Before I Wake (Mike Flanagan)

[Dukefrukem]

http://www.dravenstales.ch/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/before-i-wake_poster.jpg

[Dukefrukem]

This movie needs it's own thread. I know it opened across the world up to 24 months ago, but IMDB lists it as Jan 2018 in the US.

I've liked or loved all of Flanagan's movies so far.

Ouija: Origin of Evil
Before I Wake
Hush
Oculus
Absentia

Hush is probably my favorite though Absentia is also excellent. Toss Up? ANyway....

This film, gave me actual terror moments that I haven't felt in horror films a long time.

[TGM]

Last I checked, this was listed as 2016. *shrug*

Anyways, my thoughts that I posted in the 28 film discussions thread...

Watched Before I Wake last night on Netflix. And yeah, it's a rare misstep for Mike Flanagan. I've loved all the rest of his work that I've seen thus far. He's usually a pretty inventive director, and has seriously become one of my favorite horror directors, someone who I always highly anticipate a new project of his. And this is a movie that's been teased for release for years. I've gotten trailers for it so many times over the past several years before movies, and always thought it looked interesting, yet it never actually released in theaters. But finally this week Netflix released it. So needless to say, I had high hopes, yet this one really didn't deliver, and really wasn't worth the wait.

It's honestly really cheesy, and the main monster just looks goofy as hell and way too well lit whenever he appears, so it's never actually scary or even creepy. And Flanagan is usually great with the creep-factor in his films, so to see that aspect just seemingly disappear here is a bit of a head scratcher. It almost feels like his movie was taken away from him in post-production, and someone else went in and really poorly and cheaply inserted all of the CGI effects without him, never taking into account how those effects should actually look to be their most effective, only worrying that they were literally present. Now, I don't know if that's actually the case here, but taking the rest of his filmography into account, it certainly feels that way at least.

If looked at as more of a fantasy drama than a horror film, it starts to work a little better I suppose. Yet there's still elements that really don't sit well with me, particularly at the end of the film the mother apparently thinks very little about the sudden death/disappearance of her husband. So yeah, a bit disappointing.

[TGM]

Flanagan rankings:

Gerald's Game
Oculus
Hush
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Before I Wake

[Dukefrukem]

Last I checked, this was listed as 2016. *shrug*


Yup. I explained why i put it in 2018 in my first post.

[TGM]

You haven't seen Gerald's Game yet, Duke? It's on Netflix as well.

[Dukefrukem]

Holy shit thank you!