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Posted
10 hours ago, mdmost said:

Another question someone brought up. Why so many hot dogs for just two people?

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That is a normal amount for two Americans to be eating. I mean the principal is not in the greatest shape.

Posted

We saw it on Sunday and everyone enjoyed it. I didn't realize Julia Garner was in it beforehand and she was definitely the highlight. In fact she could've been on-screen much more -that's my only critique. We've been to the movies so often this summer we decided it was worth it to join the cinemark club. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

I'm likely going to see it again with my wife. She's not into horror but in telling her a bit about it in non-spoiler terms, she was a lot more interested. To me, it's more in the vein of a M. Night "horror" with incredible visuals and an interconnected story. I like the idea that it's label more as a horror version of Magnolia. I think that's fairly fitting. 

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Posted

holy shit the last 15 minutes were insane 😮😆

was reminiscent of the last 15 minutes of Killer Joe, obviously not the plot but the way the tension and the 'wtf is even happening!?!' just started rapidly ratcheting up.

both were a really fun ride 😄

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Posted
18 minutes ago, mchookem said:

holy shit the last 15 minutes were insane 😮😆

was reminiscent of the last 15 minutes of Killer Joe, obviously not the plot but the way the tension and the 'wtf is even happening!?!' just started rapidly ratcheting up.

both were a really fun ride 😄

That ending will make me laugh every single time I see it. One of the finest endings to a movie I’ve ever seen. Everyone was laughing while it was happening. 

Posted (edited)

Not being a typical horror film fan, I did enjoy it. I appreciated the tension, the acting, the jumps in perspectives, and some of the laugh-out-loud moments. 

Did anyone else find the… metaphor if how children are, ummm hurt in today’s society interesting? 

Edited by YChang
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Posted (edited)
On 8/14/2025 at 11:20 PM, UpperWestside said:

That ending will make me laugh every single time I see it. One of the finest endings to a movie I’ve ever seen. Everyone was laughing while it was happening. 

Especially that wild-life documentary feel of the zoomed-out camera shot of the kids running through the suburbs at the very end. 

Edited by YChang
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Posted

I'd describe it as a M. Night Shyamalan project that was completed by John Hughes and the VFX team from Shaun of the Dead. 

I loved it. 

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Posted
On 8/12/2025 at 11:54 AM, mdmost said:

I'm likely going to see it again with my wife. She's not into horror but in telling her a bit about it in non-spoiler terms, she was a lot more interested. To me, it's more in the vein of a M. Night "horror" with incredible visuals and an interconnected story. I like the idea that it's label more as a horror version of Magnolia. I think that's fairly fitting. 

I don't get this at all 

Posted

Cregger said Magnolia was a big influence on this movie. He said Magnolia showed him you can make bold epic movie that don't apologize or try to walk the audience through the meaning of it. There's also the trait that both share a story of interconnected characters. Paul is basically John C. Reilly's character even down to being a cop with a moustache. I've seen it twice now and enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time because you pick up on subtle things that you gloss over like Gladys being with Alex when the cops are talking to him early on. 

Posted
1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

Just saw it. Weird and creepy as fuck. Wouldn’t really call it scary or horror. 

Wait till you're kinda half awake this evening and look up at your celling fan. 

  • Haha 1
Posted

Finally saw it.   Good shit!!  I enjoyed it better than Barbarian as well. 

 

The ending with the kids running like fierce Snyder zombies was amazing.   

Started as a mystery thriller, turned supernatural thriller, then straight off the rails horror.  

And the score was really good, sucked me into every scene.

Cregger is killing it.  More original horror movies please.   

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)

Saw this last night with the wife and we both enjoyed it.  She loved it.  Like Sinners, I think the hype probably over estimates the quality of the film, but both are good watches and entertaining.

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The performances are all extremely good, especially an old Amy Madigan, Alden E and Julia Garner, who is the youngest, most delicate person you can see as an old person ever.  

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Spoiler

 I don't like the title of the movie.  The reasons for naming it are vague and honestly, it's a stretch.  It's pretty stupid.  The entire concept brought me back to this and they sort of went into it a little with the Zombie ant cordcyeps, but I like this comparison better.

Title should have been something like Controls or Alterations.  Maybe just.... Mantis and leaned heavier into the mechanics of the control.  Just my 2 cents.  

Fun time at the movies though. 

Edited by Patrick Bateman
Posted (edited)

Was there something odd about the sound mix or was it just my theater? The sound was low. Especially dialog. Assuming it was an issue with the speakers or something. Pretty much ruined the experience bc it was so distracting.

Audio/visual problems at a theater really grind my gears. It was like everyone else was under mind control. I'm like how is this not bothering anyone else?

Edited by CurlyDumps
Posted
Spoiler

did anyone else think the assault rifle over the house was a bit random?  seemed shoe-horned in there.  I get it, they're weaponized.  still thought it was odd.

Spoiler

door cameras on random houses in the neighborhood would have gotten footage of all these kids running around in the middle of the night.  should have been easy to figure out where they all ended up.

 

Posted
16 minutes ago, futureman said:
  Hide contents

did anyone else think the assault rifle over the house was a bit random?  seemed shoe-horned in there.  I get it, they're weaponized.  still thought it was odd.

  Hide contents

door cameras on random houses in the neighborhood would have gotten footage of all these kids running around in the middle of the night.  should have been easy to figure out where they all ended up.

 

And that’s fair. We all set aside some disbelief at times for a movie like this though. 

Posted (edited)

also

Spoiler

where were the kids going when chanice had them all leave out the back door before the cops came to the house?  yeah to hide them somewhere, just wondered where…

 

Edited by futureman
Posted
52 minutes ago, futureman said:
  Reveal hidden contents

did anyone else think the assault rifle over the house was a bit random?  seemed shoe-horned in there.  I get it, they're weaponized.  still thought it was odd.

  Reveal hidden contents

door cameras on random houses in the neighborhood would have gotten footage of all these kids running around in the middle of the night.  should have been easy to figure out where they all ended up.

 

That is how they found out where they went.

Posted
13 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

Was there something odd about the sound mix or was it just my theater? The sound was low. Especially dialog. Assuming it was an issue with the speakers or something. Pretty much ruined the experience bc it was so distracting.

Audio/visual problems at a theater really grind my gears. It was like everyone else was under mind control. I'm like how is this not bothering anyone else?

The bum ass local AMC i use is hit or miss.  This particular theater for weapons had a loud ass AC or return vent or something loudly humming the entire movie.  I forced myself not to pay attention but yeah was annoying. 

 

 

 

What was the deal with Brolin seeing the assault rifle in the sky with 217 on it?

Alluding to school shootings I guess?

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Posted

Probably. There are a lot of interpretations you can make. The kids became weaponized at 2:17. There's 2 remaining and 17 missing from the class. I'd imagine he was going for an allegory about what happens to a community and parents after a tragic event like a school shooting. 

Posted
On 8/11/2025 at 10:50 AM, mdmost said:

Another question someone brought up. Why so many hot dogs for just two people?

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The number 7 was a theme throughout right? I know it came up some other times but I'm straight blanking on what. I didn't catch the 7 hot dogs.

Posted
59 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

The number 7 was a theme throughout right? I know it came up some other times but I'm straight blanking on what. I didn't catch the 7 hot dogs.

Interwebs say the 7 dogs is a reference to an old Trevor WKYK skit

Posted
On 8/11/2025 at 3:29 PM, yoladu said:

an odd number of hot dogs for 2 people? My OCD cannot handle.

Dollar hot dog night. One for the wag, 6 for you. 

Posted
On 8/11/2025 at 1:50 PM, mdmost said:

Another question someone brought up. Why so many hot dogs for just two people?

GyCeULJboAA4dPJ?format=jpg&name=900x900

I loved this and then was let down that it was a shared plate.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Saw it last week and enjoyed it, even as someone who is not a horror fan.  It's well made and pretty fun.

One thing was gnawing at me the whole time, though

Spoiler

The family of the remaining kid is likely under intense scrutiny right?  I know the kid is presented as a loner, but the parents seem pretty normal.  After 30 days, has no one from either parent's jobs checked in?  No one noticed the newspapers piling in the driveway and paper on the windows?  When they talked to the police, the aunt said that his dad had a stroke two years ago and can't speak.  No one knew these people to refute that?  Or that his mother just doesn't exist?  The kid usually gets picked up every day by his dad and now he just walks home and no one at the school notices?   No further wellness checks on this traumatized child after the first couple of days?

I have a 3rd grader and as nosy and gossipy as parents are, there is no doubt that this would have been sniffed out in a week.

 

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Posted (edited)

I'd imagine Gladys took care of all that like she did with the principal and the police interview. She could've called into their work and said they were sick. Maybe they both worked remotely at home.  The kid walked home once. The other times he took the bus. The movie showed the police just threw up their hands a bit after cursory checks on the kid and his family because there was nothing further coming in and they checked out the family and the teacher. They didn't strike me as an elite police unit. The teacher seemed to be the only one who noticed anythinge was up with him and that was more to satisfy her own curiosity on why only the two of them were still there. Given the entire rest of the class was gone, the parents seem to only focus on the teacher as the cause of things and didn't really interact. Archer's interaction with the wife he was trying to get the Ring footage from showed it wasn't a tight-knit group. Also, the families were grieving the loss of their children so I'm sure most were in a daze. Only Archer took matters into his own hands and kept trying to figure out why. 

Now one thing that is harder to buy is no Ring cameras around the kid's house at any point to record all these kids flying towards the house.

Edited by mdmost
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Look, it's a flaw in an otherwise good movie.  It should have either been better explained or the authority figures completely ignored.  It was too in the middle.  I still had fun and would recommend it.  

It's 2025, if 17 3rd graders disappeared there would be dozens of FBI agents/podcasters/Nancy Grace-types in that area for weeks.  The moment she tried to tell someone his parents had "consumption", the antennas would be up, especially if her first claim was that a man who has been around the school and presumably has friends (parents? siblings?) and is gainfully employed had a stroke two years ago and can't talk.  SOMEONE would know better and call it in immediately.  Adults don't just disappear.  If the local police were a bunch of monkeys banging on typewriters, someone in the FBI would put it together.  There's no way the parents just let it go and Brolin is the only one going deep on it.

I checked and Cregger doesn't have kids, which makes sense, because he hasn't been exposed to the viper pit that are 3rd grade parent WhatsApp groups and text message chains.  That shit's for real.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

I think Cregger has shown he's not going to hold the audience's hand during a movie and for that, I'm thankful. That's what helped make the story so unique to me. It's already asking me to suspend belief so one more layer of that just doesn't bother me. You can pull at the thread of most stories if you look at nits to pick hard enough.

Edited by mdmost

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