Feder Alvarez is a horror movie fan, and his first feature film was a remake of Sam Raimi's classic horror film "Ghost Man" in the 1980s. Some people are addicted to it, some people think it is bloody. Apparently, Sam Raimi prefers the remake of The Younger, and this year he became one of the producers, cooperating with Feder Alvarez on the well-received "Hold Your Breath".
In recent years, excellent horror films have appeared frequently. Two of Wen Ziren's "The Conjuring", a gimmick based on real events, won both box office reputations. The quiet and terrifying "It's Behind" has a retro temperament and high quality. The Witch has won praise from critics. North American horror films are gradually shedding their bloody cloak and playing the silent horror game that seeps into their hearts. However, whether it is "The Conjuring", "It's Behind" or "The Witch", the core of the horror-thriller element is always supernatural power. Feder Alvarez is smart. Wanting to make a difference in the field of horror and thriller that I like, but avoid the too popular element of supernatural power, so I carefully arranged a closed escape night scene to provoke the nerves of the audience.
In "The Witch", a family is exiled into the wilderness for religious reasons, and unfortunately steps into the territory of the devil's feet and brings bloodshed. The whole movie is slow-paced, simple in plot, and good in dialogue. Instead of constructing the image of a terrifying witch to achieve a terrifying effect by being surprised, instead, let you sneak a glance at the scene of killing a baby, smearing the body with its blood, etc., so that the horror can be immersed in a little bit. heart. This sense of terror has been accumulating into a sense of unease in the slow pace. At the end, the eldest daughter finally killed with a knife and turned her feet into a witch. After the uneasy feeling in her heart was released, the meaning of terror came back to her heart.
When the family moved into the new home in "The Conjuring 1", Wen Ziren introduced the structure of the new home with a beautiful long shot. Coincidentally, Alvarez also used such a long mirror to peep into the blind's residence like a peep, and opened the prelude to the next scene, which was carefully designed to hold the audience's breath. In order to maintain a fast pace, "Hold Your Breath" has weakened the background of the characters, and the ups and downs of the plot have been given priority. The film is less than 90 minutes long, and it is very full, and it begins to enter the main hunting scene in more than ten minutes. Some people may criticize the thinness of the character creation, the filming of the tense scenes is too full, and the characters are compressed and unable to stand up. But that's where it excels. If "The Witch" is a horror essay, "Hold Your Breath" is a very tight short story. The latter is the ultimate in stimulating the senses, hunted by blind people in the dark, confined spaces, cat-and-mouse games, multiple reversals, plus a bit of disgusting evil taste, the whole process makes the audience's palms sweat like pins and needles.
This is the quietest movie I've seen this year. When I was most nervous, the whole theater was so quiet that I could hear the sound of breathing clearly. It was not only the young thieves who were hunted down in the movie who held their breath, but also the audience in the movie theater who were convinced by the director's shocking layout. That alone makes Hold Your Breath a success.
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