2018 Horror Part Four

SUSPIRIA
Dir - Luca Guadagnino
Overall: GOOD

Luca Guadagnino's well-intentioned Suspiria remake can be seen as a poster boy for the "Why have it be a remake in the first place?" conundrum.  The film is so wildly different from its predecessor in so many capacities that it is a shame that it cannot be its own thing.  Instead, all the ambition, interesting themes, remarkable performances, elaborate cinematography, beautiful Thom Yorke score, and grandiose style need inescapably be compared to Dario Argento's supernatural giallo benchmark.  Guadagnino and his screenwriter/collaborator David Kajganich are at once concerned with paying homage to the film that they are reworking, but there is also simultaneously a definite determination to make it as unique and singular from it as possible.  Changing the character names and removing a couple clear nods to the 1977 version would essentially be all it would take and voila, THIS Suspiria could instead be a mere tribute in spirit instead of something permanently linked to that version.  What Guadagnino and everyone on board here has crafted is a highly challenging art film that should belong in its own universe and be judged solely by its achievement as a movie; not as something that is co-existing with one of the most lauded and individually outstanding works in the horror genre.  Unfortunately "flawed" from the get-go then, it is a frustrating accomplishment that flies close but can never achieve the legendary status it otherwise might.

ANTRUM

Dir - David Amito/Michael Laicini
Overall: GOOD

Points at least must be given to David Amito and Michael Laicini's Antrum, (Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made), for its uniqueness if anything else.  While it is assuredly a mess, the presentation is so unorthodox that it remains fascinating in spite of or because of its bizarre construction.  Beginning as a mockumentary about a 1979 cursed movie that until recently was presumed lost, it quickly shifts gears and simply shows a possibly tampered-with print of said movie in its entirety.  While the film within a film is puzzling enough and seems to embellish multiple sub-genres, it also has an extended post credit scene and then more faux-documentary footage interrupting the real ending credits.  The sound design is rather fantastic as is the equally ethereal and unnerving music from Alicia Fricker.  There are also enough strange, creepy visuals almost subconsciously thrown in to further emphasize the movie's alleged, dangerously mystical quality.  At the same time though, the pacing is largely comatose, the plotting borderline incompetent, and the jumbling of styles could come off to some as if Amito and Laicini were trying to have their cake and eat it too by making several movies at once at the expense of each.  An argument can be made that it overextends itself, but its boldness is admirable.

THE MEG

Dir - Jon Turteltaub

Overall: MEH

 

A by the books, B-movie with enough action film cliches to consistently roll ones eyes at, The Meg has the dumb in all the appropriate places.  Stuck in development hell for two decades and run through both Disney and New Line Pictures before ending up at Warner Bros. with Jon Turteltaub of 3 Ninjas, National Treasure, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice fame directing, its schlock level is adequately mainstream-friendly.  Jason Statham plays the only character he is ever allowed to and fits the well-trodden mold of "misunderstood tough guy with a heart of gold who reluctantly goes back into action because he's the best of the best".  Amongst all of the hammy-to-terrible platitude-laden dialog, ill-timed comic relief, and textbook plot points that only happen in the movies, (like why is Rainn Wilson's paycheck-signing billionaire consistently putting himself directly in danger along with actual trained professionals?), there is also an odd, reoccurring theme of characters making the immediate decision to sacrificing their own lives unnecessarily.  Anyway, it is everything one would expect in a big, loud, splashy monster movie so enjoy your popcorn folks.