 |
| Uhhh....I'm up, I'm up! |
In Part One I discussed the upswing of the genre and detailed movies 20-11 on my top twenty list, ranging from anthology films, Mother/Daughter bonding time, Cops against weirdos, and closed-door suspense thrillers. I don't have much more to add, so we'll jump back into it.
10. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Some movies work based entirely on setting and atmosphere, even though the story isn't exactly the strongest element around. Autopsy does an excellent job at utilizing technique, character, and performance to gloss over some of the films weaker elements to create a thoroughly strong little horror film. Occasionally it DOES overreach, but when this film works it works extremely well. Brian Cox gives an excellent and relatively subdued performance as an aging, repressed Mortician who, along with his son, performances the titular autopsy and finds his beliefs and repression challenged. It's a strong performance within a strong, if not a little overdone, horror film.
9. Demon
I was saddened to learn that Marcin Wrona committed suicide sometime after the completion of Demon, primarily because it grieves me to know that we'll never see if he could manage to follow up this really intelligent little horror flick with anything better. What makes this film tick is a tricky element: using a ghost/possession story as a metaphor for deep seated cultural issues. To reveal what that issue is would be something of a spoiler, but to see this film so expertly ford the rough waters of a society deciding to focus on celebration and revelry instead of confronting its own history. There are scenes in this movie that I don't think I'll ever forget, such as a group of drunken revelers stumbling happily but shamefully past an aghast funeral procession. It was truly haunting stuff. But don't let that give you the wrong impression: in the midst of all this cultural commentary, it's also pretty funny.
8. Hush
The second of Mike Flanagans two efforts this year, Hush proves to be one the strongest home invasion film of the year (of which there were many, with mixed results), and provides a star making performance by a very talented actress in the form of Kate Siegel. Siegel plays a deaf Woman living alone in a country home after a breakup, who finds herself menaced by a masked man whose only ambition is to ruin peoples days. What ensues is a highly suspenseful and, most importantly, intelligent film. The heroine is resourceful, the story doesn't gloss over minor (and very real) details, and the villain is bone chilling. It's available as a Netflix exclusive, so do yourself a favor and check it out.
7. Nina Forever
This horror comedy combines deep seated emotional and psychological issues with strange tongue-in-cheek surrealism to wonderful effect. A young woman becomes enamored with a troubled young man reeling from the death of his girlfriend, and begins a relationship with him...however, every time they attempt to make love, the aforementioned dead girlfriend squirms her way up from the mattress...usually to mock them. It's not the most subtle metaphor, but it's deeply effective and well-played. It has a sense of depth that bores its way into the mind rather quickly and stays there. It's something special.
6. Under The Shadow
This Iranian horror flick does something that I feel is very important in todays world: reminds us Americans just how lucky we are. While the ghostly elements of Under The Shadow are fairly hit-or-miss, the psychological bits of personal stress combined with the constant threat of having a bomb literally fly through your ceiling at any moment, and your safety being conditional upon how your own Government sees you (as one memorable scene shows: our heroine flees her tormentor only to be arrested because she didn't put her Hijab)...it's really haunting stuff.
5. Train to Busan
Just when you thought the Zombie subgenre was dead (and it is, really), South Korea comes along and makes a Zombie movie that thoroughly and thoughtfully reminds us why the genre really exists: to discuss the selfishness and selflessness of the human condition. Some excellent character work puts the icing on the cake, making the entire piece a very moving study of strangers going from being in it for themselves to forming a makeshift family in the face of unending pressure and tragedy. It's a story of nobility from the most unexpected of sources, and a morality tale.
4. The Eyes of My Mother
This artsy, stark nightmare of a film was one of the most effective and unsettling films released this year in any genre, telling a sobering story of psychological damage and the banality of violence from the perspective of the one doing the violence. Told in three acts, Eyes details the personal history of a character that is a person first, and a psychopath second, utilizing a fascinating amount of restraint (we see almost no violence whatsoever in its short running time, only the outcome of that violence), and a dizzying variation of intimacy and distance, both visually and emotionally. What ostensibly occurs is a movie that provides us with a point of view that is both disturbingly familiar but morally alien.
3. The Neon Demon
Nicholas Winding Refn is something of a polarizing filmmaker, and his 2016 horror outing The Neon Demon is no exception. Stunningly and hauntingly beautiful, confusingly surreal and disquieting, the film shows us a shifty, squirmy peak into a world of ambition, objectification and jealousy, all with an unbelievably intrusive (and beautiful) synth score. It's a very quiet, slow movie, but if you give it the chance and keep an open mind, it will likely slime its way right into your frontal lobe, and stick with you for weeks.
2. The Witch
I was incredibly torn on where to put The Witch. My heart told me it was meant to be number one, but ultimately my brain won out and I put something else there, but you may as well consider this as the OTHER number one horror film of the year. There hasn't been a movie like this in quite some time...actually, there may have never been a film quite like this before. The most interesting element of this film is how you could set it in the modern era without changing anything outside of superficial details, which is exactly the point: the themes of religious intolerance, coming of age, freudian family dynamics, and even the high anxiety of trying to survive in a world you're not quite prepared to thrive in, for any reason. The creepiest stuff in this film comes from those themes far more than it does from any witchcraft, with the titular monster being far more representative of a hostile environment encroaching upon those who arrogantly presume superior knowledge.
1. The Invitation
Few films put me on the edge of my seat quite like The Invitation, and as such I chose it over The Witch, which was not an easy decision. The ensemble cast is very game, with a quiet sense of menace being expertly presented by director Karyn Kusama. A man, who isn't exactly the picture of health, accepts an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his estranged ex-wife and her new husband. Upon arriving he finds himself beset by the demons of his past and a very off-setting question: is his ex-wife and her Husband up to something sinister? Is he being paranoid? Combined with those excellent mysterious elements, performances and a highly pressurized atmosphere (asking just how much weird would you put up with to be polite), there is a sense of progressive social ideas presented as well. It's a truly stunning work, and is my favorite of the year...and believe me, that was NOT an easy choice to make.
So, there you have it. Some good recommendations for you to check out. It's been a great year. I can't wait to see if 2017 can raise the bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment