How can I recommend a movie I didn't love until the last five minutes?

[thistlechaser]

This week's Netflix movie of the week was Deathwatch, a horror movie I had never heard of before but the description caught my attention. Turns out, anyone can watch it free online! Yay Hulu. No spoilers in this review, in case you want to take advantage of that.

A lot of the movie wasn't a good match for me. While I do like dark stories, gore does less than nothing for me, and this movie had gore galore. (Gore Galore could so be a character name in some cheesy horror film.) Dead bodies all over, more rats eating people than you could shake a stick at, all that. As the film was set in WW1 it was kind of realistic, but still... ugh.

You know, I've been sitting here, trying to figure out how to describe what makes this movie good without spoiling it. It's not going to be easy. I'll have to be vague and you'll have to trust me about the good parts!

A British WW1 troop gets into a big battle, and somehow a handful of men get separated. Are the rest dead? Did they just somehow march too far in the fog and lost the others? They have no idea. Eventually they come to a German... what do you call it, hole in the ground, but long, so soldiers can move around without being shot. They take it over, killing or taking the Germans prisoners, and then odd things start happening.

And that's about as much as I can say! I can't even recommend that you fast forward to just watch the end, you need to see all the things leading up to it to make the end work. Even one gross bit that I grumbled about being included in the film turned out to be necessary.

While I was watching the movie, semi-annoyed about the gore, I decided I'd have to watch something lighthearted next to balance this out. Then, after seeing the ending, there was no way I could watch something light, that was exactly the opposite of what I now wanted. :D

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

It's a German trench--W.W. I was trench warfare. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Trench! I was thinking that was the word, but then I second guessed myself and thought that was the civilian version of it and there would be a different word for the military. Thanks!

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

Aw man. I kinda wanna watch this, but at the same time... I tend to be very conditional with the gore I like. Valhalla Rising was just too much for me (possibly because it bored me to tears - I'm not into over-the-top artsy stuff like that, I'm still sort of "eh" on There Will Be Blood) but then again I adore movies where guys run around with swords and hack people into bloody bits. Or like the end of Daybreakers. So maybe it's that I can handle some gore (even love it), but not "realistic" gore or something like that. I dunno.

Is it action-y that the gore fits in with the movie? I'm so torn...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'd call it "movie realistic". Like the soldiers are trudging through the mud and one gets his foot stuck in something. While trying to pull it out, it's seen that it's a rib cage -- a rotting body was covered in mud.

There's no 'chopping off head, blood splurting from stump', in general the blood/dead bodies aren't fresh. (And exception is rats chewing on someone...)

Lots of old dead bodies everywhere -- it's a war during old times, after all.

To me, the gore was worth it though! I suspect the ending will work for you in the same way it did for me, so it might be worth it for you, too. Of course I might be building it up too much, which would make you like it less, which would unbalance the 'worth the gore'. :P

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

Oooh, so it's not so much "shock factor" gore as just being gritty and realistic. That sort of thing works for me. It's the "OMG look, something really gross is happening, be disgusted!" stuff that tends to turn me off, depending on the context. I can handle "shock" gore in the over-the-top action-y movies where that's the point, but not so much in stuff like... Hostel, I guess. Human Centipede I hear isn't as gory as it could be, and while I'm fascinated by the concept, I don't have any desire to actually sit through the movie.

If you think the ending was good, though, I wanna see it! It doesn't sound like the sort of gore stuff I'd really hate, I'm cool with gritty-type movies. And I love stuff that's obviously been thought out. I'm 100% okay with having a movie rock my socks in the last five minutes! I think I'll take a look at it, when I get the chance, especially if it's on Hulu!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

To me, it was kind of shocking, but I think the purpose was to be realistic, yeah.

Let me know what you think, if you do watch it! :D

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking I'll definitely check it out. Might not be this week, but at some point! And I'll definitely letcha know! Thanks for the recommendation!