“could you give me the number at the sorority house? please?”
“yeah, sure. It’s, ah… fellatio 20880. fellatio. It’s a new exchange, FE”
“that’s a new one on me. how do you spell it?”
“capital F, E, little l, L, A,, T, I, O.”
“thanks”
“don’t mention it”
i know this is a christmas movie, and that was two days ago.. but in my defence i watched this before christmas, plus it’s still december so why not. i’m a massive horror fan, and had an unhealthy obsessions with slashers for literally the longest time (i don’t really anymore, as i’ve already seen majority of the good ones, and there are truly some terrible ones out there). this slasher in particular had been on my radar, but since i’ve only really started getting into film since like april of this year, never got to watch it, and couldn’t get myself to watch it during summer or halloween. it is proclaimed as best of the best when it comes to the slasher subgenre (among other classics like halloween, scream, psycho etc) so my standards were high.. and by my rating, it’s clear they definitely were exceeded. not going to say this is my favourite slasher ever (as that title goes to scream) but it potentially could be top 5??. i think one of the main reason i and many others enjoy this as much as it the first real slasher (i know there were other ‘slashers’ in the past.. but this was the first one to really create the tropes) it uses technology as the killer uses phone calls to haunt and torment his victims, and also uses a really jittery, hand held camera to show the killers point of view. my main problem with slashers, especially more modern ones, is the complete reliance on jumpscares, which is honestly a tacky way to gain fear and never works on me. this movie instead builds up a really chilling, claustrophobic atmosphere to slowly build up the terror, through misogynistic phone calls and the killer being so close to his victims. the characters, unlike most horror movies, feel like real people rather than caricatures. they all had fleshed out character traits that makes you want to actually root for them, rather than against. the final girl is incredibly likeable, and another character that caught my eye was the middle aged woman who hides alcohol all throughout the sorority house, who just brought a little comedic element to an otherwise dread filled film. instead of using monsters or ghosts, the reason it’s so scary as it has a hint of realism. it shows how the killer, billy, is a realistic portrayal of a mentally disturbed serial killer, as he harasses women through a telephone. this movie also just tackles feminist topics with such taste, such as the abortion subplot, expressing that women should be able to do what they want with their bodies. also, the extremely ambiguous ending was immaculate. i love being left on a cliffhanger, as it allows you to make your own interpretation of what eventually happens. it’s a haunting final act, and more slashers should take inspiration from an ending like this.
“could you give me the number at the sorority house? please?”
“yeah, sure. It’s, ah… fellatio 20880. fellatio. It’s a new exchange, FE”
“that’s a new one on me. how do you spell it?”
“capital F, E, little l, L, A,, T, I, O.”
“thanks”
“don’t mention it”
i know this is a christmas movie, and that was two days ago.. but in my defence i watched this before christmas, plus it’s still december so why not. i’m a massive horror fan, and had an unhealthy obsessions with slashers for literally the longest time (i don’t really anymore, as i’ve already seen majority of the good ones, and there are truly some terrible ones out there). this slasher in particular had been on my radar, but since i’ve only really started getting into film since like april of this year, never got to watch it, and couldn’t get myself to watch it during summer or halloween. it is proclaimed as best of the best when it comes to the slasher subgenre (among other classics like halloween, scream, psycho etc) so my standards were high.. and by my rating, it’s clear they definitely were exceeded. not going to say this is my favourite slasher ever (as that title goes to scream) but it potentially could be top 5??. i think one of the main reason i and many others enjoy this as much as it the first real slasher (i know there were other ‘slashers’ in the past.. but this was the first one to really create the tropes) it uses technology as the killer uses phone calls to haunt and torment his victims, and also uses a really jittery, hand held camera to show the killers point of view. my main problem with slashers, especially more modern ones, is the complete reliance on jumpscares, which is honestly a tacky way to gain fear and never works on me. this movie instead builds up a really chilling, claustrophobic atmosphere to slowly build up the terror, through misogynistic phone calls and the killer being so close to his victims. the characters, unlike most horror movies, feel like real people rather than caricatures. they all had fleshed out character traits that makes you want to actually root for them, rather than against. the final girl is incredibly likeable, and another character that caught my eye was the middle aged woman who hides alcohol all throughout the sorority house, who just brought a little comedic element to an otherwise dread filled film. instead of using monsters or ghosts, the reason it’s so scary as it has a hint of realism. it shows how the killer, billy, is a realistic portrayal of a mentally disturbed serial killer, as he harasses women through a telephone. this movie also just tackles feminist topics with such taste, such as the abortion subplot, expressing that women should be able to do what they want with their bodies. also, the extremely ambiguous ending was immaculate. i love being left on a cliffhanger, as it allows you to make your own interpretation of what eventually happens. it’s a haunting final act, and more slashers should take inspiration from an ending like this.
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