Mama

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I look forward to taking the lady to see this Friday. I love most of Del Toro's work, but didn't enjoy afraid of the dark, so I'm a little worried.
 

Caliane

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yeah, his horror is a bit weak.
While his fantasy work is amazing. tinged with alot of dark elements.


which, he only produced this. Shit, with the advertising, I didnt even realize that.
Dont be afraid of the dark, he co-wrote the screenplay adaptation.
 

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
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yeah, his horror is a bit weak.
While his fantasy work is amazing. tinged with alot of dark elements.


which, he only produced this. Shit, with the advertising, I didnt even realize that.
Dont be afraid of the dark, he co-wrote the screenplay adaptation.
you should check out his first film Cronos, its a pretty cool horror film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104029/
dude becomes a vampire from touching this artifact hidden inside a vase(i think) and Ron Perlman plays a sort of a hitman working for his uncle to find the artifact that made him
 

Heriotze

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Devil's Backbone and Cronos were both really solid horror films but Del Toro can verge toward camp at certain times which has a habit of sullying his horror atmosphere. I think he's a bit like Raimi in that he's a great storyteller and has a great eye for how to build atmosphere and tone but he loves making films so much that his child-like wonderment at creating worlds breaks into things at, sometimes, inappropriate times. I think that's why Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies are so successful as films due to his attachment, even through serious concepts he got to have a lot of fun and it didn't feel as much out of place. Always really excited to see anything that he's attached to (still really pissed that At the Mountains of Madness got shelved because of Prometheus, massively technically proficient writer/director + some camp + Lovecraft would have been phenomenal) and this movie isn't any different.
 

Caliane

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yeah. I think his work, works much better when coming from the fantasy side. Things like pans labyrinth which is fantasy first, but crazy dark. Most fairytales are pretty dark in the first place.

But his horror stuff tends to get a bit silly, and just doesn't have that feeling of unease ever, that horror should bring.
 

Warrik

Potato del Grande
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Del Toro kicked ass with Hellboy and Pans Labrynth. He seems to excel in a more fantasy setting.
 
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Due to the ad campaign, I think a lot of people think Del Toro was directing this. It was actually just "presented" by him.
Anyway, went and saw it with the woman today. I thought it was alright, but not great. I enjoyed the first half quite a bit more than the rest, as the "less is more" concept disappears and you get way too many up close shots of Mama, which led me to get bored of her pretty quickly. I'd say it's worth a rent/download, but not sure if theater was the way to go on this one.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
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Terrible movie made worse by seeing it on a Friday night with a pg-13 rating. Don't waste your money.
 

EtadanikM_sl

shitlord
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This movie used a lot of jump scares. I understand why directors feel the need to employ them, and hell they do work because of our nerve responses, but it's still annoying because every horror director uses it, even the best ones.

It's easy to see how flawed this movie is. Muschietti's film doesn't try to play with the audience's head. What you thought was happening is what's happening. There's no twists, no mystery, no wondering about what's going on. In this way, the technique of the jump scare becomes a metaphor for the entire film - you know it's coming, you know you're going to jump, and you jump, because that's how humans work and Muschietti exploits it. Only at the end does the movie throw a curve ball, but even then it's one you ought to know was coming provided you've watched enough of horror to know the genre.

Having said all that, there's a sort of primal brutality to this movie that gets past the linearity and the reveal five minutes in. It *is* scary in a 'holy shit' sort of way, and it is unique in that it doesn't have the normal ramp up before the ghost starts attacking. The designers of the ghost did a great job, and that saves it in the end - because in the end, this movie is about the ghost. The other characters are underdeveloped, and I didn't feel the chemistry between Jessica Chastain's character and the children till the last ten minutes. This is unfortunate, because the entire movie is built on top of this, and one of the major storyline developments - the children's divided loyalty - becomes emotionally unsatisfying because of it. Still, I have to give props to Megan Charpentier for pulling off a decent performance as the conflicted older sister. She made the whole movie work for me at a caring about the characters level.
 

Caliane

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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This movie used a lot of jump scares. I understand why directors feel the need to employ them, and hell they do work because of our nerve responses, but it's still annoying because every horror director uses it, even the best ones.

It's easy to see how flawed this movie is. Muschietti's film doesn't try to play with the audience's head. What you thought was happening is what's happening. There's no twists, no mystery, no wondering about what's going on. In this way, the technique of the jump scare becomes a metaphor for the entire film - you know it's coming, you know you're going to jump, and you jump, because that's how humans work and Muschietti exploits it. Only at the end does the movie throw a curve ball, but even then it's one you ought to know was coming provided you've watched enough of horror to know the genre.

Having said all that, there's a sort of primal brutality to this movie that gets past the linearity and the reveal five minutes in. It *is* scary in a 'holy shit' sort of way, and it is unique in that it doesn't have the normal ramp up before the ghost starts attacking. The designers of the ghost did a great job, and that saves it in the end - because in the end, this movie is about the ghost. The other characters are underdeveloped, and I didn't feel the chemistry between Jessica Chastain's character and the children till the last ten minutes. This is unfortunate, because the entire movie is built on top of this, and one of the major storyline developments - the children's divided loyalty - becomes emotionally unsatisfying because of it. Still, I have to give props to Megan Charpentier for pulling off a decent performance as the conflicted older sister. She made the whole movie work for me at a caring about the characters level.
ha. sounds like my complaints on The woman in Black.
 

etchazz

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i'm starting to think that del toro may be the next M. night shyamalan: make one truly classic movie, and then just shit out a bunch of garbage afterwards. pan's labyrinth is my all time favorite movie, but his track record following that movie has been pretty disappointing.