Ten Horror Movies Worth Seeing, #10: The Exorcism of Emily Rose

October 30, 2018 in General Topics, Other Stuff

As scary as some horror films are, there’s often a comfortable gulf the viewer can cross after the credits roll. They toss the popcorn bin in the trash or put on some music; perhaps say goodbye to friends, maybe head on to a shower and bed. And this process comes easier when the director or screenwriter have given us implausible or outright ridiculous scenarios and antagonists. I mentioned in my review for Black Water that one of the reasons that film succeeded is because it is based on real saltwater crocodile behavior. But you’d still have to travel to the southern hemisphere for a chance to face down such a beast. The Exorcism of Emily Rose gives us an enemy that could be lurking around every corner, and in this author’s opinion is.

That made the film terrifying for me, but Director Scott Derrickson seems to posit that the alternative is worse–facing this evil without the safety provided by having the Big “G” God on your side. There are scenes in Emily Rose that stand as some of the most harrowing I’ve seen in cinema. And it’s all inserted into a smart, compelling courtroom drama that sees Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson playing an ambitious lawyer and a Catholic Priest on trial for an exorcism that seemingly went wrong. Read the rest of this entry →

Ten Horror Movies Worth Seeing, #9: He Never Died

October 26, 2018 in General Topics, Other Stuff

Credit: Amazon.com

When I began this review series, I promised I’d also be raising zombies from way out in the back of the graveyard, highlighting some of the more independent and lesser-known horror films out there. Well, based on what I’ve seen, He Never Died escaped notice from quite a few people, and it’s the perfect time of the year to rectify that as best I can.

The film stars Henry Rollins, who most of you reading recognize instantly, because Rollins is one of those people so distinctive that if you see or hear them once, you’ll remember them the rest of your life. Rollins hails from a background in punk and hardcore music and these days runs a number of acerbic columns and shows. He’s a brooder; the kind of man who seems physically uncomfortable when he smiles. His character, Jack, is compelling from the moment he appears on the screen, and some of the troubling and downright grisly things we see him doing somehow don’t make the character any less interesting.

That’s good, because the plot is all over the place. I can roll with it, but for viewers looking for a cogent series of events this film might come across as a bit baffling, at least for long lengths of its run time. The writing is almost gleeful at withholding information. Consider the following threads we’re asked to keep track of: Illegal blood sales. Mobsters. Cannibalism. Former relationships. New love (dis)interests. Bingo. An enigmatic figure. Prophecy. Read the rest of this entry →

Ten Horror Movies Worth Seeing, #8: Dog Soldiers

October 23, 2018 in General Topics, Other Stuff

Credit: Amazon.com

Neil Marshall made a name for himself, justifiably, with 2005’s The Descent, but prior to crafting that film’s claustrophobic horror, he’d given us Dog Soldiers. Here we find good writing, acting, and Marshall’s characteristically excellent execution of practical effects.

I love how Dog Soldiers doesn’t pick on soft targets. Many horror films inflict their monsters on hapless and unprepared victims. A Nightmare on Elm Street hacks away at teens. The Shining subjects an innocent family to its machinations. The Birds overwhelms a Dick and Jane duo with sheer numbers. Horror typically posits a lopsided confrontation, where the stakes heavily favor the evil force(s) present. Dog Soldiers upends this and places in harm’s way a troop of hardened, trained and fully armed British infantry. It doesn’t rush into doing this, either, taking its time to establish the men’s credibility and likability. It’s only then that things take a sharp turn for the worse. Favorable comparisons with Predator abound. Read the rest of this entry →

Ten Horror Movies Worth Seeing, #7: The Witch

October 18, 2018 in General Topics, Other Stuff

The Salem Witch Trials haunt our culture, and are one of the inevitable points of discussion whenever a debate arises concerning the merits of atheism or religious belief. I think one aspect of the phenomenon is often overlooked: human beings have a tendency to externalize the emotions of the moment. The early New England settlers were stressed to the core of their psyche from a long voyage across the seas, followed by a hardscrabble life amid alien woodlands which claimed their loved ones at a frightening rate. It isn’t hard to understand why they would have been prone to see evil lurking in every shadow, and faith as their only reliable weapon against that evil. The new world, after all, had taken just as much from them as they from it. From their point of view, it probably paid to be paranoid.

The fallout of this paranoia were the infamous events all of us are familiar with. Considering what happened in Salem, the family at the center of the 2015’s The Witch appear to make out a bit better for a time. And then they stumble across something horrifying. Read the rest of this entry →

Ten Horror Movies Worth Seeing, #5: Black Water

October 8, 2018 in General Topics, Other Stuff

It’s one thing for a horror film to feature supernatural encounters or marauding monsters. It’s quite another when its antagonist is something Out There. Out There is that place where civilization gives way to an environment in which our comfortable status as nature’s apex predators is no longer certain. There’s something about that which assails our subconscious. We are as much outraged as in wonder.

Black Water takes Out There and subjects us to its possibilities. The bulk of this 2007 film is shot within perhaps twenty feet of a low-lying mangrove and a slow-moving section of Australian river. This works, because the Outback is the Australian Out There, and the Aussie wilds are home to a laundry list of the world’s deadliest species of animals. Australia has a transparent jellyfish the size of a fingernail that has been responsible for the deaths of multiple swimmers. It possesses the inland taipan, the world’s most venomous snake. And then there’s the saltwater crocodile. Read the rest of this entry →