Trap Jesus
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- Feb 13, 2012
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- 13,456
Movies: Suspiria (November, 2018)
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I'll pass and stick with my Synapse 4K restoration steelbook copy of the original film on blu-ray.
aufheben
#Norris4Fox
Trap Jesus
Registered User
- Feb 13, 2012
- 28,686
- 13,456
I liked it to some degree, but "messy" isn't a bad way to describe it. I liked a lot of elements behind it but it didn't really come together in the end.
Two big issues with the movie were:
1. Reliance on the doctor character. I just didn't feel like there was anything interesting going on there, and he was such a huge part of the movie for the run-time. The backstory with his wife was kind of meh and really just seemed to lead up to the witches playing a trick on him to get him to be the witness. The character was also very distracting with the knowledge that Tilda Swinton played him. It's not that she didn't do a good job or that the makeup was bad or anything, but there was something that just seemed unnatural in a movie where there was already a reliance on prosthetics for some of the other gruesome characters. I wonder how I would have reacted if I did not know it was Tilda Swinton. I still think there was something clearly noticeable with the voice, so it probably still would have distracted me.
2. I kind of feel like the climax was botched, especially visually. There were certain elements that worked, but I feel like the slow-mo frame rate was just choppy and bizarre, and not in a good way. The red tint was whatever, but the slow-mo was distracting. Could have been a much more powerful scene with all of that gore if they didn't make that bizarre decision to do it like that, even if it was an ode to older horror movies. Maybe it covered up for something, but I dunno. Didn't work for me.
Blanc's halfway decapitation also didn't seem up to snuff with what we had seen before in the movie. I did like the disgusting design for Markos, but the voice was a little hokey. That demon creature's design was also pretty cool but again, that scene could have been so much better if it was stylized differently. I also thought that close up of the person over the naked bodies chanting came across as comical as well, and they held on that shot for a LONG time. They had done such a good job with the atmosphere and horror elements before that this didn't feel rewarding. Thematically it was fine, although a bit predictable. You knew that Dakota Johnson knew what was going on the whole time; the Sara character was the one that served as the fish out of water element.
Other than that, I really liked it though. It felt very much like a 70s horror film with the slow build, reliance on atmosphere, and the camera/editing choices. Some weird pans and zooms out of nowhere. I love how they structured it in clear acts and the title screens that would come up throughout the movie.
The pretzel scene is going to be remembered as iconic, definitely the standout of the film. Every single dance scene worked I thought, and they kind of served as the highlight points of the movie. Just Dakota Johnson's character's dancing was so weird, violent and hypnotic.
I'm not sure how I felt about Thom Yorke's score. The song at the beginning is nice, but I just think it's tough to pull off vocals in a horror movie score when you know who Thom Yorke is. Just takes you out of it a bit. The main theme is great, and I liked that drum beat thing when you first see the witches coven around the table voting on Markos vs. Blanc (loved this scene in general). Other than that it felt muted though.
Much like Call Me by Your Name, Guadagnino also seems to be an expert of immersing yourself in a particular time and place. Just loved the whole feel and atmosphere of the movie, it very much transplants the viewer in 1970s Berlin.
I liked it overall, I just think those two problems detracted quite a bit from it. I'm pissed that I missed the post-credits scene though.
1. Reliance on the doctor character. I just didn't feel like there was anything interesting going on there, and he was such a huge part of the movie for the run-time. The backstory with his wife was kind of meh and really just seemed to lead up to the witches playing a trick on him to get him to be the witness. The character was also very distracting with the knowledge that Tilda Swinton played him. It's not that she didn't do a good job or that the makeup was bad or anything, but there was something that just seemed unnatural in a movie where there was already a reliance on prosthetics for some of the other gruesome characters. I wonder how I would have reacted if I did not know it was Tilda Swinton. I still think there was something clearly noticeable with the voice, so it probably still would have distracted me.
2. I kind of feel like the climax was botched, especially visually. There were certain elements that worked, but I feel like the slow-mo frame rate was just choppy and bizarre, and not in a good way. The red tint was whatever, but the slow-mo was distracting. Could have been a much more powerful scene with all of that gore if they didn't make that bizarre decision to do it like that, even if it was an ode to older horror movies. Maybe it covered up for something, but I dunno. Didn't work for me.
Blanc's halfway decapitation also didn't seem up to snuff with what we had seen before in the movie. I did like the disgusting design for Markos, but the voice was a little hokey. That demon creature's design was also pretty cool but again, that scene could have been so much better if it was stylized differently. I also thought that close up of the person over the naked bodies chanting came across as comical as well, and they held on that shot for a LONG time. They had done such a good job with the atmosphere and horror elements before that this didn't feel rewarding. Thematically it was fine, although a bit predictable. You knew that Dakota Johnson knew what was going on the whole time; the Sara character was the one that served as the fish out of water element.
Other than that, I really liked it though. It felt very much like a 70s horror film with the slow build, reliance on atmosphere, and the camera/editing choices. Some weird pans and zooms out of nowhere. I love how they structured it in clear acts and the title screens that would come up throughout the movie.
The pretzel scene is going to be remembered as iconic, definitely the standout of the film. Every single dance scene worked I thought, and they kind of served as the highlight points of the movie. Just Dakota Johnson's character's dancing was so weird, violent and hypnotic.
I'm not sure how I felt about Thom Yorke's score. The song at the beginning is nice, but I just think it's tough to pull off vocals in a horror movie score when you know who Thom Yorke is. Just takes you out of it a bit. The main theme is great, and I liked that drum beat thing when you first see the witches coven around the table voting on Markos vs. Blanc (loved this scene in general). Other than that it felt muted though.
Much like Call Me by Your Name, Guadagnino also seems to be an expert of immersing yourself in a particular time and place. Just loved the whole feel and atmosphere of the movie, it very much transplants the viewer in 1970s Berlin.
I liked it overall, I just think those two problems detracted quite a bit from it. I'm pissed that I missed the post-credits scene though.
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