I have not read the book, nor do I know Yoder herself, so I was truly watching the film with fresh, unbiased eyes. I remember watching a sneak preview of the film a few months back, with it having a large focus on what the title implies, a mother turning into a dog, the beastliness surrounding motherhood, and a lot of imagery of raw meat. What I was actually met with when watching the film was more of a banal stream of thought, with dog imagery intermittently sprinkled in. There are a few shots of something close to body horror: Amy Adams growing fur, a tail, fangs – but rarely does the film actually delve into the idea or character of Nightbitch.

Instead, the movie is dragged along by monologues about motherhood, more so about how a capitalist society treats mothers as a whole or comparing them to goddesses than truly delving into any ideas of motherhood being animalistic. The film also introduced characters that never fully develop, such as a group of young moms who turn from stereotypes used for satire to Mother’s best friends. Father, Mother’s husband, is disdained by Mother for most of the film for his unequal role in parenting and lack of support he shows Mother, only to have a sudden realization at the end of the film that he needs to be a better parent and partner, where then Mother and Father act like nothing ever happened.

Overall, the film gives us a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of nothing. It lightly taps into the dog and goddess metaphors, marriage dynamics, the idea that raising a child takes a village, and the importance of art, but never sticks to a plot point long enough to be meaningful. It is tonally a mess. You’re never going to replicate an entire book in a 1 hour and 38 minute film, so the filmmakers should have either gravitated to a singular plot idea and produced a film around that, or leaned more into adopting abstraction and made this an art film, rather than trying to be Hollywood friendly.

Embracing the idea that motherhood is a violently transformative experience requires more than a few brief moments of body horror and a handful of dialogue lines, constantly interrupted with platitudes on feminism and quips taken right from a late night sitcom. All of the pieces were there, Yoder is a great storyteller and Amy Adams is a fantastic actress, but when put together, there is no bark and no bite.

The post “Nightbitch” Belongs in the Doghouse appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The story follows the successful son of Henry Frankenstein, Baron Wolf von Frankenstein and his family as they move in to a town suspicious of his family name. Although he is eager for a fresh start, Wolf can’t help but be enthralled by his father’s papers and laboratory from his life changing experiment with the Monster.

Meanwhile a misanthropic old shepherd and grave robber named Ygor knows the secrets of the Monster, and plans to use Wolf to restore the Monster back to life and take revenge on the local town for hanging him.

The technical level of the film may not be mind blowing or game changing, but it retains the impressive makeup artistry of the previous films and the Monster looks as impressively inhuman and frightening as ever. The sets are grand and stylish from the massive castle to the creepy cramped caves around the laboratory.

The score is big and booming like most horror films of the day and serves as a superb exclamation point to each rise in tension.

Son of Frankenstein features an all-star front three of Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff, three legends of an elder age of horror and mystery cinema.

Rathbone is suave and charismatic as Wolf, although while the story continues and he starts to crack, his performance also cracks and gets awkward in an inorganic way.

Lugosi, on the other hand, rocks his role as Ygor from start to finish. Dracula himself joins the film as another sinister character of a spiteful old man with the power of a monster at his whim. He plays the role of the crackpot old coot perfectly with a touch of menace in the right places.

Last but certainly not least, Boris Karloff returns in his signature role as the Monster. All the way down to his frightening growls and uncanny movements, Karloff embodies the terrifying image of Frankenstein’s Monster once again.

Now in the context of the present day, it’s worth discussing that there are two ways to watch this movie. The first way is to watch it for the movie itself and have a silver age scare; the second way is to examine the movie to see what Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein lifted from and parodied.

There’s a number of scenes and elements in Son of Frankenstein ripped off in Brooks’ love letter to the classic series: the inspector with the wooden arm, the use of music to control the Monster, just to name a few.

So in a way Son of Frankenstein serves not only as a continuation of the Frankenstein series, film royalty, but as setting the stage for one of the most brilliantly executed parodies of film ever made.

While it’s not a trend setter like the original or as recognizable as Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein holds it own and with creations like Young Frankenstein, proves that it still has a satisfying amount to offer among the higher classics.

For more Basil Rathbone, check out The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

For more Bela Lugosi, watch another horror classic Dracula. 

The post The Trunk Movie Club: Son of Frankenstein appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I definitely did not go into this reading expecting to hear about a “Demon Lover”/actor with issues involving a sex tape, who’s in love with a former co-star from a movie they were in together, but here I was on a Tuesday night listening to author Kelly Link read from her short story, I Can See Right Through You.

Kelly Link is the author of a few works including Get in Trouble, which got her nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Magic for Beginners, which won a Locus Award for a short story collection, Pretty Monsters, and other books and short stories. The genre that she chooses to write in most often is usually science fiction, horror, or fantasy- something she calls “the fantastic.”

Going into this reading I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a journalism major and someone who writes regularly, I enjoy hearing people read from and talk about their work, even if I’ve never heard of them. After I got over the awe of Hancher, the new performing arts center I hadn’t been in yet, I took my seat and waited anxiously to hear what she was going to read.

When one of the first sentences out of her mouth included the phrase “sex tape” and “demon lover” I wondered what the hell I got myself into. But as she read on from the story I Can See Right Through You I found myself laughing and genuinely curious about what was coming next. So you can imagine my disappointment when she stopped just as it was getting to the part about a missing nudist colony.

After the reading, Link sat down with a PhD from the English Department to have a short conversation, followed by the crowd asking her questions. People asked everything from how to deal with writers block to what inspired her to write fantasy and horror stories. She also talked about her influences, her favorite reads, and Small Beer, a press that her and her husband run that publishes works from other authors.

One of my favorite parts from the discussion is when Link talked about the difficulty of writing about things people already have ideas about. She enjoys writing about ghosts and zombies and the Fantastic but people already have their own ideas of how those things act, what they sound like and what they look like. “It’s difficult to still make it pleasurable to the reader when they already have these ideas in their head.”

This is something that I’ve never thought about, but after hearing realized it’s most likely a problem for a lot of authors. However, after hearing a short piece of her writing its clear that she overcomes this problem fairly easily. The story also jumped from time period to time period and I had no trouble following along and keeping up with what was being read aloud.

Kelly Link is a great writer, and even though I had never heard of her before Mission creek, it’s clear after one night of listening to her that there is a reason she is an award winning author. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future, and seeing what happened to this Demon Lover from I Can See Right Through You. 

Check out her website here or buy one of her books on Amazon.

NY Times Get In Trouble

The post Mission Creek: Kelly Link @ Hancher 4/4/17 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

We begin with a man named Francois (played by Vincent Price), who receives a phone call from his sister-in-law Helene (played by Patricia Owens), claiming that she killed her husband Andre (played by David Hedison) with a hydraulic press. A confused and distraught Francois gets the police involved whom confine the bizarrely behaving Helene to bed. When she becomes hysterical over a simple house fly, Francois and the police inspector start to question her further, and she tells her full side of the story, and the mystery behind Andre’s death unravels.

The Fly boasts superb performances out of its leads, particularly from Hedison and Owens. Hedison is bold and charismatic as Andre, giving the character life from his flights of fancy to his deep love for his wife and child. His wide eyed idealism and his warm presence around his family makes his descent into his experiments sting more and fill the audience with dread. Owens plays the role of the bedeviled housewife witnessing the birth of the terrifying Fly monster. She plays the emotions of complacent, hysterical, and grieving all very well and certainly does not bring down Hedison and Price. Speaking of Price, this time the horror icon plays a more straight and narrow man who cares deeply for his family. His shock and grief is believable and potent, and he once again delivers a memorable performance.

Where the movie does falter in a few areas is in its script. There are times where the lines are not concise enough to be really believable and feel awkward and take away from the film. For example, at the end of the film the police inspector says “I will not forget what I saw for the rest of my life.” Lines like that would be an easy fix by just trimming a couple of words and restructuring the sentence. On the surface it’s a nitpick but the uncanny valley of human dialogue requires that kind of specific attention to detail to work properly and keep the viewer engrossed.

At the present, The Fly functions best as a tragic science fiction drama rather than horror. While the concept of this feature’s creature is certainly grotesque and even chilling, it has been remade and lampooned left and right that it unfortunately loses its punch, with the exception of one truly unnerving scene at the very end. However, The Fly is more than serviceable for what it was in its time.

Interestingly it shares a key concept in common with The Day the Earth Stood Still, that of bewaring dangerous technology, a legitimate fear of the Cold War years. It’s a remarkably unorthodox cautionary tale against science going too far without being too on the nose like The Day The Earth Stood Still was. In fact, I would say it was among the fleet of films to cleverly modernize the “creature feature” to the frightening nuclear age like Godzilla did four years prior (without the deep societal subtext that Godzilla had beyond the arms race). The film is unforgettable, and frankly deserves its spot in the creature feature hall of fame.

And now, some supplementary content.

For more Vincent Price, check out House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill.

For more David Hedison, check out Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Live and Let Die.

The post The Trunk Movie Club: The Fly appeared first on KRUI Radio.

As we get closer to the witching hour of October 31 (and also the Witching Hour festival in Iowa City), my search for scary movies has been ramping up. At first I was satisfied with seeking out unique horror fare that may have delivered in terms of film quality while skimping on the fright factor. Now I am looking for pure terror. What I have found does not necessarily read like a greatest hits of horror films. There is no Exorcist, Halloween, or Rosemary’s Baby.  

These movies and many more have been clearly recognized as some of the scariest movies of all time largely because of their undeniable influence on the horror genre. The films I want to share with you are some slightly grittier gems. A couple are among the most well-renowned recent horror movies, but most should be an enjoyable new find for horror buffs and newbies alike.

Last Shift is a relatively standard horror film. It involves a lone female protagonist stuck in an isolated location. She is a rookie cop working the last shift of a closing police station. There is a sufficiently fleshed-out plot with a few intruiging twists and turns. Most importantly however, once the scares start coming they do not stop. At all. This is the most relentless horror movie I have seen in recent memory, which acts greatly to its benefit.

Other movies try to beat the viewer over the head with jump scares so frequent they act as more of a reflex test. Last Shift earns your attention and drains your stamina with terrifying imagery, suffocating dread, and yes, a few well-executed jump scares. Because Last Shift is so straight forward in its setup, it does not earn a spot in the pantheon of great horror films. It works amazingly however, if all you want to do is make you and your friends terrified to go to sleep after watching it.

There is a well-worn horror rule that no matter how long you keep the monster behind the door, eventually that door has to open. We humans are great at conjuring up the worst things possible in our minds, which is why films like Jaws work so well. Eventually we do have to see the shark though, or the audience loses interest.

There is one movie in recent history, however, that breaks this rule. The Blair Witch Project, the found footage masterpiece that has now spawned two “meh” sequels, was a masterclass in minimalist horror. Its power was in letting the viewer’s mind think up the most spine-tingling things possible. Seriously, the scariest image we get is a guy standing in a corner.

When The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999 it was accompanied by one of the first viral ad campaigns for a movie. The ads were launched to convince the audience that the events depicted in the film were real. Many audience members went in believing that these film students actually went missing while searching for the infamous Blair Witch. This realism serviced the film greatly and let the audience craft the horror in their mind, a feat many films still try but fail to achieve.

The VHS series has been steadily progressing through three iterations. This helps to explain how the absolute best entry of the series, Safe Haven, which is smack in the middle of VHS 2, was seemingly forgotten. The thirty minute movie follows a film crew that is documenting a modestly creepy cult located in Indonesia. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve never seen a movie featuring a cult where the whole organization didn’t go off the rails by the end. If this sounds like a familiar horror plot trope you may be asking what exactly makes this movie so fantastically frightening. First, the progression the film takes from slight unease to genuine shock to utter despair happens so rapidly that as an audience member, you barely have time to react to one event before the plot turns deeper into darkness.

Also, the segment is filled with what I call “Holy shit moments.” While not necessary to a great horror film, “Holy shit moments” are those brief scenes so gut-wrenching that it causes an almost involuntary utterance of the words “holy shit” by the viewer. Bad movies try to fake these by having characters in the film say “holy shit” to try and convince you that what you are watching is indeed crazy as hell. Great movies just show you the goods and let you react. And when a film can pump in three or more of these moments into thirty short minutes, you have something special.

Finally, my search for the most spine-tingling movies brought me back to my own history with horror, specifically when I worked at a movie theater in high school. During our breaks we were permitted to sit in on any movie we wanted, which was a boon to me as I could think of no better way to pass the time. One lunch break I decided to sit in on a movie I hadn’t heard much about: The Descent. It is safe to say that fifteen-year-old me had not yet built up the proper fright threshold for watching such a film.

The Descent follows a group of women on an expedition into a remote cave system. This setup alone could be, and has been, good enough for many different movies. The constant claustrophobia and lack of vision on the screen torment not only the characters but leave the viewer short of breath as well. If that weren’t enough, there also happens to be a race of nasty humanoid creatures that wander around in the tunnel system. The group soon realizes that the reason the cave is so isolated is because no one who had previously attempted the trek had ever escaped. The final act of the film descends deep into a gory abyss of body parts, blood, and viscera that is sure to make its mark deep in your brain.

I hope you are are as terrified of these movies as I am. If not, go find what scares you. Remember, they are just movies. Happy scary movie month!

Watch and Talk is a column about movies. Movies are not always reviewed, they are simply talked about. Watch and Talk discusses the cultural aspects and impacts that movies can have.

The post Watch and Talk: Scary Movie Month Part 2 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I began branching out into what I discovered to be the nearly infinite amount of different genres of horror films: Italian horror, psychological horror, horror comedy, splatter gore, invasion horror. These different movies offered a very unique take on the horror genre and really opened up what the term “scary movie” actually meant to me. Don’t get me wrong, these movies can be terrifying, but they do offer a lot more than simple scares in their storytelling.

Bone Tomahawk (2015) – There are even Western horror movies! Except for some choice scenes, this film is a true Western in every sense of the word. The film follows a group of lawmen led by Kurt Russell who are on a mission to rescue some peaceful townsfolk from prehistoric-appearing cavemen.

There are gorgeous wide open shots of panoramic western plains that make you almost forget you are watching what is classified as a horror movie. Indeed, after the somewhat brutal opening scene the movie eschews nearly all standard horror elements until the film’s finale. The movie is not titled Bone Tomahawk for nothing though. The title object features as the tool of destruction in all of the films grisly bits. These include one scene that, without exaggeration is the single most physically graphic moment I have ever witnessed on film. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Violence aside however, this movie is still worth a watch for both horror fans and seasoned western watchers alike. Just skip the above mentioned scene.

Deathgasm (2015) – Ah yes, the old metal-splatter-horror-comedy subgenre. As its name implies, Deathgasm is a movie not to be taken too seriously. As crazy as it may sound, a movie about two metal heads from New Zealand who accidentally summon an entity from Hell is actually quite silly, and even sweet. Oh yeah and there is a lot of blood. It is called Deathgasm after all. The core characters play well off of each other for occasional dialogue and story-driven moments, but the majority of the film is driven by a kinetic energy reminiscent of, well, a death metal track.

They Look Like People (2015) – This low budget pyschological horror film plays the most like a straight scary movie, but is also incredibly emotionally affecting. It followes a young man named Wyatt who believes that the people around him are turning into monsters that (name drop!) look like people. At the core of the movie is the relationship between Wyatt and his best friend Christian. As Wyatt struggles between his paranoia and preparing himself for the coming invasion, he must decide whether or not to help his friend even though Christian may be a monster himself. The film is very quiet and decisive in its scary moments, which amplifies their effectiveness and builds to a climax that is as heart stopping as it is heart wrenching.

Spring (2014) – What do you get when you combine low-impact yet high caliber dialogue with body horror reminiscent of The Fly? You get Spring, a romantic horror film. Yes, romantic horror films exist. Imagine crossing this year’s Sundance Festival hit Southside with You with John Carpenter’s The Thing. Stretching into even more adventurous territory is Spring , the story a man named Evan who takes a winding vacation to Italy. In his travels, he meets and eventually falls for Louise, a student studying in the field of genetics. That genetics major comes in handy for Louise because it turns out she has bouts of turning into horrific monsters every so often. Other than that, she is a total catch. The movie earns its points in the genuine relationship it builds between Evan and Louise. The viewer completely understands why Evan would stay and offer to help Louise near the end of the film rather than go back home and run away from the challenges she presents.

Holidays (2016) – Anthology horror films are notoriously unbalanced, which should surprise no one. If you get multiple directors together for a film there are sure to be some masterful segments as well as a few floppy duds. Holidays contains eight short films that pay homage to some of the more disturbing elements of our favorite times of the year.

The standout segment is Anthony Scott Burns’ Father’s Day. In the short film, a young woman named Carol receives a cassette tape from her father who she previously thought was dead. The tape contains directions from her father on how to find him as well as an explanation for why he had to leave. Jocelin Donahue gives an emotional and nearly silent performance as a daughter who is simultaneously stunned, grieved, and hopeful at the prospect of finding her father.

Likewise Michael Gross is a standout talent as the perfectly pitched dad, lending an air of fatherly love as well as morbid longing to his voice portrayal of Carol’s father. The conclusion of Father’s Day is left ambiguous, but this does not lessen the impact of the segment as a whole.

I absolutely hate when people get down on horror movies. With such a tremendous variety to choose from, everyone can find one that matches their taste. If none of these worked for you, don’t worry. I’ll be back with more choice horror gems later this month. Happy scary movie month!

Watch and Talk is a column about movies. It seeks to not only review movies, but to simply talk about them. Watch and Talk looks at the various cultural impacts and aspects that movies can have.

The post Watch and Talk: Scary Movie Month appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Remember when the horror movie scene was a barren, frightfully not frightening hellscape of slasher sequels and monster movies so B-grade that they wouldn’t even cut it as celebrities in a VH1 reality show? Me neither. I wasn’t allowed to watch scary movies when I was a kid.

Thankfully the horror film genre has seen a significant uptick in the last few years. Aficionados will tell you that there is no revolution happening as the indie horror scene has been pumping out original work for years. But when studio films reach that point, something amazing is going on.

Don’t Breathe, the latest in a slew of studio horror films that have garnered critical praise in recent years, keeps the nightmares rolling with a taut and tense home invasion story where the invaders are the ones at the end of the knife. The film is succinct in establishing its characters, giving us just enough information to actually invest ourselves in their actions.

A trio of bandits, Alex, Rocky, and Money, are eking out a living performing small time robberies in various homes throughout Detroit. Alex, the straight arrow, uses his dad’s security company connections to pick and choose the easiest houses and establishes a set of rules to keep the robbers safe.

While Alex is more tied to Detroit through his father, Money and Rocky seek to move away and establish a new life outside of the grimy wasteland that is Detroit’s urban center. In order to make that move, some of Alex’s rules will need to be broken.

Money hears about an old, blind war veteran that lives in a decent house in an abandoned suburb of the city and who happens to be sitting on a pile of three hundred thousand dollars.

What first seems to be an easy score turns out to be a gritty and disturbing journey into the abyss. The setting works perfectly with the heroes’ predicament, turning Detroits’ seemingly undisturbed urban jungle into a war zone where there is no where to run, much less hide. To say more of the plot would do a tremendous disservice to Fede Alvarez‘s film. It is superb in its pacing, in that it hardly lets up about twenty minutes into the film.

Add to that a run time of only 88 minutes and the film barely gives you time to catch your breath. Noteworthy sequences include a one shot take of the entire house in which many of its important contents are laid out, unknown to our invading protagonists. The camera lingers on a pegboard filled with gruesome tools, a gun carefully taped under a bed, as well as a bell and locked door that you know are important, but are not yet sure how.

The film is masterful and thrilling, with a memorable plot that contains just enough dark twists and turns to grab and hold viewers attention. A few carefully doled out laughs rounds out the experience. Do yourself a favor and watch Don’t Breathe with a crowd. The shared tension with fellow audience members makes the viewing experience that much more entertaining. If you can’t find a crowd, enjoy watching this one by yourself, in the dark. Just remember to breathe.

Watch and Talk is an alternative look at film. It is a column that discusses movies from all different genres. Films are not only reviewed, they are simply talked about. Watch and Talk looks at not only the entertainment value of movies, but also at their cultural aspects and impacts.

The post Watch and Talk: Don’t Breathe appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Personally, I’m a pretty big fan of horror-anthologies. If done correctly, they manage to strip away much of the generally ineffective plot and character development that bog down so many horror films, and skips right to the good stuff. Of course, plot and character development are not bad things, but with a niche genre like horror that often times serves a very specific purpose, to scare the audience, these narrative devices can often times get in the way of the real thing the audience is after. Obviously not all horror films should shirk these aspects of their movies, but if you’re clearly just out to scare the audience then you often don’t really need to get to know the paper thin characters all that well. I’m a big fan of the V/H/S series, and I think they did an excellent job of really honing in on the scary moments in each short film, making the entire movie a really great time-to-scare investment.

Southbound does this fairly well to, but in all honesty I think it falls flat compared to V/H/S series. While the V/H/S movies usually played around with more generic tropes, and were only very loosely connected, Southbound explores fairly unique situations, and each vignette is clearly tied together within the same world. Unfortunately, the fact that the scary situations each short film creates are rather unique, their short time frames end up hurting the overall product. Because we’re not super familiar with the generic content, we as an audience need a little more time to understand what’s going on in each short.

Redemption and retribution for past sins is a constant theme in Southbound, and is explored in every vignette. Usually these sorts of themes make for compelling horror films, adding a sense of inevitability and fate to the drama. However, the anthology format again means that the troubled past these characters are running from is not given enough time to be explored or explained. Horrible crimes are hinted at and alluded to, but ultimately the audience is left without enough information and without enough attachment to the characters to truly feel involved.

Another major difference between Southbound and V/H/S is that each V/H/S short was a “found footage” film. Maybe I’m just biased, but for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, I think this format works better in an anthology film. All of this is not to say that Southbound doesn’t have its moments. The inescapable demons in “The Way In/Out” are truly creepy and will surely plague my imagination the next time I’m driving on the seemingly unending open road. “The Accident” was also a particularly chilling tale, and I think it was the strongest effort throughout the film.

Overall, Southbound is an OK entry into the anthology horror genre. Don’t expect to find anything groundbreaking or particularly exciting here, but if you know you just want some cheap horror thrills, there is plenty here to deliver.

Click here to see if Southbound is playing in a theater near you. Check out the trailer for the film below:

The post Cinema Spotlight: Southbound appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Content Warning: Review contains graphic language and descriptions. Continue at personal discretion.

Trigger Warning: Film contains brief scenes of suicide and attempted rape, as well as graphic violence and self-mutilation.

Also: Spoilers.

Netflix rating: 1.9 stars

Personal rating: 3 stars

Film rating: R

At this point in the semester, I’ve seen some shit on Netflix. From humans sown ass-to-face to Satan in a sweater vest, it’s been a wild ride. However, never before this semester have I been so disturbed. That’s right, David Guy Levy’s Would You Rather has beat out The Human Centipede as the most disturbing movie I’ve reviewed thus far. While The Human Centipede was certainly filled with gore and the dark demons that live in the recesses of the human psyche, WYR was disturbing on a whole other level.

The concept of WYR is not a new one. A group of people is trapped in a house and must do disturbing, violent, unspeakable things to themselves and others in order for at least one of them to survive/escape. Nothing groundbreaking here. What was interesting was the way the film was set up. This group of strangers wasn’t brought together by some social pariah driven by a shitty childhood and/or mental instability. The antagonist seems to be a fairly stable, extremely successful business man who’s in the business of helping others. The only catch is that he chooses how to help by way of “to-the-death” slumber party games.

This was actually a pretty good movie. The film itself was well-made, the dialogue was never over-dramatic or redundant, and every character was distinct and unique–something that really helped drive the plot. However, I couldn’t help but cringe throughout the viewing process. Here I was, a lonely college student on an average weeknight, curled up in my bed watching strangers slowly descend into barbaric, survivalist madness under the gaze of a calm, well-mannered businessman. A man was whipped to death with an African whipping stick, an old woman stabbed with an ice pick, and a man shot without more than ten seconds’ thought.

And there I sat.

Watching.

Just like the man running the game. I sat and watched as these characters shocked and stabbed and beat themselves and each other for the enjoyment of not only the man leading the dinner party, but for mine as well. What society is this where we can believably create characters who enjoy watching financially-crippled individuals fight for their lives in a twisted parlor game? What society is this where this movie is marketed for enjoyment?

And how accurate is this film? How far are any of us willing to go to save ourselves, or the ones we love? Are we willing to maim and injure ourselves and others? Are we willing to kill? Are we willing to die?

I would go on longer, but thinking back to this movie is actually fucking me up to the point that I think I need to wrap this up. But hey, maybe that’s just me. My sister loved it – cracked up at it, even. However, I’m fairly certain my sister is Satan, so that’s not much of a surprise. If this movie sounds like your cup of tea, be my guest. It won’t disappoint. However, if you – like me – are pretty easily affected by movies that delve into the dark corners of the human psyche and refuse to leave, you may want to pass on this one. You can always take a crack at an episode of How I Met Your Mother or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get your daily Netflix fix.

The post 2-Star Review: Would You Rather appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I have to start out by saying that this film seems tailor-made for me. It checks off so many boxes on my list of favorite elements of horror films; paranoia, suspense, religious iconography, isolation, family dynamics, and uncontrolled female sexuality. The Witch reminded me quite a lot of another personal favorite of mine, Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England. I was truly shaken seeing this film, and for that reason it has quickly become one of my personal favorites.

The Witch follows a Puritan family that is excommunicated from their township for accusing the local church of heresy and corruption. They are then forced to make their own settlement in the harsh forests of New England. One day, when eldest daughter Thomasine is playing with her infant brother, the baby goes missing. A wolf is blamed, but the viewers and the family know that something much more disturbing is at work in the woods. Paranoia and religious fanaticism drive the family apart, and they descend into madness as the witch of the woods begins to tear them apart.

The film is absolutely stunning to watch, and Eggers really wrenches every amount of emotion and terror out of every shot in the film. Wide angle shots show the dense and terrifying forests of New England in all of their glory, and claustrophobic scenes set in the family’s cabin are beautifully lit by natural candlelight. I’m no art expert, but it seems clear to me that the visual style of the film was heavily influenced by 18th-century Spanish painter Francisco Goya. In particular, his darker works seem to haunt the visuals throughout The Witch.

The soundtrack also plays a key role the tone of the film. The non-traditional soundtrack builds tension and terror that perfectly compliments the slow-burning pace of the film. For those expecting a standard genre film, know that The Witch is not your typical horror film. Along with other recent critical darlings like It Follows, The Babadook, and Goodnight Mommy, The Witch takes a more high brow and patient approach to the horror game. I think we’re in the middle of a new era of smarter and more technically-impressive horror films, and films like The Witch truly feel disturbing and refreshing in an otherwise tired genre.

Unfortunately, The Witch has finished its nationwide theatrical run, but be on the lookout for news of a Blu-ray or Digital release!

The post Cinema Spotlight: The Witch appeared first on KRUI Radio.