NealZ

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So this is the last movie for this challenge, and I was looking forward to it since Ravenous has been on my Watchlist forever, but oh man, I won't make friends with my opinion.

I don't know, but it just doesn't click. I saw many people arguing about the music, and I guess this was one of the main factors for me as well. I kept remembering those fake movie trailers where someone took a horror movie and made it into a comedy by recutting and changing the music. I feel like this was done here as well. There are scenes that seem to be full of tension and dread, but the music suggests something fun and silly. For me, it isn't really enough to show something funny. The rest has to align somehow as well. Other than the music, I did not feel any comedic aspect, but maybe it just passed me by.

The whole story is interesting, and I enjoyed that the wendigo was a big part of it, but other than telling a story and invoking the name, there was nothing else for me to hang on to. Just eating human flesh makes you strong and heals your wounds? And is it enough if you just taste some blood? Dunno, it all felt very strange and out of place. I did not even take something with it, It was just about killing each other, surviving, eating human flesh and killing each other again.

On paper, I think the movie works pretty well, and all the gore, the actors, the scenes, and everything else are good, but somehow it still felt lost for me. Maybe it's more suited for Americans who know stuff about their history (Donner Party).

Okay, I have to be honest here. Sadly, the internet broke down midway through the movie (about an hour into it), leaving me stranded alone on my couch just before things started to get intense. Up until that point, I was thoroughly engaged with the film. I don't know what exactly it was —the premise, the setting, the characters, the gore, the music, the sheer fun of it all, I enjoyed every aspect of it. So, I've decided to purchase it. Even though I don't know how it ends, I know I'll want to watch it more than once.

Aside from that, it's pretty much what you'd expect. A campy slasher flick set in a cinema with a variety of characters and a killer among them. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel; instead, it embraces the formula and adds its own twist to create its own little universe.

I was pleasantly surprised by how gory it was, in a good way. It's not gratuitous; rather, it fits seamlessly with the rest of the film. Plus, the occasional moments of humor and oddity provide a nice change of pace. I'm eagerly anticipating owning the Disc and finally seeing how it all wraps up. Hopefully, it won't alter my opinion of the film. Otherwise, I'll be back!

Edit: So I watched it now until the end, I have to say it just got better. Nasty gore and great early 90s vibe paired with the music make a very enjoyable slasher.

And another one for the 'oldest movies yet seen' list. I've already made it to 1931! But this time, I'm a little bit underwhelmed. Not because of how the movie was made, but more because of how the story was adapted. Although I'm not so familiar with the origin story, while watching, I had the feeling that something was off. I mean, he literally created a potion to make another self just so that he could cheat on his wife, kidnap a woman, and hurt her? And after that, he can claim he is innocent because it wasn't him. Are this his dark urges? I guess in the novel, this is very different. So why that approach? Dunno, maybe I understood it all wrong, but while watching, I couldn't really figure out what the goal was.

Apart from that, I have to highlight some practical effects, which are almost 100 years old and still work very well. The actors are doing a good job, and the overall experience was fine. It started quite interestingly, was weird in the middle, but the end was fitting. At least I will go and research a little bit more about the book because I want to know if I never really looked through the story or if it was just the movie that made it awkward.

I won't lie, I can't comprehend this movie after one watch. So this review will only be for that stuff my eyes saw and read. How the brain handled it all I can't say for sure, I think it's still lost in time and space.
I think what confused me most was the dialogue. Normally I guess books, poems, stories etc. are kinda translated to the screen. Sometimes there are instances where it is exactly copied from the source material, but this makes it often very hard to understand. This sends me immediately back to school, where I had to work for my understanding. With all the movies I am watching, I love it when I come across a movie like that again. Where I have to go much deeper into the material to at least get a small bit of clarity. This means it will stick for me for a couple of days, weeks or months. Sometimes even forever.

But all the stuff I did not understand beside, this movie is still a wonderful journey. The transition between scenes are mesmerizing and the whole atmosphere is abstract, dreamy and poetic. It's not really like watching a movie, more like a theater piece. So while not really understanding what was happening, it was nice to just give into it and follow Józef through his past and let the experience get a hold of you.

It takes a lot of patience to find
the right words in this confusion.
You can do it by grammatical
analysis of sentences and tenses.
I am, he is, she is...
You are, we are!
They are...

I loved Buffy the TV show back in the day. It even sparked my journey into physical collecting, as it was one of the first box sets I purchased. So, to some extent, I'm a bit baffled that I never saw the actual movie before. However, after watching it, I can guess why. It was kinda hard to get through. But maybe this would be different if I grew up with it. I understand that the movie encountered some obstacles while filming, and it wasn't what Whedon had intended, so it's no wonder it turned out the way it did. It felt like the movie wasn't sure what it wanted to be. It wasn't really really funny, never really scary, and neither really romantic nor sad. On the contrary, it was really stupid, and the masks, effects, and characters were just bad. It truly felt like a B-movie for TV. Personally, I think it could have been a very good slapstick-vampire-teen-comedy, but at times, it tried too hard to be something more. I guess I'll give it some extra credit for what it brought us in the end, and kudos to Whedon for not giving up and creating something different. I mean 7 seasons! And even if some parts of the TV show are hard to watch now, It still has a special place in my heart. But the movie does not :see_no_evil:

I can see what this was going for, but I have to say at that point I just can't take the "crazy" girlfriend and the shitty boyfriend routine anymore. All this not taking her seriously and telling her to relax, friends and family are not supporting her, and she and her feelings are all alone by herself. I know this is reality, but I've just seen this happening too much and it's just infuriating. For sure, this was what the movie was aiming for, and it's horrible, but at this point it just started to annoy me. Furthermore, the horror was present but more for the protagonist than for me as a viewer. Those jump scares and artificial bone cracking as much as the overly used character relation felt just too familiar. I liked the music, the creepy ass legless crawling lady, but even this was sometimes a little bit funny to watch, but other scenes worked pretty well. I guess I would have enjoyed it much more if it was just about her and her past and why she is struggling so much (for sure because of her relationship, but I would guess there was more). At the end of the day, I could not really dive into all of it, but I see why people don't felt that way.

How do I rate something so unique, I've never seen before? This movie is a pure psychological experience and a very different kind of body horror. First I was not very sure how much I like how the movie is made, but at the end of it I feel there was no other way to do it.

Sorry to deviate for a second, but while watching I was thinking of The OA and Hap and felt that this in a way could be his journey too. The sheer will to find an answer for something you can't explain, and getting deeper and deeper until the point of no return.

It didn't take too long, and I was fully invested in this story and even had the feeling to learn something, but definitely witnessed someone slowly getting more and more obsessed with something. After I watched an Interview with the director, the question came up what the moment was we realized that this man is now lost or getting out of control. And the answer differed from person to person. I like movies like that, where it is you who defines things for yourself, while you just can watch and witness what is happening.

One thing this movie made very special for me was its use of body horror. Usually the things we see there are on purpose gruesome and over the top gory to maximize the effect. But then I see someone cutting their toenails in High Definition or getting a close up of body parts, sweat and someone harvesting body fluids (try to imagine yourself what that means) and I am kinda more grossed out than ever.

On top there is the descent into madness which is so amazing orchestrated that I did not even notice it until it was too late. When a seemingly innocuous experiment starts to cross the lines between science and horror, and you find yourself in the middle of it. This alone gives so much to think about and discuss, I could talk about it for days.

All this stuff was packed into my favorite genre - found footage. That was the cherry on top of everything and in the end I just can try to explain my experience, but it could never reflect the feeling I had while and after watching this wonderful piece of media. Although I wonder how this video was made, since it was clearly edited but in the end it was still running. But ok, I give it the benefit of a doubt.

One question for everyone who watched it: Did he eat the fucking mouse head?

First time watch, and what can I say?

I FREAKING LOVE THIS MOVIE! Holy cow, what a wonderful, bizarre and heartbreaking story with stomach-churning gore and effects. Jeff Goldblum just owns this movie with his performance, and the goofiness and joy he plays this role is just contagious. I laughed, I cried, I was disgusted but also mesmerized. It is not a typical body horror movie with nasty effects. It is a story about love, acceptance, consequence, dreams and the search for one self.

"I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake."

And even for its almost 40 years of existence, this movie still works perfectly. It looks just amazing, the effects are timeless and the whole story is just so wonderfully sad that I have to revisit it on a yearly basis. It just got me in an instant and moved up to one of my absolute favorite horror movies of all time.

So if you did not see it before, do it now! And be sure to check out the deleted scenes on your Disc or the internet. Keywords: Monkey-Cat and Butterfly-Baby.

Last question: Where is the 4K transfer?!