Thoughts on a day of horror at Christmas: Better Watch Out, Ready or Not, and Tucker and Dale Vs Evil
I've had a little more free time lately so of course have spent it catching up on movies!
This week I started with a day of horror and chose 3 movies that seemed to have passed me by:
Below are my thoughts on each film after having a day to reflect on them:
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (7/10)
A film that quickly became a cult classic in horror comedy circles, this one has been on my to watch list for a while. It's Dumb and Dumber with more blood.
The plot of this film is incredibly simple; two 'hillbillies' Tucker and Dale, are off for a weekend of fishing and making repairs in the new holiday cabin that Tucker has just purchased. A group of college (university) kids are also heading out to camp in the same woods. The college kids believe that Tucker and Dale are murderers who are hunting them down, and Tucker and Dale can't understand why these kids just keep killing themselves on their property. There is a sub-plot about one of the kids being the true antagonist due to some ridiculous revenge fantasy from his own parents being killed by completely unrelated hillbillies in the same woods years before. I call it a sub plot as that is all it deserves to be and although it does explain a lot of the character actions from the kids' side of things, I think the focus of the film is, and deserves to be, on the title characters.
I can see why this has the following that it does. The idea of showing a standard teen camp-ground horror from the side of the 'monster' is novel and I have not seen any other films do this that I can recall. It is important to note there is no monster or threat in this film at all, and aside from the gory parts and the nods to certain tropes, I would actually struggle to classify this as a horror. This is where I have knocked points and why I only rate it 7/10, it is not a horror film, but it is not funny enough to be a comedy. There are funny elements sure, but it barely passes the "six laugh test". Perhaps it is because I thought it was a little predictable, or it might be that the gags, although funny, are quite dumbed down that I didn't fall in love with this film as much as some people have. It is an easy film, and I think a young teen audience would be able to watch this. People who don't like horror but can deal with someone jumping into a woodchipper would also be ok. I think if I had watched this with the right people at a younger age the jokes would've landed better for me.
Better Watch Out (7/10)
This Australian-American horror came to my attention after it was listed on a lot of comedy/horror film lists alongside some of my favourites over the last couple of years (Cabin in the Woods, What We do in the Shadows etc). I did not read anything about it before watching it and would suggest doing the same for the full effect. I watched the trailer afterwards and am pleased I didn't see it first as I probably would've wanted to watch this upon it's release if I had seen the trailer, and then would've been a lot more disgusted by the direction it goes in, as it is sold as a horror Home Alone but is frankly a lot more disturbing than that.
Spoilers ahead: The brief synopsis is seventeen year old Ashley is baby-sitting twelve year old Luke (from context she has done this quite a few times before) at Christmas time, before she is due to move away for college. Luke is obsessed with Ashley and clearly expresses romantic feelings for her. Shortly after arriving the pair begin to be menaced by strange noises and eventually someone breaking into the house. This is set up fairly well for a standard home invasion movie with a twist (both protagonists being young). However we quickly discover that the 'stranger' is actually Luke's friend Garrett. Ashley is furious, but realises that Luke has actually planned all of this, he then knocks her unconscious. What then follows is a series of attempted escapes by Ashley, each time with a tiny margin of bad luck or timing scuppering the escape and allowing Luke to regain control. Towards the end of the film, the body count is piling high and Luke reveals his end-game, which was the kill Ashley's ex boyfriends, as well as her and stage a scene to make it appear as if a bloody battle had played out between her two exes, resulting in their 3 deaths, all whilst he was asleep under the influence of sleeping pills upstairs. The motivation for this is somewhere between jealousy, mummy issues, but also a solid helping of just being an insufferable little psychopath. We almost get this ending, and I was set to be furious, I hadn't anticipated another Eden Lake or Killing Ground situation and wasn't mentally prepared for it (although perhaps should've been given the track record of horror films with Australian involvement - which needs it's own post - they really are the kings of nasty horror cinema). Luckily the final shots of the films show that Ashley, who had been stabbed in the neck by Luke had actually managed to use the Duct tape that had previously bound her (using Luke's snarky "1001 uses for Duct tape" comment against him) to cover the wound and had survived. As she is carried on a stretcher to the ambulance where the paramedics declare her vitals as stable, she gives Luke the middle finger. In a post-credits scene we see Luke turn to his mum and say "I'm worried about Ashley, can we go visit her in the hospital?"
I could have done without this as I think leaving us with the knowledge Ashley survived and wondering whether or not Luke will do anything about it or if she will get to report him to the police first was perfectly fine. It does leave the door open for a revenge sequel which I would love to see happen, as the worst part about this movie is the skin crawling (and shockingly good) performance from Peter Pan himself Levi Miller - more specifically he plays such a hate-able antagonist that I was rooting for his comeuppance the entire film. At one point he scratched his chin with a gun and I have never wanted so much for a twelve year old to accidentally blow their own head off as I did in that moment. In this regard it is an incredibly successful film; the main character is likeable and smart, there is a clear good vs evil distinction, and when the violence does come it hits hard. The first half did leave me with the same "ick" feeling as Funny Games, Killing Ground, Eden Lake, Wolf Creek etc simply because I didn't know how far it was going to go with the physical and sexual harassment and general oppressive atmosphere which can be uncomfortable even for fairly seasoned fans of the genre. It is a lot lighter than the aforementioned, probably because of the premise that the characters are so young and there is a limited time for it to play out. This is not a date night or family movie, but I do feel kind of gross for watching it alone. I have no idea who I would recommend this to, but it's a solid horror film with a decent twist.
Just look at this little punchable scrote
Similar films: Funny Games, Eden Lake
Ready or Not (9/10)
This was by far my favourite of the three, but I will say like Better Watch Out, this film is better going in completely blind. The premise is ridiculous but it just works. Grace (Samara Weaving) has just married Alex, part of the wealthy elite Le Domas family. We soon learn that there is a family tradition where upon marrying into this family, the new member must pull a card from a magic box, which will select a game that must be played. Previous games have included Chess, Old Maid ("what the fuck is old maid anyway?") and checkers. However, Grace pulls the "Hide and Seek" card. For an unexplained reason, this one card in particular is the only one with any negative consequences, and upon pulling this card (which happens rarely), the family must hunt the person who pulled it, and find them before sun rise, or else their entire family will be wiped out in some way (due to essentially their forefather making a deal with the devil, or Mr Le Bail). There is the justification for the Le Domas family's actions throughout the film - and Grace spends the night trying to outrun them. I had feared that this was going to be a bit of a repeat of Better Watch Out, with Grace almost escaping only to be sacrificed right at the end leaving the viewers none the wiser about whether or not the 'curse' of the Le Domas family is real or not. Thankfully, at the 11th hour Grace frees herself and is about to fight off the entire family with a small dagger when the sun rises. For a moment nothing happens, and I genuinely thought that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were going to pull off a major plot twist and reveal this family have been killing people for generations all for nothing and make us and them question why we would buy into such a mad premise...but no, then the whole family starts exploding, one-by-one, in a flurry of magnificent fountains of gore. I have to say I think both endings would've been equally brilliant, though this is by far the most fun. The final scene is of a blood soaked Grace, still in bridal garb and yellow converse, smoking a cigarette on the front steps of the house as the police and paramedics arrive to the (now burning) building.
Little background on the family characters is given, and the majority of the film takes place within the confines of the gargantuan family mansion. The pace is excellent and I didn't want to look away for a minute for fear of missing a key piece of plot or any of the (actually quite limited, until the last 5 minutes) gore. Samara Weaving as Grace was excellent, and her performance compelled me to look into her other films (expect a The Babysitter post soon). She is definitely one to watch and makes a fantastic scream queen, she is also very likeable, more so than Ashley of Better Watch Out, in my opinion. This film was one of the most pleasant surprises of my year, and I think people who are not fans of the genre would also enjoy it for the most part, so for that reason it gets a 9/10.
Who wouldn't want to watch this just from the final image alone?
Similar films: Any final girl film I guess, but it most strongly reminded me of Get Out I would also like to aim to do a separate post on Happy Deathday (and sequel) which I thought about a few times whilst watching these - it definitely deserves it's own post and was one of the most surprising films of the year for me.
This week I started with a day of horror and chose 3 movies that seemed to have passed me by:
- Tucker and Dale Vs Evil
- Better Watch Out
- Ready or Not
Below are my thoughts on each film after having a day to reflect on them:
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (7/10)
A film that quickly became a cult classic in horror comedy circles, this one has been on my to watch list for a while. It's Dumb and Dumber with more blood.
The plot of this film is incredibly simple; two 'hillbillies' Tucker and Dale, are off for a weekend of fishing and making repairs in the new holiday cabin that Tucker has just purchased. A group of college (university) kids are also heading out to camp in the same woods. The college kids believe that Tucker and Dale are murderers who are hunting them down, and Tucker and Dale can't understand why these kids just keep killing themselves on their property. There is a sub-plot about one of the kids being the true antagonist due to some ridiculous revenge fantasy from his own parents being killed by completely unrelated hillbillies in the same woods years before. I call it a sub plot as that is all it deserves to be and although it does explain a lot of the character actions from the kids' side of things, I think the focus of the film is, and deserves to be, on the title characters.
I can see why this has the following that it does. The idea of showing a standard teen camp-ground horror from the side of the 'monster' is novel and I have not seen any other films do this that I can recall. It is important to note there is no monster or threat in this film at all, and aside from the gory parts and the nods to certain tropes, I would actually struggle to classify this as a horror. This is where I have knocked points and why I only rate it 7/10, it is not a horror film, but it is not funny enough to be a comedy. There are funny elements sure, but it barely passes the "six laugh test". Perhaps it is because I thought it was a little predictable, or it might be that the gags, although funny, are quite dumbed down that I didn't fall in love with this film as much as some people have. It is an easy film, and I think a young teen audience would be able to watch this. People who don't like horror but can deal with someone jumping into a woodchipper would also be ok. I think if I had watched this with the right people at a younger age the jokes would've landed better for me.
Better Watch Out (7/10)
This Australian-American horror came to my attention after it was listed on a lot of comedy/horror film lists alongside some of my favourites over the last couple of years (Cabin in the Woods, What We do in the Shadows etc). I did not read anything about it before watching it and would suggest doing the same for the full effect. I watched the trailer afterwards and am pleased I didn't see it first as I probably would've wanted to watch this upon it's release if I had seen the trailer, and then would've been a lot more disgusted by the direction it goes in, as it is sold as a horror Home Alone but is frankly a lot more disturbing than that.
Spoilers ahead: The brief synopsis is seventeen year old Ashley is baby-sitting twelve year old Luke (from context she has done this quite a few times before) at Christmas time, before she is due to move away for college. Luke is obsessed with Ashley and clearly expresses romantic feelings for her. Shortly after arriving the pair begin to be menaced by strange noises and eventually someone breaking into the house. This is set up fairly well for a standard home invasion movie with a twist (both protagonists being young). However we quickly discover that the 'stranger' is actually Luke's friend Garrett. Ashley is furious, but realises that Luke has actually planned all of this, he then knocks her unconscious. What then follows is a series of attempted escapes by Ashley, each time with a tiny margin of bad luck or timing scuppering the escape and allowing Luke to regain control. Towards the end of the film, the body count is piling high and Luke reveals his end-game, which was the kill Ashley's ex boyfriends, as well as her and stage a scene to make it appear as if a bloody battle had played out between her two exes, resulting in their 3 deaths, all whilst he was asleep under the influence of sleeping pills upstairs. The motivation for this is somewhere between jealousy, mummy issues, but also a solid helping of just being an insufferable little psychopath. We almost get this ending, and I was set to be furious, I hadn't anticipated another Eden Lake or Killing Ground situation and wasn't mentally prepared for it (although perhaps should've been given the track record of horror films with Australian involvement - which needs it's own post - they really are the kings of nasty horror cinema). Luckily the final shots of the films show that Ashley, who had been stabbed in the neck by Luke had actually managed to use the Duct tape that had previously bound her (using Luke's snarky "1001 uses for Duct tape" comment against him) to cover the wound and had survived. As she is carried on a stretcher to the ambulance where the paramedics declare her vitals as stable, she gives Luke the middle finger. In a post-credits scene we see Luke turn to his mum and say "I'm worried about Ashley, can we go visit her in the hospital?"
I could have done without this as I think leaving us with the knowledge Ashley survived and wondering whether or not Luke will do anything about it or if she will get to report him to the police first was perfectly fine. It does leave the door open for a revenge sequel which I would love to see happen, as the worst part about this movie is the skin crawling (and shockingly good) performance from Peter Pan himself Levi Miller - more specifically he plays such a hate-able antagonist that I was rooting for his comeuppance the entire film. At one point he scratched his chin with a gun and I have never wanted so much for a twelve year old to accidentally blow their own head off as I did in that moment. In this regard it is an incredibly successful film; the main character is likeable and smart, there is a clear good vs evil distinction, and when the violence does come it hits hard. The first half did leave me with the same "ick" feeling as Funny Games, Killing Ground, Eden Lake, Wolf Creek etc simply because I didn't know how far it was going to go with the physical and sexual harassment and general oppressive atmosphere which can be uncomfortable even for fairly seasoned fans of the genre. It is a lot lighter than the aforementioned, probably because of the premise that the characters are so young and there is a limited time for it to play out. This is not a date night or family movie, but I do feel kind of gross for watching it alone. I have no idea who I would recommend this to, but it's a solid horror film with a decent twist.
Just look at this little punchable scrote
Similar films: Funny Games, Eden Lake
Ready or Not (9/10)
This was by far my favourite of the three, but I will say like Better Watch Out, this film is better going in completely blind. The premise is ridiculous but it just works. Grace (Samara Weaving) has just married Alex, part of the wealthy elite Le Domas family. We soon learn that there is a family tradition where upon marrying into this family, the new member must pull a card from a magic box, which will select a game that must be played. Previous games have included Chess, Old Maid ("what the fuck is old maid anyway?") and checkers. However, Grace pulls the "Hide and Seek" card. For an unexplained reason, this one card in particular is the only one with any negative consequences, and upon pulling this card (which happens rarely), the family must hunt the person who pulled it, and find them before sun rise, or else their entire family will be wiped out in some way (due to essentially their forefather making a deal with the devil, or Mr Le Bail). There is the justification for the Le Domas family's actions throughout the film - and Grace spends the night trying to outrun them. I had feared that this was going to be a bit of a repeat of Better Watch Out, with Grace almost escaping only to be sacrificed right at the end leaving the viewers none the wiser about whether or not the 'curse' of the Le Domas family is real or not. Thankfully, at the 11th hour Grace frees herself and is about to fight off the entire family with a small dagger when the sun rises. For a moment nothing happens, and I genuinely thought that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were going to pull off a major plot twist and reveal this family have been killing people for generations all for nothing and make us and them question why we would buy into such a mad premise...but no, then the whole family starts exploding, one-by-one, in a flurry of magnificent fountains of gore. I have to say I think both endings would've been equally brilliant, though this is by far the most fun. The final scene is of a blood soaked Grace, still in bridal garb and yellow converse, smoking a cigarette on the front steps of the house as the police and paramedics arrive to the (now burning) building.
Little background on the family characters is given, and the majority of the film takes place within the confines of the gargantuan family mansion. The pace is excellent and I didn't want to look away for a minute for fear of missing a key piece of plot or any of the (actually quite limited, until the last 5 minutes) gore. Samara Weaving as Grace was excellent, and her performance compelled me to look into her other films (expect a The Babysitter post soon). She is definitely one to watch and makes a fantastic scream queen, she is also very likeable, more so than Ashley of Better Watch Out, in my opinion. This film was one of the most pleasant surprises of my year, and I think people who are not fans of the genre would also enjoy it for the most part, so for that reason it gets a 9/10.
Who wouldn't want to watch this just from the final image alone?
Similar films: Any final girl film I guess, but it most strongly reminded me of Get Out I would also like to aim to do a separate post on Happy Deathday (and sequel) which I thought about a few times whilst watching these - it definitely deserves it's own post and was one of the most surprising films of the year for me.
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