"The Family Stone" is Diane Keaton's tender onscreen goodbye
Oct. 16th, 2025 09:53 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
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While going into this film blind with the notion that it was going to be a indie(possibly quirky) slice of life sort of film, I was shocked at how that were able to talk about deep existential topics while simultaneously appealing to the masses. It was so well made and had such a positive outlook on life and being content with what's already in our lives, instead of thinking about the what-ifs and the could have been's.
It shows the viewer that sometimes all the chaos in our our lives and the seemingly mundane and ordinary lifestyle many of us have is purposeful in itself. It doesn't have to be extraordinary! Nihilistic beliefs that attribute to a lack of care in the world are not going to provide true happiness. Also the scene where the main character goes through a million different versions of herself in different universes was so cool! The speed of all the different still-frames was a cinematic experience that wowed me.
I rate it a 9 out of 10 and plan to ponder it a bit more before writing a full review. Just wanted to get some thoughts out there directly after finishing the film. I also watched 4 months 3 weeks and 2 days earlier today and needed an uplifting change of pace lol
Can you ever reminder films that were incredibly well made, professionally directed, and acted, but had at best a mid plot or idea? How did you evaluate such films, and did you consider them even formally good?
For example, I still remember how some people literally hated something like "A Time to Kill", saying that it was a well-made film, which at the same time could easily be perceived as a justification of lynching and propaganda of the death penalty if you think deeply about its plot.
I'm a big fan of his work and genuinely think there's something for every horror fan in his bibliography.
One
Decay Inevitable
The Unblemished
London Revenant
All really worth a read and there's little information about any of them online! Wondered if anyone else is aware of his work. He seems to have given up on horror now unfortunately.
I read this book because the reviews were mostly positive and the premise sounded interesting. Anything that brings The Mist to mind tends to be interesting. However, the book turned out to be a disappointment, and I’d be curious to hear what others think.
Spoilers! The book is basically From (the series), except the characters could leave the village at any time, but just don’t bother or don’t want to, and therefore die one by one. I don’t understand why it was planned this way. If the characters choose to stay in a place where horrific monsters tear apart anyone who dares to go outside at night, and those inside are forced to listen to and watch ghosts rampaging around, I just can’t bring myself to feel tense or worried for them.
At the end, the tension is supposed to rise a couple of times because someone has to go back into the mist to rescue clueless young people, but that doesn’t really build any horror atmosphere either, since every character seems to be practically hoping for death.
I also couldn’t quite grasp the explanation for why the outside world doesn’t believe in ghosts. Everyone in the story seems to see and hear them, even if they don’t show up on recordings.
I’m not sure if this was yet another one of those “it’s all a metaphor” stories, where that excuse means the world and the characters don’t have to make sense. The ghosts of the past surround us, and we can’t escape them… or some other nonsense.
Personally, I’m just tired of stories where the basic layer of the plot exists only to prop up the metaphorical one.
Or maybe I just didn’t get the book? It wasn’t poorly written, just very poorly thought out in my opinion.
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Hey r/horrorlit, long-time horror film fan (felt like I’d seen everything) so I’m jumping into books. I’m really into Robert Eggers’ aesthetic - period / folk horror vibes with that slow-burn dread. Watched Rabbit Trap last night and loved it.
From this sub’s recs I picked up Buffalo Hunter Hunter (loved it) and I’m about halfway through Slewfoot, really, really digging the atmosphere.
Looking for more stuff along those lines, dark, mysterious, local/ancient folklore, historical settings, with a real sense of dread/bleakness/hopelessness. Novellas, novels, weird fiction, whatever.
What should I read next? Thanks in advance! want to build a reading list that scratches that same weird, oppressive itch.
Aside from Penance by Eliza Clark (2023), does anyone know of any horror or horror adjacent novels that feature Sylvanian Families toys? Or Tamagotchis?
I've read all the Stephen King short stories and enjoyed most. Would love to expand into other authors who do short story collections. I like Sci fi horror and lovecraftian stuff the most but I'm open to literally anything horror or horror-adjacent.
I dunno how to articulate it in a way people can easily understand, but there is a weird form of emotional catharsis I can get from Romance stories that could be considered disturbing.
The BellaDonna of Sadness is not a Horror movie, but it is a Surrealist Medieval Fantasy Tragedy with beautiful watercolor painting style animation, as well as some pretty disturbing moments that a few cross lines that most mainstream films (even the disturbing kind) won’t do.
But it also in it’s own strange way is a beautiful movie in the same way a Dark Mythologic Story or Greek Tragedy is, being that it has themes that are macebre, yet it doesn’t feel edgy in a sense of shock, it feels naturally disturbing in a way that it is a brutally honest art-piece.
I feel this way about the first album by Swedish Depressive Black Metal band Lifelover, which has very macebre & saddening themes, yet it can be played in such a musically vibrant way with sexual undertones to it.
Whatever it maybe, I’m just interested in checking out an emotional macabre love/erotic story to feel vulnerable while reading.
Does anybody else find these kinds of books just as fun as the usual fiction?
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I am planning on building a free little library for my front yard(with the expectation that books will be returned rather than a book exchange—though I’m sure some will get pinched), and I’ve decided to theme it around horror books since we already have other general fiction selections in the neighborhood). As I start this project, I’m trying to decide which authors to make sure that I include in the selection. I don’t want it to be full of Stephen King books, so I’m trying to get a multitude of authors with no more than 3-4 per author.
I have no clue if the project would actually work out, but it would be great if I could build a collection of authors that people might not have heard of and actually find new things.
What authors/books would you guys want to see? Any favorite kid spooky books that should make the cut?
Thanks!
The best example for me is We Need to Talk About Kevin.
A majority of the book is the character going on and on, or sharing what matters or what's on her mind. The things that actively happen or happened are sometimes short and sweet and are very easy to imagine. Regardless of what mood I am, I enjoy it because if I'm sick or tired I can just gloss over the text without actively thinking and then I can go think about it later, and if I'm really in the mood to read I have whole paragraphs of someone else's brain to pick through.
With these books, especially We Need to Talk About Kevin, the narrator presents herself the way that she wants to be seen. She says a lot of things that I either agree with or disagree with or things I can think about, and the distance makes it so there's less room for interpretation and there's only so much room for my opinions. . I am not ever going to be able to help her or educate her or put my own two cents in. I'm stuck in my own brain, which is great when I need cathartic stress and it's an aspect of horror that many things don't maintain. It adds a layer to unreliable narrator as well. If she ever backpedals or refers back to something and tries to weave, I have to accept it. If she turns a situation into something it must likely isn't, it is the way it is and that's the only way it can be. In the case where she is lying, she's just going to lie to herself for 400 pages straight to the point where she believes herself and since she has 400 pages to work with, she often gets close to convincing me that my beliefs aren't truly my beliefs or making me feel bad for her when I am upset with her. She is completely in control, I can't ask questions and I can't try to predict or infer.
(But at the same time, the story is more in my control than a normal story would be just because information is presented in a way where I'm not always going to get an answer for something that happens or I just have to take it as presented or I take only what is given and we're probably not coming back to said topic in a pivotal way, so I can use my imagination and build my own story.)
In general for books that are based on diary entries or based on a character's recollection of events, passive is good. it is much easier to actually believe the character and get immersed. For one, the character is more fleshed out and two, I can 100% believe the main character or narrator telling me about their life or feelings or general vibes with a few key events mixed in compared to a character remembering a whole day or a whole month or an entire set of events. The latter only works when there is indeed an unreliable narrator, the narrator has a condition that allows superior memory or the character's intentionally trying to tell the story and they're going to fabricate the hell out of it and pull it out of pocket. For me personally, the story has to be really well done and I have to care quite a bit to actually follow something like that.
Any thoughts? Haven't seen it discussed much after doing a google search. The concept sounds cool!
Like an entity chasing hard after the protagonist kind of horror thriller but it's more horror than thriller? In the vein of Running Man by King, but I just want a legit scary supernatural villain and the final girl or boy who's just one step ahead, maybe desperate but smart and capable without being panicky.
Ngl, I fell into craving for this after seeing a Jurassic World movie scene where the guy throws a killer dino off his scent by dousing himself in gasoline.
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