Favorite horror movies

[Nicomo Cosca]

(08-26-2020, 12:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I am not a big fan of the horror genre, but I watch a lot of films with my kids.

The films by Ari Aster, "Heredity" and "Midsommar", are grossly overrated. Heredity was just a mish-mash of a bunch of random scary movie tropes that did not even come together in a logical story. And "Midsommar" had so many comical scenes in it I think it was actually supposed to be a parody of a horror movie.

Jordan Peele's "Us" was also overrated, but at least it was a decent movie. It just wasn't the epic masterpiece some people claimed.

Ari Aster is one of the best young director’s in the business. I’ve loved both his films so far. Hereditary has one of the greatest performances from an actress you will ever see by Toni Collette (she only got snubbed for an Oscar because it’s horror), and has some scenes that I will never be able to get out of my head. I don’t get “scared” by any movies, but Hereditary is one of the most disturbing I’ve ever seen. And not just that scene either. The whole movie. The way it deals with grief, and mental illness was just done completely brilliantly. It’s a modern horror masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. And the story was perfectly logical. Some people didn’t care for the exposition dump at the end, but it worked for me.

Midsommar wasn’t quite as good, but I still loved it. Another amazing performance from his leading lady, this time Florence Pugh. Similar themes in grief, and loss. Extremely believable characters. And again some truly shocking scenes, without relying on jump scares and heightened music. I’ve always loved The Wicker Man, and Midsommar did an excellent job at telling a similar story without it being a rip-off. I even went and saw it a second time in the theater when the director’s cut was released. Needless to say, but I’m all in anything Aster does going forward.

Us is another very divisive one, but I respect Peele going for something ambitious like that, and I’ll take it over the majority of crap horror movies put out these days. In a world where everything is a franchise, made solely to cash in, at least Peele has something to say with his films. Even if the story had some issues. Lupita Nyong'o was amazing in the duel roles. Get Out was better, but Us felt closer to an old school horror movie to me.

So basically, like pretty much always, I completely disagree with fredtoast.