10/17: Last Shift and Paranormal Activity, Revisited

10/17

Generally for the Horror Binge, I try to shoot for movies that I haven't seen before. Over 8 years of this, I've seen most of the classics, so I like to venture into unknown territory. Occasionally I find gems, many times turds, but I have a lot of fun exploring new stuff. Sometimes, though, I like to go back and revisit movies I've watched before or in past binges. Last night we had some friends over and decided to watch some movies I've seen and given good reviews to in the past. Did they hold up? Well continue reading to find out, fool.

Sorry I called you fool. That was rude.

Last Shift

I last watched Last Shift in 2017, and in my review then I gave it a 9/10. Honestly... I'm not sure why. I must have been in a mood or something at the time because on this rewatch... yeesh. Look, Last Shift isn't a bad movie. It's just not necessarily a good one either. One of my friends described it as coming off like a student's film school project and he's totally right. It falls to kitchen sink syndrome and just feels generally juvenile, from the dialogue to the plot. Things are contrived for the sole purpose of furthering the plot and it just comes off as weak. There are some genuinely terrifying moments though, the concept is cool, and the ending is surprising, but I definitely don't know what I loved so much about it the first time. 

6.5/10

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity has been a movie for years that I've held up as one of the best horror movies of all time. I last reviewed it in 2011, and a couple years ago it even made my list of my top 10 favorite horror movies at number 8. It's been years since I've watched it, so it was an interesting experience going back. I know the movie gets a lot of hate, and while I sort of understand it, I always felt the hate was largely undeserved. 

So with this rewatch, I have to say: my opinion has smuddied a little bit. I still feel that the movie was incredibly well made, actually scary, and I will never forget seeing it in the theater way back when it came out and there was all the hullabaloo around it. But I think that experience of seeing it in the theater and it genuinely messing me up has maybe colored my view of it. 10+ years later, it's begun to show it's age a touch. Maybe it's all the movies like it that have come after, but the scares are harder to come by on repeat watches and on a home screen. Maybe get someone who hasn't seen it before with some nice surround sound and you could perhaps replicate the experience. Without that though it's still a great scary movie, but it's lost a bit of it's loftiness for me and I think even gets bumped from the top 10. C'est la vie. 

9/10