Reviews

The Menu is, in my opinion, suffering from an identity crisis. Is this a horror movie? A social satire? A thriller? It tries to do a lot and doesn't do anything particularly well.

Ralph Finnnes does well in his role as a disturbing executive chef, I enjoyed how he set the tone and the overall feel throughout the movie. Nicholas Holt did well portraying an egotistical, self-absorbed, individual, I look forward to seeing him in a Tom Cruise/Scientology biopic someday. Anya Taylor Joy was underwhelming and played a character that didn't really play to her strengths as an actress.

SPOILERS AHEAD The movie and tone was great for about the first half. The suicide of the Sous Chef was alarming and had me intrigued, Tyler's test in cooking was stressful and tragic. Other points after that rung rather dull. The "fight scene" between ATJ's character and the Maitre D felt incredibly forced, and looked the same as any heroine vs killer fight in a horror movie.

The satire of rich food culture was muddled, at times it seemed like they were for it, at times against. Ultimately the ultra rich pay crazy amounts of money for the "food experience" but actually just want the sweet embrace of death because money can't buy happiness unless it's a $9.95 cheeseburger made by Ralph Finnes.

Which wasn't really the message I thought we'd arrive at in the end but, here we are.

From the double booked Air B&B, to the run down and abandoned suburbs of Detroit, and the serial rapist-murderer flashback starring the criminally underutilized Richard Brake, this film could've gone in so many different directions.

I was hooked for about the first half of the movie. I really liked the tone and the setting. Georgina Campbell was good throughout. There was good chemistry between the two initial lead actors but the wheels came off once Bill Skarsgard's character was killed off. Bringing in Justin Long and going that angle kind of felt like unnecessary filler.

Ultimately the double booked Air B&B (which is a cool concept for a modern-day thriller) didn't matter in the slightest. The motherhood theme was okay but didnt really fit any traits or themes of any other character or anything else in the film for that matter. All in all, nothing really meshed in the end. It's just a shame that there was a cool initial concept that ultimately culminated in a pretty run-of-the-mill monster horror movie. Real shame.

I'll be completely honest, I absolutely hated the first 4 episodes. There's a certain amount of world building and character development that's good but the first few episodes consist of a few separate 15-20 minute conversations between two or three characters.

Flanagan did well, very well, with his previous series but he came really close to striking out on this one. Thankfully the climax of the last 2-3 episodes just barely makes up for the painfully slow introductory ones.

All in all, it ends up being good in the end, which is better than the alternative where the ending doesn't live up to a good show.

Spoiler here, but it has my only complaint.

I absolutely hate this horror trope where nobody has any clue what the supernatural monster is.

I. E. People in zombie movies being oblivious to what a zombie even is. The angel is obviouly a vampire in this show, and an elder vampire at that. Most people wouldn't make the distinction but could at least identify that it's a vampire. Everyone on the island apparently lives in the modern world with smartphones but also has no idea what a vampire even is?

OK.

Excellent, I would argue award worthy acting from Hamish Linklater as Father Paul. Rahul Kohli and Samantha Sloyan do well in their conflicting roles. Everyone else is either just okay or very boring.

Well done, but dangerously so in terms of the slow burn. 7/10.

This shows just how deplorable some people can get with conspiracy theories and being "web sleuths" while they cause immense amounts of collateral damage grasping in complete darkness at any angle they can find.

It's despicable and disgusting because they made money just off of their "views" on their YouTube channels exploiting Elisa Lam who was just suffering from a mental disorder and a musician (Morbid) who just happened to be staying at the same hotel but AN ENTIRE EFFING YEAR BEFORE ELISA WAS THERE. There's a reason you're Youtubers and not professional detectives and it's because you suck.

Morbid is the real victim here.

My says it all. The movie itself is a great slow burn thriller (That actually works) about teenage years in the 90s and teenage mental health but as others have stated, I'm really not too sure what happened to the writing in the final act. Early on, I thought the accidental death scene was incredibly shocking, and tragic. Moving forward through the movie, I can get onboard with Josh losing it and wanting to kill his best friend's girlfriend, I don't think that deserves as much hate as it's getting as he clearly feels isolated and maybe threatened by his best friend having a significant other. Zach's disinterested portrayal of his character is great too considering his involvement, and the actor really nails that aspect of it. That being said, were some other choices and non-choices at the end that were just odd. I understand the sword wasn't incredibly sharp but the fact that Zach didn't require medical attention besides answering some basic head injury questions on the hood of a cop car doesn't make any sense at all. There was an awkward passage of time right then too, it was still daylight during their tussle on the lawn but then it was nighttime the next scene.

Most of my problems however were with the last couple scenes, as made clear by my title. Besides seeing Allison alive in the aftermath we don't get any closure, we don't even see Zach or Josh again. There no answers about our dead stoner, which ultimately felt unnecessary, or the kid in the woods whose death was the catalyst for the whole story.

In conclusion, I'm 100% fine with an ambiguous ending when the story warrants it. Making the ending ambiguous works when a story is shrouded in mystery or has some component of continuation. In a way seeing Allison just go back to her everyday life feels like a bit of a robbery, in that besides the scar she has no negative effects from her assault and is able to move on with life. Comparing that to the initial accidental death paints two nearly opposite pictures of trauma and that just doesn't sit right with me. This story definitely needed more closure and my rating would easily be higher if not for the ending. Oh well.