Penny Dreadful
SFX's high priestess of horror Blurred lines between real horror and fiction, plus some top notch time travel...
DEATH AND PIZZA
This month I watched a man die. A real human person. And this wasn’t even in a horror movie. This is a moment included in episode one of excellent Netflix documentary Evil Genius, a four-part series telling the story of the “pizza bomber” – a doc about a heist case which begins with a man robbing a bank with a bomb strapped to his neck. The device is the closest thing to a Saw trap I’ve seen in real life and apparently his only chance of escape was to solve a series of riddles designed as a horrendous Easter egg hunt. I don’t know how to feel about this. Although horror gets a bad rep, for me it isn’t actually about death, it’s about survival – or at least about processing death in a safe way. Evil Genius is a great doc, but be warned: there’s nothing safe about it.
LOOP THE LOOP
Movie of the month (not counting the extraordinary Hereditary, which I wrote about last issue) is The Endless. It’s a gorgeous, complicated time travel sci-fi horror which sees two brothers (played by directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson – both excellent) who have escaped a “UFO death cult” revisiting the commune they ran from when their lives on the outside don’t work out as planned. The Endless is twisty and clever, and serves as a sort of sequel to Moorhead and Benson’s debut movie Resolution. A lovely bit of timey-wimey business sees scenes from Resolution included in The Endless in a way that makes total sense (and also totally doesn’t simply because the two films were made five years apart, but go with it). The movie hits DVD in July and Resolution is included as an extra on the special edition so you can watch both and pick apart the details. This is Benson and Moorhead’s third feature (Spring was their second), and it sets them up as some of the most interesting directors in the genre today.
DEAD AGAIN
I constantly tell myself I don’t like zombie movies and then keep finding really good ones. Cargo, a Netflix Original starring Martin Freeman, has managed to add something new to a genre which never seems to die. Based on a short film (but be warned – the short spoils the end of the feature), it follows a father trying to protect his baby daughter against the oncoming apocalypse. This is an Australian film from directing duo Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling – it’s their feature debut having been trainee directors on Daniel Radcliffe movie Jungle, made by Wolf Creek’s Greg McLean – and it’s incredibly assured. Martin Freeman doing Tim from The Office is probably the least interesting thing in it, but the Aborigine subplot with young girl Thoomi (Simone Landers) and her desire to protect her infected dad, as well as some cool but icky FX, make Cargo stand out from your bog-standard undead fare. Emotional, inventive and one of Netflix’s best.
A SERBIAN PROP
Remember A Serbian Film? This was the controversial arthouse horror from Srdjan Spasojevic released in 2010, which was either provocative genius or sick filth depending on who you ask. The director and production company, Unearthed Film, recently tried to set up an exhibition followed by an auction via eBay selling props from the movie – “including heads, bodies, machetes, and more”. “More” included the baby from the infamous “newborn porn!” scene, and according to the A Serbian Exhibition website, eBay has now shut down the auction and removed the listings. What a thing to be outraged about! But then what a thing to want to own! Sites are reporting that the grim prosthetic baby had an opening bid of $6k. With The Human Centipede now a global franchise, there’s big bucks in controversy. And when you can witness real horror like Evil Genius, perhaps we’re all just testing our boundaries. After all, a cosplay reverse bear-trap helmet from Saw is going on eBay for just $97.42.