Dear friend,
I don’t have a lot to report this week. The city started getting emptier, but for me this was just a normal working week, so let’s move directly to the films I’ve watched. Again, {SD} identifies films on Scott Derrickson’s Top 100 Horrors list.
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Pulse/回路 , written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan, 2001. {SD}
I think the basic concept behind the film (loneliness is a silent killer) would have been clear even without the characters saying it out loud several times. That is, I would have appreciated the film more if it had been a bit more subtle. On the other hand, the way this is shown varies from scene to scene, so maybe it would have been harder to understand it. Anyway, it is a truly haunting - and worrying - watch. Luckily, we no longer have screaming 56K modems, so if my computer is haunted, at least it doesn’t wake me up during the night. I didn’t check the author’s name before launching the film, but it naturally reminded me of Cure (I think I should give it another chance). ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
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Frailty , directed by Bill Paxton, written by Brent Hanley, US, 2001. {SD}
It’s another one of those films that have a lot of fans but left me totally cold, as I feel that the premise doesn’t make any sense by the end of its running time. Also, I’m not a fan of Bill Paxton’s performance, which everyone else apparently loves. ⭐️⭐️
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Missing , written and directed by Nicholas D. Johnson & Will Merrick , US, 2023.
A bit like the Paranormal Activity sequels, this ‘unrelated sequel’ to Searching cheats its basic concept of ’everything we show would be plausible on-screen interactions’ by leaving a Facetime window open and active all the time, even when there is no call ongoing, which makes no sense. Also, it took me a long time to accept the constant zooming to a part or another of the screen. Was Searching doing that as well? The story takes a long time to get interesting, then goes for a twist that will surprise nobody who was paying attention, and finally goes for a change of direction that comes out of nowhere, so that it can open itself a path to an ’exciting ending’. I would have preferred the ending I was thinking about, which would have been more original (though possibly a bit too cruel on the lead character). ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Longlegs , written and directed by Osgood Perkins, US, 2024.
Longlegs impressed me so much after I went and saw it last week, that I felt compelled to watch it again, as soon as possible. I was curious to see whether a rewatch would bring a different assessment: I expected to like it even more, and I must say that, while some of the dialogue becomes a little clearer once you know more of the characters’ story, I had the exact same reaction to the film overall. Not at all perfect, but with a lasting effect. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Starry Eyes , written and directed by Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer, US, 2014.
I have had good reviews of this film, so my expectations were quite high, and were not matched. As much as I like Alex(andra) Essoe (mostly for her courage in taking up the role of Wendy Torrance in Doctor Sleep), this is such a basic Hollywood story, and an unsubtle way to depict it, with an extended gory second half that gets repetitive very soon. ⭐️⭐️
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Candy Land , written and directed by John Swab, US, 2022.
…and I had pretty much the same experience with Candy Land, one of the best horror films of 2022 according to Evolution of Horror. Quite interesting at the beginning, but it becomes very clear soon what the film has in store; gory murders happen in plain sight, and nobody (including very unpleasant sheriff William Baldwin) seems to notice; and the last part is just blood, blood, blood. Most of the film rests on the shoulders of Owen Campbell and the extremely intense Olivia Luccardi, for whom, between this and Soft and Quiet, 2002 was an exceptional year. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
In summary, 6 films, with not a lot of variety this week:
- 5 horrors and a thriller
- 5 US films, a Japanese one
- 5 original films, and I would consider Missing an original one since it has no explicit link with Searching
- 5 first watches, 1 rewatch
- all films from this millennium: 2 from the 2000s, 1 from the 2010s, 2 from the current decade
No first watch got to 4 stars this week, so the film-of-the-week must be Pulse.