Red Mosquito

bart wrote:Forgot to post this before but I was able to catch the all-day Friday the 13th marathon at the Music Box in Chicago earlier this month. One of the best theater experiences I've had. I'm always gonna like the first 4 the most, but the later entries (especially Jason Lives) really shine on the big screen, especially after drinking since about noon.

bart wrote:The "Heyyyyy Baby/Ooooh Baby" scene from part 5 was fantastic with a crowd.

Ms Harmless wrote:"Oddity": super creepy, some great scares, really well put together, but one too many ableist tropes for no real reason

Spoiler: show

I'd have to watch it again to get them all, but an issue throughout was disability showing up simply for the spook factor

e.g. the Blind "Seer" / Psychic (a blind person with the extra-sensory ability to see into another realm "to compensate", almost); of course you can have a blind witch type who is blind without falling into this trope; the problem is when her "thing" is Seeing (in a spiritual sense) in particular; I kind of like that they gave her some background, character, and sleuthing ability (all of that made her a bit more than a Magical Blind Lady) but it's still there and easy enough to notice; I thought the cancer stuff was unneeded, too, as was the "magical connection" bit

speaking of blind characters, did we need two? I'm sure another showed up (as an anecdote and nothing more?) when the doctor and his accomplice were talking

the presentation of the mental patient(s) / mental hospital was kind of old-fashioned, and again, the "mysterious guy at the door" had a weird eye for no real reason but to look freaky; I do like that they subverted that "ooh I wonder if he's weird because he looks weird" by making him a good guy, but (and this is another trope) they give him his good deed to perform, and then there's no need for him anymore; I'd have liked to have seen him at the end in some way

I do like that they revealed the corrupt nature of the mental hospital's staff, the way it's run; that suggests maybe that the old-fashioned feel of it was deliberate (do they look / feel / operate this way in rural Ireland? not sure), but I could have done with one or two more lines about this

essentially I didn't need this story to tip over into being *about disability* but you've got to be a bit careful in horror when disfigurement or impairment show up "just for the vibes" (and if you took them out, your story would be exactly the same); shlocky horror has always had a problem with this and I'll forgive it, a lot of the time, but I want more from movies like this

VinylGuy wrote:You guys really loved Oddity