"Horror" we needed and deserved

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2018)

Intrusive, heinous, extreme, sacrilegious, hopeless, brutal, unapologetic, and absolutely fascinating. What more do you want from a horror movie? The "F" grade on CinemaScore suggests maybe audiences were expecting something else, maybe more jump scares and traditional storytelling. The "horror" here stems more from claustrophobia, stress, disturbing imagery, and fever dream progression. It's a home invasion plot, but the absurd elements and allegory foils any attempt at face literal interpretation. Buyer beware.
It heavily borrows from the biblical narrative with creation, fall, flood, logos, eucharist, church, and apocalypse, but perhaps just as much a framework than strictly just message or meaning. It seems also to do with the creative process, frustration of writers block, the relationship of art and artist, distraction of fame, destruction of our planet, and the suppression and exploitation of women. Jennifer Lawrence's character could easily be a stand-in for The Giving Tree, but she could also quite possibly be meta-portraying herself by the climactic finish. The movie is a beautiful and disastrous telling of the world's history from a feminist, environmentalist, and gnostic perspective. It's an urgent plea in urgent times.