Hello dear reader, the days here have thankfully become lighter, but my film choices have certainly stayed just as dark. Here’s what I’ve been watching in March.
My reviews are spoiler free.
Ready or Not (2019) 7.5/10
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s dark comedy horror is a thoroughly entertaining movie with an original premise, timely class commentary and a fantastic heroine, but is let down by the lack of truly decent scares and occasional dodgy, on-the-nose dialogue. Grace, a former foster-care kid, marries Alex a member of the wealthy Le Domas family who made their fortune selling games. However, in order to be officially initiated into the family circle she must participate in a strange wedding night ritual and ends up playing a most dangerous game. The script is very funny and the plot revolving around games, tradition and inheritance is a clever metaphor for how institutionalised privilege functions within society. The Le Domas family embody how the status quo in our capitalist society is maintained, but also how the less privileged can be complicit in their own oppression. It gleefully critiques tradition and how daft some can be, although the film ultimately sends mixed messages on how it feels about the subject. As Grace the working-class heroine, Samara Weaving is excellent and a charming screen presence, it feels like she could have a long scream queen career ahead of her. As Daniel Le Domas, the alcoholic brother who has misgivings about his family’s customs, Adam Brody also delivers his best performance since Jennifer’s Body (2006). It’s also lovely to see Andie MacDowall in a decent role as Becky the matriarch who is a well-rounded and sometimes sympathetic character. My main critique is just that it ends up relying heavily on certain shock tactics for scares and it gets a bit repetitive. I also found Alex’s character arc a bit under-written or at least not well-acted. But overall Ready or Not is a really fun, biting satire and a great Friday night movie. Game on.
The Loved Ones (2009) 8/10
Sean Byrne’s brilliant debut feature is a very dark and disturbing Australian comedy horror about teenage pain, dysfunctional families and the harmfulness of gender stereotyping. Brent, a troubled teenager who feels responsible for his father’s accidental death, rejects his classmate Lola’s offer to attend their school dance. This leads to him being taken captive for Lola’s own insane ‘prom night.’ The film successfully drills deep into the nightmarish isolation of just being a teenager and pokes a big hole in the idealisation of the high school experience – comically the students’ actual prom night looks so shit and nobody seems to be having any fun. The Loved Ones also upends our cinematic expectations by giving us a female teen psychopath and Robin McLeavy’s magnificently disturbing, hilarious and sad performance as Lola is the real stand-out. It also highlights the dangers of a society which invests too heavily in the infantilising ‘princess’ narrative for girls and young women. Lola has consumed the signifiers of hyper femininity and internalised the princess fantasy to the point of dangerous, murderous excess. I’ll be frank, the film features some extremely excruciating and absurd sequences which stuck with me for weeks and rival some of the most extreme moments in Ozploitation cinema. I also challenge anyone who watches this film not to have Lola’s saccharine theme song Not Pretty Enough maddeningly stuck in your head for days afterwards.
The Velvet Vampire (1971) 8/10
Stephanie Rothman’s exploitation vampire tale is a beautifully shot, genre-defying movie which critiques 70s gender politics and deserves to be better known. Lee, an absolute dickhead, and his wife Susan meet the enigmatic Diane LeFanu whilst attending a friend’s art show. Diane invites the quarrelling couple to her rad desert home, but they are unaware that she is a vampire who intends to seduce them. Rothman was a prolific director from the ‘Roger Corman school’ of second-wave exploitation cinema, but her contribution was largely forgotten and underappreciated until relatively recently. Unbelievably, this film was regularly misattributed to Rothman’s husband and even Corman himself, and one DVD cover even lists Rothman as the star rather than the director*. This feels particularly galling considering how magnificently Rothman captures the desert landscapes and her witty subversion of the vampire genre and its commentary on sexual politics. There are some incredible hallucinogenic and sensual dream sequences although to be honest the whole film sometimes feels like a waking dream. I really enjoy how the movie flips the tropes of the vampire genre – Diane lives in the desert, she goes out in the sun, she eats and drinks. Celeste Yarnall as Diane is great and a fantastic addition to the queer lady vampire canon (unsurprisingly the movie nods heavily to Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla – the queer vampire urtext). Her fashions are also amazing, she reminds me of Audrey Hepburn…if Audrey was a bisexual, 70s vampire. Diane’s philosophy on love and relationships also feels very reminiscent of Elaine from Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2016). The film has some interesting commentary about how relationships break down when couples are not honest with each other about what they want and the limits of the ‘free love’ movement if women are not emancipated along with men. I think there’s also a fruitful postcolonial reading of Diane as a colonial figure and emblem of the vampiric nature of white American expansionism and capitalism.
Koko-di Koko-Da (2019) 8/10
Johannes Nyholm’s sophomore feature is a disturbing, surreal and moving psychological horror film about grief, guilt and the terror of miscommunication. Married couple Tobias and Elin experience a heartbreaking tragedy and a few years later take a holiday in the woods to rekindle their disintegrating marriage. But whilst camping they find themselves trapped in a macabre time-loop along with some strange and violent characters. The set-up seems eerily similar to Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist (2011) however the film takes us into an almost fairytale-like, Lynchian realm with bizarre tableaus and uncanny folktale characters. The film creatively utilises animation and shadow puppetry to deliver a powerful emotional punch which had me in tears by the end. There are also excellent performances from the two leads Leif Edlund and Ylva Gallon as the fractured couple Tobias and Elin. I felt fully engaged in their suffering and grippingly maddened by Tobias’ choices. Shout out also to the enigmatic white cat who does some decent animal acting. The film successfully illustrates the dangers of not listening to and communicating effectively with your loved ones and how easy it is to get caught in a never-ending circle of grief. It is a devastating watch and it doesn’t offer up any easy answers, but I found it to be a beautifully affective and challenging movie.
Impetigore (Perempuan Tanah Jahanam) (2019) 8/10
Joko Anwar’s Indonesian supernatural folk horror is a very creepy and engaging movie about gender politics, unresolved trauma and the importance of female solidarity. One night Maya is randomly attacked by a man claiming to be from her long-forgotten ancestral village. Consequently, Maya decides to return to the village with her best friend Dini in order to sell her family’s property and resolve her monetary worries. However, it soon becomes clear something strange is going on, and why are there so many infant graves in her hometown? Anwar successfully mixes classic horror tropes (nods to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre aplenty) with Indonesian culture and folklore to create a very atmospheric and eerie film which touches upon themes of class, economics and unresolved historical trauma. The uncovering of a hidden traumatic past also reminded me thematically of the excellent documentary The Act of Killing (2012) which also focuses on a dark part of Indonesian history. Tara Basro as Maya and Marissa Anita as Dini deliver brilliant performances and their affectionate and humourous dialogue beautifully illustrates the theme of female friendship. Christine Hakim as Misni, the mother of the local shaman/puppet master, is also great and demonstrates effectively the dangers of internalised misogyny. My main reservation about the movie is how the ending is a wee bit confusing and descends into too much melodrama for my taste, but there is also an enjoyable camp quality to it. Also curiously the second film I’ve watched this month that has shadow puppetry at the centre of the narrative, so perhaps puppet horror is making a comeback?
So what did you think of these movies? Do you agree with my thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!
*See Alicia Kozma’s excellent chapter ‘Stephanie Rothman and Vampiric Film Histories’ in Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism and Genre ed. Alison Pierse for more information. But also, just read it anyway because it’s an amazing book.
Let's Scare Lauren to Death 