La Maison du mal

Dommage que le mal soit, par ses capacités physiques et ses mouvements, si déconnecté de la réalité, alors que le film essaie au contraire de s’y accrocher fermement. Et dommage pour tous ces moments bizarres et mal conçus dans le comportement des personnages ou dans la façon dont ils sont placés de manière générale dans l’enchaînement des scènes. Car sinon, ce « sous-sol de la peur de Holdenfield » manie les clichés du genre d’une manière très intéressante, parvenant à surprendre et à ravir par une cinématographie, un montage et une bande son des plus raffinés. (06/11/2023)

For four fifths of the running time, this was the best horror flick of the year. Beautifully atmospheric, like a walk through a visual horror gallery where pretty much every shot has something going on for it. A weird mum, a weird dad, a weird house; poor boy. It feels like a bizarre, psychotic nightmare about monsters in the family that you can't wake up from. The whole thing is so out of step with the logic of everyday life and behaviour that I felt it had the makings of a future cult-classic with a legion of fans who will return to it fondly. Unfortunately, the ending kind of throws a wrench in the works, and many moments suddenly don't work as they should. Maybe it needed more money for visual effects, or a more experienced editor, I don’t know, but by the end I lost that feeling of full immersion, and in the moments where there was supposed to be a terrifying climax, it was hard for me not to grin in amusement. Not to mention that the hitherto appreciated “dream illogic” becomes, well, just stupid illogic as the story progresses. And please, for the next time, the monster shouldn’t have a long expository monologue. (14/08/2023)

Right behind Evil Dead Rise, the best mainstream horror flick of the year! So far, this year has been weaker with horror films (the second half is more crowded though, so the stats and rankings will hopefully be rehashed), while I was disappointed by this year's dark horses, Boogeyman and Talk to Me both sadly didn't blow me away as I had hoped and wanted, but the excitement came where least expected. Cobweb is a modest but very gratifying horror film that doesn't play with the genre, doesn't have much ambition to bring something fresh, doesn't cross over into art, and doesn't rely on cheap scares either, but it works very well. Its great strengths are the excellent performances of the two parents. Lizzy Caplan is a likeable and skilled actress and Antony Starr is literally the devil again. (just as Ryan Reynolds has been marked by Deadpool, Starr has been marked by Homelander, whom I saw in that demonic mode here, he's a damn fine actor). The first half of the film is admittedly a sort of traditional family kid horror movie, with the boy hearing strange voices from behind walls, being bullied, and his parents acting strange. But it's delivered in such a way that the film manages to hold the viewer's attention. I enjoyed the uncertain and unsettling atmosphere in the air, where you can feel that something evil is about to happen, but you don't really know what or where from. Once the first twist is dealt and the cards are on the table, the film shifts into decent and brutal savagery with attractive kills. The atmosphere is divine, the monster evokes Mama and develops an intriguing plot backdrop, the corpses mount and my enthusiasm only increases. There's guts and decapitation (finally some R-rated mainstream again), though I think the brutality could have been more gory. But as I say, the great craftsmanship, solid actors, decent atmosphere and an action-packed finale make this an engaging horror ride that I thoroughly enjoyed. 85% (15/08/2023)

Except for the two luxurious scares (which had already been seen in the trailer), it wasn't such a WOW movie. It had a rather slow start, a good but somewhat predictable twist, and the ending didn't completely dazzle me either. Nevertheless, it's a decent horror movie, and I don't regret going to see it in the cinema. (15/08/2023)