two vampires walk into a church
Hi friends!
I’m sitting here on a gloomy, rainy Sunday, in bed sick with a surprise cold, with plenty of time to trawl the Internet and indulge in planning for the best time of the year—costumes, parties, movies, television. Spooky season is upon us, which means outrageous costumes, themed parties, gloriously camp, grotesque decorations, every flavor of horror movie and media there is, and sinister, over-the-top revelry. Sometimes horror has a great year, and 2024 is one of them.
In case you’re interested, other years with bangers include:
2016: Raw, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Hush, and The Love Witch;
2019: Ready or Not, Us, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse; and
2014: Creep, It Follows, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and What We Do in the Shadows.
What is it about horror that people find enticing? I think that, like science fiction, it is a lens through which we can examine society at a distance, exploring what-ifs in imaginative ways, liberated from the confines of physical reality. Monsters have long been stand-ins for the marginalized in fiction—whether that be a function of race, sexuality, gender, illness, disability, or more. Zombies are a stand-in for mindless consumption and conformity. Werewolves are bi or chronically ill or both. Etc., etc. And in horror, in particular, embraces genre-bending. Satire, meta-humor, camp, giallo, slasher, thriller, found footage, zombies, home invasion, revenge, monster, gothic drama, body horror, Satanic, cultish, I could go on and on with the numerous storytelling tropes, setups, and archetypes that make up horror films’ playground. Whether you enjoy your scares jumpy, psychological, slow-burning, or not too scary, there’s something to appeal for almost every one. Case in point, how many non-horror fans do you know who raved about Get Out or Midsommar?
When there are such precisely defined tropes in a genre, it’s all the more fun to see their rules bent and twisted to specific ends. (This applies to every genre, of course, including romance and mystery, but those don’t get to use copious amounts of fake blood nearly as much and are therefore less fun.) Want a self-aware classic slasher film? Watch Scream. Want an arthouse allegorical film that feels like a continuous panic attack? mother! will probably do you. Like to see final girls kick ass? May I present You’re Next, Ready or Not, and Alien? Nonstop action, adrenaline-pumping zombie flicks? [REC], 28 Days Later, and Train to Busan.
That’s not to mention the various arthouse, “elevated” contemporary films that have entered the mainstream—directors such as Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us, Nope), Robert Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse, Northman, the upcoming Nosferatu), Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster, Killing of a Sacred Deer) consistently keep us fed with their original, ambitious, thought-provoking films while appealing to a broader audience.
So whether you’re an avid fan of the genre or dipping your toes into its murky waters, I implore you to explore highlights of this fun, adrenaline-fueled, laugh-out-loud, gasp-inducing corner of the media landscape. And then text me about it so we can share in its delights!
Are You Having a Good Time?
Initially titled Pussy Island when first in production, Zoe Kravitz’s feature length directorial debut is a modern-day cautionary tale, a wannabe feminist manifesto dressed up in stylistic visuals taking cues from the slick, contemporary thrillers that currently populate the horror landscape. This movie very much belongs in the same family as borderline B-movies like Cam, Infinity Pool, and Love Lies Bleeding, and even the higher quality Raw, though it’s arguably more polished and less nuanced, and therefore a little hollow. Not to say that it’s a bad movie. It hits all the beats I’m sure it meant to, it’s just that those beats are kind of…well, unoriginal and soulless.
Working class woman obsessed with a misogynistic sexual predator tech titan gets his attention and is invited to his exclusive island with other high-flying rich influential people. Something sinister is going on there, obviously, from the creepy, identical white beachwear all the women are provided to the gaps in their memories of every night. No one knows what day it is at any given moment, but what does it matter? They’re all having a great time.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the plot twist, but the atmosphere and performances are entertaining enough that it remains an entertaining film. Channing Tatum and Adria Arjona are particular standouts, with Tatum pulling off menacing and dryly humorous from one scene to the next, and Adria providing a surprisingly meaty performance for a character without much screentime, providing a great foil for Naomi Ackie’s lead role.
Verdict: A great pick for a movie night at home if you’re a casual horror fan, and a worthwhile night at the theaters if, like me, you love the movie-going experience.
Been There, Done That Once or Twice
Speaking of feminism, Sabrina Carpenter’s cheeky humor continues to deliver in her music video for Taste, the most recent single from her new album short ‘n sweet. Starring scream queen Jenna Ortega herself, the video’s a sendup of Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn’s cult classic Death Becomes Her, wherein the two immortal but breakable women compete to do the most damage to the other. In this, Sabrina and Jenna choose violence because of a man, by turns puncturing a hole in Sabrina’s torso, stabbing Jenna in the eye, cutting off Sabrina’s arm, and culminating in Jenna accidentally gutting Sabrina with a chainsaw. The girl power twist in the end is a nice touch! Try listening to this song without getting it stuck in your head for weeks. I’ve tried and failed, alas.
Here, Kitty Kitty
Another recent horror movie (that I believe is still in theaters!) that plays with tropes is Strange Darling, which as the opening credits tell you, was filmed entirely 35mm. That’s very important information, so don’t forget it.
Just kidding. It’s a straightforward cat and mouse game between Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner, told in a non-linear fashion as you watch “The Demon” (Gallner) viciously hunt “The Lady” (Fitzgerald). Beautifully shot, the colors are so vibrant and rich I want to eat them up, and the two leads carry the movie on their backs with impressively gritty performances. Fairly straightforward as thrillers go, but the hook has enough bite that it was still worthwhile, especially to see those sumptuous visiuals on a big screen. I’d say this is slightly better made than Blink Twice, if only for its creative experimentation with regard to cinematography and storytelling—on the arthouse-commercial scale, it’s slightly artier than that, but not quite as intensely auteur as mother!.
I Like to Play With My Food
It’s not a spoiler to share that the titular Abigail of this unserious, vampy horror comedy is not the twelve-year-old girl she appears, but a bloodthirsty vampire. Not just any vampire, either—the film strongly implies that Abigail the daughter of Dracula. Yes, the Dracula. See an inversion of the final girl trope where, rather than fighting off a slew of villains to emerge bloody and victorious, our girl gleefully hunts said villains, effortlessly dismembering them and draining their blood as she executes joyful pirouettes. Mild spoilers below for when the vampire ballerina herself first encounters her victims for one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie. Watch as she tauntingly attacks—though not to kill—her kidnappers set to the dramatic stylings of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, giggling as she watches them retreat in panic.
By the same directors of the cult favorite Ready or Not, there’s no shortage of black comedy, gore (and the comically large fountains of blood to accompany it), and creative kills. Dan Stevens is having a blast hamming it up as a crooked cop turned career criminal, Kathryn Newton is delightfully funny and endearing as an alt girl hacker, and Kevin Duran rounds out the cast as the simple-minded but thoughtful muscle. It was also the late Angus Cloud’s last project before his tragic passing, which adds a bittersweetness to the watch.
It’s one of the most fun movies I’ve see in in a while, and a great pick for a watch party with friends who like to add color commentary.
Yes, Maître
So have you seen Interview with the Vampire yet? The gothic vampire drama adapted from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles books has been streaming on AMC for the past two years, and now that the first season has made its way to Netflix, troves of new fans have tuned in. (It’s me. I’m the fans, it’s me.) Let me be clear: You don’t need to be a fan of vampires, gothic horror, or Anne Rice to like this show. It definitely doesn’t hurt, but I argue that the TV adaptation has dug deeper into what makes vampirism alluring and thought-provoking in a way that doesn’t need background information on the source material. You don’t need to have read the books to enjoy seeing what happens when a human in their messy, imperfect, traumatized fullness is turned before they can grow and change, forever frozen in time to grapple with their unresolved traumas and toxic patterns.
I had no interest whatsoever in the 1994 movie, nor Anne Rice’s series of books (actually still don’t), but I’d heard so much praise and enthusiasm for the series that I was compelled to try it. And now it’s basically my whole personality. It’s by turns gothic drama and tragic romance and camp, period piece and modern commentary, and it is so unapologetically, delightfully queer. Sam Reid’s Lestat is unrepentantly dramatic, bi, and hedonistic; Jacob Anderson’s tortured Louis is multi-layered in his victimization and rage; and Bailey Bass and Delainey Hayes’ Claudias are tragic, childlike, wise, and endlessly complex.
The character studies, evocative atmosphere, and lushly fleshed out settings—from 1910s to 1940s New Orleans to the war-ravaged Eastern Europe—make for a fully immersive, romantic, dangerous world. The characters’ messiness in life, in love, in their brutal and imaginative killings are spellbinding, and humanize these inhuman monsters masterfully. My only complaint is that my sweet babygirl Assad Zaman doesn’t have enough screentime, and that I’d like more sapphic rep, stat. But these can be addressed in the third season, which just got greenlit, so my hopes are high.
That’s all for now. Happy October 1st, and have a spooky month!
xoxo,
Big T