On this, the day of the Great Pumpkin’s return, I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to showcase a trailer in the horror vein. As with most horror movies, I, myself, probably won’t end up seeing this—against my better judgement, my viewing of a horror film is usually directly correlated to how grave its potential for badness is—yet there are some things within this film’s trailer that intrigue me. Maybe even enough to watch it.
TW for suffocation and blood.
With a title like Keep Watching and the trailer’s obsession with technology, I was entirely prepared to roll my eyes. Given the older generations’ general distaste and loud criticisms of the way Millennials and Generation X-ers do just about everything I was completely sure that this was going to be some thinly veiled cautionary tale about being connected 24/7. Social media is bad; selfies are the devil; families don’t talk anymore because the internet slashed our vocal chords; that kind of thing. While it does look like the creepy antagonists in this film are using cameras and webcams to keep an eye on their victims, the Mitchell family, the main crux of the evil seems squarely put on these folks that literally invaded this family’s home, not on the prevalence of modern technology.
Despite the glaring whiteness of this film, the one thing that really caught my attention was the agency given to the family. Though the Mitchell father ends up murdered by the sickos who are running this “game”, the other three members not only band together, but seem to be encouraged to work together to take down their captors. Horror movies play off of the intrinsic feelings of helplessness that settle in when things out of our control and knowledge happen, it’s part of why this genre is so universal. Keep Watching maintains that feeling of terror and unknowing, but in giving the family a reason to work together and a clear goal, there’s a good chance that it’ll avoid unfortunate gendered tropes during its run. If you’re all working together, then there’s no reason that the surviving son needs to “prove his manliness” by going off on his own to kill the things himself. And if the family is keeping close to each other, than none of the women will be forced to be the final girl.
In many ways I’m sure that Keep Watching will be a typical, mediocre horror movie. Still, if the film ends up being similar to what the trailer showed, there’s a chance that it’ll be more than a heart-pounding 90 minute jumpscare fest and end up having something interesting to bring to its viewers. If this trailer intrigues, you don’t have to wait long at all to go see it! Keep Watching comes to a theater near you tonight (October 31st)! If you don’t have plans for Halloween already, there are probably worse things you could do than check this out.
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