julezrclp Reviews

Silent Hill (2006)

Flawed, but atmospheric and full of great ideas

[7/10 · 26 June 2023]

I first watched this movie when I hadn't yet heard of the terrible ratings by most critics, and when I finally did look up the ratings, I was dumbfounded for a moment. Yes, this is not a perfect movie, and if you hate logical inconsistencies or borderline incomprehensible character behavior, this one probably isn't for you.

Well, what does it have going for it, then?

For once, atmosphere. The visuals are amazing throughout, drawing us into the action and, in my case, making me forget to even think about whether the plot was making much sense. I first started questioning some of the movie's logic when I watched it for the third time.

The second part of the atmosphere is the music. Almost all of the music was adapted from the video games, and I would argue some of the best atmosphere comes from the shots with no dialogue, where the pieces have our full attention.

The second major thing it has going for it is the concept of the story and way it tackles questions like: What makes people evil?

While the movie is certainly confusing (as has been argued by many reviewers), digging deeper into the movie and why certain things appear the way they do makes the movie richer and doesn't take away from it (an important feat in my opinion, especially when it comes to rewatchability) - however, this only goes for digging deeper into the concept, not so much the story we're presented, that sometimes feels too truthful to video game logic, even though the movie doesn't adapt the story of either of the.games.

I recommend to give the movie a watch despite what critics have said and written about it. It's a movie I espect to polarize - if the atmosphere and the nexus of the plot manage to immerse you in a sufficient manner, you're most probably going to enjoy it and even go out of the movie with this wonderful feeling of having seen something special.

If the atmosphere doesn't captivate you enough, if your thoughts get stuck in the plot more than in what's going on below the surface, you'll wonder what's going on at times.

It Comes at Night (2017)

Not an easy movie to watch, but a stunning one

[8/10 · 20 March 2019]

As i've hardly read any reviews that even remotely cover my view of the movie, i decided to do my very first one. First of all, the bad Rating is both (un-)justified. On the one hand, it's unjustified because the movie is absolutely awesome and works amazingly well. On the other hand, it's justified because the advertising of the movie was completely misleading. This is not a horror movie about some monster. It doesn't even really need that much in it that you could call supernatural.

What it achieves, is accuracy. It's supposed to be completely realistic, and the characters are meant to be as human as they can be. We don't get that many obvious goofs as in most other movies of a similar genre, although we get one major one. The major goof is that, no matter how you put it, the red door being opened doesn't add up. Joel's character, Paul, says in the beginning that he has the only key to that door. The movie however only gives us two possibilities: Either Travis opened the door and lied about it or didnt remember it because of sleepwalking or anything of the kind, or little Andrew did it, supposedly also sleepwalking. The latter seems to make the most sense, but it really doesnt matter which of the two you choose as your version, since you have the same problem in both cases: Why did they have the key to unlock the door? This is also not correctly addressed when the families meet afterwards, where Paul having the only key is just completely ignored. The door seems to have unlocked all by itself, so either Travis or Andrew were able to open it.

But that is only a minor fault, compared to what the movie does achieve: It shows us how inhumane humans can get when it comes to defending their loved ones in a hostile environment. And the plot always lets the characters do what they are supposed to do, there are no faults in the logic.

The plot seems realistic because it develops the way it develops and does not care about anything like traditional schemes. It ends abrupt, but with all being said that had to be said.

All in all, i'd gladly give the movie a 10/10. But that one major plothole wont close, no matter how hard i think about it. Nevertheless, a special movie that is absolutely astonishing.