An astoundingly dark and moody trailer made THE DARK AND THE WICKED (2020, coming to Shudder) one of my most highly anticipated horror releases. The film delivers a huge amount of dread, tension, and creep with characters who are relatable, ordinary folks, but there was something big missing for me, which in the end made it feel like heavy but empty caloric intake, a solid horror experience but ultimately one that was too nihilistic for me, similar to THE LODGE.

The film opens with an old woman living on a Texas sheep ranch. Her husband lies unconscious in bed breathing pure oxygen. Something is not right at the ranch, something she knows too well. Cut to her estranged adult children Louise and Michael. Louise left the ranch some years earlier and hasn’t kept up much with the family, while Michael has his own family that’s his main focus. Together, they try to support their mother as their father slowly dies, though she’d warned them not to come.

Things sort of go to hell from here on out. A demonic force is at work, and it will not stop until it gets what it wants.

There’s a lot to like about this film. The dark and slightly grainy 70s feel, the thickening atmosphere of dread, the accelerating creep, and the crystalizing stakes–do we stay, and possibly save ourselves, or go, and abandon our kin–are all handled almost perfectly. The characters themselves are great; we don’t learn too much about them, but they come across as real as the folks next door, and we learn plenty about who they are by seeing how they act in a crisis and the choices they make. There’s an interesting message to the film, which is sometimes, evil will do what it wants regardless of human effort, platitudes, or anything else.

For me, this last part is the film’s main flaw, though. The characters’ actions and choices ultimately don’t matter. This robbed the film of a message that wasn’t completely nihilistic and ultimately made its scares heavy on spectacle but light on substance and meaning. Nihilism itself is an interesting message if it’s handled well, but the kind of nihilism that comes from watching people brutalized without any agency or effective moral choices gets old. There was such an easy fix for an approach that was nihilistic instead of sadistic, which was to look at the primary ethical choice facing the characters and reward the “wrong” choice and punish the “right” choice, but the filmmaker didn’t take that path.

As a result, I liked THE DARK AND THE WICKED but in the end didn’t love it. While there is much to love about the film, ultimately its terrific elements didn’t pay off for me in the last act.

THE LODGE (2019, streaming on Netflix) left with me severely mixed reactions. On the one hand, it’s artistically very well done, and it’s great horror if you define such as breaking boundaries and taking risks. On the other hand, the big twist and reveal is so nonsensical and mean-spirited as to not so much deny willing suspension of disbelief as slap it in the face.

The film sets up a divided family, with Dad dating Grace and wanting his kids to join them for a Christmas trip to a remote lodge. Dad has to leave, a blizzard comes, and then things take a very dark turn for the strange. It’s best to set the film up as generally as possible, so you can enjoy the process of discovery for yourself. The first two acts of the film are handled really well, with plenty of tension, simmering conflicts, and some good acting, particularly by the magnetic Riley Keough.

The conceit of Dad leaving his girlfriend with his kids who clearly resent her struck me as pretty ridiculous, but I went with it, accepting it as necessary for the plot to move forward. When things get weird, the story gets pretty involving, and what’s great about it is there are multiple possible explanations for what’s going on. When the big reveal comes–suggested earlier in the film–it was a surprise to me. It was under my nose, so to speak, but I’d discounted it. The writer in me–I’m no stranger to hurting my fictional darlings–appreciated the choice, though the movie watcher in me rebelled at just how over-the-top mean-spirited and implausible it was.

The film comes in for a very dark finish that has its own twisted sense of justice to it, but the film had already half lost me by that point. So I’m at a loss how to grade this one. There was certainly a lot to appreciate, but in the end its final act resulted in the whole missing the mark for me. As always, YMMV.

I eyed HIS HOUSE (2020) for a while on Netflix, putting it at the bottom of my list as from the trailer it looked like a “typical horror flick but hey, look, the protagonists are refugees, so there’s your twist.” I love it when I’m utterly, stupidly wrong about a first impression and get a beautiful comeuppance. For me, HIS HOUSE turned out to be a nearly perfect horror film that follows conventions while breaking them in just the right way to create something new.

Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) flee war-torn Sudan with their daughter and end up seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, where they’re hardly welcomed by the authorities and barely tolerated by the locals. They’re assigned a ramshackle house in a low-end neighborhood. Regardless of the UK not being exactly a friendly environment, Bol, tortured by his memories of slaughter, is determined to fit in and make a new life for himself. Rial, meanwhile, is afraid of their new country, doesn’t feel like she can fit in, and suffers from guilt over the loss of their daughter during the boat ride across the Mediterranean. There’s plenty of drama here alone to carry a film, but there’s more–a malevolent spirit is determined to hold them to account.

Starting with a strong focus on story, what follows is a genuinely scary haunting that plagues a couple we very quickly care about and want to win. Their conflict–about fitting in with English society and what to do about the spirit–is genuine and strong. The message about whether refugees should be accepted in a society is organic and left to the viewer without overt preaching. The brutal civil war the couple escaped is as horrifying as the supernatural elements, and perfectly suggested until some great, emotionally charged reveals. The conclusion is very satisfying.

Overall, I loved it and recommend it.

In 1BR (2019, streaming on Netflix), a shy, insecure young woman flees her doting father after her mother’s death to move to Los Angeles to start a new life as a costume designer. Answering a real estate listing for a one-bedroom apartment in a complex, she moves in to discover herself ensnared by a cult with lofty principles and brutal methods to ensure obedience and harmony. Overall, it’s a solid horror film that reminds us sometimes the scariest horror element is human, including humans who will hurt you believing it will ultimately make you happy.

In some ways, it’s an ordinary horror movie about a cult with few surprises and an unsurprising gotcha in the last scene, but again, in my opinion, it’s a solid telling. It’s a low-budget film but doesn’t feel like it, with competent acting and slow burn if sufficient pacing to the conclusion. I liked how they showed the indoctrination techniques some cults use to brainwash people, though the real thing often goes a lot farther than what’s depicted and is even more horrific. The finale is wonderfully violent, violent in that way that feels real and impactful.

So overall, 1BR is not one I’d gush about, but I liked it a lot, it rings with competence, and I thought it accomplished quite a bit for its resources.

In BLACK BOX (2020, streaming on Amazon Prime), a man who loses his wife and almost dies in a car crash deals with mounting bills, trying to raise his young daughter, and brain damage that has seriously eroded his ability to remember things. When he undergoes an experimental treatment, which forces him to plumb memories deep in his subconscious, he begins to question who he really is. With lackluster direction, this sci-fi horror flick was largely unremarkable for me, but it’s a solid watch. Not a B movie but a B+.

The film has some good acting, notably Phylicia Rashad (of THE COSBY SHOW and other fame) in the role of the scientist and Mamoudou Athie, who looks like the nicest guy in the world and instantly brings sorrow to his struggling character and makes you want to root for him. The mystery is guessable but not obvious, with just the right amount of tension building to the reveal and climax.

Probably my only significant qualm was the inconsistency of Nolan’s condition. He can’t remember where the plates go in the kitchen but remembers how to drive and use a cell phone. He needs Post-Its to remind him of things but can’t use his cell phone alarm to remind him to pick up his daughter, etc. No biggie, but it was irksome.

Overall, I didn’t love the movie but I liked it and consider it a solid watch.

In RELIC (2020, streaming on Netflix), an Australian literary horror film, Kay travels to her mother Edna’s house with her daughter after Edna goes missing. They find a life in ruin due to dementia and possibly sinister forces at work. I liked it a lot as an example of a literary take and slow burn done exactly right, though the allegory is a bit on the nose.

I loved the pacing of this story, which is very character driven and slow burn but never gets boring. The dialogue is somewhat sparse and very realistic but somehow manages to convey a lot of character development and story. Both of the younger women want to care for Edna but in different ways, which establishes real, instant, and deep conflict.

I also liked the mounting dread. Something is not right in the house, which the younger women are discovering, and it slowly builds to a terrific climax and a powerful message about mental illness and love. Oddly, this is where I had probably my only qualm with the film, which was the allegory was a little direct for me, as I tend to like when this type of thing is teased.

Overall, I found RELIC a solid horror watch.