DirtyOldTown

Watched this last night as part of my ramp-up for Evil Dead Rise. (Lee Cronin directed both). Evil Dead looks to be in good hands. The story on this one is no revelation, but it's quite well-made. Cronin shows a knack for dread, for creepy not-quite-humans, for memorable images, for leveraging sound and music well, and he wrings anxiety out of tiny moments.

The only thing I hated was the cliché opening sequence with desaturated drone footage of a forest, punctuated by the equally cliché camera-does-a-vertical-flip move. I do not know why so many otherwise interesting horror directors are completely unable to resist that bullshit in their opening shots.

#theholeintheground #leecronin #evildeadrise #a24 #horror #horrorfam

Mar 17, 2023 at 7:45pmWeb
Show threadGygesringtoneMar 17, 2023

@dirtyoldtown Agreed on all fronts.

I like the top of trees and everything, but this is quickly becoming as boring as the "bored teenager in a car looking at their phone" shot it replaces. There are other ways of giving a sense of isolation.

Show threadGygesringtoneMar 18, 2023
@dirtyoldtown
You know I was just thinking the last really effective one of these I can remember is when the shot parallels the camper as it goes through the tunnel in Cabin in the Woods. That was over a decade ago. Although I guess the camera flip element hadn't been established yet.
Show threadDirtyOldTownMar 18, 2023
@Gygesringtone It's like anything else, it can be done well. I really only hate it as a cliche at the beginning of horror movies.