trumstheconquero

I like the work Tarsem has done in a few of his movies visually. My criticism of him as a director is how carelessly whimsical his plots are. Even when you have a well trod property like Oz and it has also been done several times with different inspirations it can miss the mark.

The books often have a layer of humor to them to break up the darker elements but, move along at a very brisk pace. I did not make it through a full episode of this. His storytelling is simply way too slapdash in this format. Dorothy is not a girl, she's a woman who works as a nurse. Medication stealing is a shared theme between this and The Fall, while also being a connection to witchcraft. I didn't feel a sense of otherworldliness or fantasy watching it and had no character I wanted to cheer for. The execution in the pilot was so bad I don't want to see more. The closest tonal comparison is Grimm.

Keep that in mind. If he continues making movies he will make them in this way with different elements tossed in to make it unique from the others. This one is in keeping with the other film he's made as a solo director, Barbarian. It's a simple setup with those elements except this one has a larger mystery.

Most of the class in an elementary school goes missing in the wee small hours of the morning at the exact same time and no one knows what happened to them despite the size of disappearance and cameras being extremely common nowadays. The purpose is to show the devastation these unresolved situations can have in a community but also as a fuel to push the characters into each other.

The movie's beauty is in the construction. Prologue, followed by chapters from the perspective of the significant players in this story that reveal pieces of the whole until it all comes to a head in the epilogue. Is the film an actual in depth exploration of the plot possibilities? No, it's an emotional wrecking ball that invites you to enjoy the chaos and curiosity. It is far more enjoyable than many popcorn films I've seen theatrically. I recommend it for people who like Barbarian, The Whitest Kids You Know, and other films that blend dark humor and horror in popular movie plots. That alone eliminates many but also appeals to many.

One thing to note is the lack of a consistent horror trope in this one. There are consistent moments of discomfort, stress, tension, creepiness, and as stated before humor. The horror is a secondary component here to the effects the mystery has placed on the characters. If that intrigues you, catch it in the theater with an audience. The audience I saw it with loved it (except for a person who snuck in an hour into it negating their opinion).

....don't do it. The movie has no good reason to exist. Thinking witty banter and charm would get these three through any half baked concept I went to the theater and was gravely disappointed in how pointless the movie could be. It's a ghost hunters/Blair Witch Project mash up with KallMeKris and Celina and Jason yucking it up in the woods. Jason's male gazing Kris with his cam and.....Kris finds a house in the middle of nowhere that appears to be lived in but no one is there so it MUST be haunted.

Nothing of interest happens in the movie. Ghost Hunters, a show I don't even like would be better than this. The movie comes across as having unscripted dialogue for the most part as there is a threadbare plot creeping along. It does come to a wordless, silent, suspense-free head at the end. While I like her comedic short form content, Collins displays no ability for feature narrative work with this movie.

While there may have been a point intended, it is lost on the audience for having to endure the meandering banter back and forth. At least the movie likely cost less than a million to make. I don't think it'll turn a large profit theatrically.

This does not meet the standard of a horror movie. It is not scary and doesn't even seem like it wants to scare, set a creepy tone, or even be an interesting paranormal investigation piece.