This movie actually premiered last Wednesday, but as my wife and I were abroad that time, we only got the chance to see it yesterday. We were told by my wife's sister that it was a great movie and I also saw the raving reviews all across the internet, so we were pretty excited to see this one. We opted for the 5PM show after our lunch event. Now let us move on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o - The Jungle Book etc), together with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke - Black Panther etc) and their teenage daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) & young son Jason (Evan Alex) were going for vacation in Santa Cruz beach. Adelaide was actually pretty reluctant with their trip there, since it reminded her of her bad childhood memory in 1986.
Adelaide's worry appeared to have been justified when during the night, they were suddenly attacked by their mysterious doppelgängers. Using their wit and everything they could find, Adelaide and her family must escape from the horrific attack of these doppelgängers who were trying to kill them.
So what would happen to this family? And why did this attack occur? Find them all in this suspenseful, smart & original horror thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well to be honest, the movie started off quite nice, at least in the first five minutes or so. Then we got to see the family taking a trip where we were shown the nice interactions among all these four people. It was actually pretty nice looking at them and they seemed like a real life family. However, I personally thought this part was a bit too long and not until it reached the half hour mark when the movie started to become a lot more interesting. By then the suspense would begun and made us feel the intensity almost throughout the rest of the movie.
Why I said almost throughout, because to my surprise, during the supposedly real suspenseful moment, we were shown a bit of humor here and there, which even though it was quite nice, but I thought it decreased the intensity a bit. Yes the result was we got to see some amusing scene (usually involving Winston Duke's character Gabe), but I was expecting a nonstop thrill. Apart from that though, the creepiness was quite abundant and I thought it was due to the amazing performance of Lupita Nyong'o and the very talented young actress Shahadi Wright Joseph as Zora. They were outstanding when performing their weird (and scary) doppelgängers.
This movie was remarkable in terms of giving us scary and eerie moments, but not in the form of supernatural horror effects (read: ghosts) instead through the frighteningly horrific expressions of the actors and actresses. Obviously the sound effects and musical background played a major part in providing us those terrifying scenes. I thought that the good sound system in the studio where we saw this movie was quite satisfying as it gave me the effects that I wanted in such kind of film. There were also few jump scare moments which made my wife (and some of the audience) screamed a bit. She even held my hand very firmly in one of those scenes.
Aside from those factors, there were also some mystery and shocking twists in the film. One major twist I thought was quite an intelligent one (although my wife was able to guess it earlier). I think this was kind of a trademark for the writer and director Jordan Peele who had directed another amazing psychological thriller movie Get Out. However, while that one was a very low budget movie with amazing result, this one was having a bigger budget but I think it would have similar great box office sales as well, seeing how the first week was already a huge success, not only in the US but also internationally.
I really loved this movie's originality, especially the unique horror moments provided not from supernatural events but from the performances of the main cast. There were some supporting cast as well of the Tyler family (Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker and Cali & Noelle Sheldon) who were quite colorful and gave us some different perspective. Fun fact: this marked the second time Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke played in the same movie after Black Panther. And that surprising ending was a good one as it gave us a moment to re-think the whole movie from another angle. Even my wife and I were still discussing that ending after the movie finished (which did not have any mid or post end credit scene).
Overall I had quite a good moment seeing this film. It may not suit the style of supernatural horror seeker or those hoping for so many jump scare or violent bloody scenes. This was more of a psychological horror thriller but due to its originality (and weirdness), some audience might not enjoy them too much. Anyway, if you are looking for such horror movie, then this one would be a good option. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Taken from Wikipedia:
Doppelgänger is a non-biologically related look-alike or double of a living person, sometimes portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a harbinger of bad luck. Other traditions and stories equate a doppelgänger with an evil twin.
No comments:
Post a Comment