Glad I take Trakt.tv comments with a grain of salt because this movie was quite literally a work of art. I’m a sucker for anything that toes the line of cosmic horror and Jordan did this beautifully.
Even without listing off metaphors or “you just don’t get it” statements this film stands alone as a slow burn tension building horror/scifi epic. As long as you’re willing to accept not every question needs an answer, and not every “otherworldly thing” needs an origin story, this should be a fun ride for you. This checked all the boxes of what I want in an alien movie for me.
Rated it a 9, but so close to a perfect 10. There were some odd character choices and I do think it’s about 30 minutes too long but I found myself not wanting it to end by the final act anyhow. SO GOOD!
It's been a while since I watched this movie and I was genuinely surprised that I thought I liked it. I mean, I'm also the first to admit to be easily distracted by beautiful cinematography, music scores and actors I enjoy seeing (Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson really are exceptional and hold at least half of the movie together with their acting!) and I think those three aspects are what I remember liking, because the plot is.. questionable on many different levels.
For me personally this is also a great example for how much I learned in the past couple of years about portrayal of violence against women or how rape/murder of women are used as plot devices - and frankly, I don't want to see it anymore, especially when it's done in such a glorifying, male-gazey and sexualized way.
The most infuriating thing in this movie though, is the fact that it implies Susan (Amy Adams) deserves to be punished and unhappy because she divorced her husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) and unknowingly to him aborted their child. And then nineteen years later her then ex-husband sends her the manuscript for his novel in which he shows how her choices/decisions back then made him feel by comparig it to the rape and murder of his fictional wife and daughter?
Anyway, I'm kind of curious to read the 1993 novel this movie is based on ("Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright), just to see how everything is handled in there..
