There's something weirdly admirable in this gross little horror movie coming out one month after big action movie SHOCK WAVE and one before romance 77 HEARTBREAKS, with Hong Kong workhorse Herman Yau directing (and Erica Li Man writing) all of them. Add that to the sheer scale of star Anthony Wong's credits, and that is some crazy studio system guys making movies like it's a clock-punching job.
That may not be the best way to make every movie worthwhile, obviously,…
Not sure whether this is better than expected because I generally wind up disliking Yorgos Lanthimos on balance or better than expected because the trailers were entertaining. It winds up feeling like someone went in mistaking cruelty for depth and fisheye lenses for being visually interesting.
A nifty, disorienting sort of horror movie which has the neat idea of combining hypnosis and possession, creating a sense of lack of control and disconnection that many other films like this lack. It's a fascinating way to make what seems very small into something tremendously tense.
It's an unnerving look, too, shot on 16mm in brutalist, run-down locations, with tons of smoke that makes a room both claustrophobic and infinite. The sound is peculiar and synth-y, too loud and out of sync, but it fits, even if it is also often very jarring.
When people who don't like horror movies in general ask those who do how they can enjoy that sort of garbage, they're talking about movies like "Killing Ground". With the good stuff, you can talk about nightmare imagery, stories which allow you to confront fears directly or metaphorically, or just admiring the staging and choreography of a suspenseful scene and the catharsis that comes afterward with the good ones, but sometimes, even with good intentions, a movie is just serving…
