Horrorshow

Movies, Books: You're Next, The World's End, American Mary, Night Film


Hello dear readers, it's been too long! I haven't been able to update due to a busy period in my work and social life, so I'm back with a mega-review of some of the movies (plus a book!) I've seen/read lately. Appropriately, with Halloween around the corner, they all fall into (or close to, at least) the horror genre.


You're Next

Adam Wingard's indie take on the classic home invasion film combines dry comedy with blood and guts in a way that reminds one of Scream. It's a very self-aware horror film. The cast is made up of unknowns--some of whom (Ti West and Joe Swanberg, for example) are filmmakers themselves, lending the film a winking sense of humor (especially when two characters get into a passive-aggressive argument over "underground cinema" at the dinner table).

You're Next follows a WASPy clan of adults: Mom and Dad are in their 60's, wealthy and retired, and just purchased a mansion out in the middle of nowhere. They invite their grown children, three sons and a daughter, and their kids' significant others to spend the weekend celebrating the new abode.

Little does the family know that they've fallen into a trap. During a family dinner, all hell breaks loose when one of the guests is killed in a gruesome and unexpected way. The chaos that follows is palpable and the shaky camera and quick-cutting add to a feeling of fear and nausea.


One guest, Erin (Sharni Vinson), the girlfriend of one of the sons, emerges as leader during the invasion and makes for an unusual and ass-kicking heroine. She doesn't use brute strength or karate moves to fight off the bad guys; rather, she is resourceful, calm, and uses her outrage to fuel her when she gets a bad guy in her sights (and proceeds to bash his head in). I loved Erin. She was so unexpected and unique. I don't think I've seen a character quite like her before.

There is a twist and it's revealed early, which works in the film's favor. It also changes your entire perspective and makes you think back to events that happened earlier to see if you can find the clues. I found You're Next to be incredibly intelligent and entertaining with its meta take on its genre--kind of like the low budget slasher sister of Cabin in the Woods.

4 out of 5 stars

***

The World's End

While not strictly a horror movie, this genre mash-up of science fiction, comedy, and drama from the director, writers, and actors who brought you Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has plenty of tension and violence (and menacing robots). It also has a surprisingly emotional core.

"The World's End" refers to the final pub in an epic pub crawl dreamed up by Gary King (Simon Pegg). He and his buddies attempted this twelve-pub marathon, dubbed "The Golden Mile", when they were young, spry lads in the '90's.  They didn't make it to all twelve pubs, but they had a hell of a night.

Decades later, Gary is a washed up loser in serious denial about his alcohol problem. He manages to round up his buddies--now grown, with kids, jobs, and middle-age spread--to recreate the journey they failed at years ago.

As the four friends--including one who is now a teetotaler--hit the bars in their old hometown, they realize something is amiss. The locals, including some people the guys grew up with, are acting very bizarre. After a bar fight with some teens reveals that robots have taken over the town (not exactly a spoiler--the plot twist is in the trailer), the guys have to figure out how to finish the pub crawl with their humanity intact.

What's great about The World's End is that it so seamlessly weaves together a variety of genres. On the one hand, the film is a dramedy about a guy who can't stop living in the past, even as everyone around him has moved on. The film doesn't skimp on the painful confrontations between Gary and his friends--particularly Andy (Nick Frost), a man who years ago made a stupid decision while drunk and had to live with the consequences, and now has to watch Gary continue to destroy himself with booze. The film doesn't celebrate drunkeness in the way movies like The Hangover tend to, but it's also not preachy or overly sentimental.

On the other hand, The World's End is a ridiculous comedy about robots and the apocalypse. Just like in Shaun of the Dead, the horror is suffused with outrageous, kooky humor.

While Shaun of the Dead will probably always be my favorite in Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost's "Cornetto Trilogy", The World's End just seems like the best film. It somehow manages to balance sadness with joy, humor with action, and robots with booze without coming off as schizophrenic or overstuffed. No small feat.

4.5 out of 5 stars


***

American Mary

Ah, now here's some good, old-fashioned body horror. Directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska (who also plays twins in the movie), American Mary is an indie (and somewhat amateurish) horror film with a female lead who is both the heroine and the villain.


Mary Mason is a medical student who is sick and tired of med school. She's poor, one of her professors is a huge dick, and after a sickening turning point (involving the evil professor), Mary finds herself scoping out the world of extreme body modification. While initially disgusted by the requests of her customers, she finds that she excels at splitting tongues, removing nipples, and adding sub-dermal devil horns to her patients. While the parade of freakish body parts and strange characters is horrific in its own right, there is a subplot about that old, evil professor which *truly* brings the horror to a boil.


Oh, alright, I'll tell you. Spoilers!!

After inviting Mary to a "party" where he drugs and rapes her (and films the whole thing), Mary kidnaps Dr. Grant to use as her own personal guinea pig for practicing weird body modifications. By the end of the film, Dr. Grant is armless, legless, with his mouth sewn shut and hanging from his back skin on meathooks in Mary's apartment/dungeon. God only knows what she did to the parts of his body we don't see! This extremely grotesque torture shocked even me and was very effective horror...although certainly Dr. Grant's punishment didn't fit his crime.

/End spoilers!

American Mary was entertaining, I'll give it that. I definitely felt that strange, naughty delight--like I was watching something I shouldn't have been watching. For a movie directed by two women who were interviewed in Bitch magazine (a pretty staunch feminist mag), the film has some fucked up gender politics. There isn't a man in the movie who treats Mary kindly (except maybe Lance, a taciturn bodyguard). Her "mentors" are horrible assholes, and her "love interest" treats her like an object. Perhaps the message is that in a world of evil men, Mary must be strong--even cruel--to survive? But really, it's just an excuse to see sexy Mary, with her Bettie Page bangs and va-va-voom figure, torture and mutilate folks. Scary fun, but not exactly deep.

3.5 out of 5 stars

***

Night Film

I read Night Film, by Marisha Pessl, in two weeks. This is a 600 page novel, and I'm a slow reader. But I could. not. stop. There was one day where I got up and read for three hours in the morning, took a break for lunch, and read for three more hours in the afternoon. I haven't done that in God knows how long.

I don't know, it just seems like Night Film was written for me. It's about a girl, Ashley Cordova, who jumps to her death in an elevator shaft in New York City. Turns out, she's the daughter of reclusive film director Stanislas Cordova, a man whose terrifying "night films", shown in underground tunnels and available to purchase on Ebay for thousands of dollars, have earned him a cult-like following. Cordova is part Stanley Kubrick, part David Lynch, and part Dario Argento--an eccentric genius whose legend is larger than life itself.

When Scott McGrath, a journalist who tried to expose Cordova years before, and was promptly sued by the director's lawyers, hears about Ashley's death, he sees his chance to go after Cordova again. He finds himself hopelessly sucked into Cordova's vortex, and witness to increasingly bizarre places and events.

This book has underground websites, creepy sex clubs, witchcraft, mental hospitals--all the fascinating, scary things you can think of. There were passages that actually caused the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Pessl knows how to build suspense and rely on atmosphere and implication to horrify the reader.


Night Film isn't perfect though. There is a lot of exposition. Partway though the book, a pretty clear formula emerges: McGrath and his "partners" (Hopper, a former lover of Ashley, and Nora, a young woman who is fascinated by the case) would discover a lead, follow it, and wind up talking to someone who knew Cordova. That person would end up telling a story about Cordova and his family that would go on for dozens of pages. Usually, another lead would emerge from their story, which McGrath and company would then chase down. Wash, rinse, repeat. Now, while all this exposition was fascinating and thrilling, it's hard not to notice this kind of device when the author uses it over and over.

But despite the hefty amount of exposition, Night Film was such an immense pleasure to read, I forgive the book all its flaws. It's fun, it's scary, it's well-written and meticulously detailed. I'm just sad I can't forget all of it and go back and read it again with a blank slate.

5 out of 5 stars