The World We Knew
Director: WW Jones & Luke Kinner
2020, UK
Writers: Benjamin Jones & Kirk Lake
The concept is Gangster’s versus
Ghosts, with a concentration on the psychology. But British gangsters seem to
come with that talking in cliché or colourful criminal style that is quickly
tedious. Jones and Lake’s script is better than just ugly men snarking, but it’s
still a group of criminals talking tough to each other. There’s the young’un,
the psychopath, the veteran, etc. The cast is good, though, with what they
have. You know there’s going to be speeches about the good ol’ days, about
their dad, and there will storytelling and monologuing. Hiding out in a house
after a job-gone-wrong, these men have to reckon with the ghosts of their past.
It’s not jump scares, it’s about the characters. And then confrontations with
ghosts just end up being more tough talk. A slow-burn is fine, but perhaps this
depends upon how much you invest in a bunch of near-cliché men being
sentimental and/or having a conscience about a reprehensible past. It doesn’t
build to anything, but it does have a good endnote.
The Cyst
Director: Tyler Russell
2020, USA
Writers: Tyler Russel & Andy Silverman
A gleefully silly creature-feature
that reminds of early Roger Corman, or Frank Henenlotter, or the films like ‘TerrorVision’ released
on the Charles Band’s Entertainment (I always had a soft spot for ‘TerrorVison’…
not exactly sure why). Set in the Sixties in a clinic where an increasingly
off-his-rocker doctor (George Hardy having heaps of fun) treats cysts, it’s
limitations are part of the fabric: as with
most mad scientist scenarios, it’s hilarious to think he made such a
breakthrough device in his squalid clinic – it’s just a big block of dials and
buttons made from whatever sciencey-looking equipment was seemingly left around
his garage. The cyst monster is a glorious old-school practical effect with
lots of squirty pus and a beachball eye (Russell said in the post-screening
interview that about 80% of the effects were practical). A short run time,
things kept just this side of zany although continuously ridiculous, with Eva Habermann
greatly appealing and up for anything make this a lot of fun.
Blood Harvest
Thomas Robert Lee
2020
A somewhat generic horror title that does the content only nodding service. Originally called ‘The Ballad of Audrey Earnshaw’, or ‘The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw’, which are far more appropriate. But Alan Jones’ introduction referenced ‘The Witch’, so immediately upping my expectations.
Secretly living as occultists on the edge of a Protestant town, a mother and daughter collide with the community as the daughter’s asserts herself. Eerie things happen and soon it’s more than just crops not growing to contend with. There’s a good portrayal of a town besieged by witchcraft and Black Magic, menace and tragedy become the default with the story perhaps going not quite where you expect it to. Good performances; generational clashes run parallel with clashes with the community which is apposite for a coming-of-age tale; a consistent atmosphere of unease and washed-out tones dominate. I note accusations of loose plotting, but the bubble of dread besieging an isolated community, where seemingly random tragedies build up a bigger whole, is consistently the focus. A quiet, understated horror-drama of a whole town receiving the brunt of a girl’s displeasure.
Broil
Director: Edward Drake
2020, Canada
Writers: Edward Drake & Piper Mars
Any plot synopsis is likely to spoil
‘Broil’s drift. It starts like a typical high school scenario but the
information and story then comes so thick and fast that for a while it’s
uncertain what conventions it will follow. It uses many tricks of shuffling
perspective and expectation so that when it does settle down, it doesn’t take
too long with exposition and keeps up the speed and therefore maintains an
entertaining momentum. It’s colourful, smart, and excellently played: one of
its successes is that even the minor characters leave a mark. It’s a little
more conventional than its razzle-dazzle surface, but it’s always engagingly
played. There’s the theme of rich-people-are-different and Family Secrets, but
it mostly services as a fun ride peppered with nastiness and a little genre-mashing.
Relic
Writer & Director: Natalie Erika
Jones
2020, Australia
One of those horrors that is so
rooted in relatable, sad and difficult reality – a mother and daughter facing
grandma’s apparent Alzheimer’s – that when it slips into genre, you hardly see
the joins. Satisfyingly chilling and emotionally authentic that it is no wonder
it’s been getting a lot of praise. It has the kind of resonance that people
with a narrow view of the genre wouldn’t expect. It uses the uncanny to both
indicate illness and the genre: for example, it wasn’t a surprise when writer-director Jones said
her grandma lived in a house that scared her. It probably goes without saying
that the three female leads are exceptional,. Robyn Nevin's performance is brave and captivating, warm and unsettling, covering the whole gamut. Mortimer and Heathcoat are wonderfully grounded, with the edges between the younger
mother-daughter dynamic implicit without obvious dramatic conflict. With an
emotional resonance that gives it crossover appeal, even as it sticks to genre and
analogy to the very end, this is a gem.
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