Due to an extraordinarily bad day at work, and a late D&D session last night, I wasn't able to watch a spooky movie. I'm also going to be out of town the next couple of days, which means there likely won't be anything until Sunday or Monday. But I don't want to give up the ghost this early, so I've decided to do a quick and dirty top five list that might give you some ideas for weekend spookin'. These are my top five underappreciated horror movies of the 2010's. Enjoy!
5) The First Purge (2018)
Gerard McMurray
IMDB Score: 5.1
"My fucking bowels done joined the Purge, too."
I make no apologies about my love for The Purge film series (I am backed up by the brilliant critic and podcaster Leslie Lee III), and I think they have gotten better and better with each subsequent iteration, culminating in the wildly underappreciated (at least by the critical community at large) First Purge.
The rules in First Purge are basically what they are in the other 3 films in the series: the fascist government of the USA has decided that there's to be one day out of the year where you can commit any crime you'd like and you can't be prosecuted for it. As the name of the film would suggest, this is the very first one of these days, but it is going to be tested on and contained in the borough of Staten Island. It's a Purge beta test, and the government is under a lot of pressure to make sure that it goes well and that the right people are targeted.
The First Purge is as much a film about class as it is about race, and both are vitally important to the story. Instead of taking place in boring white suburbia, most of the action in The First Purge takes place in low income housing and an inner city neighborhood. People are given the opportunity to leave the island, but those without the means to escape or places to go are forced to stay and wait it out (the comparisons to Katrina are clear as a bell).
The night begins as a huge embarrassment for the government as the poor and working class people in the neighborhood refuse to tear themselves apart, and instead throw a gigantic block party that can rage without police interference. The Purge has backfired to create a working class utopia unfettered by the violent arm of the fascist police state.
But fascists are nothing if not meticulous planners, so a hired a team of ex-military mercenaries and other random violent psychopaths with certain white nationalist proclivities are sent into the borough to begin executing black, brown, and poor people on live television. The party is interrupted by wholesale slaughter, and the neighborhood is thrown into disarray by bloodshed.
Instead of devolving into a simple thriller, The First Purge morphs into a story about the collective resistance to fascism and white supremacy. It's maybe the best socialist themed horror movie ever, and it critiques the outlandishly bizarre and over-the-top Trump era in the same way Get Out subtly skewers the more sedate Obama years.
Trust me, folks. It's good.
4) The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
It's hard to classify The Greasy Strangler into a single genre. There are certainly disgusting horror elements (albeit with a cartoonish sensibility), but it's also funnier than any straight comedy of the past decade with an absurdist bend like an early John Waters film. Maybe the reason I love it so dearly is because it hits all of these notes perfectly. I can't think of another film that combines outlandish sex perversion with absurd comedy so well, and it's why I've included it on the list.
It's the story about two disgusting weirdos named Big Ronnie and Big Brayden, a father and son who live together in their vile house and run a Disco Tour business where they walk tourists around their shitty neighborhood in LA and make up stories about Kool from Kool and the Gang working in a corner liquor store. Big Ronnie is an inveterate liar, and is also completely obsessed with grease. He insists that everything he eat be drowned in disgusting globs of grease. He uses the grease to power his alternate persona, the titular Greasy Strangler: a dripping monster who terrorizes the neighborhood, strangling the people who have somehow upset Big Ronnie.
This is going to sound weird, but amidst the scenes of eyes popping out of skulls, giant floppy old man dicks, and characters screaming "Bullshit artist!" at each other for 5 minutes straight, there's a touching story in here about loneliness and the fear parents have of their children leaving them.
It might not be for everyone, but if any of this sounds interesting, try it out. I watch it every year (sometimes twice a year), and it still makes me cry with laughter.
2) Raw (2016)
1) The Neon Demon (2016)
The rules in First Purge are basically what they are in the other 3 films in the series: the fascist government of the USA has decided that there's to be one day out of the year where you can commit any crime you'd like and you can't be prosecuted for it. As the name of the film would suggest, this is the very first one of these days, but it is going to be tested on and contained in the borough of Staten Island. It's a Purge beta test, and the government is under a lot of pressure to make sure that it goes well and that the right people are targeted.
The First Purge is as much a film about class as it is about race, and both are vitally important to the story. Instead of taking place in boring white suburbia, most of the action in The First Purge takes place in low income housing and an inner city neighborhood. People are given the opportunity to leave the island, but those without the means to escape or places to go are forced to stay and wait it out (the comparisons to Katrina are clear as a bell).
The night begins as a huge embarrassment for the government as the poor and working class people in the neighborhood refuse to tear themselves apart, and instead throw a gigantic block party that can rage without police interference. The Purge has backfired to create a working class utopia unfettered by the violent arm of the fascist police state.
But fascists are nothing if not meticulous planners, so a hired a team of ex-military mercenaries and other random violent psychopaths with certain white nationalist proclivities are sent into the borough to begin executing black, brown, and poor people on live television. The party is interrupted by wholesale slaughter, and the neighborhood is thrown into disarray by bloodshed.
Instead of devolving into a simple thriller, The First Purge morphs into a story about the collective resistance to fascism and white supremacy. It's maybe the best socialist themed horror movie ever, and it critiques the outlandishly bizarre and over-the-top Trump era in the same way Get Out subtly skewers the more sedate Obama years.
Trust me, folks. It's good.
4) The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
Oz Perkins
IMDB Score: 5.9
"Don't go."
I wrote about Blackcoat's Daughter last year, but it's worth repeating how great it is, and how you should definitely watch it. It's a call back to films 50 years ago where a slow burn and careful building of tension were a hallmark of quality horror. There are no jump scares, no loud noises, no violent musical stings with screaming clowns: just simmering horror and a nice little mystery with an amazing payoff by the end.
Oz Perkins (son of Anthony) has an eye for what's truly scary, and he turns a quiet Catholic girl's school during winter break into the terrifying 2nd cousin of the Overlook Hotel. There's a bleakness to the visuals that match the overall tone of the film, and despite its supernatural core, he keeps things grounded and subtle.
It's scary, bleak, a little sad, and has wonderful performances from Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton and Kiernan Shipka. I really can't recommend it enough.
3) The Greasy Strangler (2016)
Oz Perkins (son of Anthony) has an eye for what's truly scary, and he turns a quiet Catholic girl's school during winter break into the terrifying 2nd cousin of the Overlook Hotel. There's a bleakness to the visuals that match the overall tone of the film, and despite its supernatural core, he keeps things grounded and subtle.
It's scary, bleak, a little sad, and has wonderful performances from Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton and Kiernan Shipka. I really can't recommend it enough.
3) The Greasy Strangler (2016)
Jim Hosking
IMDB Score: 5.7
"Just so you know, he tried to impress me with a loud fart once. He put his legs behind his head and shouted, 'Someone's cutting the cheese!' Instead of just gas, a big glob of turd flew out of his butt like a rocket. It did a loop-the-loop near the wall and landed on the bed. So if anyone's a bed crapper around here, it's him."
It's hard to classify The Greasy Strangler into a single genre. There are certainly disgusting horror elements (albeit with a cartoonish sensibility), but it's also funnier than any straight comedy of the past decade with an absurdist bend like an early John Waters film. Maybe the reason I love it so dearly is because it hits all of these notes perfectly. I can't think of another film that combines outlandish sex perversion with absurd comedy so well, and it's why I've included it on the list.
It's the story about two disgusting weirdos named Big Ronnie and Big Brayden, a father and son who live together in their vile house and run a Disco Tour business where they walk tourists around their shitty neighborhood in LA and make up stories about Kool from Kool and the Gang working in a corner liquor store. Big Ronnie is an inveterate liar, and is also completely obsessed with grease. He insists that everything he eat be drowned in disgusting globs of grease. He uses the grease to power his alternate persona, the titular Greasy Strangler: a dripping monster who terrorizes the neighborhood, strangling the people who have somehow upset Big Ronnie.
This is going to sound weird, but amidst the scenes of eyes popping out of skulls, giant floppy old man dicks, and characters screaming "Bullshit artist!" at each other for 5 minutes straight, there's a touching story in here about loneliness and the fear parents have of their children leaving them.
It might not be for everyone, but if any of this sounds interesting, try it out. I watch it every year (sometimes twice a year), and it still makes me cry with laughter.
2) Raw (2016)
Julia Ducournau
IMDB Score: 7.0
"I'm sure you'll find a solution, honey."
Is there a better sensation than seeing a film on the big screen that profoundly transforms how you look at films and even reshapes your tastes? When I walked out of the theater after seeing Raw a few years ago, my brain was buzzing like a beehive. I had obviously been a fan of sex pervert movies for longer than 2016, but Raw was perhaps the first time that I appreciated what filth, perversion, and gore could add to the meaning of a film. Raw is not a so-gory-it's-funny movie, nor is its exploration of sexuality meant to titillate; Ducournau uses filth and beauty to show the two sides of the human sexual experience in such a wonderful way.
There is some interesting criticism out there about how Raw doesn't have the same impact as other films that ride a similar line between beautiful innocence and bloody perversion, but everything about it resonates perfectly for me, and it's become a yearly watch.
Also, I'm aware that a 7.0 isn't that low of a score, but I also wouldn't call it a particularly well-known film.
Raw is one of my longer reviews from two Spooktobers ago, so if you want my full take, check that out.
There is some interesting criticism out there about how Raw doesn't have the same impact as other films that ride a similar line between beautiful innocence and bloody perversion, but everything about it resonates perfectly for me, and it's become a yearly watch.
Also, I'm aware that a 7.0 isn't that low of a score, but I also wouldn't call it a particularly well-known film.
Raw is one of my longer reviews from two Spooktobers ago, so if you want my full take, check that out.
1) The Neon Demon (2016)
Nicolas Winding Refn
IMDB Score: 6.2
"I don't want to be like them. They want to be like me."
The Neon Demon is a movie that I first watched alone, late at night, in the dark, with the volume cranked up, a stiff drink in my hand, and a potent edible in my stomach. When it ended, I wanted to shake my wife awake at 2 in the morning and force her to come downstairs so I could watch it again with someone else there to tell me I wasn't crazy for loving it. Sensibly, I waited until the next day to do this. I don't think it was entirely Emily's cup of tea, but it was good to make sure that my initial enjoyment wasn't (solely) based off my being completely cross-faded.
The Neon Demon is a delight of sumptuously disturbing visuals, wild colors, thrumming music, and ethereally haunting performances. Refn has an aesthetic all his own that has given rise to a new generation of independent cinema trying to capture just a little of the magic he conjures. Films like Under the Silver Lake and Nocturnal Animals owe a lot to the path Refn burned through the arthouse cinema world.
It's funny they came out so close together, because I think of Raw and The Neon Demon as the two main pillars holding up the filthy sex pervert temple in my brain. Where Raw slathers filth on top of beauty to help you explore the dark corners of human sexuality, The Neon Demon lets the filth bubble and roil beneath the surface, allowing it to burst out violently at the right time to show the destructive and competitive nature of beauty. There is a scene in The Neon Demon that is so deeply depraved and disgusting, yet so honestly captivating that it makes me squirm with perverse delight each time I watch it. I love this movie.
I've said many words about The Neon Demon before, but if you haven't heeded them before, there's no better time than now, friend.
The Neon Demon is a delight of sumptuously disturbing visuals, wild colors, thrumming music, and ethereally haunting performances. Refn has an aesthetic all his own that has given rise to a new generation of independent cinema trying to capture just a little of the magic he conjures. Films like Under the Silver Lake and Nocturnal Animals owe a lot to the path Refn burned through the arthouse cinema world.
It's funny they came out so close together, because I think of Raw and The Neon Demon as the two main pillars holding up the filthy sex pervert temple in my brain. Where Raw slathers filth on top of beauty to help you explore the dark corners of human sexuality, The Neon Demon lets the filth bubble and roil beneath the surface, allowing it to burst out violently at the right time to show the destructive and competitive nature of beauty. There is a scene in The Neon Demon that is so deeply depraved and disgusting, yet so honestly captivating that it makes me squirm with perverse delight each time I watch it. I love this movie.
I've said many words about The Neon Demon before, but if you haven't heeded them before, there's no better time than now, friend.
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