The Halloween Hangover – 4 Films to Ease the Pain
The greatest night of the year is behind us, and many weep, myself included. There’s no greater holiday than Halloween, and while it’s a blast to cherish every second of the day and night of October 31st, it’s damn near as thrilling being wrapped up in the anticipation during the weeks leading up to the big day.
The days immediately following October 31st, however, sting in a bad, bad way.
This isn’t the typical I drank too much last night sting, either. This is the sting of a year’s worth of waiting, staring me right in the fucking face.
And what do I have to show – to cling to – from last night? What might help to fool me into believing that it’s Halloween for just a few extra days?
The remnants of a withering jack o’ lantern rest just feet from my front door. Candy wrappers litter the floor, the tile now a mess of sticky metallic. A discarded Ewok costume rests in a corner, unlikely to ever be worn again, and a dragon has lost his life.
These are depressing visuals. Not because cleanup is so daunting (it is), but because that very special feeling that accompanies the season feels as though they haven’t just departed… they’ve run from my life screaming in terror. It’s going to take 365 days to catch up.
But it’s hard to stay too down for too long. I had the chance to screen a few serious keepers this year, and the memories of those films are going to be the sleep, Gatorade, and saltines needed to feel almost human once more.
#Screamers
I’ve been waiting for a slick found footage flick to earn a place in my heart since the arrival of Blair Witch. Blair Witch was, in my honest opinion, a pretty good movie. The dread of the original film isn’t quite recaptured, but the downtime of the first film is completely done away with and Adam Wingard brings a chaos to be admired. That said, Blair Witch really didn’t offer much in the way of ingenuity or inventiveness. We’ve seen these kinds of films before.
So what would pull me from the personal found footage drought? An unknown little production labeled #Screamers, that’s what. This inspired piece blends mockumentary and found footage wonderfully, and unlike the vast majority of sub-genre installments, #Screamers actually feels organic. There’s nothing contrived in the performances, and that’s an enormous win. Toss in a legitimately compelling story that toys with internet impact, screamer videos, and a hunt for truth; and you’ve got yourself a surprisingly ambitious piece of work to look into.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
I finally had the chance to check out Oz Perkins’ newest piece, the Netflix hosted I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. It’s every bit the disappointment early fan chatter had suggested. It’s so anticlimactic, in fact, that I may have never given Oz a second thought had I not just had the chance to check out his debut film, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, which has yet to officially arrive here Stateside, despite having sat on the shelf for a few years already.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter, unlike I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, is not anticlimactic. It’s not devoid of scares either. Not only is the film gorgeous – from a purely aesthetical stance – it’s also sharp, utilizing proper twists and turns as the slow burn film works its way from Hitchcockian territory to something far more brutal.
I’m not eager to spill the story’s details, but I am eager to really hammer home a few points. The acting is pitch-perfect from an unlikely young group of inexperienced ladies. The atmosphere of the flick is just riveting, a constant sense of dread oozing from every frame. And while the story isn’t the kind you’ve never even conceived of, it is handled with extreme care and love. That passion is more than detectable; it all but slaps us in the face regularly.
The film won’t work for those with a paper-thin attention span, and it won’t work for those who crave heaping portions of intense, graphic gore. But it will work for genre followers who respect superb character development and sublime cinematic style. Oz Perkins has some options right now, and I’m hoping his next move will be far more akin to The Blackcoat’s Daughter as opposed to I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.
The Id
I’ve never been big on films that place focus on battered women, examining the tragedies that shattered them or the insanities that spawned any form of retribution. They’re just not films I tend to care for. However, Thommy Hutson just did something special in creating the constantly disconcerting piece The Id.
Without getting too deep into specifics, I can tell you that the great (and still gorgeous) Amanda Wyss (A Nightmare on Elm Street) fronts the film as Meridith Lane, a women being constantly broken down emotionally by her verbally abusive father. Meredith has no choice but to care for the man, who has become nothing more than a despicable shell of a human being, thankless and cruel. Or… does she?
The Id utilizes the less is more concept, and it works to great effect here. Wyss is absolutely stunning, proving her acting chops have not only avoided corrosion over the years, but they’re looking sharper and crisper than ever before. Some may even tell you that this is award-worthy work, and I wouldn’t be one to argue against that.
The Monster
Bryan Bertino is no stranger to our genre. Bertino turned heads with the haunting and heartbreaking home invasion tale The Strangers but then followed that up with the abysmal Mockingbird, which, thank the higher powers-that-be, most have already forgotten. Well, Bertino is back, and he’s not gambling with any more found footage (the sub-genre really, really doesn’t work for his style of storytelling). Instead, he’s headed in the direction of his roots, and it’s working. Like a charm.
The Monster is a tense and often terrifying trek into survival mode. Featuring a mother-daughter duo who find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere, a monster stakes its claim as attention grabber, soon stalking these lovely and vulnerable ladies.
The action is minimal, but the tension is alive and well, and it’s assembled piece by piece, in the perfect order, a story slowly developing out of thin air, only to send chills down our spines as we hesitantly step toward a finale that feels as though it’s been dipped in certain doom. As has been the case with the other mentioned films here, I won’t get too heavy on details, but I will tell you that you’re perfectly safe in anticipating a kick-ass monster and some disturbing events.
The movie is catching on slowly with fans, but I expect it to be a highly respected effort by this time next year. It’s just a damn shame the film didn’t earn a legitimate wide release because it is most certainly worthy!
Well, it seemed appropriate touching down on these recent viewings that will inevitably remind of the season in the years to come. These aren’t holiday-themed pictures per se, but I screened each of them during the Halloween stretch, and that helps lend some personal attachment I can tap into. With that attachment comes the connection of the holiday. So, we’re all sealed up there, and it’s nice to have something lingering about this morning that doesn’t involve extensive cleanup and the acknowledgement that I’ve got a full calendar year to go before I can once more celebrate Halloween without looking like a lunatic in November.
Now it’s off to get these fucking wrappers taken care of!
