My Own Little World

Horror films have two main ways of scaring their audiences. The more conventional option is to hold the audience in suspense by what they do not see coming, scaring the audience by the surprise factor of the scare itself. This is an easy, no-risk way of building tension that many good mainstream horror films put to frequent but satisfying use. The less-utilized method, and my favorite, is by telegraphing what is going to happen and let the audience fear come from the knowledge of the inevitable or from the danger most likely to come. This requires far more skill to execute properly, but when done so – a la Stanley Kubrick’s immortal classic The Shining – there is an ambiguity to the audience’s fear that makes the whole film creepy and unsettling because there is no indication to whether something should be feared. Hereditary falls firmly into the latter category, and that is why it is the most disturbing horror film I have seen in quite some time. It uses almost no cheap ...

I'm not just open to original films: I crave them.  An original film makes my viewing experience incredibly difficult because I can have trouble separating the originality from the quality of film-making present. So, when I sat down to watch The Gift , I was treated (for the first act of the film, at least) to a semi-routine stalker thriller. Honestly, it was well-directed, well-acted, and decently written. It just didn't pull me to the edge of my seat all that often. The premise of The Gift  is at least unique in a way: upon moving to a new area, a man, Simon, and his wife Robyn are approached by Gordo, one of his high school classmates, who mysteriously leaves gifts on their doorstep and shows up uninvited at their house repeatedly. The device of the gifts on the doorstep is interesting and well-executed, as we see how intrusive Gordo can be early on. However, the film remains trapped in itself for most of the first act, developing not unlike other psychological thrill...