Oh there are lots of great movies under the ‘elevated horror’ umbrella dgmw. It’s just that many of them really really insist on their own brilliance while explaining their conceit to you again over and over again as if you were too stupid to grasp it the first eight times.
If we’re talking ‘elevated horror’ that still delivers the goods without getting too patronizing or up itself…
It Follows
The Babadook
‘Us’ leans a little heavily on the convoluted allegory, but Jordan Peele’s movies are otherwise actually pretty great
Many people would accuse Ari Aster of exactly what I’ve been complaining about, but I really like his work lol. I think because he never really hammers a central thesis; his films are more just kaleidoscopic head fucks
The Haunting of Hill House was such a great bit of telly. I enjoy most of Mike Flanagan’s work, but that one is in another league entirely.
Edit - it occurs to me that The Haunting… is very very much about trauma, but it’s about the trauma of living in a haunted house, and the impact that has on a family. Obviously you can read things into it, but it doesn’t feel like straight allegory
I was just listing stuff that had themes of trauma I guess, but also you just made me realize that Mike Flan basically did the same theme with The Haunting and Oculus
Oh yeah Oculus comes across as kind of a dry run in hindsight. Very good though, as is most of his stuff. The only Flanagan production I hated was Doctor Sleep
Oh there are lots of great movies under the ‘elevated horror’ umbrella dgmw. It’s just that many of them really really insist on their own brilliance while explaining their conceit to you again over and over again as if you were too stupid to grasp it the first eight times.
Give me some recs please
If we’re talking ‘elevated horror’ that still delivers the goods without getting too patronizing or up itself…
May, Fresh, The Fan, American Horror Story S1, Super Dark Times, The Witch, Thoroughbreds, Haunting of Hill House S1, Pans Labrynth
The Haunting of Hill House was such a great bit of telly. I enjoy most of Mike Flanagan’s work, but that one is in another league entirely.
Edit - it occurs to me that The Haunting… is very very much about trauma, but it’s about the trauma of living in a haunted house, and the impact that has on a family. Obviously you can read things into it, but it doesn’t feel like straight allegory
I was just listing stuff that had themes of trauma I guess, but also you just made me realize that Mike Flan basically did the same theme with The Haunting and Oculus
Oh yeah Oculus comes across as kind of a dry run in hindsight. Very good though, as is most of his stuff. The only Flanagan production I hated was Doctor Sleep