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Reviews
The Empty Man (2020)
Absolutely does not deserve a 6
Please don't be fooled by this film's weirdly high rating (like I was). It is a 4 AT BEST. The best thing you can say about The Empty Man is that it is certainly eerie. But 2+ hours of "eerie" with absolutely no pay off is a rip off. It has 2 or 3 decent scares and the cult definitely gives off creepy vibes, but all this build up leads to an infuriating cop-out of an ending (along the lines of "it was all a dream"). It's as though the writer for the movie and the writer of the ending "twist" didn't talk to each other until the film was already in production, with the result that the twist makes half the plot points of the movie make no sense and makes the entire movie feel pointless.
The only reason to watch this is if you like gratuitously long movies with a lot of "atmosphere" but not a lot of actual scares, and don't care much about a cohesive plot or a decent ending. I like none of that, so for me this movie was a waste of an evening that left me fuming into the next day.
Cold Skin (2017)
It's too late for me, but save yourself!
Do not be fooled by the moderately high rating; this movie is terrible. It is not a diamond in the rough, hidden, cult horror film. It is just bad, all the way through. The story in its essence might have been worth a 6/10, but once you add the actual writing (that ranges from bland to hysterically bad) and the non-sensical scene cuts, you find yourself wading slowly out into a weird ocean of nothingness. You want it to fix itself but it never does. It is all pain for no pay off. Just spare yourself the agony of the slow, miserable death that is watching this movie.
Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through the Gateway Chosen by the Holy Storsh (2018)
You'll love it or you'll hate it.
I loved it. But I have yet to meet a movie associated with Taika Waititi that I didn't love. If you're a fan of his sort of off-beat comedy, you'll have a blast. There's never a dull moment so be prepared to stop and rewind often to catch every hilarious dead-pan one-liner (or bathtub monologue). The only part I didn't love was the end, which, I will admit, runs dark if you're a thinking sort of person.
If you're a fan of indie comedies, give this one a try for sure. But even as someone who is definitely about to watch this for a third time, I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone so don't be afraid to skip this if off-beat, satirical, absurd comedy is not your field.
Gokseong (2016)
Viewers should probably be semi versed in South Korean culture to understand this movie
This movie is not terrible; it's even intriguing and suspenseful a fair bit of the time.I watched this with my husband who is South Korean (I am not). Being very well versed in South Korean movies I was prepared for a lot of the things critics seem to take umbridge with (i.e. the constant swearing/insulting, almost comic violence, and blatant racism) but even I was left stumped at some parts, especially the end. Semi spoiler alert: much of this movie revolves around the shamanic traditions and practices of rural South Korea. Being familiar with this will help immensely in understanding the plot and possibly the ending. While I was left utterly confused, my husband had followed a plot thread I had not been able to pick up on and was left with a conclusion about the ending I could never have come to on my own. So those critics in a huff over how disappointing the ending was, I think the intended audience (South Korean viewers) probably did not experience this which explains its commercial success. That being said, this is not a movie I would watch again, and I would only recommend it to people who enjoy really artsy, drawn out, "decide for yourself" sorts of horror movies (all those people who liked "The Witch").