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What is a plot?
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Feb 22, 2016 06:35
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OctaviusBeaver posted:I loved it overall, I'm definitely planning on seeing it again. Somebody earlier said it best I think: it didn't feel like a movie, it felt like somebody stuck a camera on a farm in New England in the 1600s.
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Feb 22, 2016 06:43
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MisterBibs posted:Movies are passive entertainment; the audience spends money for for the film to engage them. Be funny, be scary, be inspiring, be ~whatever~. If audiences aren't being engaged, the movie is at fault. In a perfectly engaging world the purchase of a movie ticket would render the purchaser brain dead for the duration.
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Feb 22, 2016 17:12
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MisterBibs posted:In setting up a movie that seeks to disabuse audiences of the horror=jumpscare mentality, The Witch winds up creating the platonic example to show why a tension-release experience style of horror works best for current audiences. They get uncomfortable, they jump and scream, they maybe chuckle, and they leave the theater thinking they had a good horror experience. This isn't happening with The Witch. And?
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Feb 22, 2016 17:26
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saw it last night, really enjoyed it. I would agree that the ending was done well, but it left me wanting more. maybe a sequel with a bit of a backstory on the family's exile and some adventures with thomasin's new lifestyle. anyway, my favorite scene by far was the crow pecking the mothers tit with her laughing maniacally in the rocking chair. very unnerving. the audience in my theatre was so focused on the presumed jump-scare before hand (of the witches face) that I think the gravity of that scene was lost to them. solid movie, 8/10
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Feb 22, 2016 19:15
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I was far from impressed with this. I wasn't expecting jump scares, I was expecting a slow movie with plenty of great atmosphere like the trailer and I just didn't get that from this film. Whoever edited the trailer should get an award because it was 100x more ominous than the actual movie. It just doesn't work when after half the movie was complete, my audience had pretty much abandoned all hope of anything happening. It was basically like "oh hey, this part looks like it may be kinda creepy but it'll be back to normal praying and people saying "Thomasin" over and over again in a sec so who cares?" It would have been nice to show some more actual plot in the meantime. Maybe show more of how a piece of poo poo the dad was and why they had to leave the plantation since one of the only engaging pieces of dialogue was Thomasin calling him out on being a liar and how much of a loser he is. I'm interested if the mother and daughter had a adversarial relationship before they left the plantation. Pretty much the only story element around was them pushing over and over the concept of zealotry and superstition destroying a family and then [suprise! the evil was real all along! Gotcha![/spoiler]. So bravo, you pulled off a twist ending but unfortunately it took boring the audience to death for 95% of the film to make it work. This is the movie M. Night Shyamalan would have made it he was a way better technical director. I found myself wondering if the director tried to stop the film at the point when Thomasin went to sleep and then the studio stepped in and said "we need to do something about this movie." Upon leaving I was sure my two film nerd friends would fawn all over it like the critics and they did. They just kept talking about how well it was shot and acted and I agree on those two points. That's great if the movie was a tool for a film class to appreciate cinematography and specific movie elements, but I think a movie should actually engage its audience to be "good". My audience just kinda all looked around at each other the whole time wondering if anyone else was as bored. But of course when the rest of my friends and I explained what we hated about the movie to the two that liked it, we were quickly just dismissed as "not understanding good filmmaking" which is the standard response for not liking a critical darling film.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:53
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And audiences are coming out of the theater mostly annoyed or angry at what The Witch failed to do: be entertaining.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:20
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"Mostly"? Even the anecdotal posts here say it's like one or two people per screening.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:24
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flashy_mcflash posted:"Mostly"? Even the anecdotal posts here say it's like one or two people per screening. I'm going off my own personal experiences (and the word of someone who runs a theater) as well as a 50% audience rating on RT.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:26
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MisterBibs posted:I'm going off my own personal experiences (and the word of someone who runs a theater) as well as a 50% audience rating on RT. What I'm saying is, who gives a poo poo?
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Feb 22, 2016 20:33
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flashy_mcflash posted:"Mostly"? Even the anecdotal posts here say it's like one or two people per screening. One or two vocal people per screening. It's not usually a good sign when people laugh hysterically when credits roll and everyone knows why. At least that was my theatre experience.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:40
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CubanMissile posted:I Pretty much the only story element around was them pushing over and over the concept of zealotry and superstition destroying a family and then [suprise! the evil was real all along! Gotcha![/spoiler]. So bravo, you pulled off a twist ending but unfortunately it took boring the audience to death for 95% of the film to make it work. That's weird, I thought the film established that the evil was real when the titular Witch moisturizes herself with baby guacamole 10 minutes in. If anything it would have been a twist if the evil wasn't real and Black Phillip was just a goat with delusions of grandeur. I found it to be refreshing, really.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:43
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:What I'm saying is, who gives a poo poo? Maybe you don't care why this movie was a dismal failure with the audience; I do. It's not every day a movie comes out that shows what happens when a horror movie has no elements of horror comes out. It turns out, your audiences giggle and your Sundancers fellate it.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:53
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I am a member of the audience.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:54
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Gorman Thomas posted:That's weird, I thought the film established that the evil was real when the titular Witch moisturizes herself with baby guacamole 10 minutes in. If anything it would have been a twist if the evil wasn't real and Black Phillip was just a goat with delusions of grandeur. I found it to be refreshing, really. Ok, that's a good point, but for me it only underscores the pointlessness of most of the movie's plot. Though I will argue that given the presence of other witches at the end of the movie, Thomasin was the titular witch. I'll rewatch it again at home in the future to discover exciting aspects that I may have missed, like corn blight, and won't play with my cell phone the entire time at all. CubanMissile fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 21:00
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I am a member of the audience. The majority of people don't like challenging art. Which is fine, really. There'll be more anonymous found footage movies with lots of jump scares.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:04
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MisterBibs posted:Maybe you don't care why this movie was a dismal failure with the audience; I do. It's not every day a movie comes out that shows what happens when a horror movie has no elements of horror comes out. It turns out, your audiences giggle and your Sundancers fellate it. I think it shows that that when you make a film into a pretty, well acted art project designed to see how long you can go before giving the audience the movie they thought they were paying for in the end, the critics will eat that poo poo up and call it original.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:05
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Surlaw posted:Not really. https://twitter.com/BrianKeene/status/701391382275952641
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Feb 22, 2016 21:32
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CubanMissile posted:I think it shows that that when you make a film into a pretty, well acted art project designed to see how long you can go before giving the audience the movie they thought they were paying for in the end, the critics will eat that poo poo up and call it original. I kinda doubt the intention of the film was the deceive anyone, that's the Marketing department's job. Granted, most Marketing firms do indeed have Old Scratch as middle management.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:37
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I only counted one jump scare in the film. when black phillip rams the father.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:39
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So this guy's a blowhard. Most people, especially here, aren't being dicks to people for not liking the movie. It's not a real issue. Also I'm genuinely surprised people wanted more back story on what the dad did that got everyone exiled. I liked having nearly everything framed from Thomasin's view point, I cared about the impact his actions had on her life and not what those specific actions were. "Acted prideful and blasphemous" seemed like enough for me personally. A True Jar Jar Fan fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 21:47
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Danger posted:I kinda doubt the intention of the film was the deceive anyone, that's the Marketing department's job. Granted, most Marketing firms do indeed have Old Scratch as middle management. I know I'm just really annoyed for some reason.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:51
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This is my first time in CD, are films always this divisive 
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Feb 22, 2016 21:55
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Surlaw posted:So this guy's a blowhard. Most people, especially here, aren't being dicks to people for not liking the movie. It's not a real issue. I don't think a backstory is necessary at all for the film.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:56
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I think the evidence of the film leaves it clear why they got exiled as is: he was too preachy and hardline religious even for Puritan society.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:06
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This guy also wanted the ending to be more ambiguous. The only thing I liked about the movie was that it wasn't. The director took a clear path by the end and didn't just "leave it up the audience" while going OooooOOoooOooo and creeping into the shadows. And I was happy the ending took the path it did instead of taking the expected modern approach. Uncle Boogeyman posted:I think the evidence of the film leaves it clear why they got exiled as is: he was too preachy and hardline religious even for Puritan society. I have trouble seeing that happen in a Puritanical society. I think it's more likely not being able to stand someone being that preachy while also recognizing they're a hypocrite. Actually I can picture them putting up with that as well. I think what ultimately did him in was being preachy while society just somehow saw home much of a failure he is. Religious societies will put up with all sorts of preachiness, corruption, or hypocrisy as long as you're a successful person with useful skills or a good leader, which he was neither. CubanMissile fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 22:09
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alnilam posted:This is my first time in CD, are films always this divisive This is pretty chill actually. Check out any thread about a comic book movie.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:10
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CubanMissile posted:Ok, that's a good point, but for me it only underscores the pointlessness of most of the movie's plot. Though I will argue that given the presence of other witches at the end of the movie, Thomasin was the titular witch. I'll rewatch it again at home in the future to discover exciting aspects that I may have missed, like corn blight, and won't play with my cell phone the entire time at all. I'm just so tired of all these witches...
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Feb 22, 2016 22:10
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Surlaw posted:This is pretty chill actually. Check out any thread about a comic book movie. I have the old Prometheus and Pacific Rim threads book marked for a quick chill pill.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:11
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Surlaw posted:So this guy's a blowhard. Most people, especially here, aren't being dicks to people for not liking the movie. It's not a real issue. Uncle Boogeyman posted:The majority of people don't like challenging art. Which is fine, really. There'll be more anonymous found footage movies with lots of jump scares. 
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Feb 22, 2016 22:27
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No Egrets posted:I really don't know if it's your intent, but you're kind of being a dick about it. Also my point was less about people being personally attacked for not liking it and more of the people that loved it not willing to budge an inch on the issues other people had with it, then writing those people off as only watching Paranormal Activity/Saw/Hostel, a lot like this really: Yeah that's a dumb quote about Challenging Movies. The whole "this is bullshit for Sundance idiots" stuff is the same kind of dumb. So, talk about the movie instead of bogeymen. This goes for both sides.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:40
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I was really underwhelmed by this movie. I love horror movies and slow-burn horror, and I get that it was shot beautifully and was super time-period accurate, but it just fell flat for me. I don't need jump scares to be entertained, but it just seemed to fail at building tension. The soundtrack was good but the movie just seemed empty. The dialogue was hard to understand and I kind of wish they had subtitles, but it isn't why I didn't like it. I keep going online and reading reviews to see if for some reason there is something I just didn't "get" but I know what they were going for and it just wasn't for me. I'm glad some people liked it. I didn't really like when they showed the witch in the Caleb scene, it really reminded me of a Hocus Pocus costume. By the time Black Philip started talking and I started getting interested, the movie was over.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:46
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Norse Code posted:I didn't really like when they showed the witch in the Caleb scene, it really reminded me of a Hocus Pocus costume. They kinda had to, the earlier Caleb wanted to see some titties scenes would've been even more pointless. (unless Caleb was one of the little kids...) MisterBibs fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 22:54
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MisterBibs posted:They kinda had to, the earlier Caleb wanted to see some titties scenes would've been even more pointless.[/spoiler] I think coming anywhere near the intensity of the Black Phillip scene for the Caleb/witch scene would have done wonders for the movie. Show a tension scene resulting in something other than either nothing, or a child getting whisked away, which is neither scary nor interesting. I liked Caleb. He was good and proactive, but then he just sorta got Joey'd in Nightmare on Elm Street.
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Feb 22, 2016 23:09
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:What I'm saying is, who gives a poo poo? They do, you snobby twit. That said: The Witch sounds good to me and I will see it soon.
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Feb 22, 2016 23:23
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CubanMissile posted:I think coming anywhere near the intensity of the Black Phillip scene for the Caleb/witch scene would have done wonders for the movie. Show a tension scene resulting in something other than either nothing, or a child getting whisked away, which is neither scary nor interesting. I liked Caleb. He was good and proactive, but then he just sorta got Joey'd in Nightmare on Elm Street. That scene was a pretty direct homage to The Shining and it worked fine for me.
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Feb 23, 2016 02:37
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I think that might've been my favorite moment in the film, it's just so perfectly done.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:01
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This movie is ridiculously good and Black Phillip is a loving homeboy.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:34
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Yeah I got around to seeing it today and loved it. Everything hit just as it was supposed to for me. Aside from a few scenes where it'd cut to black and suddenly be on the goat's face, which were a little absurd.
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Feb 23, 2016 08:10
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Mochiballs posted:Yeah I got around to seeing it today and loved it. Everything hit just as it was supposed to for me. Aside from a few scenes where it'd cut to black and suddenly be on the goat's face, which were a little absurd. Yeah, if I have any complaints about this movie, it's that the goat's face is just so chill a lot of the time that he wasn't as creepy as he was probably supposed to be. Goats rule and Black Phillip rules, but several times the camera pans over to him and he looks like he just smoked a j. "Sssssup, puritans... " 
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Feb 23, 2016 14:57
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