X (March 2022)

 

X

(March 2022)

“That's right. The deviants are already amongst us, waiting for our sons and daughters. So heed dire warnings and repent before it is too late.”

Less than 24 hours in rural Texas in 1979 turns out to be enough time to build up to a disturbing and horrendous bloodbath in Ti West’s thunderous Iguana return with X.

As intimated by its title, X follows the cast and (minimal) crew of the, ahem, “adult” film, The Farmer’s Daughters, as they shoot on the sly at an isolated Texas farm.

Dreams of wealth and fame all come crashing down though, because this is “one G*ddamn f*cked up horror picture” from Ti West, after all…

“We shouldn’t disturb him. It would only make him angry. You wouldn’t like Daddy when he’s angry.”

West has been messing about on the TV front for the past few years (stray episodes of The Exorcist and Wayward Pines among his small screen work), so his return to silver screen horror is most welcome.

The fact that X comes not just with a soon-to-follow prequel (Pearl) but also a planned sequel, makes things all the more (heh) X-citing, even though this does look like the beginnings of the dreaded “F” word.

(Uurrmm… franchise?)

Still, West does remind us, “You can’t make a slasher movie without a bunch of sequels.”

And the fact is, X does position itself as a slasher, albeit one with other things on its mind aside from gory kills.

Prominently, it takes cues from cinema (and cinematic movements) at large to inform its narrative approach.

X is also juuuust self-aware enough so that West can occasionally remind us that there’s some grindhouse fun to be had here as well.

“Everybody likes sex. It’s a gas. We’re just not afraid to admit it. Queer, straight, black, white… It’s all disco.”

While there is an actual drug that’s showcased in X, the addiction that ultimately proves to be the most dangerous here is our very human attachment to youth (with the promise of ever-elusive fame coming in a close second).

Most of the film’s characters (played by familiar genre faces like Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, and Brittany Snow) still have their youth and are quite brazen about that; a couple of other characters don’t, and it’s the friction between those two groups that sets off X’s slasher powder keg.

So, come in for readily on-display “f*cked up horror,” but stay for all the substance beneath the bloody celluloid skin that West manages to explore here.

“Porn ain’t only gonna be for perverts no more.”

“Awww… Toast to the perverts. They’ve been payin’ our bills for years.”

“Hear, hear. To the perverts.”

Parting Shot:

Previous Ti West Iguana appearances may be found here and here, while mentions of TV’s The Exorcist may be found here and here.

(X OS’ courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com & twitter.com.)

SYNCHRONIC (September 2019)

SYNCHRONIC
(September 2019)

“You drop the needle on the song you wanna play, but they’re all always there. These tracks are like time. Synchronic is the needle.”
 
The excellently adventurous Messrs. Benson and Moorhead are back* with the compellingly absorbing Synchronic.
In it, Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan play best friends and paramedic partners whose job brings them into the orbit of the latest designer drug to hit Louisiana, the titular “Synchronic.”
Originally “… meant to be a DMT-like drug,” Synchronic turns out to be something else altogether.
 
I’ve loved these guys’ feature work since their co-directorial debut, Resolution, on to Spring, and their contribution to V/H/S: Viral, “Bonestorm,” through till The Endless.
And now, we can add Synchronic to that list.
 
There isn’t much to say beyond that, except I suppose, to note to prospective viewers that, while Synchronic comes highly recommended, this doesn’t have the usual horror stylings of their past work.
While there are traces of horror here, it’s decidedly more muted and subtle than their previous films.
 
Okay.
That’s all you’ll get here.
Go on.
Check it out.
 
“The clock just… keeps tickin’ down and the lower that number gets, you realize how f*ckin’ amazing now is. The present is a miracle, bruh.”

* Actually, they're even more back with Something in the Dirt, which just screened last month at Sundance, so you can also look to Synchronic for a sweet Benson/Moorhead fix whilst we wait for Something in the Dirt to be unleashed upon us...

  
(Synchronic OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2020

Candidate #1

READY OR NOT

(July 2019)

“It's true what they say,  the rich really are different.”

Grace (Samara Weaving) is about to marry Alex (Mark O’Brien), thus becoming a part of the (Ahem!) Le Domas Family Games dynasty-slash-empire (as Alex puts it though, it’s “‘Dominion.’ We prefer ‘dominion.’”).

And while Alex’s family’s company has brought joy to the world with such game gems as (Ahem! Ahem!!) Le Bail’s Gambit, he nonetheless describes them as “horrible people.”

Regardless, Grace still wants in.

Much to her regret.

“No, you don’t f*ck Mr. Le Bail. Mr. Le Bail f*cks you.”

Ready or Not is a wildly entertaining ride from Radio Silence, specifically, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who’ve graced previous ¡Qué horror! rundowns with their contributions to V/H/S and Southbound.

And while their first ¡Qué horror! feature Candidate is primarily a comedy (don’t let that one sheet fool you), it does feature horror elements in its narrative, and there’s sufficient gore and repulsion on display to warrant a mention here.

With Adam Brody (as Alex’s older brother Daniel), Andie MacDowell (as family matriarch Becky), and Orphan Black’s Kristian Bruun (as another married-into-the-family, Fitch Bradley) in the cast, Ready or Not is a blackly amusing entry in “The Crazy Sh!t Rich People Do” subgenre.

“F*cking rich people.”

(Ready or Not OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019

Candidate #9

INTO THE DARK

Season 1 Episode 4
NEW YEAR, NEW YOU
(December 2018)

“Do you at least have one for me?”

“I’m sorry! I only have one umbrella!”

“Jesus, Kayla!”

“Who has two umbrellas?”

“Mary f*ckin’ Poppins! I don’t know!”

A New Year’s Eve gathering between four friends from high school goes off the rails when it becomes a brutal opportunity to come to terms with a past tragedy.

That’s the set-up for Into the Dark’s fourth “episode,” New Year, New You.

In this one, Mr. Robot’s Carly Chaikin plays social media influencer Danielle Williams, “… creator of Get Well Danielle and owner of Very Very Vegetable juices,” who’s about to get a big break with an upcoming TV show.

If she survives the night, that is.

“Nothing stands between me and all of my desires.”

Sophia Takal, who appeared in Ti West’s V/H/S segment “Second Honeymoon,” directs from a script she co-wrote with Adam Gaines (who’s credited for the story).

Among other things, Takal uses New Year, New You to highlight the culture of reinvention fostered by social media.

It’s the 21^st century reality we live in, where your millions of followers only know the you that you’ve curated for them, with videos and photos and posts calculated to reinforce your brand.

And where the sins from the shadows of your past are potential land mines waiting to explode and leave your online career in ruins.

And, just to leave us with a stinger, in its closing moments, New Year, New You also--in a ludicrous yet also disturbing way--shows just how dizzying the emotional turnover on the ‘net can be…

“I mean, you know how it is with mob mentality on the Internet, right? It’s not innocent until proven guilty.”

Parting Shot 1:
Takal said to Entertainment Weekly that she hopes the audience “… question[s] the ideas they have about what it means to be successful, what it means to be valuable as a human being. So much of our society is outwardly-focused and focused on external validation, and social media turns us into a product in a way, always needing more and more validation. I think that can be insidious and damaging to people, especially young women.”

Parting Shot 2: 
For some reason, this is the first Into the Dark episode released without its own poster, so I had to resort to a screencap from the trailer for the image above.

I’ll update this post if/when a poster pops up.

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019

Candidate #8

INTO THE DARK

Season 1 Episode 3
POOKA!
(December 2018)

“I'm tellin’ ya, this thing tested through the roof. This is gonna rip Christmas a new a$$hole.”

Well, lookee here!

Señor Nacho Vigalondo is back ‘round these parts, with Into the Dark’s third “episode,” Pooka!

Working from a script written by Gerald Olson, Vigalondo brings us the bleak Christmas tale of Wilson (Nyasha Hatendi), who’s come to Los Angeles to “start over,” only to have his “blank slate” apparently begin to be written over by the devious machinations of a disturbingly sinister-looking mascot costume.

In Pooka!, there are horrors amidst the absurdities, and absurdities amidst the horrors.

And, drifting in and out and through the festive carols and twinkling Christmas lights, we catch fleeting glimpses of the demeaning nature of the audition process and the tellingly rude reality of flash-in-the-pan success, and hear the echoing, ultimately hollow apologies of the serial abuser.

Happy Christmas?

Not so much in Pooka!

“Look at all the pretty lights…”

Parting Shot: There are mentions of Vigalondo’s Los Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes) here, and his contribution to V/H/S: Viral here.

(Into the Dark: Pooka! OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

10 Slots for the Best Horror I've Seen in the Past Year
[4 of 10]

THE RITUAL

(September 2017)

"Makes you feel insignificant, right?"

"Speak for yourself.”

“Come on, man, where’s your soul? These mountains were smashed out by Nordic gods with big bastard hammers!”

David Bruckner’s The Ritual is the latest in the long and (un)hallowed line of horror films that warn us that man was not meant to traipse through the deep, dark woods.

You may recognize Bruckner as a ¡Qué horror! regular, having been on the rundown three previous times--in 2008, on the inaugural online ¡Qué horror! list (for his “transmission” in The Signal); in 2012 (for his contribution to V/H/S, “Amateur Night”); and in 2016 (for his contribution to Southbound, “The Accident”*).

So if you’re keeping tabs, then it becomes quite clear that The Ritual is Bruckner’s first feature film that’s landed a ¡Qué horror! slot, and a solid title it is.

Working with a script by Joe Barton (who’s written for Humans), based in turn on the novel by Adam Nevill, Bruckner gives us a tense nailbiter that follows four friends from university, as they hike Kungsleden (“King’s Trail”), running between Sweden and Norway, a vacation that turns out to be a terrible decision, as indicated by the tagline displayed on the quad above.

Bruckner and company** kill it with this one…

“Well, this is clearly the house we get murdered in.”

* Or, alternately, “Accident”. (Even on the official Dark Sky Films website, it’s referred to by both titles…)

** Amongst the film’s executive producers, the one and only Andy Serkis.

(The Ritual UK quad courtesy of empireonline.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018 [2 of 10] THE ENDLESS (2017)

10 Slots for the Best Horror I've Seen in the Past Year
[2 of 10]

THE ENDLESS

(April 2017)

"Can you have power over yourself if you give up any amount of authority to something else?”

Okay, full disclosure, I have, thus far, loved all the cinematic work I’ve seen from co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead:

Resolution, which landed squarely in the ¡Qué horror! 2013 rundown (check out the original Candidate post for it here; check the Comments!);

“Bonehead,” their contribution to V/H/S: Viral;

And Spring, which I talk about here, a post where “Bonehead” is also briefly mentioned.

They’re back with their third co-directed feature, The Endless, and yes, indeed, I love it too!

“So a decade ago, I tell you that you’re livin’ in some sort’a death cult, and not only were you not bright enough then to figure it out, you actually came back.

“You are not smart. You never have been, no.

“I mean, all kids are dumb, but you’re like some sort of retarded hobbit or somethin’.”

Benson and Moorhead, playing brothers Justin and Aaron, escaped a so-called “UFO death cult” and have been trying vainly to reintegrate into society for years, but find themselves returning to Camp Arcadia for a “visit” in the hopes that it can help get Aaron out of his “slump.”

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), Aaron’s hopes for closure bear some bizarre and unsettling fruit.

For those of you who’ve already seen Resolution, the experience of watching The Endless will be enriched by that previous viewing of Benson and Moorhead’s initial co-directed feature, and what you saw in Resolution will likewise inform your viewing of The Endless.

Let’s be clear though: you don’t need to have seen Resolution for The Endless to make sense, but if you’ve seen both, it raises your appreciation for both films significantly.

And now, as usually happens here at the Iguana, I will need to leave it at that.

Best to come into The Endless knowing as little as possible, or, to co-opt a line from Hal (Quantico’s Tate Ellington), “Saying more would be like trying to explain an impossible color.”

“Don’t ever give in. Not once.

“The trick to this whole thing is to not be afraid of something that’s… horrifying. And everyone’s afraid of it.

“But if you let it control you one time, it’s gonna f*cking control you over and over again.”

(The Endless OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #9

THE ENDLESS

(April 2017)

"Can you have power over yourself if you give up any amount of authority to something else?”

Okay, full disclosure, I have, thus far, loved all the cinematic work I’ve seen from co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead:

Resolution, which landed squarely in the ¡Qué horror! 2013 rundown (check out the original Candidate post for it here; check the Comments!);

“Bonehead,” their contribution to V/H/S: Viral;

And Spring, which I talk about here, a post where “Bonehead” is also briefly mentioned.

They’re back with their third co-directed feature, The Endless, and yes, indeed, I love it too!

“So a decade ago, I tell you that you’re livin’ in some sort’a death cult, and not only were you not bright enough then to figure it out, you actually came back.

“You are not smart. You never have been, no.

“I mean, all kids are dumb, but you’re like some sort of retarded hobbit or somethin’.”

Benson and Moorhead, playing brothers Justin and Aaron, escaped a so-called “UFO death cult” and have been trying vainly to reintegrate into society for years, but find themselves returning to Camp Arcadia for a “visit” in the hopes that it can help get Aaron out of his “slump.”

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), Aaron’s hopes for closure bear some bizarre and unsettling fruit.

For those of you who’ve already seen Resolution, the experience of watching The Endless will be enriched by that previous viewing of Benson and Moorhead’s initial co-directed feature, and what you saw in Resolution will likewise inform your viewing of The Endless.

Let’s be clear though: you don’t need to have seen Resolution for The Endless to make sense, but if you’ve seen both, it raises your appreciation for both films significantly.

And now, as usually happens here at the Iguana, I will need to leave it at that.

Best to come into The Endless knowing as little as possible, or, to co-opt a line from Hal (Quantico’s Tate Ellington), “Saying more would be like trying to explain an impossible color.”

“Don’t ever give in. Not once.

“The trick to this whole thing is to not be afraid of something that’s… horrifying. And everyone’s afraid of it.

“But if you let it control you one time, it’s gonna f*cking control you over and over again.”

(The Endless OS courtesy of impawards.com.)