Horror Movie Dispatch #8
A little late this go round and that is entirely my fault. I got distracted by … well, not much, actually. I’ve been doing a whole lot of little things but none that are actually of note. Ah well. On to the movies.
Horror Movies I Watched This Month
Talk To Me, the debut from these writers/directors, was an experience so I knew I had to see Bring Her Back as soon as it came out. Two step siblings, a young legally blind girl and a boy who is almost 18, are put into foster care when their father dies suddenly. The foster mother they get placed with (a wonderfully cast Sally Hawkins) clearly only wanted the sister but has begrudingly agreed to put up the brother, too, along with a third, younger boy who is mute (and terrifying.) I don’t know if I want to go any farther in my description as this is really a movie you should see, even though I know I will never be able to watch it again. This movie just hit much too hard for me. I was a weepy mess for the last half hour of the film, and then became a weepy mess again when I was describing the plot to my mother on the phone the next day. All the child actors are phenomenal and it is ridiculous to me that Sora Wong, who plays Piper, had never acted before this. This is definitely a movie to see, though potentially only once.
Sharks + Serial Killers? I was in. Another film set in Australia, this follows a young surfer named Zephyr (I know, I know) who is kidnapped by a serial killer who feeds young women to sharks. And yeah, that’s pretty much the whole movie. I wouldn’t say that this movie is scary so much as it’s tense. I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole film, waiting to see how Zephyr would survive this or that, watching her bland but likable love interest try and find her. The real standout of the film, though, is Jai Courtney as Tucker, the killer who is so good at toeing that line of charming with a hint of menace before going full blown evil. Genuinely terrifying.
The cast of this movie is ridiculous: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene, Patricia Heaton?!? What in the world? And ultimately, it was so boring. Just your average exorcism movie. We’ve got Dan Stevens as the young priest on the verge of losing his faith, Al Pacino as the exorcist whose seen everything, Ashley Greene as the young nun helping and Patricia Heaton as the Mother Superior. The only kind of interesting bit is that it’s set in the 1920s but even that ultimately doesn’t really mean anything, just dictating costume choice. There was nothing new or original here, nothing worth taking the time to watch. Cannot recommend.
An unnamed twentysomething goes to visit her grandparents out in the country and something seems … off. There’s honestly not much I can say without majorly spoiling the plot twist of this movie. I wish there were a way I could put spoiler text in this newsletter as I’ve been calling this something which I think is very appropriate but, again, would give away the twist. While I think this movie makes a good point, even if it is a bit heavy-handed, I wish the twist had waited a little longer and we didn’t sit with it as long as we do. It takes up fully half the movie, which makes it feel just very much in your face, where I think a more delicate touch would ultimately stay with the viewer more. Again, a movie I don’t feel the need to watch again but I’m glad I saw it.
I went into this completely blind, only knowing what I’d seen in the pretty vague trailer and that friends had enjoyed it. Set 28 years after the original movie (which is a masterpiece), it follows a boy who has grown up in a small island community that has built its own culture since England has been quarantined. I don’t think I want to go farther than that, watching what gradually unfolded was a highlight for me. I didn’t know that this was the planned beginning of a new trilogy (the second movie has already been filmed and will be out early next year) but with that in mind, things I wish they’d expanded upon are hopefully coming up in a future film. I loved how lived in the village felt, how you could see new traditions and cultural practices forming. This was very much a coming of age fable wrapped in a zombie movie coat. The tonal shift in the last five minutes, however, was wild and I just have so many questions.
The summer heat has begun. I am not good at hot weather, never have been, and I am very much melting. My workplace isn’t air conditioned in non-public areas and I feel like a slowly boiling frog in a pot. Pray for me.
I’ve been lucky enough to go to a few plays in the past few weeks and I’ll probably write them up a little in the next Book Mail. I’m a huge theater person and being in a city with good theater again is a blessing. I also got to tag along with a dear friend to see Josh Johnson’s stand up last week which was hilarious.
All in all, I don’t seem to have much to say today so I suppose I’ll wrap it up here! New Book Mail coming next week because I was so slow with this newsletter! See all you kids soon!