Nice work, Keith. To me, the most harrowing - and thematically on-point - moment is when Carla says, in so many words, that's she's just going to live with it and placate the entity. It's crushingly sad.
One of the few great paranormal horror films. Partly because even if it was all in her head the dismissal and victim blaming would still be terrible,. The entity would still be something out of her control, which I think is what leads to paranormal explanations in the real world: because it's so hard otherwise to express that it's not the sufferers' fault.
If you haven't already seen it, I recommend Peter Tscherkassky's short film Outer Space, in which he takes a spool of film from The Entity (one of the attack sequences) and physically manipulates it until it turns into something out of a raging nightmare. It's one of the best evocations of pure cinematic aggression I've ever seen.
This was on my list too after reading about it in a brief mention in Ebert's review of Prince Of Darkness, which I rewatched last year. Since I saw your post I bumped it up and watched it yesterday. I liked it a lot, but it rang a little false to me that she wouldn't have that moment of confirmation after her kids witnessed the attack, and it took the attack at her friend's house later later. We don't even see the kids' reaction in the aftermath, as the movie cuts immediately to the tribunal you describe. That's a great scene, of course, but I think Bill's witnessing would have been validation enough for her.
As someone who likes to imagine how you'd catch the demon from Fallen or the thing from It Follows if you had a budget and a crew, I loved the finale.
Scott prompted us to share some obscure recommendations, so:
One Cut Of The Dead - don't read about it, just watch it, and don't give up before the 35-minute mark if you start it and wonder why anyone would recommend it.
Come True - A movie I love but also I have so many notes, mainly around the ending. But everything leading up to that is really strong, lots of Carpenter vibes.
Lo - No idea where you'd find this now. I found it randomly on Netflix one night when you could do that sort of thing with Netflix. It's like a John Constantine story told by theater kids.
And why not, four more zombie movies:
Little Monsters - Lupito Nyong'o is so good in this and I feel like I'm the only one who's seen it. Not to be confused with the Fred Savage / Howie Mandel movie that used to be on TV all the time when I was a kid and I should probably revisit as an adult.
Night Eats The World - I loved this French zombie movie because the protagonist does what I'd do: just stay in your apartment while everyone else runs out and gets eaten.
The Girl With All The Gifts - Takes a lot of swings with the standard zombie formula and the Lone Wolf and Cub formula that is so popular these days.
Ravenous (Les Affamés) - Not to be confused with the Antonia Bird black comedy, this is a French Canadian zombie movie with an unsettling mood and and a unique kind of zombie.
Nice work, Keith. To me, the most harrowing - and thematically on-point - moment is when Carla says, in so many words, that's she's just going to live with it and placate the entity. It's crushingly sad.
One of the few great paranormal horror films. Partly because even if it was all in her head the dismissal and victim blaming would still be terrible,. The entity would still be something out of her control, which I think is what leads to paranormal explanations in the real world: because it's so hard otherwise to express that it's not the sufferers' fault.
If you haven't already seen it, I recommend Peter Tscherkassky's short film Outer Space, in which he takes a spool of film from The Entity (one of the attack sequences) and physically manipulates it until it turns into something out of a raging nightmare. It's one of the best evocations of pure cinematic aggression I've ever seen.
This was on my list too after reading about it in a brief mention in Ebert's review of Prince Of Darkness, which I rewatched last year. Since I saw your post I bumped it up and watched it yesterday. I liked it a lot, but it rang a little false to me that she wouldn't have that moment of confirmation after her kids witnessed the attack, and it took the attack at her friend's house later later. We don't even see the kids' reaction in the aftermath, as the movie cuts immediately to the tribunal you describe. That's a great scene, of course, but I think Bill's witnessing would have been validation enough for her.
As someone who likes to imagine how you'd catch the demon from Fallen or the thing from It Follows if you had a budget and a crew, I loved the finale.
Scott prompted us to share some obscure recommendations, so:
One Cut Of The Dead - don't read about it, just watch it, and don't give up before the 35-minute mark if you start it and wonder why anyone would recommend it.
Come True - A movie I love but also I have so many notes, mainly around the ending. But everything leading up to that is really strong, lots of Carpenter vibes.
Lo - No idea where you'd find this now. I found it randomly on Netflix one night when you could do that sort of thing with Netflix. It's like a John Constantine story told by theater kids.
And why not, four more zombie movies:
Little Monsters - Lupito Nyong'o is so good in this and I feel like I'm the only one who's seen it. Not to be confused with the Fred Savage / Howie Mandel movie that used to be on TV all the time when I was a kid and I should probably revisit as an adult.
Night Eats The World - I loved this French zombie movie because the protagonist does what I'd do: just stay in your apartment while everyone else runs out and gets eaten.
The Girl With All The Gifts - Takes a lot of swings with the standard zombie formula and the Lone Wolf and Cub formula that is so popular these days.
Ravenous (Les Affamés) - Not to be confused with the Antonia Bird black comedy, this is a French Canadian zombie movie with an unsettling mood and and a unique kind of zombie.