Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

SPEAK NO EVIL (2022)

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Directed by Christian Tafdrup, SPEAK NO EVIL (2022) is a psychological horror film about a Danish couple that visits a Dutch couple for a weekend and discovers they’re in for social awkwardness and a possibly a whole lot more. I found it very well done though mean to the point of cruelty, part of a trend in nihilism in horror that I don’t particularly enjoy.

The film opens with Bjorn, Louise, and their daughter Agnes on holiday, where they meet Patrick and Karin, who invite them to visit them in Holland. Feeling bored and trapped in his life’s routines, Bjorn is eager to go. The weekend proceeds with fun but with increasing awkward moments where the Dutch couple show themselves as utterly free if passive-aggressive and the Danish couple probably too uptight. What might be a comedy of manners becomes a tragedy of manners as the Dutch couple reveal who they really are.

There’s a lot to like about this film. First, I should point out to anyone who doesn’t enjoy foreign films that most of it is in English, which is the common language the couples use when speaking to each other. The Danish couple is fairly realistic and likeable, and the manners aspect of the psychological horror is fairly well executed, as Bjorn loves Patrick’s apparent freedom from social conventions. The sense of dread builds well to the ending, which is horrific as the impulse to avoid social conflict extends to self-subjugation.

That being said, I just don’t enjoy nihilism in horror. Movies like THE STRANGERS, FUNNY GAMES, THE DARK AND THE WICKED. Watching people stripped of agency and cruelly brutalized, particularly when they’re the characters I empathize with, isn’t satisfying for me as a viewer. I’m also familiar with the trope of people making bad decisions in horror movies, but some of the decisions in this film beggared belief, as did how far manners dictated.

So overall, I didn’t quite enjoy SPEAK NO EVIL, but if you like the nihilistic brand of horror, you’d probably like this one.

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (2021)

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In JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (20210), we are taken inside the Black Panther Party during its struggle with Chicago police and Hoover’s FBI, focusing on the betrayal of Illinois chapter leader Fred Hampton by FBI informant William O’Neal. The film offers solid drama and a powerful political history that remains relevant today. It’s awesome.

It’s 1968, and FBI director Herbert Hoover has essentially declared war on the Black Panther Party, fearing the rise of a “Black messiah” who could unite the communist, New Left, and antiwar movements. One man he specifically fears: Fred Hampton, the charismatic chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. Hoover’s answer: his counterintelligence program, or COINTELPRO, which for years actively targeted various political groups with informants, provocateurs, trumped-up jail time, and possibly even targeted assassinations.

Enter William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), a car thief given a choice of jail or informing by Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). O’Neil joins the local Black Panther Party and rises to become one of Hampton’s (Daniel Kaluuya) closest associates. Through his eyes, we see Hampton’s personal life, politics, and more. As the police apparatus shifts from surveillance to actively breaking the law and framing Black Panther leaders, O’Neal becomes increasingly torn and fearful about exactly what he’s doing and what it’s costing him.

The Black Panther Party formed in California in response to de facto segregation and police brutality. Citing open carry laws, they began arming themselves and shadowing police officers and otherwise patrolling neighborhoods. In response, the State of California and then Governor Ronald Reagan passed legislation to make open carry illegal, with support of the NRA. When Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento during debate on the bill with weapons to make a point, many people were amazed at their audacity, and a national then international movement was born. From the beginning, the Black Panthers held to a 10-point manifesto. They wanted economic opportunity, decent housing, education, jobs, freedom, a jury by their peers, the release of prisoners, exemption from the draft, and justice. They started child nutrition and other welfare programs in their communities. Their look–black leather jackets, sunglasses, berets, and a gun–influenced fashion, became a Black Power symbol, and helped drive the “Black is beautiful” movement. Despite the male urban guerilla image, the majority of members were women.

Fueled by terrific acting, direction, and incendiary history and politics, JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH is a powerful film. Overall, the story it tells feels hopeful. Hopeful in the energy and devotion Hampton gives to his ideals and what those ideals ultimately stand for, which are arguably things any American would support, though one may argue about methods and whether “revolution” as he saw it or gradual reform was the way to get it done. Overall, the story also feels very dark, as we see Roy Mitchell, who seems like a standup FBI agent, increasingly go along with the FBI’s police state methods to keep the Black race in its place. And we see O’Neal, who believes Hampton is a good man and starts to believe in the cause, always chooses himself over a higher ideal. In the end, the Black Panthers lose, and the ideals they fight for seem very far out of reach.

I loved JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. It portrays the Black Panthers not as they are typically shown–as loud, radical, and over the top extremists–but as a real people with a cause that is entirely sympathetic, and ideals that remain absolutely relevant today.

DON’T HUG ME, I’M SCARED, Season 2

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One of the highlights of quarantine for me was discovering DON’T HUG ME, I’M SCARED, a British web series that portrayed a children’s TV show that frequently descends into far darker themes. After a false start some years ago, the show has returned as a TV series on the UK’s Channel 4 for everyone else on YouTube. It has a different flavor than the original, but it’s even weirder and darker, while being just as enjoyable.

In the original DON’T HUGE ME, I’M SCARED, Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck live in a house together, where they wish they knew more about a topic like time, love, technology, and so on. An object comes to life to teach them about the topic with a catchy song, only things always take a very dark turn as a very real, very adult, and often pretty horrific understanding of the topic is imposed. By the end of the series, they start to realize they’re in a TV show and hope to break free and start over in a return to innocence.

In the new series, the same childlike characters return. Each episode is longer, combing stretches of comic dialogue taking a deeper dive into whatever the theme is and with shorter songs here and there. The songs aren’t as ear-wormy, but they fit the theme. The humor is the same, though our heroes are less tortured by inanimate objects, interact with the theme in a lot more ways, and more often than not act as their own worst enemy. The bigger budget is evident in variety of sets and characters. Similarly, by the end, Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck begin to realize their reality is not what it seems, bringing it to another striking finish.

Overall, this is a lot of creepy good fun, what a children’s show might look like if its creators were philosophical sadists doing a lot of drugs. While not as pointed or emotionally provoking as the original web series, I loved the new TV version of DON’T HUG ME, I’M SCARED and look forward to more, please.

MONSTERLAND

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Based on the short story collection NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS by Nathan Ballingrud, MONSTERLAND (Hulu) is an eight-episode horror anthology exploring the idea of monsters. It’s a masterclass in “monster as metaphor” and overall a terrific addition to screen horror, though some episodes were stronger than others.

In each episode, we see people either making it or not making it but in every case slowly being crushed by some conflict: poverty and a problematic child, a family scandal, an ailing family member, mental illness, the loss of a loved one, an environmental disaster. Within five minutes, we see people caught in an almost intractable web. The monster element offers either alleviation or punishment, affecting the plot while being directly integral to the story’s theme, and it’s not always clear who the real monster is. This is not the typical monster story, where the central conflict revolves around clear-cut survival. This is more literary stuff about people trying to survive horribly real circumstances, with a monster playing a part.

For me, I found the episodes all well produced but uneven in storytelling. Some shined, others were basically good, and a few weren’t so hot, mostly because they were too on the nose in the relationship between monster and theme. In most, I would have preferred a stronger resolution.

Despite these minor reservations, I liked this series a lot for its storytelling and admired it quite a bit for its approach to genre. Overall, I recommend it to anybody but particularly horror fans looking for something a little more literary and offbeat to chew on.

ANIKULAPO (2022)

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ANIKULAPO (2022) is a Nigerian period drama steeped in Yoruba culture and rich in African charm, offering a cautionary tale about desire and hubris. Overall, I liked it but had issues with the pacing and long runtime.

The film is framed as an epic, and it has a strong mythic quality in its simple storytelling and characters driven by primal desires. In what I’m guessing is the 1800s, Saro, a wandering weaver, arrives at the village of Oyo to make his fortune. Just when he really starts to make it, he elopes with Arolake, one of the king’s wives, who is suffering at the palace due to the jealousy of the other queens in the harem. Captured, he is beaten but it given a second chance at life due to a magical gourd that in turn gives him the power to raise the dead. Despite his second chance at life, this power may be his downfall.

There’s a lot to like here. The simple mythic quality, the magical element, the culture, the terrific sets and costumes, and the likeable couple of Saro and Arolake, it’s all terrific stuff. Where it sagged for me was in the pacing and a little in the characterization. The characters pretty much all talk and act like children swept by their desires, they have conversations taking a long time that in Western culture would only take a few minutes, and because it’s very simple to guess where the plot is going, the nearly two-hour runtime feels a lot longer.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it for its positive qualities and the sheer novelty of it. I’d love to see more like it for sure. The movie is being marketed as GAME OF THRONES set in historical Africa, and it came nowhere near that for me, but goddamn, wouldn’t that be awesome if somebody did make that?

RRR (2022)

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RRR (2022) is a face smash of a movie, so over the top in action, Indian nationalism, and melodrama it rings out like a unique Indian live-action take on Japanese anime. Despite its three-hour runtime, it’s a load of good fun if you don’t take it seriously and just let it wash over you like a force of nature.

The movie basically reimagines the lives of two real-life revolutionaries who lived in the days of colonial India. After the tyrannical British Raj and his bloodthirsty wife essentially kidnap a girl from the Gond forest people to keep as a servant, the villagers call on Bheem, the tribal guardian, to save her. Standing in his way is the British Army and worse, an Indian police inspector named Raju who will do anything to advance, though his true agenda is yet to be revealed. These men meet without knowing the true identity of the other and quickly become the deepest of friends, only to realize they’re enemies. Will friendship come first or each man’s separate duty?

Oh, man. From the musically charged rampages to the comically inept British infantry to Bheem basically throwing tigers at people, the action is laugh out loud over the top but in a good way, it’s really good fun. These men are basically superheroes, unstoppable forces of nature–Raju fire, Bheem water–and woe to the unjust who stand in their way. The two lead actors (N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, who sports one of film’s most awesome mustaches) are insanely talented, jacks of all trades pulling off everything they were tasked to do and then some with plenty of heart. I loved seeing Ray Stevenson, who played Pullo in ROME, as the villainous Raj. Throw in terrific special effects, a few song and dance numbers, and plenty of soaring Indian nationalism, and that’s pretty much it. If you just run with it, odds are you’ll have loads of fun.

I did find one thing odd as a Westerner, which was seeing one of the leads often bobble his head. This was a trait I’d always associated with silly old movie stereotypes, and here it was being played straight. I looked it up, and apparently it’s a very common gesture in India, signaling either agreement or very mild disagreement. Anyway, the more you know.

Overall, while Indian cinema isn’t normally my thing, I found RRR to be incredibly accessible and fun.