Here we are at the peak of horror in the third millennium, dear people! Continuing from the last post which covered the first two of the pre-pandemic golden years of horror cinema, we'll now take a look at the following two years in which climactically good horror was released. Let's take a look at the best of the best!
2017
When his older brother temporarily stores an antique mirror in his room, young Dennis (Frederick Koehler), who has a mental disability, first protests this new piece of creepy furniture. He later discovers that a duplicate of himself lives in the mirror, a more articulate, smart, and evil version of himself. Mirror Dennis asks him to kill first little then bigger animals, and then even more.
Technically, all odds are against this movie. It took fifteen years for director Andrew Getty to finish it, and he died at the young age of 47 before he could see it released. It is something like a cursed production.
The special effects are barely passable, the impression given in its opening scene of being in a cheap stop-motion-like spook house remains throughout the movie, which has the visuals of a daytime tv horror film. These were the bad parts, now let's see why almost everyone in the horror community with somewhat of a respectable renown seems to be fascinated by this work.
First, there's the honesty, its originality. If you take out the poor execution of special effects, the ideas behind even these poor effects are more often genius than not. Take the mother with lips for eyes - a simple trick which has an enormous creep factor. There is a scene in which the evil, played by sweet Michael Berryman, forces Dennis facedown unto the bed and opens the skin along his back with a zipper, so that he can slip into him and wear his body like a suit - how simple a trick for how terrifying an implication. That scene... The terror is so palpable, so understandable, it is a scene of utter incapacitation, humiliation, dehumanization, of a sort of rape.
That scene also brings me to the acting. I know our lovely horror actors don't get nominated for any awards outside our own, but Frederick Koehler deserved every accolade in the realm of the possible for his performance in this movie. To be able to switch his acting and the range he offers are nothing short of amazing.
I first saw this movie when it was released, and felt like it didn't leave me right away, I carried that bittersweet pain with me for a couple of weeks afterwards. So of course I'd recommend The Evil Within to anyone who likes a solid, soul-shaking psychological horror. Make no mistake, this is heavy stuff, it's not pretty, not pc, trigger-warnings come thick and fast, but, in the end, it's a work of independent art. And that is more than many horror movies have to offer.
There's already an in-depth review of The Endless here on PD, so I won't re-discuss it here.
The story of two brothers returning to the cult they grew up in, only to find out that the area it is based on is playground to a sort of god, is plain wonderful and opens the doors to understanding of further work of its two creators Benson and Moorhead, like Resolution or Something in the Dirt, which are loosely set in the same universe. Resolution is an earlier movie by the filmmakers focusing on two particular characters, a man and his best friend, who are also to be found in The Endless. Their latest work Something in the Dirt is set apart from the cult's camping ground Camp Arcadia, but exists in a universe where this camp exists too.
Always a pleasure to watch movies by these two.
Another one of my go-to movies, this Netflix gem really knocked me off my socks when I first saw it.
Following four friends who go on the hiking vacation in Sweden they had planned before the fifth of them was killed in an armed robbery, this movie takes quite unexpected twists and turns when they encounter old Swedish folk creatures, all the while looking at the frustrations, weaknesses, conflicts among the friends and the resulting personal growth of lead character Luke.
It is rare that the full-frontal display of a monster, nothing implied, nothing hidden, showing each hideous detail, results in the monster inspiring fear. I think that is done well here, the monster is a truly weird creature which defies every definition of its kind, prompting the audience to imagine an encounter with one of these and how terrifying that would be.
I did read the book after falling in love with the movie, but somehow and despite the similarities between the two works it didn't work for me at all. There is a detail added in the movie, and it is in no way a spoiler to mention it here, in which the point of conflict, the death of their friend Rob and the culpability of Luke, while in the book the conflict stems from "only" of the friends having fallen apart due to different lifestyles. That little detail, people hiking in nature and endless bickering revolving around "You stopped calling me when you had children!"-like subjects, compared to a firebomb, a true pain which weighs on their minds and the resulting in a genuinely palpable conflict - that difference made the movie. I sincerely hoped for all book characters to die as soon as possible, while I could relate to the movie figures.
A wonderful watch still, not only for fans of the Nordic!
The directorial debut which introduced Jordan Peele and his wonderful work to the world!
I remember watching this and thinking, "Well, rather a thriller, not so much horror, after all." (So many things wrong with that kind of thinking, meanwhile I know that just because it didn't scare me doesn't make it not-horror!) But then I'm not black, am I? Clarence and I used to talk a lot about Jordan Peele's films and how they normalize for the audience to watch horror movies with black leads who don't die first. Get Out especially has a yes, utterly thrilling, breathlessly watchable, hell of a story: during the family visit of an interracial couple, we are gradually led to believe something off is going on, but it's more than that. We are then knocked over with an unforeseeable left turn, leading to the film's meaningful, important message.
The saddest thing is that, Peele states in an interview, the relatively happy ending of the movie would never be possible in the real world. We all know what would happen if main character Chris would have been found by the police in the way he is being found at the end of the film. But Peele just wanted to be good to black characters after decades of them being senselessly killed off in fiction. I have to say I was so relieved for that ending, left the movie theater with a good feeling.
Opinions wildly differ on this movie - I like it. You have to be a fan of the atmospheric, the art house, the indie movie to enjoy this and I reckon that's not everybody's cup of tea.
The 15th century witch-horror feature set in a village in the Alps follows the girl/woman Albrun throughout her life, documenting all the ways she is being betrayed and mistreated by her parents, her community, her religion, her friends... And the calamities that ensue.
Reading or watching stories of women deemed "witches" by society always leaves a bittersweet, melancholy aftertaste in my mouth, knowing that in most parts of the world women's only agency is the sexual agency and they're unwanted otherwise. Still today. All the more do I appreciate director Lukas Feigelfeld's statement, he wanted "to dig deeper into her [the witch's] psyche and see her as the traumatized, mistreated and finally delusional person that society constructed."
There is a certain, very brilliant strain among current horror films; they start off with a problematic/scary/burdensome situation, such as a breakup, a betrayal, the death of a loved one, the moving into a new place, and then introduce a supernatural horror to stand for that horror, a metaphor, and lets its main character deal with this supernatural entity, all the while coping with their initial trauma. The Babadook (2014), the above mentioned The Ritual (2017), The Poltergeist franchise, Stephen King's IT where this is done for every single member of the Loser's Club, are just some examples I can think of from the top of my head. And, of course, Spain's contribution to my list, Veronica.
The life of a teenager, who, as the oldest daughter of a working single mom and factual care-person to her younger siblings needs to sacrifice so much from her youth, from her childhood that if it weren't for the genuinely scary parts, and I mean like heart-pounding, jumping off and screaming scary parts, her everyday life would be reason enough for the viewer to revolt. After goofing around during a sleepover with an Ouija board (never never ever ever a good idea!) and calling her dead father, she realizes the ghost of him sticks with her and does really, really scary stuff.
If you haven't yet seen this, I absolutely recommend it. And watch it in the dark.
Also about a care-person to a child, but infinitely more on the lighter side: The Babysitter. The first time I watched this, I surprised myself by how much I ended up enjoying it. The crush of a young boy on his, admittedly insanely cool, babysitter ends in him discovering something not so cool about her (but if we're being honest even that darker side of her is very, very cool) and finds himself running for his life.
It has become somewhat of common practice to play with horror tropes, often in self-aware and sarcastic ways, and even though The Babysitter follows that trend, it feels somewhat fresh. Plus, it has all been done before - the babysitter as the damsel in distress, the creepy kid attacking the babysitter, an attacker from the outside, but the babysitter as member of a satanic cult is pretty much uncharted territory. So still very original. Plus, the lead role is basically written for Samantha Weaving, she kills it.
There's really not much to say about IT or any King adaptation for that matter. The first mini-series starring Tim Curry was good in a 90s way. The first chapter of the new film adaptation was great. I think the reason I feel this way is because the childhood days of the Loser's Club is set in the 50s in the mini-series, in accordance with the book, but IT Chapter One is set in the late 80s like my own childhood, so that is a personal and nostalgic notion, touching in a different way.
Everybody has all sorts of stories about Stephen King books, especially the classics. I can't express how deeply IT shook me when I first read it as a teenager. Every time I open a fortune cookie, I expect an eye to look at me out of it, that's my prime takeaway from this masterpiece, lol.
I was visiting my mom in Wuppertal and I dragged her all the way to the "big city" Düsseldorf so we could watch it in English. When the movie was over, she turned to me smiling and said "That was a children's movie!" And she was right. It is a story made up to inspire, to hearten young people - ironically they can't watch it due to the age restriction. I would have been happy if this time they made one movie out of it and not two, but still, this first chapter was awesome. All due respect to Curry, but it looks like Bill Skarsgård stripped him of his title of Pennywise.
2018
I had to think about this movie as recently as two days ago, when I went watching Donnie Darko open air. There's a certain phenomenon at horror showings in movie theaters - if you have an audience not used to watching horror, but who somewhat ended in that room, they almost always react in the same way to the movie; they laugh at scenes which definitely don't aim at making you laugh. And it's a mood killer. I'm not sure what the psychology behind this is, or maybe they're just really high and can't help but laugh, but it happens especially during festivals where more often than not you have an audience who just came for the festival and the title plays a secondary role.
I watched Unsane during the Berlinale 2018 and was sitting next to an older woman who kept on laughing. I'm not sure if there's some kind of affliction that causes you to laugh out of control, or if it's not understanding the mood the film is trying to get you in, or if it's just not respecting the flow of the film, I don't know. But it messed up my experience and I couldn't really concentrate.
To make it clear - the film is about a woman who is being stalked and is submitted into a mental institution against her will. The suspense in this movie is everything and it's supposed to build up gradually, but it was impossible for me. She's being incarcerated by force? Hahahaha! They force drugs down her throat? Heeheeehee. She's being chased by a psycho killer? Hohoho! Something similar happened yesterday at Donnie Darko; A TeenAgeR lYinG on The sTrEEt? Ahahaha! Did sHe jUsT Say fUck? Harharharhar! Seriously, I wonder what these people do when they watch an actual comedy. They probably have to leave the theater in an ambulance or something. I suspect the guy was just thoroughly stoned, no other explanation.
So there's that. Please respect other movie goers. Sorry, I'm bitching a little, but I was annoyed.
This is a harsh one.
A mother and her two daughters move into a remote house in the middle of nowhere, and have to fight off a very brutal home invasion by very scary people.
When I was a little child, I found it hard to cope with the reality I was living in, and as a consequence chose to dream myself away. In my head I had a completely separate world where I had different parents, friends and lived under different circumstances, I was happier there. Doctor's visits didn't much help, but changing school did, and I worked on it actively for years and step by step it got slowly better, with the biggest help being moving to Berlin, where I felt the least depressed my whole life.
There are people like me, like us, and there are people who find it easier to confront the circumstances they live in and fight against them. You can learn how to do that.
What happens in Ghostland is something that hit very close home for me because I'm pretty sure I would have reacted the exact same, illogical way to assure my mental survival. It is a movie which holds the potential to seriously shake you, it's extreme horror that goes under your skin, so know that before going in.
Whenever I watch a movie that shakes me like that, I immediately watch the Specials or Director's Commentary, if there is the option. Seeing how this is all a movie, how the crew and cast were behind the camera helps dissipate the illusion. It reminds me that it's only a movie, as Wes Craven once said.
Another Nicolas Cage gem.
I seriously don't know how to discuss this movie, only that it is a hypnotic, hallucinogenic, very pink movie in which Nicolas Cage goes berserk on the gang that kidnapped his girlfriend.
Sometimes it's best not to look for further meaning in films, just sit back and let the pictures work their magic.
This is that kind of movie that is extremely pleasant to watch, visually, but the plot never did much sense. And that's ok.
Cage is something out of this world, again.
An underrated, beautifully filmed, suspenseful, solid survival horror; made in Canada, which is home to many a solid horror story such as Saw I, Pontypool, Skinamarink, Cube or the above mentioned Ghostland.
It is probably the worst imaginable kind of betrayal - the person who is your lover, partner, your spouse, has been lying to you for years, and they're not the one they pretended to be, even have a different name and a different past. Even worse - they turn out to be a bonafide psychopath and want to murder you for unveiling their lies.
This movie too is one of those which doesn't offer much in terms of plot, but manages to fixate you with gorgeous pictures and insane tension.
I'm closing this slice in horror history with the arguable highlight of the year 2018, Hereditary by Ari Aster.
Just as an aside, I was initially going to include the Suspiria remake, but I have too many conflicting emotions about it and an analysis would be too complex even for myself. So I decided to just forgo that one, although very recommendable, very much worth your time.
Well, I don't think there's more I can say about Hereditary, I did an extensive article about Aster's work and it's meaning for me before and keep mentioning Hereditary everywhere, so much that it's clear I think it's quite the masterwork. Nothing more to add.
So my friends, I hope I could give you some fresh impulse to watch these good movies and don't forget to watch them with the lights off! I'll be back soon with the last two years before the COVID19 pandemic and conclude the series Golden Years of Horror.
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