Hello dear reader, last month was as hot as being shoved in a bear and burnt to a ritualistic crisp. I also finally came down with shitty Covid, so on the plus side I got to watch some horror movies curled up on my sofa…
I also wanted to give a massive shout out to my wonderful friend and Ghouls magazine Assistant Editor Rebecca McCallum who recently published her first zine Mums + Sons, which is a brilliant analysis of mums and sons’ relationships in horror films. Please get your copy now you will not regret it!!!
My reviews are spoiler free.
Broadcast Signal Intrusion 7.5/10
Jacob Gentry’s archive suspense horror is an intriguing, stylised and creepy movie about loss, obsession and the inability to move on. In 90s Chicago, James, a VHS archivist, discovers an unnerving broadcast signal intrusion in one of the tapes he is working on. James becomes determined to solve the mystery of the signal and to figure out whether it could be related to his own wife’s disappearance. Although based on a real-life tv signal hijacking in 80s Chicago and set in the 90s, the film utilises the 2000s creepypasta lore and the horrific potential of Tara the Android to full effect. However, similar to its archive horror genre siblings like Censor (2020) and Archive 81 (2021), it lacks full-blooded scares and focuses more on paranoid 70s suspense thriller tropes. With this homage to 70s cinema, Gentry delivers some beautiful aesthetics and leans satisfyingly into his Lynchian references with the weird LA noir vibes. Psychoanalytically speaking, there’s clearly a field day to be had over the film’s use of the uncanny. Additionally, with its emphasis on an obsession for a lost woman, there’s shades of one of my old school faves The Vanishing (1988) which is never a bad thing. The film also features a great, sometimes dissonant soundtrack from Gentry’s long-time collaborator Ben Lovett. My main issue with the film is that given it’s such a wonderfully eerie and awesome premise, I felt like it fizzled out a bit at the end. Perhaps this was inevitable and also part of the point when you embark upon a pareidolian quest? Also, given the 70s cinema homage it does feel a tad cliched at times and the only female character verges dangerously close to manic pixie dream girl territory. Overall, an unsettling, captivating and ambiguous movie which will keep you thinking long after the signal has gone down.
You Are Not My Mother 8/10
Kate Dolan’s Irish psychological horror is a scary, atmospheric and accomplished film about the challenges of motherhood, mental illness and coming of age in a difficult family situation. Char is a bright teenager living on a North Dublin housing estate with her troubled mother and gran. One morning Char’s mother goes missing and then suddenly returns feeling uncharacteristically much better, to the confusion of Char and the rest of the family. Slowly Char begins to uncover the truth about her mother’s disappearance and their family secrets, whilst simultaneously fending off school bullies. Firstly, Dolan’s screenplay is great (it is beautifully observant of dysfunctional family life) and, given this is her directorial debut, she delivers some seamless and classy directing. Crucially, it believably weaves Irish folklore and gritty Ken Loach-esque realism together to create a powerful and enigmatic narrative. There are also really excellent central performances from Hazel Doupe as Char and Carolyn Bracken as her mother Angela. Happily, the film also features some really decent scares and nicely circles around mundane behaviour becoming horrific in certain contexts. I think my only criticism would be that some of the other younger actors don’t quite achieve Hazel Doupe’s level of ability and a climatic moment doesn’t totally knock it out of the park. However, with this being Dolan’s directorial debut, I’m very excited to see what she pulls out of the water next.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair 8/10
Jane Schoenbrun’s coming of age horror drama is a strange, chilling and experimental film about body dysphoria, the effects of teen social isolation and the horror genre itself. Casey is a lonely teenager who decides to take the viral World’s Fair challenge in which the challengers have reported physical and psychological changes. Casey soon starts to experience changes in her behaviour and recounts them to her online community, which also sparks a relationship with an anonymous man. Schoenbrun’s film is an important addition to the queer horror canon with its themes of self-discovery, transformation and the desire to find support from online communities. It very thoughtfully and subtly explores the experience of non-binary people and the process of coming out. The ground-breaking web series Marble Hornets (2009-2014) is also very much in this film’s DNA (especially the lo-fi style and location) and it faithfully captures the spirit of creepypastas and internet folklore. Although jumpscares are largely absent, if you let the atmosphere soak through you, the film does offer some satisfyingly chilling and uncanny moments. I also think the film is a meta commentary on the horror genre itself and the horror industry’s relationship with their adolescent viewers. I guess it could also be a commentary on Gen Z kids, and raises questions around what happens when you live your life through the internet and what that means for your sense of self, however I am a shitty geriatric millennial and even asking that question makes me feel old and boring. Writer/director/editor Schoenbrun is an exciting new talent and I greatly look forward to what they will make next time.
Incantation (咒/Zhou) 7/10
Kevin Ko’s Taiwanese supernatural found footage is an imperfect, creepy and engaging film about single motherhood, child abuse and mental illness. Ronan is released from a mental health institution and collects Dodo her young daughter from a foster home, even though she believes Dodo is cursed. As she sets up her life with Dodo, they begin to experience strange phenomena in their flat and the film delves back in time to recount how Ronan broke an ancient religious taboo. The motivation for filming is a bit wonky at times and there’s some confusing shifts to a third person perspective, however if you can get past these flaws it’s largely a well-acted and enjoyably chilling tale. As you may know, I have a massive love of Asian horror cinema, especially found footage films, and so always have high hopes for these kind of movies. So it’s really frustrating because it has a super intriguing premise and all the coordinates to deliver some brilliant scares, but somehow it just didn’t quite gel together for me. The movie is going for a similar vibe to The Medium (2021) which ultimately was much more successful at being scary and narratively coherent. Psychoanalytically speaking, Freudian imagery abounds with dark, feminine tunnels suggesting the oblivion and chaos of the archaic mother, as well as the fear of female power and independence. As Ronan, Tsai Hsuan-yen delivers an affecting performance and there’s even some good, creepy child acting from Huang Sin-ting as Dodo. Their relationship was happily reminiscent of one of my all-time favourite horror movies Dark Water (2002). But I feel like the director thought that certain twists would be more powerful than they actually turn out to be. Overall, it’s an enjoyable found footage movie that doesn’t quite live up to its initial promise.
So what did you think of these movies? Did you think they were total garbage or absolute masterpieces? Let me know in the comments below or send me a cheeky email!
Let's Scare Lauren to Death 