Friday, October 2, 2020

Spook Out! Day 2 ~ 1922 (2017)

Netflix Says...
"A farmer pens a confession admitting to his wife's murder, but her death is just the beginning of a macabre tale."

I Say...
This summary's better than most, which say he does it for financial gain--but that's just a slightly-misshapen piece of a pernicious puzzle.

Horror Type...
Psychological Drama, with a touch of the Supernatural, some Gore.

Main Players...
Thomas Jane as Wilfred James (Conniving Husband)
Molly Parker as Arlette James (Stereotypical Shrewish Wife)
Dylan Schmid as Henry James (Surprising Son)

I liked...
  • the set, the writing, the costumes, the acting, the mood--all served their purpose of immersing the viewer in the story admirably
  • the way the supernatural bits were interspersed in the story, very organic and fitting
  • how the tension builds, and builds, and builds...

The Meh...
I dunno, maybe it's my allergy-stricken heavy, watery eyes and sinus congestion, but I only just finished watching the thing maybe an hour-ish ago and I feel sleepy and had to read the relevant bits of 1922's Wikipedia entry to remind myself how it ended. I'm just...kinda--Zzzzz...

Would I recommend it...?
As a fine bit of family drama and a Greek-epic-like/Edgar Poe-ish descent into madness and ruin, sure--in this respect, it really is an excellent film. But not as a horror movie--although there's a fair bit of gore and (TRIGGER WARNING) rats swarm around more than is strictly necessary. This flick kept turning up on the "best horror movie" lists I consulted prior to building my blogfest watchlist but I think that's just lazy writing. There are some horrific elements, yes, and some bits are very disturbing, but it's more horror-adjacent than anything else.

Miscellany...

Ratings...
My Grade: A as a psychological drama, C as a horror movie
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: Tomatometer=91%, Audience Score=57%

Details, Schmeetails...
I Watched 1922 on Netflix 




This concludes Day 2 of


Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow...

IF YOU DARE

2 comments:

  1. Horror-adjacent. I think that's the kind of "horror" I can watch, and this actually sounds like something I might like. Now I have to make a list of the ones you review that I want to find.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I think you'd be fine with this. And you know where to find me! ;-)

      Delete

C'mon, post a comment. All the cool kids do.