Jeremy Allen White has a commanding presence. Whether he’s the troubled but brilliant New York chef Carmy Berzatto in FX’s The Bear or the successful but haunted professional wrestler Kerry Von Erich in The Iron Claw, Allen shows how to make his character the one that you can’t take your eyes off of in each scene. Before his recent success and recognition from this show and movie, Allen was known for his recurring role on Showtime’s Shameless. During the show’s decade-long run, White was carving out a name for himself on the big screen during that time with critically acclaimed but mostly unseen Afterschool, We Gotta Get Out of This Place Bobby, and co-directors Hannah Marks (Don’t Make Me Go, Turtles All the Way Down) and Joey Power’s romantic dramedy After Everything.
Category Archives: Maika Monroe
Watcher (2022)
Watcher is a movie that falls into one of two categories. It is either a movie you’ve never heard of, or it’s one you’ve not only heard of but have probably seen. Chloe Okuno’s (V/H/S/94, screenwriter of Bodies Bodies Bodies) revered, suspenseful stalker film already has a cult following among the “this could happen to you” film buffs. It is undoubtedly a film that needs to be watched in the right environment (dark, quiet, isolated) to hit on one of humanity’s most innate fears, the unnerving feeling of being followed. It also needs time to develop. That’s not so much to say that it is a slow burn as much as it is an “it won’t hit on all cylinders” if you aren’t willing to go all-in with it from the opening credits.
It Follows (2015)
Total creep-fest. 2015 was looking for a legitimate horror. While this movie has completely flown under the radar for the general public, word of mouth has allowed the independent It Follows to become a cult classic quickly. Not only is this the best horror movie of 2015, but it is also the best horror movie in years. Honestly, the feeling that I got while watching this movie was what I expected to feel in, perhaps, the most over-hyped horror movie of all time, 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. When I saw The Blair Witch Project in the theater, I was expecting to be scared in ways that I had been before. I know that a few of the friends I went with were completely freaked out, and I wondered if we had just watched the same movie. The Blair Witch Project is a different type of horror than A Nightmare on Elm Street. I think that perhaps as a 23-year-old, I hadn’t yet adapted to the idea that what you might imagine could be even more terrifying than what you actually see. I’ve mentioned on this blog a couple of times that I need to go back and watch The Blair Witch Project just to see if I view it the same way that I did 16 years ago. By looking at its 87% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m willing to admit that I am probably missing something when I give it a grade of a D-. But this is neither here nor there. It Follows is much more like The Blair Witch Project than A Nightmare on Elm Street. Its 96% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes is very much on par with my view of the movie. It Follows is an instant horror classic.
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