I have a feeling that each time I see this in the future – granted that I see it in at least blu-ray – I will like it more and more. I’d previously seen it once on DVD on my computer monitor, and the difference this time, in a pristine 35mm print, was only that I was genuinely creeped out several times, where the first time I saw it I never was. <\/p>\n
My problem is with the excessive exposition, which I predict will become less of a problem in the future, if only because everyone I spoke to after the screening didn’t mind it in the least. This can mostly be boiled down to the role of Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. Any time Miss Giddens encounters something strange, she just has a little chat with Grose, who spends the next five minutes filling her in on the back story that explains the significance of who or what she just may or may not have seen. Not to mention that the tired scenario of a babysitter coming in to care for depraved or afflicted children, only so that we may watch as she suffers the same fate as her predecesor(s) likely did, has become…tired. Certain classic scenarios can’t be spoiled by copycats or remakes (off the top of my head: Rear Window), but this one, for me, has been tainted. <\/p>\n
Brilliant opening and closing (the first few minutes in particular, before even the first credits appear, are a perfect table-setter, as we sit in a pitch black theatre while Flora hums the beautiful and<\/em> chilling theme song, which continues over the Twentieth Century Fox animation logo thing; it feels as fresh and exciting as a twenty-first century avant-garde found-footage remix). I don’t know if I’d just forgotten about the two passionate kisses shared between Miss Giddens and Miles – the first initiated by Miles and the second, significantly, delivered by Giddens – or if I just didn’t notice how inappropriate they are the first time I saw it, but the entire film rests on these two events, and this is why I think the film will only get better with future viewings, as I incrementally solve just what the hell this means (or I might just look it up). <\/p>\n Amazingly, there is an equal balance between daytime and nighttime – or poorly lit\/chiaroscuro – scares, underlining the fact that Clayton mounts some palpable, mood-centric terror in this film, and doesn’t have to rely on BOO! scares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a feeling that each time I see this in the future – granted that I see it in at least blu-ray – I will like it more and more. I’d previously seen it once on DVD on my computer monitor, and the difference this time, in a pristine 35mm print, was only that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4636,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions\/4636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}