Hello dear reader, I took a little film review hiatus last month since I was finishing my chemo and ended up moving flats so, as the fox says, chaos reigned. But I did watch plenty of movies and here’s what I thought below…
This month I also had the immense pleasure and privilege to feature on an episode of Freudian cinephile Mary Wild’s Patreon where we discuss our journeys to psychoanalysis and cinema and I list my Top 5 movies that are aligned with psychoanalytical concepts. Obviously I recommend giving it a listen and subscribing to Mary’s Patreon channel which is a treasure trove of psychoanalytical knowledge, brilliant cinematic insights and just really cool content.
My reviews are spoiler free.
Freaky (2020) – 8/10
Christopher Landon’s comedy teen slasher is a fun, charming movie with a few good scares about the journey to finding one’s true self and coming to terms with your personal demons. Millie Kessler is an awkward, bullied teen who unintentionally switches bodies with The Blissfield Butcher the local, male serial-killer. Millie must then convince her friends she’s not a psychopathic killer and stop the Butcher from wreaking murderous havoc on the inhabitants of her hometown. Freaky is a refreshing twist on the body swap genre with an authentic queer narrative at the movie’s heart. Vince Vaughn is surprisingly likeable and nails Millie’s mannerism which makes the body swap believable and hilarious. Landon and co-screenwriter Michael Kennedy also clearly know their slashers inside out and satisfyingly play with the tropes rather than just lazily referencing them. For example, the black and gay characters are extremely self-aware about the horror genre and the movie chooses to effectively subvert the associated tropes. The Butcher also feels like a decent metaphor for a family dealing with grief and the loss of a paternal figure. I think my main criticism would be that once Kathryn Newton becomes The Butcher she isn’t given as much to do as Vaughn. The Butcher’s character and backstory is vague (presumably this is deliberate if a sequel comes knocking?) which unfortunately means that Newton doesn’t get much of a chance to go beyond archetype. But ultimately Freaky is a riotously enjoyable Saturday night movie and a welcome and timely addition to the slasher movie canon.
Fatal Attraction (1987) – 8.5/10
Adrian Lyne’s psychological erotic horror thriller is a stylish, electrifying and genre-defining movie about male hypocrisy, untreated mental illness and the fear of professional women. Dan, a happily married lawyer, has a brief fling with his work colleague Alex and tries to quickly move on from their affair. However, Alex is revealed to be an emotionally unstable individual and becomes obsessed with Dan and his ‘perfect’ family. This movie is such a well-known classic and its imagery so embedded into the culture that for the longest time I didn’t feel the need to watch it. However, I’m really glad that I did as it’s a very accomplished movie and its’ themes are still relevant today. Dan, played excellently by Michael Douglas, definitely wins the King Knob award and in a sense is the real villain of the piece. And all hail Glenn Close as Alex Forrest. Alex embodies the stereotypical 80s career woman that was to be feared – childless, ambitious and uncontrollable. She lives the singleton life in a trendy part of New York and is a witty, intelligent and fun person. However, she is ultimately revealed to be deeply damaged (she largely fits the profile of someone with borderline personality disorder) and she does not receive the care she desperately needs. My sympathies absolutely lay with her, as well as Beth, and the film largely feels like a critique of patriarchy and men’s hypocritical behaviour towards women rather than a condemnation of Alex. It was also fascinating to read about the original ending which speaks to this interpretation. Anne Archer as Beth is also great, particularly in Dan’s confessional scene which is extremely powerful. Additionally, there’s smatterings of East Asian cultural anxiety, which seems to populate many a late 80s/early 90s movie, adding to the sense that the film is an example of white patriarchal supremacy feeling under threat. Fatal Attraction is a complicated and fascinating movie that absolutely cements the immensity of Glenn Close’s talent and it’s still worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before.
Urban Legend: Bloody Mary (2005) – 5.5/10
Mary Lambert’s supernatural teen slasher is a fast-paced, silly and not particularly scary film which touches upon the themes of patriarchal control, hidden female narratives and high school date rape. After potentially conjuring up the spirit of the local urban legend Bloody Mary, high schooler Sam experiences a traumatic kidnapping which sets in motion a series of urban legend-based deaths and compels Sam to unravel the mystery surrounding Bloody Mary’s story. Firstly, this movie is much more interesting than Urban Legends: The Final Cut (2000), Kate Mara’s Sam is an engaging heroine and Lambert directs with energy and plenty of flair. However, the movie is a slightly confusing mash-up of slasher and then-fashionable J-horror tropes mixed with some moments of levity (one policeman’s reaction to an urban legend victim’s death is incredibly funny and feels tonally and thematically similar to Cherry Falls’ (1999)). There’s also some questionable CGI and, since this is an Urban Legend movie, there is an under-written and borderline offensive black female character. Overall, it’s a valiant if largely unsuccessful effort to drag the Urban Legend franchise into relevancy and also a good reminder about how Hollywood did Mary Lambert dirty.
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992) 8.5/10
Curtis Hanson’s psychological horror thriller is a magnificent, tense and complex film about the dangers of internalised misogyny, the anxieties of motherhood and the terror of domesticity. Claire Bartel, a pregnant housewife, is sexually molested by her new obstetrician Dr Mott. During the fallout of this assault, Dr Mott commits suicide leaving his pregnant wife alone and destitute which leads her to miscarry. Mrs Mott decides to reinvent herself as a nanny and joins the Bartel household to look after Claire’s newborn son and seek revenge against her. I’ve heard this movie referred to as ‘Natal Attraction’ before and it’s certainly a deserved nickname in that it’s a skillfully made and complex film about gender politics and a woman’s place in the world. Hanson creates a real creeping sense of domestic dread and tension leading up to an explosive, nail-biting finale. As Claire, Annabella Sciorra is great and this movie officially confirms I have slept on Rebecca de Mornay who is absolutely amazing and terrifying as the troubled Mrs Mott. There is also an early, brilliant turn from Julianne Moore as Claire’s intrepid best friend Marlene which confirms her future icon status. Ernie Hudson is good as the intellectually disabled handyman Solomon, but there is something pretty cringe about his character and it makes you realise how much Hudson should’ve been given much better roles. The film also makes the salient point that perhaps it is entitled, rich white women that should be feared, not people of colour. Additionally, what is it with over-the-top punches in 90s Washington state-based erotic horror thriller type movies? This one isn’t quite as ridiculous as Fear (1996) or The Crush (1993) but it’s pretty close. Like Fatal Attraction (1987), this is another one of those older movies which still feels eerily relevant and should absolutely be seen by younger generations.
Willow Creek (2013) 7/10
Bobcat Goldthwait’s found-footage folk horror is an engaging and well-crafted movie with some pretty tense moments which explores ideas around male control, white supremacy and ecological degradation. As part of Jim’s childhood dream, he and his new-ish girlfriend Kelly take a trip to Willow Creek to film a documentary about finding Bigfoot. However, after interviewing various people in the town it becomes clear that the locals don’t recommend visiting the original Bigfoot viewing site and some actively deter them on their path. Goldthwait successfully utilises the found footage style to create some low-budget, but highly effective scares and nicely builds the tension and arboreal claustrophobia. The film ultimately provides a pretty stinging critique of white colonialism, the lack of respect towards America’s indigenous population and the environment. I also appreciated how the dialogue captured well the awkwardness of nascent relationships and couples trying to come to an understanding of each other’s dreams and desires. Sometimes Jim reminded me of Micah from Paranormal Activity (2007) with his obnoxious behaviour and willingness to ignore his partner’s needs to achieve his own ambitions. If you’re a fan of the found footage genre, this is definitely worth a watch with the lights off on a Saturday night.
The Skeleton Key (2005) 7.5/10
Iain Softley’s supernatural, Southern Gothic tale is a genuinely chilling but clumsy movie about the legacy of slavery, white feminism™ and the problems with cultural appropriation. Caroline, a palliative care worker in New Orleans, gets a new job at the Devereaux plantation house in order to help the elderly Violet Devereaux care for her husband Ben, who has recently experienced a catastrophic stroke. However, it quickly becomes clear to Caroline that something odd is afoot and what really happened to Ben in the attic room before his stroke? As I’m not a huge fan of romantic movies I haven’t seen many Kate Hudson performances, but as Caroline she’s pretty good and it’s a shame she hasn’t returned to the genre yet. Gena Rowlands and John Hurt as the Devereaux couple unsurprisingly deliver an absolute acting masterclass which only becomes more impressive when you think through the movie after it’s finished. I think the film has some really interesting (perhaps unintentional?) commentary on the audacity of whiteness, especially white women meddling in people of colour’s business/cultural traditions (in this instance Hoodoo) without really understanding them. Softley is a stylish director and the movie takes some unexpected and satisfying turns, although it’s a bit over-long and there is a scene which depicts a lynching which feels insensitive coming from a white director and writer, but clearly no one was questioning that in 2005. On that note, I’d definitely recommend film critic Dr Kelli Weston’s discussion of the movie on The Final Girls podcast.
The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) – 6/10
Katt O’Shea’s supernatural horror is a flawed but enjoyable and mildly scary movie about the inability to reconcile childhood trauma, rape culture and the difficulties of being a teenage girl. Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl) is a high school goth foster kid who loses her best friend Lisa to suicide after she is exploited sexually by a twatish high school jock. Rachel suddenly finds her repressed telekinetic powers returning whilst also beginning a romance with one of the most popular high school jocks. I’m obviously a huge fan of the original Carrie (1976) so I was a bit sniffy about this sequel and avoided it for a long time. However, it’s not as bad as I expected. I think the issues tackled in the movie actually hold up pretty well and feel just as relevant today for example, there’s a murmur of how social media and revenge porn would come to dominate in the future. As part of the 90s horror teen cycle, it does feel a bit of an outlier in style and perhaps that’s why it bombed at the box office. The director Katt O’Shea was also brought in last minute to replace the original director and wasn’t given any more budget for re-shoots which feels evident in some of the odd editing choices. Given these working conditions, O’Shea does a pretty respectable job. But there’s no denying the movie’s flaws, some of the acting is uneven, Amy Irving’s Sue Snell is criminally underwritten and it occasionally veers into cheesy TV movie territory. As a plus, Rachel Lang is a decent heroine, the central romantic relationship is quite sweet and there’s some pretty badass gore in the final sequence. If you’re a Carrie or 90s teen horror cycle completist then you should definitely give it a gander.
I also watched Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor (2021) at the end of August, but I’d like to devote a longer blog post to this movie because it was so awesome and there was a lot to talk about. So stay tuned for that!
So what did you think of these movies? Did I get it right or was I totally off the mark? Let me know in the comments below or send me a cheeky DM/email!
Let's Scare Lauren to Death 