THE NIGHTINGALE (2018, streaming on Shudder, though it’s not really a horror movie) by writer/director Jennifer Kent, creator of the successful horror film THE BABBADOOK (2014), is a brutal exploration of colonialism, exploitation, power, and revenge. While it softens in the last act, I found it compelling for its tension, unflinching brutality, and fantastic performances, notably by Baykali Ganambarr, Aisling Franciosi, and Sam Claflin.

Set in 1825, the film begins at a military outpost in an Australian penal colony where a war against the native aboriginals is brewing and, where Clare lives in indentured servitude with her husband and baby. While overdue for release due to time served, the dapper but psychopathic lieutenant refuses to let his “nightingale”–so named because she sings for him and his drunken, loutish soldiers–go, and he treats her harshly as a sexual toy. After a tragic series of events, Clare sets out in the bush with an aboriginal tracker named Billy on a grisly mission of revenge.

The film was criticized for its graphic depictions of rape, which when combined with casual murder make this an uncompromisingly nasty film, though none of it is celebrated so much as held up for inspection with a dare to look away, similar to COME AND SEE. But this was a nasty time in a nasty place, where brutality endlessly cascades downhill from the British officers to their soldiers to women and indentured servants to the aboriginals who are losing everything. As such, the film is an indictment of colonialism by showing its everyday consequences on real people.

Clare makes an impressive and sympathetic avenging angel, while Billy is portrayed with an amazing combination of ferocity, defiance, and sympathy by acting first-timer Baykali Ganambarr. The trek is full of hardships, and they come to care for each other as they grow increasingly united by cause and a realization they share the same place on the world’s totem pole. The acting, tension, and the wild setting’s frontier immersion are all extremely well done.

In the last act, however, the story takes a turn in an unexpected direction–notably a big character shift in Clare–that felt wonky and wasn’t quite as satisfying for me, and the ending didn’t have quite the punch it might have if it had maintained its momentum. Overall, though, I really liked the film, which I found rich, compelling, and thoughtful.

BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (2006, streaming on Shudder) is a horror mockumentary about a would-be serial killer preparing for his first massacre in a world where legendary killers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger are real. This was a lot of fun.

The story focuses on a small documentary crew following Leslie Vernon as he makes all the preparations for a grisly massacre in the hopes of joining his pantheon of heroes. We gain insight into the rules, ethics, vast amount of training, and meticulous planning that make all the crazy tropes of the slasher genre make sense. As the big night looms, Taylor, the documentary maker, and her trusty cameramen finally face the very real consequences of all this, and must make a decision.

BEHIND THE MASK could have traded entirely on its inside jokes but instead achieves its own identity as an homage by delivering something much deeper and more satisfying. Leslie Vernon is funny, sympathetic, and utterly menacing, an artist in training who wants to become a legend. The lore is great as we learn the “tricks of the trade” of seemingly supernatural mass murder. The comedy is consistently solid, and the small roles by Robert Englund (NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) and Zelda Rubenstein (POLTERGEIST) are great. The last act rolls out as a slasher film as good as those it parodies. Another example of what indie filmmakers can achieve with a strong idea and good writing. Highly recommended for horror fans.

LA LLORONA (2019, streaming on Shudder) is a powerful if a bit slow-paced horror film that reminds us the real horror, when it finally shows its face, is often the truth, is often what’s real.

The General, a former dictator who ruthlessly deployed military forces in ethnic cleansing during fighting against communists in the early 1980s, is now an old man living in a democracy that has decided to heal by putting him on trial for genocide. But a vengeful spirit may claim the ultimate justice. The film reinvents the traditional myth of La Llorona, or The Weeping Woman, that has many forms in Latin American culture, one of which is a woman who captures the eye of a rich man who then loses interest in her, resulting in her murdering her children and becoming damned to search for them eternally in Hell.

All I can say is wow to this one. It’s incredibly well done. Each scene takes its time but never fails to be engaging. Artistically, it’s a visual feast. Thematically, it is a powerful political story of a dictator hiding the truth of his brutal crimes behind a wall of lies, rationalizations, and the physical form of a pitiable old man, while an angry population demands these crimes be recognized. It is also a powerful story of a ghost seeking not vengeance, but justice.

As a ghost story, it’s not very scary, though there is an underlying tension that builds between the cries of the mob and the gradual revelation of the horrific act that created the ghost, and when the final truth is revealed, that is when the real horror shows its face, and we find out who the real monster is.

I loved LA LLORONA for its great storytelling, strong themes, and clever combination of an old trope with dramatic political drama.

PRESERVATION (2014, streaming on Amazon Prime) is a survival horror thriller about three people who venture into the woods for a camping trip only to realize they’re being hunted. The film gets a lot right, but the script’s reliance on cliches and convenience weakens the overall result.

The film begins with Mike (Aaron Staton), his wife Wit (Wrenn Schmidt), and brother Sean (Pablo Schreiber) venturing into an abandoned state park for a camping weekend. Immediately, we’re introduced to tensions in the group. Sean is a damaged war veteran recently discharged, Mike is overwhelmed with work but trying to support his brother, and Wit is dismayed at how all this is affecting her marriage. The tensions deepen as we discover Sean is attracted to Wit, and that Wit has a secret. After a day of hunting, everything changes as the group’s gear is stolen, and they discover they’re being hunted.

PRESERVATION has some good things going for it. There’s some good direction and a solid score producing a sometimes creepy atmosphere, and while I don’t know Wrenn Schmidt, I’m familiar with Pablo Schreiber and Aaron Staton from THE WIRE and MADMEN, and consider them very capable actors. There’s a great setup here for a trio of people with deep tension between them suddenly finding themselves being hunted and forced to fight to survive, but it doesn’t pay off.

There is plenty of stilted dialogue the actors could only do so much with, but the main problem is the antagonists are omniscient and invincible until they’re not, and then they are again, etc., resulting in a pileup of horror movie cliches and nonsensical plot development that wrecked a film that otherwise could have been terrific cat and mouse survival horror with a message that in danger, humans will do anything to survive. Survival horror should bring the viewer into the story and let them participate in choices and consequences, but PRESERVATION rolled out for me more as a series of set pieces where things just happen in an easy predictable way. Most of the tension among the protagonists is also blown almost as soon as the antagonist reveals itself.

I hate bumming on art as I know how much effort and love goes into these things, but for me, PRESERVATION’s weak script tanks everything else that is promising about the film. I just can’t recommend this one.

OUR HOUSE (2018, streaming on Netflix) is a fairly solid indie horror film driven by its likeable characters. The film focuses on Ethan, who leaves college to care for his younger siblings, Becca and Matt, after their parents die in an auto accident. At school, Ethan had been working on a device he believes can wirelessly transmit electricity. Continuing to work on it, he finds out that while it doesn’t do what he wants it to do, it does do something incredible: enable the dead to manifest and interact with the living.

It’s different than many horror films in that the central conflict doesn’t really start until deep into the second act. While this slows the story down, it does allow us to fully understand and empathize with each member of the family and make them likeable, with Kate Moyer, who played 10-year-old Becca, practically stealing the show. With this firm foundation, the horror element slowly comes to the fore and builds quickly to the climax. Though the horror element is what I’d call “light” horror, it works because we’re really rooting for the family to make it out okay.

I enjoyed the movie, which besides the characters has two notable virtues: It’s a simple story well told, and it’s not trying to be anything else other than what it is. This is yet another enjoyable watch from XYZ Films, joining the likes of BUSHWICK, I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE, MANDY, THE INVITATION, MOM AND DAD, and COLOR OUT OF SPACE; it’s gotten so that when I see XYZ at the start, I know it’s going to be worthwhile.

ANTRUM (2018, streaming on Amazon Prime) is a terrific horror movie in a terrible package. Let me explain.

The film comes with its own packaged legend. It opens as a mockumentary in which the film is alleged to be cursed and that anybody who watches it dies, complete with a series of stories of strange deaths. The only surviving print was found at an estate sale–which apparently was tampered with by a cult, resulting in grisly frames and overlays inserted in the film allowed to stay in for present release–and is now available for the public to watch. This part of the film feels cynical and just didn’t work for me, though apparently some people are Googling whether the movie is safe to watch (sigh). Just what 2020 needs: a film on a major streaming service that kills people.

Anyway, after this setup, we get to the film proper, which is surprisingly good. The story is this: After being forced to put their dog to sleep, a teenage girl takes her little brother into the woods to dig a hole to Hell to release the dog’s soul. Through sound, music, a grainy 70s feel, and imagery, the filmmakers turn a simple story into one filled with an atmosphere of constant and mounting dread, and without a single cheap jump scare. Thematically, the story touches on a child’s imagination of Hell and a very real hell, and how they may be linked. The artistic direction is very good, very 70s horror, unnerving, and unsettling, and both of the young actors are terrific, particularly Rowan Smyth, who plays the boy Nathan.

So despite finding the mockumentary element too heavy-handed for willing suspension of disbelief, I loved ANTRUM and highly recommend it for horror fans.