Archie
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Eraserhead son or Inland Empire daughter?
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Post by Archie on Sept 19, 2018 15:09:50 GMT
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Sept 19, 2018 16:22:51 GMT
I'm very intrigued.
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Archie
Based
Eraserhead son or Inland Empire daughter?
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Post by Archie on Oct 13, 2018 16:50:55 GMT
Anyone watching this?
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LaraQ
Badass
English Rose
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Post by LaraQ on Oct 16, 2018 20:49:54 GMT
Just finished this.Found it surprisingly moving.Yes it's a show about a haunted house but it's also a study of grief and loss.Entire cast is great too, especially Carla Gugino and Victoria Pedretti.
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Post by Pavan on Oct 17, 2018 6:20:33 GMT
Just finished this.Found it surprisingly moving.Yes it's a show about a haunted house but it's also a study of grief and loss.Entire cast is great too, especially Carla Gugino and Victoria Pedretti. What about the atmospherics? Is it scary?
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LaraQ
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English Rose
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Post by LaraQ on Oct 17, 2018 11:36:36 GMT
Just finished this.Found it surprisingly moving.Yes it's a show about a haunted house but it's also a study of grief and loss.Entire cast is great too, especially Carla Gugino and Victoria Pedretti. What about the atmospherics? Is it scary? It's properly scary but there's a lot more too it than that.One of the best shows of the year imo.
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Post by Mattsby on Oct 17, 2018 20:52:09 GMT
Finished whole thing. I haven't read the Shirley Jackson book (which is annoying cus I consider myself a fan) but it seems the show is vastly different, its own thing. Mike Flanagan helming every ep is a feat - this is like 10 hours of sustained horror. It feels like a mix between The Conjuring and his own Oculus, which is a shockingly clever film. I'm a big fan of his Ouija Origin of Evil, also liked to a lesser extent Hush. Gerald's Game is well acted but awkwardly heavy-handed, and Before I Wake was okay until the painfully stupid twist. First of all, the casting here is questionably uninspired. Hutton is playing an older version of Henry Thomas and they look about the same age so that was a head scratcher. The kids actually do a really good job, the adults are all fine but nothing special. There's no shortage of scares - I have friends who've already binged the show and loved it. I liked it....until the last few eps. It peaks at ep6 which is an excellent episode; production had over a month off so Flanagan could block the scenes and rehearse with stand-ins and then the actors. I mean the first shot is an elaborate, era-shifting 18 min shot - you just don't see that on "TV" or studio horrors. The soundstages, speaking of 'em, are used quite effectively in terms of design and color and creating space. There's a lot to admire, kind of, from props (those doorknobs) to some of the character traits - for ex, how the lesbian sister (even though this seemingly crucial detail is underused) casually has superpowers But those last few eps, was it 7 thru 10 (watched it in two-sittings so it all kinda blends together): It all just becomes overly melodramatic, with one teary monologue after another, narratively overcooked, and ultimately soft. At the start, the show is impressively unsparingly violent..... but by the end, after a lot of crying and confessing and hugging, and that cringe final line, it becomes this alls-well thing and I know it's commenting on family struggle and grief but it felt, to me, too pressed and plated.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2018 1:23:37 GMT
She is so great in everything - one of the hardest working actors in the business. With her looks and talent, it's strange that she never really ascended, right?
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LaraQ
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English Rose
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Post by LaraQ on Oct 18, 2018 11:39:27 GMT
She is so great in everything - one of the hardest working actors in the business. With her looks and talent, it's strange that she never really ascended, right? She should've been a big star,it's inexplicable that she isn't.
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Post by wilcinema on Oct 18, 2018 21:32:44 GMT
I'm at episode 6 and I'm honestly shocked by how good this show is. This last episode was absolutely phenomenal.
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Post by wilcinema on Oct 19, 2018 20:48:40 GMT
I just finished it, and yes it has its flaws, but it has so many virtues too. This is the show of the year.
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Oct 20, 2018 3:21:33 GMT
Finished first 5 episodes and man oh man Victoria Pedretti rocks! And it's her first acting gig 🙌🙌🙌
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LaraQ
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English Rose
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Post by LaraQ on Oct 20, 2018 13:01:41 GMT
Finished first 5 episodes and man oh man Victoria Pedretti rocks! And it's her first acting gig 🙌🙌🙌 She was the real standout for me.
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Oct 22, 2018 6:51:41 GMT
I think some of the episodes were VERY boring with unnecessary, neverending monologues every other scene but having completed the entire season now, I can't stop thinking about it. And the more I think of it, the more I admire how refreshingly different it tried to be and not your typical haunted house horror. Even the jump scares were pretty effective. Episode 5 and 6 is some of the best things I've seen this year. Excellent direction. Emmys don't mean shit to me but I hope Mike Flanagan gets recognized in some way for this. And the cast is probably the best ensemble one could've asked for with every single one of them giving their best. My favorites were Gugino and Pedretti though. Both played such complex characters so beautifully. Hard to believe Pedretti hasn't been in anything before. Such a talent and I hope she has a great role in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Can't wait to see her go big. But all the other cast are fantastic including the wonderful (and oh so cute) child actors. Overall, this show could have been cut short a bit (esp. Ep 8 and 4) but it's one of the most thought-provoking shows out there and certainly very very well made. And so beautiful to look at. I obviously couldn't dare to see it alone, so saw it with all my roommates. One of them loathed it, other 2 liked/okayed it and one loved it. So yeah, kinda surprised with the unanimous love it's been getting but good for them
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Oct 23, 2018 23:56:08 GMT
Quite possibly the most boring family drama I've ever seen. The drama is so forced and manufactured, overlong and uninteresting. Mike Flanagan expects the viewers to care because he does... This could be an interesting two hour film but it does not excuse it's 10 hour run time. There simply isn't enough meat here. The cinematography, production values and atmosphere is quite nice. I'm not crazy about the cast Victoria Pedretti is easily the standout and the kids sometimes have their moments but mostly the acting doesn't feel very deep. Fun Russ Tamblyn cameo though. It doesn't have much in common with Shirley Jackson's source material and would have worked best if called something else. I'm up on episode 6 and am thinking about quitting now, I don't think it's engaging enough, hasn't lived up to it's potential, has really poor pacing and is lacking in scares and tension.
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Post by harlequinade on Oct 24, 2018 15:05:54 GMT
Episode 5 twist is one of the best I've ever seen. LOVED the show
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Post by quetee on Oct 24, 2018 16:11:47 GMT
Quite possibly the most boring family drama I've ever seen. The drama is so forced and manufactured, overlong and uninteresting. Mike Flanagan expects the viewers to care because he does... This could be an interesting two hour film but it does not excuse it's 10 hour run time. There simply isn't enough meat here. The cinematography, production values and atmosphere is quite nice. I'm not crazy about the cast Victoria Pedretti is easily the standout and the kids sometimes have their moments but mostly the acting doesn't feel very deep. Fun Russ Tamblyn cameo though. It doesn't have much in common with Shirley Jackson's source material and would have worked best if called something else. I'm up on episode 6 and am thinking about quitting now, I don't think it's engaging enough, hasn't lived up to it's potential, has really poor pacing and is lacking in scares and tension. so they just used the title? Figured as much. I think I'll pass.looks boring.
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jakob
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Post by jakob on Oct 26, 2018 8:05:01 GMT
I really liked this show...
but is it just me or does anyone else think that’s Michiel Huisman is just not a good actor, or at least his American accent sounds really forced (almost like its dubbed with a cartoon voice actor). I know that’s just his voice, but I’ve heard him speak in English and his native Dutch and his English just comes off so hollow and practiced. He also does a lot of yelling with his voice but not using his facial muscles to evoke any expression. I don’t know, he’s just an actor I don’t get. Also, unlike his sister characters on the show, he looks nothing like his child version.
I’ve liked Flanagan making good use out of his regulars Reiser, Thomas, Gugino, Wilson, Siegel, etc. but I wish he would start being a little more ambitious with his casting (at least he’s got McGregor and Ferguson next). Using only his recycled B-actors (harsh term, I know) will only keep his projects feeing small. And as whoever pointed out above, Henry Thomas and Timothy Hutton are only 10 years apart. Don’t cast Thomas as “the young version” Dad, he’s almost 50. He’s good in this, but either age makeup him up for the present scenes a bit or cast someone else as your younger Hugh. It was just really distracting. And anybody that has seen the last episode where they use Thomas in a certain scene at the end that should have required Hutton, you may have similar thoughts.
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LaraQ
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English Rose
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Post by LaraQ on Oct 26, 2018 11:36:47 GMT
I really liked this show... but is it just me or does anyone else think that’s Michiel Huisman is just not a good actor, or at least his American accent sounds really forced (almost like its dubbed with a cartoon voice actor). I know that’s just his voice, but I’ve heard him speak in English and his native Dutch and his English just comes off so hollow and practiced. He also does a lot of yelling with his voice but not using his facial muscles to evoke any expression. I don’t know, he’s just an actor I don’t get. Also, unlike his sister characters on the show, he looks nothing like his child version. I’ve liked Flanagan making good use out of his regulars Reiser, Thomas, Gugino, Wilson, Siegel, etc. but I wish he would start being a little more ambitious with his casting (at least he’s got McGregor and Ferguson next). Using only his recycled B-actors (harsh term, I know) will only keep his projects feeing small. And as whoever pointed out above, Henry Thomas and Timothy Hutton are only 10 years apart. Don’t cast Thomas as “the young version” Dad, he’s almost 50. He’s good in this, but either age makeup him up for the present scenes a bit or cast someone else as your younger Hugh. It was just really distracting. And anybody that has seen the last episode where they use Thomas in a certain scene at the end that should have required Hutton, you may have similar thoughts. Huisman was definitely the weakest link in this along with Henry Thomas.But the rest of the cast, Gugino and Pedretti in particular, were amazing.
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Post by stephen on Oct 27, 2018 0:16:33 GMT
For the most part, I thought it was extremely well done. Atmospheric as all hell, with a fantastic balance of horror and levity, which fueled some truly terrific performances out of his cast. Like most, I thought casting both Henry Thomas and Timothy Hutton as the same character despite a 12-year age difference was a bit much, but I thought both actors knocked it out of the park and honestly, I don't know which one I preferred. I just accepted it and moved on.
The rest of the ensemble is excellent for the most part, in particular Gugino, Victoria Pedretti, Elisabeth Reaser and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who each got their own Emmy submission tape that would all be worthy consideration.
After Gerald's Game and this, Mike Flanagan is fast becoming a favorite horror filmmaker of mine. Would be very interested to see him tackle more in the genre, especially from a literary classic standpoint.
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Post by wilcinema on Oct 27, 2018 13:15:57 GMT
After Gerald's Game and this, Mike Flanagan is fast becoming a favorite horror filmmaker of mine. Would be very interested to see him tackle more in the genre, especially from a literary classic standpoint. I'd love for him to do a Poe adaptation. I think he's got the skills for it.
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Post by stephen on Oct 27, 2018 16:01:27 GMT
After Gerald's Game and this, Mike Flanagan is fast becoming a favorite horror filmmaker of mine. Would be very interested to see him tackle more in the genre, especially from a literary classic standpoint. I'd love for him to do a Poe adaptation. I think he's got the skills for it. There were some shadings of "The Cask of Amontillado" in this series, for sure.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 27, 2018 22:35:28 GMT
I liked it overall but I don't think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread that I've mostly been hearing -- but it's not like anything can live up to that kind of acclaim. Flanagan created some great atmosphere and most of the cast was strong (Huisman was terrible) but there wasn't quite enough to sustain it over the ten episodes and it felt like it was keeping me at an arm's length. Some of the mushy stuff didn't feel earned and I didn't like how it all wrapped up. While some of the writing was poor and try-hard, at other times it was really good. I liked that each character had focus and there's a lot to like about -- but it's far from perfect.
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Post by Allenism on Oct 28, 2018 15:13:32 GMT
I'm halfway through the series and the episodes which focused on the twins were easily the best so far. Echoing what some other people said, I think the show hits it stride when it stops literalizing the horror and dives more into the trauma embedded within the characters and their relationships with one another. Frankly, a lot of things about the Hill House setting feel ornately hokey (especially with all those jump-scare music cues).
I'm pretty hooked overall, though. (Sidebar: it's uncanny how spot-on the casting of the children is relative to their adult-version counterparts).
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Post by Allenism on Oct 30, 2018 1:34:47 GMT
Okay, I may have spoken too soon. Things definitely go south after episode 6 and the way everything comes "together" in the last few episodes feels messy as fuck. If the show had stayed truer to a "Six Feet Under"-esque tone then I probaly would've felt more invested in the story but Flanaghan just throws too many balls to the wall with respect to the house's history. After a while I stopped trying to make sense of the ghosts' purpose for haunting the house and how it figured into Olivia's mental disintegration. And some of that dialogue in last stretch sounded like something you'd hear in bad community-college theater. It's really a shame because there were some really interesting, provocative ideas at play ( especially regarding the breakage in the time-space continuum ) and the actors perform the hell out of their respective scenes (save for Huisman who is goddamn SNACK but can't emote for shit). Anyhoo, I think episodes 4-6 are extremely impressive but overall a lot of the narrative threads were in dire need of tidying up and tonally there were just too many wild swings from campy horror to sappy familial melodrama.
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