Tag Archives: Revenge

Bloody Ballet: A Bloody Mess Of Storytelling

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Aside from camp counsellors, does anyone have it harder in horror than professional dancers? Ballet is an apparently brutal profession. And we’ve probably all heard that performers suffer for their craft. The latest straight-to-video psychological horror outing, Bloody Ballet, looks to tread some familiar ground. One part Black Swan, one part Suspiria, Bloody Ballet, or Fantasma, looks to join Mandy as a fan favourite surrealist nightmare.

Synopsis

Young ballerina Adriana Mena gets the break of a lifetime. She’s just landed the lead role in her company’s production of The Nutcracker. But just as things look to be going her way, Adriana begins a slow descent into madness. She’s haunted by a past tragedy and horrific visions. Her success also sparks jealously among her fellow performers. Things only worsen when a masked figure begins stalking and killing Adriana’s fellow dancers.

A Beautifully Gory Tribute to the Giallo Films

Similar to Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, Bloody Ballet is a beautifully shot movie. Director Brett Mullen fills his movie with lush dreamlike images that make Bloody Ballet feel like a lucid dream. He bathes scenes in bright, stark red and green lighting. The opening winter-set scene is striking, almost postcard perfect in its framing. A later flashback uses saturated colouring to stylistic effect. To his credit, Mullen’s a bold filmmaker who washes Bloody Ballet with the Giallo sensibilities of a Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci.

Bloody Ballet’s DIY gore effects would likely have impressed ‘Godfather of Gore’.

Bloody Ballet’s DIY gore effects would likely have impressed ‘Godfather of Gore’ Lucio Fulci. Arguably, this is one of the more brutally unrestrained horror movies in recent memory. Bloody Ballet even rivals Terrifier with its uncompromising violence. Eyeballs are gouged out, and stomachs ripped open with intestines gleefully exposed. Though the effects are clearly low budget, they’re certainly no less impressive. If you’re a fan of 1970’s and 1980’s Italian horror, you’ll find at least a few things to enjoy with Bloody Ballet.

Bloody Ballet is Bloody Incoherent

If Mullen and Cloude wanted to emulate the Giallo, they succeeded on one other front. Giallo films were often stunningly gorgeous, brutally violent, and narratively thin. In this regard, Bloody Ballet is an almost incoherent piece of story-telling. To be honest, this is a messy movie that strings the audience along on a gorgeous journey from one death to the next. There’s a past mystery introduced at the start of the movie, which has little to do with anything that inevitably happens. Some of the laziest expository dialogue this side of Psycho says it does. But it’s so disjointed from the story as to be irrelevant. Do other dancers in the company get jealous when Adrianna lands the lead role? I guess so. There’s more expository dialogues that says so. But the characters aren’t just underdeveloped – they should be wearing name tags.

Inconsistently written characters and illogical storytelling abound.

Inconsistently written characters and illogical storytelling abound. Another sub-plot involving a news journalist runs parallel to the main story. Mullen and Cloude seem to think it all connects by the movie’s end, but good luck trying to understand how. It raises plot holes more gaping than some of the wounds left in the movie’s victims. And don’t forget the climax. It’s a laughable ‘dog’s breakfast’ of ideas thrown at the screen in a desperate last pitch to add some heft to the story.

Poorly Written Characters and Stiff Acting Lurk Around Every Corner

Another hallmark of low-budget Giallo movie-making – stiff acting – finds its way into Bloody Ballet. No one in the movie really escapes unscathed. The performances are almost all universally wooden. Only Scream Queen veterans Caroline Williams and Debbie Rochon manage to turn in portrayals that don’t feel like they’re succumbing to rigor mortis. To be fair to the actors, Matt Cloude’s script deserves most of the blame. The screenplay fails to give any of the characters consistent motivations or even distinguishable traits.

Bloody Ballet Will Test Your Love of Giallo and All Things ’80’s

Ultimately, Bloody Ballet is a wild contrast in style and effect. On the one hand, Mullen’s Giallo tribute approaches previously released Mandy as a lucid, nightmarish visual journal. The movie is tightly paced movie with impressive gore effects. No one will ever accuse Bloody Ballet of being boring. Still this is an absolute mess of storytelling that never approaches anything remotely resembling coherence. It’s long-term viability really depends on whether it hits that midnight movie ‘so bad it’s good’ vibe.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: C+

Hold the Dark Is A Brooding and Meditative Thriller

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Hold the Dark is the latest collaboration between director Jeremy Saulnier and actor-writer, Macon Blair. Previously, Saulnier and Blair have worked together on independent films Blue Ruin and Green Room. Horror fans have likely seen the lean survival thriller, Green Room. For the uninitiated, Blue Ruin is a beautiful and understated revenge film that you should be watching. The filmmakers premiered Hold the Dark at the Toronto International Film Festival. Now Netflix is exclusively streaming their latest joint effort.

Synopsis

Retired survivalist and wolf expert Russell Core travels to a small Alaskan village to investigate the disappearances of three children. Medora Stone, a mother of one of the missing children, claims that wolves dragged her son away into the woods. She lives on alone on the edge of the wilderness while her husband, Vernon, serves a tour of duty in Iraq. Medora pleads with  Russell to kill the wolves so she will have something to show her husband when he returns. But as Russell spends more time with Medora, he slowly discovers a much darker truther. Vernon’s homecoming then sparks a violent descent into the dark Alaskan woods.

Hold The Dark Is and Is Not A Revenge Thriller

Saulnier is an extremely gifted filmmaker. Among his talents, Saulnier does not spin conventional tales, but instead twists familiar narratives into something compellingly different. On the surface, Hold the Dark looks like a dark revenge thriller. The Netflix trailer even teases a potential supernatural thread, which most certainly is not part of the movie. But Hold the Dark never follows any traditional revenge narrative.

But through all these narrative detours, Hold the Dark is always a movie more interested in mood than story.

Based on William Giraldi’s novel, Macon Blair’s adapted screenplay changes course at least twice in the movie. In essence, Hold the Dark is more strongly rooted in emotion than specific plot points. Russell and Medora’s mutual isolation initially draws them together before a chilling discovery takes the movie in a different direction. Arguably, Vernon’s return home and unexpected reaction to his son’s murder again radically pushes the movie in another direction. But through all these narrative detours, Hold the Dark is always a movie more interested in mood than story.

A Discomforting Mood Punctuated by Brutal Acts of Violence

Atmosphere and mood define much of Hold the Dark’s first half. Saulnier takes advantage of the dark, winter-set location to evoke a sense of unease. Like Jeffrey Wright’s Russell Core, viewers are likely to feel disoriented by the expansive nighttime wilderness that cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jonck captures in all its stunning glory. Hold the Dark is a moody film that opts to move slowly while allowing you to feel the character’s loneliness and sadness. In many ways, Hold the Dark feels like a spiritual sequel to Blue Ruin.

The violent set pieces are sparsely spread out, but filmed in a way that punctuates sustained moments of silent brooding.

When Saulnier picks up the action, it hits the viewer like a gunshot in the middle of the night. Viewers shouldn’t go into Hold the Dark expecting the ramped up action and violence found in Green Room. Saulnier sparsely spreads out the violent set pieces, but films them in a way that punctuates sustained moments of silent brooding. In addition, Saulnier films his violence in a very stripped-down manner. There’s no glorification through editing or camera trickery. Hold the Dark’s murders are brutal, sad, and shocking.

A Meditative Thriller That Perhaps Gets Lost In Its Own Ideas

Maybe the best description one could offer for Hold the Dark is that it’s a meditative thriller. And for much of the movie, it’s atmospheric brooding punctuating with moments of shocking violence works very well. Nonetheless, as the movie progresses, there is a feeling that the story is in a holding pattern, waiting to explode out of the gates.

When Hold the Dark approaches its climax, it again twists in an unexpected direction. Except this time the twist feels frustrating. Saulnier and Blair’s story feels like it’s almost obsessively mired in some existential crisis that requires ongoing reflection. It makes for a thought-provoking conclusion, but a dissatisfying movie experience. Even the performances feel subdued. Jeffrey Wright, Riley Keough, and Alexander Skarsgard all deliver excellent performances. In particular, Jeffrey Wright  demonstrates again why more filmmakers should be casting him in their projects. He conveys a weary loneliness with just facial expressions and tone.

Hold the Dark May Prove Dissatisfying for Some Audiences

Hold the Dark is such an atmospheric and beautifully shot film that it’s hard to call it disappointing. On the one hand, Saulnier has crafted another meditative thriller that is utterly engaging. Yet this time around, it does feel like Saulnier let Hold the Dark slip into unsatisfying existential navel-gazing in its final act. One can’t help but feel a little disappointed with the closing moments. Even in a movie that defies classification, Hold the Dark ends with the sense that something was missing.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL: B

Upgrade: Revenge Gets An ‘Upgrade’ in Clever Action-Thriller

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Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but in Hollywood, it’s a dish best re-heated and re-served. Jason Blum continues to tighten his grasp over the horror corner of the box office in 2018. While Truth or Dare received tepid reviews, it still grossed just north of $40 million on a tiny $3.5 million production budget earlier in April (Box Office Mojo, nd). Later this year Blumhouse still has the latest Halloween sequel to release.

Produced through Blumhouse Tilt, Leigh Whannell’s latest directorial effort, Upgrade, received a criminally small theatrical release. Though critics embraced it, only a handful of Canadian theatres showed Upgrade. Fortunately Upgrade is now available on streaming platforms.

Synopsis

Upgrade is a sci-fi/horror ‘upgrading’ of 1970’s exploitation-style revenge films. Whannel sets his action in a  future where technology is integrated into all aspects of life. A group of thugs paralyze technophobe Grey Trace murder his wife. A tech guru offers Grey a chance for revenge. He implants Grey with an experimental computer chip called STEM that integrates with his central nervous system. Now ‘upgraded’ and able to walk, Grey uses this virtual assistant to take revenge on his wife’s killers.

Whannell Gives Exploitation Films An ‘Upgrade’

Earlier this year, filmgoers greeted Eli Roth’s remake of the 1970’s vigilante classic Death Wish with collective shrugs. Part of its failure was a matter of timing. With gun violence debates raging in the public sphere, no one was clamouring to re-visit Death Wish. It didn’t help that Roth offered a tone-deaf, straight-faced remake. Generally, horror fans don’t appreciate Roth for his subtlety. Not surprisingly then, he failed to read the broader sociopolitical mood relative to the original’s 1970’s origins.

Whannell doesn’t just ‘upgrade’ the vigilante exploitation film with its incorporation of technology.

But writer and director Leigh Whannell shows a much keener sense of how to adapt the premise for our current times. Whannell doesn’t just ‘upgrade’ the vigilante movie with its incorporation of technology. Upgrade shifts the focus away from violent street crime. Instead he opts to look at the dangers of artificial intelligence, the military-industrial complex, and tech corporations. Rather than deviantizing poverty or minority groups, Whannell updates the villains of vigilante films for our political times.

Kinetic Violence and Sense of Humour Save Upgrade

Aside from Whannell’s shift in the genre villain, Upgrade is a largely formulaic example of the vigilante film. Most of the genre’s familiar conventions are present. There’s the obligatory scene where the protagonist learns that the law can’t bring him justice. If it seems formulaic, it’s perhaps owing to Whannel’s  ‘if it ain’t broke’ approach to Upgrade that works. Revenge thrillers are popular for a reason. Like the best of the sub-genre, Upgrade expertly exploits audience frustration with injustice.

Upgrade is aided in this regard by Whannell’s kinetic fusion of violence and humour.

To his credit, Whannell offers up a kinetic fusion of violence and humour in Upgrade. Undoubtedly drawing on his history with the Saw franchise, Whannell delivers some wickedly fun scenes of vengeance. Whannell choreographs bone-breaking and blood-gushing in several inventive set pieces. Whannell also managed to pack on a few moments of suspense into his hyper-violent flick. Perhaps most impressively is that Whannell puts this all together without ever betraying the film’s relatively low budget.

All of this bone-snapping violence is also accompanied by a wickedly dark sense of humour, occasionally giving Upgrade the feel of an old Looney Tunes cartoon. Most of this humour comes from the internal dialogue between Grey and STEM. The dry, matter-of-fact delivery from STEM in the increasingly bizarre circumstances offered several good laughs. A few of Grey’s one-liners fall flat but Marshall-Green’s charismatic performance leaves him largely unscathed by the film’s end.

A Dark Turn Worthy of Black Mirror

In spite of its adherence to a fairly formulaic structure, Upgrade distinguishes itself  with a dark climax. It’s at this point of the movie where Whannell’s exploration of AI and tech corporations really coalesces into a coherent commentary. For audiences not interested in subtext, it’s a grim climax that works and makes Upgrade instantly memorable.

Though revenge exploitation thrillers aren’t generally known for their performances, Upgrade has a couple of good ones. Marshall-Green looks like he is having fun with his role, while Benedict Hardie makes for an intriguing villain. Whannel wastes Betty Gabriel in her role as Detective Cortex. She’s fantastic when she’s on screen, but she’s given too little to do. Harrison Gilbertson fails to make much of an impression as Upgrade’s tech guru, Eron Keen.

Upgrade is Another Standout 2018 Entry

Having finally seen Upgrade I’m even more confused as to why this sci-fi/action thriller didn’t see a wider release. It’s head and shoulders above Blumhouse’s middle-of-the-road thriller, Truth or Dare. Unapologetically violent and occasionally quite funny, Upgrade bolsters its formulaic revenge thriller narrative with some thought-provoking subtext on artificial intelligence and a killer ending. Like his fellow Saw alumnus, James Wan, Whannell continues to be a standout genre filmmaker this decade.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: A

Green Room: Lean and Raw ‘Punk Rock’ Survival Horror

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Green Room has been available on Netflix now for a little while, but the blog is still in its infancy, and this is absolutely a film I wanted to review. Writer and director Jeremy Saulnier was the man behind the brilliant and unique revenge-thriller, Blue Ruin. Even without the critical praise heaped on Green Room, it was mandatory viewing with Saulnier’s name attached to it.

Synopsis

After a show is cancelled, the Ain’t Rights, a down-on-their-luck punk band, take a last minute gig. When they arrive at the isolated venue, they discover it’s in fact a neo-Nazi bar. Desperate for money, the band decides to play the show, take the money, and run. However, following their set, they inadvertently witnesses a murder backstage. Trapped in a dingy backstage room, knowing they’ll never be allowed to leave alive, the band must engage in a brutal fight for their survival.

Green Room Is A Brutally Intense Viewing Experience

For viewers who prefer gritty and intense films, Green Room is for you. While none of the violence and gore is over-the-top, Saulnier doesn’t let the camera shy away from any of the brutality. Instead he films all the violence with a stripped down, a raw approach. Arms are snapped, bodies slashed with machetes, and throats ripped out by dogs. The editing and camera angles don’t avoid the carnage. Even the most cynical horror fans will catch themselves sucking in their breath at some moments.

Yet if Green Room was just an exercise in ugly violence, it wouldn’t stand out much from any other horror film. Fortunately, Saulnier balances his violence with lean, minimalist storytelling that delivers constant tension. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, Green Room wastes little time diving into its survivalist story. The initial standoff between the skinheads and band produces some wonderfully unpredictable suspense. To some extent, the movie descends into relatively familiar territory when the body count kicks it, but Saulnier maintains a handle on his story and never allows Green Room to feel derivative.

Lean and Focused Storytelling

Given the current political climate, Green Room would almost seem prescient with its subject matter and choice of villains. Anti-establishment punk rock musician versus Neo-Nazi skinheads sounds like a film ripe for political subtext. Filmed in 2014, Green Room actually has little in the way of intentional subtext. Saulnier’s film is lean and focused storytelling. This is pure survival horror with more interest in how quickly people can devolve into violence than larger sociocultural debates.

Stunning Performances From Its Young Cast

Green Room boasts not one but several stunning performances. Critics heaped deserving praise for Patrick Stewart’s performance as the neo-Nazi leader, Darcy. Stewart certainly earns the praise for delivering a controlled and understated performance. Stewart’s calm, courteous demeanour masks a chilling and calculating villain that is among the more frightening cinematic characters in years.

Stewart’s calm, courteous demeanour masks a chilling and calculating villain that is among the more frightening cinematic characters in years.

In one of his final film performances before his untimely death, Anton Yelchin is no less brilliant as bassist Pat. It’s a very human performance, capturing the desperation and fear that one could imagine if they found themselves in a similar situation. Yelchin turns in a vulnerable performance – he feels like a real person caught up in a rapidly escalating tragedy.

Yelchin’s bandmates – Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner – are equally compelling and believable in their roles. Imogen Poots nearly steals the film as a drugged out skinhead looking to escape the lifestyle. Blue Ruin’s Macon Blair has a small role as a reluctant skinhead, but he continues to impress with his screen time.

One of the Best Horror Films from 2015

Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to Blue Ruin continued the building trend of outstanding independent horror films. In a year that included It Follows, The Visit, We Are Still Here, and Bone Tomahawk, Green Room still offered a uniquely intense horror experience. If you’re like me and spend a lot of time just browsing Netflix for something to watch and you haven’t seen Green Room, do yourself a favour and watch it.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: A

A Fully Loaded Thriller: Calibre is Smart and Suspenseful Storytelling

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Over the last week, Netflix (the Canadian version) has added several thrillers to its streaming platform. Among this new batch of suspense films, Scottish film Calibre popped up on my ‘Recommended List’. With no instantly recognizable actors, a first-time director, and a familiar storyline, I had guarded expectations for Calibre. SPOILER ALERT: I was very wrong about this absolute gem of a thriller.

Synopsis

Old friends Vaughn and Marcus take a trip into the Scottish Highlands for a hunting weekend together. Vaughn is married and expecting a child, while Marcus hasn’t quite grown up yet. On their first night in the small Scottish village, Marcus’ taste for partying, drugs, and women angers a few locals. The next morning, while hunting, the friends are then involved in a horrific tragedy made worse by their panicked choices. Now Vaughn and Marcus find themselves strangers in a small community that is growing increasingly suspicious of them.

Smart, Lean Storytelling

Written and directed by Matt Palmer, Calibre is an excellent example of smart, lean storytelling. It’s a small film, not because it lacks cinematic grandeur, but because it grounds its suspenseful story in a brutal reality. The atmosphere and tension – of which there is an abundance – is entirely driven by one horrible accident and the choices that follow. In this regard, Calibre is very much a human thriller that weaves its story around guilt and paranoia. I enjoy traditional jump scares, but it was impressive to find myself on the edge of my seat for much of the movie based simply on an investment in the characters and story.

It’s a small film, not because it lacks cinematic grandeur, but because it grounds its suspenseful story in a brutal reality.

As Calibre descends into its third act, all of the poor decisions of its main character culminate into a suspenseful climax and harrowing closing moments. The climax is not the end result of well-staged, convoluted scares and stunts. All of the suspense arises from its characters and the choices with which they are faced. While the conclusion of another recent thriller, Kaleidoscope, was frustrating and even unsatisfying, Calibre’s final moments achieve the effect of leaving you haunted.

Palmer Approaches But Always Steers Clear of Tired Horror Tropes

At several points in Calibre, Palmer appears to be verging into the familiar territory of rural backwoods horror. Its basic story of urban characters venturing into a small community and provoking conflict is fertile ground for a variety of cliches. Fortunately, Palmer always swerves away from these tired tropes by grounding his characters and story in reality. There’s nothing that happens in Calibre that doesn’t feel like it couldn’t happen in the real world. The choices Marcus and Vaughn make never feel contrived; they feel like the inescapable results of desperate situations.

One of the major reasons Calibre never descends into cliched filmmaking is that Palmer wraps the familiar rural backwoods narrative with more contemporary and prescient themes.

One of other the major reasons Calibre never descends into cliched filmmaking is that Palmer wraps the familiar rural backwoods narrative with more contemporary and prescient themes. The small village of Calibre looks like a lot of small towns in England and North America. It’s an economically stagnant town struggling to find some hope. In contrast, Marcus and Vaughn are young, educated, and successful. They’ll stop into this small town to spend some money, have fun, and then leave. In one scene, Marcus reveals he’s a financial planner and even offers to make some inquiries to help some of the townspeople. It’s an empty offer that only serves to further stoke growing animosity. While it is a theme that runs quietly beneath the surface of Calibre, it elevates the film above the potential trappings of a familiar horror narrative.

Excellent Performances Breathe Life into a Good Script

Another reason Calibre rises above the familiar tropes around its basic story are the strong performances and believable characters. Jack Lowden and Martin McCann, as Vaughn and Marcus, convince as lifelong friends within the opens minutes of the film. Their choices, regardless of how logical or illogical, never feel convoluted because you’re completely drawn into their plight. You can feel their desperation and guilt as the film plummets towards its inevitable conclusion.

Tony Curran shines as local Logan McClay, who befriends Marcus and Vaughn upon their arrival. Curran has a good script with which to work. In most films with a similar premise, Curran would have been forced to chew scenery with hackneyed dialogue rendering him as a two-dimensional antagonist. In Calibre, even as a secondary character, Curran’s Logan is penned as a real, complex person, faced with awful decisions. Curran’s performance is subtle, effectively conveying a range of emotions that give Calibre an emotional core to its suspense.

Small Filmmaking at its Best

Calibre is small filmmaking at its best. In the absence of jump scares, big moments, and carefully choreographed action sequences, Palmer crafts a human thriller that is soaked in atmosphere and suspense with a tragic ending that will haunt you long after the credits have rolled. It is a slower film in terms of pacing but well worth investing your time. This is the kind of movie that sneaks up on your Netflix ‘Recommended List’ with no hype and utterly surprises with its quality.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: A

The Five Best Horror Films of 2018 … So Far

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It may be hard to believe but here we are – at the halfway point of 2018. The horror genre is having another banner year with one huge box office success and another release already being hailed as a classic. Even the Academy Awards turned its gaze to the horror genre this year. Perhaps it truly is another golden era for horror fans.

A few notes before moving on with my list of the best horror movies in 2018 up to the midway point. Some films that are available on in theaters or VOD in the U.S. are not streaming in Canada. As a result, I have not had the opportunity to see Upgrade or Incident in a Ghostland. Nevertheless, I’ve kept up with the majority of films and the list should be pretty comprehensive.

Honourable Mentions

Narrowing down the field to a handful of movie means some popular choices inevitably are sidelined. A few films that I would certainly recommend to horror fans include Still/Born, 4/20 Massacre, Mohawk, Veronica, and Pyewacket. Cargo was also an excellent zombie film, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to watch it again.

5 – Revenge

Directed by Coralie Fargeat, Revenge offered clever subversion of the rape-revenge film, a seriously outdated horror subgenre. Fargeat flips the ‘male gaze’ that objectifies her protagonist, Jen (Matilda Lutz), and transforms her into vengeance-seeking machine. In addition to subverting the rape-revenge formula, Revenge pokes a little fun at the male-action hero fantasies that were so common in the 1980’s. There’s plenty of blood and violence that Fargeat films with a visual flair. Revenge also delivers a clever and tense final cat-and-mouse game in its climax.

4 – The Endless

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead blew my mind several years ago with a little film called Resolution. With their third feature length effort, The Endless, they’ve done it again. The Endless is a methodical, quiet, and reflective film that combines elements of horror, mystery, and science fiction. There are no jump scares or graphic death scenes. Benson and Moorhead instead have crafted an atmospheric gem that is both unnerving and absolutely immersive. It’s a complex, fascinating concept that is executed to perfection. I was still thinking about The Endless the morning after watching it. With so many ideas to mull over, it’s a film that demands to be watched again.

3- Annihilation

Annihilation isn’t a straight-up horror film; it is probably best described as science-fiction with horror elements. Sadly, Annihilation significantly underperformed at the box. It’s too bad because it’s one of the most pleasantly surprising movie theatre experiences I’ve had in a long time. With an immersive story and incredible performances from all of its female leads, Annihilation boasts a unique premise that is well executed. Both its alligator and bear attack scenes offer audiences remarkably suspenseful horror moments. But it’s the atmosphere and air of mystery that hangs over the proceedings like a fog that makes Annihilation stand out.

2 – A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place could easily have fallen into the trap of being a one-note gimmick. Fortunately, John Krasinski deftly balances the horror elements with a strong emotional core. Both Krasinski and Emily Blunt turn in stellar performances as parents faced with the terrifying knowledge that they may be unable to protect their children. But have no doubt – it’s Blunt’s film. The last 30 minutes of A Quiet Place is a relentlessly tense roller coaster ride. A Quiet Place also features wickedly creative creature effects and an intriguing mythology that’s overburdened with lazy expository dialogue. It is arguably one of the best big-screen horror experiences in years.

Hereditary

…Hereditary is destined to be a classic.

With its stellar Rotten Tomatoes rating and dismal CinemaScore, Hereditary follows in the footsteps of The Witch and It Comes at Night. Call it folk horror, or call it art-house horror. Regardless of how you label it, Hereditary is an unnerving horror experience that structures its winding mystery brilliantly. Toni Collette’s performance should get Oscar consideration. Is the last ten minutes odd? Certainly. But director Ari Aster leaves enough cookie crumbs to piece it together. The ending was reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby. While I can understand why some viewers might be put off, in my opinion, Hereditary is destined to be a classic.

Most Disappointing

Some critics may be quick to add Insidious: The Last Key or Truth and Dare to a ‘Most Disappointing’ list. But The Last Key was the best box office performer in the Insidious franchise and, let’s face it, we’re talking about the fourth film in a franchise so expectations weren’t high. And Truth or Dare delivered what it promised – mild, forgettable scares for teen audiences.

If there is another horror film in 2018 that was nearly as disappointing as Winchester it was The Cloverfield Paradox.

Winchester had no excuses. With top-notch production values, a fascinating ‘based on a true story’ premise, and Helen Mirren, it should have been at least a decent effort. Instead it was a dreary and boring affair. If there is another horror film in 2018 that was nearly as disappointing as Winchester it was The Cloverfield Paradox. All the hype, that Super Bowl commercial. Clearly, the people behind The Cloverfield Paradox knew it was a dud, which is probably why it was dumped on Netflix so abruptly. After the heights achieved by 10 Cloverfield Lane, this was a huge letdown.

Worst Horror Film of 2018

There are a few awful viewing experiences I could include but I’m going to go with Deep Blue Sea 2 simply for its inexcusable bungling of such a simple and fun premise. Sharks have always been scary and they’re arguably more popular than ever courtesy of Shark Week and recent films like 47 Meters Down and The Shallows. Yet somehow the makers of Deep Blue Sea 2 not only made a bad film, they committed the egregious error of making sharks boring.

Us and Them

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Us and Them is about as timely and politically relevant as any film in recent memory. Though not a horror film per se, this British crime thriller and satire builds its story around the popular home invasion subgenre. With the past housing mortgage crisis, fears of real estate bubbles, and rising housing costs, the home invasion subgenre is arguably one of the better vehicles for exporting fear and anger over the widening class divide. Featuring an up-and-coming star in Jack Roth, Us and Them has earned positive buzz in some circles.

Synopsis

Danny, a working-class youth in England, is frustrated with the growing growing gap between the ‘have’s” and “have-not’s” he sees all around him. After a chance encounter with the privileged Phillipa, Danny devises a plan with his mates to break into her parent’s mansion, hold her family hostage, and record their ordeal online. While Danny has grand ambitions of starting a class revolt, his friends may have much simpler ideas. Simmering tensions and lack of experience slowly boil over. As Danny begins to lose control, his plans threaten to result in deadly consequences.

Whip-smart Dialogue and Political Commentary

“It’s not a class war if there aren’t casualties on both sides.”

Written and directed by Joe Martin, Us and Them smartly encapsulates the frustrations of the disillusioned working class with its sharp dialogue and early spot-on satire. Fans of 90’s cinema will find lots to appreciate with the quick banter between Danny and his mates or the tense back-and-fourths Danny has with Phillipa’s banker father, Conrad. With some clever editing during these verbal exchanges, Us and Them also casts a light on the stereotypes that the ‘one-percent’ and working class hold of one another. Martin clearly has lofty ambitions of showing how these toxic attitudes fuel much of the class war.

A Beautifully Filmed But Choppy Narrative

Us and Them is a beautifully shot film. Cinematographer Stefan Mitchell really captures the disparity between the classes with his camera work. Shots of Conrad’s posh mansion are bright, lush, and emphasize the expansiveness of the living quarters. Comparatively, Danny’s working class pubs and apartments are more tightly filmed with grey-hued lighting. For a smaller, independent film, the cinematography impressed throughout Us and Them.

Jack Roth, Tim Roth’s son, isn’t the only thing Martin borrowed from the 1990’s. His narrative flips back and forth in time, not unlike Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. It was an innovative approach 20 years ago, but plays out as a little tired in Us and Them. These quick snippets fill in some blanks for the audience, providing insights into plot developments, but ultimately disrupt the story’s pacing and undermine its tension. It’s a technique that becomes more of a hindrance to Us and Them as it progresses.

Tonal Shifts and Unsympathetic Characters

Perhaps the biggest hurdle Us and Them has to jump is its tonal shifts and inconsistent integration of satire, crime, and horror elements. In the film’s opening moments, Martin masterfully crafts a fun, tense exchange between Danny and Conrad, which promises a dark, tongue-in-cheek satire. As Us and Them moves forward, however, the film’s playful tone dissipates and things become a little more mean-spirited. Martin has a little more trouble bringing in the horror elements in the later stages. Non-horror fans will be put off by the blood and violence, while horror fans are likely to be underwhelmed.

Non-horror fans will be put off by the blood and violence, while horror fans are likely to be underwhelmed.

Things also aren’t helped by the generally unsympathetic nature of the characters. Aside from Danny and Conrad, the supporting cast fails to register or rise above simple caricatures. While Martin’s screenplay avoids vilifying Conrad, actor Tim Bentinck isn’t given much to allow him to connect with viewers. Roth delivers an outstanding performance as the angry Danny, infusing his character with a manic and nervous energy. Much of his dialogue sounds like it was lifted from an introductory sociology textbook, but Roth capably makes it work.

Us and Them Offers Mixed Results

In spite of the potential offered by its premise and opening moments, Us and Them delivers mixed results that may struggle to connect with larger audiences. Director Martin never fully embraces its horror elements and struggles with blending the increasing violence with his earlier satirical focus. The jumping timeline also disrupts the pacing, often slowing Us and Them to a grind when it should be accelerating forward. Jack Roth impresses and its beautifully filmed, but Us and Them is too mixed to fully recommend.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE B-

Unfriended: Don’t Block This Friend Request

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This week on the blog I will be taking a look at technology as a source of horror in the genre. Hopefully, I’ll be posting a larger thematic piece in The Laboratory and, maybe, I’ll have a podcast uploaded soon. In the meantime, over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing a few more noteworthy horror films that revolve around technology.

Today, the first film I’ll be reviewing is Unfriended, which hit theaters back in 2014. A minor box office hit, Unfriended divided critics and fans with its story unfolding almost entirely on screencasted computer screens. Unfriended may have divided audiences, but its film format offered an interesting look into cyberbullying and teen social media use, making it worth a second glance.

Synopsis

One year earlier, high school student Laura Barns committed suicide after she was the victim of a viral video and relentless cyberbullying.  The video, uploaded by an anonymous user, showed Barns drunk, unconscious, and defecating herself.

On the anniversary of her death, Blaire Lily and her boyfriend, Mitch, are chatting online with four friends when they begin receiving messages from an anonymous account. Unable to block the unknown user, “billie227”, the friends are soon forced to play an online game that threatens to reveal their darkest secrets. Blaire also begins receiving messages from Laura’s old Facebook account. Soon the friends are confronted with the possibility that “billie227” is the spirit of a vengeful Laura Barns.

Clever Twist on the Found Footage Format

At the time Unfriended was released, the found footage horror (FFH) format felt very much overused and worn. However, with digital technology advancing at unprecedented rates, filmmakers have continued to find innovative ways to use new formats to capture their stories. Earlier this year, Steven Soderbergh released his most recent directorial effort, Unsane, which was filmed entirely on iPhones. Several films, including Hardcore Henry and #FromJennifer, have been made using only GoPro cameras.

It’s a story told using Skype chat cameras, Facebook and YouTube accounts, iMessage, and desktop apps.

Unfriended similarly uses technology to put somewhat of a new spin on slasher and haunted house film subgenres, as well as the FFH format. Directed by Leo Gabriadze, Unfriended is filmed almost entirely using screencasts of computers screens. It’s a story told using Skype chat cameras, Facebook and YouTube accounts, iMessage, and desktop apps. Even the occasional use of background music is taken from a desktop iTunes library. I say ‘somewhat new’ because the approach has been used previously on at least one smaller film, The Den.

Unfriended Mostly Nails Its Scares

While some viewers took issue with the format, Unfriended and its novel take on found footage works surprisingly well. It takes a few minutes to adjust to the format and the narrative unfolds methodically, but Gabriadze capably inserts key narrative hints and developments in the film’s early going. As the supernatural elements emerge, Unfriended achieves and maintains a surprising level of tension. Additionally, the layered screens with the various social media platforms are used to great effect as a tool for revealing the film’s twists and shocks. It’s impressive how much suspense Unfriended can build with a “billie227 is typing” notification.

Like most FFH films, Unfriended does run into problems with some contrived story elements. FFH films, for instance, are often undermined by the need to come up with increasingly implausible reasons for why someone would continue filming unfolding horrors. Unfriended doesn’t run into this specific problem. However, tith the narrative confined to computer screens, there are inevitably some moments that feel forced to fit the film format rather than reflecting organic character choices. Unfriended is tense and suspenseful, but the scares are also limited by the film format.

Like most FFH films, Unfriended does run into problems with some contrived story elements.

The Horrors of Cyberbullying

Unfriended works as well as it does in part due to the good fit between the film’s format and its subject matter. That is, the format doesn’t come across as gimmicky or shoehorned into the film to drag overused supernatural themes into multiplexes. Instead Unfriended feels like a film that very purposely uses its particular format to give viewers a window into teen social media use and cyberbullying. Of course, Unfriended exploits the subject matter to some extent, mirroring real-world tragedies to fuel its scares.

The idea of the supernatural intersecting with our online lives also resonates. For the film’s likely target audience, the Internet has always existed and social media has probably overlapped with their adolescent and young adult years. More and more frequently, we are living online and our online lives have consequences in the real world. Over the last several years, we have witnessed numerous instances of social media interactions having disastrous effects on careers and lives.  Unfriended uses its format and supernatural theme to mine the fears we have with our emerging cyber-worlds.

Unfriended Delivers on its Promised Scares

To date, I’ve watched Unfriended a few times and it’s a film that not only holds up to repeated viewings, it actually improves with subsequent viewings. On a superficial level, Unfriended is suspenseful and tense, with its final reveals proving to be heartbreaking. All of the performances feel natural, which bolsters the impact of Unfriended’s closing moments. Not everything in Unfriended works but it does enough right to deliver on its promised scares. Additionally, Unfriended offers some interesting subtextual commentary on social media and the more toxic viral aspects on our cyber-worlds. It’s certainly head and shoulders above the dreadful, Friend Request.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: B