Saw this back at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival
The story is about when neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could inject some fame and fortune into their wasted lives. An ever-deeper, darker rabbit hole, their friendship frays as they uncover the dangers of the phenomena, the city and each other. Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who both star the main roles in this project. The two have collaborated with each other on other horrors sci-fi types of movies like "The Endless, Spring, and Synchronic ". While I haven't seen those films yet, I am now intrigued to see what they have created.
"Something in the Dirt" may sound boring since the movie takes place in few locations and very few cast members the entire time. But Benson and Moorhead's chemistry and writing helped to make this movie engaging, interesting, and funny at the same time. Benson and Moorhead are like two buddies you want to just listen because they are two weirdos, yet, there are so fascinating and interesting to listen to. You don't wanna stop listening and you want to hear and see what comes next. The performances Benson and Moorhead brings feels nature and realistic as the characters they are playing fit exactly in a film like this. The production designs for a low budget horror movie fits perfectly, some good visual effects, good sound designs, and concepts approached through this movie. The dialogue is really engaging like something from an Whit Stillman story but instead of a romance drama, it's more a comic supernatural horror buddy film. The pacing is really well down although 115 minutes was a little too long and few scenes could have been trimmed to make the pacing better.
The writing aspects of this movie has many fun and interesting moments. There are some technical flaws especially some of the camerawork looked really bad at certain moments that could been done with reshoots or retakes of those scenes. Characters are interesting but the characters does feel a little repetitive with their purpose at times. Although these distractions came into play, Benson and Moorhead knows how to keep you engaged despite the flaws.
Rating: B+
The story is about when neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could inject some fame and fortune into their wasted lives. An ever-deeper, darker rabbit hole, their friendship frays as they uncover the dangers of the phenomena, the city and each other. Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who both star the main roles in this project. The two have collaborated with each other on other horrors sci-fi types of movies like "The Endless, Spring, and Synchronic ". While I haven't seen those films yet, I am now intrigued to see what they have created.
"Something in the Dirt" may sound boring since the movie takes place in few locations and very few cast members the entire time. But Benson and Moorhead's chemistry and writing helped to make this movie engaging, interesting, and funny at the same time. Benson and Moorhead are like two buddies you want to just listen because they are two weirdos, yet, there are so fascinating and interesting to listen to. You don't wanna stop listening and you want to hear and see what comes next. The performances Benson and Moorhead brings feels nature and realistic as the characters they are playing fit exactly in a film like this. The production designs for a low budget horror movie fits perfectly, some good visual effects, good sound designs, and concepts approached through this movie. The dialogue is really engaging like something from an Whit Stillman story but instead of a romance drama, it's more a comic supernatural horror buddy film. The pacing is really well down although 115 minutes was a little too long and few scenes could have been trimmed to make the pacing better.
The writing aspects of this movie has many fun and interesting moments. There are some technical flaws especially some of the camerawork looked really bad at certain moments that could been done with reshoots or retakes of those scenes. Characters are interesting but the characters does feel a little repetitive with their purpose at times. Although these distractions came into play, Benson and Moorhead knows how to keep you engaged despite the flaws.
Rating: B+