ThePhasmid

This might be the best critical reception for a dark thriller/horror film released on Christmas day in quite some time. I don't think the audience reception will reflect it, because Eggers is an auteur who doesn't appease to the masses. The opening weekend should be very strong for this film. We'll see how it holds up. Maybe adult audiences want a dark atmospheric macabre love story for Christmas for a change.

This looks like a perfect film for late August. A competent yet forgettable CBM. An R rated CBM that could've rode the tail end wave of Deadpool. Why did they move it from a more suitable release date to the middle of December? A week before one of the biggest family film weekends of the year. I really want to know who's making these decisions.

The terrible comedic advertising on Twitter is a bad sign. It doesn't matter how violent this film is. Sonic will eat up the teenage demographic while Nosferatu steals the rest. SONY needs a new leader in the film department. These are not it.

Wicked and Moana 2 will steamroll the competition until next year. Nosferatu is going to dominate its own hemisphere. I wish the best for Mufasa and Sonic. I think they'll do well, but Wicked and Moana are gonna hold fast the rest of the year.

I've only seen one mixed reaction so far. This should fair well with the critics once the embargo is lifted. It's certainly already doing great with audience reception. I feel this is going to do surprisingly good numbers. I wonder if there will be a slight Barbenheimer effect this weekend with Gladiator 2 and Wicked. Theaters will have healthy numbers for the holidays with these films and Moana 2. Every demographic is essentially covered. I don't see much competition until Sonic, Mufasa, and Nosferatu next month.

The Rock and Taika Waititi need to hook up. Dwayne has great comedic timing, and that affable big lovable guy charisma. Dwayne scales way back on the budget and salary. It's a sleeper hit that doesn't feel engineered by a large committee from the early 2000's. We all know Moana 2 is going to do big numbers, but he needs a proper live action film that doesn't feel AI generated. A Pacific Islander blockbuster from the ground up of sorts.

It's apparent Egger enjoys Celtic horror fiction. I respect that. Maybe he will expand his ouvre into something like Kwaidan. Strange folklore from another part of the world. If anyone is brave enough to remake Kwaidan, I'd choose this man to do so.

We've all accepted that this is the American version of Bond. Tom will continue to produce. Glen Powell as the next lead?

Should you accept it...

Chills. I'm placing all the chips on the table with this one. 1B+ club. Calling it now.

It's been an incredibly strong year for horror. Arguably the best of this decade for now. Where does Hugh Grant stand among the antagonists we've had so far this year?

Zemeckis is similar to James Cameron for me. A director with whom I greatly appreciate for his technical prowess, but his recent storytelling has become less than a backseat to the project. It's more like an afterthought to the technical experiment.

I have a feeling this might end up being one of the few horror films of the year where the audience score is higher or equal to critics without it resorting to being torture porn nonsense., and that's very impressive,

That is somewhat troubling. I believe the first two started off in the low 90's/high 80's, and slipped down a few points. This might end up in the 60's.

Kraven is a HUGE question mark as well. SONY might need to start looking at who is in charge of green lighting all of these scripts.