What's so great about Audition (1999)?

It's considered to be a great horror classic that I keep reading about, and so I checked it out, and on a first initial viewing anyway, I don't really see what all the hype is about. It's basically another retelling of the Fatal Attraction/Play Misty For Me type story, which I feel I have seen before. Not that this makes it a bad movie, I just don't see what's so great about it since I feel it's been done before.

But what do you think, did I miss something?

I'm not sure the horror aspect had been done before (I found it pretty stomach-churning) but yeah it's a similar plot to the films you mention. Play Misty for Me's great .

First, I dont think its a "great horror classic" necessarily. And you probably shouldnt have gone into it like that. Its a solid film. I gave it a 3 out of 5. But its confusing and frustrating on many levels so I wasnt super impressed. There were many things I did like about it and I think you truly limit yourself if your basis of judgment is "this has been done before" because youve just eliminated 99.9% of all movies. And anyway I disagree that its a carbon copy of Fatal Attraction of the like because you just dont REALLY know whats going on. Its not straight forward and theres visual metaphors mixed in with reality that makes things difficult to perceive. And I personally couldnt figure out where reality ended and the metaphors started. There are long clear dream sequences that dominate the last 25 minutes of the film. The dream sequences are not straight forward and you are left asking is he awake now? is he dreaming he is dreaming now? was what we were thinking was reality actually a dream? did he misremember how things went and now we are seeing how they really went? or is his mind reeling and he is full out projecting things based on his feelings of guilt and fear and paranoia? does the chick really have issues? where does her true persona end and his concept of her begin? etc.

Miike purposefully leaves a lot of things open ended of course. But in this case I think it hurts the film some. Because all I got is 1000 possibilities. All I got is a chaotic confusing morass of metaphor and reality where Im constantly rethinking and reinterpreting my point of view every 20 seconds or so with every new thing I see. And thats frustrating, thats not enlightening. Backpedaling, assuming, unassuming... I want an answer not some kind of pyscho-cinematographic merry go round where I can have it mean "whatever I want it to mean". Bleh. BUT I did enjoy the intensity of the film and the slow mystery it develops. And I did like how they kind of keep you sedated with the presentation before jumping on you at the very end with an act of shocking violence that catches you off guard. I always appreciate a film that can get past my defenses that way. But its no masterpiece.

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Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...

I was very disappointed. It probably didn't help that I already knew about the shocks.