Well, that movie wasn’t for me. It does exactly what it looks like it will do; if that’s your thing, you’ll probably enjoy it. I was mostly bored and occasionally uncomfortable.
Today’s fake poster kinda-sorta looks like the original. The reason it works at all is the movie logo.
There’s a lot they hadn’t learned how to do in movies in 1920, but this movie pushes to do the most it can with the available tools and knowledge. No color? Tint the whole frame! No fades? Use oddly-shaped irises! Continuity between shots in a scene? We’ll do that next time and trust the audience to figure it out!
It’s also pretty amazing to see that so many foundational elements of modern horror movies are in here. Mysterious characters, plot twists, multiple suspects, a surprise ending: they’re all there!
Is this movie good by today’s standards? Not really. Is it a revolutionary movie for its time? Absolutely.
And was it funny for me to watch this for the first time decades after watching Forbidden Zone? Oh, so funny.
This may shock you, but there aren’t great photos available from this movie. But I did manage to pull one that sort-of matched the style of the posters I decided to parody.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live in Stephen King’s Maine. That place is scary… but it does give us some wacky movies. This is one of those movies that’s so violent and gory and goofy that it moves past horror and straight into cartoon. It’s not great, and it kind of fizzles at the end, but it’s a pretty fun ride. BONUS: features an Adam Scott cameo!
This is my second simian-themed movie of the year. I thought about basing the parody poster on one for Better Man, but those are all pretty boring so I went a different way.
Today was a “two movies at two theaters” day: Heretic at the Universal Citywalk AMC, and Memoir of a Snail at Alamo Drafthouse. Gotta keep those movie passes working!
Once I assumed that these were two Mormon missionaries who had so little sense of danger that they’d walk wide-eyed into a unsafe situation, this movie was a lot of fun. Nonsense, but fun. Also: Hugh Grant is a natural at playing a creep. What a surprise.
If you saw clips from this and thought “Oh, a stop-motion animation movie- I shall bring my children,” maybe give it another look before you load the kids into the SUV and head down to the multiplex. It’s a great movie, but it’s clear from the very first scene where someone dies- not in a Disney “maybe they’re just sleeping” way, but in a “gasping for their final breaths in their deathbed” way- that this is made for adults. Also, it’s Australian; are kids allowed to watch Australians (even in cartoon form)?
I can only use one image for the featured image. Normally when I see two movies in a day I mash the images together in some way, but I didn’t care for the one I made for Heretic so I’m hiding it here. I bet you will love it so much that you will write an epic poem about it.
