“Possessor”
The first question most folks might ask about Brandon Cronenberg’s second feature, “Possessor,” will likely be “what even is it?” Given that the film never fully makes sense and that Cronenberg frankly goes out of way to avoid fully making sense, this is fair to ask. But “Possessor”s elusions make up its primary pleasures. The sensation of not knowing is part of the experience, particularly given Cronenberg’s heavy deployment of practical FX: Faces and forms melting and reconstituting themselves, human bodies beaten to pulp, characters blinkering in and out of existence against red-lit backdrops. It’s not so much that Cronenberg lets the FX tell the story for him as he and his talented team use FX to help tell the story, in which technology goes wrong under the influence of violent corporate greed. Makeup, gags, and sound design have always been important to horror. Movies like “Possessor” demonstrate why, and above that, how.
[Read The Playlist’s Full Review]
“Relic”
Haunted house films often don’t empathetically tap into the pain, suffering, and traumas of the people that lived under those roofs, but Natalie Erika James’ terrific “Relic,” a story of inter-generational damage does just that. A deeply humanist, compassionate, and consideration of mental illness and fragility, James’ story looks at three generations of women, a grandmother (played by Robyn Nevin), her adult daughter (Emily Mortimer), and her 20-something daughter (Bella Heathcote). “Relic” is a story about decay and spiritual degeneration, both of the terrifying, dilapidated family home at its center and the aging doyenne who is slowly losing her mind. Extremely well crafted in both its emotional consideration and spooky frights, “Relic” is incredibly unsettling, a film that grapples with many of the scary and melancholy considerations of losing loved ones, watching them wither away, and the horrible sad acceptance that must come along with letting them go. Producers like Jake Gyllenhaal and AGBO‘s the Russo brothers signed on as producers and be sure that this co-sign means everyone is expected bigger and better things to come from James and her impressive debut. – Rodrigo Perez
[Read The Playlist’s Full Review]
“Scare Me”
Nothing like a good campfire horror story to inspire quivers and quakes, plus the telling of more campfire horror stories. Horror is a self-perpetuating genre. One good creepy tale begets another, and then another, as each narrator gleefully joins in on the game to see who can spin the most frightening yarn. In Josh Ruben’s “Scare Me,” the sport ends in an all-too-real place after spending about ninety minutes whipping up laughs and terrors to delight horror enthusiasts. Ruben plays Fred, a Stephen King aspirant with ego but no talent. Aya Cash plays Fanny, an author who actually is talented and has personal vision. Fred’s jealousy of Fanny folds into a back and forth as they compete with improvised horror scenarios, complicating their dynamic—“resentful white man vs. successful woman”—with mutual admiration and a joint love of the genre. Guys like Fred demand ribbing. Guys like Ruben deserve a round of applause. “Scare Me” gets the allure of horror as few contemporary meta-textual horror movies do.
[Read The Playlist’s Full Review]
“Sea Fever”
Genre cinema has aped movies like “The Thing,” “Alien,” “The Abyss,” and “Jaws” for the last 30 to 40 years, depending on which one you’re talking about. But most of their progeny fail to live up to their sires, which leaves horror with a multi-decade crop of copycats ranging from mediocre to bad to worse. Neasa Hardiman’s “Sea Fever” is a recent rare example of how influence and ingenuity meet in a confluence of personal vision. Both a clear descendant of John Carpenter and Ridley Scott as well as a truly standout film on its own merits, “Sea Fever” explores the deep parts of the world where people have yet to go, makes the case that we probably shouldn’t go there, and finds an ineffable beauty in the unknown to complement its impressive body horror; if Ireland’s credentials as a horror region weren’t already unimpeachable, then this movie would set them in stone.
[Read The Playlist’s Full Review]
