TheMovieman

So, I just saw this and damn, pretty effect supernatural-horror flick. Roberts and Boynton were decent but Shipka was a standout to me.

Anyone else catch this yet? Comes out on Tuesday on Blu-ray and DVD.

I would post the overview from the back cover but it's both misleading and too spoiler-y... So perhaps avoid it.

GoldenJCJ

I've never even heard of this but it sounds intriguing. I'm interested now.

mike7162

Osgood Perkins - Tony's son, I presume?

Troy Stiffler

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TomOpus

This movie is from 2015 and was called "February." Perkins' newest movie from 2016 can be seen on Netflix, "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House."

TheMovieman

Indeed he is.

DaveyJoe

Just bought this bluray because of the positive word of mouth. I love slow-burn horror films.

OldBoy

i disliked this one, a lot.

mattysemo247

My wife and I watched it on Prime last week. By the end of the movie, we were rolling our eyes at the "twist."

TomOpus

Have you watched it yet? Both of his movie are the slow-burn type. I appreciate them and liked this one as well as his other movie. Shipka gives a super-creepy performance. I want to rent it again to listen to Perkins' commentary.

DaveyJoe

Not yet, but I watched I Am the Pretty Thing... last night and I thought it was great. Slowly paced, but very unsettling and at times poetic. It's been stuck in my thoughts all day. Really looking forward to watching this one.

TomOpus

That movie grabbed me right at the start with how he showed the ghost slowly moving across the screen. Really liked the rest of the flick.

DaveyJoe

Yes, most viewers would find it boring and frustratingly ambiguous, but I was captivated from the opening shot. I love the way figure slowly crept into frame and the way they superimposed characters standing in two different directions. I am the Pretty Thing had a unique cinematic voice and a very creepy atmosphere, which I'm a sucker for. If Blackcoat is similar I think Perkins will be a director to watch closely.

TomOpus

Speaking of her voice, I was on a Facebook page devoted to horror movies on Netflix. Many complained that her voice was boring. I would argue, she's a ghost...how would expect her to sound?

Brian T

^Based on the post above, no one really needs to watch the movie now.

When I was reading the DVD case for this in a U.S. Walmart a couple of weeks ago, it set off vague recollections that I might have seen it already, or that it was strangely similar to something I'd seen. Looked it up at home and discovered it was originally called FEBRUARY (as noted earlier in this thread), the title I'd seen it under at TIFF way back in 2015. At the time. I remember digging the ultra-slow-burn vibe -- for a while -- but didn't feel the twist really justified it, nor was it spelled out as clearly as Oz Perkins rather defensively claimed it was in the Q&A (in a somewhat condescending attempt to rally some supportive applause from those who "got it" that really fell flat). I think most of the audience "got it", but the overall vibe was "that's it?". At the time, I thought it was a promising if monotonous and unintentionally ambiguous (as Perkins response confirmed) debut, better viewed as a mood piece than a straight-up genre exercise, which is not entirely a bad thing. I AM THE PRETTY THING all but confirmed this to be Perkins' m.o., but I have to wonder how many features that kind of style can sustain from one guy in this day and age. Maybe lots, what do I know? I'm not surprised that it was held back until after PRETTY THING. I'm also not sure the name change was an improvement.

TomOpus

I mentioned it in post #5

Brian T

As I noted.

TomOpus

Well, shit. I read the post but didn't see that. Weird. Sorry.

Perkinsun Dzees

Just caught this on Amz Prime. Very impressed by Perkins' filmmaking. The visuals and editing really draw you into the slow building and mysterious plot and eventually you become invested in the characters' lives and trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And the performances of the three actresses were top notch. Didn't even realize that was the chick from "Sing Street" at first. She was very good here playing a different type of character.

The movie kind of reminded me of films like "Hereditary" and "Starry Eyes," with a slow burning pace that erupts into unsettling violence (although I think this movie handled the supernatural undertones better than those other two films did).

I have one major gripe with the movie though and it concerns the casting



Other than that, I thought this was a very promising debut from Perkins and appreciated that he didn't try to spell everything out for the audience (though he almost went too far in the other direction), and will try to catch his 2nd feature, "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House."

inri222

TomOpus

Kiernan Shipka plays the titular role on Netflix's Chilling Adventure of Sabrina.

Jason Bovberg

Yep. Took me a few years to catch up to it, but this is a genuinely unnerving film. Very well done. Except that twist. I like the idea of it, but it's just not executed well or something.

Paff

This is one of those movies I need to revisit because it comes up often on a lot of recommendation lists. And I'll admit I was a little confused with the multiple timelines so I started zoning out, so it's fair to say I did not give this movie a proper chance.

That works sometimes, but not all the time. I've given Session 9 three times to wow me, and it just doesn't. I'm done with that one.

TomOpus

Perkins' next movie, Longlegs could be interesting. Stars Nicolas Cage.

Paff

Made good on my promise to revisit this title and very glad I did. It worked so much better once I knew I was in for a "slow burn" (I think my first viewing I was in the mood for something exploitative and less "elevated" to use the parlance of our times). Really sucked me in this time, I was totally invested in everything going on. Also, not sure why I didn't see this on my first viewing (or just forgot about it), when Joan looks at the map, the school is actually the location where we had senior skip day in high school, just with the name (and lake, it's actually a very big lake) of the town changed. But every other name and the highway numbers are still there. So that really got my interest. I had kinda forgotten all about the "twist", so I'm going to want to give this yet another go with the ending fully in mind. That works in some horror movies; try watching the original Wicker Man again keeping in mind exactly how it ends, and suddenly every scene in it will scare you shitless. I love when that happens.