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.

 

2023 Film Round-Up part 2: action & animation & franchises

• ·         Oh, so animations and franchises and action and such:

 Part 1 has the dramas.

 

 

Takashi Yamazaki’s ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ epitomised all the fun and seriousness of a kaiju premise, mindful of the wartime origins and analogies whilst giving a worthy human drama with weight instead of killing time. And when the monster action starts, it’s so, so good.

The reality defying action in Chad Stahelski ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ made my gripes about Jalmari Helander’s ‘Sisu’

churlish and unreasonable, but different expectations for different films. I anticipated more from ‘Sisu’ and expected nothing less from ‘John Wick’. (Then again, I recently watched some King Hu films and unrealism has always be a part of action, I guess.) ‘Chapter 4’ was ridiculously long, which was appropriate for its silly self-aggrandisement, and I was just waiting for the undeniable thrill I got from the first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’. Then I began to drift, and John was across the table from another underworld adversary with just a bunch of cards between them and a bunch of expendable henchman standing around the sides of the ornate room… but I had to go for a bathroom break and I figured I could miss the bad guy pontifications and hoped I would be back in time for the action. Well, I went, and about five minutes later came back and the bad guy was still speechifying. Then followed a full-on fight on a dancefloor across several levels but no one noticed because, y’know, fighting is just like dancing or something. Of course, none of this would work without Keanu, a man of a certain age who continues to dazzle taking on these fight scenes – and indeed, learning nunchuks (and yes, yes, Tom Cruise). But it was the overhead view following a gunfight through many, many rooms that really got my thrill levels up. The last movement (last hour?) entertained me mostly. Still that first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’ I will stand by.

 

But if a bloodbath with the same negligible relationship to reality, then Kim Hong Son’s ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ will more than do the trick. A perpetual bloodbath of a film that just changes genre or sends in helicopters with new bodies to massacre when it needs to. To this, one of the film’s strengths is that no one seems to be safe. That guy who you think to be the main villain? The one who you think might be the eventual hero? Pffftt. Not that you’ll be invested, as this is pure 2D stuff, but… Then the sci-fi-horror kicks in. For braindead gory fun, it’s entertaining, undemanding, slick, goofy and unrelenting. Thin on substance, probably overlong, frequently inventive, culminating in a growth of narrative at the very end that probably hopes for a sequel.

Choi Jae-hoon’s ‘The Killer’ had a similar John Wick Vibe with its tongue slightly in its cheek.  A rudimentary set-up is just to prop up a number of action set pieces, the best of which is inevitably a hallway fight. It’s bright and breezy – based on the web-comic! & adapted from a popular novel “The Kid Deserves to Die” written by Bang Jin-ho – doesn’t waste so much time on characterisation, although it avoids overt cartoonery, even some gun-fu that isn’t just pow!pow!pow! - also peppered with some genuine nastiness. We’re left in no doubt that Bang Ui Gang is a brutal piece of shit, but Jang Hyuk can also turn on the charm and reassure us that this is all good movie anti-hero-kicking-butt fun. There no insight or depth, although the plot does weave a decent web, but it’s un-insulting in its shallowness and offers some nice fight choreography (by Hyuk). 

Xavier Gens 'Farang' added to Impressive Fight genre. Action movie cliches perfectly intact: when you go a new city (in this case: Bangkok), find a high building, go to the rooftop and take in the panorama. There’s not the social commentary you might have expected/hoped for, and there’s probably too much ticking of tropes, but when it finally gets to the hallway and elevator fights, that’s everything. A film like Choi Jae-hoon's 'The Killer' and even 'Extraction 2' know to get on with the fights and play cursory attention to predictable, familar set-up, but 'Farang' is happy to wallow in comfort-action.  Nassim Lyles is magnetic enough presence and the fights look visceral and painful. And then it’s just silly season.

Talking of action, Sam Hargrave’s ‘Extraction 2’ shirked much of its bond to narrative and instead offered impressive one take action sequences which, in themselves, were impressive and that’s what we came for, even if the film was average. 

But for something more serious, a little more ‘City of God’, there was Jadesola Osiberu’s ‘Gangs of Lagos’. More Traditional Gangland Tropes than the furious criticism like others such as 'City of God' and 'Gomorrah'. Oh, there's anger here - the exploitation of the street-level gangsters by the crime lords living in opulence; political corruption - but it errs on the side of formulaic. Tobi Bakre is a striking presence that centres the whole thing, but there are lapses into cheaper melodrama and a score that is applied to everything in a way that implies amateurishness. The street slaughters pull their weight, though, where it's obvious that budget restrictions aren't hindering the extras'/stuntmen's enthusiasm, and there are a couple of splashes of gore. Most of the ingredients are here, but it's mostly admirable rather than successful.

Dan Tratchenberg’s ‘Prey’ returned Predator to some kind of credibility, very enjoyable and infused with a Girl Power streak. More successful was the hint that a franchise of Predator films set at different periods, against various communities (vs. Centurions; vs. World War I/II soldiers; etc.), was possible and offered a variety of possibilities. But I doubt we’ll get that.

Although erring on the side of earnestness rather than fun – every five minutes we’re reminded that the patriarchy isn’t respecting how kick-ass this girl is – this is probably the least insulting Predator sequel. A little temporal relocation and forgoing the Urban Jungle stuff, a little reboot of the predator’s look and some decent action and we’re in solidly entertaining territory.

Similarly, ‘Evil Dead Rise’ was better than expected. An awful trailer thoroughly put me off, framing it like some ‘Insidious’-inspired pantomime, but people kept telling me It’s Actually Quite Good and then I saw it was directed by Lee Cronin, and I liked ‘A Hole in the Ground’. Some nice claustrophobia and some genuine nastiness and conviction rather than silliness to the gurning possessed. And although it didn’t excel in any way, it wasn’t lazy in intent and didn’t devolve into zingers, despite a reductive promo campaign. It’s debatable whether sticking the ‘Evil Dead’ label to it helped or hindered.

•  Super-stuff
  

Whereas animated features like ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ were too average and ‘Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham’ a mess, ‘Merry Litte Batman’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ proved delightful.

Although aimed at a younger demographic and possessed of character design that is often repugnant (even Alfred), Mike Roth’s ‘Merry Little Batman’ is consistently amusing family fare without resorting to nudge-wink gags at the adults or compromising the villains’ nastiness. Well, there are a couple of gags at the expensed of Schumacher’s ‘Batman & Robin’… but it doesn’t indulge. That Batman is voiced by Luke Wilson should be a clue, as well as the pop-rock Christmas tunes, to a more grungey-slacker absurdism. The humour comes from 8-year-old Damien Wayne’s hyperactive desire to follow in dad’s footsteps. Damien (sterling work from Yonas Kibreab: “No pictures! Only justice!”) bounces around causing mayhem and stumbling into Joker’s plan to bring crime back to Gotham City A film that happily embraces the absurdities of the Batman mythology whilst relating to the younger audiences’ need to prove themselves. Bright, breezy, funny and oddly ugly at times.

Taking the cue from the possibilities opened up by the Spider-verse, Jeff Rowe’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ happily freewheels through styles when the desire takes. More successfully, it lets genuine teens voice the Turtles and got the cast to do their voice-work in groups, generating a real energy of adolescent banter. It’s this that is the real magic ingredient, as the issues of difference, rejection, and acceptance all coast along merrily. It’s often funny, as grubby as it is colourful, less headache-inducing (or stunning) than the Spider-verse and, most of all: fun.

 ‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3’: James Gunn rounded up ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ with more epicness, some fan service, some surprises and some fuck-you as he added vivisection to the mix. There were still Daddy Issues, but the proof of how unpredictable Gunn’s mixture of dark-and-schmaltz outlook on the genre can be is that, at one or two points, you really do think he might kill off some major character. He even throws on an ‘Old Boy’ homage. Overstuffed, yes, but fully entertainment. And me, I could have done with more Baby Groot.

 

 But of course, ‘Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse’ was king of the genre. I had the same reaction as I had to the prequel: immediately – Whooo, slow down! And then – oh, wow! I didn’t know this was a “to be continued” ( I like to know as little as possible) so the ending came as a pleasant surprise and I just chuckled with satisfaction. Groundbreaking stuff. 

One last note on the super-hero stuff: Quentin Dupieux’s ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ happily started from the point of mocking the genre’s absurdism before turning into a portmanteaux that widened its targets to embrace all kinds of silliness with some horror garnish.

Night of the Hunted

Night of the Hunted

Director ~ Franck Khalfoun

Writers ~ Rubén Ávila Calvo, Glen Freyer, Franck Khalfoun

2023, USA-France

Stars ~ Camile Rowe, Jeremy Scippio

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.

She captured in a gas station at night by a sniper that has deliberately left the walky-talky there so that he can vomit all his grievances at his victim. That the film doesn’t easily let Camille Rowe’s (she’s good) character give herself away is surely admirable – even keeping the audience at arm’s length because, yeah, why should she be answerable to anyone? – but then it sadistically makes her explain herself under duress with Both Siderism. This serial killer wants her to “confess” she’s just as bad as him because she works as in publicity for a pharmaceutical company. Yes, it’s a conspiracy theorist’s rifle-aided rant-a-thon – he objects to that term, but the conspiracy is surely that the whole world is against him.

There’s a lot to enjoy in the under-siege situation, and Khalfoun knows how to direct and keep all the balls up in the air, and which just about keeps interest once you realise it’s giving just as much time to a crazed mass murderer who thinks his Right Wing and Misogynist agenda means some kind of justification (however articulate, it’s there). 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.