¡QUÉ HORROR! 2020
The (Premature) Wrap-Up
So.
We really don't need a recap here of what's been going on in TFNY 2020.
We’re all living in the same waking nightmare,
after all.
Deep diving into that here seems repetitive and
pointless, given that it’s everywhere you look.
This is
what I’d like to say here:
I’ve always made it a point at the Iguana to give
my ¡Qué horror! recommendations without making any
overt references to what’s going on in my personal life.
And that’s because, as far as I’m concerned, we’re
here to celebrate horror, and these films and TV shows that get the ¡Qué horror! seal of approval? They’re meant to
exist outside of time, to be
appreciated today, and years from now, regardless of what’s going on with me.
But, as brutally proven by TFNY 2020, this has been
a year of many, many firsts, precious
few of them, if any, good.
For the first time, my Watchlist queue has backed
up not because I haven’t had the time to sit down and watch something (we have,
after all, in TFNY 2020, an overabundance
of time, all COVID-melty and oddly exhausting though it may be), but rather
because, for the most part, the all-too-real horror happening all around us has
been enough for me, thank you very
much.
I didn’t need some fictional horror story to narratively
induce fear and worry and anxiety because we were all already marinating in
that particular stew of dread…
And as October began to loom (October? October?!) and the number of Candidates
hadn’t even hit two digits, much less 13, I realized I had little choice but to
write this post.
So.
If you’re still in the mood for some ¡Qué horror!-approved horror this fast-approaching
Halloween, then please, feel free to consider the 7 Candidates thus far as
Finalists this year. (Plus, an additional two-ish; see below.)
In the meantime, I should also say that, at this
point, I can’t tell when my current
attitude towards horror will shift, or revert back to its usual Lifelong
Horrorhead levels.
It will, of course, depend greatly on how TFNY 2020
continues to unfold.
I’d like to think that, every once in a while, I’ll
try and make a dent in my Watchlist queue, which continues to lengthen, given
my recent neglect of it…
I just don’t know if I’ll be doing the whole ¡Qué horror! Candidate posts thing (as I said,
COVID time is oddly exhausting)…
For the time being, I think I’d like to use the
Iguana to highlight what’s been keeping me sane these days, and that’s the
comics side of my life.
That side has never really been “easy” (and the
logistics end of self-publishing comics in TFNY 2020 has become exponentially more difficult), but
there’s something to be said about spending time in the headspace of characters
who are meant to be inspirational, about writing and telling stories that hopefully
move and uplift…
So I’ll continue to make ‘Verse comics
announcements here whenever there’s any news (and yes, there should be a ‘Verse
post coming up soon-ish), that, I’m certain of.
In the meantime though, to close out this
(Premature) ¡Qué horror! 2020 Wrap-Up, two more titles you can
safely consider ¡Qué horror! 2020 Finalists…
one of which, I viewed quite a while back…
THE HUNT
(March 2020)
“What is this Avatar
sh!t?!”
Director Craig Zobel (who helmed three episodes of The Leftovers, including the pivotal “International Assassin”)
reunites with Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof to gift us with absurdist levels of
gory, over-the-top violence in The Hunt.
Despite the premature “controversy” in the wake of
the trailer’s initial release, this title insists on equal opportunity ribbing,
as shots are taken at both sides of the American sociopolitical divide, with a
notable cast that includes Hilary Swank, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Amy
Madigan, Ethan Suplee--as “(Shut the F*** Up) Gary”--and an uncredited Justin
Hartley.
“This seems a
little obvious, like, like maybe they wanted us to find it.”
“Depends on
whether they’re smart pretendin’ to be idiots, or idiots pretendin’ to be
smart.”
and the other, one I viewed a lot more recently…
ANTEBELLUM
(September 2020)
“Accept what
you are. You are nothin’!”
If you’ve seen the trailer for Antebellum, then I’m spoiling nothing here by saying this:
Whatever the plot mechanics may be as to how the
narrative bridges the Civil War and present day scenarios, the film is clearly
about race.
And even if you see the trick coming, that doesn’t
make Antebellum any less harrowing,
opening as it does with a particularly difficult 13-minute section.
As she proved in the second season of Homecoming, Janelle Monáe is a potent
lead, but I’d also like to point to both Gabourey Sidibe and Jena Malone, for bringing
interesting textures to their supporting roles.
Antebellum is
the feature debut of co-writers/-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz,
and it’s a provocative first shot.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for the
duo…
“This doesn’t
end here. We’re nowhere… and everywhere…”
and for the -ish… something I also viewed quite a
while back, and it qualified as an -ish since it’s a single episode of a TV series…
Osgood Perkins’ blackly comic, entertainingly biting
indictment of human consumerism, “You Might Also Like,” his contribution to the
second season of Peele-era The Twilight
Zone.
This Perkins-described “bacon-wrapped hotdog” of an
episode may not look it at first glance, but the connection the writer/director
makes between the particular emotion that so consumes Gretchen Mol’s Janet, and
consumerism itself… well, that’s horror right there…
“The Egg will make everything okay again. And this time it will
be okay forever.”
So.
There we are.
I truly hope you’re all
keeping safe (and sane) out there.
And have a Happy(?) and safe-slash-responsible Halloween, however
you choose to celebrate it.
(The Hunt OS’
courtesy of impawards.com; Antebellum OS
courtesy of screenanarchy.com.)
