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Teetui
Reviews
Barbarian (2022)
Badly written. Made no sense.
I don't understand the love-fest for this film. I saw it in the theater last night, and I hated it and I'm a horror fan. It was poorly written, made no sense, and it was random and nihilistic. Maybe that was the point. There were also a lot of loose ends that could have made the film better if pursued, and it doesn't hold up under very much analysis. My girlfriend poked holes in it all the way home.
Unexpected does not mean random, but I think whoever wrote it wasn't able to create a sense of surprise in any other way. Like someone else said, it was 90 minutes of WTF. Sorry, but that just isn't good horror.
Shining Vale (2022)
Better than I was expecting.
I'm not really that into comedy, and I loathe anything even remotely affiliated with "Friends." That said, the acting, writing, and comedic timing in this is great -- especially the scene references to The Shining. During a couple of those, I laughed so hard I snorted.
Shining Vale is a guilty pleasure of mine that no one knows about but me. It's smart, and it understands and respects horror fans.
Here's something I'm curious about though. Why is Courtney Cox in this and not the creator Sharon Horgan? She is an actor who would be perfect for the role, though perhaps they were hoping for more star power.
Perempuan tanah jahanam (2019)
Excellent Indonesian horror.
I really enjoyed the setting and atmosphere of this film. It takes place in a remote jungle village with no electricity and only kerosene lamps. Even the music features local acoustic instruments and haunting voices.
The characters were likable and had good dialogue. The story was a somewhat standard black magic trope, but it seemed fresh with the Indonesian setting.
The film scared the hell out of me. I recommend it, if you want something different.
The Clearing (2020)
Watchable, but disappointing.
The camera work was poor. Very often the camera was not pointed at the action, and the shaking camera was to excess. That was frustrating. Also, the writing could have been better. There were numerous alternatives to the choices the main character made, but then he was such a knucklehead that I couldn't really blame him for his poor decisions.
That said, the zombie situations were surprisingly dire and effective. I enjoyed the movie, and I cared about the main character's relationship with his daughter. I was rooting for him!
It's not a terrible film, but keep your expectations low.
Unearth (2020)
Imperfect, but I enjoyed it.
Admittedly the movie is a mess, and there's no arguing that. However, I disagree with others that the movie didn't know whether it wanted to be a drama or a horror flick. It started as a farm drama that turned into terrifying unexpected body horror. It was the sudden transition that made it so effective, in my opinion.
The sound was very interesting, and no one has commented on this. At one point, one of the characters remarks that there is no sound of animals or insects. Then as the infection progresses, there are very strange background sounds. I'm not sure if this is the hallucination of the characters or if it's the local fauna that have mutated ala Lovecraft.
Finally, I didn't understand the ending. After most of the characters die, the farm is productive again with the remaining characters, and there seems to be a happy ending. Is that a hallucination they are having as they are dying?
The movie was different. I liked it. But again, not without a lot of problems. Thanks for your time, guys. This is my first review on IMDB.