2022 Horror Part Eight

SKINAMARINK

Dir - Kyle Edward Ball

Overall: MEH

For those craving out of focus close-ups, ole timey public domain cartoon music, and characters only speaking three words at a time every fifteen minutes and never answering each other's questions, Kyle Edward Ball's low-fi debut Skinamarink has you covered.  All kidding aside, this is a purposely challenging work by a mile, a movie that follows no conventional storytelling tactics whatsoever and very few if any conventional movie-making tactics either.  For anyone who feels a sense of panic within the first five minutes, it is highly advisable that they quit while they are ahead because the next ninety-five minutes will play out exactly the same.  As an experimental film which this solely is, Ball can be commended for his insistence on making his audience uncomfortable and giving them a fly on the wall point of view that utilizes pure frustration and confusion as fear.  That said, it sacrifices its proposed goal of presenting a child's nightmare by being so relentlessly comatose in its execution.  In other words, a real four and six year old would be running around hysterically sobbing after waking up in a house where their parents have disappeared, the phone does not work, objects and furniture vanish and/or end up on the ceiling, and a demon mumbles cryptic and unwholesome things to them.  It is not impossible to sit through because it is disturbing; it is impossible to sit through because it is visually headache-inducing and an unapologetic example of style over substance that would have worked ideally as a short film instead of one that is only twenty minutes shy of two hours.

INCANTATION

Dir - Kevin Ko

Overall: MEH

 

Taiwanese filmmaker Kevin Ko's latest horror outing Incantation, (Zhou) is his first in the genre since his 2009 debut Invitation Only, though it is a shame that this is one the many to wrongfully utilize the found footage gimmick and become a bloated, obnoxious mess in the process.  Simply put, this should not be a found footage movie as Ko stubbornly sticks to two asinine decisions which are A) adding scary music to the entire thing and B) constantly breaking the "Wait, where is that camera coming from?" rule.  Considering that both of these massive faux pases should be the most obvious to be avoided, it is a baffling, frustrating viewing experience that undermines all of its creepy potential.  There is plenty of such potential by the way as Ko's story weaves enough cliches and faux-mysticism from numerous Asian regions as to appear authentic, with excellent locations and production design that convey an aura of ancient, well-worn eeriness.  The detrimental presentation is made more so by the non-linear structure, bouncing all over the place while frantically cutting, begging the always laughable question as to who is editing this footage and serving it up like a conventional horror movie in the first place.  Either ditching the hand-held gimmick or ditching all of the conventional cinematic devices that are jarringly added to it, (as well as taking out all nine-hundred and forty-seven jump scares), would at least be a start to massively improve the overall whole here. 

 

SIGNIFICANT OTHER

Dir - Dan Berk/Robert Olsen

Overall: MEH

For their follow-up to the mostly enjoyable Villains, writer/director team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen once again join forced with modern day scream queen Maika Monroe in Significant Other; a movie that is unable to unify its small handful of themes.  The most prominent issue is the tone malfunctions.  While Villains played its dark comedy angle sufficiently before taking a chance with a dour ending that tugs at the audience's heart-strings, Berk and Olsen go for a more jarring about-face here, and much earlier at that.  We are given plenty of explanations as to the sudden confusion, but none of them are remotely satisfying and seem downright rushed as well as poorly thought out, all while the music consistently conveys dread, Monroe seems traumatized and terrified, and the story's otherworldly threat becomes more goofy and monotonously invincible.  Though the first act sets up an interesting, troubled couple dynamic, the rest of the film's attempts at plot-twisty, slight-of-hand maneuvers and diabolical science fiction ideas persistently get in the way of it.  To their credit, the filmmakers are certainly going for something unique here and Monroe's natural, charismatic aloofness on screen is ideally utilized, but all of this can only go so far when the script is a half-baked mess.  That said, more movies can always benefit from Badfinger songs though.