annie c

A warning before you read: this review might have spoilers. This movie was SO BRILLIANT. I could NOT get over the plot twists, nor could I get over the music. Joseph Bishara's musical scores for this movie had me tied into this whole movie. His musical scores contain lots of haunting themes; a combination of viola and saxophone, as well as drums, making up a weird jazz ensemble. After reading a bit more about how Bishara organized the music for the movie after viewing it, I fell more in love. The use of string instruments to make the scores more haunting amazed the hell out of me while viewing this movie. As I watched this movie, I could tell that the more "calm" scenes used a lot of orchestral instruments, such as a trumpet, viola, saxophone, drums, and violin. The more "intense" scenes used a lot of electronic and faster-paced music. You can hear the crescendoes leading up to what occurs in each of the "chase" and "murder" scenes. The use of the female soprano voice to tie in the main character to each musical score she was in was also very brilliant. They even seemed to use this female soprano voice to help bring in Gabriel. I really enjoyed this film because I love to pull apart musical scores and figure out what I can hear. Further analyzing scores in movies like this is super entertaining. Now, enough about music. The way the scenes were shot was amazing. The reveal to us finding out what truly was going on was dramatized which I liked. I enjoyed the close-up shots when Gabriel was revealed. I couldn't get over the way this movie was done. I didn't get scared until some of the gory scenes but other than that, I kept commentating on the way the scenes were filmed as I viewed the film. I loved the birds-eye view shots when the main character Madison was running through her house to lock all of the doors and putting in the deadbolts. James Wan's directing and story writing definitely had me hooked throughout this film. I think that this movie is going to be at the #1 spot for horror movies in 2021 for a few months.