stunning harmony of pulpy thrills and heartfelt horror, id be satisfied with either but together they create something extremely singular, visceral, and likely unforgettable for me.

in general i didnt know wan had these kindsa chops in him??? there are cohesive effects achieved across the whole movie, most notably a dollhouse-like spatial playfulness, communicated with way more imagination and varied techniques then the eternally symmetrical and center-frame focus of something theoretically similar like hereditary (which in hindsight im not filmically crazy about). if its not sam raimi levels, its at least carrying enough energy and imagination to not leave the comparison unwarranted...wide-eyed desire to re-establish space by reframing it

im not sure if "scary" is the word i would use, and its not just because of the bonkers tone, the word coming to mind to describe the horror in this is "violating", its setpieces get so much out of helplessness, loss of autonomy, loss of humanity (the one in the bed hit extremely hard considering all the sleep issues and paralysis ive developed in the past year), the amount of MEAT they have on them being wonderfully and thrillingly staged and shot bonkers fun horror while also being Felt and not self-trivializing is incredibly satisfying. almost every moment in this film works on multiple levels, theres always Some wavelength which i can tune to depending on my immediate preferences, and often they overlap. this is obviously most exemplified in That Third Act that everyone was talking about, equal parts thrilling in its formal consideration/genre absurdity as it is incredibly moving , with the loss of autonomy and ultimate clawing back out bringing out a great vulnerability that was already stewing in me. this film genuinely feels every bit as out-of-nowhere and idiosyncratic as when wan debuted with Saw, and though its pandemic release will likely mean it wont have as strong of a ripple effect, its a ripple i'd like to see

(this is 1000% a wonderful conductor for a trans reading, from the nonexistent childhood memories of Something Else dictating the body to said Something resurging from a moment of abuse, some of the details here such as madisons' infertility seem to be almost Intentionally inviting this train of thought. in either case, its incredibly vivid, and its defiant oddness certainly makes it feel fundamentally queer)