2020 Horror Part Two

POSSESSOR

Dir - Brandon Cronenberg

Overall: GOOD

 

Like Antiviral before it, Brandon Cronenberg's sophomore effort Possessor unabashedly channels the work of his famous father while simultaneously helping to carve out an impressive niche for himself.  More ambitious, more violent, and more savagely unnerving than his debut, Possessor is equal parts Black Mirror, The Matrix, Inception, and the good ole Cronenberg body horror stock and trade.  While various points of origin are noticeable, these elements are fused uniquely due to a confident vision.  Like most good, challenging science fiction, the film showcases the dark, humanity sucking consequences of technological advancement.  The world seems both polished and high end, yet also lived in.  Visually, its bloodshed and nightmarish glitches are as vibrant as they are deeply disturbing.  The two leads in Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott, (the latter of whom pulls an even more impressive dual role of sorts), bring a cold, emotionally challenged undercurrent to the movie's central theme of human alienation and detachment.  While the gore factor is cranked up considerably even by modern standards and moments of cheerful uplifting are none to be found, it is an excellent work for those looking to have their buttons psychologically pushed.

 

HOST

Dir - Rob Savage
Overall: MEH

If one were to be generous, Rob Savage's COVID-19 quarantine inspired Host could be seen as the found footage equivalent to gas station food.  It provides absolutely zero essential nourishment, but if you are in a jam and do not feel like putting any effort into resisting the urge to indulge in sodium and sugar loaded garbage for the mere immediate thrill of it, then go crazy.  On paper, Host has an interesting set up.  Filmed in 2020, post-pandemic and based on a YouTube short that he posted shortly beforehand, Savage seems to have found a clever way around making a movie in such an environment.  If everyone cannot safely be around each other on a film set, why not just shoot it on Zoom?  The movie's inventiveness unfortunately begins and ends there as it is a gross, criminally insulting barrage of found footage cliches all across the board.  At only fifty-six minutes in length, it seems to pack just as many jump scares into it and no explanation is remotely bothered with in giving several people a reason to not even think of calling the cops while walking around terrified with laptops and no lights on so we can all see spooky stuff happening.  Props for giving such an idea a try and besides its forgivable running time and one or two "Yeah that's somewhat creepy" beats, it is the same shit, different found footage movie.

#ALIVE

Dir - Cho Il-hyung
Overall: GOOD

Yet another contemporary South Korean zombie film, director Cho Il-hyung's debut Alive is as strong of an entry into the over-saturated sub-genre as can be.  Being rather potent for the time by arriving in a real life COVID-19 pandemic and utilizing the gimmick of people told to stay in their homes during a flesh-eating corpse outbreak, it carries some immediate, topical weight that otherwise would be lacking if the film arrived just a handful of months earlier.  The moments of frenzied, zombie mayhem are routinely boring and go the same routes as the boatloads of other such movies that have been churned out over the last few decades, but the film wisely does not make such things its primary focus.  Instead, most of the time is spent on its very small number of uninfected characters, examining the traumatic coping mechanisms of people shut off from society and trying desperately to find the emotional strength needed to survive.  The film is intentionally funny at times and such scenes never seem out of place under the serious, heartfelt ones.  Best of all, it is also legitimately hopeful, which is a welcome change from the more dour tone many movies of such ilk often take.

2020 Horror Part One

RELIC

Dir - Natalie Erika James

Overall: MEH

 

A great deal of symbolism is at play in Natalie Erika James' full-length debut Relic; a grim, slow-boil dissension into the deteriorating mental and emotional strain of losing a loved one to time.  On the nose symbolism like black mold appearing on both the interior of a house and the body of an elderly woman represents the disintegration of their physical forms.  The fact that these forms are each connected to memories and loved ones renders the metaphor as anything but ambiguous.  James makes an all too common error though which is how the movie relies on derivative and unengaging horror tropes.  Its structure is very textbook, unfolding gradually with increasingly more sinister moments building to a tense conclusion, and there are monsters creeping under beds or visible to the audience but not the characters, hidden, looping, bizarro-world dimensions being uncovered, characters standing emotionless and hurting/peeing themselves, jump scares, and several concerning supernatural occurrences taking place that none of the characters mention to anyone and just shrug off and deal with.  It is effective in its poignancy, but delivers less than it should everywhere else.

THE INVISIBLE MAN
Dir - Leigh Whannell
Overall: MEH

After multiple botched attempts to make a Universal monsters cinematic universe, (one of Hollywood's most bonehead ideas in recent times), such a concept has at least been temporarily abandoned in the wake of the Universal/Blumhouse co-production The Invisible Man which is a stand alone story.  The first issue is in the fact that it is called The Invisible Man.  Besides there being such a man and that his last name is Griffin, literally no other similarities between this and H.G. Wells source material exist.  Meaning the only reason it is called this is because it is an existing property.  Complaining about major studios not investing money on original content void of all brand recognition is a futile exercise though so, moving on.  Directed by frequent James Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell, it is modern day horror all the way through, down to the muted color tones, swelling noise on the soundtrack leading into dead silence at the beginning, a plot twist, plenty of jump scares, and a pacing that moves too quick to fix all of its plot inconsistencies.  There are plenty of other even older cliches thrown into the mix and at its core, the film is another tale of a woman made to look crazy in a horror movie, except this time through the veil of a narcissistic, stalking control freak.  The premise is acceptable, but the entire film drains all of its mileage from it and in the process, it not only falls apart under a microscope, but its bombardment of familiar tropes and rehashed modern sensibilities do not elevate it above that premise.

 

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT

Dir - David Koepp

Overall: MEH

 

The latest genre offering from prolific screenwriter/occasional director David Koepp You Should Have Left once again finds him working with a now-looking-his-sixty-two-years-of-age Kevin Bacon, also joined by Amanda Seyfried who is literally almost half said age.  At least such a usual, glossed-over Hollywood double standard of the elderly leading man paired romantically with a still young and wrinkle-free leading lady is addressed in the actual story itself which is an adaptation of Daniel Kehlman's novel of the same name.  As far as the resulting foray into supernatural horror, it is a typical example of a sturdy enough premise bogged down predictably by a terribly tripe presentation.  Numerous jump scares, a lack of rules established for the arbitrarily spooky set pieces that transpire, a whispering kid, nightmare sequences that every character jumps straight up in bed out of, the ole "We just spent hours walking away from this house that makes us feel trapped only to arrive right back at it" plot point, the ole "Person moves but their reflection doesn't move with them" gag, unnecessarily cryptic and rude locals, an ending where characters make utterly moronic decisions as an only means to move things to their heightened conclusion, etc.  It is a shame as Bacon and Seyfried do an admirable job as a doomed couple and themes of all-consuming guilt manifesting themselves horrifically would be so much more engaging if a far less pedestrian execution was utilized.

2019 Horror Part Eight

BLISS

Dir - Joe Begos

Overall: GOOD

The second of three films to be released in the last four years titled Bliss is another in a stream of horror entries for filmmaker Joe Begos.  Though its protagonist is detrimentally unlikable, (not the performance from Dora Madison but the character herself), and it is rather difficult if not outright impossible to feel sympathy for anyone else on screen either, the movie gets by with a heaping amount of style.  Seedy, sleazy, coked-out, and ultra-violent, it takes a uniquely over the top approach to its subject matter of the abandonment of the soul through barbaric drug use and artistic frustration.  By using such things as mounted cameras, striking and dark purples, reds, and blues, seizure-inducing editing, surreal visuals, and a soundtrack that blends doom metal, punk rock, retro 80s horror synths, Eric Clapton-esque Lethal Weapon guitar solos, and eerie atmospherics, it is consistently feverish.  Since it is low on actual story, unfortunately it becomes one-note after awhile with people screaming the word "Fuck" every three seconds and spastic, loud, gooey blood spewing everywhere.  That said, such extremities do enhance the mania and it works as a grandiose nightmare above anything else.

 

SAINT MAUD

Dir - Rose Glass

Overall: GOOD

Another in a current line of powerful, challenging, intellectually potent debut horror films being made, British writer/director Rose Glass' Saint Maud takes a highly atmospheric approach to a story centered around the co-existence of religious fanaticism and schizophrenia.  From the slow, opening shot and unsettling, ambient sound design, Glass structures a simmering, dreadful mood.  Spending the entire movie in the very disturbed psyche of the title character, (played fantastically by Welsh actress Morfydd Clark), who narrates her direct communication with god, things become increasingly concerning as the tole and struggles of her self-maintained, nomadic lifestyle grows disturbingly unhinged.  The conservatively used horror genre tactics almost seem unnecessary not just because Glass hardly bothers with them in the first place, but also because the psychological aspects unfold very slowly and offer up a far more eerie picture than one or two creepy CGI face morphs or loud jolts on the soundtrack.  The story is clear cut enough that there is not much to decipher as far as what is real or not, but as a character study for such ominous neurosis, it is quite fascinating and artfully done.

READY OR NOT

Dir - Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/Tyler Gillett

Overall: GOOD

The team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from Radio Silence fame comparatively improve upon their full-length, rather lousy debut Devil's Due with Ready or Not.  While the script from Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy is not the tightest in the world and some of the humor does not quite land, it has a goofy charm that carries it through most of the way.  The premise, though flimsy, does lend itself to some amusing, violent mayhem due to the filmmakers and cast not taking anything very seriously.  As the movie's version of a final girl of sorts, Samara Weaving is charming and sympathetic, which is necessary to make the rest of the film's flaws more forgiving.  Just when things seems to get too darkly serious and emotional, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett usually find a way to swing it all back around, never completely losing the objective to take the piss out of upper-class self-importance and "tradition and family over everything" type nonsensical thinking.  As a whole, it is certainly imperfect, but the multitude of clever moments that hit their mark are probably enough in number to suffice.

2019 Horror Part Seven

VIVARIUM

Dir - Lorcan Finnegan

Overall: GOOD

A highly effective if not all together unambiguous delving into the seldom tapped realm of soccer mom horror, Vivarium paints a puzzling and disturbed picture of domesticated suburbia.  An international production directed by Lorcan Finnegan and authored by screenwriter Garrett Shanley, (both Irish and both of whom also worked together on their collective debut Without Name), it explores themes of parenthood and complacency and skews things to Twilight Zone level extremes.  In the process, people's humanity is brought to the brink of collapse by such surface level idealness becoming an increasingly, unavoidable nightmare.  Besides three enormously creepy performances from actors both literally and probably playing the same character, Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg are essentially left to carry the entire film and their descent into despair is effectively harrowing.  Visually, the movie makes its picturesque and sterile setting full of identical, perfectly maintained homes and a never changing, sunny skyline quite unwholesome.  Rather appropriately then, the ending is tightly wrapped up only on a surface level as the deep, dark secrets lie underneath it all and are as impenetrable as when the film began.

Z

Dir - Brandon Christensen

Overall: MEH

 

Generally, the imaginary friend horror trope is one of many utilized in haunted house stories again and again, so singling it out as the basis for an entire premise does not set things up in a very unique fashion.  Sadly, it does not get any more singular from there in director Brandon Christensen's Z.  Everything from spontaneous and ill-advised baths, to a kid behaving like a brat and the father finding nothing wrong with it, to no one believing the hysterical woman, to supernatural forces arbitrarily fucking around and wasting time, it all provides the film with the most lazy methods to create a would-be creepy mood and bring things from point A to point B.  While it is surprisingly low on jump scares, it makes up for it by punctuating nearly every single scene with loud ambient swells to the point of annoyance.  In any event, the movie is far too formulaic in both cinematic presentation and from a narrative standpoint to spark much interest outside of providing just a small handful of boilerplate, predictable jolts.

GIRL ON THE THIRD FLOOR

Dir - Travis Stevens

Overall: GOOD

The full-length debut from filmmaker Travis Stevens, Girl on the Third Floor initially sets itself up as a typical "family from the city moves into a creepy old house" movie, yet it consistently ventures into unexpected terrain.  Mostly well scripted and featuring an often funny, toxic masculinity-parodying lead performance from CM Punk, it technically takes a slow boil approach while avoiding all of the commonplace, supernatural pratfalls that such films often abuse.  Though it ends up taking a full hour until things start to go especially cuckoo, once it does, the results are a fun combination of gross-out spectacle, WTF aesthetics, and disturbing creepiness.  With so much on its plate, things easily could have become messy or poorly focused.  Stevens controls it all rather effectively though, due to the increasingly surreal nature that lends itself well to when things get laugh-out-loud absurd.  The ending is a bit rushed and awkward though again, it is not particularly disappointing due to the strange nature of the entire presentation.  Imperfect perhaps, but easily refreshing and odd enough to single out.

2019 Horror Part Six

THE LODGE

Dir - Veronika Franz/Severin Fiala

Overall: MEH

The latest from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, (Goodnight Mommy), The Lodge was original scripted by Sergio Casci, then reworked by the Austrian director duo after Hammer Films got them on board.  For a considerable while, the movie works wonderfully as an unnerving psychological nightmare that patiently builds its ominous tone.  Though it uses some familiar narrative tropes like an isolated location in the middle of winter, a mentally unstable, medicated protagonist who is quick to disturbed, walking dreams, and an ideal situation for a haunting to be taking place, these conventions are weaved compellingly.  A bold move is taken though in how the mysterious plot points are ultimately explained.  By slowly cranking up the tension and letting the character's religious struggles overtake them, an attempt was made to make the final rug pull gloss over the now apparent plot holes and "Oh, that's all that was going on?" disappointment of such a reveal.  What follows though is just staggeringly depressing and clashes in a more uncomfortable way than what was being previously established.  While it fumbles the ball when it counts, the lead performance by Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough is excellent and forgiving viewers can certainly get enough out of what is expertly done before the final act.

DOGS DON'T WEAR PANTS

Dir - J-P Valkeapää

Overall: GOOD

 

For J-P Valkeapää's dark, quasi-thriller/comedy Dogs Don't Wear Pants, (Koirat eivät käytä housuja), that often strange and primarily unspoken bond between dominatrix and pet is fascinatingly explored.  The film has obvious elements of eroticism, but also moments that dip into torture porn for those squeamish about more things than whips, leather, erotic asphyxiation, and water sports.  Akin to Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece Last Tango in Paris though, its primarily a deeply harrowing drama about extreme grief manifesting itself through sexual taboos.  Some of the film is played for laughs, but these moments wisely come from not just the audience finding amusement at the on-paper absurdity of certain moments, but the characters as well that seem to be comprehending in real time how such seemingly unhealthy kinks have zombiefied their very lives.  Valkeapää does not let the viewer off easy by thinly riding some intentionally awkward, comedic beats as they are all accompanied by a rather desperate despair that causes some quite disturbing events to snowball.  If the movie ended on more of a downer, than it would likely be too much to bare.  Instead, the characters seem to find a sort of happiness or at least fittingly odd acceptance of where their journey has brought them.

THE CLEANSING HOUR

Dir - Damien LeVeck

Overall: WOOF

Ill-fated with a hokey premise and an almost criminally schlocky presentation, Damien LaVeck's The Cleansing Hour is a full-length adaptation of his earlier short of the same name.  LeVeck is clearly going for such a trashy, loud, messy, bloody, B-movie vibe, but the hack-level comedy jives in a most embarrassing fashion with the more modern day, disturbing qualities that it simultaneously launches into.  It is a common tonal issue problem of not being silly or serious enough in either direction, instead just lingering awkwardly and stupidly in the middle.  While it is impossible to take the movie seriously then, one has to have a craving for not just gross-out gore, amateurish CGI, and demonic possession stereotypes left and right, but also bro-centric posturing and the concept of an evil spirit that spouts incessant, groan-worthy cliches in a distorted voice.  All of this is meant to be bad-ass and amusing, but instead it is neither of those two things.  Not by a long shot.

2019 Horror Part Five

THE PLATFORM
Dir - Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Overall: GOOD

A bold, quasi-horror/science fiction film and the full-length debut from Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, The Platform, (El hoyo), takes a savage, uncompromising look at socialism and the distribution of wealth.  Based off of a script for a theater production by screenwriters David Desola and Pedro Rivero, the premise becomes unsettling rather quickly and Gaztelu-Urrutia does not make things easy on the viewer at virtually any point, lest of all as the story progresses.  Things never become gratuitous though; instead there is a definite purpose to the brutality.  While numerous movies feature a prison with a disturbing gimmick to overcome, The Platform does not make such a gimmick its primary focus.  Instead, it is the social and economic themes that take center stage.  Featuring unflinching violence and torture porn aesthetics, few punches if any are pulled and those who are squeamish may find it an unpleasant experience that is not worth the complicated questions it raises.  For those that can stomach the highly uncomfortable proceedings though, it is an impressive work.

SWALLOW

Dir - Carlo Mirabella-Davis

Overall: GOOD

Taking the wildly overlooked premise of pica, (a disorder where individuals are compelled to consume inedible objects), Carlo Mirabella-Davis' Swallow is off to a unique start.  While its classification as a horror film is murky at best, it works far better as a psychological study of not just the rather bizarre mental condition, but more importantly such topics as narcissism and emotional belittlement.  In the lead role as a woman who came from trauma only to be "lucky" enough to end up as the complacent housewife to a wealthy, handsome future CEO of his even more well-to-do father's company, Haley Bennett is consistently sympathetic even as her behavior spirals recklessly.  At times, Mirabella-Davis' script seems to portray its less agreeable characters too broadly, but then moments will arise that humanize them just enough to make them less one-dimensional by not outright condoling their actions.  This all grounds the movie considerably, showing the human flaws of everyone involved.  The open-ended finish may not necessarily bring proper narrative closure, but it is uplifting all the same and lets the audience ponder things themselves.

I TRAPPED THE DEVIL

Dir - Josh Lobo

Overall: MEH

 

The debut from independent filmmaker Josh Lobo, I Trapped the Devil is fiendishly atmospheric yet bogged down by amateurish plotting and performances.  The premise leads itself to some sinister, psychological manipulation for its characters, but the script does not take quite enough advantage of this aspect.  Lobo is instead primarily concerned with curating a very tense, eerie mood, though he does so at the expense of believable storytelling.  Minor, unnecessary plot holes spring up and everything is left so cryptic that the whole thing garnishes a half-baked kind of feel.  At times the three leads in A.J. Bowen, Scott Poythress, and Susan Burke seem properly weighed-down by the suffocating ambience, but at other times their line readings are a bit stiff.  Loblo ultimately leaves too many things ill-defined and wide open though not in a successfully pondering way.  What the film achieves in maintaining a slow-boil, heightened type of dread is indeed admirable, but everything else about it does not quite come together satisfyingly.

2019 Horror Part Four

DANIEL ISN'T REAL

Dir - Adam Egypt Mortimer

Overall: GOOD

The sophomore effort from writer/director Adam Egypt Mortimer, Daniel Isn't Real is an adaptation of Brian DeeLeeuw's novel In This Way I Was Saved, (DeeLeeuw co-writing the screenplay here as well).  Staring two sons of famous actors in Miles Robbins and Patrick Schwarzenegger, it plays with an interesting premise of mental illness manifesting itself both literally and disturbingly.  Mortimer lets loose with some freaky, body horror visuals, preferring to tease many of them almost subliminally in a tripped-out fashion as the story becomes more and more unraveled.  Though the film plays heavily on its psychological elements, things do become more directly supernatural after awhile.  Thankfully, Mortimer peels back these layers in a stylish and controlled manner as not to make things fall apart too much as they easily could have.  While it does not follow its own narrative rules 100% consistently and both Robbins and Schwarzenegger may be a bit too dashing and pretty to be as relatable as would be preferred, it is a solid work that does more than enough cleverly to recommend.

COLOR OUT OF SPACE
Dir - Richard Stanley
Overall: GOOD

It ended up taking Richard Stanley twenty-three years since the legendary debacle that was 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau, (for which he developed and was then fired from a mere three days into shooting), to get another full-length project off the ground.  With such an outrageous gap, the resulting H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space may as well be a debut and a vividly demented one at that.  Using such source material, it pulls off a nifty trick by having increasingly ridiculous performances and dialog fit the steadfast Lovecraftian theme of madness.  The more things unravel and the more comical they become, the more the author's work faithfully comes to life.  In a role tailor-made for him, Nicolas Cage once again goes full Nicolas Cage, indulging in numerous scenes where he screams, becomes violent, screams some more, changes his accent, and then follows it up with more screaming.  Elsewhere, Stanley lays on the cliches too thick at times, with a couple jump scares, a creepy kid talking to invisible things, (seven year old Julian Hilliard who has to date appeared exclusively in horror movies playing creepy kids), and predictable shots that are all meant to be scary yet have been tediously overused to the point of no longer connecting.  Still, it is a mostly satisfactory work and always nice to see a filmmaker returning after so very long with a fully-formed vision in tow.

VEROTIKA
Dir - Glen Danzig
Overall: WOOF

Only every so often does a cinematic trainwreck gem come along that truly deserves a standing ovation.  Verotika, (the directorial debut from Glen Danzig), is just such a gem.  Awkwardly void of self-awareness with every last frame, Danzig employs a lack of talent behind the lens akin to such contemporary non-filmmakers such as Tommy Wiseau or Neil Breen.  It is a baffilingly hilarious experience more than could even be expected.  Of course when you are talking movie-making incompetence, it is not just bad acting on a criminal level, cheap sets, clueless cinematography, asinine dialog, and incoherent or even non-existent screenwriting, all of which this has in incalculable spades.  It is also just the complete inability to pace any of the scenes in a remotely engaging manner.  The three vignettes that make up this anthology "film" rely on a short, sentence long premise and continue to go virtually nowhere in every single instance as they are played out on screen.  Often times the dialog is as embarrassing as the "actors" delivering it, which is hard to imagine upon viewing.  By an overwhelming majority though, Danzig just refuses to yell "cut" and these poor people on screen are simply left to their own devices.  This makes every single moment that the camera keeps staying on them more and more uncomfortably ridiculous.  Whatever he was trying to accomplish, it is impossible to comprehend how he was not making an intentional comedy.  You really have to see it to believe it and even then, you still will not believe it.