It's been funny to see the relentless hype machine that has formed up around Chronicle, with some internet forums abuzz at the films early 100% Rotten Tomatoes meter. Of course, at the time it only had six reviews to its credit, but it's still holding pretty solid in the 80s, so hopefully it'll wind up actually being worth a trip to the theaters. Who'd have thought that there would be at least three movies in the early part of the year that I'd want to see (with The Grey and Haywire still calling me to the theater), despite not having to review them?
If you're in the mood for spooks and scares, The Woman In Black might be up your alley, but I cannot ever recommend that you see a scary film on the opening weekend, given that most young audiences tend to treat scary films as less a moviegoing experience than some kind of interactive game or a karaoke session or something. Come back next week and you'll likely be happier.
What are you going to see this weekend?
 | 1. Chronicle This looks to be a fine found-footage film, with some remarkably good reviews, so here's hoping that the lingering aftertaste of The Devil Inside doesn't prevent people from coming out. |
 | 2. The Woman in Black This is a film filled with creeping dread, without much music and a lot of long buildups to its scares. So, of course, the audiences who flock to it this weekend will fill the theater with laughter, talking, and the incessant rattling of popcorn bags. Go next week sometime. |
 | 3. Big Miracle Good? Bad? I'm the guy who's not going to review this. Instead, I think I'll try to catch Coriolanus or A Separation this weekend sometime. |
 | 4. The Innkeepers Ti West's latest is getting good reviews, but not-so-great word of mouth from people who've seen it. That's a fair number of people, too, considering it's been On Demand for a while now. 25 screens. |
 | 5. Kill List This British indie is likewise reviewing well, even if its trailer did little to tell me anything more than that it was about a hitman with a family. 2 screens. |
 | 6. W.E. Madonna's second directorial effort coincidentally gets released during Super Bowl weekend, where she'll be the halftime show. This is totally a coincidence, you guys. |
 | 7. Perfect Sense "A chef and a scientist fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions." Well, it can't be any more depressing than Blindness. |
I don't understand why everyone on Screen has to jump off family films like Dolphin Tale and Big Miracle, and not review them. Like their torture or anything (which they aren't). Both of those films received very good reviews (Dolphin Tale especially, which was also a hit).
Anyway the Devil's Inside may have been a mess, but it still made money.
I'm going to go see 'The Woman in Black' as the NYT review was positive, but I'm going at 11:30 AM, so it'll just be me and the retirement community set
I'm slightly interested in The Woman in Black. Looks like it's extremely traditional but I can get down with some creepy ghost stories now and then. Some decent atmosphere in the trailers. I would hate to go to this opening weekend. So many Harry Potter fan girls squealing at the slightest thing. Fuck that. I'll wait for it to come to home video or Netflix.
The Innkeepers looks like one of those stupid ghost hunting TV shows made into a movie.
I don't like found footage movies. The whole concept bugs the crap out of me for some reason.
I want to think Chronicle will be good, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like it. Or rather, I don't think it's what I'm going to want out of the movie. I'd love to see either an evil-wins-and-world-goes-to-shit scenario a la Irredeemable or a final battle that sets up for that in a sequel, but I just know it's not going to happen, because movies just aren't made like that.
I'm glad I don't like horror movies, so I don't have to deal with crummy audiences ruining them for me.
Chronicle looks alright but the of the weekend seems alright; Perfect Sense seems alright as does Woman in Black.
Kill List however, I've heard great things about. When I saw the trailer at first it just seemed like a movie about a hitman with a conscious but after reading some comments about it being an amazing horror movie, it really peaked my interest and after watching the trailer again some of those horror elements began to show.
A Separation was pretty fantastic and this is coming from a person who doesn't like many foreign movies. I do hope that you get to go see Coriolanus because I would love to read more about it.
@Manitou said:
Same here, though part of that is because most of them are horror movies and I don't like horror much either. But mostly what bugs me about found footage stuff is the way it's shot to look like a random person with a camera filmed it. I get that it's sort of the point, but the shaky camera, and the way they have stuff happening off screen just puts me off. If I wanted to watch found footage, I'd watch a home movie from my childhood or something.
That being said, I'm actually interested in Chronicle. Maybe because the trailer doesn't make it look much like a found footage film, except for the fact that they acknowledge there's someone behind the camera.
I'm amazed that Chronicle is getting such positive reviews because the trailer made it look like I am Number Four: theShaky-cam version. I'm pleased to hear that my preconceptions were wrong. Who doesn't like a good teenagers with superpowers movie?
Chronicle looks pretty damn cool, I'm intrigued.
i stand by my thoughts on Chronicle looks bad based on the trailers. Like the Convenant or some shit. I'll have to see why I'm wrong when it comes out to rent. In the mean time, I think The Woman in Black looks good. The other ghost movie, Innkeepers, on the other hand was bad. I liked the House of the Devil too. But Innkeepers is even more build up than that movie with a much worse pay off.
I want to watch Chronicles.
I'm pretty stoked that Chronicle turned out good. I'm not gonna be able to see it for some time, but I'd rather have a new story than the junky Akira remake. Chronicle makes some pretty direct parallels, but it looks exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing it whenever the opportunity arises.
As for The Woman in Black, I'm impressed that it's good as well. I'm not sure why it looked so middle-of-the-road problematic to me, but a decent horror movie with some good scares is a leg up above the rest of the genre, especially these days.