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.