J S

I never read the book, I wasn't even aware there was one. The "plot" was so odd and disjointed I can't imagine how the book was written. Most of these deeper movies have some sort of actual storyline but this was more like "Two sad, whiny know-it-alls go on a trip to visit one's parents and they're all delusional. There was singing. Roll credits." Maybe it would make more sense in conjunction with the book, but usually if you need one to bolster the other it's not very good in my opinion. There shouldn't be a need to cross reference two or more artistic works to make something click. Each item should stand alone and say the same or similar things. The acting and lighting and set, however, were all great. Basically everything else about this movie was beautiful.

The plot made sense, but it's been done to death really. Maybe giving the villains more depth would've helped. A different perspective instead of just one dimension would've added a nice touch to the horror. Seeing their normalcy in the real world and then their psycho racist abusive side in the Antebellum world I think would've been more interesting and sobering. You could tell Jena Malone was meant to be a villainess from the time her face hit the screen and she uttered that first super fake southern drawl. It would have been more interesting if she was more like wishy-washy similar to Serena Joy in The Handmaid's Tale. Is she bad? Is she conflicted? Can she be used/manipulated for good even if she is 100% bad? I actually did enjoy how the twist was revealed and everything merged together for the rest of the film, but the villains were just really flat and offensive to me. Their accents and dialogue were too stereotypically try-hard and, frankly, so was the heroine (in scenes prior to the kidnapping). They were all very plastic and shiny stereotypes prepackaged for convenience. A regular suburban soccer mom heroine would've probably been a better focus choice than making her an already established famous author and strong activist. Someone who wouldn't be missed as easily by the masses and searched for as hard by the police and media upon becoming a missing person. Something more realistic. Yes the occasional missing soccer mom gets huge media in real life, but an African-American soccer mom? Not so much. I pretty well expected some disappointment when I decided to watch it. They were all too beautiful, even the kidnapped folks being treated as slaves were gorgeous folks when we all know they would've been absolutely filthy under the given circumstances. Being forced to live under antebellum hygiene standards alone would've made them already pretty gross then add how they were treated and worked, while their captors had the convenience of being able to leave freely to bathe normally. Maybe the director/costume & makeup designers feared the contrast would've given away the twist sooner? Either way, EVERYONE was just too attractive on both sides.

You have to take each movie and grade it based on what it is. You can't compare apples and oranges as far as taste and appearance goes, so for what this movie is: it's perfect. Part thriller and part social media satirical comedy? What's not to love? It's intentionally campy and the gore is cheesy. FOR WHAT IT IS this movie is amazing. Just shy of Natural Born Killers, but in a similar vein. If that makes sense.

Nothing earth shattering, but it does what it intends to do. Pretty predictable with some subtle funny dialogue (i.e. the peach predicament and the guy who didn't want to wear the hospital gown). I must confess that I'm a sucker for the 40s-50s old model cars, clothes and colors style. I still firmly believe Pushing Daisies didn't get a fair shake, a colorful bedtime story style show from around 2008. BUT I DIGRESS... Ratched is basically another AHS season. I don't merely say that because they have actors in common, but the plot as well. It's a little more plucky and less dark than AHS in my opinion. It works for a cold rainy day in.

As someone from a podunk town full of similar characters, this seems pretty accurate on the religious themes. I've personally met predatory preachers, zany zealots, regular true believers, naive true believers as well as nonbelievers all at the same potluck supper. The characters are believable as far as their struggles and mannerisms. Some accents seem a little off, but not really far off. It's not the most atrocious depiction of the accents I've witnessed in film. I like how the characters are all related to each other, the narrator was sort of odd sometimes but about 70% of his narration was needed when switching from storyline to storyline. Some of it was too much, we can see the girl trying to pull the noose off and falling. He could've just stopped at relaying her final thoughts. I'm fine with the plot. It made sense to me. I see some people not understanding Roy's resurrection scene, but the man was already a little loopy at the start and he had just spent time locked in a closet having fever dreams from a spider bite. Probably thought he heard God tell him to give resurrection a try at some point during. And the dad sacrificing the dog was full PTSD-mode mixed with heavy religious influences (not to mention the alcoholic influences from the prior scene where he got the idea in the first place). Overall, it was pretty slow paced but hey so is life in a podunk town. I can't be too mad at it. It was still an entertaining movie. I'm not mad at the main character becoming a killer, 3 in 4 of his victims were self defense anyways. The first was retribution and well-deserved on the preacher's part. There were some good one-liners, but maybe that's because I've got a darker sense of humor. This movie had it all for me: darkness, a few chuckles and a guffaw, and a "Hell yeah!" or two, beautiful visuals. Like I said, I can't be mad at it.