PENNY DREADFUL
SFX HIG PRIESTESS OF HORROR
Folk horror, woodland terror and Anne Hathaway’s own private monster... LADY PARTS
Four directors, two X chromosomes (each, not between them), and one smart (but slightly hit-and-miss) anthology movie. XX hits DVD this month. The best is The Birthday Party, directed by Annie Clarke, aka the electropop musician known as St Vincent, starring Melanie Lynskey as a mum trying to throw her kid a party. A true horror (and very funny).
The Box, by Jovanka Vuckovic was my least favourite – surprising as it was based on a story by Jack Ketchum – about a boy who looks in a mysterious box and suddenly stops eating. Karyn Kusama’s Her Only Living Son is a sort of cheeky sequel to Rosemary’s Baby while Roxanne Benjamin’s Don’t Fall is reminiscent of Greg McLean’s The Darkness – the four are tied together by gorgeous animation from Sofia Carrillo. Presumably I don’t need to point out why it’s such a great thing this movie exists given the scarcity of female directors – and though I didn’t love every second of it, as a whole it’s more than the sum of its parts. A note on the title though, which is a total terror – unless you like Xander Cage or are looking for porn, it’s best to google one of the director’s names if you’re trying to find it.
IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS...
This May a season of Folk Horror is coming to the Barbican. Not familiar with the term? This is a subgenre exploring paganism and the occult in rural settings – the three key movies (according to Mark Gatiss who coined the term) are The Wicker Man, Blood On Satan’s
Claw and Witchfinder General. This new season is called Into The Woods, and is curated by Cigarette Burns (mavens of cult cinema). There are a range of movies screening, but head programmer at Cigarette Burns, Josh Saco, gives his own special recommendations. “My top picks are the tiny contained American indie fantasy Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural and the slow-burn assault of Native American folklore rarity Eyes Of Fire,” he says, “though Viy is also a magical film, hardly contained by its Soviet roots, but punches so far beyond its weight it may as well be a lead in a Rocky film.” Into The Woods runs until the 25 May. Head to the Barbican for details, and if you can’t make the screenings, dig these gems out on import.
MONSTER HANGOVER
In a corner of a kids’ playground in a small town in America there is a spot that is forever Korea. Movie of the month goes to Colossal, which, okay, isn’t strictly a horror movie but is so strange and genre-crossing that I reckon it counts. Anne Hathaway is the alcoholic woman who moves to her home town after a personal crisis and discovers she can control the movements of a massive Kaiju in Seoul. It’s a fable of personal responsibility and a story about messed-up people that’s both really funny but also tense, dark and weirdly moving. This is the latest from Nacho Vigalondo who made Timecrimes and Extraterrestrial – both excellent genre movies. There’s also a giant robot. Pacific Rim eat your heart out.
TRAILER TERROR
If you don’t mind your horror postapocalyptic and quite bleak, I might have just seen the trailer for your new favourite film. It Comes At Night premiered at the Overlook Film festival to rave reviews. Joel Edgerton is the patriarch of a family holed up in the woods in the aftermath of a plague. Living with his wife and 17-year-old son, they maintain a semblance of safety until a stranger with his own family seeks refuge with them and upsets the balance. The director is Trey Shults and its tone is being likened to The Witch. Watch the trailer and keep an eye out for this in June.