seeps its way into your consciousness and stays.
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@smuainteach About your comment on the appearance of the witch - I think the title refers to Thomasin and her becoming rather than the old lady. I mean, it's Thomasin's story, is it not? That witch was just an element of it, but not THE witch it is really about. At least that's how I understood it.
