Scott Derrickson
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Connections, in both directions
If you've ever watched Annihilation, you have a pretty good idea of what you'll see down there.
The Gorge becomes a sci-fi/action movie that reminds me of Alex Garland’s Annihilation. While there is nothing as indelibly horrible as Annihilation’s nightmare bear, The Gorge offers some interesting things to look at, nonetheless.
…they find some sub-Annihilation production design and we find that things aren’t exactly what they seem.
These parts of the film are reminiscent of Annihilation, both in concept and visually as well, so it won’t win points here for originality.
It lives somewhere between an Annihilation homage and a Resident Evil remake…
…it’s more like the kind of genetically mutated world featured in Alex Garland’s Annihilation, and at least that means some trippy visuals as various giant Groots and skull-spiders swarm our protagonists like a video game set to crushingly hard.
…the action beats of a typical Resident Evil video game…
…the type of zombies you’d find in a horror video game like Resident Evil…
There are shootouts and fight scenes, sometimes feeling like a Resident Evil movie.
I can totally see it being a level in a RESIDENT EVIL video game.
From here, the movie largely plays out like a video game adaptation, drawing especially from Resident Evil (the games, not the PWSA movies, to be very clear), with big guns, varying creatively designed big and little bads, and some not-so-smoothly integrated exposition drops.
The Gorge melds T.S. Elliott and the Ramones with sci-fi action-horror reminiscent of Resident Evil, Doom, and The Last of Us, all with a dash of romance thrown in for good over-the-top measure.
The Shining (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced Sinister (2012), Deliver Us from Evil (2014), The Black Phone (2022)
Visuals Themes Plot Characters
There are a number of reminders of Kubrick's The Shining here, none of them resonant.
Then again, I don't recall anything occurring after we got cable and HBO (back when it only aired after 5 pm and on the weekends) and thus were able to watch uncut horror movies such as "The Exorcist" and "The Shining."
Oswald starts an obsessive investigation (a nod to "The Shining") that yields a disturbing links to larger pattern of family murder and a potential connection to an occult spirit that preys upon families.
They borrow liberally from earlier horror efforts, with The Shining being the most obvious influence.
The script by C. Robert Cargill and director Scott Derrickson is indebted to some welcome influences, including Stephen King ("The Shining," "Secret Window," many other "anguished author" stories) and Michelangelo Antonioni (1966's "Blowup," in which a fashion photographer stumbles upon a murder mystery in a series of images).
Ellison Oswalt, a celebrity author of true-crime novels played by Ethan Hawke at his most antsy and compelling, is a knockoff of Jack Torrance in The Shining: a writer struggling to produce, who likes his whiskey too much, whose work lures him toward mental instability, and who moves his wife and kids into a home where gruesome murders took place.
Non-specialists would not want to bet their lives on being able to identify which dimension the film occupies at any specific moment, but from a visual point of view the upshot is that Doctor Strange enters a dazzling zone in which whole slabs of the New York cityscape fold down, multiply and assume new configurations in ways that take their cue from Inception but go far beyond it in visual spectacle.
The latter trick, which turncoat ex-disciple Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) uses for more nefarious purposes, lends the film a staggering visual effects innovation, in which the building-bending seen in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is taken to an extreme that would blow even M.C.
The look is a little bit The Matrix, a little bit Inception, a little bit Dark City, and all acid trip.
Unapologetically folding the likes of “The Matrix” and “Inception” into the fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , “Sinister” director Scott Derrickson reaches into the mirror dimension (whatever the hell that is) and retrieves the year’s most (only?) visually dazzling blockbuster.
True, Nolan has already mined this visual style half a dozen years ago in Inception, but it’s put to good effect by Derrickson.
Just as smart, the film’s director, Scott Derrickson (taking a giant leap from the Blumhouse cheapie-chiller Sinister, not to mention Hellraiser: Inferno) stylistically nods to puzzle-box brainteasers like Dark City, Inception, and The Matrix to conjure a cinematic universe that couldn’t be further removed from the usual Marvel spandexapaloozas.
The Exorcist (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin
influenced Deliver Us from Evil (2014), Sinister (2012)
Visuals Themes
His young son crawls out of a box screeching, looking not unlike Linda Blair doing the spider-walk thing in that cut scene from The Exorcist.
I was strongly reminded of Ellen Burstyn creeping into her attic in " The Exorcist ," holding only a candle.
Then again, I don't recall anything occurring after we got cable and HBO (back when it only aired after 5 pm and on the weekends) and thus were able to watch uncut horror movies such as "The Exorcist" and "The Shining."
William Friedkin's The Exorcist casts a long, dark shadow on all who seek to replicate that film's sense of dread.
Is he challenging anyone to defeat him like Pazuzu did to Lankaster Merrin in “The Exorcist”?
Like “The Shining,” “Misery,” “The Exorcist” and “Jaws” played on people’s mental fears without fancy effects as patchwork for weak material, the modern-day “Sinister” captures the most scary element of “The Ring” and “The Cabin in the Woods”: voyeurism.
…the two engaging in Love Actually-style signage from their distant towers…
“What do you get if you cross American Sniper, The Last Of Us, Stranger Things, Aliens and Love Actually?”
…un gran cuaderno y una pizarra para intercambiar mensajes (y que a más de uno le recordará a aquella mítica escena de Love Actually).
At one point they start writing notes to each other that they can read with their binoculars, a la Love Actually.
Love Actually-inspired note cards and flexing their own sniper skills leads to the two breaking protocol and meeting one another on Drasa’s side of the gorge.
They first communicate via signs (a la “Love Actually”)…
The look is a little bit The Matrix, a little bit Inception, a little bit Dark City, and all acid trip.
Unapologetically folding the likes of “The Matrix” and “Inception” into the fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , “Sinister” director Scott Derrickson reaches into the mirror dimension (whatever the hell that is) and retrieves the year’s most (only?) visually dazzling blockbuster.
And that seems to be the governing philosophy behind this second-rate knock-off of everything from The Matrix to Ant-Man.
Just as smart, the film’s director, Scott Derrickson (taking a giant leap from the Blumhouse cheapie-chiller Sinister, not to mention Hellraiser: Inferno) stylistically nods to puzzle-box brainteasers like Dark City, Inception, and The Matrix to conjure a cinematic universe that couldn’t be further removed from the usual Marvel spandexapaloozas.
That's no knock on the movie itself, which director Scott Derrickson – the horror guy from Deliver Us from Evil, Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose – has kicked up a notch with a visual dazzle and wit unseen around these parts since The Matrix and Inception.
Visually and conceptually, Doctor Strange owes more to the inverted physics of Inception and the East-meets-West chop-socky of The Matrix trilogy.
Se7en (1995)
Directed by David Fincher
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
Visuals Themes
While the marketing materials present The Black Phone as something in the vein of Se7en - and there are some definite nods to Fincherism in the film - it owes much more to Stephen King.
The grim look reminds us of other thrillers such as "Se7en" (1995) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
There are also dribs and drabs of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Se7en (1995), but in its heart of hearts, Deliver Us from Evil has a bad case of Friedkin envy.
The movie also unfolds during perhaps the gloomiest, rainiest week seen on screen since “Se7en.”
And after a while, the film’s grim, desolate settings come off not so much as a landscape of moral squalor (as in Se7en), but as a tedious attempt to add gravity to a thoroughly generic horror tale.
This turns out to be a pity because Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber immediately reminds me of Pennywise in Stephen King’s It since both of them are vicious antagonists who abducted children in the small town.
In a lot of ways, it’s like a minature version of It, written by Hill’s legendary father Stephen King, in the way it combines a child’s view of the world with the dangers lurking in it.
Once The Black Phone transforms into a full-on story of survival, it channels Stephen King features It and Stand By Me in that children must work together to overcome impossible scenarios that would be difficult to face even as adults.
IT ’s Pennywise is creepier – it’s tough to beat a demonic clown – but The Black Phone ’s The Grabber serves up solid competition among horrifying antagonists in films based on Stephen King or his son Joe Hill’s twisted stories.
Literary fans of the horror genre might be quick to associate the black balloons – that seem to be there just to draw attention to writer Joe Hill’s association with father Stephen King, and the red balloons in the latter’s “IT”.
There are obvious comparisons to It (Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son, after all, and shares with his father a penchant for stories about human goodness and frailty mixed with the supernatural), as well as Stranger Things , which is deeply influenced by King’s work.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
influenced The Black Phone (2022)
Visuals Dialogue
All of this combined gives the film a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of vintage photographs and the era of striped baby tees, flared jeans, and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” playing in theaters.
Finney and Robin talk about the 1974 horror movie “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” which Finney says his strict father would never allow him to see because he’s underage.
More important than this, the dialogue evokes films of the era, pointedly referencing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – which gives a solid idea where the filmmakers heads were at and what they were trying to achieve (down to the casting of Thames, whose appearance is eerily reminiscent of actors from that time that it felt as if we recognized him from one of those films).
That authentic 70s vibe extends to the rest of the production, including characteristically fluffy hair, conversations about Happy Days and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , with copies of Starlog magazine prominently displayed in a grocery store.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
Themes Plot Visuals
The grim look reminds us of other thrillers such as "Se7en" (1995) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
A whole escape sequence involving a combination lock is as stressful as it gets, and the film pays off in crowd-pleasing fashion while, most importantly, feeling earned, even while a climactic bit of misdirection is an obvious lift from “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Film bu yönüyle yer yer The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ve Scream (1996) filmlerini akla getiriyor.
While Deliver‘s cinematography never rises to the level of its spiritual cousin, James Wan’s The Conjuring, Derrickson’s clever juxtaposition of the horrific and the clinical earns a comparison to The Silence of the Lambs.
Em agosto, já havia sido disponibilizado o primeiro trailer, mostrando que o vilão gordo da literatura fora substituído por Ethan Hawke, com uma máscara e cartola que trazia referência a Lon Chaney em London After Midnight.
Desde ya que El Teléfono Negro no es para nada novedosa o “de quiebre”, sin embargo su arribo es motivo de celebración porque se extrañaba muchísimo una odisea atrapante y osada alrededor del latiguillo a priori quemado del homicida en serie en busca de una presa siempre dócil, planteo que hoy por suerte se complejiza y se expande a través del genial trabajo actoral de Thames y un Hawke que despunta como un villano antológico con una galera y una máscara diabólicas semejantes al Lon Chaney de La Casa del Horror ( London After Midnight , 1927), legendaria epopeya muda y perdida de Tod Browning, y al Doctor Caligari de Werner Krauss de El Gabinete del Dr. Caligari ( Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari , 1920), obra maestra de Robert Wiene.
Later, Finney is seen watching the 1959 horror movie “The Tingler” on TV one night, which is a scene inspired by director Derrickson doing the same thing when he was a child.
Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score is occasionally reminiscent of Christopher Young’s work on Sinister , offering skittering and discomforting notes to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
We expected more authorship from a rookie director, something much closer to a Scott Derrickson (Black Phone, Sinister) or Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) film than to Annabelle so to speak.
In some ways Smile takes after the likes of The Ring, It Follows and even Sinister where our protagonist finds themselves cursed, and need to look for a way to get rid of it.
Remettant à l’honneur une horreur qui évoque aussi bien les ambiances lugubres d’un Sinister (Derrickson, 2012) que les introspections psychologico-horrifiques d’un Roman Polanski (époque Le locataire ), Smile fait vraiment plaisir à voir, en étant à la fois intelligent et diablement efficace.
With supernatural dread lifted directly from the likes of Stir of Echoes and The Sixth Sense , The Black Phone features a breakthrough performance from Madeleine McGraw while Ethan Hawke’s hauntingly memorable turn as The Grabber is felt in a hair-raising sense; like someone who has unknowingly snuck up behind you and waits in your peripheral for that dramatic reveal.
While some of the spoken lines defy logic (one character seems obsessed with his memories of Finney's pitching arm), each seemingly insignificant detail comes together in an exhilarating climax, reminiscent of early M. Knight Shyamalan films like Signs and The Sixth Sense.
Relying too heavily on quick jolts and jump scares, some moments of The Black Phone feel like the more PG-13 moments of The Sixth Sense .
And the supernatural elements of “The Sixth Sense” (and numerous other horror flicks).
At the same time, he keeps freeze-framing the footage, combing it for a clue to the killer's identity, just like the hero of Blow-Up.
This is creepy enough, but there’s something more that he notices and that causes him to go all David Hemmings in Blow-Up (1966) — a barely glimpsed face lurking in the background, on the edges, or in reflections.
Thanks to cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz – who is hot off this year’s Scream and also currently shooting Scream 6 – the rich, grainy look of the film is as warm and nostalgic as it is ominous.
Boosté par une excellente musique indus de Mark Korven (qui explose lors du générique initial, largement inspiré de celui de Seven de Fincher) et des images volontairement délavées de Brett Jutkiewicz (le récent reboot de Scream ), Black Phone n’est sans doute pas un sommet dans le domaine de la peur.
Film bu yönüyle yer yer The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ve Scream (1996) filmlerini akla getiriyor.
The Doors (1991)
Directed by Oliver Stone
influenced Deliver Us from Evil (2014), The Black Phone (2022)
Music
Na trajetória para esta nova colaboração com o ator Ethan Hawke (e com a produtora Blumhouse), disse um “ oi ” ao Universo Marvel com “Doctor Strange” (2016), recusou a sequela, e sugeriu The Doors como a banda do Diabo em “Deliver us from Evil” (2014).
This is blockbuster horror, a Dateline NBC segment blown out into a catch-all gothic extravaganza that includes references to Iraq and PTSD, the Bronx Zoo as a gateway to hell, a heroin junkie turned über-hip Catholic demonologist, and the deepest consideration of Jim Morrison’s mind-expanding lyrics since Oliver Stone’s The Doors.
Moreover, the pic uses a handful of songs by 60s rock band “The Doors” as part of its storyline, ostensibly because of singer Jim Morrison’s loose connection to the occult.
The testosterone teaming goes straight to hell with the priest character played by Édgar Ramírez (Carlos), a chain-smoking and whiskey-guzzling padre who seems to be channelling Serpico-era Al Pacino.
It stemmed from an idea of producer Jerry Bruckheimer's to make a movie that merged Serpico (1973) with The Exorcist (1973).
Unlike the excellent It Follows, this thriller borrows from Sinister to perpetuate its languishing myth until it goes into In the Mouth of Madness mode.
Director Stacy Title and writer Jonathan Penner probably didn’t set out to make a movie this godawful, but it seems that their crude amalgam of Sinister, It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Babadook revolted against them in production and escaped into theaters as a vulgar, misshapen mess of unintended comedy and melodrama.
This PG-13 rated schlock masquerades as another of those urban legend staples borrowing heavily from the visualizations of Sinister (2012) and without the kind of subtext which still makes Candyman (1992) feel like a relevant attempt at contemplating the kind of power belief holds as far as personifying fear.
If you’ve seen Sinister , Candyman or Oculus , you’ve seen The Bye Bye Man .