It always makes me smile when a psychological horror drama sticks to the concept all the way through. "Clock" does this rather successfully. It is not the greatest movie ever made but I found it to be thought-provoking, intelligent and best of all - contained. Well done for a debut feature from Jacknow.
The movie portrays a childless woman's struggle to "fix herself" after succumbing to the societal narrative that "women should have children".
Naturally; visceral horror fans will hardly find anything to their liking here - as the many negative reviews are a clear example of. It is puzzling to me why people reach for psychological horror movies and leave surprised and angered by the lack of gory brutality. To me it's like watching a romantic comedy and complaining about the lack of slapstick elements - it's just not supposed to be there.
Anyway "Clock" is rather successful when it comes to cerebral horror. It leans a bit too heavily on very obvious visual metaphors, but I'd say the only real downside to this, is that it feels a bit like Jacknow is carrying us through the movie wanting to make sure we don't miss anything. Playing it safe like that did take a bit of the fun out of it, but at least Dianna Agron's brilliant acting makes up for that. She really does a great job here and even though the performance isn't quite up there with the performances of say Sosie Bacon in "Smile", Rebecca Hall in "Resurrection" or Essie Davis in "The Babadook", it is still a thrill to watch. Well done!
I definitely recommend this movie to fans of psychological horror, however visceral horror fans should probably steer clear. FAIR WARNING THOUGH... If you yourself are stuggling with childlessness for whatever reason, watching the societal pressure in this movie might not be an enjoyable watch for you.
The movie portrays a childless woman's struggle to "fix herself" after succumbing to the societal narrative that "women should have children".
Naturally; visceral horror fans will hardly find anything to their liking here - as the many negative reviews are a clear example of. It is puzzling to me why people reach for psychological horror movies and leave surprised and angered by the lack of gory brutality. To me it's like watching a romantic comedy and complaining about the lack of slapstick elements - it's just not supposed to be there.
Anyway "Clock" is rather successful when it comes to cerebral horror. It leans a bit too heavily on very obvious visual metaphors, but I'd say the only real downside to this, is that it feels a bit like Jacknow is carrying us through the movie wanting to make sure we don't miss anything. Playing it safe like that did take a bit of the fun out of it, but at least Dianna Agron's brilliant acting makes up for that. She really does a great job here and even though the performance isn't quite up there with the performances of say Sosie Bacon in "Smile", Rebecca Hall in "Resurrection" or Essie Davis in "The Babadook", it is still a thrill to watch. Well done!
I definitely recommend this movie to fans of psychological horror, however visceral horror fans should probably steer clear. FAIR WARNING THOUGH... If you yourself are stuggling with childlessness for whatever reason, watching the societal pressure in this movie might not be an enjoyable watch for you.
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