2019 Horror Part Two

THE DEAD DON'T DIE
Dir - Jim Jarmusch
Overall: GOOD

Dipping his toes into horror more often than not as of late, Jim Jarmusch returns with a zombie film this time that very Jim Jarmuschingly rips a hole in the entire fabric of the "dead people chomping on alive people to make more dead people chomping on alive people" formula.  It would logically seem that Jarmusch is late to the party here with zombies being worn-out to the point of utter aggravation, but this is wonderfully a saving grace in and of itself.  The very themes of humanity being powerless to stop nature and all of us humans basically being shallow shells just waiting to turn into braindead ghouls are offered up very on the nose like, being just as funny as all of the suffocatingly dry humor that is in every nuance of the script.  So even as Jarmusch may be appearing to make a smart, social commentary here, he is probably just taking the piss out of everything about zombie movies in the knowingly smirky way he knows how.  This could make The Dead Don't Die annoying, but the wonderful, consistently recognizable cast seems positively delighted to be here and the film never once stops being amusing.  One or two unresolved plot threads aside, it is about as good of a horror parody as can be made by a guy who is rightfully adept at making one.

MIDSOMMAR
Dir - Ari Aster
Overall: GOOD

As a follow up to the utterly outstanding Hereditary, writer/director Ari Aster's sophomore effort Midsommar is excellent though imperfect.  Comparing the two films is inevitable, but Aster brings a lot of this upon his own work as one of the complaints one could find is the perhaps too similar nature of both.  Centralizing the story on an emotionally distraught character that is suffering from a hugely traumatic event and then fusing that with pagan rituals both factual and dramatized, Aster clearly has a fetish for a rather specific type of material.  In this respect, it cannot help but to make the end product consistently predictable.  On the plus side though, he has a knack for delivering his shtick strikingly well.  Perhaps even more than Hereditary, Midsommar works outside of its horror elements as a powerful exploration of grief.  This complements the folkloric, communal cult backdrop perfectly, exposing in an exaggerated fashion of course how one damaged person can become sucked into such a thing.  There is even more going on than that though and none of it seems sloppy.  The not quite up to par elements are more minor details like how believability is stretched a little too far when people start disappearing and acting suspicious, stiff dialog at times, the pacing which drags just a hair, and some minor sub-plot details that seem a little half-baked.  There is likely a method to even these presumable missteps judging by how intelligently made and wonderfully genre-defying the rest of the film is though.  Aster is still two for two, hopefully setting the stage for something a little more outside of his chosen comfort box that will take a few more chances next time.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK
Dir - André Øvreda
Overall: WOOF

For something that makes absolutely no attempts to break any rules, has all the weight of a decently funded studio project behind it, checks off every currently trendy horror trope there is including being something nostalgic, wraps itself up in a nice, glossy little package and puts all of the pieces in place for a franchise to blossom out of it, there is probably still an audience out there for the big screen adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.  Namely blind followers of anything with the horror tag attacked to it or teenagers who do not know any better.  Based off of author Alvin Schwartz and artists Stephen Gammell's much beloved children's books from the 1980s and 90s and the third feature from Norwegian filmmaker André Øvreda, the version here represents absolutely everything hack about modern, PG-13 horror movies.  Øvreda's Trollhunter is quite excellent as is Schwartz' and Gammell's source material of course, but no amount of nostalgia or admiration for anyone's previous work can make the spell cast by such a completely safe, uninspired and stock product like this do anything more than rile the blood.  At least for those who have little to no patience on tripe nonsense.  Horror movies do not all need to reinvent the wheel and many enjoyable ones make no such attempt, yes.  This particular example is just insulting to the audience though and top to bottom disappointing because of it.