Film Comments 2024: Others + Horror

 Film Comments 2024: Others + Horror

Jonathan Glazer ‘TheZone of Interest’  was remarkable anti-narrative portrayal of total horror, presenting a perspective of the facilitators that treat it as an extension of their cosy, privileged lives. A profound achievement.  

 

I may have been unconvinced that Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’ gelled, but in a pending "President Trump Toxic Avenger 2" world, it’s vision of people at war with each other for who-knows-what? reason certainly seemed to be onto something, somewhat prescient for those perpetually doomscrolling.

To more conventional thrillers:

 

Joshua Erkman’s ‘A Desert’ was a solid, sunbaked thriller. A photographer goes on a road trip, bearing a mid-life crisis, and discovers – like so many horrors – that Some People Just Want To Fuck You Up. Even if that’s predictable, there are full-blooded performances, grittiness, beautiful cinematography, and enough inventiveness to make this memorable. A film that will surely earn itself cult status.

 

Rather than the stylisation and staginess of his previous ‘Psychopaths’, Mickey Keating’s ‘Invader’ shouted a smash-and-grab intent. It’s a slender, brash and often intense home invasion tale told in hand-held fashion that – in their stage introduction – Keating and editor Valerie Krulfeifer warned we may have to look away and take a break from at times. And yes, sometimes the shaky-cam is confusing – blocking doesn’t seem to be a thing – but it is obviously deliberate rather than artless. Keating talked of trends in the nineties for films about Americans going abroad and getting fucked up, and how he wanted to invert that (and just stopped short of saying outright “Why do people want to come to Chicago?” Keating and Krulfeifer were light and breezy, likable and funny). And it’s true that the America presented here is litter-strewn, unfriendly, threatening and ultimately homicidal in a weirdo get-up. ‘Invader’ is a short and loud burst of social anxiety with no room for relief.

 

For lighter entertainment:

 

Chris Renaud’s ‘Despicable Me 4’ may have a plot, with Gru the main guy, but it’s the minions we come for, surely. They are a brilliant comic creation and their slapstick a constantly amusing occasionally hilarious delight. The franchise was always based in satirising the superhero/villainy genre and this time round, the minions get their own superhero group, with their going around erroneously do-gooding a highlight.

 

Kelsey Mann’s ‘Inside Out 2’ proved a solid, inventive primer for teenagers negotiating emotions. Well actually, ‘The Numskulls’ allegory is a good foundation for thinking about behaviour at any age. New Teenage Emotions gatecrash the equilibrium of our growing protagonist Riley’s character, and it’s their interplay that is the film’s core delight. Goofy designs, bright and colourful, mono-motivated and often at odds yet all aiming on the same goal. It’s a smart and mindful screenplay and execution with plenty of poignancy (Embarrassment helps and covers for Sadness). Definitely in the quietly brilliant camp.

The defiantly oddball ‘Hundreds of Beavers’ by Mike Cheslik was deliriously inventive, always funny, quite unique and spiked with nastiness as much as cartoon slapstick and craziness. That it gives people dressed up as animals romping around a forest such consistent focus and technical ingenuity – just a 19^th century bear-trapper trying to kill as many animals as he can to impress a hard-to-get girl with furs – on small budget and a load of creativity was impressive; that’s it’s just plain smart-stupid-funny and entertaining even more. Now you know what Guy Maddin rebooting Looney Tunes looks like.

 

 Pablo Berger’s ‘Robot Dreams’ was as much about loneliness as ‘All of Us Strangers’ and ‘I Saw the TV Glow’, and had a sneakily sombre tone, but colourful and benign. The anthropomorphising is absolute from our protagonist DOG to the Robot he buys for a friend. It taps into pet love sentiment and so will inevitably reach deep, although it perhaps doesn’t go as you might think. Its ultimate message about the depth and perhaps brevity of a best friendship coming up positive and life-affirming. Full of lovely details such as comedy pigeons, or a street-drumming octopus and snow on a beach, one of those benevolent, all-ages animations with proper emotional resonance. And in that way, a small treasure.

 

To franchises:

All I know is that I watched Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune part 2’ in a state of awe. His slightly detached manner of storytelling is not for some, but from the post-credits voice blaring out to the subsequent soldiers silently gliding up dunes, I was beguiled. It is typically a second viewing that reveals the linearity. Launching from the set-up of its predecessor, this sequel consummates a world-building of stunning cinematic breadth and technical achievement. That it is a anti-chosen-one narrative is a buried under a sandcastle, but Paul Atreides refusing and then fully embracing the White Messiah complex is nicely accentuated by foregrounding Chani: I found Zendaya a weakness of the first part, but not so here. The palaces, the spaceships, the battles, the pomposity: this is science-fiction size on screen to compete with what was in your head when you read a book. Totally immersive.

 

Wes Ball’s ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ came trading in the goodwill of the franchise that has lasted decades. It came with a somewhat unwieldy name that implied we might get an ‘Outhouse of the Planet of the Apes’ at some future point. The opening is a little like consul gameplay challenge with the apes trying to get far-flung eggs, and because it was world-building for another trilogy, the pacing issues were achingly obvious, almost recovering from them when Proximus’s prison-Utopia becomes the focus. But Mae the human is a flaw, being one of those defiant characters who causes a much trouble when her only motivation is defiance!, thinking that is strength, and the film seems to think so too. Dreary and despondent rather than scary, energised doom mongering. 

 

Shawn Levy’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’: There are memories of the meta-stuff being funny in the predecessor, but that has turned into in-jokes, no consequence and a narrative built on audience applauding cameos. Yet, good for a few laughs.

 

Fede Álvarez ‘Alien: Romulus’ does a lot right, rehashing and rebooting, and there was a lot to enjoy when a bunch of looters come up against xenomorphs. There was always a sense of thinking out the set-pieces and problem solving, of returning to monster-movie roots. of the aliens trying to reclaim their genuine scary nature. But then there’s a call-back line so glaring, so wrong, that it undermines a lot of goodwill. Nevertheless, consistently great set design, David Jonsson’s turn as Andy and the standout shots of the spaceship in the planetary rings made this enjoyable.

 

Horror:

 

To get it out of the way: It’s doubtful that any alternative adaptation could usurp the glorious 1979 series that traumatised a generation, but if there ever was to be it was not Gary Dauberman’s ‘Salem’s Lot’. There was potential to the drive-in finale, but it was not a film that found a way to condense the sprawl of the material into something effective and unnerving, leaving it thin and shruggable.

 

Damien Leone’s ‘Terrifier Part 3’ was an obvious result of adolescent boys getting together trying to think up the most outrageous and gory set pieces they can. But there’s no doubt that Art the Clown is a great performance by David Howard Thornton, and that Leone can direct, wallowing in cruelty without any point or consequence. Like part 2: probably what non-horror fans think horror is: over two hours of sadism and outrageous gore with a magic sword get-out clause. But this time with added Christmas bullshit.

 

Films like Frédéric Jardin’s daft ‘Survive’ and even Pierre Tsigaridis’ daft and ikky ‘Traumatika’ were not-good-but-enjoyable-nonetheless. Films like ‘The Invisible Raptor’  and ‘Alien Country’ were far funnier and better than their one joke promise. Films like  Clark Baker’s ‘Test Screening’, Josh Forbes’ ‘Destroy all Neighbours’ and the ‘V/H/S Beyond’ did exactly what they promised on the tin, and enjoyable if undemanding for that.

 

But then there was Cameron and Colin Cairns’ ‘Late night With the Devil’ that managed to make its evident flaws irrelevant. It proved to be the genre’s underground success, overcoming any imperfections by its era recreation and just being greatly enjoyable.

Equally scruffy but memorable was Yusron Fuadi’s ‘The Draft!’, generically stumbling along it’s tropes, when suddenly its title makes sense and opens up a host of meta-gags. Even the score set to “overkill” and a gag reel make sense in context. Surprisingly smart and amusing.

 

‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter’: Troubled by distribution delays, André Øvredal’s embellishment on one of ‘Dracula’s best passages proved a solid big monster movie with some good characterisation (ships were centres of diversity) and some great monster effects. Not at all gruesome or scary, but impressively mounted and touched with a little nastiness when it needs it. Lavish and slick if unremarkable Gothic horror entertainment (and a light companion piece to Eggers ‘Nosferatu’).

 

Sébastien Vaniček ‘Infested’ had the socio-political horror down pat, where the bigger threat was the police trying to keep the less fortunate in a deathtrap, but the spider action was a little underwhelming.

 

In a post-pandemic world, David Moreau’s ‘MadS’ couldn’t help but have a little more socio-political heft, but as a straightforward One-Take-Wonder romp-and-dazzle on a familiar set-up, it delivered.

 

Alexandre Aja’s ‘Never Let Go’ was on the verge of saying something relevant about isolationism, delusion, nature/nature, but never quite made a point. Halle Berry gave it earnestness – but was this just commitment or signalling the mental illness of fundamentalism? And the child performances were impressive, as was the tense atmosphere – Aja is a craftsman, there’s no doubt – but there’s a fine line between ambiguity and being the feeling of being cheated out of answers.

 

A far better folk horror was Daniel Kokotajlo’s ‘Starve Acre’. Unfolding as expected, although distinguished by the rabbit action, but nevertheless hitting directly that pleasure zone of British Seventies horror vibe. Oddball performances, uncanniness, the sense that grief may lead you to dig up the past and into ruination.

Also in this realm was Benjamin Barfoot’s ‘Daddy’s Head’, impressive for having its internal logic all thought out and all the random uncanniness stem from this, making ultimate sense once you put the pieces together (horrors often feel like they’re the other way around). With a dread, slow burn atmosphere and a modest itinerary on its ambition, its lack of Big Horror might leave some cold, but it was far better than its bad, bad title.

 

Couples trouble was covered by Jason Yu’s creepy-fun ‘Sleep’  and Caye Casas’ ‘The Coffee Table’. The former was ultimately a sad tale, despite its veneer of horror tropes, and the latter funny until defined by the unbearable. In that sense, it was true horror.

 

For other favoured horror-thrillers that weren’t ‘Strange Darling’:

 

Kyle McConaghy and Joe DeBoer ‘Dead Mail’: Set firmly in a dour, washed-out Eighties where most era homages look like cardboard cut-outs coloured in felt tips. Deliberately low-fi aesthetic, all the cassettes, typewriters, rotary phones and sleuthing mail departments surely puts this in a technological era that will be totally alien to younger viewers. Superior attention to detail, character and plotting makes this increasingly engrossing as an unusual thriller based upon synthesizer geeks and mail offices that work more like altruistic private detectives. There’s also bonus appreciation of the underappreciated heroism of working people just doing their job and taking a care. Its context feels so, so real with Fleck and Macer Jr’s performances infused with pathos rather that movie thriller panic and motivation. And the devotion to analogue synthesizer music on the soundtrack gives it that extra special element.

 

Any seasoned horror fan will get where this is going from the opening credits collage. Teddy Grennan’s ‘Catch a Killer’ makes for a thriller whose stylishness belies its B-genre concept, but it’s slick, entertaining, very enjoyable and hosts a great central performance from Sam Brooks. And for once, the romance feels worthwhile rather than performative. I for one appreciate the swiftness of the ending as opposed to a originally conceived protracted showdown that would have highlighted more problematic elements.

 

Perhaps Chris Nash’s ‘In a Violent Nature’ was not quite the slasher deconstruction I first thought it to be, but, my word: what a difference pace and camera placement makes. I was deeply amused that such a thing as an ambient slasher existed, and I was fully hooked. It trudged along with in a slow burn without a score to spark responses in a manner  that I assumed to be antithetical to the Jason Vorhees crowd. Often the plot and victims – I mean: we have seen it endless times – was approached by the hulking undead killer from afar, deliberately, non-excitedly; but every other kill was grandiose and gruesome. And the ending wasn’t going to win anyone over either, but all this same-old-story-from-a-different-angle was a winner for me.

 

And:

 

Disappointments 2024:

Drive-Away Dolls

Lady Frankenstein

MaXXXine

Never Let Go

Deadpool vs Wolverine

 

These were films I was genuinely excited for but left underwhelmed.

I mean, I never expected ‘Salem’s Lot’ to impress, but I thought I might be pleasantly surprised.

 

A few favourite soundtracks/scores 2024

The Zone of Interest

I Saw the TV Glow

Strange Darling

Perfect Days

MadS

 

Mads

Writer & Director ~ David Moreau

2024, France

Stars ~ Lucille Guillaume, Laurie Pavy, Milton Riche

 

Well, it had me fully interested as soon as I realised it was a One-Shot Wonder, but then gave a quite jaw-dropping title credit sequence. I went in not knowing which direction it would take, and the allure is in the angle David Moreau takes to a familiar subject. Just like the ‘V/H/S’ series conceit can give an immediacy and veracity to regular tropes, or how ‘In A Violent Nature’s approach provides a little deconstruction of the Jason Vorhees’ style of slasher. ‘MadS’ isn’t trying to reinvent any wheel, but just taking a certain route to make something well-worn exciting again.

 

Of course, the technical achievement of a One-Shot Wonder is alone worth watching – it’s all that driving alongside vehicles, the choreography, the dedication of the actors – the logistics dazzle and Philip Lozano’s gliding camera is rarely incomprehensible. Rather, the gimmick tracks the route of infection, and just seeing a familiar trope done at a slightly different angle of intimacy and subjectivity invigorates it. One night out becomes a nightmarish descent into martial law. The trip into chaos is tightly steered.

 

It's not about narrative, but just the sheer careening into increasing fear and craziness in real time. One of the best sequences is Romain (Milton Riche) just getting home, already high for a night out and with a corpse in his daddy’s car, trying to make sense of how he deals with the situation: it’s here the subjectivity has the most resonance, with the character being duped into a WTF?! horror moment and wondering what to do next (just carry on as normal?).  

 

As a victim’s-eye-view of an End-of-the-World event, ‘MadS’ makes an effective evocation of the confusion with a punkish, pell-mell energy that complements its tag-team structure.

2023 Film Round-Up: Horror

 And so to horror.

Part 1 had the dramas

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.

 

Goth only went on to prove her credentials and have a great time with ‘Infinity Pool’, Brandon Cronenberg’s follow-up to the mighty shocker ‘Possessor’. Slick, full of moral dilemmas and brimming with ideas, body-horror, class and colonial commentary, and canny casting in Alexander Skarsgård. As earnest an outpouring of writer’s block horror as ‘The Shining’.

 

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.

 

 

But Demián Rugna’s ‘When Evil Lurks’ showed again – after his wonderful ‘Terrified’ – that horror fun never seemed so shocking and serious. Excellent world-building – apocalyptic possession-virus – and a willingness to Go There and a number of excellent set pieces showed again that Rugna has a hold on horror tropes that was raw, sure, sly and committed. …Kids and dogs, eh?

 

·         Some low budget gems.

 

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.

 The newest by the Adams family was ‘Where the Devil Roams’. Indie-low/no-budget filmmaking at its best. Sideshow sinister stuff and Depression era family murder road trip, with a big topping of body-horror. Often resembling a story told through vintage photographs, a film that looks the part while embracing its anachronisms without forfeiting mood (the wonderful rock music!).  Fascinating faces and black humoured morbidity abound, but when asked in the Q&A what this film might says about the Adams family, Toby Poser elucidated that she felt it was concerned with the question of children facing their parents' mortality. Might be the Adams family’s most ambitious and accomplished.

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'.

But more successfully and unapologetically fun was Elizabeth Banks’ ‘Cocaine Bear’. It was just what you expected/wanted from that title; yes, stupid et cetera, but the surprise was that it wasn’t shit. But of course, your mileage may vary.

 

 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.