THE REVEREND’S REVIEW
FT’s resident man of the cloth REVEREND PETER LAWS dons his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot!
The perennial accusation that “Horror Films Exploit Women” sounds a bit old-hat these days. After all, the genre has a long tradition of female empowerment. There are three examples in this month’s new releases. My favourite is Jakob’s Wife, (Shudder Originals, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital), the story of Anne, a pastor’s spouse who has abandoned her ambitions of travel and adventure and now sits quietly in church listening to her husband preach; she cooks him breakfast and when he talks over her at parties, she doesn’t complain. Yet frustration is bubbling under the surface, and half an hour of home-based aerobics isn’t enough to ease it. Liberation comes not with an affair (though she’s tempted), but when she’s attacked by a rat-toothed vampire. At first, she’s horrified, wondering why normal food holds no appeal, until she shoves her finger into a packet of seeping meat at the supermarket: one suck of the tip and she’s found her new fuel. She switches her frumpy church frock for vampish fashions and shades. She’s physically stronger too, and emotionally confident. She even stands up to Jakob, who, at least at first, is distressed by his middle-aged Christian wife revealing her sexual desires. If you think this sounds like Teen Wolf for grownups, it’s more complex than that, particularly in its treatment of Anne’s relationship with Jakob, which could have so easily been painted in black and white. We’re left with a funny, weird and charming tale of love and commitment – only with necks splitting open and explosions of blood. Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden make for a touchingly realistic married couple. They have their simmering rages for sure, but there’s love there, too.
Girl With a Straight Razor (Darkside Releasing, Blu-ray) is an ultra-low budget ‘thriller’ about a mother estranged from her child. She takes out her frustrations by stalking and slashing women in the street. Director Chris Alexander describes his work as “elevated exploitation”, but some will think he’s elevated it so high that he’s pitched it right over their heads. Not a lot happens, apart from super-long takes of the ‘Girl’ sitting in a chair. In fact, the entire first three minutes is her putting lipstick on, in slow motion. It’s not that gory, the kills all feel the same, and it sometimes feels like a student film. Yet, if you’re up for a hypnotic, low budget, arthouse experience, it may well appeal, despite, or rather because of, all that.
Finally, we have Séance, (Shudder Originals, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital), about a schoolgirl clique stalked by a ghost and a killer at an Academy for Girls. The workaday story could have done with more scares, but flashes of clever cruelty do come through, like the threat of a long nail hammered into a knee cap. Talented writer-director Simon Barret pulls off his first feature with production panache, but one hopes his next effort will crank up the wildness of the story a little more.
A weird and funny tale of love and commitment with explosions of blood