Film Favourites: Blade Runner

The Film

Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner is, like any good film, esoteric, weird as hell, and an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel; in this case Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It's everything you would hope for in an epic sci-fi noir movie, even down to the inexplicably austere police chief's office.

"This room hasn't changed in 80 years; we just added more monitors."

The Plot

Harrison Ford is Rick Deckard, a no-nonsense Blade Runner (android bounty hunter) and winner of Best Private Investigator Name three years running who has been tasked with hunting down 4 extremely dangerous replicant (this universe's name for androids) fugitives, led by the supremely talented Rutger Hauer as Nexus 6 Combat Model Roy Batty.

Here we see the full range of Hauer's acting ability.

The replicants have returned to android-free Earth in order to try to extend their stunted 4 year life span. What ensues is a hunt through gritty future-Los Angeles streets where lots of people die, many, many extremely quotable lines are delivered, and the very serious tone of the movie is undercut surprisingly regularly with sudden and jarring moments of unexpected slapstick.

Seriously, you would not expect this guy to still be sinister after some of the adorable faces he pulls.

The Critique

Really, I can't stress enough how silly this movie can be. I got the joyous opportunity to see it in the cinema for the first time very recently (thus this post, actually) and it reminded me how unusually out of place much of the comedy is in the context of the film's world. This is meant to be super grungy dystopia with lots of discarded newspaper and midgets and shit, and yet we end up with androids who run around naked and consider headbutting themselves through walls a viable means of taunting.

"Heeere's Joh-noh-flehbleh..." *collapses*
Smart move, Roy.

You'll also notice that most of my screenshots seem to be focussing on Rutger Hauer, and the simple truth is that he's the only really good actor in the whole movie; everyone else is fine, sure, but they can be a bit flat... Deckard says everything in a slightly disgruntled voice, Rachael (Sean Young) does not move her face, like, at all, and Pris (Daryl Hannah) acts akin to a curious child with all the emotions mixed up wro- oh wait. Replicants don't have fully developed emotions. OK, we'll let them off.

All of them...

Despite some stunted acting, which you may consider a blessing or a curse (I think I've just managed to convince myself it's a good thing), every character in the movie feels fascinatingly unique and fleshed out; particularly when many of them only get a matter of minutes in the whole run time. Edward James Olmos' origami-folding Detective Gaff has about 5 lines across 3 scenes and yet he feels like a complete part of a breathing world. Which, now that we're on the subject, is fucking gorgeous. 

Visit Los Angeles; where you'll never have to worry about scrap paper or steam shortages again.

The attention to detail is brilliant as well (I'd sincerely recommend having a peruse of the countless IMDb factoids about the set design once you've watched the movie), with the sets, costuming and even the made up language all melding together to create a believable future world full of noodles and pipes. That, plus some now iconic film techniques (cool ass eye glimmer, represent), makes for a completely bespoke experience, and is, along side the great characterisation, subtle exploration of human mortality, and amazing soundtrack, the reason why this movie is and always will be one of the best ever made.

It's fucking stupid, but we love it.

It's Special Because...

This is one of my dad's favourite movies; I think it's between this and Apocalypse Now for his top. My brother hated it the first time he tried to watch it. I remember his words very vividly after he tried our old VHS copy of the first Director's Cut (yeah, there's like 8 versions now): "It's too dark too see anything and the sound is weird," or something to that effect. Naturally, I saw this as a challenge and sat through that awful, awful video on our big old CRT TV that would leave a big green splodge on one side of the screen and a purple one on the other. It was grainy, the sound had kind of warped a bit (when your soundtrack is 80% synth, that's not a good thing to have happen), and it was generally a poor way to see the film first time. 

And yet, I still enjoyed it. Not long after, the 2007 Cut was on Film4; I watched it again and I fell in love. At long last my dad had someone who could finish off the sentence when he inexplicably started spouting William Blake, or groggily reply with "Painful to live in fear, isn't it?" when he decided to burst into your room in the morning, growling "Wake up! Time to die!"

He really likes quoting this movie...

Best Enjoyed With

No distractions, a quiet room, and a band of friends who love every second of it as much as you. Nothing beats that moment when you all silently mouth those immortal lines together in the dark. Blade Runner is most definitely a world best shared.

Cucumber Banana Tofu

Well, it's been a bit of a bumpy month in terms of posting, hasn't it dear readers? Let's not revisit the time where I said I was going to be committed to posting regularly and to a higher quality of writing, and instead, let us mark this as the beginning of a new leaf.
Today, I shall be discussing a series (or, well, three, I guess?) which I have recently finished watching: Cucumber, Banana, Tofu.

I could try and say that this poster isn't what it looks like, but then I'd be lying.

Right, I'm going to briefly explain what all of this is about and then go into more detail for each segment for the review-y part of this post, cause isn't that what I'm meant to do? Review?

Cucumber is a 45 minute long episode following the same characters (primarily Henry and Lance, but I'll get to that in a minute). Banana is a series of 20 minute self contained episodes which focus on different characters within the LGBT+ community which have usually appeared within the previous episode of Cucumber. There is overlap between the two shows, so watching them in succession is important, but not crucial I'd say. Finally, Tofu is a 10 minute documentary series featuring the cast and crew of Cucumber and Banana, as well as other guests, to talk about sex. 

Right, have we got that?

Cucumber

The aforementioned Henry (left) and Lance (right).

Like I say, Cucumber focuses on the life of long term partners Henry and Lance, featured in the picture above. It is very much about the middle aged, middle class gay. Having been together for nine years when the audience is introduced to them, you just know something is going to go wrong. And it does. Because what's interesting about a happy couple going about their happy couple ways? Exactly. So when things do go awry (and in quite a spectacular way), the couple see themselves no longer together and having to navigate the world by themselves for the first time in nine years. Henry finds himself somehow living (or squatting, we're never quite sure), in an abandoned loft of sorts with two young men from his work, Dean and Freddie, however their stories are more prominent in Banana, as that's where the two shows differentiate. Cucumber (like I say) is the middle age, middle class gay, and Banana is the young LGBT+ community, using Grindr and Tinder and Facebook, all on their iPads and smartphones, knowing at any given point where the closest shag is available. Lance remains the voice of reason (mostly-ish), who stays in their house and tries to get Henry to see how much of a bloody arse he is being.

We watch as Henry and Lance's relationship changes and evolves, stretches and strains. We see the power balance tip, and the two scramble for control in a relationship quickly spiralling out of hand. The characters are wonderfully human as well. Henry and Lance are by no means perfect people. They are both inherently flawed in their own individual way, and you will find yourself identifying with at least one of the characters (if not a little bit in all of them). This can sometimes be a touch worrying, when you can see yourself in the awful character before you, doing and saying horrible things and yet you know you to would do that. Or have already done something like that, I don't know your story.

Banana

The women in the yellow and brown jackets half dancing, half hugging are my faves. Their
episode was great.

I've already talked about how Banana manages to peel (ha! gettit?) away from Cucumber, but another obvious way that I've touched upon is how diverse the characters are. Cucumber is about older gay men. And that's fine, the show follows these specific character throughout its run, so it makes sense that as far as LGBT+ goes, it's only really the G (and a little bit of the B) is explored. Which is why I'm happy Banana uses it's time to really explore the community. We are also given episodes dedicated to Dean and Freddie, Henry's new found flatmates, which gives them a well needed back story and development. And although some episodes do revolve entirely around romantic relationships, it's not what the whole show is about.

One explores the way friendships evolve after highschool, one explores the way OCD can impact a persons life, one explores how people deal when faced with horrifying news and how they want to help. I know that last one was a bit weirdly worded but I don't want to ruin the episode, so in the name of not divulging spoilers, do forgive me. But yes, for the most part, being gay, lesbian, trans etc. just so happens to be part of the character and not their entire personality, which is refreshing. As is the complete lack of coming out stories. 

Tofu

Your American accents are so jarring within this series.

There's not really much to say on Tofu. Soz. Each episode deals with a certain theme which was present in either Cucumber or Banana previously, such as dating apps and first time having sex and (despite what I just said about coming out stories) coming out. Everyone is very frank about what they are talking about, no-one really holds back, which is fun for someone as nosey as me. Another fun thing in Tofu is that usually in an episode, little dramatised stories are interspersed throughout.

All in all, I think the whole series works exceptionally well, stand alone and as a complete package. Now that all the episodes have been released, it's time to binge watch them all on 4oD. And although watching it in succession (Cucumber > Banana > Tofu) isn't perhaps absolutely life and death important, I'd highly recommend doing so.

Until next week, dear readers! 

It Follows At The Glasgow International Film Festival

This past week (well, now two weeks past thanks to my terrible work ethic recently) was certainly one of firsts! My first swing dance aerials workshop for one. It was...interesting, shall we say? The next day, I had muscles hurting that I didn't even know I had.

Here we see me elegantly tossing a poor young lady between my legs.

Secondly, I finally got myself organised and booked tickets to see a few movies at the Glasgow International Film Festival. Now, I've been to the Edinburgh one before so film festivals ain't new, but this time my good friend Kate and I decided to go along a midnight horror screening; a showing of the new supernatural teen creeper It Follows to be precise.

So what's it about? It Follows is the tale of Jay, a girl who, after getting up to some of the 'ole one-two with a young gentleman, finds herself being pursued relentlessly by...something. And if it ever catches up to her, things are not going to turn out pretty. We've got the set up for a perfect mix of unrelenting supernatural horror and the classic sex-means-death slasher cliché! If past experience is anything to go by, there's going to be some amount of blood spilled before this is over.

Pools of it, if you will.

If you thought that, you would actually be refreshingly wrong. Not in a long time have I seen a film take a concept which could have been laboured to create buckets of intensity and rein it in as far is it could feasibly go without just recording someone chilling out in a beanbag and saying "So like, what if there was this monster, right...?". The body count is ludicrously low for a movie that happily hangs around in the teen slasher part of town, but then again it's less getting in with the cool kids on street corners and more sitting in a nearby coffee shop, people watching and reading Dostoyevsky. This is all about de-constructing the genre and creating something new from concepts that had become old hat way back in the 80s; and for the most part it manages to do just that while simultaneously creating a tense, enjoyable flick full of style and atmosphere.

Do you think the scrapped new Blogger policy would have counted this as inappropriate nudity...?

Despite being extremely subdued I would almost say that the director, David Robert Mitchell, could have gone even further. The captivating opening sequence of a young girl dashing frantically about a quiet suburban street torn right out of John Carpenter's Halloween (this movie is evidently what you get when a generation of kids who grew up with those 70's and 80's horror greats start making their own films) ends rather messily with a mutilated corpse discarded on a quiet beach. Frankly, the gore was unnecessary and disillusioning; pulling you out of what was otherwise a beautifully tense and stylish take on the "first victim" pre-credits trope.

Actually, the whole movie is just oozing with style. You can thank the cinematographer Mike Gioulakis for some beautiful framing and adding some much needed depth to the shots in the film. So much is happening in the background of the shots that it really makes the environment feel real and three dimensional; it's helped along with some really nicely utilised 360-degree takes (see opening sequence) that help pull you in and build this quiet slice of suburban Detroit all around you.

You can really feel the used needles between your toes.

The costuming, something which I hardly talk about, is wonderfully subtle but effective. It wasn't until after the movie ended and I was walking home that I realised that every iteration of the shape-shifting monster was dressed rather unusually. Old-fashioned long-johns, onesies, hospital gowns. All the sort of stuff that a person, for whatever reason, might sleep in; something which ties perfectly into the very dream-like, nightmarish atmosphere of the whole movie. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it certainly added an extra element of retrospective chill to the experience for me. See what you think when you watch it.

A major shout out also has to be given to the sound design and music, which is unsettlingly stellar throughout. Those eerie squeaks and screeches, and vast expanses of dreadful silence prove that less is definitely more when you're working with a horror. All too often is a scare signposted to the point of farce by a rising plinky violin, but here the most terrifying scenes have little to no music; and the scares are insidious, creeping up on you like the titular unrelenting antagonist with painfully determined patience.

Something which helps make the jump scares spot on.

It's not all peachy though. Being a film intent on taking old genre tropes and dissecting them with style, It Follows was guaranteed to end up getting hoisted by its own petard. Although it does for the most part manage to skirt deftly around the pit of tired clichés that plague the teen slasher genre, there are a few moments that do let the team down a little. Most obviously is the supposedly strong female lead (who, for the vast majority of the film, manages to hold her own) ending up helpless against the monster and needing to be saved by the film's dorky love interest. If you really look into it, the finale of the film does have a worryingly "White Knight" feel about it that could rile the more feminist among us, which is really contrary to many of the themes of burgeoning emotional and sexual maturity and responsibility that underline much of the movie's message. It feels to me more like a lazy decision for the sake of suspense than a purposeful rug-pull courtesy of the patriarchy, but it curdles the milk nonetheless of an otherwise well chilled orange whip of horror. Sorry, I recently hosted a Blues Brothers party...

Overall Ben Equivalence Rating

Being Pursued By A Stalker Copycatting an Old Murderer - 

Unsettling  terrifying. The eerie familiarity of the whole thing almost makes it feel like it's not real, but it does mean that sometimes you can see what's coming next.

Film Favourites: Jumanji

"I want to get better at posting regularly," She says. Misses posting last week. Oops.

Anyway, will we get to that now? The posting? Inspired by one of Ben's posts a while ago (cough cough click click), I have decided to dedicate this weeks post to one of my personal favourite films.

Do you smell that? That's the scent of nostalgia.

When two kids find and play a magical board game, they release a man trapped for decades in it and a host of dangers that can only be stopped by finishing the game.

This movie came out the same year that I was born ('95, represent!), so I can't really remember how old I was when I first watched it. I'm going to find it difficult to talk about this film objectively because I just love it so damn much, but I'll try.

Still gives me chills.

I remember talking to someone not that long about this film, I was absolutely flabbergasted that she hadn't watched it when she was a kid. She then went on to tell me that she had tried to watch it when she was younger but it was way too intense for her young little mind to handle. But that's what I loved! Everything that can go wrong in this film, goes wrong. There's giant killer spiders and monkeys and stampedes and weird 'day of the triffids'-esque plants and argh I love it.

Not to mention this scary motherfucker.

Personally, I think this film is a perfect mix of everything. It sets up the characters back stories nicely so I actually become attached to them so when things start getting tense (which is pretty regular), I'm on the edge of my seat, beads of sweat dripping off my forehead. It mixes together a good formula of tense/funny and sweet. The children in this film are parentless, so throughout the course of the film, Robin Williams' character, Alan Parrish, and Bonnie Hunts character, Sarah Whittle, become parental figures to the children, which lends itself to quite a few sweet scenes. You know, when people aren't being turned into monkey-things and men aren't being hunted down ruthlessly at gun-point, it can actually be a kind of sweet film. Sort of.

Uhhh, yeah, okay. Point taken.

Cute moments aside, let's get down to the nitty gritty, the action, the real meat of the film to get your teeth into - when they start playing the game. Let me tell you, to this day, when young Alan starts to get sucked into the game and the bats are attacking Sarah, my heart is hammering against my chest. Sure, the special effects are questionable at times, but try and show me someone who didn't lose their mind during that stampede scene and I will show you a liar. When I hear the dramatic music start and Alan pull the game out of the brick wall at the beginning of the film, urgh. Perfect. The music is absolutely on point throughout the entire film anyway.

This looks like such a happy picture of a family getting together to play a board game.
How misleading.

I was thinking about the point that I initially became interested in film, because I have loved films for as long as I can remember and I remember with crystal clarity the feeling I got when I realised I would be able to study film. Like, for some reason I hadn't considered studying film for the longest time and then, with the chorus of a thousand angels and a blinding light, I had the epiphany - the epiphany that I could actually study film, as a real degree. I could study how to make films and write films and look at films critically and films. Anyway, I've gone off in a tangent, where was I? Ah, yes, the point where I became interested in film. I was able to trace back my interest in film to this movie. As soon as the gang are together (Alan, Sarah, Judy and Pete), that's when the film is at its high point. Everything is set up perfectly to get all those characters in the positions they need to be but as soon as they're all together, the film really hits its stride.

You sneaky, genius, conniving bastard.

A quick google of this title will show you an abundance of below par reviews (I'm looking at you, metacritc, 39%, seriously?), but don't let them fool you, my opinion is clearly better. I would definitely recommend this film for all to watch - as a shameless nostalgia trip for those who watched it in their childhood like I did, as a way to catch up on a missed film-watching opportunity if you didn't get the chance to watch it, and as a general fun watch if it's a friday night and those plans that you were totally buzzing for fell through, because that's what this film is. It is fun. It's a great edge of your seat, wild ride and leaves you wanting to fist pump the air when the characters overcome the many, many, many obstacles that the board game creates. 

Right, I shall wrap it up there. Less of a review, more of a shameless nostalgia-fest wherein I was allowed to be self-indulgent. Proper reviews return next week. 

Hopefully I shall see you all then!

The One Reason You Should Buy Majora's Mask 3DS

1. It's the Right Time to Play It

I played Majora's Mask for the first time when I was about 7, not long after it came out. Our next door neighbour was a Nintendo kid, we (my brother and I) were PlayStation; so we'd regularly go down to his to have a bash at Mario Kart and the like. My memory of Ocarina of Time is much less solid in my mind, having been experienced in that kind of hazy time between the ages 4 and 7 where, looking back, you're not actually sure if you do remember it or not. I got hella deja vu the first time I reached Ganon's Castle as an adult (I mean me as an adult, not as adult Link) and tried to climb the pillar under the boss chamber before I'd started the fight, thinking "No, this is what you do. You climb this, right? Right?!", Link's head futilely rubbing against the ceiling.

"WHY ARE YOU NOT EXACTLY LIKE MY UNDERDEVELOPED MIND REMEMBERED IT?"

So yeah, I remember Majora from back then much better than I do it's older brother, and the one thing that stuck in my mind was how fucking freaky it was. That shit was traumatising for a seven-year-old. Some creepy guy in an evil mask destroying the world with a maniacally smiling moon? Every single dungeon being related to death, torture or some kind of suffering? The time left until everyone you know dies an horrible and agonising death displayed on screen constantly? Link audibly screaming in agony every time he has to change his physical form using other evil masks? Who comes up with this stuff for a children's video game?

Skipping the animation doesn't mean it stops hurting him.

All of this, the timer, the huge stakes and the brooding atmosphere, lead to an immensely stressful experience unlike any other Zelda game. As a result, I mucked around bouncing onto lily pads and drowning a lot as a Deku but never really progressed much through the game; I didn't enjoy it. Despite feeling much closer and thus more manageable in size than Ocarina, the scope of the game's themes and the constant time-juggling felt like biting off more than I could chew. Having to face the inevitability of mortality through the eyes of a peppy, green-clad mute is too much to ask of a child, especially if you're still mulling around in the formative "Tunnel Tag vs Toilet Tag" years.

The answer, of course, is Toilet Tag. But you're only back in if you remember to make a "Fwssshhhhhh!" noise.

This seems to actually have been the experience of a number of people back in the day; the game was simply too mature for the target audience. It was like if Naughty Dog had just kept going exponentially upwards with the dark-grittiness of the Jak and Daxter franchise and straight up made The Last of Us as its third installment (can we stop to appreciate how awesome that would have been?). Which is why now is the perfect time to play it, we're all grown up and ready to appreciate what the game has to offer! And look, it just so happens to have been rereleased on 3DS. Oo, and with a special edition New 3DS XL for anyone who's really keen?

Who, me? Nooooooo...

Yes, this was an elaborate way for me to trick you into being gloated at after 3 paragraphs of childhood reminiscence. Consider yourself thoroughly ner-ner-nee-ner-nerred, now go buy Majora's Mask and enjoy the second best Zelda game ever made.

There's only one what got a Wind Fish.

Music Mashups and Covers

Hello dear readers! So recently, I've really been getting into (if you couldn't have guessed from the title) mashups of different songs and different-styled covers of songs, so I thought I'd throw a few your way for your listening enjoyment! As ever I'll link to each of the songs in their titles, and I'll even make a youtube playlist that you can listen to riiiiiiiiight HERE.

Apologies that this post isn't as talkative as usual, I've got a ton of stuff going on at the moment but I am determined to get my posting schedule back on track, even if it is a bit of a cop out - but hey, at least you get some cool tunes to rock out to whilst resenting me, right?

Bubblegum Bitch vs. I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Marina and the Diamonds & Panic! at the Disco

Finding pictures for these songs might be difficult, soz. 

I'm literally obsessed with this mash up, I don't think I'll be able to listen to either original versions the same way ever again.

Video Games - The Young Professionals 

I have a special place in my heart for lil pixel posters.

I was surprised to see that I haven't already used this song on a previous music post (found here and also here) because I fucking adore this cover and can't see why I haven't already shoved it down your throats.

We Can't Stop - Bastille

Such a flattering photo. So sexy.

All the mashups.

Stay With Me, Mr Brightside - The Killers & Sam Smith

Such low quality. Soz.

Frustratingly enough this isn't on youtube, so I've had to link to a Sound Cloud account, ruining the pattern. Goddamn it.

Every Teardrop is Clarity - Coldplay & Zedd

So. Much. Colour.

I think this is one of the more chill songs on this playlist, apart from maybe Stay With Me, Mr Brightside, despite it still having a synthy-going out vibe about it. Listen and chill the fuck out.

Ba-Ba-Ba Dook Dook Dook - Supernatural Horror With A Little Oomph

How's it going ladies and lady-dudes? Apologies for the sudden hiatus from both Rhona and I this past week, but you know how this stuff goes; one minute you're floating calmly atop the lilo of chill on the ocean of bliss, then all of a sudden the seagull of poor timing dumps an epic load of shit in your lap. In this instance, that seagull was more albatross-sized and happened to have a major case of the squits.

Like fishy napalm, it is.

But a week of wallowing in stress and self pity has given me plenty time to devour a load of great entertainment and junk food, so silver linings. One movie that really surprised me was last year's underground supernatural hit, The Babadook. My past history with supernatural movies on this blog has been less than positive; it's not a sub-genre I've ever really liked, especially when it comes to stuff involving spooky ghosts and the like, so to find a film of that type that actually impressed me is worth writing about. There's still some improvements to be made though...on with the critique!

I'll just put on my criticism hat.

The plot of The Babadook is classic ghost story stuff: person finds creepy book which is connected to very creepy monster that likes making you not alive any more. The difference here is that, firstly, said book is a children's story and, secondly, it really fucking shouldn't be.

"So I heard you like PTSD..."

Oh, that not look scary enough?

"Gizza cuddle."

Just going back to the scene where Essie Davis' character Amelia reads the story to her son Samuel to get some screenshots has left me with chills. That scene alone is worth watching the rest of the movie for. I've not seen lore presented in such a beautifully simplistic yet effective way since...well the only comparison I can think of is the effortless exposition of a Studio Ghibli movie. The Babadook is immediately established as a tangible creature through the book (illustrated by Alexander Juhasz) and it's even more impressive when you find out that the whole legend of the Babadook was made up by the director, Jennifer Kent, all by her lonesome. Go you!

So yeah, the movie has very well constructed lore and a fully fleshed out monster to keep it up, but a lot of the uneasiness doesn't actually come from the titular bogeyman; it comes from this thing.

Ew, what is it?

Samuel is...a troubled child, shall we say? Having grown up alone in a house where his mother regularly battles with the immense guilt and trauma from her husband's death, he's a less than well adjusted little boy; a fact which leads to much of the tension in the movie. What would you do if you if your son was causing trouble at school? If he suffered constant, violent mood swings? If you suspected him of slipping broken glass into your food?

That is indeed one way, yes...

The Babadook oozes from the very beginning with the same kind of terrible paranoia as found in the likes of Deliverance; where much of the horror comes from that dark place in the back of your head that whispers horrible things in your ear. Those sudden, shocking thoughts that chill you to the bone for even considering them. The stalker in the trees or the monster under the bed. And what if that's what you really want? What if the monster is real? What if you did wish your son was dead?

Even if this movie didn't have as great a monster as it did, I could still see it being a beautifully unsettling drama about a mother trying to cope with a trouble child and the immense strain that puts on her. But coupled with a creature that revels in toying with you, hiding in the shadows, giving you sleepless nights, The Babadook becomes a massive boiling pot of tension and anxiety. It's fatiguing to watch.

It takes a hell of a lot of energy not to wring his scrawny little neck.

Colour and cinematography-wise, The Babadook is beautiful in its muted simplicity. It would have been very easy to go full out Aussie with the style as many Australian films are wont to do for the sake of standing out from the international crowd, but instead it chose a much more universal route; drawing a lot of influence from Western rural horror, with the big houses and gardens and stuff. Little bits of the great red waste do sneak in to add that extra spice, particularly in sound, but not at all to the film's detriment.

In the aforementioned scene involving the Babadook's book (omg, Babadook is an anagram of "A Bad Book"), the sound of cicadas slowly creeps in under Amelia's voice and cuts out suddenly when she closes it. It's a great and simple trick that added extra uneasiness and distortion to an already pretty screwy scene.

As you can see by the number of screenshots, this one 5 minute scene has quite a reverberating effect on the rest of the film.

Now, let's talk about one of my pet hates in horror. To be succinct, I'm talking about this:

Look at it too long and it makes you want to yawn.

OK, that scene in Insidious worked pretty well, but big bad monster there was flailed around the screen in the final act like a towel full of soap in an army barracks. The theory of less is more has never been more true when talking about horror, and it's a simple rule that so many films seem to be unable to follow: DON'T FUCKING SHOW YOUR MONSTER. Ever! Yes, that means all your painstaking hours of concept art and character design don't get to shine, but there's a reason the first Alien is a bone-chilling nightmare of awesome space horror and Aliens is like being lobotomised by Bane. It's the reason one of my favourite horror movies in recent memory is about genetically modified carnivorous alien cow foetuses (Every word in that sentence was completely intentional); because we never see the whole thing throughout. We're left to our imaginations. We make up our own monster and do the movie's job for it.

A solid, if poor, effort.

The Babadook was doing great on this front. We had little glimpses of the monster's coat and hate and spindly fingers, but no concrete being. It was freaky and awesome and spooked me nice and good. But then, all of a sudden, we get a shot of this thing (spoiler I guess):

He looks like the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow, sans the added terror of being Christopher Walken.

Yes, it's only a split second shot (I had to hammer the spacebar to stop on the right frame), but the moment you see it's face you go "oh, it's...well it's just a dude with face paint on. No biggie." There's so much build-up about the Babadook's disguise and how horrifying his real self is underneath, that to have that as a reveal is disappointing and unnecessary; particularly as you never see it again for the rest of the film. It's like someone was filling in on for the director that day of the shoot and got the completely wrong end of the stick.

"We can only not show these bits of the monster. All of these, completely OK."

So yes, I've warbled on enough now. The Babadook is, in a word, great. You'd be doing yourself and everyone you love and cherish an immense disservice if you didn't watch this film. It's snappy yet brooding, has some stellar acting chops all over it, is full of meaty and contemplative matters of humanity and above all, it's hella freaky yo.

Overall Ben Equivalence Rating

Having Dreams About Killing Your Own Children - 

Disturbing to say the least. Although if you don't have any kids or really don't like the ones you do have, then please speak to someone about these dreams you've been having. I'm worried.