Part 2 had the animation, franchises & action
There were some great female-centred treats.
Kane Senes and Hannah Barlow’s ‘Sissy’ is for the bullied girls with a secret psycho side, although the gag being that the kills are more from her clutziness and cognitive dissonance. With an almost sit-com brightness and lightness, ‘Sissy’ allows the runt a little revenge fantasy. The twist is all her malevolence and psychopathy are hidden behind the surface veneer smile and empowerment of the “influencer” trend. ‘Eighth Grade’ goes slasher, sort of. It fails to address the race issue that is visible (they’re white; Sissy is black) but its play with dark humour and nastiness make this an enjoyable horror farce. It’s a dark humoured bubblegum horror with a fine central performance for a character who found solace and identity in being an online persona.
Social Media drama and horror has shown a distinct interest in exploring female identity and individuality. ‘Eighth Grade’ or even ‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ posit that the kids are wise to the social media world. ‘Influencer’ plays with how vulnerable it makes us when all our information is out there for any scam artist to manipulate. It’s one woman visiting vengeance on all that is fake and enviable on the flashes of someone’s else’s idealised life glimpsed from social media.
Mimi Cave’s ‘Fresh’
is probably what you thought ‘A Wounded Fawn’ was going to be, and it
even goes psychedelic for a moment with the (late) credits going all Joe Meek.
It ended up being more fun than odd by comparison, sported fine performances
and impressive set design. Ladies! Beware When Dating! is the
premise, but the modern move has been to give our protagonists credibility and
resilience and simply more shading to the Final Girls (for the most part) so
these tales are more convincing.
But Franck Khalfoun’s ‘Night of the Hunted’ proves problematic: as soon our adulteress protagonist says that her only problem is men telling her what her problem is, we know that she’s going to be all Final Girl. However, what the film then proceeds to do is to pin her down under threat of death so that one guy can mansplain endlessly over a walky-talky at her. There’s just the sense that the film thinks that she is somehow, in some way, deserving. And that’s easily dismissible. There’s just something not to trust.
And I feel something a little unpersuaded towards the otherwise fun and very popular ‘Talk to Me’. Danny and Michael Philippou certainly hit on a franchise here, with a fairly fresh premise – kids get together to party on being possessed instead of drink’n’drugs – but a certain waving away of detail and plausible repercussion, and a lack of self-awareness from the film itself about its protagonists self-awareless means that, for this viewer, it was less convincing and more superficial than expected. Instant classic horror film but more superficial than it thinks, as it doesn’t really engage with the repercussions of its premise (the grief involved; the self-destructive nature of teenage nihilism).
·
Back
to the ladies:
As much as I enjoyed the alien attack of Brian Duffield ‘No One Will Save You’, I remained similarly unpersuaded by the deliberately tricky-ambiguous ending (I am sure I’ll write more on that), firmly putting this in the same box as Half Satisfying Alien Abduction films. One woman’s persecution complex and trauma through sci-fi allegory? But the wordlessness, the stylisation and the primal fear of thingies out to get you were thoroughly enjoyable.
There is also an issue with the otherwise fine ‘It Lives Inside’ by Bushal Dutta. Yes, it’s tropey, but with a little Hindi twist and a decent lead character conflicted between her heritage and forging her own identity, there’s enough to keep this fresh. But mostly, an endearing practical monster makes up for a lot. The issue: more alarming is the apparent conclusion that, although the malevolence is imported from the old world, if you don’t absorb and follow it, swallow it down and keep feeding it, it will destroy all your loved ones.
Although quite popular, William Brent Bell’s ‘Orphan: First Kill’ had an entertaining opening but ended up quite average. Well, the accuracy of the title can be debated, but here we are turning “Esther” into a horror celebrity. Isabelle Fuhrman is good, but the cat is out of the bag – but another twist livens up an otherwise average-if-slick expansion to the original film. Almost bonkers enough; not quite nasty or manipulative enough.
Similarly, Gerard Johnstone’s ‘M3GAN’ got good grades and shrugs by being not fully redundant. Fun enough killer robot film that never exceeds its tropes except as a fairly solid satire on our dependence on technology. Otherwise, it’s the usual American anxieties over career-outdoing-parental-duties and learning-what’s-important. It’s the kind of plot where huge working robot protypes are kept in the spare room. M3GAN herself (Amie Donald) is pretty well-realised and fun, even breaking into song for it’s primary user (surely companies would pay handsomely for a M3GAN to promote a track) and, inexplicably, breaking into dance for its victims. And apparently killbots like to do the herky-jerky spiderwalk thing when they gain homicidal sentience. But overall its shallow if entertaining and flirts enough with satire and camp to be forgiven for not being more. As momentarily enjoyable as it is, there is the feeling of "This'll Do" and not quite being as good as it could be.
Ti West’s ‘Pearl’, on the other hand, only went to shine Technicolour brighter on its predecessor ‘X’. A Gothic fever dream of a psycho Southern Belle only wanting to break out into song. This made Mia Goth a true horror icon, especially after the double-whammy that went before. Richly saturated in Sunshine Perversity, it reminded of films like Robert Mulligan’s ‘The Other’ and ‘The Reflecting Skin’ where the purple prose of sun-kissed visuals and melodrama barely hid the properly unhinged.
Ali Abassi’s ‘The Holy Spider’ disturbed not only for it’s Based On A True inspiration,
but for the way it took that only as the starting point for how cultural
misogyny inspires fanatical murder and cultivates an approving society. There
may be rough edges, but Abbasi’s film was full of righteous rage and horror.
Certainly, that last scene disturbed me no end, in what it meant for that
character and said about society at large.
Saïd Belktibia’s ‘Hood Witch’ also confronted outdated conceptions of women and how that plays still in the modern era. From the crash-course in witch hunts and modern belief in witchcraft that opens, it is obvious that this is a film that’s fully awake and that there will be no slow burn here. Indeed, the whole opening with our protagonist going through customs with her son is a gripper, showing that we are in for serious business (although the issue of prison is sidestepped). Indeed, Golshifteh Farahani is nothing less than compelling and fiery as a woman exploiting people’s belief in witchcraft on her estate as she dips in an out of her ongoing feud with her estranged husband. It soon becomes apparent that her son is everything that’s at stake, physically, emotionally and spiritually as the story launches into the witch hunting and becomes a chase narrative. Running at a unshakable pace, there’s nothing supernatural here, just a kitchen sink thriller with streaks of commentary about the role of women, the consequences of charlatanism and the bloodthirstiness of faith, whether a witch-hunt or a self-flagellation.
John Rosman’s ‘New Life’ was not quite what you might think initially, this impressive debut has two excellent lead performances that effortlessly guide through the myriad genres to discuss the issue of failing bodies. Rarely do we see the subject touched with such focus in this way in genre. There's character drama, chase thriller, horror, sci-fi - a heady mix. It's the stuff that inspires body-horror (indeed, the film says this very thing), but the empathy and humanity that guides this right to the end is quite unique.
All these had great female performances, but Lily Sullivan more than held her own as the only face on screen in Matt Vesely’s ‘Monolith’. Although conveyed only through telephone calls to a journalist seemingly willing to compromise herself when desperate, the mystery is riveting. Her investigation of sinister “bricks” is bizarre enough material to be gripping. Is she falling for a conspiracy or mass-delusion? Like 'Void of Night' or 'Pontypool' for example, a film that demonstrates that spoken-word genre storytelling can still work as a dominating factor is cinema. Down-the-rabbit-hole horror with an excellent Lily Tyler where all the clues do add up, there’s a little class commentary, lots of creepiness and a conclusion that, even if it goes in the direction you anticipated, still offers a few surprises to satisfy.
Samuel Bodin’s ‘Cobweb’ was above average studio fare, containing enough feints and genre-play to make horror fans laugh with recognition (oh, home invasion masks now?). The FrightFest audience also chuckled away at the scenery-chewing of Caplin and Starr as the parents who evidently neighbour ‘The People Under the Stairs’. Suburban Gothic, cartoonish crazy parents. something in the walls, threatened kids, some flecks of nastiness. Thoroughly entertaining. Cannier than you might expect with a genuine underlay of fairy-tale nastiness.
Barnaby Clay’s ‘The Seeding’ offered the Unrelenting Serious side of horror. A man finds himself in a massive hole in the ground with a reticent woman and savage boys above and no way out. Scott Haze, who essentially has to carry the film, is excellent. It's a bad title that gains credence when you know what it refers to. It's a Descent Into Hell narrative strung out on mystery and a few shocks as Haze goes from hints of entitlement to scraps of what he used to be, never quite knowing that he's fated as soon as he offered help to a child seemingly lost in the wild. The slow burn keeps up the disquiet, but it's a film of a stunning rock-face that never stops being awe-inspiring.
Although the film tries to hold its cards close to its chest, if you do guess what's happening, the inevitability is still unsettling. The boys are allowed to roam free and do and get away from anything, to indulge in predatory and sadistic play, and any dissenters will not be tolerated (they're a bit 'Mad Max' delinquents). Women are baby-machines that are the ones that tragically uphold these traditions. Again, perversion of gender roles and homemade family traditions/religions make families the most dangerous places. The film offers no more than an extreme version of somewhat conservative norms (women the homemakers while men go play). Accusations of misogyny don't quite hold water because this is the very core of the film's horror. Ignorance itself is the main source of this horror.
· Some low budget gems.
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Rebekeh McKendry’s ‘Glorious’ is one of those low-budget horror films that goes where other genres don’t care about. Set almost entirely in a bathroom, it’s one man against existential horror for cosmic comeuppance. It’s the kind of grubby roadside bathroom that you think you will pick up some tragic disease just by looking at it, but Rebekah McKendry wisely leaves pink as the dominant impression to counter the grime. Ryan Kwanten puts in solid work and it ends up as if Moorhead and Benson went Henenlotter. It’s the film’s ambition that sticks in the memory.
Also impressive in the low budget end is James Morris’ ‘He Never Left’. Starts with an underwhelming first kill, but as soon as the car boot opens and Colin Cunningham pops out, the film compels with his performance and a laying on of other stories and angles running unseen but parallel. Cunningham excels as a fugitive trying to control his temper one minute and losing it the next, in a constant state of panic and guilt.
You might be forgiven for thinking that we're not in the slasher flick the poster promises, but it's that too - even if it does that diffusing technique of carrying the story right into the credits. There's a lot to superficially enjoy, but its underlying theme of broken people due to bad parenting and child abuse - and the fact that one of its endings has the agents in pursuit of the fugitive lamenting the legacy of serial killers but not quite catching on - has the film reaching for greater depth and leaving more than the usual residue by respecting trauma. In this way, it’s also interested a little in dissecting its own crime-meets-horror genre, having its cake and eating it.
· And…
Other films like Joe Lynch’s ‘Suitable Flesh’, the Bloomquist’s ‘Founder’s Day’, Rob Savage’s ‘The Boogeyman’, and Jenn Wexler’s ‘The Sacrifice Game’ filled a Horror-sized hole in a kind of processed snack way, and very much fleeting, although ‘Suitable Flesh’ certainly was loud and happy with itself on social media.
Films like Takeshi Kushida’s ‘My Mother’s Eyes’ and Teresa Sutherland’s ‘Lovely, Dark and Deep’ erred on the side of artiness, but they did have art – and in the former, Grand Guignol; the latter unsatisfying conclusions.
More satisfying in the uncanny horror was Karoline Lyngbye’s ‘Superposition’. More failing reality, one of my favourite horror fears. Like ‘Marriage Story’ meets ‘Coherence’, a couple decide to and leave society behind, taking their young son with them, so they can repair the fractures in their marriage. This is a couple fully self-aware of their narcissism and privilege in the modern world, and there’s irony in that they will be blogging about their off-the-grid experience. But alternative realities have other ideas, and they are forced to face their marriage problems by negotiating with themselves. As always with doppelganger scenarios where the definitions and characters get a little blurred (sometimes deliberately; keep track), there may be a little confusion here and there, but Lyngbye’s film never loses sight of that aforementioned privilege and narcissism and what that might mean should a person be faced with this during a mid-life crises. A true existential, character study chiller, cooly played and sure-handed.
Modest but ambitious minor efforts
like Ted Geoghegan’s ‘Brooklyn ‘45’, ‘The Last Video Store’,
‘Cold Meat’, and Thomas Sieben’s ‘Home Sweet Home: Where Evil
Lives’ impressed more with their ambition and atmosphere with
limited resources. ‘Home Sweet Home’ was a One Take Wonder but had real
blocking instead of relying upon shaky-cam all the time to cover up what it may be deficient in, and even
strikingly featured a flashback.
After an initial twist, Sébastien Drouin’s ‘Cold Meat’ emerged as a chamber piece of killer and victim in a car, stranded in a blizzard, offers two great performances with a decent script and a lot of enjoyable detail about their predicament. If the supernatural element seems like a deux ex machina, even if foreshadowed, with use of Native American mythology a little unsteady, but this doesn't scupper the good work that has gone before. A relatively smart and entertaining thriller.
Viljar Bøe’s ‘Good Boy’ only had so many places to go with its premise – a millionaire lives with Frank, a man dressed permanently as a dog, much to the millionaire’s date’s surprise – but it kept it vibe of unsettling and uncomfortable throughout, had fine performances and, even when you knew what it was, it kept itself brief and ended on a logical, still disconcerting and satisfying punchline.
Cody Kennedy and Tim Rutherford’s ‘The Last Video Store’ was plenty fun. I often come across comments where people say horror and comedy rarely works, but I can only assume they aren’t paying much attention. At FrightFest, the horror comedy is a staple and ‘The Last Video Store’ is another good example. Kevin Martin owns The Lobby DVD Shop , a real VHS store still hanging on – here called Blaster Video – and that’s the setting for this showdown with a demonic VHS tape. He plays the lead too.
A self-aware, self-deprecating homage, joyful in its own way, armed with only a single beloved location, two vivid leads and a number of good genre gags. It may not be anything exceptional, but it is highly likeable, funny and infused with a melancholy that makes sense of its purple-and-neon hued nostalgia and claustrophobia.
It was certainly less needy than Nahnatchka Khan’s ‘Totally Killer’. Agreeable enough mash-up of Time-Travel and Slasher scenarios - although stronger on the latter as it's free-and-easy with the details of the former. Rather, Sally finds herself flung back in time to stop the unsolved Sweet Sixteen murders that marred her Ideal American Suburb. This allows for '80s nostalgia and jokes about how much culture has changed, at least from what we know from the slasher era. Yes, Sally is fairly obnoxious and entitled, but it's easy enough to warm to her as she barnstorms her way through the past like it's a console game where the environment doesn't question her presence too much. The humour is that kind where she's constantly talking out of the side of her mouth to the audience, but there are a few good "wasn't-the-past-different? gags". It has enough nastiness and twistiness and silliness to entertain, but neither is it as satisfyingly clever as Blumhouse's 'Happy Death Day'.
A downbeat end note
So maybe all this sounds very positive, but why not? There was a lot of good watching, and anyway, like anyone, I mostly watch avoid what I doubt will float my boat. So no ‘Thanksgiving’ or ‘The Nun II’ or ‘The Exorcist: Believer’; or ‘Equilizer 3’ or ‘Fast X’, or… And I’ll catch up with ‘Oppenheimer’, ‘Flowers of the Killer Moon’, ‘Monster’ (Koreeda), ‘How to Have Sex’, and plenty others later.
But if you are after something more negative – and I’ll swing big - Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ‘65’ really missed an opportunity, and Payton Reed’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ was so thin that you could pop it with the sharp end of your disinterest. Superficial stuff that squandered any good will going in.
And so... got a lot of catching up to do.
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