“Red Rooms”
Technically, a 2023 movie, “Red Rooms,” made waves with horror fans when it took Fantasia Fest by storm two summers ago— where it won four awards, including Best Film. But it took over a year for Pascal Plante’s third feature to make it to stateside theaters. In retrospect, that’s fitting: a slow build for a slow burn. And this patient, assured character study is certainly that. But “Red Rooms” isn’t just about Kelly-Anne (an icy, magnetic Juliette Gariépe), a Montreal-based model who becomes involved with a high-profile serial murder trial in increasingly unsettling ways. It’s also an acute dissection of our always-online culture and the public’s obsession with true crime. Even worse, “Red Rooms” is ultimately an unflinching look at how the perverse will always titillate parts of us that we refuse to admit are there. As Plante’s detached, dread-filled mise-en-scene further exposes Kelly-Anne’s weird, voyeuristic life, it’s as if he disarms the viewer’s ability to make that refusal, daring you to look away from what he unveils. Kelly-Anne’s true motives in “Red Rooms” may remain a mystery, her actions put that uncomfortable perversity front and center. This movie begs the question: Is it more ethical to watch, or to look away? —NB
“Smile 2”
If you, too, were impressed by the inventive scares and bone-chilling narrative at play in Parker Finn’s debut, “Smile,” rest assured that his sequel dials all of that up to eleven. After she was in a car accident that killed her actor boyfriend, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is preparing for a comeback tour. Unfortunately, she’s not just battling trauma, chronic pain, drug addiction, and an overbearing mother (the brilliant Rosemarie DeWitt)— there’s a grinning entity after her, too. If you’ve seen the first film, you should know not to expect a happy ending, but “Smile 2” expertly strings viewers along, hopping between reality and demonic hallucinations with ease. Unflinchingly dark but never lacking in humor or style, this franchise only seems to be getting better. —LW
“Strange Darling”
If you love horror movies and you’ve yet to see JT Mollner’s “Strange Darling,” GO! Put down your phone, shut down your computer, and put this movie on right now. Anchored by stellar performances from horror pros Kyle Gallner (“Jennifer’s Body,” “The Passenger”) and Willa Fitzgerald (MTV’s “Scream” series), “Strange Darling” tells the disjointed tale of a one-night stand gone wrong. Breathtaking cinematography by Giovanni Ribisi punctuates a winding, provocative narrative that will have you dying to connect the dots. Forget what you think you know about horror movies—about filmmaking in general, really—and let Mollner’s vivid, blood-soaked vision wash over you. You’ll be glad you did. —LW
“Stopmotion”
There are crazy people, and then there are stop-motion animators. It’s about time someone put such obsessive, exacting artistry in the horror spotlight, and who better than the stop motion animator Robert Morgan (“Bobby Yeah”)? This film follows Ella (Aisling Francioni), the daughter and apprentice of a famous stop-motion animator, as she becomes increasingly engrossed by her creative process in the wake of her mother’s death. A chilling meditation on storytelling and the act of creation perfect for fans of Prano Bailey-Bond’s “Censor,” “Stopmotion” is brimming with sights, sounds, and jerky little puppet movements you won’t soon forget. —LW
“Trap”
Mileage seems to vary in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” but this deceptively simple film is actually one of his most complex and layered. A single-setting thriller (mostly), it features a pretty superb and intriguing premise. A man (a brilliant Josh Harnett in a big comeback role) takes his daughter to a pop concert only to discover that the entire performance is a ruse to try and flush out and capture a notorious serial killer on the loose—who he happens to be. In Hitchcockian form, Shyamalan toys with, upends and subverts modern-day notions of suspense— the audience knows he’s the killer, but no one else in the movie knows the truth other than this sociopathic predator himself. Thus “Trap” is a tense, anxious and gripping story of the walls slowly closing in on a fearful trapped rat and how this vermin gets increasingly more panicked and desperate in his attempt to evade the authorities. Then you have Hartnett essentially playing two characters, the killer and the doting father trying not to alert his daughter to his growing alarm, and a man struggling with the way his two disparate identities are forced to collide on one fateful evening. And then (!!), you essentially have two different movies; two acts of a single-setting thriller that’s deliciously entertaining, and then a third act that blows up that formula and becomes something much more psychologically unhinged, darker and tragic, Harnett all the while threading the needle of all its emotional twist and turns. “Trap” might be a bridge too far for some audiences that may not buy the baton hand-off to the second movie within it, but it’s almost inarguable that the level of difficulty that Shyamalan and Hartnett have set for themselves is extremely high. – RP
