Breaking an Arm – Green Room
Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to Blue Ruin is a wild thrill ride that never stops. After a punk rock band witnesses a murder in a dive bar owned by a bunch of Nazis (led by Patrick Stewart), they hole themselves up in the films titular location and try to survive. One of those attempts goes horribly awry when they crack open the door during a conversation with Stewart’s villain. This turns out to be a terrible decision, as Pat (the late Anton Yelchin) has his arm severed at the wrist. As if that visual wasn’t bad enough, the snapping sound another character’s arm makes when it is broken is even worse.
Sophie’s Choice – The Other Side of the Door
The Other Side of the Door came and wend without any fanfare back in March, and while it isn’t a great film, it’s a serviceable supernatural thriller with one of the most idiotic protagonists ever put in film. That being said, the film’s first act contains a harrowing flashback scene in which the Maria (The Walking Dead‘s Sarah Wayne Callies) drives her car into a body of water with her son and daughter strapped in the back seat. With no time to save both of her children, she chooses to save her daughter before she is pulled out of the water. She must then watch her car sink with her son still trapped inside. It’s a breathtaking sequence that is scarier than any of the ghouls that pop up later in the film.
Not that Kind of Baby Shower – Bite
Word to the wise: don’t watch Bite while you’re eating. In the film, Casey (Elma Begovic) returns home from a bachelorette party in Costa Rica with a strange bite on her leg. In the days that follow she slowly begins to become more and more bug-like. The below scene is actually a dream sequence, but it doesn’t stop it from being any less gross. As Casey walks into a surprise baby shower, hundreds of orange bug eggs fall out of her vagina and pile onto the floor. It’s very gooey.
The Rules of Real Estate – I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
“I have heard myself say that house with a death in it can never again be bought or sold by the living. It can only be borrowed from the ghosts who have stayed behind.” So says Lily (Ruth Wilson) who we learn will not make it to the end of the film alive. The opening sequence in Osgood (son of Anthony) Perkins’s I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House is not disturbing so much as it is haunting. Lily’s chilling monologue goes on for over two minutes as a ghostly figure slowly moves across the pitch black screen. It sets the tone for the rest of the film and, in its simplicity, sends a chill down the spine.
Up Next: A Turkey Baster, a Demon and One Dead Baby
