80 minutes in and another 10 to go.. and there has been no gore. Yet. And I like it. I’ve already made up my mind about this movie.
Carrying a movie with little dialogue, facial expressions and playing on our most primal fears makes for an effectively scary film. And one of the most effective strategies is the fact that we really don’t know what is going on until about the 50 minute mark when things start to get a little Wolf Creek. It’s up to us to let our minds wander to the worst-case-scenario; one of the most effective techniques in fear.
Since horror films really hit their peak in the 70s and 80s, it’s interesting to see that this film was shot with 16mm - popular in the 80s. The colours, fashion, style and 80s references are absolutely awesome. Ti West, the filmmaker has completely committed to making a retro-style movie. I absolutely loathe the films that have a retro look and feel, only for postmodernism purposes and nothing more.
Creep out accomplished.