thehorrishcentipede

[thehorrishcentipede]

The First Omen (2024) directed by Arkasha Stevenson

Just finished The First Omen literally less than 2 minutes ago, and I've gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised! I didn't expect a lot from this movie given the quick trailer I saw on Instagram, but it totally surpassed my expectations!

To start off, I absolutely LOVE the music in the movie. I'm pretty biased towards anything gospel but this was amazing! Especially whatever song they had at the beginning. It really set the tone for the movie and was very creepy but also kind of beautiful. Honestly, I might even go and find the soundtrack for this movie and add it to my playlist. Along with that, the lighting was very good throughout the whole thing. Even in the darker lit parts, I never had any trouble understanding what was going on, which I find to be a common problem in a lot of horror movies, but not in this one!

[SPOILERS] Secondly, the characters and the acting was top tier! Seriously! I was so invested in all of the characters, even the minor ones! And the acting was so intense that I even got a bit squeamish just with the screaming (along with some intense visuals). Speaking of which, the visuals were so good! I got scared by each jump scare! The part where Sister Anjelica's dead burnt body comes out from the darkness was soooo cool! I love the effects on the body it looked really good! And even beforehand when she goes and kills herself, that part was nuts and was done so well it was shocking! But I definitely think my top favorite parts were when the random lady was giving birth and we saw her give birth to a demon (even though it was a hallucination). This part was so well done and made me super squeamish and just overall really uncomfortable. I felt like I was giving birth myself! And my other favorite part was when Paolo got ripped in half and we got to see his guts. As bad as I put it, this was a really intense and emotional scene which got me misty-eyed, which I definitely didn't expect. I also liked the deformed pre Scianna photos that we got to see. Really cool and interesting!

The plot was very interesting and I was really into it when it was a mystery, but once the plot was revealed we still had a long way to go until the end of the movie, so I feel as if they could've held onto that for a bit.

One thing that I absolutely HATED was the design of the devil or whatever demon they had in the basement impregnating people. It was so corny and ugly and I hated it so much, that honestly having the full thing in front of me was a disappointment. Another critique that I'm not mad about but I don't feel should be in a horror MOVIE, is that, about halfway through, any depiction of the flashbacks felt less scary and more......like a erotic monster movie. Even when Margaret gets impregnated, there were certain shots and progressions that were a bit sensually to where I was like, "Wait, what am I watching?" lol. But it didn't ruin the movie, so this is more of a neutral note. And then lastly, when Margaret and Luz were going out to the party and it was Margaret's first time, Luz made Margaret wear a revealing dress and Luz was COVERED, which I thought was really weird since she seemed to be the 'party girl', but at the end of the movie we learn that Luz is going along with the whole thing and ends up stabbing Margaret so maybe it was to show that Luz was more conservative and in line with the cult? Idk. Overall, I liked this movie! Again, not one of my favorites and maybe not the most memorable, but enjoyable in the moment!

Also! After doing a tiny Google search I learned that this is a supposed prequel to The Omen (1971). So I will have to watch that at some point and get some more info on the lore.

NOTE - while this movie did depict SA, it was done by the devil, which is portrayed as a sort of animal? I guess? A beast rather than a man, and they don't really show it, so this didn't make me as uncomfortable because I took it less as SA and more as a supernatural thing happening idk.

Charcter Acting/Monster Design: Beautiful acting all around! No notes! But absolutely HORRID monster design. Put me in there I'll design a better one out of clay I swear lmao! (0.6/1)

Setting: I really liked the setting and when Sister Angelica killed herself in broad daylight, the contrast of the scene compare to all the beauty around her was really cool! Though I feel like some of the scarier places (the basement) could've had more detail, or been more spookier by setting a different tone. Later on at that point it began to feel more action movie-esque. (0.6/1)

Plot: The plot was somewhat interesting.Lots of moving parts! Though once the pieces were put together a bit past halfway through the movie, it lost the horror factor and was more action - like I think (0.5/1)

Tension/Spookiness/Uncomfy: Full points, no questions asked! With the gore and the body horror and the birthing scenes, it definitely crossed off all my checkpoints! (1/1)

Gore/Violence: Love love loved the two scenes of gore we got! Really well done! But not as detailed as I would have liked it (0.9/1)

Total: 3.6/5 Good movie, should def give it a try, but it's nothing too special I don't think

[thehorrishcentipede]

Funny Games (2007) [English Version] directed by Michael Haneke

First post of this blog and first time using Tumblr! A bit late to the game but I'm so excited to start writing down things whenever I watch another horror movie. I think that not only will this help with giving me another hobby, but I'd like to believe that this will enhance my old one of consuming horror content, while also improving my writing skills, comprehension, and articulation. But overall, I just want to write down my stream of thoughts about things I see. <3

To start off, I few days ago I just finished, 'Funny Games' (2007) [English Version]. This is definitely not one of my favorite movies, however, my only grievance was that I found the pacing to be incredibly slow. This ruined any sense of sympathy I had for the victims in certain moments. I recognize that this was probably just a build up to the next set of events, but it went on for way longer than it should have.

[SPOILERS] Other than that, I really like the premise of the movie. On my own, without researching other's opinions, I thought the movie was a critique of real life killers, and how often, the pain they inflict on their victims is not a real equivalent to anything the killers themselves went through. Whether they had a poor upbringing, abusive parents, were bullied, etc, it isn't' equal to the pain they are causing now. My main reason for thinking this is when Paul was giving fake explanation for why they were torturing the family. Giving the common stories that we usually hear from real life killers in their investigations. Then when the plot twist came I thought Paul was just an God or something that enjoyed torturing.

However, after looking at other's opinions, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the director, Michael Haneke, had made the film to be a critique of the horror genre itself. Apparently the fourth wall breaks are an acknowledgement of the viewer and to recognize that they themselves are taking apart of the pain inflicted on the family as, if we wanted it to stop, we could stop it by.....simply turning off the TV! This is really funny to me, and is also doubled down with when we are revealed a major plot twist. When Ann grabs the shotgun and initially shoots Peter in the chest, killing him, Paul then searches for the remote and rewinds the whole movie! This was such a cool thing to happen in a movie! I've never seen something like it, and the idea was so cool!

Another thing I really liked was at the end, when Paul and Peter are sailing the boat to the next victim's house (Ann's friends), Peter is talking about a book he is into, where the main character is trapped in a fake reality and his family is in the real one. Paul argues, "What's the difference?" Claiming that if you can see the fake reality, how does it make it any less real that the supposed "real" reality. This is definitely referencing the movie itself in that, how is the pain on the screen any less real as, we can see it, and in this reality, even though it's fake to us, its real to the victims on the screen (take that with a grain of salt though lmao).

In my research, it was also pointed out to me that throughout the entire movie, NONE of the violent acts were shown. Which at first I thought was impossible, as the story revolves around torturing the family. And I was right! We are able to see ONE act of violence (instead of the aftermath), when Ann shoots Paul. I take it as this is just an important moment so they have to show the whole thing.

My final notes are that, the acting was incredibly well done. I felt like I was actually watching a family get captured. And when George was on the phone, crying about how his son had been killed, he said it with such desperation and grief in his voice, that I almost got a bit teary eyed, and I just felt so awful for him. Georgie, on the other hand, I was a bit annoyed with. While I understand he's like, what, 8 or 9, his survival skills were really irritating me when he had the perfect chance to escape and just kept messing it up. So overall, I really liked the message of the movie and it's critiques, along with it's reality bending conundrum and the crazy plot twist! Unfortunately, it's not really the kind of movie I enjoy and with it's pacing it gets a:

Character Acting/Monster Design: The acting was really good and it made me feel more enveloped in the story in that I could feel the grief and desperation. Along with this, the killers were very unusual which made for an interesting take. However, the characters weren't really likable, so I wasn't too invested in them when they died (0.6/1)

Setting: The setting was really nice in that it made you feel comfortable, so when something bad happens it felt very disturbing, Along with this, the colors were really nice and everything was viewable! (1/1)

Plot: The plot was a bit boring unfortunately, but was somewhat made up with the message from the director and the little philosophical moment at the end (0.8/1)

Tension/Spookiness/Uncomfy: There was only one moment were I felt uncomfortable (I don't deal with SA well) and although there wasn't any SA I thought it was headed that way. But along with this, George's empty cries into the phone was really emotional and I'll count that as it did get a big emotion from me (0.4/1)

Gore/Violence: One one act of violence was shown (besides restraining) but all of the aftermath was shown. Not in detail, but it was viewable (0.3/1)

Total: 3.1/5 (which still seems a bit too high for me but whatever lol) I might change how I rate movie l8tr but I'll stick to this until I find something better <3