YELLOWJACKETS Season 1 (November 2021)

YELLOWJACKETS Season 1

(November 2021)

“Something's coming.”

Now here’s a recipe:

 
Take a couple of chunks of Lost; the first, a plane crash; the second, a narrative timeline sliced into two, where we toggle back and forth between the crash and the mysteries and horrors of its direct aftermath, and 25 years later, where we see the survivors still dealing with all their shared, secret trauma.
Oh, and maybe grab some handsful of possibly supernatural craziness from Lost as well, and sprinkle that all over.
 
Then take a chunk of Lord of the Flies, and gender-reverse it, as we witness the trials and terrors of a girls’ high school soccer team who spend over a year and a half(!) out there in the wilderness doing shuddery, unimaginable things in order to survive.
 
Take a number of stand-out established actresses (Tawny Cypress, Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci) and cast them as the adult survivors, then take a number of young and very capable up-and-comers--among them Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers and the current Scream) and Liv Hewson (Santa Clarita Diet)--to fill out the teen roles, some of which are of course, the younger versions of the aforementioned established actresses.
 
Then take a whole bunch of suh-weet needle drops and sprinkle those around too, and what you get, is Yellowjackets.
 
“Of course that’s how it ends. That’s all we are the whole time. It doesn’t matter; we’re just shells with nothing inside.”
 
The feeling has gone, only you and I
It means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna
--“Vienna”
     Ultravox
 
So yeah, on the way to Nationals, the Wiskayok Yellowjackets’ plane crashes in the depths of the Canadian wilderness, the inciting incident of this compelling and compulsive series, which, thanks to that dual timeline, is both a brutal and twisted coming-of-age tale, and an examination of women creeping up on middle age whose lives’ trajectories were forever altered all those years ago, out in those deep, dark woods.
 
And, just to assure you, lest you start to think this is all doom and gloom, let the records show that Yellowjackets has a sense of humor.
Sometimes dark and bleak and black, other times absurd yet somehow still emotionally resonant.
So yes, there are laughs, in betwixt the secrets and the mysteries, the blackmail and the blood and the… ummm… disturbing diet these girls may have had to resort to in order to survive.
And, speaking of surviving, that’s one of the key mysteries that drives the narrative: who exactly survived long enough to get rescued, and what exactly did they have to do to make it out of there.
 
“We won’t be hungry much longer.”
 
And if you bore me,
You lose your soul to me…
--“Gepetto”
     Belly
 
And did I mention the needle drops?
Aside from the ones that get quoted here, you can also savor tracks by Liz Phair, Kim Wilde, The Prodigy, Portishead, and Dinosaur Jr.
Yum!
 
And that theme song!
“No Return” indeed!
Brought to us by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker (who also score the show), and wedded to that disturbo found footage credits sequence!
Chef’s kiss!
 
“I know what I saw. I don’t know what it meant… but I know I saw something. Something was out there with us.”
 
I think it’s strange you never knew…
--“Fade into You”
    Mazzy Star
 
So if all that smells enticing, then hey, you’re cordially invited to this scrumptious mystery box feast, with the Pilot episode directed by Karyn Kusama, and the season finale by Eduardo Sánchez, both names that have graced the ¡Qué Horror! Archives.
Kusama gave us The Invitation, while Sánchez was at the helm of ¡Qué horror! 2010 title Seventh Moon, 2012’s Lovely Molly, and the pre-online ¡Qué horror! Altered.
 
And don’t worry, ‘cause the show’s been renewed for a second season, so we’re at least assured of still more hijinx beyond the kookoo bananas craziness of this wondrously glorious first season.
Goooooo, Yellowjackets!
 
“What? There’s no book club?!”
 
Oh help me Jesus,
get through the storm.
I had to lose her –
to do her harm.
I heard her holler.
I heard her moan.
My lovely daughter –
I took her home.
--“Down by the Water”
     PJ Harvey
 
Parting Shot:
Yellowjackets has just received two nominations at this year’s Writers’ Guild Awards, for Drama Series and New Series.
Competition is stiff in both categories, so we’ll just have to see how things turn out on March 20, when the winners are announced.
 
Yellowjackets also gobbled up two nominations at this year’s Critics Choice Awards, one for Best Drama Series, and the second for Best Drama Actress (Lynskey).
Competition is likewise stiff over there, so we shall see on March 14 how the Critics Choice Association vote…
 
For what it’s worth, once more: Goooooooo, Yellowjackets!
 
“What if the truth is just that we’re all f*cked in the head from what happened to us?”
 
(Yellowjackets key art courtesy of amazon.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019

Candidate #13

UPGRADE

(March 2018)

“I would like to introduce you to my present and the rest of the world’s future.

“I call it ‘Stem.’”

It’s been just over 15 years (Seriously?! 15?!) since Leigh Whannell burst onto the horror scene alongside James Wan with Saw.

And while Wan has gone on to direct titles outside the horror genre like Furious 7 and Aquaman (both of which crossed the $ 1 billion(!) threshold at the box office), Whannell has largely stayed within its confines, also helping birth the Insidious franchise with long-time collaborator Wan.

He then tried out the director’s chair on Insidious: Chapter 3.

Thankfully, he seems to have enjoyed that experience, enough that he’s given us his sophomore feature, Upgrade.*

“I am Stem. The system operating your body for you.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Set in the near-future, where technology has become even more all-encompassing than it already is today, Grey Trace (an excellent Logan Marshall-Green) suddenly finds himself a quadriplegic after a vicious attack.

Bitter and despondent, he’s given a chance to walk again by wealthy tech mogul Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson, who was in Amazon’s recent TV adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock).

But what could have been a second chance at a normal life becomes a bloody vengeance spree with the help of Grey’s new best friend, Stem.

“You now have full control again, Grey.”

Upgrade’s trailer suggests a balls to the wall sci-fi actioner, and the film proves to be that, an occasionally wild and exhilarating ride as Whannell executes some visual acrobatics to convey to the audience Grey’s tech-enhanced mobility. (It should be noted that Upgrade went home with the Midnighters Audience Award from the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival.)

But the film is also spiced up with some gory kills and a potent streak of techno horror, as we get exposed to the fears and anxieties of how technology can impact on our humanity, on both individual and societal levels.

And that streak is wide and prevalent enough to land Upgrade onto this year’s ¡Qué horror! Candidates list.

“I’m sorry. We can’t let them win.”

* He’s also signed on to write and direct a new iteration of The Invisible Man, as well as tackle a remake of Escape from New York (for which he’s writing the script with the possibility of directing also open).

Parting Shot 1:

Reviews for Saw (and Saw IV) can be found here (and here); Insidious made the Candidates list in the ¡Qué horror! 2011 rundown.

More Logan Marshall-Green can be found in ¡Qué horror! 2011 Candidate Devil and ¡Qué horror! 2016 title The Invitation.

Parting Shot 2:
Get Out's very own Georgina, Betty Gabriel, appears here as Detective Cortez.
She's also currently starring in Season 2 of the brilliant, sci fi-tinged espionage show, Counterpart.

(Upgrade OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2016 [3 of 13] THE INVITATION (2015)

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

[3 of 13]

THE INVITATION

(March 2015)

While I wasn't particularly crazy about Karyn Kusama’s previous genre efforts (the live action adaptation of Aeon Flux and Jennifer’s Body)*, her latest feature, The Invitation, is another matter entirely.

Working from a screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (who’d previously worked with her on Aeon Flux), Kusama crafts an exquisite example of slow burn horror as a group of friends who haven’t seen each other in a couple of years are brought back together by the titular invitation, for a night of talk and drinks and a gradually escalating sense of wrongness.

Now, given that that’s all you’ll get here in terms of what the film is about, if seeing familiar genre faces makes you more comfortable, then the likes of John Carroll Lynch, and Michiel Huisman (who’s been conspicuously absent of late from Orphan Black, though is very much present on Game of Thrones), and Logan Marshall-Green, are here for the festivities.

Marshall-Green, in particular, needs to be singled out, as he pretty much anchors the film’s proceedings as Will, who is still dealing with the trauma of a personal tragedy, and is the one most attuned to the wrongness I made mention of earlier.

So, yeah. The Invitation.

RSVP, regrets only.

* I’ve still to find the opportunity to see Kusama’s feature debut, Girlfight, so, who knows, she might have kicked my film geek a$$ really early on, if only I’d caught it when it was first released…

(The Invitation OS’ courtesy of impawards.com & aintitcool.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2016

Candidate #10

THE INVITATION

(March 2015)

While I wasn't particularly crazy about Karyn Kusama’s previous genre efforts (the live action adaptation of Aeon Flux and Jennifer’s Body)*, her latest feature, The Invitation, is another matter entirely.

Working from a screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (who’d previously worked with her on Aeon Flux), Kusama crafts an exquisite example of slow burn horror as a group of friends who haven’t seen each other in a couple of years are brought back together by the titular invitation, for a night of talk and drinks and a gradually escalating sense of wrongness.

Now, given that that’s all you’ll get here in terms of what the film is about, if seeing familiar genre faces makes you more comfortable, then the likes of John Carroll Lynch, and Michiel Huisman (who’s been conspicuously absent of late from Orphan Black, though is very much present on Game of Thrones), and Logan Marshall-Green, are here for the festivities.

Marshall-Green, in particular, needs to be singled out, as he pretty much anchors the film’s proceedings as Will, who is still dealing with the trauma of a personal tragedy, and is the one most attuned to the wrongness I made mention of earlier.

So, yeah. The Invitation.

RSVP, regrets only.

* I’ve still to find the opportunity to see Kusama’s feature debut, Girlfight, so, who knows, she might have kicked my film geek a$$ really early on, if only I’d caught it when it was first released…

(The Invitation OS’ courtesy of impawards.com & aintitcool.com.)