Eden Lake was a miss for me, but to be fair, I watched it half-drunk. As Above, So Below was a huge surprise for me. The last 30 minutes was some of the scariest shit I’ve seen in a found footage horror.
Kudos to your review! You nailed it. I rewatched ‘Eden Lake’ and loved it again, though it’s more inbetween ‘Green Room’ and ‘Funny Games’ than near ‘martyrs’.
‘Red Rooms’, the drama thriller, is one of my 2024 highlights, but ‘Pandemonium’ is the darkest beast, and ‘MadS’ the most fun.
Great review of this masterpiece. I grew up near Mammoth Cave National Park so it hits extra hard. After Dog Soldiers and this I would have thought Neil Marshall was going to be the next “Horror” director
Oh wow, that's cool. I thought the same which led me to bigger and bigger disappointments as I followed Marshall's career, making mostly mediocre or downright bad films after The Descent. It's a shame. He had great potential but somehow couldn't fully utilize it.
I can totally see how seeing The Descent first and then Dog Soldiers would be a step back and underwhelming. I appreciate it for its different approach to the werewolf sub genre as a siege narrative ala Night of the Living Dead. As a werewolf movie fan we gotta take the good ones when we get ‘em. Some good homages in there. Plus you can see his start and how he would progress with a bigger budget.
Reminds me a bit of seeing where something like Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party started with its low budget, manic, comedic tone to his follow ups of Blue Ruin or Green Room and observing the leap forward in craft.
I get that. I was a huge werewolf movie fan, too. Speaking of which: Have you seen The Wolf of Snow Hollow? It might be the last truly intriguing and out-of-the-box werewolf movie I’ve seen in the past 10 years. It’s also hilarious.
Yeah I recommend for the last 20 min alone. Also has a great poster. Werewolves Within had that fun Clue/Agatha Christy with a werewolf vibe that was better than expected. Holds a special place for me as it’s my daughters favorite werewolf movie and we watched it together. Agreed on Jim Cummings. And he was maybe the best part of a movie I was mixed on..Halloween Kills as the cop (again lol) in the flashback sequence. Excited to see what he does next.
I have and it was awesome! Agreed 100%. The closet in quality I’ve seen to this would be a French werewolf fin called Teddy that was solid. Werewolves Within is fun but pretty light compared to this. But the main character in this being an alcoholic and not being the werewolf himself therefore not the metaphor for addiction was an interesting break from traditions. While also being a pretty harrowing portrait of addiction, obsession, redemption, etc in general. Definitely has that Coen’s dark Fargoesque humor and the sheriff pretty much believing it’s the work of a werewolf very quickly into the story was hilarious. Man, that scene/wide shot of the werewolf facing off with the lady outside her car in the snowy road is just great. The only improvement would be if it leaned more into a Christmas ascetic throughout the movie.
Teddy sounds intriguing, I might check it out. YES, Werewolves Within was a really good time as far as horror comedies go. Not particularly memorable but I remember enjoying its silly humor quite a bit.
And I agree, that scene in Snow Hollow was beautifully shot and I think the movie overall was the confirmation I needed to pay attention to Jim Cummings as a director (Thunder Road is also unique and darkly humorous from him).
Yeah he really only had success with TV/Game of Thrones episodes that I can remember. I wanted to like Tales of Halloween so much but it just didn’t quite get there. But at least we got his first two. Would like to read your opinion on Dog Soldiers!
Yup. He did have some success in TV and directed a few decent episodes in various shows (I’m not a GoT fan so I missed those I think since I’ve only seen the first two seasons, but I noticed his name pop up elsewhere as a director).
Sadly, Dog Soldiers was underwhelming for me. I saw it after The Descent and found it too raw and underdeveloped. A lot of people say that’s exactly what they like about it but for me it just didn’t click, and the screenplay was pretty mediocre as well.
This, Let The Right One In, and Trick R Treat are up there for me personally.
'The Descent' is one of my favourites! In my applauding opinion like 'Eden Lake', 'As Above, So Below' and 'Martyrs'.
Eden Lake was a miss for me, but to be fair, I watched it half-drunk. As Above, So Below was a huge surprise for me. The last 30 minutes was some of the scariest shit I’ve seen in a found footage horror.
As for Martyrs: https://thescreen.substack.com/p/martyrs-and-the-horrific-exploration
Kudos to your review! You nailed it. I rewatched ‘Eden Lake’ and loved it again, though it’s more inbetween ‘Green Room’ and ‘Funny Games’ than near ‘martyrs’.
‘Red Rooms’, the drama thriller, is one of my 2024 highlights, but ‘Pandemonium’ is the darkest beast, and ‘MadS’ the most fun.
Great review of this masterpiece. I grew up near Mammoth Cave National Park so it hits extra hard. After Dog Soldiers and this I would have thought Neil Marshall was going to be the next “Horror” director
Oh wow, that's cool. I thought the same which led me to bigger and bigger disappointments as I followed Marshall's career, making mostly mediocre or downright bad films after The Descent. It's a shame. He had great potential but somehow couldn't fully utilize it.
I can totally see how seeing The Descent first and then Dog Soldiers would be a step back and underwhelming. I appreciate it for its different approach to the werewolf sub genre as a siege narrative ala Night of the Living Dead. As a werewolf movie fan we gotta take the good ones when we get ‘em. Some good homages in there. Plus you can see his start and how he would progress with a bigger budget.
Reminds me a bit of seeing where something like Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party started with its low budget, manic, comedic tone to his follow ups of Blue Ruin or Green Room and observing the leap forward in craft.
I get that. I was a huge werewolf movie fan, too. Speaking of which: Have you seen The Wolf of Snow Hollow? It might be the last truly intriguing and out-of-the-box werewolf movie I’ve seen in the past 10 years. It’s also hilarious.
Yeah I recommend for the last 20 min alone. Also has a great poster. Werewolves Within had that fun Clue/Agatha Christy with a werewolf vibe that was better than expected. Holds a special place for me as it’s my daughters favorite werewolf movie and we watched it together. Agreed on Jim Cummings. And he was maybe the best part of a movie I was mixed on..Halloween Kills as the cop (again lol) in the flashback sequence. Excited to see what he does next.
I have and it was awesome! Agreed 100%. The closet in quality I’ve seen to this would be a French werewolf fin called Teddy that was solid. Werewolves Within is fun but pretty light compared to this. But the main character in this being an alcoholic and not being the werewolf himself therefore not the metaphor for addiction was an interesting break from traditions. While also being a pretty harrowing portrait of addiction, obsession, redemption, etc in general. Definitely has that Coen’s dark Fargoesque humor and the sheriff pretty much believing it’s the work of a werewolf very quickly into the story was hilarious. Man, that scene/wide shot of the werewolf facing off with the lady outside her car in the snowy road is just great. The only improvement would be if it leaned more into a Christmas ascetic throughout the movie.
Teddy sounds intriguing, I might check it out. YES, Werewolves Within was a really good time as far as horror comedies go. Not particularly memorable but I remember enjoying its silly humor quite a bit.
And I agree, that scene in Snow Hollow was beautifully shot and I think the movie overall was the confirmation I needed to pay attention to Jim Cummings as a director (Thunder Road is also unique and darkly humorous from him).
Yeah he really only had success with TV/Game of Thrones episodes that I can remember. I wanted to like Tales of Halloween so much but it just didn’t quite get there. But at least we got his first two. Would like to read your opinion on Dog Soldiers!
Yup. He did have some success in TV and directed a few decent episodes in various shows (I’m not a GoT fan so I missed those I think since I’ve only seen the first two seasons, but I noticed his name pop up elsewhere as a director).
Sadly, Dog Soldiers was underwhelming for me. I saw it after The Descent and found it too raw and underdeveloped. A lot of people say that’s exactly what they like about it but for me it just didn’t click, and the screenplay was pretty mediocre as well.
Unfortunately that did not happen. From there it has been downhill since.
Would you consider this one of the greatest horror films of this this century so far?
I absolutely would. Not many horrors came close to being as claustrophobic and perfectly paced as The Descent was. It's one of my all-time favorites.