Here IS the rare sequel/reboot that manages to augment, update and expand upon the source. A direct sequel to 1992s Candyman ignoring (with good reason) subsequent films, this film treats the original reverentially, with callbacks and allusions to the first film revisited and expounded upon in exceedingly creative ways. There is some exquisite direction and cinematography at play, maintaining visual themes, cues and metaphors from the original, directly mirroring scenes with a deft subtlety that is difficult to explain unless you’ve compared the two films up shot for shot. I honestly do not feel I can praise Nia DaCosta’s direction enough, it is gorgeous in many places and subtly clever in others. There is horror and gore but never as overt to become discomforting, and she makes clever use of mirrors and reflections whenever possible. Where she excels is in creating a creeping sense of disquiet and doing so in brightly lit scenes with direct sunlight that is very difficult to achieve. Scenes of exposition are told through use of shadow puppetry that are legitimately better than most films I’ve seen this year, and cleverly twist the original film’s narrative in the manner befitting an organic urban legend. There is a level of polish and update to the socio-political commentary and themes keenly reflecting current events, but simultaneously commenting on how little has actually changed. Honestly, it is frustrating how close this movie approaches exceptional were it not for an extremely rushed last act and the abandonment of all nuance, along with the gorgeous cinematography and daylight shots. Instead the movie reverts to horror movie mainstays of dark tunnels, strobe lighting and shadowed scenes. While the last act is arguably inline with the story being told, it comes so abruptly and feels rather jarringly unfair to what preceded it. I get the sense that there was conflict between creative forces behind the scenes that unfortunately short change is what could’ve been a stunning climax. To its credit, the last batch of shadow puppetry executes the finale’s coda in a far superior manner. As it is, the film ends feeling unresolved but leaving the door open for future installments that will hopefully continue to expand the mythos in fascinating ways.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
A rare sequel/reboot respects and augments the source. The majority contribute little more than rehashing the same material. Then there is Spiral. Which is actively atrocious. In an attempt to reinvent and reinvigorate a stagnant franchise, the filmmakers here have crafted the egregious offense of a film that actively insults the preceding films, which is no small task considering how bad some of the films had gotten. But everything here, from script to the deathtraps, are lazy, uninspired and unintelligent beyond reason. The attempts to make the franchise more ‘relevant’ blithely ignore or astronomically miss the thematic motivations and messages that carried the franchise though 8 previous installments. Then there is the woefully miscast Chris Rock, who does not belong in this film, and should be castigated and ostracized from further attempts at ‘serious’ acting. This is bad, and cannot be justified. Shame is your only recourse.
F
Blood Red Sky (2021)
A simple premise with high octane execution. There’s great setup and build towards an excellent reveal, that’s played coy but splashed over every bit of the marketing. There’s terrorists, there’s vampires, and they’re all on a plane which turns out to be far more awesome than ridiculous. Once we’re past the vampire reveal, the film becomes a fairly tense action film with copious amounts of blood spatter and well handled moments of horror. The horror elements are myriad, from the vampire hunting its prey, to an ongoing body horror, to motherhood fears, down to flight-specific terrors. The movie does a decent job of filling in background and characterization, but mostly in the form of flashbacks that often derail the momentum. There are hints that the film is attempting to make broader statements about the human condition, prejudices, motherhood, etc but there’s no real meat to any of it. What is good is the first two thirds, beyond the reveal and watching the tables turned upon the terrorists, who demonstrate a surprising amount of wit, resources, and genre savviness. What is not good first and foremost, and maybe unfortunate ADR combined with poor writing, is the child in this film. He’s annoying beyond the point of nauseum at the onset and this only increases as the film proceeds. Unfortunately what starts as a fairly tense scenario and script gets bogged down in contrivances and severe lapses in intelligence and plausibility. However, for those thrilled to see the vampire returned to its rightful status as monstrous, this movie is a fun romp that entertains throughout its runtime.
C+
Anything for Jackson (2020)
This movie starts out darkly hilarious, a subtle balance of comedy and horror augmented by excellent performances from a stellar cast of new and veteran actors. However, the overt comedy is quickly abandoned with horror increasing exponentially and morphing into an unrelentingly nightmarish scenario. This tonal shift escalates, providing some uniquely horrific moments and visuals while maintaining echoes of enough comedy to elicit a chuckle or two from the more jaded viewers. This movie does trod well worn territory of pregnancy terrors: from body dysmorphia to the pains of birthing, the uncertainty of what you might birth into the world and the abject terror of potentially birthing life at the precipice of global apocalypse. While covering equally explored ideas of grief and loss, the film manages to still infuse a uniqueness to proceedings, through a clever script and committed performances. The last act seems to lose some of the cohesion and tautness, with some extreme lapses in plausibility and contrivances that detract from the mood and tension but ultimately the movie is horrifying and riveting and I found myself stretching looking for flaws… While flaws are certainly not beyond the devoted nitpicker, and the ending may prove divisive for some, I would qualify this movie as one of the gems of Shudder’s increasingly awesome original library and recommended to horror fans unreservedly.
B+
The Djinn (2021)
An intentionally dialogue-lean exercise in a decent concept on a minuscule budget and the result is engaging but undermined by its limitations. It is unfortunately necessary to hamstring the titular entity by defining strict rules of engagement by which it must operate, but this is a personal gripe as I feel the Djinn as a concept deserve far better than this representation (Wishmaster this is not). The child actor is quite excellent, giving a surprisingly excellent and passionate performance, but I do wonder if playing a mute without dialogue helps. The film is confined to a single apartment achieving far more than the glut of cg laden slockfests through effective visual framing, lighting and atmosphere. While the film is admirable in stretching its limited budget, the counter is that the action and visual storytelling cannot really convey much of what it might desire. While not a long movie, there are far too many instances of the same basic ‘hide and seek’ through a small apartment with a supposedly cosmic entity that seems far too flawed and easily defeated. The movie toys with an interesting parallel between the mute child and a blind entity, who can only rely on tricks to achieve its end. The visual scares and jumps are well executed, if overused and always accompanied with annoying soundtrack precursor. (A quick aside: I am becoming actively weary with the deluge of retro-synth 80’s throwback setting and soundtracks). Unfortunately, many of the film's tricks and tactics become weary and far too predictable and there are long stretches where tension and boredom alternate. But by the end, most of the emotional beats land and the movie manages a nicely effective coda all the while demonstrating good direction, performances and script will always trump excessive effects and cheap tactics.
C
Night of the Animated Dead (2021)
The refrain in my mind while watching this odious exercise was
‘Why?’
Why would they do this?
Why is the animation atrocious?
Why do the cast sound bored?
Why did they hire a stellar cast of voice actors if they were going to lowest bid outsource the animation?
Why would any single member of the production team imagine there was some merit to this?
Even though the original Night of the Living Dead has already been remade, retold, even animated previously, at least these other iterations tried to bring something new to the table. This is literally an overhaul of the classic that is so infinitely worse than the original I urge everyone to pretend this doesn’t exist.
F
The Unholy (2021)
A rote amalgam of Catholic horror elevated by the immensely charismatic Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a stellar cast. The first half of this film is engaging, a subtle building investigation into the inexplicable with decent moments of character building and at least one intriguing question raised. There is a fair amount of atmosphere and some creepy visuals, all building to a decent sense of unease and disquiet, but then squandered with tame and predictable jump scares. Unfortunately, levels of predictability escalate, and the second half basically doubles down on recycled moments, themes and beats from better fare culminating in one of the more ridiculous reveals I have seen this year. The final “face” elicited involuntary laughter from me rather than the squirms the producer might have hoped for. Why the current crop of cinematic spooks feel the need to vogue menacingly in some cirque de demonique contortionist celebration baffles me and comes off far more ridiculous than menacing. I suppose this is also in due part to the necessity of maintaining a PG-13 rating, thus even the most ‘horrific’ sights this movie might hope to present are sanitized and effectively scrubbed of any fear. The last act is a bombastic free-for-all of bad special effects and fire with no real tension, weight or engagement, while still benefiting from a decent budget and committed performances all around. Ultimately this film is predictably paint by numbers and utterly forgettable in its banality.
C-
The Empty Man (2020)
A surprisingly esoteric entry this year, one that will require a bit of patience on the part of the viewer. Having read the source material I think this is superior in subtle ways, but this is a film exclusively made for cult audiences, not the type of movie that will pander to the lowest common denominator or those seeking a quick horror romp. There are definitely scenes of visual creepiness and moments of terror but the true horror in this film is a building existential disquiet… Factors that might come off as bad writing or pandering to clichés payoff in effective ways as both the viewer and main character begin putting the pieces together to a far larger conspiracy and stark implications. Despite a low budget, the movie’s ‘flaws’ are often obfuscation and intentional distraction, as movie deals with numerous esoteric philosophies and concepts that slowly come together in a satisfying finale and reveal. If anything brings the movie down is that the payoff feels it takes too long to deliver, and this is not a short film. The opening sequence is so disjointed and out of place from the rest of the film that reconciling it with the eventual payoff requires good memory and a bit of effort. But if you are willing to put forth the mental effort and have an affinity for occult concepts, this movie is well worth the investment.
B
Malignant (2021)
Near the last act it dawned that I was actually watching a stealth comedy masquerading as horror and it made everything better. With this revelation many of the pieces fell into place explaining the strange tonal discrepancies, genre mish-mash and overall absurdities. The movie looks fantastic, slickly produced and nicely directed by horror veteran James Wan, but there are no real scares beyond some over-the-top gory kills. The look and feel is top shelf, with fascinating moments of visual excellence, contrasting with questionable decisions and squandered potential in the setting (Why has no one made a good horror film dealing with Seattle’s underground since Kolchack)? The script is pretty wild, as the film jumps all over the place, from crime investigation, to 80’s slasher throwback, to some type of medical mystery to… Well, it would be a severe disservice to any intending to watch this were I to even hint at spoiling one of the most legitimately gonzo reveals and last acts in cinematic history. The balls-out insanity of the last act’s spectacle is worth watching for its unabashed lunacy alone. I have rarely seen anything like it, and while absurd I must concede the film’s pseudo-logic is at least internally consistent and if you can withstand the gonzo twist you’re likely to be entertained. As a horror movie I’d rate this a D, as a horror/comedy, I’d rate a more generous.
C
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do it (2021)
Caveat emptor for any horror movie claiming to be based upon a true story. While the credentials behind these films (technically the 8th entry in the ‘conjuring’ universe) are sketchy at best, it is impossible to deny the production values or talent involved in these films. The acting is excellent, even down to the child actors, and at this stage Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are as comfortable wearing these characters as they would a second skin. They have an easy charisma and chemistry together which has served as the centerpiece to making these stories work since the first. Unfortunately, this amounts to rehashes of earlier entries with corresponding emotional beats and it is unfortunate the actual case that is the centerpiece of this movie gets sidelined in favor of the same clichéd ghost/witchhunt better executed in the previous films and spin-offs. The real life story and court case here is legitimately fascinating and it seems like a lapse in judgment to not focus more upon it. Instead it’s another round of crawling through dirt tunnels looking for squeamish things and spooky jump scares. The scares themselves are woefully lacking, with a greater emphasis on action set-pieces than genuine scares, but the visuals are still top notch. Those seeking a horror movie equivalent to comfort food might be satisfied, but those seeking substance will find this sorely lacking. While still better than most films of this variety this certainly is the weakest of the core Conjuring movies and I earnestly hope inevitable future installments might present something more original and engaging.
C-
Demonic (2021)
An intriguing setup and glossy shell quickly gives way to arguably one of the worst films offered in the pandemic era. While there are cheaper, uglier, and worse written offerings this year, what makes this film so egregiously bad is the absolutely squandered potential, talent and production values. Director Neil Blomkamp presents a rapid succession of high-concept horror/scifi ideas each of which might have made a superior film. Instead this movie feels overstuffed and nonsensical, quickly falling back upon cliches of cliches, wretched writing and cheap ineffectual jump scares. Each and every time the film approaches a moment of intrigue, interest, or payoff, everything cuts away and major action occurs offscreen, leaving the viewer baffled and questioning the director’s mental faculties. To say this is garbage is an insult to legions of dumpster divers, who might be able to extract value from garbage. Instead this is a frustratingly disappointing mess and a pale echo of the greatness Blomkamp might have once offered as a director.
F
St Maud (2019)
Another exceptional horror entry by Studio A24 and a stunning writing/directing debut by Rose Glass: this film is psychologically unnerving and unsettling to its harshly intimate core. The framing and execution is intense and captivating, spearheaded by tour-de-force performances and stylistic tricks that keep the viewer helplessly engrossed. There are riveting moments of body horror, but the true strength and tragedy in this film stems from its stunning depiction of a descent into madness. Where zealotry and and faith overlap is where the horrors dwell and the viewer is left disoriented and unbalanced as the film engages us directly with Maud’s instability, faith, despair, delusion, ecstasy, reason and irrationality. There’s so much subtlety in the writing between warring philosophical ideologies, with no easy answers, heroes, villains or conclusions offered. What seems like a fairly predictable arc ends up being a harrowing descent into well intentioned hells with final moments that will follow the viewer home and take up residence in your thoughts well beyond the film’s conclusion.