Director: Marjane Satrapi
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick, Jacki Weaver
Have I Seen It Before: Wasn’t even aware of it until it got on the to-be-watched list for Beyond the Cabin in the Woods.
Did I Like It: It’s probably not a great sign that I feel overwhelmingly compelled to view the film as a series of parts rather than as a whole package. If the movie doesn’t hit one as single entity, there’s something wrong in the mix.
I think the death of Lisa (Kendrick) is one of the more deeply unsettling things I’ve seen in a horror movie. It isn’t flashy or salacious. It’s slow and painful and deeply terrifying. Then Jerry (Reynolds) cuts her head off.
Reynolds himself is aquitting himself well in the film, giving a hint of the chaos he never was allowed to unleash in X-Men: Origins: Wolverine (2009)* and would eventually be granted the liberty to be the most Ryan Reynolds he could be…
And yet, I don’t love that ending. This all ends with a musical number, and in the context of Jerry’s final synapses firing, I suppose it makes sense, but from a perspective of tone alone, am I supposed to believe the basest parts of his brain just wants everybody to be happy, and is in fact jaunty and happy itself?
That all could be forgiven, and maybe even written off as a matter of mood of the reviewer at the time he watched the film. What can’t quite be shaken off is the fact that, even above the horror movie average, the plot flies apart with even the most casual of scrutiny. The amount of people who die here, simply because they took it upon themselves to look into the disappearance of another character without even mentioning it to the police almost absolves poor Jerry of some of his guilt.
*I don’t know if I’ll ever come around to watching that one again to write a review, but it probably is worth mentioning: If your title needs more than one colon, you’re in trouble.