and i’m back😎

if you had asked me the day AFTER i first saw this film how i felt about it, i might have rated it a 3? after a really fun theater experience combined with my longtime anticipation and need for this film to be as good as its predecessors finally wore off, i was left feeling pretty disappointed by (what i desperately hope is) the final installment in the X trilogy. 

it seemed like at every point i wanted the movie to zig, it zagged, and vice versa. the utter 80s-ness is both undeniable and wonderful, but Ti West has always been hit with critiques for having beautiful aesthetics that are, ultimately, without substance, and i had a hard time seeing how that didn’t apply here. the plot feels consequential to the greater pull of vintage nostalgia and pastiche, so much so that for the killer “reveal” to be treated as a reveal at all feels insulting. as i’ve seen pointed out, it reads like a Scream third act reveal, except if this Scream entry decided to really only offer you one possible Ghostface suspect. 

and yet.

upon a rewatch — with the knowledge that this movie isn’t concerned with its own mystery so why should i be? — damn if i didn’t have, yet again, a really great time. at the end of the day, this still has quite a lot going for it. the laughs are plentiful, the supporting characters are memorable, and i’m sorry but you’re genuinely just trying to be contrarian at this point if you can’t admit that mf in the director’s chair can make a MEAN period piece. it may not fully hit that “B movie with A ideas” threshold, but i’m happy with where my rating has ended up (at least, until letterboxd finally decides to give us that sweet sweet 3.75) 

and now that i’ve gotten my complaints out of the way, i would like to point out just a few of my personal favorite things this film has to offer: 

-A capital G Giallo killer, complete with black leather gloves 
-Elizabeth Debicki saying “video nasty”  
-Giancarlo Esposito having so much fun 
-Kevin Bacon having so much fun 
-A Wilhelm scream