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lucymonster(Yup, still sick and out of commission. Here are three more silver linings.)
Host (2020): As my horror binge has continued, I've already started to notice diminishing returns on the actual fear element - desensitisation, you know? But this one gave me a good hard scare. Set during the COVID pandemic, it's a little under an hour long and confined entirely to a Zoom call between a group of friends who have decided to conduct a virtual seance. The seance works. Aside from being scary as fuck, I really enjoyed how the film made use of the weirdness of life during lockdowns: new relationships forced to turn prematurely cohabitating, established friendships strained by distance, one of the characters reflexively stopping in the middle of a terrifying demonic manifestation to put on her mask before leaving the house. The storytelling is super lo-fi and pared-down, and I think it's a really good example of how a simple idea done cheaply and right can outperform many more lavish productions.
Halloween (1978): I have now watched the first instalments of all the "big three" teen slasher franchises, and this was by far my favourite. Michael Myers is an ontologically evil six-year-old who murders his teenage sister right after she's done having sex. Fifteen years later, he escapes from an insane asylum and goes back home to kill a bunch more teenagers before, during or immediately after sex. Jamie Lee Curtis is such a lovable Final Girl in this, and the music has to be up there with some of the most memorable movie theme songs of all time. I think I disagree very firmly with John Carpenter's conjecture that a pure, inhuman killing machine would be scarier than an actual character with actual motives, but I do admire the total lack of pretence to deeper meaning. Sometimes you want to watch "elevated" horror with Themes and Meaningful Stakes and shit; other times you just want to watch a monster in a mask cut people up for no reason.
White Zombie (1932): Did you guys know that zombies originate from Haitian folklore? Because I did not! In their original form, they are not plague-spreaders or brain-eaters but cheap, mindless labour in thrall to the sorcerers who raised them; early Western use of the lore seems to have revolved around zombies being forced to work on sugar plantations. In White Zombie, the first ever zombie movie, that is exactly what's happening. But one plantation owner takes the exploitation further when he enlists the help of sorcerer Bela Lugosi to zombify Madeleine, the newlywed woman he's obsessed with, and compel her into his romantic servitude. It is a gloriously silly story, shoddily produced by contemporary standards and almost comical by today's; I loved it anyway, not least for the maiden-in-trailing-gown-traipses-sadly-through-massive-gothic-castle vibes it delivered par excellence. And Bela Lugosi is, as always, brilliant. His smug, smirking expressions managed to be simultaneously hilarious and intimidating; I feel like even in intentional comedy-horror, those two emotions usually have to take turns? Good times.
Host (2020): As my horror binge has continued, I've already started to notice diminishing returns on the actual fear element - desensitisation, you know? But this one gave me a good hard scare. Set during the COVID pandemic, it's a little under an hour long and confined entirely to a Zoom call between a group of friends who have decided to conduct a virtual seance. The seance works. Aside from being scary as fuck, I really enjoyed how the film made use of the weirdness of life during lockdowns: new relationships forced to turn prematurely cohabitating, established friendships strained by distance, one of the characters reflexively stopping in the middle of a terrifying demonic manifestation to put on her mask before leaving the house. The storytelling is super lo-fi and pared-down, and I think it's a really good example of how a simple idea done cheaply and right can outperform many more lavish productions.
Halloween (1978): I have now watched the first instalments of all the "big three" teen slasher franchises, and this was by far my favourite. Michael Myers is an ontologically evil six-year-old who murders his teenage sister right after she's done having sex. Fifteen years later, he escapes from an insane asylum and goes back home to kill a bunch more teenagers before, during or immediately after sex. Jamie Lee Curtis is such a lovable Final Girl in this, and the music has to be up there with some of the most memorable movie theme songs of all time. I think I disagree very firmly with John Carpenter's conjecture that a pure, inhuman killing machine would be scarier than an actual character with actual motives, but I do admire the total lack of pretence to deeper meaning. Sometimes you want to watch "elevated" horror with Themes and Meaningful Stakes and shit; other times you just want to watch a monster in a mask cut people up for no reason.
White Zombie (1932): Did you guys know that zombies originate from Haitian folklore? Because I did not! In their original form, they are not plague-spreaders or brain-eaters but cheap, mindless labour in thrall to the sorcerers who raised them; early Western use of the lore seems to have revolved around zombies being forced to work on sugar plantations. In White Zombie, the first ever zombie movie, that is exactly what's happening. But one plantation owner takes the exploitation further when he enlists the help of sorcerer Bela Lugosi to zombify Madeleine, the newlywed woman he's obsessed with, and compel her into his romantic servitude. It is a gloriously silly story, shoddily produced by contemporary standards and almost comical by today's; I loved it anyway, not least for the maiden-in-trailing-gown-traipses-sadly-through-massive-gothic-castle vibes it delivered par excellence. And Bela Lugosi is, as always, brilliant. His smug, smirking expressions managed to be simultaneously hilarious and intimidating; I feel like even in intentional comedy-horror, those two emotions usually have to take turns? Good times.
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Date: 2026-05-30 02:54 am (UTC)