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It Chapter Two (2019)
The second half is worthy, well-cast and mostly faithful adaptation of the book
For most of the people out there who will watch it for the scares, there are plenty of them abound. The talked-about homophobic scene is quite good a starter. But what I found the most satisfying in the scares territory were The Ritual of Chud, and The Walking Tours of each of the Losers. Both are the longest among the scares, and the filmmakers did an amazing job of presenting them from book to big screen, albeit somewhat different. I personally thought they were hard to adapt. Like the Paul Bunyan scene but most especially the Ritual of Chud.
Apart from the scares, the movie will make people laugh out loud as well. Bill Hader and James Ransone are quite the comic relief. And the appearance of Stephen King is spot-on and funny too.
There are those who complain that the movie is overlong and not as scary as they expected it to be, but I can say that most people who read It and those who did not but appreciate the first movie as the package it was will be satisfied.
Because it's not just the scares that make us follow the story. It is the characters themselves. The coming of age. The nostalgia. The old times. The friends who come along and stay. The friends who come along but leave. The unconditional love. The promises whether honored or not. The power of belief. The guilt. The personal fears we want to overcome. The strength and weakness of memory. How most of the times the bad things we want to forget stick with us longer than the good things we want to remember. It evokes something powerful in us that makes us the humane people we are. We identify ourselves in each of the Losers. And that is one very good side It shared with us. It makes us remember. It makes us hope.
And the score by Benjamin Wallfisch made It all the more powerful and the well-cast characters they were.
It is not a perfect movie. There are scenes that don't work as intended. But those that do more than make up.
So bring on the Director's Cut.
Be true. Be brave. Stand.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The movie that makes you terrified of falling asleep
It's been over a decade since and when I saw Jason X and Freddy vs Jason. As a kid then, I was more pulled with the action and violence rather than the story. So of these two slasher villains, it's been Jason I was fond of. I grew up. Watched many movies. It was recent that I decided to get back to my roots, to know more of these villains. So I watched all the Friday the 13th movies first. And recently, the first of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and wow. ANoES is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. Immersive. Very atmospheric. The story is focused. The imagery nightmare material. The score relentlessly terrifying. A slasher movie done right, I didn't feel annoyed by the characters at all, partly because of the screenplay itself but the acting did it for me too. I do not want to spoil things for people yet to discover the movie so I would say this vague: the scene where the blood gushed profusely, and rather in an exaggerated way from the hole in the bed to the ceiling just added to the overall darkness of the tone of the film. Usually, exaggeration is off-putting when exaggeration is not the name of the game, but not that. And it was only now that I appreciated Wes Craven and only now that I learned I've watched some of his movies already - Scream and Scream 2 which are both very good too. I just don't think that ANoES can be topped by any of its sequels. But I will still watch them. I crave for more.
I also noticed Heather Langenkamp who played Nancy in the movie really looked like Lily James. Lily James has played several period movie characters. Nice.
I am more of 21st century movie guy but this one has aged so well the movie still holds up to this day. This is one of the movies that make me want to watch movies older than me.
I wish I could have watched this as a kid so I would have gotten more terrified by nightmares then. I'm an adult now. I will just make sure to have it watched by the kids in the family. They like scary movies and I'm sure this will spook them up.
One, two Freddy's coming for you / Three, four Better lock your door / Five, six Grab your crucifix / Seven, eight Gonna stay up late / Nine, ten Never sleep again
Roma (2018)
Roma is not for cinephiles alone
I watched it alone for the first half. And for the second half, my seven year old niece joined me. So what happened was I told her the gist of the story: that there is a protagonist who is a housekeeper to a family. And because English is not our mother tongue, I translated and simplified most of the conversations in the movie. What I found surprising was she was instantly immersed in the story. (Spoilers) Like she could relate to having a housekeeper, the poops of the dog not swept up at instant, the quarrel among siblings. Two things she could not relate to but I made her understand how sympathetic the situations were were the jerk who made Cleo pregnant but didn't hold himself responsible, and the father in the employing family committing adultery. My niece told me that she would be watching until the last 30 minutes of the movie so she can go to bed and sleep. But by the time the protests occured on screen, she was so tense she bugged me to explain to her what was going on. Then the labor happened. I reminded my niece it was past her bedtime yet she just decided she wanted to finish the movie. The beach scene made her gasp and panic she stifled her scream. By the end of it, I asked her if she liked the movie. She did. She appreciated it all that she asked me if the grandma wore the same clothes everytime and pointed out how the two youngest children were close and attached to Cleo. Really glad my niece wasn't present during that full frontal nudity in the first half.
So for those people who are saying that this movie is for cinephiles only because aside from its technical excellence the story is mundane and will bore its viewers, my niece will defend it if she can.
A Monster Calls (2016)
"And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them."
As someone who had read the book and really liked it, I found the movie as compelling and it excels at additions that are not in the novel such as the last scene which happened after the ending of the book. However, they also removed some good parts from the book, but were offset by visuals and score and the spot on performances of the characters especially Lewis MacDougall (Conor) who nailed his role in the movie. He sure knows how to cry. And that needs pointing out as a lot of kids in movies are sometimes annoying and difficult to watch. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) who were both Academy Award Best Actress nominees were as good as anyone would expect them to be. And Liam Neeson's voice was the perfect choice for the monster's. Haunting, cold, deep, and soothing. Also, the other thing I found striking was how the book played out as a movie. Aside from a few differences (the adds and minuses), almost everything else is as what the book is. Impactful scenes as how they were narrated and readers imagine them to be and dialogue and life lessons as how they were said in the book were same as in the movie. If you have read and liked the book, then watch this. If you have not, watch it still, as long as you have a heart and know what you're getting into, chances are you'll like this gem of a movie.
Blair Witch (2016)
Face the corner.
A worthy sequel. If you're not a fan of the original, then you won't need to involve yourself with Blair Witch. I came to the cinema with expectation of disappointment because of others saying it was sort of a remake. But I really needed to watch it, I can't not. Yes, they got the sort of remake right, but there were too many good things in the movie to be considered for me to be just disappointed. Because in its entirety, I was not. Compared to the original, the number of characters here going to the woods doubled (though the downside was less character development for some of them), so more people for lunacy. The nights were longer, there were only actually two nights in the woods, and remember the nights were creepy as hell in the original (the downside here is even daytime in the original adds up to the craziness of the movie), and in this sequel, they opt to lengthen the nights, thus more mobility and advantage for the witch. And as someone here has already said, a huge fraction of the run- time happens in the house (the original's endpoint took place in the house for only five minutes or less). It's claustrophobic, it's edgy. So if you're a hater of the first one, then don't spend time hating here, life is too short to just keep on hating. But if you're an enthusiast of the original, watch this one. It has its share of flaws, but the expansion of the ideas here are more than enough to warrant its worth.