Wednesday, May 22, 2024

2022 Horror Part Fifteen

BODIES BODIES BODIES
Dir - Halina Reijn
Overall: MEH

The sophomore effort from actor-turned-director Halina Reijn based on a spec script from author Kristen Roupenian, Bodies Bodies Bodies is painfully aggressive by nature which is both what makes it work and be borderline unwatchable all at once.  A Gen Z play on the Agatha Christie whodunit, its social commentary of privileged twenty-somethings reverting to unhinged morons within minutes of being deprived of their cellphone service is cleverly fused with the rapid-fire pacing of the murder mystery itself.  This subverts expectations where audience members may be paying attention to inconsequential things while caught up in the mayhem of it all, only to catch-on to the black comedy agenda the more that it plows along.  Unfortunately, the tone clashes where the sly and ridiculous satirical aspects are drowned by relentlessly awful characters that are impossible to root for.  Their reprehensible behavior is obviously the point, (both to cast suspicion on everyone and showcase emotionally braindead stereotypes attributed to young adults in the age of information), but the persistent screaming, nausea-inducing handheld cinematography, and sheer nastiness of the ordeal is anything but amusing.
 
V/H/S/99
Dir - Johannes Roberts/Vanessa Winter/Joseph Winter/Maggie Levin/Tyler MacIntyre/Flying Lotus
Overall: MEH
 
The fifth entry in the V/H/S series doubles as the most consistently silly, which is probably for the best even if it produces some annoying results.  In keeping with the usual format, V/H/S/99 brings in a fresh crop of talent to the franchise, most of whom are up and coming filmmakers with few if any full-lengths on their resumes.  Breaking the formula though is that someone finally made the wonderful decision to jettison the framing narrative which was consistently the weakest in every previous installment.  While it is replaced by utterly useless toy soldier stop-motion that has nothing to do with the concept, it at least keeps the humorous tone in check.  Sadly, each of the actual segments save the closing and strongest "To Hell and Back" by Joseph and Vanessa Winter is exclusively made up of aggressively irritating, unlikable characters which is an odd choice aside from adhering to late 90s bro-punk culture.  Maggie Levin's "Shredding" fits this bill precisely with not one but two awful Hot Topic-adored zombie bands, Johannes Roberts's "Suicide Bid" utilizes age-old sorority hazing and buried alive cliches, Flying Lutus' "Ozzy's Dungeon" is a disgusting Double Dare nightmare that clearly comes from the same guy who did the unwatchably gross Kuso, and Tyler MacIntyre's "The Gawkers" puts Medusa in a hilariously unlikely scenario.  There are some clever moments here or there and everything is on an even playing field, but it is too relentlessly grating to properly recommend.
 
THE ELDERLY
Dir - Raúl Cerezo/Fernando González Gómez
Overall: MEH

For their second collaboration and follow-up to the gross-out alien comedy The Passenger, filmmaker duo Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez have concocted something more sinister and strange, looking at the deteriorating incapacity of old age through a supernatural lens.  There are a lot more bizarre ideas thrown in into The Elderly besides that though; ideas that are purposely never explained.  Dour in tone, it takes place during a record-breaking string of hot days where senior citizens start behaving more and more irrationally, much to the confused concern and aggravation of their loved ones.  Zorion Eguileor's grandpa character stares off miserably into space, only to snap out of it when he needs to threaten his family, tell his son about the voices that he hears through radio static after covering up a mirror so that no one can watch them, or crudely slicing some circuitry into his chest.  The finale is straight-up Night of the Living Old People and amazingly, Cerezo and Gómez manage to ward off the audience's laughter with their increasingly frustrating yet sincere presentation.  Unfortunately, the plotting becomes repetitive and people behave like stupid horror movie characters too much, but it gets by to a point by pushing its ambiguous agenda to violent, head-scratching, and end of days levels.

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