Reviews

I've seen this movie once all the way through. With all the hype, I've tried to rewatch it several more times, but I just can't do it. It's just Tarantino done by someone who thinks they are as good a writer as Tarantino, and no one seems to have told him otherwise. It's a cringe-fest from the beginning to the end. Being a huge movie fan, who can find something good in almost anything, the love for this film just baffles me. If you like Tarantino, or even just witty crime thrillers, there are so many better options.

This movie is getting a lot of flack for what seems to be viewer laziness. You will not find any voiceover guiding you through the story, or a character showing up at the door in the final minutes to sort everything out. This movie requires the viewer to put the pieces together, and the pieces are definitely there. It is not hard to follow if you're listening, and having one of the "visitors" explain themselves in detail would have been a major letdown, since they make it clear repeatedly that the scope of their knowledge is limited. This is a disturbing film that trusts that the viewer is capable of sorting things out on their own. Much like Under The Skin or Hereditary, there is some ambiguity and I wish more films would require viewer intelligence as part of the experience.

This movie is not great. It's fine, because the premise was good to begin with, and the actors are reasonable. There are big logic holes, but to say this isn't a flaw of the original is not accurate. It had just as many inconsistencies. To say the police act stupidly in this version is a reasonable critique, but they also did in the original in different ways. The original is definitely gorier and more bleak, and probably better overall, but to say one was a 10 and the other is a 1 is a bit ridiculous. It's a passable time-waster, and for those not enamoured with gore, this would be the better choice of the two.