THE LOVE WITCH
Dir - Anna Biller
Overall: MEH
Anna Biller's The Love Witch is a blatant throwback that recalls a former era of bright colors, Gothic scenery, the occult, clunky dialog, the zoom, screechy violins on the soundtrack, burlesque dancing, and oodles more from late 60s-early 70s genre films. Aside from the bygone era window dressing, the script is loaded with problems that have nothing to do with it being an unimaginative rehash of older genre cinema that was also loaded with problems. To say that Biller's work here is unimaginative would be an untruth though. Her second majorly released movie that filters such B-movie sub-genres through a feminist lens, (the other was 2007's sexplotation semi-parody Viva), what Biller does with the sets, costumes, music, editing, and actors is visually impressive. Nearly every shot truly looks like it came from the intended time period. There are also modern cars, modern cell phones, and at least one modern toilet though that throw it into a contemporary setting which in effect makes it confusing at best and uneven at worst. Issues persist with sub-par acting, lousy dialog, a few dreadful set pieces, and the unforgiving length. This movie drags along several times and quite easily did not have to be two hours long. Such random scenes like a spontaneous, Wiccan Ren Faire in the woods and an even more embarrassing one in a bar where angry, 21st century villagers go into a "burn the witch" frenzy are just bad bad, not "good" bad movie bad.
Dir - David F. Sandberg
Overall: WOOF
The premise to Swedish director David F. Sandberg's full-length debut Lights Out has nothing going against it, but certainly nothing going for it either if that makes sense. Vengeful ghost/insane asylum/family dysfunction/stupid kid, your standard fare to be sure. It also does that really annoying thing where at one point nobody in the movie is a skeptic anymore and the mystery as to what is going on is long solved, but they all continue to not openly talk about the supernatural stuff that is going on. In addition to this, more plot revelations unnecessarily take up screen time. The execution by Sandberg is also very unremarkable, be it even annoying. There are jump scares a plenty, an insulting lack of logic, and would-be scary things are unintentionally comical instead. The ghost itself is one of those creaky, lanky, lightning fast moving, head-tilt things that makes loud noises out of nowhere and how any modern audience completely over-exposed to such cliche-adhering specters can still be frightened by them is anyone's guess. The whole movie falls into such a predicament where it is so genre-pandering as to deflate any of its intended creepiness.
Dir - Fede Alvarez
Overall: GOOD
This is quite an improvement for filmmaker Fede Alvarez over the teeeeeeeeerible Evil Dead remake he unfortunately debuted with. Don't Breathe has a few minor script holes here or there, (one character should jhave died or at least been crippled several scenes earlier than he finally was and why would a man doing this shit in his basement install a security system that automatically alarms the cops when triggered, per example), but nothing anywhere takes you out of the movie because Alvarez does a superb job in structuring the film. It becomes very clear why the movie is called what it is as this is one of the most tense thrillers in recent memory. As history proves, it is a tricky genre to pull off where characters more often than not are doing idiotic things that make the audience laugh in frustration instead of feeling mind-numbing dread like they are supposed to. No good horror movie is complete without some kind of mystery and the reveals for this one is almost comically disturbing. Though this is not a total game-changer, it is still a skillfully put-together, supernatural-less horror movie that gets nearly everything spot-on in its construction.
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