Hello dear reader, hopefully April was not the cruellest month for you. I got all vaxxed up, watched some mostly rad movies and took part in my first ever discussion panel for Ghouls Magazine on Zulawski’s bonkers masterpiece Possession (1981) so feeling pretty optimistic (take that T.S. Eliot!). Here’s what I’ve been watching in April…
My reviews are spoiler free.
La Llorona (2020) 8/10
Jayro Bustamante’s Guatemalan supernatural horror is a powerful, moving and scary film about the return of the repressed, the nature of justice and the importance of listening to marginalised women’s voices. Enrique Monteverde (a stand-in for the real-life Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt) is accused of presiding over the 1980s genocide of the Indigenous Mayan people. The film follows Monteverde through his genocide trial and its chaotic aftermath which sees the Monteverde family confined inside their lavish home with their Indigenous servants. Soon Monteverde starts to experience strange phenomena and behaves increasingly erratically, especially after the new maid Alma arrives. The movie thoughtfully and effectively utilises the La Llorona folktale in order to lift the veil on hidden narratives and to challenge the colonial patriarchal order. The domestic setting also allows for a nuanced portrait of the Monteverde family and their servants whilst also depicting the sheer banality of Monteverde’s evil. Bustamante cleverly mixes this mundane domesticity with the supernatural – there’s a seance-like opening scene, magic spells are frequently recited and J-Horror tropes are skillfully repurposed. María Mercedes Coroy as Alma is a haunting, stand-out performance and Margarita Kenéfic as Monteverde’s wife Carmen is excellent with her studied depiction of willful blindness and hypocrisy. I also really appreciated how Bustamante highlighted the importance of women working together to uncover truths and achieve justice and I will definitely look forward to his future films.
Slaxx (2020) 7.5/10
Elza Kephart’s Canadian horror satire is a very funny and inventive movie about exploitative fashion industry practices and the violence inflicted by neoliberal capitalism. Idealistic Gen Z-er Libby starts her first (unpaid) shift at the trendy Canadian Cotton Clothiers shop just as they are about to launch their revolutionary new product the Super Shaper jeans. However, it soon becomes clear the Super Shapers have their own bloody agenda and Libby and her sullen colleague Shruti must fight to stay alive. The movie is a great addition to the inanimate object horror genre (although In Fabric (2018) will always reign supreme in my heart) and the creature design is clever. The satire is very broad, but speaking as someone who once worked in a chain clothes shop I thoroughly enjoyed it. The film takes some pretty big swipes at maddening corporate speech with its bullshit platitudes and superficial diversity jargon, and even the evils of White Feminism™. It also skewers insincere and culturally appropriating influencer culture through the character of Peyton Jewels, played with gleeful cynicism by Erica Anderson. The film explores Gen Z idealism, Millennial apathy and features a great political message about hidden labour exploitation and the problematic nature of neoliberal capitalism. Brett Donahue is hilarious and excruciating as Craig, the unhinged branch manager, who is desperate for a promotion and to be respected by his superiors. Psychoanalytically speaking, I also wonder if the characters’ initial reaction to the murderous Super Shaper jeans makes them an example of the Lacanian Objet (a) a.k.a. the unattainable object of desire? Overall, this is a very fun horror comedy that crucially asks us to consider own complicity in the system – do we really need that new pair of jeans?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) 7/10
Fran Rubel Kuzui’s comedy vampire movie is a load of cheesy fun with some good laughs and a decent feminist message. As a teenager I was a huge fan of the TV show so I avoided the movie for quite some time as I was told it was rubbish. However, although it certainly doesn’t reach the nuance and emotional heights of the television series, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the film’s charm and its clear feminist leanings. Although written by an all-round arsehole, it is riotously funny and the proto-Clueless/Kevin Williamson script features some pretty decent satire about teenagers, parents and high school life. The film touches upon a lot of classic teenage vampire themes such as female sexuality (particularly virginity and the power of creepy, manipulative older men) and the transition to adulthood and self-actualisation. Kirsty Swanson cannot really compete with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy, but she is perfectly engaging and believable as the Slayer. Donald Sutherland brings a lovely faux gravitas as Buffy’s Watcher Merrick and Paul Reubens and Stephen Root are also hilarious as Amilyn, the vampire acolyte, and Principal Murray. Rutger Hauer is on great campy form as the debonair vampire king Lothos, but is tragically underused in the film’s slightly confused finale. The late Luke Perry’s character Pike is also quite fascinating, a working-class hero who occasionally veers into toxic edgelordism reminiscent of the television show’s character Xander. Admittedly, there’s also a joy in spotting all the young (now famous) faces – Hilary Swank, Natasha Gregson Warner, David Arquette, even Ben Affleck randomly shows up as a meathead basketball player. While certainly not a cinematic masterpiece, I found the film to be extremely entertaining and a great lazy Sunday watch.
Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) 4/10
John Ottman’s directorial debut and sequel to Urban Legend (1998) is an underwhelming, derivative slasher movie which lacks any real scares although offers some interesting commentary on the position of women in the film industry. Amy, a student at a prestigious film school, decides to base her final thesis film on urban legend folklore, but soon discovers a masked killer is stalking and killing her cast and crew. The plot borrows heavily from Alejandro Amenabar’s excellent Tesis (1996) and there’s some not-so-subtle but fun nods to Hitchcock films, particularly Vertigo (1958) and also Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). I’ll be honest it’s not a great movie – the killer isn’t scary, the kills aren’t inventive and the urban legends used are mostly quite dull. Sadly, Amy is not a particularly engaging heroine although she does have some resourceful moments. Loretta Devine as Reese the campus security officer was one of the highlights of the original movie, but here she’s woefully underused and frankly there is some pretty lazy black women stereotyping going on. Like many 90s/00s slashers it has a super meta dimension, but unlike its cinematic siblings it lacks the sharp edge of horror and satire that makes those movies so memorable. But viewing the movie through a contemporary lens there’s an (accidental?) critique of the film industry’s attitude towards female directors and creatives. It checks all the major barriers to success boxes – gatekeeping (a horror film bro literally says Amy ‘stole’ his genre), on set bullying and sexual harassment. So whilst I can’t necessarily recommend this movie for entertainment, it does have some political interest.
The Dark and the Wicked (2020) 7/10
Bryan Bertino’s supernatural folk horror is a bleak and atmospheric movie about grief, guilt and familial breakdown with some pretty decent, although sometimes derivative, scares. Distant siblings Louise and Michael return to the isolated family farm where their father is receiving palliative care from their increasingly troubled mother. Inexplicably their mother implores them to leave, but both children refuse and soon it becomes clear there is something diabolical at the door. Bertino shoots the desolate, rural setting beautifully and there’s some excellent uses of lighting (it is literally and metaphorically very dark) to create an ominous and very creepy atmosphere. The film relentlessly explores how a lack of communication and expression of love between family members leads to guilt, intergenerational trauma and despair. A dirty, tattered US flag hangs over the farm perhaps also commenting on the impact of deprivation and hopelessness in rural, working-class American communities. As the estranged siblings, Marin Ireland and Michael Abbott Jr. deliver powerful performances and Xander Berkeley pops up as a priest for a super unnerving cameo. However, some of the scares feel a bit familiar and repetitive with certain scenes reminding me greatly of Color Out of Space (2019) and The Invisible Man (2020). Through the theme of filial neglect there are also some similarities to Natalie Erika James’ brilliant Relic (2020), however Bertino presents a much more nihilistic outlook which will leave you chilled for days.
So what did you think about these movies? Did I get it right or do you completely disagree? Let me know in the comments below!
Let's Scare Lauren to Death 