The Green Knight

Now if I'm honest I wasn't sure if I was going to watch this film because I have a mixed relationship with A24. I like some of their films but others are just not my sort of thing and A24 are known for making artisticly styled and prestige type films but the one thing that did make me think I'd like it was I enjoy adventure and fantasy films and this seemed like an interesting one.

Starting off the positives, as always with most A24 films, the cinematography is just fantastic and how some scenes are framed, it makes the scenery really beautiful to look at. This is probably one of the best looking films of the year.

This is also a very well produced film. As well as location based scenes, the set design is really impressive and very believable. I also really like the look of Ralph Inesons character as it has quite a distinct and mythological design to it.

And like I said before, although period pieces aren't really my thing, I do like the premise and appreciate the genre blending of period drama, fantasy and adventure. It's quite a consistent mix.

And finally I really like the cast and performances. Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Ralph Ineson they are just some of the actors in this film and they fit their roles quite nicely and I like seeing them onscreen.

However my suspected fears came true regarding my enjoyment of this film so let's move onto the mixed aspects of the film and this is neither good or bad, this is just to say A24 do their usual niche of mismarketing the trailers. They portray this film as a fantasy film filled with interesting world-building when in reality and without going into spoilers, this is nothing like that. It's a much more slower paced character study and I feel whoever the target demographic are for this film will be divisive.

And this will transition into my overall negatives for this film and this film just wasn't for me, I wasn't the target audience at all. I found myself getting very bored to the point where I almost fell asleep at one point and ended up getting my phone out. I tried to stay interested but I couldn't wait for it to be over. This is probably the most boring film I've seen this year.

And whilst this has a straightforward premise, like a lot of A24 films, I found it very incomprehensible at times at the themes and character motivations. I couldn't even connect with the characters at all because I was struggling with the following with the plot.

And please understand that I am not saying this film did anything bad, I just didn't connect with it or fine it interesting. It's not my sort of film at all or where my interests  lie in.

So overall I would only recommend this film for people who are big fans of A24 and if you are, I do respect you and if you get something out of this film, I'm happy. I just didn't get anything out of it besides boredom.

⭐⭐

Malignant

This film has been my most anticipated horror film of this whole year. James Wan is my favourite director of all time, I love all of his films and I wanted to make sure I went into this film blind. I avoided all the trailers, only saw the poster and cast and that was it and I knew with all this hype, this film would be either my biggest disappointment or my biggest surprise and wow, surprised is just scraping the barrel of how I felt about this film.

Let's just get the negatives out the way now. For me, this films story lacked focus on what it really was because when it starts, it's like a haunted house film then it starts to feel like a slasher then it goes in a totally different direction so it felt like James Wan couldn't decide what specific horror trope he wanted to focus on.

And whilst this is a horror film, the scares a very limited and James Wan is always good when it comes to scares and tension so that was slightly disappointing that there wasn't more of that.

Finally and this is a nitpick, it began to bother me how often Annabelle Wallis would scream at something. There's a section in the film where something happens, everyone is in shock and Annabelle Wallis just starts screaming and it did get on my nerves a bit.

As for mixed feelings, this film has one of the darkest opening acts in any film I've seen and there will be people who will struggle with the opening act so without spoiler it, be sure to prepare yourself if you see it.

I've also seen people say this is a very campy film and I don't know if it's just me but I never felt that way at all. Dark, yes. Intense yes. Campy? Not at all but that's just me.

Now from here on out, it's all positives and I'll start small and work on to the best of the film. So first of all, the cast is fantastic in this film. I've seen Annabelle Wallis in plenty of projects so it's nice to see her in another horror film and she doesn't disappoint. The rest of the cast I'm unfamiliar with but they are all great.

Like a lot of James Wans films, the use of camerawork is remarkably impressive. How the camera moves, the wide angle shots, the dark lighting and even a grainy colour filter, it's all used very efficiently and it makes this film really nice to look at.

Another James Wan trademark that gets felt amongst the film is atmosphere. Multiple set pieces are so atmospherically felt and even in crowded scenes, mixed with the dark tone, there's no feeling of safety or peacefulness. You always feel the danger of the situation.

But you also feel this film is building towards something but you're not sure what and that is this film biggest achievement. The payoff and shocking twist it has feels 100% earned and within that, we get the best part of the film. A completely bonkers, OTT but badass and awesome third act that doesn't hold back. Pure carnage is unleashed, it's gruesome, it's stomach churning and I loved every bloody minute of it.

And because of the third act and how the story unfolds, it baffles me how the hell anyone could have come up with this sort of twist and even fact checked it. This film also has the potential to age incredibly well because it is pure practical effects. There's moments where I have no idea how these scenes were even filmable with how impressive these effects are and whilst CGI may have been used, I say May because I could not see it anywhere but that just be me.

And finally and I'll keep this very brief, this is a film that has potential for a franchise and unlike previous times where I have said, I do not want a sequel made to precious films, I DO want a sequel to this film and would be interested to see this films premise explored further.

So overall I loved this film. It's so memorable and I'll be raving about it for the next few days. It may not be James Wans best film but it's definitely his most insane film to date and I can't wait to see his next project.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Night House

When I first heard about this film, it was not on my radar at all but then I saw parts of the trailer and thought it looked interesting so I decided to go on a whim and check it out and I'm not even going to attempt to hide it, I bloody loved this film.

Kicking right off with the positives, without question, the best thing about this film is Rebecca Halls performance. This woman delivers not only one of the best performances I've seen this year but without doubt, the performance of her whole career. She portrays a woman who is so filled with grief and feels like she's got the weight of the world on her shoulders but she's also very charismatic in the role and also has some nice dark humour. I'll elaborate more on the progression of this scene later but there's one scene where she has to break down and it is performed so so beautifully.

I also loved the storytelling for this film. Once you understand the story for his film, what we watch is such a realistic take on grief and of a woman who is just trying to get her life back on track but is constantly struggling and who is also finding out secrets about her past. What also impressed me as well was this film is in a way setting up the build up to Rebecca Halls big break down scene and my god, the progression and execution to that moment feels so earned.

This film also has a great amount of foreshadowing that once again has great payoff and like all great moments of foreshadowing, it doesn't come off as predictable. Instead it's used subtlety enough as hints as what's to come and it's easy to miss if you're not paying close attention.

Now let's talk about the one thing that could have been this films downfall; the scares. Now I do have some thoughts regarding these when we get to the negatives of this review but like everything else I've mentioned, the scares are executed really well. Yes there are jump scares but instead of being used as gimmicks and using cheap editing tricks, this film builds up the tension for the scares and that is how you correctly utilize a jump scares. But that's not all. This film has some genuinely creepy moments that unnerved me in places and the use of the clever camera work and perfect camera angles just make the scares more unnerving.

And once we get to the 3rd act of the film, it does not hold back. There's a lot of hard hitting scenes as all the pieces come into place that tie into the themes of the film, what was pre-established during the first act, features fantastic editing and beautiful colour correction.

Unfortunately it's not perfect, I did have some issues so let's move onto the mixed aspects and first this is just to say this film is marketed as a horror film but the horror side is pretty much on the back burner as the main story is pretty much a psychological drama that focuses on Rebecca Hall's characters grief so just bare in mind when you do see it, expect around 60% drama, 40% horror. That's my estimation.

Also this is a film that does warrant a rewatch, especially when the ending gets a little confusing to the point during my first watch, I had to read the ending just to understand what happened but during my second watch, it did help me understand the film a lot more.

Now let's move onto the bad parts of the film and this won't take long at all. I only have two main issues. First one is i felt there was a bit too much exposition during the 3rd act and felt there could have been a way to resolve things without overexplaining everything.

And my only other issue isn't about the film itself, it's the marketing. After my first viewing of this film, I wanted to check out the trailer and I'm so glad I didn't watch it beforehand because it highly markets itself as a horror film to the point where it reveals almost all the crucial scare points during the film. So I would advice you to go in blind and not watch any trailer before seeing this film.

But besides that, I think this film is fantastic, I loved it and it's currently residing as my 3rd favourite film of the year thus far. I highly recommend it and I really want people to see this film as I fear in years to come, it may become an underseen and underappreciated horror film.

⭐⭐⭐⭐