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>While there are a couple creepy moment and good scares
>(especially one very good jump scare), the whole movie jumps
>around in tone throughout its run-time. What starts out as
>more a comedy then becomes a horror film.
This is a Night trademark at this point and really should be expected. He's tried to balance a ton of genres in one film three times to date, and this is the fourth.
1. Signs. It all works beautifully. The comedy, the horror, the drama. He botches the ending, but it's 5 minutes away from full-blown classic status. That set the bar.
2. Lady In The Water. The horror stuff doesn't really work too well (although it's shot beautifully), but I think the character development, the comedy stuff, and the fantasy elements all really work. People revolted because it was advertised as horror (it wasn't, really) and they expected a twist (no twist), but it's really not that bad imo.
3. The Happening. Some of the comedy works-- and yes, Night *knows* that much of it is funny-- but he goes too far with it, so the horror never really works, and the drama all falls victim to Wahlberg's shitty shitty acting. (The difference between Willis and Wahlberg: Willis can imply character beneath his stiffness beautifully, but Wahlberg never really can.)
Here's the fourth attempt, with a much lower budget. Here's everything it seems he's trying to balance.
1. Comedy. Outside of the rapping shit (which is terrible), it mostly works for me.
2. Horror. Hell yes. I watched the last third of this shit through the cracks in my fingers. Night is still a master of tension: he knows where to place the camera, when to be silent, etc. He rarely relies on the jump scare (though there is an absolutely shiver-inducing one here out of the fucking blue), instead counting on smaller, creepier sound effects. He did this beautifully in Signs, and he employs it some here. (Those scratching sounds in this movie, yeesh. My blood turns cold.)
3. Drama. The divorce/absentee father stuff. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Doesn't *all* work too well, but it does provide the important incentive for why the film is found footage.
4. Found Footage. Night does something really clever here, which I appreciated: the characters are almost always completely aware of the camera. They rarely ever lose sight of it, and they act accordingly in front of it. Lots of posturing, lots of hesitation to be honest, etc. These characters act the way people would in front of a camera. I liked that.
5. Meta-self-commentary. There's that whole bit about how you don't need to get caught up in pretentious film school aspirations to simply tell a good story. It's easy to read that as Night commenting on his own failures-- his movies always look and sound great, but the stories lately have been lacking. I enjoyed this part as well.
You're right that the shifts are occasionally jarring, but I always prefer an ambitious mess to unambitious mediocrity. If Night wants to try to get back into making Signs/Lady In The Water type genre mash-ups, that is a-ok by me.
The rapping kid is
>more annoying than funny to me. A couple sitting next to me
>got up and left just a couple minutes in, and I think that kid
>was to blame.
Oh, I'm sure. I cringed. Not great stuff.
>The absolute worst part though was the ending, where the 2
>leads were among the dumbest people I have ever seen in a
>horror movie. I'm simply stunned that the fact that they DO
>NOT RUN AWAY or try harder to get away is getting a pass by
>the bulk of reviewers and fans.
Well, three things:
1. They set up very explicitly in the back story why the grandson wouldn't run away. He freezes. That's what he does. He does it again here. He gets struck by fear and can't act.
2. The granddaughter is convinced her grandparents are still there, and she thinks she can set them free and they can help her. Now, granted, this one is a bit of a stretch-- but the explanation *is* present, so I didn't have a problem with it.
3. Where were they going to go? They lived in the damn boonies, it's the middle of the night, and they've already established that Nana and Pop Pop very well may be faster and stronger. They know their mom is on her way with the police. They could've tried to lock themselves in the room, but again, "acting natural" is a common explanation in movies like this, and I didn't have a problem with it.
And then, when all is said
>and done, we get a dramatic ending by the mother after the
>kids escape?
I actually really liked this. It's closure for the heart of the narrative. It's way better than most horror movies I see lately, which ends on some additional jump scare and/or cheap deaths of main characters for no reason other than to wring more fear out of us. I'm not saying I was crying along with the characters, but I liked the choice.
And then a comedic one following that where the
>rapper raps about the traumatic experience as if it were a
>joke? You guys are buying that?
Well, this was obviously a misstep, as was the rapping in general.
>I mean, was it funny for you? Scary? Both? I just can't
>understand how this is getting by, it really baffles me.
Moderately funny (except for the aggressively unfunny rapping bits), definitely scary. Not top tier Night, but I'd put it behind Lady In The Water, so... fifth in the rankings?
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