A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[6 of 13]

IT FOLLOWS

(May 2014)

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
--T.S. Eliot

Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, It Follows utilizes the blasted zones and landscapes of economy-ravaged Detroit as the backdrop for a tale shrouded heavily under a veil of dread and unease.

While I will refrain from revealing the film’s premise (best to come into this one as cold and unknowing as possible), I will say that it’s the kind of cinematic experience that gets underneath the skin, that leaves the audience, post-viewing, acutely aware of anyone and everyone you see out on the streets, and the unnerving threat potential they represent.

Things of note that I choose to speak of, in lieu of What the Film is About:

1)      Along with the excellent thriller The Guest (from the director-writer tandem of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett*), It Follows is part of lead actress Maika Monroe’s resounding one-two punch on the face of the genre landscape. Keep an eye on this girl… Aside from appearing in The 5^th Wave (J Blakeson’s long-awaited follow-up to The Disappearance of Alice Creed), she’s also going Big Time Hollywood in Independence Day 2!

2)     Though I have yet to see writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s feature debut, The Myth of the American Sleepover, based on what he displayed in It Follows, I’ve now become more curious to check it out.

3)     I particularly appreciated the Creepy Classroom Scene orchestrated to a reading of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (along with some help from Richard Vreeland, AKA Disasterpeace). And speaking of Disasterpeace? The soundtrack for It Follows… Creeptastic awesome sauce!

4)     One of the most potent takeaways from It Follows: it's not so much that these kids have no future. Perhaps even more tragically, while they do have a future, it's a future that's going to be constantly weighed down by the dread and unease I mentioned earlier...

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

--T.S. Eliot

* Whose names should be familiar 'round these parts for their work on A Horrible Way To Die and V/H/S.

(It Follows UK quad & French OS courtesy of impawards.com)

¡Qué horror! 2015

Candidate #11

IT FOLLOWS

(May 2014)

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
--T.S. Eliot

Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, It Follows utilizes the blasted zones and landscapes of economy-ravaged Detroit as the backdrop for a tale shrouded heavily under a veil of dread and unease.

While I will refrain from revealing the film’s premise (best to come into this one as cold and unknowing as possible), I will say that it’s the kind of cinematic experience that gets underneath the skin, that leaves the audience, post-viewing, acutely aware of anyone and everyone you see out on the streets, and the unnerving threat potential they represent.

Things of note that I choose to speak of, in lieu of What the Film is About:

1)      Along with the excellent thriller The Guest (from the director-writer tandem of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett*), It Follows is part of lead actress Maika Monroe’s resounding one-two punch on the face of the genre landscape. Keep an eye on this girl… Aside from appearing in The 5^th Wave (J Blakeson’s long-awaited follow-up to The Disappearance of Alice Creed), she’s also going Big Time Hollywood in Independence Day 2!

2)     Though I have yet to see writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s feature debut, The Myth of the American Sleepover, based on what he displayed in It Follows, I’ve now become more curious to check it out.

3)     I particularly appreciated the Creepy Classroom Scene orchestrated to a reading of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (along with some help from Richard Vreeland, AKA Disasterpeace). And speaking of Disasterpeace? The soundtrack for It Follows… Creeptastic awesome sauce!

4)     One of the most potent takeaways from It Follows: it's not so much that these kids have no future. Perhaps even more tragically, while they do have a future, it's a future that's going to be constantly weighed down by the dread and unease I mentioned earlier...

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

--T.S. Eliot

* Whose names should be familiar 'round these parts for their work on A Horrible Way To Die and V/H/S.

(It Follows UK quad & French OS courtesy of impawards.com)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2012
The Wrap-Up

As promised, here’s the rundown of all the other horror films I saw between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012, that I felt deserved some ¡Qué Horror! love, but I just didn’t get the chance to write about in their own ¡Qué Horror! Candidate posts…

Apologies to all concerned that I didn’t get to talk about your films more, but for those of you who frequent the Iguana, here are some other titles to seek out…

Imago Mortis (January 2009), dir: Stefano Bessoni

The Dead (August 2010), dir: Howard J. Ford

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (November 2010), dir: Troy Nixey

Retreat (February 2011), dir: Carl Tibbetts

The Innkeepers (March 2011), dir: Ti West

Some Guy Who Kills People (April 2011), dir: Jack Perez

The Moth Diaries (September 2011), dir: Mary Harron

Livide (Livid) (September 2011), dirs: Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo

Exit Humanity (September 2011), dir: John Geddes

El Páramo (The Squad) (October 2011), dir: Jaime Osorio Márquez

Rites of Spring (October 2011), dir: Padraig Reynolds

Piggy (May 2012), dir: Kieron Hawkes

So the field this year consisted of 46 titles, from which the final list emerged.

Plus, I should also mention One Hundred Mornings (July 2009, dir: Conor Horgan), which isn’t strictly a horror movie, but it’s positioned quite firmly in apocalypse cinema, and is a horrific title nonetheless (I should mention that I find it quite interesting that amazon.co.uk simply classifies One Hundred Mornings under “Horror”)…

Detention (March 2011, dir: Joseph Kahn), which, alongside The Cabin in the Woods, is, hands-down, the most entertaining film I had the awesome privilege of seeing this past year…

Chronicle (January 2012, dir: Josh Trank), one of the best found footage titles from the past year, and a powerful argument for the flexibility and versatility of the superhero film…

and the harrowing Wake in Fright (May 1971, dir: Ted Kotcheff), which gained a well-deserved revitalization after it was selected by Martin Scorsese as a Cannes Classic Title for the 2009 festival.

Like One Hundred Mornings, this isn’t strictly a horror movie, but it is, nonetheless the sort of disturbing tourism-killing cinematic experience that will put you off traveling to the particular corner of the world it’s showcasing; in this case, the Australian Outback.

To one and all, have a Happy Halloween, as I settle down to begin the search for next year’s ¡Qué Horror! hopefuls.

(One Hundred Mornings UK quad courtesy of dnotes.info; Detention, Chronicle, and Wake in Fright OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 5 Episode 1
“Fantasy Island”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod
(WARNING: SPOILERS)


Well, that was okay. Not particularly the opening bang I was hoping for, but not terrible either.
I suppose what annoyed the frak out of me was the apparent irresponsibility of Vince, and in particular, Turtle, as they whiled away their time in Mexico, as Vince licked his wounds from the Medellin disaster, its Cannes screening likened to the Hindenberg by episode guests Roeper and Phillips, even as E and Ari busted their a$$es back in L.A.
Though I guess I should give our boy some slack, given the bomb his vanity project turned out to be…
And though it was nice to see Drama continuing his Jacqueline thing over the laptop, his whole “my right side is my bad side” thing grated.


Meanwhile, yay, Rex Lee is in the main opening credits now! Of course, the same thing happened to Debi Mazar and she subsequently seemed to just fall off the show that season.
Let’s hope Lloyd’s fate is a whole lot sunnier!


Not much else seemed to go on in this one: some sly Hollywood tactics involving a genre project called Danger Beach (“It’s a working title!”) which gets Vince back to L.A. under false pretenses; a slight awkwardness to Vince and E’s friendship in the wake of Medellin.
Far more interesting is the portrait of Vince as La-La Land pariah, untouchable following his fall from grace.
Where to from here, boys?


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 12
“The Cannes Kids”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod

Whereas Season 2 brought the boys to Sundance, this season’s finale sees them in the heady celluloid market place that is Cannes.
Everyone (particularly E) is staying positive about selling Medellin for some big bucks, while the person most anxious about getting a deal, “sober for one year now despite having all these topless enablers around me” Nicky Rubenstein, is stuck back in the States under house arrest.
When they get to the hotel though, who do they see but Prince Yair, who came this close to producing Medellin back in Season 3’s “The Prince’s Bride.” Yair is no longer married, and wants to get into the film releasing business big time, and he’s willing to make a deal for Medellin, sight-unseen.
Ari doesn’t really like the idea, as this’ll be Yair’s first crack at distributing a film, but Nicky calls Ari and tells him to take the meeting.

At Yair’s yacht, Johnny does the Macarena, and Yair lays out the deal. $35 million, before anyone else sees a single frame of film. $35 million, is of course, the total budget of Medellin, and that would recoup everyone’s money.
E is willing to entertain the notion of taking the deal, but everyone else is leery of Yair, so Ari (aka “Master of the Universe”) stirs up a little wheel-and-deal action.
He drops a word or two in Dana Gordon’s lap. Then, who do the boys run into but Harvey Weingard, who got screwed by them a second time, over Medellin, in this season’s “Malibooty/Sorry, Harvey.”
Harvey’s still pissed off, but when Ari sees Dana watching from a distance, he throws his arms around Harvey, making Dana think Harvey’s the power player angling for Medellin. So Dana bites and sets up a morning meeting, hours before the Medellin premiere.


At the meeting, Dana plunks down $15 million, but that’s way below what Ari’s aiming for. He says $50 million, Dana balks in very colourful language, and is walking away from the table when Vince says, “The offer’s $35 million.” Dana says she isn’t authorized to make that big an offer.
Some wrangling takes place, and Turtle gets a call from Johnny. When Johnny asks how things are going, Turtle says, “Great. It looks like they’re gonna get $50 mil for Medellin.”
As it turns out, Johnny’s back on Yair’s yacht (more on that later), and automatically passes this little nugget onto Yair.
Back at the meeting, Dana can go no higher than $28 mil, so Vince and E agree to put off getting their money back till the film makes a profit, and though Dana still has to make up some of the difference on her end, the deal is struck. As everyone is going off for a drink, Ari gets a call from Nicky. Yair just called him and Nicky sold Medellin for a whopping $75 million. (Nicky’s also about to fall off the wagon in a very big way.)
Now Ari just has to break the news to Dana…

This season winds down at the Medellin premiere, where the audience pretty much gives their thumbs down—and some boos—to the film (just as E feared they would). Dana thanks Ari for not having bought the film, Billy gets vocal, and Yair backs out of the deal, since no papers were signed.
Harvey sidles up to the boys, and agrees to buy the film, since he actually agrees with E that there’s something in Medellin.
Of course, he agrees to buy Medellin for $1. (As Ari points out after they take the deal, Harvey did wonders for Shakespeare In Love when he took his scissors to it…)


Meanwhile, it’s actually the episode’s Johnny Drama subplot that leads up to the episode’s final scene.
It turns out that Drama’s a big thing in France because of Viking Quest, and he meets Jacqueline (Julia Levy-Boeken) on Yair’s yacht. Jacqueline (along with the rest of her family) is a huge Viking Quest fan, and she’s so ready to get into bed with Drama.
When they get back to the hotel though, the room Drama’s given (after a mix up with his reservation) is far too small for his taste and doesn’t align with the ideal image in his head of his bedroom encounter with Jacqueline. So he goes off to complain, leaving her in the room to wait for his return.
And in true Johnny Drama fashion, gets kicked out of the hotel.
He subsequently tries to hook up with Jacqueline again, but can’t seem to find her. He eventually returns to Yair’s yacht, but she’s not there either. Drama ends up spending the night at the yacht, which is why he’s there when Turtle makes that ill-advised comment about Medellin’s going price.
It’s at the red carpet of the Medellin premiere that Jacqueline shouts at Drama from the crowd, and he takes her up in his arms and whisks her off to the beach. Drama misses the premiere, but ends up having long, hot sex with Jacqueline on the beach, which is where the paparazzi and passersby are rushing off when Vince and the boys exit the premiere with the $1 Medellin booty.
They flock to the beach as well, where they cheer Johnny on, and we close on another season of Entourage.

Parting shot: Season 5 is tentatively scheduled to air in mid-2008, provided the WGA strike ends soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed...

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 11
“No Cannes Do”
Written by Doug Ellin and Rob Weiss
Directed by Dan Attias

Vince and the boys are set to leave for the Medellin premiere at Cannes, when a red level terror alert delays their flight by three hours. With time to kill, Billy asks for a meeting with Anna, whom he wants in Silo. E reluctantly sets it up and the meet goes down.
At the meeting, Anna is clearly seeking help from E as to whether she should take the project, but E doesn’t give her any indication either way.
Meanwhile, LAX gets shut down completely and the boys have no way to get to Cannes. So Ari gets Lloyd to scramble, and they find that the last private flight getting out has been chartered by Sydney Pollack.
Ari gets in touch with Pollack (who turns out to have been Ari’s client once, before Pollack fired him) and manages to wrangle 5 seats to Cannes.

Following the meeting with Anna, Billy is now even more convinced he wants her in Silo, and is willing to re-write a part to fit her in. And because Billy wants her in, Vince wants her in too. But E doesn’t really believe in the script, so he’s caught in the middle: he’s supposed to convince one client to say “Yes” to a project he’s not 100% behind because his other client (and best friend) wants him to.
E then gets a call from Anna, and since they aren’t leaving for Cannes just yet, goes on over to see her.
After having read the script, Anna doesn’t get it, and wants E’s honest opinion as to whether she should do Silo or not. At first, E convinces her that she should do it. But during their toast to celebrate Anna’s new film project, honesty comes into play, and E admits to his crush on Anna, and Anna admits she thought he was cute too.
With all that honesty out there, E ‘fesses up and admits he doesn’t like Silo.
Cut away in what turns out to be a sadly truncated subplot. (E tells the boys later on that Anna fired him.)

Getting to the Van Nuys airport, it turns out that Ari miscounted the number of heads. It looks like Turtle is about to forego Cannes, when Vince says it’s everybody or nobody, and they’ll just have to find another way to get to Cannes.
Fortuitously, Kanye West shows up, and Turtle knows him. Seems Kanye is headed out on his own 727, and when Vince and the boys ask him if they can make a stop at Cannes, Kanye says “Yes.”


During all the “will they get to Cannes or won’t they” drama, Ari is caught between Mrs. Ari (who’s annoyed at Ari because he just can’t come out and say that he doesn’t really want her to come along on this boys’ field trip) and Lloyd (who’s annoyed at Ari because he promised that if Mrs. Ari wouldn’t go to Cannes, that he’d take Lloyd; when the Pollack head count goes into effect though, Lloyd is the first to get deep sixed).
So Mrs. Ari goes on some vendetta shopping and Lloyd takes Tom on a cruise, and both wife and assistant still love Ari before he wings his way off to Cannes.

So this one’s a great episode, despite having Anna Faris say “Bye-bye” in a very “blink of an eye” way. She was a lot of fun and I’m sort’a bummed to see her go after just 3 episodes. But hey, at least she was here.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 4
“Sorry, Harvey”

Drama is taking the mayor of Beverly Hills out for the night, as he wants his condo (presently right at the border of L.A. County and Beverly Hills) to be part of an annexation that’s up for a vote. Johnny’s sucking up to the mayor, who wants to meet Vince. So Drama ropes Vince in, to help his cause.
Meanwhile, E girds his loins for his face-to-face with Harvey, who is under the impression that they’re all going to Cannes together, in glory. E has to face the notoriously volatile Hollywood power player, and tell him, “Well, we’ve screwed you again.”

At a club, Drama sets the mayor up with Anika, who as it turns out, is a transvestite. When Drama tells the mayor, he is at first shocked, but then asks for discretion from Drama, as he feels a “connection” with Anika, and doesn’t really care what’s under the skirt.
But when the mayor leaves with Anika, exactly what’s under the tranny’s skirt is caught on camera, and pops up on the Internet the next morning, effectively sounding the death knell on both the mayor and Drama getting a nine-oh-two-one-oh zip.
And E’s attempts at telling Harvey keep on getting aborted, until Drama gets tired of the song-and-dance and blurts it out, sending Harvey into an apoplectic fit.


There’s also one of the best guest turns on the show thus far, as M. Night Shyamalan has Ari read his next script. (The details are just too much fun to disclose here. Try and watch the episode if you haven’t seen it yet!)

Parting shot: One wonders what the Entourage writers have against Harvey. (The real Harvey, I mean…)

(Episode image courtesy of hbo.com; M. Night Shyamalan image courtesy of ifmagazine.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 3
“Malibooty”

E sleeps on his less than enthusiastic reaction to Billy’s first cut of Medellin. The next morning, he thinks with a little judicious editing, the film will be great.
When he drops by Billy’s, he’s given a DVD of the crackerjack trailer for the film. But when he tries to broach the subject of trimming the movie down, Billy pulls out the Final Cut card, and tells E to go frak himself. He also drops the bomb: he’s sent the cut off to Cannes and is waiting for a response.
E’s knee-jerk reaction: get Billy away from Medellin, ‘cause if Cannes rejects the movie, then everyone’s gonna know it’s a turkey.

And while Drama and Turtle have some sexual hi-jinx with a mom and her overweight friend (what happened to Kelly, Turtle?), Vince ends up at Dennis Hopper’s house.
Meanwhile, E talks to Ari about the whole Medellin thing. Since E wants Billy off the film, Ari has a solution: sell the film to someone else, who can then send Billy packing. And Ari has just the right target: Harvey, who the boys met (and ultimately screwed when Vince took the Aquaman offer) at Sundance.
But when Ari hears that Vince actually likes Billy’s first cut, he tells E to go frak himself.
So E sets up the meet with Harvey all by himself.
At the meeting, Harvey warns E not to screw around with him again. Harvey watches the trailer…

When E gets back to the condo, he puts Harvey’s offer in front of Vince: $25 mil; E sold a whole movie on the strength of a trailer! But just as important as the money, the film can be blocked from Cannes, where E still fears it will be rejected.
But it turns out that Medellin was accepted at Cannes, and now E has to tell Harvey that the film is no longer for sale (at least, not until the bidding war at Cannes).

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)