Editorials
10 Best Horror Films You Might Have Missed in 2018!
*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*
Thanks to limited theatrical releases, streaming services, and video on demand, it can be extremely difficult to navigate the overwhelming number of movie selections at our disposal. Especially for the more independent films without much of a marketing budget. Some movies are lucky enough to amass a loud enough word-of-mouth reputation that can’t be ignored, like Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, while many fall into quiet obscurity after a successful festival run. For those looking for great horror that exists at the edges of the genre or simply slipped under the radar, these 10 releases are 2018’s best.
Cold Hell
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, who helmed the underseen but fantastic horror film Anatomy, Cold Hell blends giallo with action in this underseen stunner that arrived quietly on Shudder in March. A serial killer is on the loose in Austria, targeting prostitutes and murdering them in slow, gruesome fashion. When taxi driver Özge (Violetta Schurawlow) inadvertently witnesses one of the murders from her apartment window, she becomes the killer’s next target and the police are of no help. Rich visuals with an emphasis on vivid colors and dark shadows work in conjunction with the sleazy murder mystery that makes Cold Hell a modern giallo, but Özge’s take no prisoners attitude and intense action sequences evokes retro action-brawler fare that makes this one something wholly new and exciting.
Mom and Dad
Nicolas Cage’s performance in Mandy has earned a lot of praise and attention, for good reason. His portrayal of Red isn’t as over the top as reputed, but an authentic exploration of a man caught deep in the throes of grief after witnessing the brutal demise of his soul mate. In other words, it’s much more sedate than what people have come to expect from the actor. If you want over the top Cage, in the best possible way, then you want Mom and Dad. The premise revolves around a mysterious virus that renders parents homicidal toward their own children exclusively, and as infected dad Brent, Cage really lets loose. Selma Blair holds her own against the actor as the mom that’s equally unhinged, and the two are the sole reason to watch this B-movie romp. It’s entertaining and funny, and Cage and Blair really bring the repressed rage of parental frustrations.
Wildling
Co-writer/director Fritz Böhm’s feature debut is a new spin on a coming-of-age horror story that follows Anna, a young teen who spends most of her life sheltered by her overprotective father until tragedy shoves her out into the real world. Anna then has to learn how to exist in society while uncovering dark truths about her childhood and who she really is. Brad Dourif gives another great performance as Anna’s father with a twisted secret, and Liv Tyler is serviceable as the sweet cop that just wants to help. But it’s Bel Powley as Anna that makes Wildling rise above its flaws. This coming of age creature feature isn’t perfect, but it’s engaging and genuine just the same.
The Cured
For those still clamoring for a continuation of 28 Weeks Later, The Cured may be as close as we’ll ever get. As the title indicates, it’s set in a world where the zombie population has been cured, but the once-infection zombies are still discriminated against by both their families and society- neither having forgiven them for the devastation incurred during the outbreak. It leads to heavy tension and social issues that causes the military to intervene. Ellen Page stars as Abbie, a single mother who lost her husband to the zombies but finds herself sheltering one of the cured. Though this focuses far more on the drama and heavy-handed social metaphors, there are moments of startling horror and a third act that submerses fully into genre fare. It’s a rare glimpse beyond the initial outbreak.
Let the Corpses Tan
A caveat; this one is most certainly not for everyone. As with Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s previous films Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, the filmmaking duo are less interested in following a traditional, coherent narrative and more about a sensory onslaught experience steeped in vintage Italian filmmaking pastiche. Whereas their previous films were gialli, Let the Corpses Tan pays respects to the ‘70s Italian spaghetti western. It’s as grotesque as it is beautiful, and it does go to some horrific places. A gang of thieves hideout at a remote village in the desert-like cliffs of the Mediterranean, inhabited by an eccentric artist and her followers, after stealing a truckload of gold. It’s all going well enough until a pair of cops show up, and the entire island erupts into a hallucinatory shootout that endures all night. It’s strange, surreal, and bloody.
Tumbbad
A visually rich allegory for greed, Tumbbad hails from India and really delivers on the horror. A dark, gothic fairy tale, Tumbbad spans generations as it follows Vinayek Rao from childhood well into adulthood and the curse that surrounds his family. Opening with heavy exposition that explains the mythology at the center of the Vinayek family curse, it’s a story of the corruptive power greed can have and just how deep it takes root. Although it plays out much more dark fairy tale, the horror elements are downright terrifying. Early scenes were young Rao discovers his cursed grandma, locked away and demonic, is pure terror.
Possum
This psychological horror film doesn’t offer much in the way of clear-cut answers, but it does provide creeping dread and nightmarish imagery. Sean Harris stars as Philip, a disgraced puppeteer that returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his childhood traumas. Though Possum prefers ambiguity, it’s crystal clear why Philip’s last paying gig caused him to run home in shame; his puppet, Possum, would terrify anyone let alone an arachnophobic. With an arachnid body and monochromatic human head, Possum elicits some extremely creepy moments. Harris also nails his performance as the socially isolated man descending into madness. This character study will likely be too slow for some, but boy is it creepy.
Thoroughbreds
Anya-Taylor Joy stars as Lily, an upper-class teen that connects with Olivia Cooke’s Amanda in the hope of recruiting her to assist in the murder of her stepfather. A darkly funny story in the vein of Heathers or American Psycho, Lily and Amanda’s burgeoning friendship is fully of surprises, laughs, and even horror. Both have perfected masks that hide their inner darkness, but which one is worse? The emotionally self-destructive girl who hates her mean stepfather, or the disconnected girl with a host of extreme personality disorders that renders her unable to feel emotion? This is for those that like their horror much closer to reality and with biting wit. Anton Yelchin also stars in a supporting role as the town’s resident drug-dealer.
The Clovehitch Killer
Set in a small town nestled in the Bible Belt, teen Tyler begins to suspect his own father might be the infamous Clovehitch Killer responsible for murdering 10 women a decade ago before disappearing. The crimes were so vicious that memory of the Clovehitch Killer never faded from the town’s memory, and Tyler stumbles onto proof that the killer has started anew. Dylon McDermott plays Tyler’s father, a squeaky-clean church-goer and doting family man. But there’s an underpinning of danger there, and the more Tyler begins to dig into the Clovehitch Killer, the creepier dad gets. It’s because of McDermott’s performance that this coming of age story meets terrifying serial killer cat and mouse game is as captivating as it is horrific.
Good Manners
Written and directed by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas, Good Manners is a horror meets fable story about lonely nurse Clara and the unexpected bond she forms with her wealthy employer Ana. Ana hires Clara to be the nanny for her unborn child, and despite coming from very different backgrounds, the pair form a strong bond that’s forever altered on one fateful night of terror. Playing out in two distinct narrative halves connected by that fateful night, the less you know about Good Manners going in the better. This dark fairy tale is a beautiful and often bloody entry in a beloved sub-genre, and offers many heartfelt and heart wrenching surprises.
Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
A bizarre recurring issue with the Amityville “franchise” is that the films tend to be needlessly complicated. Back in the day, the first sequels moved away from the original film’s religious-themed haunted house storyline in favor of streamlined, easily digestible concepts such as “haunted lamp” or “haunted mirror.”
As the budgets plummeted and indie filmmakers capitalized on the brand’s notoriety, it seems the wrong lessons were learned. Runtimes have ballooned past the 90-minute mark and the narratives are often saggy and unfocused.
Both issues are clearly on display in Amityville Karen (2022), a film that starts off rough, but promising, and ends with a confused whimper.
The promise is embodied by the tinge of self-awareness in Julie Anne Prescott (The Amityville Harvest)’s screenplay, namely the nods to John Waters’ classic 1994 satire, Serial Mom. In that film, Beverly Sutphin (an iconic Kathleen Turner) is a bored, white suburban woman who punished individuals who didn’t adhere to her rigid definition of social norms. What is “Karen” but a contemporary equivalent?
In director/actor Shawn C. Phillips’ film, Karen (Lauren Francesca) is perpetually outraged. In her introductory scenes, she makes derogatory comments about immigrants, calls a female neighbor a whore, and nearly runs over a family blocking her driveway. She’s a broad, albeit familiar persona; in many ways, she’s less of a character than a caricature (the living embodiment of the name/meme).
These early scenes also establish a fairly straightforward plot. Karen is a code enforcement officer with plans to shut down a local winery she has deemed disgusting. They’re preparing for a big wine tasting event, which Karen plans to ruin, but when she steals a bottle of cursed Amityville wine, it activates her murderous rage and goes on a killing spree.
Simple enough, right?
Unfortunately, Amityville Karen spins out of control almost immediately. At nearly every opportunity, Prescott’s screenplay eschews narrative cohesion and simplicity in favour of overly complicated developments and extraneous characters.
Take, for example, the wine tasting event. The film spends an entire day at the winery: first during the day as a band plays, then at a beer tasting (???) that night. Neither of these events are the much touted wine-tasting, however; that is actually a private party happening later at server Troy (James Duval)’s house.
Weirdly though, following Troy’s death, the party’s location is inexplicably moved to Karen’s house for the climax of the film, but the whole event plays like an afterthought and features a litany of characters we have never met before.
This is a recurring issue throughout Amityville Karen, which frequently introduces random characters for a scene or two. Karen is typically absent from these scenes, which makes them feel superfluous and unimportant. When the actress is on screen, the film has an anchor and a narrative drive. The scenes without her, on the other hand, feel bloated and directionless (blame editor Will Collazo Jr., who allows these moments to play out interminably).
Compounding the issue is that the majority of the actors are non-professionals and these scenes play like poorly performed improv. The result is long, dull stretches that features bad actors talking over each other, repeating the same dialogue, and generally doing nothing to advance the narrative or develop the characters.
While Karen is one-note and histrionic throughout the film, at least there’s a game willingness to Francesca’s performance. It feels appropriately campy, though as the film progresses, it becomes less and less clear if Amityville Karen is actually in on the joke.
Like Amityville Cop before it, there are legit moments of self-awareness (the Serial Mom references), but it’s never certain how much of this is intentional. Take, for example, Karen’s glaringly obvious wig: it unconvincingly fails to conceal Francesca’s dark hair in the back, but is that on purpose or is it a technical error?
Ultimately there’s very little to recommend about Amityville Karen. Despite the game performance by its lead and the gentle homages to Serial Mom’s prank call and white shoes after Labor Day jokes, the never-ending improv scenes by non-professional actors, the bloated screenplay, and the jittery direction by Phillips doom the production.
Clocking in at an insufferable 100 minutes, Amityville Karen ranks among the worst of the “franchise,” coming in just above Phillips’ other entry, Amityville Hex.
The Amityville IP Awards go to…
- Favorite Subplot: In the afternoon event, there’s a self-proclaimed “hot boy summer” band consisting of burly, bare-chested men who play instruments that don’t make sound (for real, there’s no audio of their music). There’s also a scheming manager who is skimming money off the top, but that’s not as funny.
- Least Favorite Subplot: For reasons that don’t make any sense, the winery is also hosting a beer tasting which means there are multiple scenes of bartender Alex (Phillips) hoping to bring in women, mistakenly conflating a pint of beer with a “flight,” and goading never before seen characters to chug. One of them describes the beer as such: “It looks like a vampire menstruating in a cup” (it’s a gold-colored IPA for the record, so…no).
- Amityville Connection: The rationale for Karen’s killing spree is attributed to Amityville wine, whose crop was planted on cursed land. This is explained by vino groupie Annie (Jennifer Nangle) to band groupie Bianca (Lilith Stabs). It’s a lot of nonsense, but it is kind of fun when Annie claims to “taste the damnation in every sip.”
- Neverending Story: The film ends with an exhaustive FIVE MINUTE montage of Phillips’ friends posing as reporters in front of terrible green screen discussing the “killer Karen” story. My kingdom for Amityville’s regular reporter Peter Sommers (John R. Walker) to return!
- Best Line 1: Winery owner Dallas (Derek K. Long), describing Karen: “She’s like a walking constipation with a hemorrhoid”
- Best Line 2: Karen, when a half-naked, bleeding woman emerges from her closet: “Is this a dream? This dream is offensive! Stop being naked!”
- Best Line 3: Troy, upset that Karen may cancel the wine tasting at his house: “I sanded that deck for days. You don’t just sand a deck for days and then let someone shit on it!”
- Worst Death: Karen kills a Pool Boy (Dustin Clingan) after pushing his head under water for literally 1 second, then screeches “This is for putting leaves on my plants!”
- Least Clear Death(s): The bodies of a phone salesman and a barista are seen in Karen’s closet and bathroom, though how she killed them are completely unclear
- Best Death: Troy is stabbed in the back of the neck with a bottle opener, which Karen proceeds to crank
- Wannabe Lynch: After drinking the wine, Karen is confronted in her home by Barnaby (Carl Solomon) who makes her sign a crude, hand drawn blood contract and informs her that her belly is “pregnant from the juices of his grapes.” Phillips films Barnaby like a cross between the unhoused man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highway. It’s interesting, even if the character makes absolutely no sense.
- Single Image Summary: At one point, a random man emerges from the shower in a towel and excitedly poops himself. This sequence perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching Amityville Karen.
- Pray for Joe: Many of these folks will be back in Amityville Shark House and Amityville Webcam, so we’re not out of the woods yet…
Next time: let’s hope Christmas comes early with 2022’s Amityville Christmas Vacation. It was the winner of Fangoria’s Best Amityville award, after all!
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