Recent
Horror Pros and Cons
by
Kristin Battestella
Sometimes
new and unique independent horror rises up and surprises you with its
impressiveness, and other times the scary intrigue leaves you
wondering what could have been. Here's a recent horror quartet with
some varying degrees of success – from thought provoking interest
and clichés made fine to rehashing redundancy and mishmashed missed
opportunity.
The
Babadook – Up close screams, distorted past accidents, bad
dreams, and checking under the bed make sleep uneasy for mother and
child in this 2014 Australian thinking person's horror. Kid gadgets,
magic tricks, a locked basement filled with memento mori, and
the wonderfully freaky eponymous but anonymous book have us believing
in gruesome children's stories once again as the pop up contents
become a bit too
interactive. Forget school and social pressure, a boy has to
defend himself and his mom against those monsters! The youthful
fears, wise for his age, and natural innocence are immediately
endearing, as is the much lauded Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder
Mysteries) as our kind, relatable, working widow. Her life has
been difficult, lonely, and getting worse– a scared kid climbing
into bed all the time ruins the 'me' time, doesn't it? Paging Doctor
Freud! Close cut, intimate editing builds suspense, keeping the pent
up, internal focus as the child's play turns dangerous. Instead of
desensitizing thrills, we feel the real life fears as the seemingly
supernatural blends with seven years of escalating grief. Family
abnormalities, paranormal possibilities that psychiatry can't handle,
monsters that manifest on such daily traumas – is our pair too
attached to each other in this battle or fighting alone? Where is the
line between evil possessions and their own warped reality? Dark
corners and a depressing, monochromatic home allow for unseen horrors
to brew and fester over the 94 minutes alongside a progressively
unkempt style, insomnia haze, here or not there bugs, overnight gaps
in time, and floating under the covers apparitions. A lack of
sisterly help, snickering police, and truant officers accent the late
night television parallels, further blurring the lines between
monsters and actuality. In the absence of empty shock moments,
immediate adrenaline, and jump scare spectacles, the scary sounds and
shadows simmer. Some viewers may predict the dog worries and a bit of
the tables turning, but the intense times and maternal power use
horror to say what can't be said and create discussion as good scares
should. Female-centric horror not done for the titillation, who knew?
Would
You Rather
–
When Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator)
says he can make your sick brother better if you win a dinner party
game, run people, run! The
intercut interview slash opening credits of this
2012 dare-fest inexplicably
lengthen exposition that was cleverly shortened, making for a
redundant, overly ominous start – we know they are in a horror
movie more scary than Clue
even if they don't.
Unnecessary flashback snips and more jarring editing stilts a first
half hour that keeps explaining the game before finally providing
some electrocutions, gunplay, whips, and ice picks. Forcing a
vegetarian to eat meats or a recovered alcoholic to drink scotch is
only the beginning of the discomforting desperation and morals versus
money at stake, and Brittany Snow (Pitch
Perfect) is believably
mature as a twenty something fallen onto tough family times. John
Heard (Home Alone)
and June Squibb (Nebraska)
add fine elder pleas, and unlike other recent torture porn trends,
upscale interiors and sophisticated dread accent the titular
question. This isn't dumbed down to a teen party boobs and gore fest,
yet cliché character expositions linger alongside some stupid
actions, a few loose ends, and one trite prick. Our game players must
ally and do no harm or comply and compete. None apologize for
playing, however, and that depravity hampers some of the
entertainment value. After all, people really get off on this kind of
pain – look at that dumb and dangerous Kylie Jenner lips dare –
and longtime horror viewers will find the unexplained, gruesome
generosity predictable. Thankfully, the built in ticking clock and
process of elimination keep the smartly congested parlor panache
moving, and the crafty cynicism carries through to the end.
Polite
Split Decisions
As
Above So Below – The disorienting, chaotic start to this
2014 found footage tale compromises the danger of all its tunnels,
statues, catacombs, and artifacts because we can't see much less
appreciate them thanks to the sideways camera or off and on
flashlights. Young and reckless Perdita Weeks (Lost in Austen)
rattles off her credentials and always assures the documentary is
paramount while risking harm to others. She heeds no warnings, argues
with the more experienced, and audaciously accuses others while she
destroys priceless discoveries for her own transformative gain.
Instead of Dante food for thought, the wrongfully determined,
spelunking hipster plot comes off ala National Treasure –
complete with a first clue action start, a break in to inspect
the back of a marker, begrudging allies who only want gold, going
underground via a tomb, and following historical riddles through one
hidden chamber after another. Our cameraman is also a wise cracking,
injury prone, token black guy whom we hardly see. His future bodes so
well! And hey, there's no
cell phone service underground, obviously. Parisians
inexplicably speaking English instead French, obligatory
claustrophobia, Indiana Jones rats
and knights, and random cult worshipers add to the borrowed
contrivances, and it's tough to make the cliches and busy footage
both work due to the increasing demands on our suspension of
disbelief. The finest parts here are when the camera remains still
with one person in panic. Creepy old phones and broken pianos below
add to the dread and maze like inability to escape, creating enough
forlorn without the gimmicks. Real cave interiors add to the Egyptian
booby traps, however the jump scares, supernatural hell horrors, and
a much too much rushed finale abandon the established rules. Was all
the metaphysical worth it? Are we supposed to be glad that one got
the rectification she desired at the expense of others? This is
entertaining for viewers who fall for the frights in the Halloween
fun house, but despite attempts at literary and historical allusions,
longtime horror audiences and wise cinema fans will see everything
coming.
Deliver
Us from Evil – Hectic
explosions, desert warfare, and soldiers discovering an ancient tomb
get this 2014 supernatural thriller off to a rocky start before more
random restarts further delay the actual horror. Important snippets
given early are better reiterated later, making this opening a
redundant fifteen minutes that could have been cut. A creepy
nighttime power outage at the zoo and a spooky house where candles
won't burn reset the chilling mood, but ridiculously weapon happy,
trumped up macho, backwards hat wearing cops who look more like ball
players chomping on chewing tobacco make us feel like we're in the
wrong movie again. The cinematic realism is also styled like a cop
show, which would be fine except the nighttime seedy and flashlight
lighting is too damn dark to see anything. An annoying score also
ruins the viewer immersion, as does convenient, all seeing HD
surveillance footage and easy smartphone cameras with on hand
evidence – not to mention there is never any back up or proper
police procedure. Though not miscast per se, what kind of Australian
doing Bronx Italian accent is Erica Bana (Troy)
trying? Please don't. And Joel McHale? Of The Soup?
As a bad ass cop in a horror movie?! Fortunately, The Doors' music
signifying gateways to hell is much more fun, and Sean Harris (The
Borgias) is always a
delightfully gruesome creeper. Too many genres are combined and
condensed here, making the balance and pacing uneven, and the
potential for digging deeper motivation in the intriguing one on one
dialogue and good versus evil debate remains superficial as a result.
Tighter editing would have stopped the meandering, but this might
have been better as a longer serial where time could be taken for the
Iraq fallout, our guilt ridden ex-faithful cop with terrorized family
tropes, and the buddy sergeant meets noble padre religious
investigations. Is this all just too many clichés tossed at the
screen? There's a great exorcism before a somewhat limp finale, but
cops and a priest battling possessed veterans with devilish clues
from Jim Morrison? If you don't expect much from the mixed vision,
this may actually be crazy enough to see through to the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment