Aidan Hamilton

I’ll preface this with the fact I haven’t read the book, although my sister who I saw this with did and she agrees with me anyway. Honestly kind of baffled by the largely positive response this movie has gotten. I am a fan of Del Toro’s, but I think this is his worst movie that I’ve seen of his. I guess I’ll start with the obvious main point of any scary movie- to be scary. I’m a fan of horror movies as a whole, but this was a let down. There was one scene in the whole movie that I found to be actually genuinely scary, which was tainted by the conclusion of said scene. (This is the Red Room scene, for those of you who have seen it). Other than that, the movie seems to rely on jump scares too much, and to be honest I didn’t even jump to several of them. The monster designs are good, of course. They’re typical Del Toro fashion. But I couldn’t help but not be scared by all but one of them. It was a huge disappointment as during the boring first act, I was really hoping the scares would elevate the movie quite a bit. They really didn’t. Speaking of that boring first act, and the movie as a whole, it’s chock full of cliche and exposition-heavy dialogue. I rolled my eyes during certain lines because I thought “no one would actually say this unless they knew they had to fill an audience in on some information”. I’m mainly referring to the bit where the main character’s mom walked out on her family in the past. What was so jarring is that this setup didn’t culminate into anything. She never grows past this abandonment issue, nor does it really seem to be a major factor in her decisions throughout the movie. I also noticed something after exiting the theatre. The kid’s stories aren’t tailored to that specific person in anyway beyond “this is a story that used to scare me as a kid”. There’s no thematic tie between the monster hunting the kid and the kid’s fears, or anything like that. The most it does in this aspect is “this monster used to scare me because I heard this story when I was a kid”. For example, for those that have seen the movie, (so spoilers) The “big toe” story had zero connection to the kid’s anxiousness or anything that defined his character. I could be missing something, but it seemed so disjointed. I feel a thematic link to each kid’s character would have improved the monster in each of their stories, akin to how “It” preys on the victims specific fears. I’m not suggesting completely ripping off the concept of “It”, but it seemed like it was lacking something. Even when there was a bit of a link, it seemed shoehorned in. (Spoilers) Why was the disembodied monster screaming at Ramone, “coward!”. It didn’t connect to the monsters design or actions at all. In short, I felt the movie was desperately lacking something more to say. It seemed like scares for scares sake, when the best horror movies out there run with a very specific fear and how it affects our characters. This movie seemed to lack that, and relied on mediocre scares for the majority of the film. Also, the score is not memorable. For some good things, the monster designs are good, especially the “red room” lady in the hospital. The acting is inconsistent, but can be good at times. I also liked how the ending didn’t chicken out and do the very predictable “everybody’s back at the end” idea. Del toro is an expert with color and this shines through in specific scenes. In conclusion, it’s not a movie I’d recommend. Largely boring and not very memorable. It’s got it’s moments, but overall not very enjoyable.