BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE is a strange movie. Despite being heavily flawed, it didn’t suck. I loved what the filmmakers were trying to do if not what they actually accomplished.

The movie starts off as a sort of homage to John Carpenter’s THE THING. In the remote northern Canadian wilderness, a group of archaeologists welcome a newcomer to the camp and show him an ancient structure, its roof jutting above the snow, Mesoamerican in architecture and dated to the last Ice Age, around 14,000 BC. Soon, the camp ends up cut off from the outside, the native workers aiding in the excavation flee, and the archaeologists end up succumbing to a strange disease or madness, seemingly instigated by a godlike being.

The resulting effort is fairly uneven. The THING vibe is great, as is the Canadian wilderness and the intrigue and mystery surrounding the structure, which unfortunately turns out to be a MacGuffin. The acting and dialogue are similarly uneven, switching between realistic and stilted, natural and forced. The actors had a strange habit of leaving doors open in a freezing environment described as lethal. All of that would have been okay if the story had stuck to a single threat and stayed focused on it, and if the structure had been explored further.

So BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE for me was flawed, but something about it was compelling and strangely likeable.

I love most of the Korean horror movies I see, though I’m often left afterwards wondering what the hell I just watched. SVAHA: THE SIXTH FINGER is no exception, best described as religious horror, but centering on Buddhism.

In this story, Pastor Park, a Christian clergyman, has made a name and notorious reputation for himself by exposing fringe religious groups as cults. When he sets his sights on the Deer Mount cult, he gets more than he bargained for, ending up pulled into a supernatural duel between a god and the demon who opposes him.

I can’t say anything more about the plot, other than to tease by saying it has one hell of a twist. Thankfully, my gal Chris Marrs watched it with me and could explain to my linear brain what was going on at the end.

The film is moody, creepy, surprisingly humorous at times, and tells a great story based on Buddhism. Engaging and fun. You can catch it on Netflix.

After Jordan Peele’s successful GET OUT, he returned to write and direct another horror movie, US. While not as cutting as social commentary, US in my opinion is superior as a traditional horror film with a crazy apocalyptic bent–and social commentary if you want it.

The film opens with Adelaide, a young girl who wanders away from her father during a visit to a beach boardwalk. Entering a fun house, she chances upon a seemingly malevolent girl who looks exactly like her, which traumatizes her. Years later, she is married with two children, and all of them are going to the same beach, which fills her with anxiety as she recalls the trauma. That night, a family wearing red jumpsuits appears in their driveway, people who look exactly like Adelaide’s but turn out to be twisted, malevolent versions.

What follows is fairly traditional home invasion and survival horror, though with such a fresh take that even I–who honestly hates the home invasion subgenre–found myself loving it. Even so, it started to tire itself out fairly quickly until we visit friends of Adelaide’s family (headed by Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss), and we find out in the most titillating way possible the invasion is much bigger than a single family.

The main thing that worked for me was the great performances by the cast, notably Lupita Nyong’o as the adult Adelaide (and her doppelgänger) and Winston Duke as Gabe, her big teddy bear of a husband. All of the actors did an amazing job presenting their normal selves and their insane, murderous counterparts. The “tethered,” as they’re called, are the best part of the film, creepy as hell. As the normal folks, they’re all likeable and easy to root for.

I had some criticisms. The film is clunky, though it starts to smooth out as it gains steam. Mostly, what didn’t quite work for me was, well, the whole damn premise once it’s revealed. The explanation of the “tethered” defies any rationality, though it’s cool enough to be passable. The nice twist at the end doesn’t work as well as it could have as a result.

If you appreciated GET OUT’s social commentary on soft racism, there’s a message in US, though it’s not out front but more in the background. My interpretation is the message is about class, how we’re all the same, but difference in opportunity can produce very different lives.

Overall, as a horror film, I liked US. Peele keeps doing it his way, which brings new ideas to the genre and something different than the usual stuff.

For me, MIDSOMMAR (2019) started off with a strange, off-kilter vibe that was not entirely a good thing, but once it got going, its characters, pacing, realistic horror, and effective storytelling swept me along for one hell of an intense ride.

Written and directed by Ari Aster, known for his uneven but powerful HEREDITARY, the story begins with Dani (the cherubic Florence Pugh, who plays the role with a childlike vulnerability), an anxious college student worrying about her sister, who has bipolar disorder. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Christian (the solid Jack Reynor), is planning a trip to Sweden with his buds (at the invitation of a Swedish friend), where they hope to visit a remote commune’s Midsommar festival where the friend is from. This year, the festival is particularly special, as it occurs every ninety years.

Right away, we can tell Dani’s and Christian’s relationship is not a happy one. She is needy and nagging, constantly makes excuses for him not giving her what she needs, and backs down quickly during conflict. He is weak in character, is giving her his minimum effort, and wants to break up, but he doesn’t want to hurt her. After tragedy befalls Dani’s sister, he stays with her out of a guilty sense of obligation, and ends up inviting her on the trip due to the same.

Their visit to the commune is wonderfully strange, though things start to get dark and then just get darker. Much of the horror happens off screen, and while we know something terrible has happened, the characters don’t, caught up in their relationships. Everything builds towards a searing climax that we know will come–much of what happens is expected if you’ve ever seen or even heard of the 1970s classic THE WICKER MAN–but Aster pulls it off in a way that is just as powerful while feeling fresh, added by camera work and storytelling that is very sympathetic to point of view, right down to reality warping due to hallucinogenics the villagers feed them as part of the festival’s rituals.

Probably what I liked most about this movie was the characters. Horror often has a strong sense of justice to it. Example: You were warned not to read the evil book but you did, so now you get what’s coming to you. In this story, Dani and Christian are presented as a very real couple, which leaves her longing for feeling surrounded by love and him guiltily longing for escape. The justice that ends up delivered is not objective but rather very personal to one of the characters, who makes a sacrifice to get what they want. Similarly, Christian’s friends aren’t a bunch of jerkish bros but rather real guys who’d been hoping for a bro trip but now have to deal with one of their own bringing his girlfriend, which they do kindly but uncomfortably. When bad things happen, all of the characters behave very realistically, right down to Dani’s panic attacks. This grounds what otherwise might have been a cartoonish cult movie and makes it something far more visceral.

Another aspect of realism comes from the world building, which is fantastic. The commune feels very real, their religion steeped in ancient tradition. The villagers’ participation in the rituals is real and affecting, and every ritual has a clear purpose and says: we are together, and what happens to you, happens to me; what you need, I will give you; we will survive or perish as a community. As the viewer, we don’t get to see any sense of conflict on the part of any of the villagers that what they’re doing is morally wrong, they are uniform in belief and action, but this is understandable as clearly they accept death as a natural and necessary act as part of the cycle of the earth’s renewal, which requires everybody to do their part.

The only criticism I have is the film starts with some heavy-handed camera work and awkward storytelling that makes the opening scenes a bit off-kilter. I know we’re supposed to be inside Dani’s head experiencing her anxiety, but it just didn’t work for me as I didn’t know her as a character yet. Though the heavy-handed camera work proves effective later for the last act by pulling the viewer into point of view, it makes the first act feel stilted.

Overall, I liked MIDSOMMAR way more than I thought I would, finding it a powerful film with strong pacing, good writing, just the right conflict between the fantastic and the mundane, and a fresh take on old horror themes.

Based on the novella by Laird Barron, THEY REMAIN (2018) is a creepy psychodrama about a pair of researchers investigating phenomenon at the site of a cult massacre on behalf of a mysterious corporation. That’s one hell of a setup, and while the film achieves a high level of creep and tension, its overall slow pacing and last act’s splintering, unreliable narration may achieve the film a deep appreciation but maybe not love. The payoff is satisfying, but perhaps not enough.

More about the plot: Keith (William Jackson Harper) and Jessica (Rebecca Henderson) are field researchers for a corporation seeking new resources to exploit. While the goals of the project are unclear, apparently the team investigates strange phenomenon looking for resources that can be controlled. In this case, the remote wooded area is almost devoid of animals, makes insects behave strangely, and also affects people, including previous researchers and the members of a local cult, which went from drugs and sex to thrill killing.

They don’t seem to like each other much. Keith is distrustful of people and roams the woods setting up cameras. Jessica is an obsessive nerd and handles the lab work. Soon after they arrive, the equipment begins behaving strangely and odd knocks and whispers occur at night, along with bizarre nightmares of the land’s previous inhabitants. After Jessica finds a giant horn of some massive beast, things get really wonky, suggesting that even when dead, the beast is still affecting the land around it. Keith and Jessica begin to spiral into madness.

Overall, there’s much to like here. Harper and Henderson are solid actors who give their characters a lot of life and interest. The idea of the bone of some Lovecraftian creature affecting its area is a compelling mystery, and the history of the cult is pretty cool. The big strokes work. More challenging is the rubber-meets-the-road elements such as pacing and sometimes frustrating lack of coherence as reliable narration disintegrates toward the final act.

I came away with a deep appreciation of the ideas and general execution, though I didn’t fall in love with it. Recommended if you like slow-burn horror with a somewhat sci-fi bent.