The Haunting (1963)

Scientist bent on investigating a purportedly haunted house invites a diverse group to help him do so by actually staying within its walls. The intended heir is there to keep an eye on things, as are the clairvoyant/somewhat mean-spirited Theodora and the meekly nervous Eleanor, who has demonstrated psychic ability.

The house wastes no time in letting the visitors know that, yep, it's haunted. But while three of the guests seem to believe, they also seem to understand that they can't be actually harmed. Eleanor, on the other hand, is frankly losing her mind. The house isn't buffeting her from the outside alone, it's gotten inside of her and whispers to her.

I first saw this film in the '90s and rated it highly. It dulls slightly on second watch -- or maybe simply with my age -- but is still a worthwhile and truly frightening film.

B-

First Man (2018)

First: this is a beautiful film that really sets a mood. There are segments of humor and real tension as we watch a group grow from military men to those chosen to make history.

But, that mood is one of melancholy and detachment. Because the movie does such a good job of making us see the world through the eyes of Neil Armstrong, I couldn't help but feel somewhat detached from that world. Neil's wife seems not to know her husband at all, and neither do his children, or his neighbors -- who mostly double as his co-workers. It's almost as though he's an alien in the world of vibrant humanity: living with them, but never being one of them.

So, while I admired the skill involved and the story itself, I was left cold.

B

The Captive (2014)

A pre-teen is snatched while in her father's care and pressed into a life of child pornography and then -- when she outgrows that -- child procurement. Her father spends the next 8 years keeping the faith/obsession, while her mother seems to be sleepwalking through her life.

The first 10 minutes set an interesting mood: the unforgiving landscape, a loving community, and then a shocking crime... but the rest was a drag. The captivity scenes were sanitized and, while I wasn't looking forward to anything rapey, it felt somehow grosser to meet this now-kinda-bitchy teenager without knowing what she suffered to become this way. There was a scene late in the proceedings in which the father sees his grown daughter for the first time since she was kidnapped. But the thing was that the kidnappers had to plan this whole lure/treasure map/secure location scenario to make it happen -- and all at the behest of the girl who should have been, let's face it, fairly disposable to them. But somehow she had enough pull to demand a whole lot of effort from her captors, which was incredibly absurd.

The whole thing was weird and unsatisfying.

C-

Man Vs. (2016)

Guy has a reality show where he's dumped on his own in the elements and has to survive with what he finds in nature and the surprise odds & ends his team has packed for him, all while keeping the selfie-film rolling.

But... he's obviously not alone. And that was fun & scary for a while -- especially once his sat-phone became useless and he was stuck. But then we actually get to see who's there with him which reminds that this is a low, low budget endeavor & disbelief can no longer be suspended.

C

The Ritual (2018)

Five guys have a yearly vacation tradition and, this year is the first time they're a group of four rather than five. So their mood is already "off" due to their grief and their trip is to honor their friend's wishes rather than anything they would've chosen otherwise. When one hurts his leg, they decide to take a shortcut through the woods and -- as one of the group mentions -- if the shortcut was actually a shortcut, it wouldn't be called a shortcut, it'd be called the route. Those right there are what we call "wise words."

Nothing good is in the forest, which is fun for a while. But then it gets kind of old. But, for once, the actual monster, once we see it, is ah-MAZE-ing.

B-

The Witch (2016)

A Puritan family with five children leaves their community over religious differences and settles in an isolated area, near the edge of a forest. Soon after the move, the baby disappears while being watched by Thomasin, the eldest, and it is assumed a wolf snatched him. The family starts to fray from stress and paranoia, with Thomasin suffering the brunt of accusations and suspicion.

This is a remarkably effective film. It's the inevitability of the story that's truly frightening. To understand what is going to -- what must -- happen, even when it's irrational is just such a helpless, terrible thing. You know that no amount of reasonable discourse can change the mind of someone who has bought into rhetoric and fear.

Pitch-perfect up until the very end, which I found to be a letdown.

B