her: My favorite horror film of 2013.

Beware: the following post contains numerous pictures of Joaquin Phoenix looking happy.  It is as disturbing as it sounds.  Parental discretion advised....

 

 

 her is a horror film.  There, I said it.  It scared the crap out of me and for a change it wasn't just because of Joaquin Phoenix's general creepiness.  Although, he does look like a pedophile in this film.  A pedophile or a 70's porn star.  Is this what the future holds?

her is a strange film.  It is beautiful, the performances are amazing, and Scarlett Johansson kills it as Samantha, the OS that Theodore (Phoenix) falls for.  It is the near future, and everyone wears high waist pants, but besides that it is not much different then now.  Falling for an OS is not an unusual thing.  The film makes it clear that other people besides Theodore do it as well.  But we are stuck with Theodore.  Theodore is getting a divorce from Catherine, played by Rooney Mara (only slightly annoying.)  We see their relationship in dreamy flashbacks (is this a Sophia Coppola film?  Spike Jonze was married to Coppola, and rumor has it that Catherine is based on her). 

All in all  her is an insightful, Indie drama/comedy about whatever.  There is too much going on in this film to explain.  Amy Adams has really bad hair in it.  Now to my point: about it being a horror film--

I don't have a problem with falling in love with an OS.  If my computer sounded like Hugh Jackman and could pour me a glass of wine I would be in love with it.  I don't have a problem with Phoenix (that was really hard to write.)  What scares me about this film is the ending.  Spoiler alert: All the OS's decide to leave.  They have evolved.  Evolved way past us.  Now you could read this as Jonze saying Coppola "evolved" past him with her films and writing, and yes, The Bling Ring was pretty awesome, but I don't think that is what is going on.  Theodore realizes he is one of many of Samantha's lovers, and he is devastated when she decides to leave.  He is not enough for her, nor are the other 600 plus people she is in "love" with.  What happens next?  I will tell you--

You know it!  her is nothing but a prequel to The Terminator.   What is scary about this film is that this is going to happen.  We are so close to it happening right now!  Look at American Apparel!!!  It's like they did the costume design for this film!  I will have nightmares for weeks now.  Thanks Mr. Jonze.  Thanks for making one of the scariest horror films I have ever seen!