Category Archives: Horror

Shadow in the Cloud

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Shadow in the Cloud                       4 stars

In this year’s Shadow in the Cloud we follow a young female pilot, Maude (Chloe Grace Moretz) on a secret mission on a World War II B-17 bomber out of New Zealand. This is without a doubt the best B-movie of the year so far. You can tell it’s a B-movie at the outset by the seventies style rock music so you know you are in for a treat. Maude is a last minute passenger on the mission and the all male crew is not at all happy about it, as they berate her with sexist language and force her to ride in the Sperry turret in the belly of the plane, the only place where there is room. We soon see that she can handle herself well in the aircraft as she maneuvers the turret, and fires the machine gun at approaching enemy aircraft. Then there is the matter of an actual gremlin on the outside of the plane who is determined to rip it apart and kill everyone inside. For much of the movie we only see Maude in the turret as she must content with the abusive crew, enemy planes and the destructive creature. After we see the premise of the movie, things only get more intense as Maude performs incredible stunts with determination to stay alive and defeat both monster and Jap fighters with actions that only get more and more preposterous. Like any good B-movie the audience must take it all in stride and just go along for the action. Moretz is very convincing in the role making us believe she is a 40’s star who can dish it out better than she gets. Shadow in the Cloud is the best B-movie I’ve seen since 2018’s Revenge, also a movie where the female lead must take command of life-threatening situations with implausible results. The movie is available on Hulu and is recommended for all action movie lovers!

The Virgin of the Quarry Lake

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The Virgin of the Quarry Lake 3 suns

Set near Buenos Aires, Argentina, The Virgin of the Quarry Lake is a coming of age story about a teenage girl around 2001. Only there is something special about Natalia. The actress, Dolores Oliverio, who plays the lead role is easily the best part of the movie. She has an intensity in her eyes that tells you something major is about to happen. Natalia lives with her grandmother, her parents having abandoned her when she was small. She spends her time with her friends and sending messages at the internet cafe. This summer she has her eye on Diego, a handsome boy the group hangs out with. So Natalia is trying to grow up fast, and look more like a woman. The problem is there another older woman, Silvia who is close to Diego which displeases her. A confrontation is inevitable. The setting of the movie gives it a dark tone. A homeless man is beaten early in the film with his cart dripping blood for a long time. In fact, there is a lot done with blood in the movie, providing ominous signs. There are frequent power failures, water shortages and looting going on so you get the feeling things are falling apart. But there is a remote lake in an old quarry where the youngsters can get away from their problems and go swimming. But then there are those frightening stories about the place that could be a sign of what is to come. This is a dark movie that falls short of being a full blown horror movie, but being about teenage girls by itself could classify as horror enough. The story is slow to develop and could use more development of some of the characters. The movie was not one of the best of the festival, but was also not among the worst. The movie is based on short stories from Argentina. The director was present and talked of the time period and setting off the movie and the challenges that it created.

The Ugly Stepsister

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The Ugly Stepsister 4 1/2 suns

The Ugly Stepsister (from Norway) takes the fairy tale Cinderella and turns it upside down and inside out making it a body horror movie about envy and body image.  In this take of the classic we see things from the point of view of Cinderella’s stepsister, Elvira who is on a mission to get the attention of the kingdom’s prince at the ball and marry him and save the family from poverty. The problem is that she is rather homely and fat. That won`t do so with her mother’s help, a doctor’s facial modifications, a finishing school and an internal parasite, she sets on a scheme to make herself beautiful. Oh, and there is also the little problem of that attractive annoying stepsister that must be dealt with.  I had never heard before that there was so much sex and baudy language in this classic story.  I guess I must have missed something.  The actress playing Elvira really goes through a range of emotions going from a naive yiung girl to a monster who will do whatever it takes to reach her goal.  The body mutilations become more and more extreme as she seeks to become attractive and meet the world’s expectations of female beauty. There were many exclamations from the audience during each cringeworthy step. It all culminates with the fitting of the slipper and the removal of the “parasite”. The theme is on par with last year’s “The Substance” though maybe not to that extreme.  It’s all about how society sees women as objects,  judging them by some impossible standard and how some women seek to meet them.  And for fans of horror genre it’s a lot of fun.

Nightbitch

Nightbitch           3 stars

Director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and star Amy Adams (Hillbilly Elegy, American Hustle) bring us a different kind of horror movie in Nightbitch, a novel adaptation about the wonders of being a mother. But, of course, who are we kidding? Motherhood is anything but easy and can be downright maddening as Adams demonstrates in this movie. She has left her job at an art gallery to become a full-time mom to her two-year-old son. When she meets a former coworker who exclaims how wonderful it must be to spend so much time with her child, she responds with a long monologue of the confusion, disappointment and pain associated with this decision and then rewinds, saying yes, it’s wonderful! We see scenes of the endless monotony of cooking and cleaning she goes through taking care of the adorable toddler. Dad (Scoot McNairy of Argo and A Complete Unknown) is often away on business trips and is not all that much help when he is at home, sometimes being a clueless moron, oblivious to the strains that mom is facing and sometimes making it worse by complaining about the things she has not taken care of. (His cluelessness is undoubtedly a representation of what many fathers are really like.) As the pressures mount the movie suddenly switches to body horror, as mom starts to grow hair on her body and sprout what looks like a tail. When outside she attracts the attention of neighborhood dogs who follow her around and bring her gifts of animal carcasses. Mom accepts these changes, fully embracing them as she wolfs down food without hands and goes digging in the dirt, seemingly transforming into a canine and going for a run with other dogs. Whether this change is real or symbolic it is transforming for her character, enabling her to look at her situation differently and make the most of it. Amy Adams puts a full effort into this role making us believe she is the mom in this film, especially with how she relates to the little boy playing her son. The movie shows the full extent of how tough it must be being a mom, even though the story seems rather contrived. I can’t say how true it is to the book, but it could be viewed as a mild variation on the genre of werewolf movies without the violence.

Werewolves Within

Werewolves Within                        3 ½ stars

For a smart blend of the comedy horror genre you won’t be disappointed by Werewolves Within from director Josh Ruben and writer Mishna Wolff. This is a whodunit much like Knives Out, except that the “who” might be an animal with razor sharp claws based on the condition of the victims. It all takes place in the tiny isolated town of Beaverfield in the Northeast that suffers a snowstorm, blocked roads and a power failure all at the same time. Add to that a mysterious murder of one of the residents and you have the terrifying situation the townsfolk are faced with. Among the trapped are two newcomers, Finn the forest ranger (played by Sam Richardson who many will remember as the nerdy but talkative Richard from Veep) and Cecily the postal employee (Milana Vayntrub, who everyone knows from the AT&T commercials). The other townsfolk are divided over the prospect of a gas pipeline being planned for the area that promises some economic development for the town. Much like the country they come down at opposite extremes over the plan. There is also a hermit living just outside the town who is suspicious of everyone and becomes a suspect after the murders start. The comedy really ensues when the locals all gather inside the town’s inn for safety and it becomes clear that one of them is the killer. Then the title really applies as the accusations start and they begin to kill off each other based on suspicion and conjecture. Much of the comedy is generated by the stereotypes that the characters embody. The final reveal and climatic ending almost doesn’t matter by the time we get to it. The real point has already been made. The last time I had more fun with a comedy horror movie was last year’s The Hunt followed by 2019’s The Dead Don’t Die.

Last Night in Soho

Last Night in Soho            4 stars

In Edgar Wright’s latest thriller drama horror Last Night in Soho, we first meet Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie of Jojo Rabbit and Leave No Trace) in an old house where her bedroom is decorated in old movie posters of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sweet Charity and other relics of the sixties. She dances to sixties pop tunes played on a turntable in an elaborate dress made of newspapers. But Ellie really lives in the present in rural Cornwall, England and is fascinated by everything about the sixties and dreams of becoming an accomplished fashion designer. Then Ellie gets her big chance when she is accepted to a famous fashion school in London.  The young girl doesn’t exactly fit in with her streetwise classmates and soon moves off campus, renting a room above a bar where landlady, Miss Collins (the exquisite Diana Rigg in her final performance before passing away last year) says she needs to pay two months rent upfront and no male guests are allowed after 8:00. It is then that things take a mysterious turn when Ellie goes to sleep and the room becomes a sort of teleportal device sending Ellie to a hopping neon light covered 1965 London with all the flashy fashions and pop songs of the sixties. The mood of the movie shifts as the themes become darker and more sinister. Ellie becomes connected to a girl called Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy of The Witch and Emma) who may or may not actually exist. Unlike Ellie, Sandie faces the world with total confidence and owns the room she enters. She perfectly nails a rendition of Petula Clark’s 1965 hit Downtown. The movie embodies the look and feel of the decadent time period of the sixties and has some fine performances including Matt Smith’s Jack, a sort of sixties pimp who operates the acts at a London gentlemen’s club.  Eventually, though the movie devolves into full blown horror thriller mayhem when it gets to an over the top ending. I admit that I did not see the ending coming, so I won’t say more about it. If you are in the mood for a good thriller horror film, Last Night in Soho hits the spot.

Your Monster

Your Monster    3 stars

Once again, I had the chance to see a film in the theaters that I missed this year at Sundance. Your Monster by first time director Caroline Lindy is a sort of rom-com horror movie for women coming out of a bad relationship. In the movie Laura (Melissa Barrera of 2021’s In the Heights) is an actor and musical theater geek who has been dating Jacob (Edmund Donovan), a theater director for five years and has been helping him with developing his musical production. That is, until Laura is diagnosed with cancer and the douchebag, Jacob decides to leave her. (It is reported that Lindy came up with the story based on her own experience with a douchebag; hence the movie trailer claim: “based on a true-ish story”). With the help of her only friend, Masie (Kayla Foster), Laura moves into her mother’s house and becomes an emotional wreck (an understatement to be sure). It is there that she discovers that there is a rather fearsome looking monster living in her bedroom closet and that he has been there since Laura was a child. The monster is played by Tommy Dewey who is also the executive producer of the movie. At first, Laura is scared to death of this creature, and he wants her out of the house. But since she has no place to go, they tolerate each other and try to work out a living arrangement. As the two become more familiar, the monster, who sports a beard and has a catlike appearance, encourages her to audition for a part in Jacob’s musical and she gives it a try, landing an understudy role for the part that was originally intended for her. Then as things progress, she finds that this monster also has an interest in literature and theater, so the two become a little too close. Eventually, the monster becomes like an inner voice to Laura, making her realize how she has been wronged by Jacob and should find a way to express her feelings. Naturally, things go a little too far with some brutal and bloody consequences, a requirement of most horror movies even if it is a romcom. Most of the movie though has a light feel to it thanks to the numerous musical numbers that could come out of a forties or fifties musical comedy. I thought it was an interesting take on the comedy horror genre, but I found the monster to be a little too perfect for Laura to really buy it. (If he spends all his time in the closet and under the bed, why should he know so much about the outside world after all.) For a better performance by Tommy Dewey, you should see the movie Saturday Night where he plays the head writer of Saturday Night, Michael O’Donoghue. For a more entertaining comedy horror movie I recommend Ginger Snaps which I reviewed last year.

Something In The Dirt

Something In the Dirt                                                     2 suns

In this story about paranormal activity, Levi has just moved to a new apartment in the Hollywood Hills where he strikes up an acquaintance with long time resident John. Then the two witness the impossible in Levi’s apartment as objects seem to float in the air and light emanates into the room with no source. The dives into endless tangents involving numerology, the Pythagorean Brotherhood, alien fruit, a perfect ratio and long dead city planners as this weird pair of random dudes try to solve the mysteries of the universe. They come up with the idea of making a documentary about the experiences, but their own incompetence gets in the way. Flash forward scenes with interviews of others linked to the documentary lead us to believe that the plan went awry at some point. This low budget movie was made mainly by three close friends in the apartment owned by one of them. It’s a fairly long movie that just is forever following the rabbit hole. It is silly and in the Q&A we learn that at one point the movie was three and a half hours long. We also learn that Something in the Dirt is the fifth movie created by this group of friends. I will not be seeking out their earlier works.

Piggy

PIGGY                                                   3 suns

Once again we dive into the horror genre, this time to a rural village in Spain with an especially bloody story about a bullied teenager. Sara works in her parent’s butcher shop and happens to be very overweight making her the object of abuse from some of the other girls in the town. After another day of torment, she witnesses a stranger kidnap and beat three of the girls but is frozen in fear as he drives away with them in his van. Instead of saying anything to the police about what she knows she is intrigued by this stranger and tracks him down for reasons she is not sure of. The film is shocking and especially violent with plenty of bloody scenes. It is a cautionary tale of adolescent behavior and the desire to be accepted. This one is not for everybody.

Speak No Evil

Speak No Evil                      3 suns

Sundance always has its share of imaginative horror films so today I took in Speak No Evil. Here a young European filmmaker has conceived a story that starts with a Danish family on vacation in Italy who meet a Dutch couple that they easily make friends with. When the Dutch couple invites them to their home in the Netherlands, they quickly accept bringing their young daughter with them. Then when the hosts start to behave in some odd and eccentric ways such as disrespecting the wife’s dietary restrictions, the visitors do their best to be accepting and maintain politeness. But then as is always the case in horror movies, certain things happen, choices are made and inevitable consequences result. Things do not turn out well for our visitors. If you liked the movie Midsommar from 2019, then Speak No Evil is for you.