somf

This has been a banner year for horror. Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back, 28 years Later, all terrific films. I did not see Wolfman and I do not consider Meghan 2.0 horror, so the only less than great major horror release till now has been Together, and it was not terrible, but this was hard to sit through. I gave the first Black Phone a 9. I loved it and found it unique and thrilling, but this was dreck. I am amazed at its' high rating. Derrickson who is normally a solid writer and director has put together a dumb backstory that involves a Christian youth camp in the Rockies. I found the setting to be claustrophobic as it was meant to be but two hours in the snowbound mountains was the first problem. Then the reliance on dream sequences was way to much and Derrickson using the grainy effect that I first recall from his Sinister film got old really fast. But the weakest link, and I hate to character assassinate, because she seems like a nice kid, but Madeline McGraw is arguably the central character this time around and she is absolutely terrible. She would be the weak link in a high school play. When she would swear in particular it sounded so phony. Like she had never sworn in her life before this film. Contrived, too long, terrible acting by several characters, I cannot believe how bad this second go round turned out to be. In one of the last scenes she is seen talking on the phone to someone and says,"Am I going to have to live with this curse for the rest of my life?" And the voice in my head responded, "No friend, I think your bad dream days are officially over."

He does a great job and it is a solid popcorn film from start to finish. When I think of his films I think of excellent dark and depressing character studies. I count "Requiem For a Dream" as the most depressing film that I have ever seen. Here, as some other reviewers have pointed out, he channels his inner Guy Ritchie. I just loved every character in this film. Austin Butler is very good, but his supporting cast is even better. D'Onofrio and Schreiber as the Hassidic Jews are worth the ticket alone. The Eastern Europeans (I forget Russian or Ukranian) are fantastic. Sort of like the bad guy in "Barry". The punk neighbor is a riot. Regina King wonderful as always and Zoe Kravitz is alluring. I had no idea who Bad Bunny is, but he is not bad either. But this feels like one of Guy Ritchie's best films with Brad Pitt and that is not a bad thing at all. I really hope they make two sequels from the Charlie Huston novels with the Butler character. So my minor gripe is I did not believe Butler's character and his reactions. Maybe I do not give him enough credit. Maybe things that occurred in his past life are what keeps him from reacting like one would think. But that one aspect bugged me, and I am trying to avoid spoilers here. There are a couple scenes that really are sad and moving and it makes for an odd tone at times. Maybe that is the Aronofsky touch, I don't know, but for the most part it is a wild frenetic ride that almost everyone is likely to enjoy. I still call it a comedy. I see some reviewers say they do not see it that way and I certainly understand. Call those touching moments plot twists, and add them to a couple other non touching moments that were also plot twists that caught me off guard. Solid film, just not great. I will certainly be buying a ticket to any sequels though.