Mnementh said:
I think one of the biggest goosebump moments in all of horror is learning about the truth of the bent-neck lady. And even though the bent-neck lady was main supplier of shock moments, this reveal tops it all. I thought such a strong moment is towards the end of the series, so when I looked to see the scene again recently, I searched the last episodes, but actually this moment is right in the middle. And yet the series still offers so much to unveil. The reason I like Hill House and Bly Manor the most, is that in them every moment, every scene has an overarching meaning. You can look back at earlier scenes with the later reveals and realize how they fit in, how they support the overarching theme and plot. And yes, each of them has a certain deeper message, but mostly it is simple: family for Hill House, love for Bly Manor, faith for Midnight mass, death for Midnight club. It is less clear with Usher, I think maybe Hubris, but in that most scenes more seem to hunt for gruesome moments than to support the underlying meaning or the overarching plot. In that regard Usher fails in my opinion. Because you say the one miss is Midnight Club: I feel the story itself is kinda weak, but the strong part of that show lies in the stories the kids tell in that Midnight Club. And especially how it connects to their character, to their fears, their wishes. That makes the show good in my opinion. The overarching plot is needed, so that we know the characters telling the story, but is otherwise quite unimportant. He tried to make that a bit interesting with the stuff about the rituals, but I think it does not work too well. And about Kojima: I think if Kojima would work with Flanagan, than the trailer of OD would've showed actors from the gang usually working with Flanagan. He works always with the same actors, so I think he would've recommended them to Kojima as well. Seeing Sophia Lillis in the trailer though always reminds me how the morons at Netflix cancelled I am Not Okay With This. |
Bent-Neck Lady was fucking amazing and will always stick with me, Goddamn what a moment, it was chilling. Just watched the scene again and got chills again! Lmao. I think Usher is Hubris as you said, it's a warning against greed, the allure of power and greed at the cost of love and kindness. They suffer due to the greed of their father and he loses everything, and it didn't have to happen in gruesome ways, but many of his children also infected by greed made their demise worse than it had to be, IIRC she even tells some of them their deaths would have been peaceful if they had not been dicks and also driven by greed, she would have given them something like a peaceful death in their sleep but most of them were also power hungry assholes, she tried to warn the kid at the beginning as well although his death was incredibly fucked up, Lol.
The most good of them all, had to die as well, because of the greed of the father, the only good thing his family produced and that scene was fucking heart-breaking, I felt it coming and I was like "no no no, let her live, please say the mother cheated on the father and she's not his daughter!" Lmao. Her death affected the greedy grandpa the most because even he knew she was the best thing to come out of that family but his greed resulted in her death.
Yeah, I agree about Midnight Club, story is weak but the characterisation is good, the horror is weak too, I think it should have been a standalone series and not intended to have a second season, I did find myself flipping on some characters I hated at the start and some of the deaths did choke me up so it did have some emotional impact on me, the deaths are done well once again.
Love Flanagan's set of actors and love that he takes them everywhere.
Netflix was stupid for losing Flanagan to Amazon.
But what I wonder about OD is if it will be an anthology horror with a different story for a different director because if he has 7 horror creatives working on a single project I could see that becoming messy as a clash of ideas and creative control.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 14 December 2023
Essay Pro