Deedle, deedle, Blackcoat’s Daughter. What was in the holy water? Gone to bed on an unclean head. The angels, they forgot her.
It’s February, and the students at the Catholic boarding school Bramford Academy are about to get picked up by their parents for a week-long break. Kat, a freshman at the school, wakes up from a nightmare where she’s witnessed her parents dying in a car crash. And later her parents do not arrive to pick her up, and they cannot be reached by phone. At the same time, a senior student named Rose suspects that she might be pregnant, and has lied to her parents about when to pick her up so she can buy some time to get things settled. Kat and Rose ends up being the only two left at the school, aside from two nuns. Kat starts acting weirder and weirder, and receives strange phone calls.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (aka February, and also aka The Daughter of Evil) is a supernatural horror film from 2015 written and directed by Osgood Perkins. It was his directorial feature debut, and stars Kiernan Shipka as Kat, Emma Roberts as Joan and Lucy Boynton as Rose. While Perkins have made several slow-burn horror films during the years, including the Netflix film I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) and Gretel & Hansel (2020), he’s gotten most known for his recent satanic horror film Longlegs with Nicolas Cage himself playing a crazy satanic serial killer. And you could’ve easily believed that The Blackcoat’s Daughter belonged to the same universe, as they’re both having satanic devil-worship elements and the same dark, helpless nihilistic atmosphere. Just like the titular character in Longlegs, we here also meet a character who not only ends up becoming a victim to evil forces, but totally embraces it. The conventional portrayal of possessed people needing and wanting to be saved is turned completely upside down.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter is weighed with symbolism, with a narrative that explores the themes of mental illness, loneliness and longing, and how it can open up a crack that invites bad things in and lets them fester. The movie is divided in three parts, skipping a bit back and forth in time until we are left with the inevitably bleak and despairing ending. It’s a very dark and brooding film, never offering any kind of fast pace and the horror elements are often mostly subtle. It may require a bit of patience to fully get the most out of it, and is definitely a movie better suited for those that prefer slow atmospheric horror over fast-paced action and jumpscares. If you liked Osgood’s latest movie Longlegs, chances are you will also enjoy The Blackcoat’s Daughter.
Writer and director: Oz Perkins Country & year: USA/Canada, 2015 Also known as: The Daughter of Evil, February Actors: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, James Remar, Lauren Holly, Greg Ellwand, Elana Krausz, Heather Tod Mitchell, Peter James Haworth, Emma Holzer, Peter J. Gray IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3286052/
Alone in the bush, a young man is hunted by something familiar… something without eyes.
We’ve arrived at another Horror Short Sunday, and today we’re taking a look at They Hunt Without Eyes, which shows us what could happen if a mannequin-virus started infesting people…
Suzanne Blaker is a stop-motion animator quite famous within the circle, but she’s unable to use her hands anymore due to arthritis. She still wants to complete her latest film, and for this, she needs help from her daughter Ella. Poor Ella is often overworked by her demanding mother, constantly having to do scenes over again and never doing anything the right way (at least according to her mother). Then Suzanne suffers a stroke and ends up in a coma, where Ella finds herself with enough freedom to do what she wants. Her decision is to finish her mother’s film, and she chooses to rent a studio apartment where she can work. There, she encounters a little girl who appears to be very interested in her work, and ends up guiding her towards completely new ideas for the film. Instead of finishing her mother’s “boring“ movie, she changes it to be about a young girl lost in the woods, who encounters a scary entity called the Ash Man. The girl keeps guiding Ella through the process, making her craft the dolls from meat in order to make them look more real, constantly pushing Ella to experiment more and using techniques she probably never thought herself comfortable with using.
Stopmotion is a psychological horror film directed by Robert Morgan, and it’s his feature length debut. The screenplay was written together with Robin King, and it stars Aisling Franciosi (TheNightingale, 2018) in the leading role. Robert Morgan also made the horror short film The Cat with Hands (which I found out about some years back when Guillermo del Toro recommended his on his Twitter/X account) where stop motion is also used.
The movie is definitely a slow burn, and what first appears to be something that could lead to a final twist of some kind, ends up getting revealed very early during the movie. There isn’t really much of a mystery, there is no unraveling of Ella’s psyche, we very much know where she’s headed. Artists being at risk of getting consumed by their art, well that’s an axiom that’s been used more than a few times in movies, but here it doesn’t really get as disturbing as it could have been. Still, it manages to convey a very dark and uncanny atmosphere, and there’s a definite “A24-vibe“ over it.
The best part of the movie is, without a doubt, the stop motion scenes. The characters, setting and backgrounds for the animated stop motion scenes are actually very atmospheric and creepy, too bad we didn’t get to see even more of them. To be honest, I’d love to have a full horror short featuring this animation. It’s grotesque and macabre in a fascinating way, reminding me a little bit of Phil Tippett’s Mad God, and seeing the different techniques used only enhances this feeling. We see Ella using real meat in order to make stop motion, and that is not actually unheard of. This technique was also used by legendary stop motion animator Jan Svankmajer.
Overall, Stopmotion is a slow, dark psychological thriller with some really eerie stop motion scenes. Not for everyone, but certainly a strange little nightmarish tale.
Director: Robert Morgan Writers: Robin King, Robert Morgan Country & year: UK, 2023 Actors: Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet, Tom York, Therica Wilson-Read, Bridgitta Roy, Caoilinn Springall, Alex Freeborn, James Swanton, James Harris, Jaz Hutchins, Joshua J Parker, Nicola Alexis IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14852624/
Here comes the sequel that people actually have wanted to see for too long. Meanwhile, we had some videogames, comics, the awesome animated series, and I envy those who were lucky enough to experience the Broadway musicals that became huge successes. So, it’s fair to say that Beetlejuice’s spot and impact on pop-culture seemed to be bigger than we’d even realized. The time and years also came and went while the sequel was announced several times during the mid 2000s until it became the boy who cried wolf. It became too good to be true, but to be honest: I would rather wait for twenty years than see Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, whatever that was supposed to be. But now, only 37 years later, the juice is finally loose.
But still, my biggest concern here was how in hell they were going to recreate the same magic, vibe and the distinct cartoonish tone from the original without missing the mark and the perfect balance completely. Because it could easily have become a catastrophic, tone-deaf cringefest that would shuffle right in the same footsteps as Son of the Mask, to give the worst example. The year is also 2024, where legacy sequels have been pretty bland and forgettable, with some few exceptions. And then we have our favorite goth uncle, Tim Burton, who hasn’t quite been himself in a long, long time. Life happens to all of us. But that was until he directed the first episodes of Wednesday, where we saw some of his mojo coming back. So there was hope. Then came the teasers and the trailers and we were sold.
So, what’s the Deetz family been up to during all these years? Lydia Deetz is still herself, now as a professional medium, not a big surprise there, and has her own Paranormal TV show which she hosts with a live audience and all. And no, she’s not married to Zak Bagans. She’s been dating her producer, Rory (Justin Theroux), this film’s version of the eccentric Otho (until he isn’t). Lydia also has a daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), and they don’t have the best relationship, since Astrid thinks her mother a complete whackjob and a fraud. It’s more complex than that, though. And, of course, she doesn’t believe in the supernatural at all. Her biological dad also died years ago and she can’t stand Rory.
Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is in Manhattan, New York, where she has an art exhibition. She’s still a redhead and a more borderline self-centered bitch than ever. But where’s Charles, Lydia’s dad, you ask? He is all by himself in the ghost house up on the hill, chilling the peaceful life, we have to assume. Wait, the phone is ringing. It’s Delia. Charles is dead, she says. Died during a plane crash. Oh… Time for an awkward little reunion in the small town of Winter River to arrange his funeral. And the old model still stands in the attic, Beetlejuice’s little loophole entry to the surface world.
Yes, there’s a lot of family drama going on, because there’s a lot to catch up to after almost four decades. But there’s no reason to worry – The showman himself, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), is just waiting for the right moment to join the reunion, and he has way more screentime than he had in the original, which was only 17 minutes. In the meantime, he’s kept himself busy with his Bio-Exorcist career, having a big open office space in the Neitherworld where he has a staff of Smallheads to do all the paper work.
Speaking of reunions: The Maitlands couple we saw in the original, played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, is long gone and not to be seen. We get the point and reason why: ghosts don’t age. They get a brief mention by Lydia, who gives her own logical explanation of their absence just to tie the films together fittingly. Davis looks fabulous for her age, by the way, while Baldwin has morphed into the bitter rageaholic that he is. Teddybear Otho, on the other hand, isn’t even mentioned. And that broke my heart a little. Especially considering that Glenn Shadix fell in his home and died tragically of blunt head trauma in 2010. RIP.
Anyway – Meanwhile, downstairs in the world of the dead, we get to see a pretty wild entry of the films secondary villain. And that’s none other than Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, Dolores (Monica Bellucci), a cute mix of Corpse Bride and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. And you’ll also get a clear picture of why she meant nothing to him, nothing at all, as referred in the first film. It’s also hard to not feel some sympathy for Mr. Juice when some historical pieces are being put together. Because he absolutely means something to her, and not in some positive way. We also have a vital love-interest sideplot with Astrid and the neighbor boy Jeremy (Arthur Conti) which takes some pretty interesting turns.
Lydia is still haunted by the memories of Beetlejuice, who once tried to force her to marry him. She’s kept all of this a secret from her extended family, but when she starts to see quick flashes of him lurking everywhere she goes, the can of worms starts to open. The plot starts to thicken when both Astrid and Rory find out about this Beetleguy, and it’s just a quick matter of time when one of them can’t resist the temptation to spit out his name three times.
And when the news came that Willem Dafoe had been added to the cast, I was pretty sure that he was going to play Jacques LaLean from the animated series. Instead, we meet Wolf Jackson, a former action star, who’s now living out his fantasies in the afterlife as a police officer in the Neitherword. And for some reason, he’s on the tail on both Beetlejuice and Dolores.
I was a little surprised how practical and old-school the film actually was, both when it came to the effects and especially the sets. Because the cynical side of me just assumed they would CGI/green screen the whole Winter River town and the ghost house itself, because that’s what Hollywood normally does these days. Instead, we also have a sweet nostalgia trip to the quiet little town of East Corinth, hidden somewhere in the forest countryside of Vermont. And the Neitherworld is a whole place by itself where we get to see more of with its crooked, narrow, colorful hallways and chess floors, a place you’d like to explore for yourself. Maybe some day.
Tim Burton’s zany imagination and inspiration is back in full force here. So is his energy, which makes Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feel way more of a passion project than just another sequel. I bet everyone had a blast making this, not to mention the make-up crew who had all the different types of dead people we see in the world downstairs to work with. Every aspect to the smallest details are done with such care, love and respect to the original, without overstuffing us with shallow member berries. We have some of those, of course, but they’re really tasty.
We also have some references from the old times, such as Beetlejuice’s backstory told in the stylish black & white style of Mario Bava, and get ready for the roller-coaster ride that is the Soul Train. It’s crazy, wild, chaotic, unpredictable and lots of fun. A big morbid cinematic Halloween candy bag with some even more unexpected surprises. The older fans who grew up with the original, and the animated series in the early 90s, will definitely feel the warm and fuzzy nostalgia bug.
Michael Keaton still nails every step and tone of the title character. He slips right into Beetlejuice and the iconic outfit as if it was 1988. The slapstick, the small tics and details with his bizarre mannerism, are still intact with the perfect balance without being too much. And after pushing 70, and blessed with some excellent genes, Keaton plays the role as if he was 41 with a body full of demons. All the co-actors do a solid job and I liked the more nuances in the family dynamic between Lydia and her stepmom Delia, which was very one-dimensional in the first film. The one I wish had more screentime was Dolores.
And to finally address the real boogeyman in the room, that is Jeffrey Jones, who played Lydia’s dad in the first film. Yeah, whatever happened to him. He’s a registered sex offender, if you didn’t already know, and hasn’t been doing anything acting related since 2014. And since this isn’t a Disney production, he is persona non grata. Still, Charles is in the movie, in some very bizarre, morbid and hilarious way. And he’s actually way more present than I expected. Also, what they did to his character without writing him off completely was pure genius, comedy gold, and I laughed every time when that poor fucker popped up on the screen.
The music here must also be mentioned, which is just fantastic. It’s classic Danny Elfman, and he really pours his ghoulish heart into every single note and detail. He gives a more thick and sinister tone to the classic opening theme, like he did with Batman Returns (1992). The opening credit sequence is another aspect, which, in all honesty, I didn’t expect until that old Geffen logo came and did its rotation on screen. I knew already then that we were in for a ride. So, by all means; please take notes and bring back the classic themesongs and opening credits again, because they rule.
The film earned back its budget already during the opening weekend, so there’s no reason for the Warner brothers to not say his name one last time with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. In the meantime, you can now bingewatch all four seasons of the animated series on Tubi.
Director: Tim Burton Writers: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith Country & year: USA, 2024 Actors: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Nick Kellington, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049403/
On the last night of summer in a sleepy seaside town, an insecure young woman finally reveals to her crush exactly how she feels – and what she is.
Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we take a look at Skin Deep. What seems like an ordinary love story, turns out to be something quite different…
Director: Abby Brooke Writer: Abby Brooke Country & year: USA, 2023 Actors: Lillian Bornstein, Henry Sheeran, Natalie Shinnick IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt29977780/
She’s a killer, she’s a thriller. And a ballcrusher. But most of all – she’s Maxine FUCKING Minx!
So, after waiting for two months after the official theatrical release, we finally got to see MaXXXine on the big screen here in Norway. Two months to avoid any spoilers and such. So let’s fucking gooooo!
MaXXXine takes place in 1985, six years after the incidents at the farm we saw in X which have been reported in the news as the greatest film title never released: “The Texas Porn Star Massacre“. Since then, Maxine still snorts lines, lives in a small apartment in Los Angeles, and still works in the porn biz. Like a character from GTA, she’s been upgraded to have an agent (Giancarlo Esposito, Gus from Breaking Bad) that is actually not a shady sleazeball, and earn enough decent money to not stay in Cecil Hotel. Writer and director Ti West throws no punches to set the tone and takes us far into the memory lane of a country in full moral panic. Rock and heavy metal have consumed the youth, parents freak out as their kids listen to Twisted Sister, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, etc. Dee Snider is at full war with Tipper Gore who wants to censor his music. Yes, there was actually a time when music was the most evil thing on planet Earth, in God-fearing America, at least. The first wave of the Satanic panic has hit full force as the serial killer, and the self-proclaimed Satanist, Richard Ramirez (aka The Night Stalker), is body counting around the city. Yet a far more innocent USA than it is today.
Anyway – life isn’t as bad as someone in Maxine’s situation should be, even though she’s clearly very damaged and struggles with PTSD. But life goes on. Especially if you want to get a chance to star in a Hollywood film. And now, as Maxine is in her mid 30s and wants to be in “real movies“ and climb the career ladder up to the more mainstream surface, she sees the opportunity to audition for a horror movie called Puritan II. And since Maxine is a phenomenal actress as Mia Goth, she impresses the director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) and secures the role on the spot. Yay! The producers are not so keen on casting her, though, with her filthy porn background and all. Well, we all have to start somewhere.
But the road to her Hollywood break isn’t getting that easy when she gets a VHS mysteriously delivered at her doorstep. On the tape we see clips of her from “The Farmer’s Daughters”, which was filmed at the farm that she does her best to forget. A sleazy weasel of a dude (Kevin Bacon) dressed like Jack Nicholson from Chinatown tracks her down to blackmail and paint her as the killer in the so far unsolved murder mystery in the Texas Porn massacre case, if she doesn’t do as told. In the meantime, friends and colleagues within her porn circle starts to get killed in brutal ways by an obscure person in a giallo outfit.
X was the throwback of the 1970s, the standalone prequel and character study of Pearl was filled with 1930s Technicolor, and this one the neon-soaked 1980s. Three different eras with three distinct styles. And of all the 80s throwback films that have been spewed out during the last twenty years or so, I dare to say that Ti West has come closest to duplicating the style flawlessly. Whereas similar attempts come across more like parodies, MaXXXine feels more natural, organic and like a pure 80s film from start to finish. The way it’s shot, edited, the music and how the characters behave, the overall vibe and atmosphere, is perfection. Tarantino should be jealous. Maxine is also a character easy to vibe with and root for, many thanks to Mia Goth, who deserves all the praise she can get.
One would expect Mia Goth to outshine the whole cast, but surprisingly, there isn’t one character here that I found shallow. We have a frustrated good cop, bad cop duo that really do their best to get the link between Maxine and the killer. And Maxine is caught in the middle of the urban crossfire while she just wants to get on with her life, until she has no choice but to get her claws out. Kevin Bacon also seemed to have a really fun time here as the side-kick villain. And just like Maxine, if we’re going to ignore the porn, Kevin Bacon also got his start in a horror movie, that is Friday the 13th (1980). Lily Collins grinning from ear to ear while having her face smeared with fake blood was super cute. And it warms my ghoulish heart to see the Psycho house, which is a character by itself, still standing in the Universal Studios Lot and being taken care of.
The soundtrack is also filled with 80s music, all from ZZ Top to synth pop like Animotion. We also hear tunes from New Order, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Ratt, Judas Priest, and more. I must point out a lost opportunity to use the song Ballcrusher by W.A.S.P. here, though. And you know what scene I’m talking about. The film ends (—UH-OH SPOILER—) appropriately enough with Bette Davis Eyes, which the film also pays a tribute to.
Yeah, I’m really creaming all over MaXXXine, maybe because the film was much better than expected after the more lukewarm reception. We had an overall blast with this one in the movie theater and wasn’t bored for one second. The common complaints I’ve noticed is the third act/the reveal/the last ten minutes. The ending is predictable, for sure, and the reveal didn’t come as a shocker. No spoilers here, but I really loved how the film painted Christianity as an equally bad thing, for lack of a better word, as Satanism. What a big, fat middle-finger to flash straight in the face to moral activists.
Writer and director: Ti West Country & year: USA, 1985 2024 Actors: Mia Goth, Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo Esposito, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Moses Sumney, Halsey, Chloe Farnworth, Charley Rowan McCain, Simon Prast, Lily Collins IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22048412/
– AAhh..AAAhhh, FUCK ma PUSSY! You make me so WEEEH…!!
The year is 1979 where the young 27-year-old Maxine (Mia Goth) snorts a big, fat line to get ready for another day in the porn biz. She wants to be famous and no one can blame her for being a runaway daughter of a Kenneth Copeland-like televangelist. We’re in hot n’ sticky Texas where she and a small film crew are driving to the middle of Leatherface land to shoot their next porn flick titled “The Farmer’s Daughters”. No hitchhiker to spot here, just to mention, their trip goes as smoothly as a stiff, slippery cock sliding into a freshly-shaved vagina. They drive by a nasty and gory accident scene, though, where a poor cow has been sliced in two after a clash with a truck that makes Maxine throw up in the car. Welcome to Texas, even though it’s all filmed in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Our crew is the producer and Maxine’s boyfriend Wayne (Martin Henderson), RJ (Owen Campbell) is the director, his girlfriend, Lorraine, (Jenna Ortega) is the one holding the dick… sorry, the mick, and she’s the youngest on the crew. She’s shy and doesn’t say much, but you can bet she has a horny little beast hidden in her shell, just waiting to get unleashed. We also have Maxine’s two co-actors, the BBC Jackson (Kid Cudi) and the blonde chick Bobby-Lynn (Brittany Snow).
Their destination is an old farm owned by the old, miserable and one-foot-in-the-grave couple, Howard and Pearl, who are way past their glory hole days. The natural circle that we call life is harsh and brutal and is not for everybody to embrace gracefully. Howard is a goblin-and bedbug-bitten-looking gentleman who’s agreed to rent out a guesthouse to the crew as long they mind their own business and stay away from the main house. Pearl, who looks like the witch from Pumpkinhead, is quick to get her old, half-dead eyes lazer-focused on Maxine. Because she reminds her of her younger self, and gets jealous of her youth. And Howard is too afraid to have a heart attack if he tries to sexually please her. I think they would both have a heart attack, to be honest. But it’s worth a try, because what is there to lose at this point. Pearl is also played by Mia Goth, hidden by a thick layer of convincing old-age makeup.
Anyway, Pearl gets more drawn to her in some creepy, obsessive way and starts mirroring her like a true, deranged narcissist. Some may sympathize with Pearl, but I don’t. I know the kind too well. And….well, I think I’ve said enough about the plot.
The film takes its time to build up the more and more eerie mood and atmosphere, and the uncertainty of where the plot is actually going. After the quick flashback in the opening scene (which I forgot to mention) where the local cops find a horrific murder scene in the farm basement, we have a foreshadowing tone from the start that slowly builds up. So, this is not your typical fast-paced teen-slasher, in other words. It’s after the first hour mark that the horror elements really start to kick in, and it goes full slasher-mode from there on.
Our small group of actors does a solid job with their roles and have great chemistry. They’re also likable and well-written, which is a big plus since we spend a lot of time with them. It was also somewhat peculiar to see Jenna Ortega in a far more pure and innocent role (until she isn’t) after watching the first season of Wednesday. Mia Goth is, of course, the big star here as the rebellious young Maxine who just wants to be famous and prove her dad a thing or two. She’s at her best, if not intense, when playing the old, fragile and unhinged Pearl, where it’s hard to at least not feel some pity for her.
There isn’t too much to say about X without tipping the toes too far into spoiler territory – but overall, X is a rough and decent 1970s-sexploitation throwback flick with some gnarly, brutal kills and raunchy soft-core nudeness – and not least with a unique angle on the slasher genre. Ti West knows his stuff when it comes to the visual aesthetics from that era, which he also nailed in The House of the Devil (2009). The film should have gone full-out hardcore with the sex scenes, though, so it could’ve gone full circle with an actual X-rating. That would have been fun.
X followed up with the sequels XX and XXX and can be found after some quick searches on PornHub. Har-har, just kidding. Watch out for Pearl and the recent MaXXXine.
Writer and director: Ti West Country & year: USA/New Zealand, 2022 Actors: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, James Gaylyn, Simon Prast, Geoff Dolan, Matthew J. Saville, Bryony Skillington IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13560574/
In this supernatural horror tale based on a Korean ritual, a woman entertains a macabre marriage offer that would let her pursue her dreams, for better or for much much worse.
It’s Horror Short Sunday, and today we take a look at Koreatown Ghost Story. When a young woman, Hannah, visits a friend of her deceased parents, she finds herself in a rather painful situation (both metaphorically and literally) and what appears to be a good deal proves to be anything but. Fun and suspenseful, and here’s a little fun fact too: the house Hannah passes by in the beginning, is the house used in AHS: Murder House.
Director: Minsun Park, Teddy Tenenbaum Writer: Minsun Park, Teddy Tenenbaum Country & year: USA, 2021 Actors: Margaret Cho, Lyrica Okano, Brandon Halvorsen, Minsun Park IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt14214082/
High Tension is the title and high tension is what you get.
We’re in the countryside in France (here, of course, filmed in Romania) where the two young best friends Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn) are visiting Alex’ parents to study. It all seems like a quiet and idyllic summer in the country, but who’d know that a psycho killer (Philippe Nahon) is also roaming the area? He’s dressed like a mechanic, drives around in a rusty van and likes to chill out between the killing-sprees by giving himself a blowjob with a fresh severed head. Welcome to surfing on the first red wave of French Extreme Horror.
After this short and intense foreshadowing, it’s just a matter of time before this cold-blooded and emotionless serial killer drops by Alex’ family’s farmhouse to expand his kill count. And so he does. Already the first night when all have gone to bed, the doorbell rings. As soon as Alex’ dad opens, he gets his face sliced by a razor blade. Then our killer cuts his head off in some very creative way I won’t even try to describe. He slaughters the whole family like they were pigs, even the dog. Before he leaves the messy and gruesome murder scene, he captures Alex, ties her up, tosses her back in the van. Phew. Marie was able to hide during this brutal home invasion, but chases the killer to save Alex.
What we have next is an intense cat n’ mouse chase that spirals completely out of control. Alexandre Aja (with his co-writer Grégory Levasseur) has during the last twenty years established themselves in the US with The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D, Mirrors, Crawl, Horns and more. He was 22 years old when he made High Tension, and with this being his first horror film, one would guess he’d already made genre films for a decade. A solidly made slasher, a gory, relentless ride from start to finish, with strong performances by the two female lead actors. The throwbacks to the 70s and 80s are also eminent and the juicy special effects are a big factor here, delivered by FX artist Giannetto De Rossi (1941-2021) who also worked with Lucio Fulci.
But the film also has a rotten macaron in the room that has to be addressed, and that’s the infamous twist which only M. Night Shyamalan would still be impressed by. Aja took inspiration from the Dean R. Koontz’ novel Intensity, which also became an obscure movie made for TV in 1997. And what he had planned for High Tension was all another than the ending we got here. We can blame none other than Luc Besson, one of the producers, who demanded the twist that has aged like milk. But since Aja already here has proven to be a damn good director and able to keep the tension high to the end credits, it does not ruin the the overall film experience.
Director: Alexandre Aja Writers: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur Original title: Haute tension Also known as: Switchblade Romance (UK) Country & year: France/Romania, 2003 Actors: Cécile de France, Maïwenn, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti, Oana Pellea, Marco Claudiu Pascu, Jean-Claude de Goros, Bogdan Uritescu, Gabriel Spahiu IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338095/
Julia is married to Francis, who has a mother from Romania but grew up in USA. One day, he gets a promotion at work and is relocated to Bucharest, so it’s time to pack the bags and move to Romania. They move into an apartment building where the windows face the opposite building. Julia spends a lot of time on her own as Francis works long hours, and she gets more and more unnerved by seeing a man in the building across the street, who just stands there and appears to be watching her all the time. Her fears aren’t exactly subsided when she and Francis one day comes over a commotion on the street with an ambulance, police and a crowd of people. Apparently they just found the body of another victim of “The Spider“, a serial killer who decapitates young women. Like this wasn’t more than enough to fray her nerves, she’s also struggling with finding her place in a city where she doesn’t know anyone, and doesn’t speak the language. She befriends one of the few english-speaking neighbors, Irina, which appears to ease her mind a little. One night, when she stands looking out the window, the “watcher“ is at his usual place. She wonders if he actually is looking at her, hoping she might be wrong, and decides to test it by gently waving at him. At first, the man just stands there like he hasn’t seen anything, but then he waves back. And things spiral into something that’s completely out of Julia’s control.
Watcher is a psychological thriller from 2022, written and directed by Chloe Okuno as her feature directorial debut. It was filmed in Bucharest, Romania. The movie is based on an original screenplay by Zack Ford, and stars Maika Monroe as Julia, Karl Glusman as Francis, and Burn Gorman as the watcher. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was later theatrically released in the US, mostly to positive reviews. It still only made a total of $3.2 million against a budget of $5 million.
The movie follows a woman who moves to a new country with her husband, feeling alienated and alone in unfamiliar surroundings. The language barrier only adds to the feeling of being alone, and with her husband being so busy at work she hardly knows how to pass the time and make herself fit in within a world not quite her own. The pacing is slow (yep, another slow-burner), but it gives you enough time to get a proper grip on the isolation and paranoia that builds within the protagonist. You also can’t help but wondering if Julia is just a bit too paranoid for her own good: what is a real threat, and what is caused by her misconceptions and fear? When she’s standing in the window watching the watcher…then who is actually watching who? Yes, the movie does play along with the idea of making you question everything, but we also experience everything Julia does, positioning us in the same isolation she feels and with the same experiences. Thus, we do not necessarily question that something is wrong here, we just don’t know to what extent, and this makes it all the more thrilling.
Watcher is a suspenseful movie filled with paranoia and anxiety, and definitely worth a watch if you want a slow-burning mystery thriller.
Fun fact: when Julia wanders around in Bucharest and decides to visit the Cinema, she watches Charade (1963). It’s the same movie that was played in It Follows (2014) when Jay (played by Maika Monroe) and Greg went to the movies together.
Director: Chloe Okuno Writers: Zack Ford, Chloe Okuno Country & year: USA/Romania, 2022 Actors: Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, Burn Gorman, Tudor Petrut, Gabriela Butuc, Madalina Anea, Cristina Deleanu, Bogdan Farcas, Daniel Nuta, Ioana Abur, Flaviu Crisan, Stefan Iancu IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12004038/
Deedle, deedle, Blackcoat’s Daughter. What was in the holy water? Gone to bed on an unclean head. The angels, they forgot her.
