Misunderstood by mainstream audiences when it came out but now a cult classic for psychological horror fans and a ground-breaking masterpiece for the horror genre

Rating: 9/10 (17 April 2020)

A masterpiece worthy of praise. Nevertheless, maybe it's because I've seen a lot of eerie, unsettling and pyschological horror movies including other movies from Stephen King and John Carpenter's work that, as I watched this movie for the first time, I was amazed and delighted with it but at the same time surprised at how underwhelming the impact the several twists had on me. Perhaps it was the highly built hype surrounding it since it has been praised by the critics and the audience as it was a ground-breaking cinematic history artwork or perhaps its was the already spoiled twists on other media, but I would have loved to have watched it with fresh unspoiled eyes to really absorb every bit of haunting imagery and subliminal horror.
There's no denying of the breath-taking cinematography, the hypnotic and well-crafted costume and set designs, the incredible sequences and the degenerating development of the well-realised characters. The value and contribution to the horror genre is palpable and the shock and ground breaking sensation it must have been back in 1980 when it came out can be appreciated. It knows exactly what it wants the audience to feel, this uncomfortable, stressed and intense scary feeling that something is going on through out the story and it is affecting our characters.
Many plot twists and other astounding imagery might have been already spoiled through other pop culture media like the Simpsons or Ready Player One. But these would lead to believe that it pulled ideas from the more psychological horror genre that the fantastic one, or perhaps taking into account the high ratings and critical acclaim it probably might have molded the genre as we know it next to Hitchcock. Nevertheless, I was surprised to realise it wasn't quite like that. True there's a backdropping theme of the toll that isolation takes on people but I personally was surprised, and I must say disapppointed to find out there was a higher-power meddling with the plot. And while the movie is still to this day scrutinized and analysed to try to understand every theme and subtle detail in it, its ambiguity lends for a much better ending and overall message of it.
IN CONCLUSION, the movie is a horror classic and a brilliantly filmed, unsettling and frightening exploration of how our own personal demons can bring the worst in us. It's a cinematic masterpiece, a prime example of good cinematography worthy of cinema school study and it shines for its execution and not as quite for the story behind it. It's story although at times underwhelming, is deep and scary and to this day left unsanswered questions that only feeds its legend.