I Live I Die Live Again

Join me in raising a drinking glass to Quibi, the bite-sized video service that everyone in the world knew would neglect except the leadership at Quibi. From launch to shut down in six months — that'south truly remarkable.

Although it's funny to run into this idea blow upwardly and then robustly in the faces of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Million Whitman, it sucks for those lower on the ladder. They worked hard to produce shows they knew no ane would watch, and at present they're out of their jobs. I'thousand sure in that location was good stuff on the service! Simply I was never, e'er going to sentinel it.

In meliorate news, after last week's minor respite, our selections for this calendar week go dorsum to the Blench Blog themes you know and love/hate.

"The Wailing" (2016)

Prime Video, rated R, 156 minutes

Jun Kunimura in "The Wailing." Photo source: Prime Video.

There'southward a new rule that I want to implement, and the dominion is that every movie must comprise dueling religious rituals set to increasingly loud and frenetic music.

"The Wailing" taught me this. "The Wailing" also taught me — reminded me, to be more accurate — that Republic of korea makes better horror films than anyone else. Those filmmakers sympathize the importance of feeling, of atmosphere, is much greater than that of jump scares.

Hither we have Jong-Goo (Kwak Do-won), a detective who is non quite bumbling but certainly not elite at his job. He messes up sometimes, which isn't unremarkably a huge bargain in his modest hamlet; nix much happens there. Until stuff starts happening there. Brutal killings, a string of them, each past a different person. The perpetrators are connected past the brutal rash they share, pus prominently presented. This rash/curse remains, draining them of their mental capacities, until they eventually die.

Signs begin to point to a secretive Japanese homo (Jun Kunimura) as the one putting a expletive on these people. Some even refer to him as a ghost, fifty-fifty though he's visibly mankind and blood. At that place are stories of him eating the raw meet of a deer carcass on all fours deep in the forest, his optics glowing red. When Jong-Goo has a dream that matches these stories, it's enough to spring him into action. He and his partner (Son Kang-gook) pay him a visit.

What they find chills them, only it's not enough to make an arrest. And things become from bad to worse when Jong-Goo returns home to detect his adolescent daughter (Kim Hwan-hee) starting to develop the murderous rash.

Kim Hwan-hee and Kwak Do-won in "The Wailing." Photo source: Prime Video.

"The Wailing" is frightening in all the right means. Director Na Hong-jin keeps the film'south mysteries locked away for much of the run fourth dimension, keeping the audience guessing every bit to what's actually happening. The surface level story is dark, and the unsaid story might exist even darker once you connect a few dots and retrieve near how these people are getting sick. But the picture won't do that for yous; "The Wailing" is a complex story, and if you want to solve it all, yous might take to spotter it twice (at least). It touches on a lot of things, chief amongst them what it ways to believe in something. Is sight and bear upon enough? Or can our optics and hands be deceived? How do we always know who to trust?

It too tries to exist a lot of horror genres at once. In that location are scenes that pay homage to possession films, zombie films, cult films and serial killer films. Somehow, it all works, perchance because the whole narrative is fractured from the starting time. If a flick is consistently messy, it is really messy at all? Or is that part of the appeal?

Complexity aside, the flick does come up to a conclusive catastrophe, and it'south a knockout. Not ane that will make sleeping easy, mind you. I don't desire any complaints if this keeps you up at night. Simply information technology'southward a bang-up one nonetheless, paving a futurity for certain characters without needing a sequel to see their stories through. You already know what lies in await for them, for improve or worse.

And again, before I move on: I really must insist that all movies feature dueling rituals. I cannot stress enough how compelling that scene is. Lookout man it and thank me later.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015)

Google Play, rated R, 121 minutes

Tom Hardy in "Mad Max: Fury Road."

Ryan, why are you putting a direct-upwardly action film in Cringe Blog? Haven't you strayed from the theme enough this yr? I mean, concluding calendar week's installment had 2 movies that barely qualified under any metric. Where'due south "The Haunting of Bly Manor?" Where's "Rebecca?" Where's the HORROR?!?

Good questions, Ryan. First of all, close upwardly. Second of all, my blog, my rules. Tertiary of all, i of those might be coming next week. 4th of all, "Mad Max: Fury Road" is the ultimate Halloween movie. Or it should be, anyway. Really, we should be talking about the miracle that is this motion picture every day for the residue of time. But let's focus on the Halloween of it all for now. Is information technology set in the autumn? Tough to tell when information technology's gear up in the apocalyptic Australian outback. A strike against it? Peradventure, only listen to my other points starting time:

• Put all of the characters in this moving-picture show, large and pocket-size roles akin, into a hat. Pick one. Boom, that's your Halloween costume. A great choice. You seriously cannot go incorrect. Look at this guy. Look at this person. LOOK AT THE DOOF WARRIOR. At that place has never been a cooler minor character in any movie than the Doof Warrior, the leader of the War Boys' traveling battle band who signals his ground forces'due south inflow past absolutely shredding on an electric guitar (that shoots flames) while strapped to bungee cords on a big-ass truck.
• Furiosa (Charlize Theron). That'due south it, that's the bullet point.
• The opening scene, where Max (Tom Hardy) tries to escape from the War Boys while being haunted by visions of his past failures, is incredibly scary, even more so because director George Miller, an actual insane person, made the decision to speed upwardly the footage to the point where the man eye canjust barelycover what it is seeing. The event is an almost 3D-like issue, or similar you're at a haunted firm with never-ending strobe lights. The first time I watched it, I wondered if my brain was breaking. Now I think it'southward brilliant. There are other frightening things in this movie, such equally the quick shot of the crow fishers in the swamp, only aught beats the opening scene.
• For someone who doesn't get that much to practice, Immortan Joe is an all-time bang-up villain, mostly because his name is Immortan Joe and he looks like this. (Costumes!) Miller makes him terrifying through other people'south reactions to him as much every bit his ain actions. When he runs, he looks like an adult version of a "Power Rangers" villain and information technology rules.

Charlize Theron in "Mad Max: Fury Road."

• Furiosa!
• It is genuinely incredible to me that no died while making this picture. The entire movie, more than or less, is a massive motorcar chase involving fire and large rigs and off-route cars and leaping motorcycles and many, many pole stunts. Tom Hardy spends 45 or so minutes literally strapped to the front of a car going 140 mph similar the figurehead on the bow of a ship. If you have a half hour, I highly recommend this behind-the-scenes look at the film and how it pulled off a lot of these stunts. It's worth it to hear how genuine the terror in Hardy'southward voice is when talking about it all.
• At ane signal, a grapheme says "Witness me, bloodbag," a seemingly incoherent trio of words to anyone who has not watched the moving-picture show, but in actuality a powerful and emotional trio of words. That's what proficient movies do: create a earth from scratch, teach you it'southward rules and culture and then make you intendance nigh those things.
• A dude gets his face up ripped off, which is pretty sick.
• FURIOSA!!!!!!!
• "Fury Road" manages to simultaneously be a "women get revenge on their abusers and take control of their lives" movie and be a "dudes rock" movie, which is an unheard of feat. It should have won Best Pic for that alone. (Thanks, "Spotlight," a movie only journalists remember exists now.)

I feel similar I take fabricated my case for "Fury Route," the best action movie of at to the lowest degree the by twenty years if not longer. If, all the same, you lot even so take some complaints, please feel free to email them to [electronic mail protected].

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Source: https://www.yourobserver.com/article/cringe-blog-i-live-i-die-i-live-again

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