“Spree”
In aesthetic terms, Eugene Koltyarenko’s film most resembles a screenlife movie where the action unfolds entirely within the frame of a digital device. Though, rather than view the confines of the screen as his limitation, he does something craftier by embedding the content of phone screens throughout. Koltyarenko presaged this style in his debut, “Wobble Palace,” a satirical and sociological comedy about two narcissistic millennial progressives too consumed with the action inside their phones to notice the oblivion of Donald Trump’s election on the immediate horizon. There’s barely a moment where the action on a phone in “Wobble Palace” doesn’t spill over and live alongside images of reality, a visual style Koltyarenko pushes even further in his latest feature. –Marshall Shaffer
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“The Beach House”
Parts of Cape Cod bustle with so much tourism that mistaking the region as one teeming with life is easy. Parts of coastal Massachusetts feel sleepy even in peak season and downright abandoned the rest of the year. Jeffrey A. Brown’s “The Beach House” treats Truro like a seaside ghost town, taking the casual unease of staying in an empty cluster of vacation homes and using it as a stage for body horror and an alien invasion. The invasion comes from beneath Earth’s own seas, and is justified by academic dialogue about the fragile miracle of life and humanity’s survival: Under the right or wrong conditions, life may either flourish or falter, or in the case of this film, it may mutate into an entirely new kind of life. “The Beach House” probably isn’t comfort viewing as we all prepare to hunker down in our abodes for the next surge of COVID-19, but horror doesn’t usually care about making us feel comfortable. It wants to make us squirm.
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“The Invisible Man”
As horror’s stock has risen since the 2010s, so has the urge among filmmakers to spin subtext into text. Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” succumbs to that compulsion, too, but makes up for supersaturation of theme with peerless craftsmanship; no horror movie in 2020 uses dead space and framing to the same effect, forcing viewers into hyper-paranoid stances as they wonder whether a shot focused on what isn’t there may actually hint at what is. Horror derives scares from what should not be: A bump in the night here, a passing shadow there. “The Invisible Man” finds fear in empty air, which may not empty at all and in which your abuser may be lurking. Science doesn’t go wrong here, as it does in James Whale’s 1933 original. Manhood goes wrong. The point is overemphasized, but Whannell’s dazzling aesthetics win out.
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“The Lodge”
Formally rigorous, this strikingly intimate film from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala scarcely features one jump scare; the entire drama is comprised of static and slow panning shots that create a sense of suffocating doom amidst the confined space. The interaction between Grace and the kids is kept at a minimum, the filmmakers opting instead for icy stares and awkward silences, which builds up anxiety, akin to a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. It might not click with mainstream horror audiences looking to scream on a Friday night, but one must admire the filmmakers’ willingness to trust its audience’s intelligence and disavow familiar horror tropes. -Jordan Ruimy
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“The Pale Door”
Can the horror community come together in agreement that Westerns and B-movie splatter are a perfect pairing? There should be more horror Westerns. There should be more horror movies, at least, that invoke Western iconography. The American frontier was a godforsaken, unforgiving place, where terrors unseen lurked at the edges of dusty town thoroughfares and the periphery of pioneers’ imaginations. “The Pale Door” feels like the sort of bloody affair cowboys regale one another within the wee hours. There’s a joyful DIY sensibility incorporated into the film’s construction, where the shoestring budget is apportioned first toward great practical effects, as well as serious “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “Tales From The Crypt” vibes. “The Pale Door” lacks the polish of either, not to mention subtext but remains a blast regardless. You will not learn about the human condition by watching this movie. You will, however, thrill in the profane pleasure of seeing semi-carbonized crones swarm rustlers and shitkickers in hails of viscera.
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“The Wretched”
In an inspired bit of writing, the narrative of “The Wretched” slices back and forth between the main character’s investigation and his yearning for maternal connection. The script frames divorce and flesh-eating creatures as equal opportunity destroyers—both have the ability to leave someone dead inside. And this raison d’etre puts the Pierce Brothers’ B-picture a notch above your average horror flick. There is ambition and genuine emotion on display that’s all-too-rare in today’s horror flicks. It’s refreshing to see Ben fight for something more than his life. In most modern horror films, teens are thrown into jump scare scenarios just for the sake of cheap thrills. –Asher Luberto
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