Staghunters reviews!

One of those movies that is elevated by the cinema experience of it. I think the low droning of Hanging Rock in the very first minutes of the movie had me hooked immediately. I haven't read the novel (yet), but this stands very strongly on it's own as a story about something sudden and strange and tragic striking a relatively small group, but rippling into greater losses.

What exactly happened at Hanging Rock isn't in this film's interest to answer. I'd say it's stronger with the mystery staying "intact" (pun intended). There's enough revealed to make it all the more bizarre of an event, and yet nothing is shown but the briefest glimpses. We, the audience, are just like those outside of this event, on the "safe" side of things. We are here because we did not see behind the rock. Whoever goes to look either forgets risks the same fate.

In all that, it has a very (cosmologically) horror atmosphere. It's mentioned frequently how old the Rock is, and yet how young and alien it is within it's landscape. All this othering trickles down into the group we follow; Sarah's exclusion as an orphan and gay become central to the post-disappearance part of the story. Girls disappear at the Rock, and they vanish in a system once again when you have no use for them. Or tread on dangerous heights.

Maybe the clearest this movie is, is when Irma compares Sarah to a baby deer her father once brought home: sometimes you can see at a glance if someone is doomed.

Great to get the chance to see this on the big screen with a packed theatre, even if the reason for it is sad. It's something that will stick with me for a while, from it's meticulous composition to it's frustrating lack of final puzzle piece (in a good way).

A lot of it requires a "open mind" to the fact that this movie will not make sense all of the time, something that didn't sit well with some people I overheard in the bathroom afterwards. It has the typical Lynchean slapstick and quotes, which make it better rather than worse to me, personally. His films often are about really dark things, yet this doesn't mean that there should be no room for a laugh. The absurdity of real life is just as key to Lynch cinema as his mind-boggling visuals.

Both Naomi and Laura are Amazing in this! They really carry this story with their megawatt disposition and forlorn slouching, and flip it up to a whole new level in that final part of this.

A friend said the scariest bit is the Man behind the Winkie's, and the scene is spooky; I still got all tense even though I'd seen it on a small screen totally out of context before. Whatever the guy there is referring to, though, is fucked up and ties the whole mystery of the movie's main plot together: what if you noticed your dream unfolding in real life? What if it kept following the same beat, and you know the horrible end that is coming. You won't know for sure unless you take a peek around the corner, but can you handle seeing what has always been there?

Wasn't sure what to expect, with how little I know of the OG Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula beyond the stuff that's in popular culture. This may have aided my viewing because I could constantly be surprised by what was going on or going to happen. The trailer, to its credit, doesn't betray anything important of the plot.

I think the only "bad" Eggers experience I've had was The Northman, with the best being The VVitch. This, like The Lighthouse, falls pleasantly in the middle. It has some flaws, but in general has that lovely part of Eggers' charm that he gets creative with his lore and doesn't take too much time to explain it. The exposition bits were sometimes too much, but felt very much like a movie that is taking a lot from its predecessor.

Every actor pulled their weight. There's an amazing Count Orlok, and for being such an effort in the make-up department, I'm still glad they didn't show him too early. The final shot, as jarring in constrast, works exactly because of that. A lot of contrasts also happened in the editing, with very slow tilts and turns being juxtaposed by hard flip-cuts on the perspective we were on. There's so little actual jumpscares for how many I was expecting.

A film!

The disclaimer for this is that I did actually go in with way different expectations of the kind of movie this was going to be. Like, I'm personally more lenient towards vaguely-supernatural thrillers, or straight-up procedural stuff. This was more middle-of-the-road, but in a way that did surprise me!

Another disclaimer that I'm not religious, nor super skeptic. I was raised catholic, did the whole shebang, and now don't really direct myself at anything specific. Maybe I'm more towards the movie's ideal audience for that: I was an objective audience for either party in the movie to win over. I think it speaks of the performances that the Mormons had it! Sister Paxton, you kind, kind, kind soul.

Another great element was the very well-balanced trust this thing had in its audience. Shots linger, or don't, but in general the viewer is given all the information and puzzle pieces they need to figure something out on their own, alongside our protagonists. I think it was a strength that I usually either took for granted, or so rarely saw utilized to its best potential that I'd forgotten all about it. Some parts I figured out, some I didn't, but for all there was a moment that it was called back on by a diegetic element and so nothing was lost. A great safety net that never felt condescending.