Well... There goes that hint of hope everything is going to be allright again. Berlin was doing so well after the initial COVID19 shutdown in the spring. We even tentatively started sticking our heads out of
I am aware that it is a small price to pay, but to me, the biggest casualties brought on by COVID19 related restrictions have been not being able to go to museums and to movie theaters, the later being the bigger loss of the two. When the Berlin shutdown was announced in March and I gradually grasped the consequences and dimensions of that, one of the first thoughts that came into my mind was how lucky I was that the Fantasy Film Fest, the Berlinale and the Final Girls Berlin were already behind us and didn't need to be cancelled. Six months later I bitterly realize that these film festivals might still not take place in 2021 (even though Berlinale announced it will take place physically - but that was way before the threat of a second wave) and I have to admit that it saddens me. Movies are the light of my dark winters. I think I could, even with a heavy heart, forego the first two, but the idea of missing the Final Girls Berlin Film Fest gives me proper anxieties. I have no idea how they do it, but organizers Eli and Sarah never fail to compile an awesome selection of movies that has never disappointed me to this day. Beside the movies, Final Girls Berlin also marks the ending of the Berlin winter for me, it has been the light at the end of the tunnel the last couple of years. Of course they are now online and you can go to their patreon page and watch their movies, which is great. It still is not the same as a real festival, though.
With all these doubts and trepidations in mind, I have started assembling my own little fall/winter film fest and I will discuss here the selection I came up with, based on the trailers. Now, some of these trailers give away a lot and some are real mysteries, but they all look somewhat good to me and it is the end result of what I have decided to watch this season, as far as possible.
By the way, what really excites me (and surprises me) is that there are recently more and more horror flicks directed/written by women. I wasn't even looking purposefully for films made by women, but they are so numerous now that they just flew to me! Which means there is a shift towards a focus on the female experience and that makes me happy, of course it does.
Let's kick off with 12 Hour Shift (written directed and by Brea Grant) which is about a health worker whose cousin is somehow involved with the mafia and they pressure her to harvest organs illegally. Obviously, in a movie about illegal organ trade set in a hospital, there will definitely be lots and lots and lots of blood and organs and awkward scenes involving gore that will make you cringe. Not for the squeamish!
Much graver looks the next movie on my list, Amulet, which features a refugee, demons and nuns and marks British actress Romola Garai's directorial debut. This looks like the kind of movie that I would love to watch in a theater as the impossibility to direct your focus elsewhere would magnify the terrifying experience and scare the shit out of me, but alas...
Antebellum, the story of a woman who is thrown back in time by a mysterious organisation to be forced into becoming a slave on a plantation, gave me Kindred vibes, as Octavia E. Butler's speculative masterpiece also combines time travel and the slave narrative. This movie shares a producer with previous horror movies about the black experience, "Get Out" and "Us".
I have been trying to guess which stories from Clive Barker's groundbreaking horror classic Books of Blood will make it into the anthology film and the first trailer doesn't really provide clarification. I could only make out the frame story "The Book of Blood" and did not recognize any other, which is also due to the fact that I haven't read them in ages. I am a little surprised that this is a movie and not a series but I'm trying to suppress any bad feelings that might come up for now. Am I too optimistic in thinking I could maybe squeeze in a re-read until next week, when the hulu-release is due? Ambitious, I admit, but still worth a try.
Even though I included Death of Me from acclaimed horror director Darren Lynn Bousman in this list, I'm in fact not sure there's anything left to watch in the movie that the trailer doesn't already give away. Still, this could be a fun, trippy horror movie that doesn't require careful watching, since we have seen it all in the trailer, right?
When in 2017 Happy Death Day was released, I was in for quite a surprise. I had previously seen the sneak peek and was truly astonished to find out that this is a real movie, so much like a bad joke it looked. When I finally watched it (though admittedly not by choice, I gave in to the insistence of my teenaged niece) I was surprised by what was a genuinely funny and endearing slasher comedy, which was justly deemed "Groundhog Day meets Scream" by critics. So I'm super excited for Freaky which is about a young girl who switches bodies with a psycho killer while he tries to murder her, which can most accurately be described as "13 Going On 30 meets ... Scream again" by the same critics. Yes I know, this isn't the movie experience of your life. But sometimes even I want to watch something funny and my decision to watch this flick is in no small part due to the hillarious performance of Vince Vaughn.
The only documentary on this list is In Search of Darkness that has been funded by fans and focuses on 80s US horror movies. Absolutely no idea what awaits me but I'm in!
Possessor: Yesss! If it weren't the Cronenbergs we're talking about I would have thought this kind of baton change between father and son a little questionable. But this looks so good that I think young Cronenberg just might establish himself as a household name. Love the visuals, love the soundtrack, looks like body horror aplenty, and the imdb-description sounds intriguing too: "Possessor follows an agent who works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies - ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients." I'm already sold...
Written and directed by Natalie Erika James, Relic seemingly meshes the haunted house story with mental-health horror. It takes nothing more than Bloody Disgusting's Meagan Navarro describing a movie as "blood chilling and devastating" to convince me of it!
Saint Maude (written and directed by Rose Glass) follows a very spiritual nurse who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her patient. Don't know why, but this one reminds me of "Carrie", but in an even more unsettling, unnerving way. It has that special A24 feel to it, if you know what I mean. Another movie produced by the same indie prodigy is, The Green Knight, whose theatrical release has been postponed twice already. Fun fact; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was part of my curriculum when studying English Literature at the uni years and years ago, and it was indeed my favorite Middle English "roman de chevalerie" (honestly, the choice was not hard), still, never have I dreamt the Green Knight to be so spooky and Sir Gawain as handsome.
Speaking of dreams, if you ever dreamt of seeing Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson together in a "Saw" movie, now is your time! Don't miss Spiral!
One of the movies that intrigue me most is The Beach House, which apparently combines elements of cosmic horror and violent diseases on a summerly beach. Conversely wintery visuals offers The Strings by Ryan Glover, and centers around a musician, a cabin in the snow and encounters with dark entities.
The screen adaptation of A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window should be another highlight since the book is full of amazing twists that would do great on screen. More importantly the movie features an incredible cast consisting of Amy Adams, Juliane Moore, Anthony Mackie and Gary Oldman as the villain.
And, last but not least, a movie I have on my wish list because Stephen King has heartily recommended it on twitter. I'm talking about Vivarium, of course, which looks eerily interesting to say the least.
Will I be able to watch all these until the end of the year? I have no idea and to be honest I don't think so. I'm sure some of them won't even be available due to COVID19 postponements and some of them will be available in the US but not in Germany yet, so I'll have to see and do my best finding them and I'm sure I'll watch tons of other movies I haven't cited here. I haven't even started talking about series, mind you. Ultimately it is good to keep an eye on upcoming horror goodies and if everything goes well we can soon storm the theaters too, like Zombies in a train...
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