The Difficulty Of Mixing Horror & Humor In 'Velvet Buzzsaw' & 'Piercing' [AYT Podcast]

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I dig into two new horror movies that infuse the genre with humor and oddball, off-kilter twists and turns. Or, at least, they try. There’s the latest from “Nightcrawler” writer/director Dan Gilroy, “Velvet Buzzsaw,” launching on Netflix today, the art world satire mixed with “Final Destination” like slasher cliches. And on the back half of the episode we dig into “Piercing,” the sophomore feature from Nicolas Pesce, whose debut “The Eyes Of My Mother” disturbed and horrified us and got our attention years ago.

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“Velvet Buzzsaw” may just be the dumbest title for a movie in a while, but at least it stands out compared to the generic one-word titles we so often see these days. And watching the movie works like that in many ways, often goofy and tonally all over the map, it at least stands out for being strange and bold, but is nonetheless a mixed bag for us. (Read the review from out of Sundance). We find much more to appreciate and easily recommend for “Piercing,” another adaptation from a Ryu Murakami novel, whose “Audition” was memorably brought to the screen by Takashi Miike in 1999. Both films make for a good glimpse into the dexterity in modern horror cinema. And so, we discuss!

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