The Blackwell Ghost Series Part One

THE BLACKWELL GHOST

(2017)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

 

The first in the mockumentary series The Blackwell Ghost sets up the framework that would be adhered to from here on out, introducing us to our frustrated indie filmmaker who decides to take a break from making low-budget zombie movies and instead becomes a paranormal documentarian.  Writer/director/everythinger Turner Clay is just such a filmmaker, and he has a smug yet acceptable level of charm as the guy who we are primarily stuck with throughout the proceedings, narrating his escapades into a Pennsylvania property that experiences unexplained things like lights turning on, footsteps going up the stairs, a blurry white shape floating past the camera, and, (in the "thrilling" finale), water faucets running and a toy ball showing up somewhere creepy.  The problem with a movie like this is not so much in its execution which is presented as any documentary would be, (conventional editing, some scary musical ambiance, etc), but in the material itself.  Simply put, nothing that happens here is remotely frightening.  Since ghosts are not real, a film examining such a phenomenon in a manner that would fool dummies into thinking that this was not all smoke and mirrors, (i.e. actually being "found footage"), faces an uphill battle to begin with.  In this case, it only generates mediocre results.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 2

(2018)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

The plot only thickens by an incremental margin in Turner Clay's The Blackwell Ghost 2; an apply titled follow-up to his previous year's The Blackwell Ghost that features Clay visiting the same house with the same outcome.  As far as deepening the lore of the title spectre, this is gotten out of the way in the first half when he uncovers some clues that give him an excuse to venture back to the haunted abode, but all of these narrative tidbits prove inconsequential, coming off more like fail-safes to be elaborated on in future installments.  Clay rides solo more here since his wife only makes a small appearance, the owner of the Pennsylvanian home is nowhere to be seen, and a distant sort-of relative of the sinister Ruth Blackwell is mentioned yet only shown in photographs.  This is agreeable considering that we are talking about a micro-budgeted found footage movie, and the less speaking parts that you have, the cheaper the end result will be to produce.  The bump-in-the-night stuff gets underway eventually and is yet another series of doors, chairs, and electronic appliances doing things via invisible influencem and they are once again more scary in theory than in execution.  Even with its tacked-on coda that extends the movie to a longer length than is necessary, plus some footage of Clay's own Racoon Valley feature that was released the same year, it is still an adequately and cheaply made bit of would-be spookiness for those that are looking to kill an evening.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 3

(2019)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

 

Switching gears narrativly, Turner Clay's The Blackwell Ghost 3 in fact only briefly touches upon such an otherworldly entity, instead introducing a new paranormal mystery about a haunted Florida vacation house where a serial killer once murdered eighteen women there decades earlier.  The story has more of a true crime angle to it than the one explored in the first two installments, and it is more interesting by comparison.  Still, the plot barely moves as the bulk of the running time is spent watching Turner Clay say the same things and do the same things that we have already seen him do before.  Granted there is a method to such ghost hunter's shtick, even ones that are unconventional as Clay jokingly points out by getting drunk on the job, smirking his way through his anxiety-ridden narration, and half-assing his approach to uncovering a mystery by simply waiting long enough for stuff to happen.  Some of this is amusing, but Clay loses us with a monotonous structure where a phone ringing at 2:47 AM that has no one saying anything on the other line, (of course), and banging noises coming from the backdoor that no one is ever at, (also of course), are the extent of the spooky bits.  Things end on a cliff-hanger to be picked up in the following year's inevitable sequel, but this particular detour would have been better suited in a condensed form instead of stretched out as long as it is.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 4

(2020)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

Another mixed bag effort from indie filmmaker Turner Clay, The Blackwell Ghost 4 picks up right where the previous year's installment left off and even ends with another "to be continued..." tag, signifying that the current mystery that has nothing to do with the mystery of the title has yet to be wrapped up.  A difference right out of the gate is how increasingly cinematic the franchise is getting, presumably due to the series turning enough of a profit to get more fancy with its presentation.  Shots and editing maneuvers that have nothing to do with found footage are given noticeable mileage here, and Clay throws more scary music into the proceedings than ever before, which is always shame as it destroys verisimilitude when we are watching the spooky stuff caught on camera.  As far as said moments go, they are relentless and monotonous instead of frightening, even if Clay's portrayal sufficiently conveys a man who is struggling with his own questionable life choices and frustrations in not being able to help the spirits that he is justifying such a project on.  This segment works better as an examination into the psyche of its host than it does as a proper spookshow, but the mystery itself is gradually picking up steam and would make for a compelling true crime documentary if any of it was real.  This is far from a flaw, in fact it is the opposite since it means that the story is hitting the right level of intrigue while the supernatural elements are unfortunately grinding things down.

2024 Horror Part Thirteen

NIGHTBITCH
Dir - Marielle Heller
Overall: MEH

 

A not-really werewolf movie for the moms, Nightbitch is the latest from writer/director Marielle Heller, adapting Rachel Yoder's 2021 novel of the same name.  What the film gets right is its relentless agenda to un-romanticize motherhood.  Amy Adams plays a woman two years into raising her first child, still has not dropped the baby weight, figures "Why bother?" when it comes to wearing makeup, puts her artistic career on hold, and hunkers down in her suburban house while her well-meaning yet clueless husband gets to travel for work and bring home the bacon.  Adams spends her days trying to keep her little tyke entertained, going to those horrendous sing-a-long things at libraries full of other moms who have nothing in common with each other besides the fact that they procreated, going to the park, going to the grocery store, and letting her child sleep in the same bed as her which guarantees that actual sleep is always off the menu.  It is no wonder that she gradually unravels to the point where she displays bestial qualities, all after we witness numerous fantasy sequences where she spouts her true feelings as narration.  Adams is great, and there is plenty of on-the-nose humor and relatable moments that any struggling couples can relate to in the early stages of parenthood, but the story treats its fantastical elements as an afterthought and eventually abandons them with no payoff or explanation.

 

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN

Dir - James Ashcroft

Overall: MEH

 

New Zealand director James Ashcroft adapts his second Owen Marshall short story in full-length form with The Rule of Jenny Pen, a psychobiddy movie where instead of female actors in their twilight years battling it out with each other, we have Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow.  The best/only good thing about this is the casting.  Both Rush and Lithgow look and behave older than they are as two unlikable men who are waiting to die in an old folk's home, and the film is nothing more than a hundred and four minutes of their squabbling plight.  In this sense, it is unpleasant for unpleasantry's sake, presenting itself as a quasi-black comedy where elder abuse inflicted by elder people is played for laughs, gross-out effect, and depressing disturbingness.  Lithgow has made a career out of being either the charismatic family man or the charismatic villain, and he seems to be enjoying himself with a doll puppet on his hand and a down under accent, terrorizing Rush and the other residents while gleefully, (and more to the point, annoyingly), getting away with it.  The plot never bothers to explain why Lithgow's antagonist has seemingly been at this particular old folk's home for decades on end and has presumably never been reprimanded or even suspected of foul play by any of the staff.  Here lies the issue though since anyone watching this, (whether they are of an age to relate or have had family members in such dire straits), will be persistently uncomfortable by the proceedings.  If the movie was clever or went anywhere then maybe this would be tolerable, but it does not, so it is not.

 

THE DEAD THING

Dir - Elric Kane

Overall: MEH

 

Director/co-writer Elric Kane's The Dead Thing is a confused musing on the type of social detachment that can plague young adults who go through the motions in menial jobs, with casual sex, and desperately find themselves in relationships that are no good for either party.  Exploring all of this via a ghost story is an adequate idea, but this concept only holds together for the first act.  After that, it becomes increasingly lost in gaping plot holes and vague supernatural logic, meanwhile everyone on screen remains at a distance from both each other and the audience.  This latter ingredient is no doubt intentional, since Kane and co-scripter Webb Wilcoxen have an agenda to show how impossible it is for people to find connection in a world of online dating and unfulfilling distractions.  The characters are no fun, but they are relatable if one can look past how broadly they are presented.  What is worse though is how the plot meanders after its initial set up, presenting moments that are implausible either with or without a dead Tinder hookup who is lingering around, distorting time, and murdering people without anyone noticing.  Then again, maybe none of these moments are what they seem, but it is all too murky to successfully pull off any kind of psychological trippiness.  Even though her protagonist is stuck in a one-note depression, Blu Hunt still manages to excel as someone who occasionally tries to snap herself out of that depression.  Sadly, the film that she is in cannot decide on what to do with either her or with any of the head-scratching scenarios.

2024 Horror Part Twelve

HERETIC
Dir - Scott Beck/Bryan Woods
Overall: MEH

 

There is a stink, (Perhaps blueberry scented?), to the latest genre excursion Heretic from the writer/director team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, another theological thriller where the nature of faith and/or the lack thereof is endlessly pontificated upon.  As the characters themselves point out, culture continues to turn its back on religion, especially in the age of information where it is not only unhip to believe in a higher power, but also impractical.  Sadly, nothing profound is either discussed or discovered here since the movie has a conventional enough framework to merely offer up another lunatic who kidnaps people with a cartoonishly elaborate plan that dooms everyone on screen except for the obligatory final girl.  That said, there are several agreeable touches to the film.  Famed South Korean cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon pulls off some flashy moves, even if his setting has a type of textbook creepiness full windows that are too small to escape from, apocalyptic rain storms, rustic decor, timeworn books, and wet, dark, and stony basements that lead to even more wet, dark and stony basements.  By channeling his trademark stuttering charm, Hugh Grant proves ideally suited to be a sinister presence, with a calm demeanor and perpetual politeness that leads the hapless Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East to his nihilistic thesis.  The third act loses its momentum with revelations that unnecessarily confuse things, but Beck and Woods stage some tense moments and give their excellent actors plenty to do up until then.

CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS
Dir - Alice Maio Mackay
Overall: MEH

 

Another neon-colored and admirable DIY genre work for Australian indie filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, Carnage for Christmas sees her throwing her hat in the holiday horror ring, an over-saturated sub-genre with an egregious amount of killer Santa movies amongst its heard.  In some respects, Mackay's film follows the bog-standard trajectory, where our main protagonist returns home for the holidays, only to find a string of murders being committed by a guy in a jolly ole Saint Nick suit that eerily resemble another string of killings that happened decades earlier.  It is in the details though that the movie differentiates itself.  Jeremy Moineau is a true crime podcaster and ergo the perfect person to be caught up in a small town murder spree.  She does indeed solve the mystery and has a cocksure attitude that is finely-tuned after having to deal with a lifelong string of discrimination amongst herself and her social circle.  This is because Mackay's films deal with the queer community, and the struggle that is faced by her trans protagonists is one that is persistently done in an empathetic and respectful manner, never painting everyone as mere victims who are helpless against the oppressive outside world.  The case is no different here, and it is easy to champion her movies not just for their unique point of view, but also because they are stylized, fun, and deliver the type of R-rated pizazz that genre hounds gravitate towards.  Sadly, the story here is persistently weak and bares too many hallmarks that Mackay has better explored before, but it is still something that is impossible to hate.

 

BLACK EYED SUSAN
Dir - Scooter McCrae
Overall: MEH

 

The latest from writer/director Scooter McCrae, Black Eyed Susan has a deliberately provocative agenda, yet it is undermined by embarrassing Skinimax production values and the type of stiff acting and cringe-worthy dialog that is found in such movies.  To be fair, the performances are more uneven than uniformly lousy.  Marc Romeo is terrible in all of his scenes, Damien Maffei is terrible in half of them, and newcomer Yvonne Emilie Thälker, (a dead ringer for Angela Bettis), is good in all of hers, which is fitting since such wooden enunciation and mannerisms actually work in her case, considering that she is playing a fully-functional sex robot.  There lies the crust of the story, which explores the darker aspects of AI technology, which in this case is being utilized to provide the most realistic punching bags for the most sadistic of clients.  It gets even more icky than that in the final act "twist", but through and through, the film has a bottom-barrel aesthetic that never gels.  Soft piano music plays uninterpreted throughout the whole thing, it is dialog heavy which showcases the bumpy acting, and we even get some wretched CGI fire in one scene.  If looked at as a full-length episode of Red Shoe Diaries meets The Outer Limits, then it can be seen as something that gives the ole college try at being provoking with its disturbing themes.  But in 2024 and up against so many other also independent and minimally-budgeted genre films, it is noticeably cheap and awkward and ergo must be evaluated on such a level.

2024 Horror Part Eleven

SMILE 2
Dir - Parker Finn
Overall: MEH

 

Writer/director Parker Finn returns to the Smileverse with Smile 2, a sequel that has enough conceptual juice to justify its existence, a knock-out lead performance by Naomi Scott, some inventive set pieces, and is an overall better movie than the one that came before it.  That said, it also suffers from the same problems as the first Smile, namely too many jump scares, (all of which are obvious, as jump scares inherently are), willy-nilly adherence to its own supernatural rules, and a sloppy ending.  The story once again follows a young woman who is increasingly plagued by hallucinatory episodes of people grinning at her, (amongst other things), that drive her to the point of full-blown madness, but the culprit this time is an already overwhelmed pop star, throwing in a differentiating layer to just more ambiguous demonic mayhem for ambiguous demonic mayhem's sake.  By being such an prominent celebrity, Scott's protagonist has only the most desperate avenues to turn to when her world is turned upside down, and the burden of everyone demanding her attention and professionalism to launch a comeback is something that successfully ups the ante for a movie that otherwise sticks to its creepy trajectory.  Finn seems to have written himself into a corner though since the topsy-turvy nature of the material has to escalate to such proportions that it becomes unavoidably messy, meaningless, and even silly.  Still, Scott handles the assignment wonderfully and Finn shows successful restraint here and there, just not as much as would be agreeable.

FRANKIE FREAKO
Dir - Steven Kostanski
Overall: WOOF

 

For people who hate comedy, the latest abomination from throwback filmmaker Steven Kostanski may be your favorite movie ever made.  Frankie Freako comes after such desperate-from-each-other outings as Psycho Goreman, The Void, and The Editor, and it fails right out of the bat with a "Huh?" premise that is the antithesis of funny.  Things only get more and more off the rails from there, and when your jumping off point is so flimsy and head-scratching, an uphill trajectory is set.  This is to say that the movie is relentlessly juvenile and in-your-face, trying to nail gag after gag that treat the audience as stupidity as it does its characters, scenario, and premise.  Kostanski is going for Gremlins, (or more accurately, The Garbage Pale Kids Movie), high jinks where it is supposed to be amusing in and of itself that tiny puppets cause endless mayhem.  Yet in order for this to work, everyone on screen has to behave as if they are mentally ill cartoon characters, as much if not more so than the cheap puppet monsters running around farting, cackling, and wanting to party.  There is nothing worse than an endless series of not-at-all-funny scenes that have a purposely tacky yet bombastic tone to them, setting up nyuck nyucks as if they are clever in-jokes or are so outrageous that any audience will just bask in their, well, outrageousness.  Instead, this is just an eighty-five minute, insufferably annoying trainwreck.

THE SOUL EATER
Dir - Alexandre Bustillo/Julien Maury
Overall: MEH

 

For their seventh full length The Soul Eater, (Le mangeur d'âmes), French director team Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury collaborate with outside screenwriters for the first time, (newcomers Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre, and Alexis Laipsker, respectfully), on a relentlessly dour and lifeless police procedural with equally subpar supernatural elements.  We have bodies being discovered that are mysteriously mutilated, a traumatized kid that speaks cryptically of a boogeyman, and two detectives that arrive on the case who have the personalities of dead fish.  What they uncover is plenty disturbing and ventures into the realm of the abduction and torture of minors, so it is no surprise that not one second of screen time is dedicated to anything within miles of humor.  As is always the case with anything in the New French Extremity movement though, (which some of Bustillo and Maury's past works indulged in more than others, this one qualifying as far as subject matter goes), the question is begged as to who a movie like this is for.  It is a miserable watch, performed by actors who seem like they would rather be anywhere else in the world than on screen under such conditions, and the puzzling thing is that this is fitting for the type of film that they are in.  It presents a dark and unforgiving world where evil festers, horrible things happen, and no one is remotely happy.  A few jump scares and creepy pagan masks hardly provide enough to either distinguish it from the herd or justify it as a worthwhile excursion.

2024 Horror Part Ten

THE DEVIL'S BATH

Dir - Veronika Franz/Severin Fiala

Overall: MEH

 

Sadly, the latest from Austrian duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala strives for and achieves the type of unflinching destitute that ends up being vapid in its noble attempts at period accuracy.  Set in early 18th century Germany, it deals with the common "suicide by proxy" practice at the time where mostly women would murder mostly children in order to be publicly executed after achieving the type of forgiveness that taking one's own life outright could never allow.  It is based directly on researcher Kathy Stuart's book Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation, and the filmmakers here have crafted a bleak and convincing aesthetic that offers no hope of blissful existence for those who are emotionally tormented by such an environment.  Anja Plaschg turns in a brutalized performance for such an austere protagonist that is either ignored or ridiculed by the few people in her life who are going through their days in just as thankless of a manner, yet are at least able to endure.  Franz and Fiala provide an authentic fly on the wall look into a bygone era of impoverished Eastern European peasant life, but what if anything else they were going for besides such miserableness is left impenetrable.

 

MADS

Dir - David Moreau

Overall: GOOD

 

A one-take gimmick movie from French filmmaker David Moreau, MadS pulls-off a gradual upclimb of chaotic suspense, even if it may prove to be nothing more than yet another slight tweak on the viral outbreak formula.  Starting in a remote house where Milton Riche scores some cocaine to take to a party later that night, it ends up following a linear trajectory through three different characters, one at a time and each of which come in contact with something that makes their eyes glow silver, removes their ability to speak, attracts them to bright lights, makes them twitch uncontrollably, causes mood swings galore, and ultimately results in uncontrollably bouts of rampaging violence.  Moreau's plot has a foreseeable apocalyptic outcome, but the details are difficult to predict, plus we are wisely left in the dark just as our increasingly confused and terrified protagonists are.  From a technical perspective, it is of course an impressive achievement since any cut cheats, (if there in fact are such things), are cleverly disguised, plus the intricate choreography throughout various outdoor and indoor locations, roads, and city blocks shows a tight attention to detail that only intensifies an already intense story.  What the world does not need is another goddamn zombie movie, but if we are going to get one anyway, at least Moreau has found an enticing avenue to go down in delivering the goods.

 

ALIEN: ROMULUS
Dir - Fede Álvarez
Overall: MEH

The first entry into the Alien franchise post-Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Alien: Romulus is member berry schlock that is at least done on an admirable scale.  This is a frustrating legacy sequel that seems ever-burdened by its predecessors, as if the ghosts of Alien past, (cough, Disney studio executives, cough), are breathing down the creative personnel at all times.  Set in between Ridley Scott's initial film and James Cameron's blockbuster follow-up, we are introduced to some young working class minors who are stuck in dead-end servitude to the always evil Weyland-Yutani company as they hatch a plan to escape that everyone watching not only knows will go wrong, but also knows exactly in what ways it will go wrong.  From a production standpoint, director Fede Álvarez and his team do exceptional work.  The sets are wonderfully lived-in and detailed, there is a large abundance of practical effects that modern A-movies rarely allow, and a conventional yet effective tone of mounting dread is maintained even when things become egregiously lazy.  Some may consider the script by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues to be refreshing in its simplicity, (especially coming after Scott's pretentious prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant), but most of these characters are so clearly doomed and/or merely retreads of other ones from the series that the film never earns our investment.  Disney has clearly learned nothing since Rogue One, so we get yet more insulting deepfake rendering, famous dialog callbacks, and pointless Easter eggs that turn a good looking yet bland film into something more heinous and stupid.

2024 Horror Part Nine

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
Dir - Michael Sarnoski
Overall: MEH

Many a franchise can spring forth from a terrible initial film and this is more the case in horror than with any other genre.  A Quiet Place: Day One is the latest in John Krasinski's series of movies that that pit the last remnants of society against an extraterrestrial race that sometimes come attacking at the slightest whisper and other times ignore much louder noises, depending on what the screenplay needs to happen.  In most respects, this prequel is a "same shtick, different movie" scenario, with more flimsy logic, nail-biting set pieces, and nuanced character-building moments sharing screen time with each other.  So in other words, it is bound to both please and frustrate those who either hated or loved Krasinski's original since three movies deep now, it strictly banks on familiarity.  The immediate trauma bond that our two main characters Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn undergo has enough heart-string-pulling glue to keep things together, which is helped by both actor's fine performances.  As before though, it is the egregiously stupid details that break things down, plus a lazy structure that offers nothing new to ponder.  It does everything that it is supposed to do and professionally at that, but what it is supposed to do is pointless at best.

 

NOSFERATU

Dir - Robert Eggers

Overall: MEH

It was inevitable that writer/director Robert Eggers would some day stumble in his otherwise consistently stellar oeuvre, and the long-awaited Nosferatu is his first frustrating exercise that misses the mark.  Originally announced as the follow-up to The Witch, (a movie so good that even if he only managed to churn out embarrassments afterward, such blunders would be forever forgiven), it instead arrives as his first unmitigated return to supernatural horror after two other films that were strikingly and effectively different than his auspicious debut.  One could never accuse Eggers and his well-suited crew of phoning it in, as the movie is suffocating with deliberate style and respectful adherence to a century's worth of vampire yarns, aside from the two other stellar Nosferatu interpretations that have come before, (F.W. Murnau's silent original and Werner Herzog's arthouse version from 1979, respectfully).  The problem is that Eggers' evokes more of a Bram Stoker's Dracula via Tim Burton vibe here, which is a polite way to say "unintentional schlock".  The sound design is atrocious, with ear-splitting volume swells arriving in insulting number and often times within seconds of each other, an equally bombastic musical score, and Egger's usual penchant for grandiose dialog is hit and miss in its tone-maintaining effectiveness.  Many moments simply come off as silly, (the aforementioned jump scare-adjacent tactics, bouts of absurd character behavior that spring up out of nowhere without proper context, scenery-chewing from nearly every actor, Bill Skarsgård's mustache, etc), and it is a shame that a project which was redundant by its very design, (as well as done by a filmmaker who has steadily proven himself to be a master of his craft), comes off as more of a mess than a justifiable and visionary re-imagining.

 

PRESENCE
Dir - Steven Soderbergh
Overall: MEH

 

For his first horror work since 2008's Unsane which was shot entirely on cell phones, director Steven Soderbergh utilizes a different gimmick, this time filming an entire movie from a first-person perspective.  It is a nifty angle to take when tackling something in the supernatural vein, and in this respects, Presence bares similarities to David Lowery's awful A Ghost Story except thankfully not awful.  The set up is one that has been done a billion times where a family moves into a new house that is too good to be true, only to come in contact with an otherworldly "presence".  Poltergeist activity takes place, one of the two teenage kids proves more sensitive to the ghostly goings-ons, a kind-of psychic lady makes a visit, and it has a gasp-worthy reveal that is far-fetched in those types of reveals that movie scripts love to have.  Screenwriter David Koepp is no stranger to churning out popcorn fare and has himself gotten behind the lens on a few supernatural thrillers, (most of which are not any good), so if there is one complaint that can be leveled at the end result here, it is in the script department.  That said, the small cast make the material seem better than it is, especially when it comes to moments that shine a subtle to blatant light on the family's growing dysfunction.  As far as frightening elements are concerned, there are zero present, but the viewpoint shift is the main attraction for anyone looking for a differentiating angle on a haunted house movie.

2024 Horror Part Eight

DADDY'S HEAD

Dir - Benjamin Barfoot

Overall: GOOD

 

British filmmaker Benjamin Barfoot's sophomore full-length Daddy's Head is one of many to deal with the psychological turmoil suffered by those whose beloved dead ones leave them behind.  In this case, it is a young boy's father that checks out after a brutal car accident, unintentionally sticking him with his well-intended yet also traumatized step mother who has never been able to connect with her stepson and now questions if she wants such a responsibility when in reality, neither of them are on board with it.  This provides Barfoot's script with a messy and relatable conundrum to spring from, and the weight of it is handled expertly by actors Rupert Turnbull and Julia Brown.  Thankfully though, the film also excels with its scare tactics.  Barfoot utilizes a low-key yet relentlessly ominous approach, keeping the already subdued musical score at bay and trusting some freaky visuals to work their magic without the use of excessive jump scares or hackneyed tropes left and right.  That said, there is still a sense of arbitrary logic to the behavior of the mysterious menace that Turnbull and Brown face, but the story wisely keeps the specifics nebulous and never breaks into unintentional schlock or heavy-handed sentimentality.  Instead, this is both grounded and otherworldly and that much more unsettling because of it.

 

DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE BEGINS

Dir - Kimo Stamboel

Overall: MEH

 

The latest from another one of Indonesia's current horror trailblazer's Kimo Stamboel, Dancing Village: The Curse Begins, (Badarawuhi di Desa Penari), also serves as a prequel to Awi Suryadi's 2022 film KKN di Desa Penari and is allegedly the first movie from the country to be shot in IMAX.  Given a wider release after the box office success of the previous installment, this one is at least comparatively shorter and manages to keep the pace up due to enough sinister moments inching things along.  Stamboel maintains a tone that is void of humor, and the only tenderness comes when young women are wailing away at the suffrage of their mothers, two of whom are caught up in some kind of supernatural illness brought on by the franchise's sinister dance trope demon lady.  There is some gnarly make-up on these unfortunate birth-givers as well as several deformed ghosts, (plus we get one sequence where a skinned monkey is uncovered), but most of the emphasis is on a relentlessly ominous mood as opposed to gore-ridden set pieces.  Prequels are inherently an unnecessary burden on movie-goers, but this one stands well enough on its own to not only follow, but to also get soaked up in its malevolent atmosphere, even if there is not much meat to the story and it could still afford to shave off twenty or so minutes.

 

THE SUBSTANCE
Dir - Coralie Fargeat
Overall: GOOD

For her sophomore full-length The Substance, filmmaker Coraline Fargeat goes full-on body horror, crafting something that is as demented as it is disgusting as it is ambitious.  Shot in a France which stands-in for good ole seedy LA, and running nearly two and half hours, the excessive length slowly builds itself up to a fevered pitch where the adoration of youth and celebrity becomes literally monstrous.  Wisely, Fargeat maintains a tongue-in-cheek tone since the premise itself is ridiculous, and the way that it unfolds only becomes more exaggerated to the point where any fans of Brian Yuzna's Society, Peter Jackson's Braindead, or anything that David Cronenberg has ever made will be standing up and applauding.  Several other famous cinematic works are referenced along the way, and Fargeat and her team have crafted something that is eye-catching in every frame, even when the things that are in that frame are cartoonishly repugnant, (cue Dennis Quad's hilariously awful TV producer sleazebag shoving shrimp in his mouth like a cave troll).  The dual performances of Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore are pitch-perfect as two women who forget that they "are one" along their quest for perpetual juvenescence, and it is a wise move that Fargeat chooses to paint them with such broad strokes.  This crystalizes the movie's superficial theme where outward appearances are everything when it comes to showbiz, and if the positive reinforcement game has not sucked one dry of humanity, then the desperation to perpetuate it sure as hell will.