Movies
In/Sight
“Insight is not horror movie in the classic sense; it’s much more of a dramatic mystery. However, taking the horrors of everyday life in this crazy world – like murder and mental illness – into consideration, it fits nicely into the genre.”
Is it just me or do people eat Chinese food out of takeout containers with chopsticks while drinking wine only in the movies? And why do situations like this always turn into banging? Chinese food alone is a bit vile in the after taste – but mix it with wine and I’m be heading for the Listerine before I go to make it with some dude I barely know. Thankfully, the scene from Richard Gabai’s Insight, which was easy to predict, didn’t follow with a morning make-out session (sans brushing again).
Kaitlyn (Natalie Zea) is an ER nurse, a profession which most likely involves her saving lives on a daily basis. One night, while trying to revive Allison (a stabbing victim), she gets zapped by the defibrillator paddles. Suddenly, she is immersed with visions of Allison’s life, and desperately seeks to solve the murder. While on the case, she strikes up a relationship with Detective Peter Rafferty (Sean Patrick Flanery) that leads to the previously mentioned scene – these types of situations always happen, don’t they? As she delves deeper, she seeks out Allison’s psychologist, Adam Baldwin’s character (psst, he’s not a REAL Baldwin), and discovers that he may have crossed the line with the dead girl – again, something that seems to always happen. She also realizes that she may have some mental issues to work out with her own doctor, Lisa Rosen (Juliet Landau aka Drusilla from Buffy fame).
Despite all of this, Insight is still an incredibly well done movie. While having a slow pace throughout the first half, Insight gains momentum when secrets are revealed at the climax. Then as soon as they rear their heads and we think all will be revealed, the film abruptly stops, leaving more questions behind. In the short time it is on screen, the film’s most powerful moments are based around Zea’s performance. She is amazing in a significant, emotionally heartbreaking scene – so amazing that I was in tears for the brief minute it lasted.
But there are little hiccups that take away from Insight reaching perfection. Plot holes make up the majority of the bumps, such as the fact that we never truly find out who Allison’s murderer is. Christopher Lloyd’s character, Shep, who is sadly underused and Allison’s boyfriend, Steven (American Pie’s Thomas Ian Nicolas), a DJ that is spinning records just days after his girlfriend’s murder, barely qualify as fully fleshed-out characters. Truth be told, it was hard to tell if they were not needed, or if their existence had been heavily edited.
Though its twists and turns are more calculated and drawn out than needed, the overall quality is superb. Hospital scenes, the murder scene, apartment and house sets – all seem legitimate rather than taking one out of the movie experience. Editing is very well done – and there are vital scenes based around the secrets that are so subtle that they enhance the mystery.
Insight is not horror movie in the classic sense; it’s much more of a dramatic mystery. However, taking the horrors of everyday life in this crazy world – like murder and mental illness – into consideration, it fits nicely into the genre.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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