Freaky

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2019)

This is a damn good horror movie. It's especially surprising as the director's best movie that I saw before this was Mortal Kombat. Don't get me wrong, Mortal Kombat is cheesy fun but this movie shows that he can actually craft a well made sci-fi horror. The first hour of this movie builds up an excellent atmosphere. The eerie tone and imagery combine to create a genuinely unsettling movie. Then in the last half an hour the movie turns into a very grotesque action-horror hybrid. I still enjoyed that part, however I preferred the slow-moving atmospheric sections as that's the kind of horror that resonates more with me. Now, apparently Anderson's original cut was 130 minutes long and it got the NC-17 rating. I personally think that cut, which is apparently even more gruesome would drag on and lose it's atmosphere in favour of Hostel-like exploitation. For me, it's one of those instances where studio interference paid off as the run-time feels just right. All in all, the movie is a definite recommendation and much more than an Alien rip-off.