Caitlyn

Y'all were *not *lying about the gore - this shit was nasty. The effects in this were fantastically grotesque (especially loved the stop-motion, dissolving demons finale), and I appreciate Raimi's utter disregard for anything other than scares and blood. Heavy on the blood. I felt so bad for Cheryl. The tree rape scene was some incredibly unnecessary, mean-spirited shit. Nearly turned the movie off there. Excluding that scene, *The Evil Dead* is a fun, gorey time with fantastic practical effects and some solid scares.

Wow!!! Much to say. Lawrence's arc is incredibly tragic. As a character, I found him in parts magnetic and insufferable. His transition from a mostly harmless, quirky British boy to a borderline prophetic figure consumed by ego (basically *Lisan Al-Gaib*, no way Frank Herbert didn't draw influence from this film) was enthralling. The final hour of the film put a pit in my stomach, and it didn't go away until I'd sorted all my thoughts on the film's appropriately bleak ending. I especially adored the cinematography! Lawrence of Arabia's wideshots - grand, sweeping portraits of the immense desert landscape - are the perfect visual adaptation of the film's epic narrative. I can see how someone might find the persistent wide-focus grating, but I found them interspersed with enough visual breaks to maintain my attention. There are strong undercurrents of orientalism and imperialist sentiments throughout - which I suspect derives from both T. E. Lawrence's own racist and imperialist sentiments as well as the filmmakers' biases. The film's presentation of Lawrence as a mythic figure, in my opinion, overshadowed its depiction of his flaws. I *could* argue his tragic downfall lent to his mythicality - an *Achille's heel*, rather than a man's ugly complexity.* *Ultimately, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. Lastly, Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole have fantastic chemistry as Ali and Lawrence. Absolutely nuclear levels of homoerotic yearning going on there.

My guiltiest of guilty pleasures is youtube ghost-hunting videos... so imagine my surprise when this didn't do it for me. The first act had me hooked. The premise was intriguing, the protagonist was tolerably annoying (in the way that all youtube ghost hunters are), and the film maintained an aura of suspense. I think Deadstream fell apart for me when it veered solidly into horror-comedy territory. The humor hinges entirely on Deadstream's solo protagonist, Shawn, who is not for everyone. (Or even for most people - and especially not for me.) His is very much Millenial humor, and not in an endearing way. Deadstream's attempts at replicating internet culture further alienated me from the film. I had to hear PewDiePie mentioned in a feature-length film. More than once. And I hate to say this of a film that was clearly made on a low budget, but the effects in this film were astonishingly bad. It does suck that this wasn't a hit for me. If anyone has any recs for films with a similar premise, please let me know!