2022 Horror Part Ten

HYPOCHONDRIAC

Dir - Addison Heimann

Overall: GOOD

The first directorial effort from screenwriter Addison Heimann, Hypochondriac takes a dark and occasionally comedy look at severe mental illness and childhood trauma.  Things largely hinge on the devastatingly multi-layered performance from Zach Villa who plays a good-natured, silly, and compassionate potter that is struggling to deal with a schizophrenic mother, emotionally neglectful father, and benevolent boyfriend who all exhibit wildly different methods of trying to take care of him.  As is often possible in the horror genre yet only achieved with a sincere filmmaker at the helm, incredibly troubling real world events and personal afflictions can be exaggerated for emphasis while not becoming either exploitative or insulting to the viewer.  Thankfully such things are handled respectfully here as Villa's protagonist spirals into more and more detrimentally crippling hallucinations where we never feel that the terrifying outcome of his suffering is played up for anything but sympathy.  The supporting cast is well in-tune to the material as well and Heimann shows a considerable control over a difficult tone that cinematically showcases the sort of bi-polar mood swings which are in question.

THE MENU

Dir - Mark Mylod

Overall: GOOD

 

It is not too often that a horror-tinged comedy emerges that uses the very concept of soul-sucking pretentiousness as its source of nightmare fuel, which is what makes The Menu an amusing genre detour.  The concept stemmed simply enough from screenwriter Will Tracy's visit to an upscale restaurant during his honeymoon and the finished production eventually took on consultants Dominique Creen and David Gelb to give it a foodie connoisseur aura of authenticity.  Playing off of the premise that a "fine dinning as art" mentality, (at east in some respects), is inherently ridiculous, the deadly serious presentation of Ralph Fiennes' exclusive, pristine-tiered, island-set establishment is deliberately amusing as the filmmaker's utilize the horror framework to hint at a sinister, underlying threat in the first act.  When the WTF card is actually reviled, some viewers may have a hard time staying with everything that follows as it hinges on a whole crop of people doing either the bare minimum or nothing at all to relieve themselves of their increasingly dire predicament.  Even this though is brought up in some of the dialog which along with the strange scenario that plays by its own aloof rules, allows for the film's narrative to work somewhat in spite of itself.  It is a difficult tone to maintain since much of the humor may only appear subtle to those that are either not playing closer attention or simply unable to meet it on its own terms, but for everyone else down for some macabre wackiness, it hits the spot.

 

HATCHING

Dir - Hanna Bergholm

Overall: GOOD

A full-length debut from Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm, Hatching, (Pahanhautoja), is a satisfyingly strange and demented take on the age old doppelgänger concept.  The story has a clear agenda of showcasing the trauma of self-consumed parenting, yet it does so in an utterly unique fashion that treats the serious aspects of the subject matter in an intelligent way which impressively shines through the more absurdist aspects.  Bergholm's plotting moves rather quickly, with a number of scenes coming off as so jarring that one would assume that they would quickly be revealed to be mere nightmaresor hallucinations.  Instead, the circumstances here are presented matter of factly and are that much more alarming in their impact.  Backed with excellent performances and nuanced characterizations which even manage to make Sophia Heikkilä's obnoxious, influencer/blogger/mother from hell garnish some level of sympathy from the audience, there is plenty going on here about not only the combination of overbearing pressure and neglect put on children, but also the reason that certain damaged parents exhibit such desperate, detrimental behavior in the first place.  For the monster movie fan, there are some halfway decent animatronic effects as well, though the loud, screechy noises still unfortunately hammer-home the fact that they seem to be the only scary vocalizations that anyone can come up with nowadays.