WiHM, Box Office Retrospective: 2009
Feb. 28th, 2015 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreSince I'm me, I figured it would probably take longer than just the whole of February to get through this project of mine. And here we are, only up to 2009, and it's the last day. So I made a decision: I'm gonna plow ahead and go through 2014 anyway, and we'll see where we end up. Cool? Cool.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $296.6 million
Paranormal Activity - $107.9 million
(Zombieland - $75.6 million)
(The Final Destination - $66.5 million)
(My Bloody Valentine - $51.5 million)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - $45.8 million
The Unborn - $42.7 million
Drag Me to Hell - $42.1 million
Orphan - $41.6 million
(Halloween 2 - $33.4 million)
(The Last House on the Left - $32.7 million)
Finally, some fresh blood! Not much, but it's there in the top end--where it counts. Still not a lot of diversity in the casting, unfortunately, but things are getting . . . interesting.
Paranormal Activity: Technically, this movie came out in 2007, but it wasn't until two years later that the viral marketing campaign really started to pay off. This found-footage franchise currently has five films under its belt, six if you count the unofficial Japanese spin-off, Tokyo Night, and another expected for 2015. I've seen the first four. Each movie has grossed no less than $32 million at the box office, with the first ultimately squeezing a whopping $108 million out of its shoestring budget of $15,000. Once you get past the suspension of disbelief required to stop asking why someone whose life is visibly endangered keeps carrying around their goddamn camera (the static night vision shots are more effective), they're pretty fun. And, unlike many horror franchises, they consistently manage to freak me out and make me not want to sleep. This was the first big break for Blumhouse Productions, brainchild of one Jason Blum, which has since gone on to produce a wide variety of low-budget, original genre films channeled through a much bigger-named distributor in order to gain the widest release possible. I've seen several of them--Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, Dark Skies, Oculus--and in my opinion, they just get better and better. I love Blumhouse movies, and I can't wait to see what they throw at us next.
The Unborn: This movie features a 'dybbuk'--a Jewish demon, more or less, which makes this a Jewish exorcism movie, more or less. I've seen exactly two movies with this kind of monster. This is the good one. (I'll get to the other one later.) It went in a direction I didn't expect though, and really surprised me by how much I enjoyed it once I figured out what it's actually about. I won't spoil it for you, but the mystery is well-paced, the effects are kinda cheesy but at least imaginative, and it has Rabbi Gary Oldman! How can you not love Rabbi Gary Oldman? It's a story about sibling rivalry taken to it's most diabolical extreme. It's not fine art, but it's on the high end of popcorn-horror--and a thematic angle I haven't seen a zillion times before, which is always welcome. I wouldn't call this a "twist" ending exactly, but an intersection of two ideas I never would have thought to put together. It's an original piece of work, and I respect that.
Drag Me To Hell: Full disclosure: I hated this. HATED it. Possibly my expectations were set too high. All my fellow Evil Dead superfans loved it, so I don't know if it's a failing on my part or what, but I was so badly disappointed by this movie, I don't even know where to start. Perhaps it's just that Allison Lohman is woefully miscast here? Horror-slapstick is NOT her thing. But more likely is my own inability to care at all about characters I find morally reprehensible. I mean, when it's not in a fun way. Unrepentant psychopaths--sure. Give me those kinds of characters all day long. But privileged, pretty people making bad choices and expecting me to feel sorry for them when those choices have consequences? Yeah--no. I get what Sam Raimi's trying to do here, and I appreciate the effort, but I just hate all these people. Not being invested in whether or not they actually escape their fate in the end deflates all the suspense and tension for me. Still, it's an original story, not a remake or a sequel, and it brought the silly, slapstick edge back to mainstream horror. I should be glad it exists.
Orphan: This one is just full-out, no-holds-barred awesome. Long live Isabelle Fuhrman. I'm still annoyed she didn't get a bigger part in The Hunger Games. I've yet to test its rewatch value, however, because this is one of those rare stories that really does not look the same after you figure out what's going on. Some films just aren't the same film you thought you were watching after the reveal, and I'm curious how this holds up. Still, the real meat of it hangs on the performances of the stellar cast, including Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and little Aryana Engineer--all of eight years old (!!!) when this came out. Regardless of what you think you know about "Esther" and her secret, the film works because of how hard they sell it. You know something weird is going on there, something dangerous, and the layers of subtext and secrecy that get peeled back one by one until the conclusion are what keep you watching. And again, another original story that made it to the top of the pile, with audience and critical praise to boot--well done, team.
Last House on the Left: I haven't seen Wes Craven's original "video nasty," or this remake, but I am utterly fascinated by the history behind it. The Craven film isn't the first--it's a modern reimagining of an Ingmar Bergman film called The Virgin Spring, which is itself a cinematic adaptation of a 12th century Swedish ballad called "Töre's daughters in Vänge." Apart from Grimm's fairy tales, what other horror story has a pedigree like that? More importantly--why this story? Why, after hundreds of years, do audiences still want to see this ugly fable repeat itself over and over? Possibly because this exact sort of story repeats in real life, no matter how many centuries pass, and we have a desire to see revenge taken against the people responsible, even if it's only on film? Those are the questions I ask when I think of Last House on the Left, and where it came from. One day I might actually, y'know, watch the movie(s), but honestly this one might be a bit much for me. I lean towards the remake for one very simple, but important reason: the girl lives.
Honorable Mention: The Uninvited - $28.6 million
This is a remake of my very favorite Korean horror movie, A Tale of Two Sisters. It has a similar twist but a wildly different payoff and resolution. Also, if The Messengers was a hair too late getting on the Asian horror tropes bandwagon, this one waited just long enough to make those tropes feel fresh and interesting again. Since I'm so close to the original, I was skeptical, and took my sweet time finally checking it out. I was pleasantly surprised. It's not the most groundbreaking plot I've seen, but creates a convincingly claustrophobic atmosphere. Even if you can spot the twist coming a mile off (You, the one who can spot twists coming a mile off, did you guess this one? Just curious.), the characters feel real enough that the reveal hurts. Plus, if you're in the mood to see Emily Browning play a character who's not constantly victimized by creepy, older men, this is pretty much your only option. Bless her heart.
So, we seem to have not only a wealth of truly original stories here--and this isn't even counting stuff that didn't make the cut, like Jennifer's Body and Thirst and Dead Snow--but an emphasis on "twist" endings that I honestly did not expect. So here's a question: when is a movie only as good as its ending? Are you the kind of moviegoer who likes to watch things over and over, like me? Or do you feel satisfied having only gone through it the one time? If you do like rewatching, does knowing the ending beforehand make the rewatch more interesting, or less? If you're the kind of person who's good at guessing twists, does it "ruin" the ending for you, or do you still feel like you get something out of it?
Curious minds want to know! Tell me your thoughts in the comments, and I will see you in March with 2010!
The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $296.6 million
Paranormal Activity - $107.9 million
(Zombieland - $75.6 million)
(The Final Destination - $66.5 million)
(My Bloody Valentine - $51.5 million)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - $45.8 million
The Unborn - $42.7 million
Drag Me to Hell - $42.1 million
Orphan - $41.6 million
(Halloween 2 - $33.4 million)
(The Last House on the Left - $32.7 million)
Finally, some fresh blood! Not much, but it's there in the top end--where it counts. Still not a lot of diversity in the casting, unfortunately, but things are getting . . . interesting.
Paranormal Activity: Technically, this movie came out in 2007, but it wasn't until two years later that the viral marketing campaign really started to pay off. This found-footage franchise currently has five films under its belt, six if you count the unofficial Japanese spin-off, Tokyo Night, and another expected for 2015. I've seen the first four. Each movie has grossed no less than $32 million at the box office, with the first ultimately squeezing a whopping $108 million out of its shoestring budget of $15,000. Once you get past the suspension of disbelief required to stop asking why someone whose life is visibly endangered keeps carrying around their goddamn camera (the static night vision shots are more effective), they're pretty fun. And, unlike many horror franchises, they consistently manage to freak me out and make me not want to sleep. This was the first big break for Blumhouse Productions, brainchild of one Jason Blum, which has since gone on to produce a wide variety of low-budget, original genre films channeled through a much bigger-named distributor in order to gain the widest release possible. I've seen several of them--Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, Dark Skies, Oculus--and in my opinion, they just get better and better. I love Blumhouse movies, and I can't wait to see what they throw at us next.
The Unborn: This movie features a 'dybbuk'--a Jewish demon, more or less, which makes this a Jewish exorcism movie, more or less. I've seen exactly two movies with this kind of monster. This is the good one. (I'll get to the other one later.) It went in a direction I didn't expect though, and really surprised me by how much I enjoyed it once I figured out what it's actually about. I won't spoil it for you, but the mystery is well-paced, the effects are kinda cheesy but at least imaginative, and it has Rabbi Gary Oldman! How can you not love Rabbi Gary Oldman? It's a story about sibling rivalry taken to it's most diabolical extreme. It's not fine art, but it's on the high end of popcorn-horror--and a thematic angle I haven't seen a zillion times before, which is always welcome. I wouldn't call this a "twist" ending exactly, but an intersection of two ideas I never would have thought to put together. It's an original piece of work, and I respect that.
Drag Me To Hell: Full disclosure: I hated this. HATED it. Possibly my expectations were set too high. All my fellow Evil Dead superfans loved it, so I don't know if it's a failing on my part or what, but I was so badly disappointed by this movie, I don't even know where to start. Perhaps it's just that Allison Lohman is woefully miscast here? Horror-slapstick is NOT her thing. But more likely is my own inability to care at all about characters I find morally reprehensible. I mean, when it's not in a fun way. Unrepentant psychopaths--sure. Give me those kinds of characters all day long. But privileged, pretty people making bad choices and expecting me to feel sorry for them when those choices have consequences? Yeah--no. I get what Sam Raimi's trying to do here, and I appreciate the effort, but I just hate all these people. Not being invested in whether or not they actually escape their fate in the end deflates all the suspense and tension for me. Still, it's an original story, not a remake or a sequel, and it brought the silly, slapstick edge back to mainstream horror. I should be glad it exists.
Orphan: This one is just full-out, no-holds-barred awesome. Long live Isabelle Fuhrman. I'm still annoyed she didn't get a bigger part in The Hunger Games. I've yet to test its rewatch value, however, because this is one of those rare stories that really does not look the same after you figure out what's going on. Some films just aren't the same film you thought you were watching after the reveal, and I'm curious how this holds up. Still, the real meat of it hangs on the performances of the stellar cast, including Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, and little Aryana Engineer--all of eight years old (!!!) when this came out. Regardless of what you think you know about "Esther" and her secret, the film works because of how hard they sell it. You know something weird is going on there, something dangerous, and the layers of subtext and secrecy that get peeled back one by one until the conclusion are what keep you watching. And again, another original story that made it to the top of the pile, with audience and critical praise to boot--well done, team.
Last House on the Left: I haven't seen Wes Craven's original "video nasty," or this remake, but I am utterly fascinated by the history behind it. The Craven film isn't the first--it's a modern reimagining of an Ingmar Bergman film called The Virgin Spring, which is itself a cinematic adaptation of a 12th century Swedish ballad called "Töre's daughters in Vänge." Apart from Grimm's fairy tales, what other horror story has a pedigree like that? More importantly--why this story? Why, after hundreds of years, do audiences still want to see this ugly fable repeat itself over and over? Possibly because this exact sort of story repeats in real life, no matter how many centuries pass, and we have a desire to see revenge taken against the people responsible, even if it's only on film? Those are the questions I ask when I think of Last House on the Left, and where it came from. One day I might actually, y'know, watch the movie(s), but honestly this one might be a bit much for me. I lean towards the remake for one very simple, but important reason: the girl lives.
Honorable Mention: The Uninvited - $28.6 million
This is a remake of my very favorite Korean horror movie, A Tale of Two Sisters. It has a similar twist but a wildly different payoff and resolution. Also, if The Messengers was a hair too late getting on the Asian horror tropes bandwagon, this one waited just long enough to make those tropes feel fresh and interesting again. Since I'm so close to the original, I was skeptical, and took my sweet time finally checking it out. I was pleasantly surprised. It's not the most groundbreaking plot I've seen, but creates a convincingly claustrophobic atmosphere. Even if you can spot the twist coming a mile off (You, the one who can spot twists coming a mile off, did you guess this one? Just curious.), the characters feel real enough that the reveal hurts. Plus, if you're in the mood to see Emily Browning play a character who's not constantly victimized by creepy, older men, this is pretty much your only option. Bless her heart.
So, we seem to have not only a wealth of truly original stories here--and this isn't even counting stuff that didn't make the cut, like Jennifer's Body and Thirst and Dead Snow--but an emphasis on "twist" endings that I honestly did not expect. So here's a question: when is a movie only as good as its ending? Are you the kind of moviegoer who likes to watch things over and over, like me? Or do you feel satisfied having only gone through it the one time? If you do like rewatching, does knowing the ending beforehand make the rewatch more interesting, or less? If you're the kind of person who's good at guessing twists, does it "ruin" the ending for you, or do you still feel like you get something out of it?
Curious minds want to know! Tell me your thoughts in the comments, and I will see you in March with 2010!
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no subject
Date: 2015-03-02 03:49 am (UTC)The only thing I remember about 'Drag Me To Hell' was being sad that Bruce Campbell never showed up. I had no strong feelings towards it either way.
And my lasting impression of 'Paranormal Activity' was the "if these people had cats, they would have never known their house was haunted. They would have just kept sleeping."
no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 04:24 pm (UTC)The only thing I remember about 'Drag Me To Hell' was being sad that Bruce Campbell never showed up.
YES, that too! Ugh! He's supposed to cameo in all of Sam Raimi's movies, right? Ah well. At least we have the Evil Dead mini-series to look forward to.
And my lasting impression of 'Paranormal Activity' was the "if these people had cats, they would have never known their house was haunted. They would have just kept sleeping."
LOL. Indeed.