Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

MEN (2022)

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In MEN (2022), a young woman faces the embodiment of the domination she suffered from an emotionally manipulative and abusive husband she tried to leave, only for him to kill himself as he promised her he’d do. This is an excellent horror film with an interesting social theme that is obvious yet not rubbed in the viewer’s face, while standing as a very creepy tale without it.

In this film, Harper leaves London for a few weeks’ relaxation at a rural English cottage following her husband’s suicide, which he’d threatened if she left him, and the guilt and anguish over it that now hang over her. Odd events start to occur as the village largely appears empty of women, and she finds herself having various strange or outright hostile encounters with the men who live there, which pile up to a nightmarish night under siege. These “men” may be a part of her guilt, a representation of the types of men who’ve hurt her in her life, or an entity, we’re not sure, but it all ties together nicely and offers her a choice at the end, only one of which will set her free.

As for the social theme, it’s about how some men treat women, outside my experience but a take I could respect. We see a patronizing cop, a vicious schoolboy, a hooligan, a repressed vicar who holds women responsible for his own sexual desires, and more. This aspect, delivered by Rory Kinnear in a mind-blowing performance matching if not eclipsing Jessie Buckley as Harper, is done in an extremely jarring and creepy way, particularly the body horror climax.

Overall, I quite liked this one, which I found well done and affecting for its highly focused premise.

YELLOWJACKETS

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Showtime’s YELLOWJACKETS is a startlingly good drama about a girls’ high school soccer team whose plane goes down in a remote wilderness, resulting in a struggle for survival that never ends even after they are rescued. One might easily describe it as LORD OF THE FLIES with a hint of LOST, but they shouldn’t dismiss it for that, as it achieves its own striking identity. Overall, this one was right up my alley and I loved it.

In the first season, we’re introduced to several of the girls in basically two timelines. In one, their team wins the state championship, which will send them to the finals on a private plane that will crash and force them into an 18-month-long struggle to survive culminating in grisly acts. In the other, it’s the present day long after they’re rescued, where they are forty-something women struggling with the malaise of middle age and the very long shadow of what they did in the past to survive.

The timelines are deftly handled with excellent tension and pacing, and as a bonus they aren’t confusing, though it took me a bit to sort out who in the past was who in the present. Speaking of the who, the cast is absolutely terrific, from the high school girls (none of whom I’d seen before in other productions) to the grownup veteran stalwart team of Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, and Melanie Lynskey. Lynskey is completely solid, Lewis brings it but is a bit underutilized, and Ricci, oh man, she gets to play what may be one of the most intriguing characters I’ve seen in quite a while–a needy, lonely, irritatingly cheerful woman who also happens to be an utter psychopath.

What happened in the wilderness is what draws us to the show, and it’s a pleasure to see the girls slowly evolve with numerous horror elements into what we glimpse them eventually becoming in the pilot episode. That being said, the present isn’t a placeholder showing its effects but has a strong story to tell in itself, notably in how these women are living normal lives but carry the past with them at all times, including the quiet empowerment of incredible amoral agency to do whatever it takes when the occasion calls for it.

The only downsides for me were a few “TV logic moments” such as gasoline powering an engine after what was probably a decade sitting there, a little CPR easily reviving a drowned girl, perfect good or bad timing, the little cliffhanger at the end, and the like. For me, these were quibbles in an utterly engaging and emotionally affecting tale.

While I thought the show could have been tighter and brought it all to a close in a single season as a limited series, the show runners thought there was more story to tell, and so YELLOWJACKETS is getting a season two, which apparently started filming in August and will come out in 2023. I, for one, can’t wait.

RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

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I recently rewatched RE-ANIMATOR (1985) for the first time since the 1990s. Roughly based on a novelette by HP Lovecraft, it’s basically another of the era’s splatter flicks, but it distinguishes itself with the wacky, obsessive, and compelling character of Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and a comical touch. It didn’t quite hold up for me after all this years, but overall, it’s still a fun time for horror buffs, earning the cult status it gained over the years.

The story focuses on Dan, a med student at Miskatonic University, and his fiancee Megan, who is the dean’s daughter and the object of sexual obsession by one of the dean’s colleagues, Dr. Hill. A strange, humorless, and obsessive new student–Herbert West–arrives at the university and rents a room from Dan, drawing him into a series of experiments to raise the dead. The serum works, only they don’t really know what they’re doing and proceed without any real controls or ethics, resulting in the dead rising as homicidal maniacs. When Dr. Hill finds out about the experiments, he sees a way to claim Megan and the discovery for his own, with even more horrific results.

It’s a pretty crazy movie, notably for its fast pace, outlandishness, and Jeffrey Combs bringing the obsessive, amoral Herbert West to life. This is a young man who will do anything, sacrifice anyone, and cause any amount of grisly mayhem to get what he wants, which is to solve death once and for all using science. Most of the comedy in the movie comes from his antics as an anti-hero, splattered in blood and playing with body parts with enthusiastic scientific interest, along with the villain acting as basically two parts after resurrection.

Overall, it’s still quite a fun popcorn flick for horror fans, worth a watch or a rewatch. I haven’t caught the two sequels yet, but I may have to catch up.

MIDNIGHT CLUB

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Created by Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong and based on the novel by Christopher Pike, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is a Netflix series about how we cope with death. I love Flanagan’s work, but out of all his creations, this one was weakest for me.

In an upscale hospice, eight terminally ill young adults wait to die. Each night at midnight, they gather in the library to tell ghost stories. Ilonka (Iman Benson) believes the house is special, holding a secret that can heal her of her disease, and soon she begins to experience ghostly visions. Everything leads her to a book, and the book to an ancient ritual…

The show feels very young adult with its familiar, sometimes cringe-worthy tropes that are hit or miss with this old guy. As I’m not the target audience for this show, I can’t really fault the show for it. As with other Flanagan works, there are very long stretches of dialogue around a striking theme, in this case how we deal with death. There are a lot of good elements here: the hospice setting, the dying children desperate for hope, the lore around the ancient ritual, and a possible haunting. The best part for me was the ghost stories the characters told in their club, which often revealed parts of themselves.

On the downside, I feel like MIDNIGHT MASS covered the theme better, there are several storylines that simply vanish without resolution, and the desperate ambiguity of the theme–is death oblivion or a door–is given a cop-out at the end. The unfinished storylines and final little reveal at the end, coupled with Flanagan’s own statements, suggests the story will continue. Honestly, I don’t think it needs it, but the show’s fans may feel differently.

Overall, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB has a lot of good elements that didn’t quite come together for me and overall felt unfinished. I’m still a Flanagan fan, but I hope he’ll move on to something else for his next project. The world needs his brand of horror.

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.