Dear friend,
this week, again, my creative spirit has dried up. So, let’s go straight to the films.
The Descent, written and directed by Neil Marshall, United Kingdom, 2005 - ⭐⭐⭐½
In order to test my installation of Jellyfin, I looked for something to watch from my collection, and this film was what I needed. I watched it before (almost three years earlier to the day), and I ended up keeping the same rating; somehow, the first half of it is much scarier for me than the second one: maybe because it’s more ‘real’ and more focused, whereas the second part and its fast editing made everything more confused.
Paranormal Activity, written and directed by Oren Peli, US, 2007 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Only five months have passed, instead, since my latest watch of this film, which I can now say has definitely become a ‘comfort film’ for me. Still, at every watch, I seem to find it scarier and more unsettling (at the same rate I find Micah’s character more and more despicable).
Dead Talents Society/鬼才之道_, directed by John Hsu, co-written with Kun-Lin Tsai, Taiwan, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I heard great reviews about this horror-comedy (or, better, comedy-horror), and they were right. Comparisons to Beetlejuice and Monsters, Inc. are inevitable, but it stands very well on its own, especially because it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. I loved the silliness of the execution and, of course, all the nods to Asian horror. Probably I didn’t get all the references to Eastern urban legends, but that’s just a good starting point to learn more about them.
Pitch Perfect 3, directed by Trish Sie, written by Kay Cannon and Mike White, US, 2017 - ⭐⭐
Uncharacteristically in the mood for comedy, I finally approached the third episode of the Bellas’ adventures, and it was aca-tastrophe. Ok, this was for the inevitable aca-pun. Maybe not that bad, but definitely disappointing; the music is good but the plot is just a super-thin device to string songs together. John Lithgow must have had a lot of fun with his heavy accent, but that was all the joy anybody had with this film. Maybe Mike White was already in an almost White Lotus mood when he rewrote the script from the series’ creator Kay Cannon.
Small italo-complaint: the Bellas travel from Spain to Italy to France, but the establishing shot for Italy was clearly taken in the South of France. I was so confused.
Speak No Evil, written and directed by James Watkins, based on Mads and Christian Tafdrup’s original film, US/United Kingdom, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐
Many reviewers stated that the anglophone remake of the traumatising Danish film was not a useless experience, because Watkins put a new spin on the story.
Well, I beg to differ. It’s not worth it to put yourself through the wringer again for what is essentially the exact same film as the original, with a tacked-on half-hour of another film that I won’t mention to avoid spoilers. Sure, James McAvoy is terrifying and Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy (reuniting after Halt and Catch Fire) are great, but the real British/American cultural divide is so thin (for a story that was all about the lengths you are willing to go when accepting cultural differences) that the justifications of the Brits’ couple behaviour become increasingly laboured.