Dir - Joko Anwar
Overall: MEH
The latest from Indonesian horror maestro Joko Anwar, Grave Torture, (Siksa Kubur), is a full-length expansion of his 2012 short film of the same name. An ambitious project that fuses over-the-top schlock with incessant musings on not just the Judeo-Islamic concept of "Siksa Kubur", but religion's place in society and how it motivates those to do selfless deeds for fear of eternal punishment. It concerns two siblings who are recently orphaned after a suicide bomber becomes convinced that the grave torture of the title is in fact real, though how blowing up a ton of innocent people will cause someone NOT to suffer perpetual torment in the afterlife is anyone's guess. This sets Faradina Mufti's grown protagonist, (played as a youngin by Widuri Puteri in the first act), to dispel such superstitious obsessions, herself becoming selfishly obsessed in the process. The narrative bounces around with no establishing shots and slams home its heavy ideas for just shy of two hours, unfortunately becoming exhaustive and unintentionally ridiculous as it goes on. Anwar embraces as many horror tropes as he can, (creepy ghost kids, jump scares, laughable CGI monsters and gore, grimy set design, arbitrary hallucinations, a tacky seance, etc), but his increasing attempts to be both profound and nail-biting miss their mark due to the overblown presentation.
Dir - Spider One
Overall: MEH
The third full-length in as many years from Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One, Little Bites tweaks the vampirism as addiction metaphor to a unique place, throwing in the trials and tribulations of motherhood with mixed results. Premise wise, pitting Krsy Fox' already troubled single parent against an undead fiend who chooses to torment her by slowly munching on her in exchange for her daughter's safety properly allows the story to explore its themes. What would a mother do to protect her young and how would she handle dealing with the world when a literal demon has invaded her home? It all sounds crazy and those around her certainly smell the crazy, and this is only based on outward appearances. While Fox' ravaged performance is appropriate and it is always nice to see Heather Langekamp and Barbara Crampton in anything, (plus Jon Sklaroff looks nice and monstrous as the blood-munching fiend), some plausibility is stretched to string things along. Bonnie Aarons, (not in creepy monster make-up for once), is ridiculous and cartoonishly unreasonable as Fox' mother, some Child Protective Services investigating comes off as sketchy, and the "Huh?" ending leaves much to be desired. The finale does not so much as undermine everything that came before it as it does confuse things, leaving behind something that has sincerity in spades, yet still makes a mess of itself.
Dir - Greg Jardin
Overall: GOOD
A close cousin to Halina Reijn's Gen Z-lambasting nightmare Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, It's What's Inside plays the same game of reuniting old friends who have unresolved issues witch each other in a large neon-lit mansion, except it trades off the murder-fueled mayhem for psychologically examining those issues with some sci-fi tech that does not go dangerously awry until an hour in. Once the inevitable predicament transpires, things get more ugly and less funny for a bit until we reach an ending that could only be migraine-inducing in its disastrous complexity. Writer/director Greg Jardin's script is plenty clever, and one of its best assets is how it takes a bunch of annoying millennial stereotypes, never makes any of them likeable, yet still presents them as relatable, complex, and flawed to the point where we can laugh at both the misfortune of some and the reap-what-you-sow-vengeance of others. It rides a thin line tonally, cutting to the core of people who have and continue to make mistakes and only feel empowered to express themselves fully when inside of another's body, (its a long story), but by carefully upping the havoc, Jardin allows us to vicariously enjoy where such disaster leads. It is like scratching a primordial mean kid itch, and the film's over-the-top scenario and sprinklings of goofiness make it go down easy enough where we do not feel so bad about ourselves, (or our own bad decisions), in comparison to the hapless saps on screen.
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