Fright Month: The Broken

I'm not as freaked out as I was during the last part of Session 9, but here's another creepy one. Gina McVey sees a girl driving by on the streets of London, which wouldn't be a problem at all except for the fact that the girl looks exactly like Gina. She follows her double, and things get weird. I like weird. (And surreal, and mind-bending, as the netflix synopsis describes this movie.)

If you pay attention to a few small details, what should have been a big surprise at the end isn't so surprising. But I will be kind and not tell you what those details were, because if you're looking for them  you're sure to notice them. And being surprised is always more fun, isn't it?

During the first little bit of the movie nothing is very scary except for the music. In fact, it seemed a bit silly with tense, dramatic music and no reason for it. But I suppose they were setting the tone. And, as long as I'm complaining, I'll mention that I could have done without the sister-in-law-in-the-shower scene, which was a bit over the top in an otherwise subtly tense movie. But overall, I give this one a couple of thumbs up.

I am left wondering . . . why? And glad in the knowledge that my kitchen is directly on the other side of my bathroom mirror. There's nothing scary in my kitchen.

Caché (Hidden)

I am stalking Bride of the Screen God's movies. I'd not heard of this one until I read her review of it about a month ago. I think what made me decide to watch it was her mention of the "WTF ending." It was kind of like a challenge--would I be able to figure out what was going on?

Apparently, the answer to that question is . . . no. I was still sitting there waiting for an explanation when all of a sudden the credits were rolling. I think I have figured out who sent the tapes--my guess is that it was two of the characters in collusion with one another, neither of whom was Majid; the two in question are shown having a conversation in the very last scene--but I'm distinctly uncertain. My explanation is mere hypothesis. Even if I'm right about the "who," I'm not sure I understand the "why," especially for one of the two.

It's funny, because although there were many long moments where nothing much happened in the movie, every bit was imbued with suspense. Nothing was happening, but I felt continually sure something was about to, and this kept me on the edge of my seat. There was one unexpected Holy Crap moment, tempered by disbelief (would it really go that quickly?) but the rest of the film was surprisingly devoid of startling events.

I'd never noticed it before, but it's funny how much Angry Juliette Binoche looks like my sister when she flips out. Not like I'd mistake one for the other, but their mannerisms are very similar. You wouldn't want to experience it.

Donnie Darko

I'm trying to think of a good word to describe this movie but the only one that keeps coming to mind is a rude one. An insufficient substitution would be "mind-bending". I'm not going to bother rehashing the plot here, but my take in a nutshell is that Donnie was called into a tangent universe the night of the jet engine crash (and that tangent universe is, by the way, where the jet engine came from). Donnie was killed by the jet engine upon his return to the "real" universe when the tangential one broke down as predicted. 

I wondered why Donnie did not try to avoid his death from the falling jet engine the second time around, when he was back in the primary universe. But then I realized if he avoided death again, he would only find himself in another tangent universe (or a repeat of the same one?) which would at some point break down; and then he would be Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, only creepier.