Grist for the Mill
I’ve been watching some new horror movies in January and they’ve all been pretty damn interesting - Part I
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The aim/hope is that every story I imbibe [film, comic, novel, tv, etc] gives me another arrow to slide into my quiver. Sometimes writing about it is what unlocks that arrow’s ability - the act of thinking and turning the story in my hands transforms a blunt wooden shaft into a Boxing Glove Trick Arrow. Maybe. Let’s find out.
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I have been watching an insane amount of new horror films lately.
And I have been digging them.
I grew up coming out of the 80s, and I watched a lot of horror flicks. Hell, let’s be honest: I watched all of them. If it was shelved in the horror section at Major Video or Civic Video or that other video store where I called so many times to ask if TWISTER had come in that day that I decided to put on a fake voice on the 7th [300th] call and the woman on the other end also put on a fake voice to tell me “No, it still has not come in.”
I loved horror films, they were a deep defining aspect of my film diet/persona, and then I just kind of stopped watching them. Sure, some were absolute trash that I just no longer really needed to wade into - shit like the Friday the 13th Part VII, perhaps - but a lot of the old stuff was steeped in high quality meaning.
I just think I had kids and suddenly didn’t enjoy *adding* to that feeling of terror I already surrounded myself with in regards to: being a good enough parent, having my kids get sick, having an accident occur that could take me away from them, or them away from me. I know I never had any second thoughts about flying, and then I had kids and realised how resoundingly stupid it is to strap yourself into a heavy-ass metal tube and go hurtling through clouds and over water.
So, I’ve missed a lot of horror from the past decade. For some reason, I finally decided to crack back into one and then I just couldn’t stop. I think I liked seeing that good horror is still good, it’s still ripe with meaning, and open to interpretation, and has creative people doing interesting things that totally spoke to me. Over the past month, here’s what I’ve gotten into:
IT FOLLOWS
This was the one that started it all. A film about sex - and from there you can interpret it many ways. I think it’s about the situational awareness women in the world need, and deeper again it could be about the silent ubiquity of survivors of assault and how their trauma [and other attacks] can come from anywhere. The camera 360 pans made me realise how hard it is to keep focus and spot threats in every direction, and how much it makes you just think everything is probably a threat.
I ended up here because I watched David Robert Mitchell’s UNDER THE SILVER LAKE and was won over by it. I saw this was free on SBS and instantly started in on it and the opening scene [and how it was filmed] won me over.
US
This came afterwards, and mostly because I was dropping the streaming service it was on and I loved GET OUT, and I’m keen for NOPE, and I didn’t want to miss this. I’d heard varied things, but ultimately my take is: this film is bloody good.
Beyond the tension and the slasher horror vibes, it’s about the way society will happily do little things that we hope make ourselves feel better, but actually go nowhere near fixing any of the big problems we are addressing. Empty platitudes are just a polite way of ignoring problems that don’t affect us; we want to absolve ourselves of any guilt, when really many aspects of every single day should remind us of the problems we see and ignore and can definitely do more about.
BARBARIAN
This one was all hype from others getting me through the door. The hook: you just won’t believe where this flick goes.
And while that is true, you really don’t spot some of the swerves in this one, for me it was the enjoyment of how tense and well structured this film is. Apparently, it was initially written as a set up where as many red flags as possible for the leading lady were written into the story. From there, the writer just tried to go further, and then bring it all back together.
I really dig how time jumps occur, and how actors are cast against type, and how the film is really about the safety of women in the world, and how it’s hard to find and actually truly know if the men around you are safe, or not.
The film is proper 80s video nasty stuff with a modern sensibility of quality cinema. It’s probably the most gory, and the least thoughtful, of this list, but it was something I’m really glad I watched.
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Okay, that’s enough for today - I’ll come back later with Part II and the last 2 horror flicks of the list.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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Who is Ryan K Lindsay?
I’m an award-winning Australian comic writer. I’ve been published by Black Mask, Dark Horse, ComixTribe, Mad Cave, IDW, Heavy Metal, Vertigo, and a few more. Kickstarter has been a home for many short comics. I often get to collaborate with great mates, and this brings me joy.
I write about balancing this creative game alongside a full teaching load [currently College English] and a lovely family load and the forever melting brain that is modern man. I think about a lot of stuff, I still don’t know if it’s the right stuff. ymmv.
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