The Devil in the Details

Hounds of Love, contrary to popular belief, is not a true-crime film. It is not a simple dramatization of something that actually occurred, as it invents nearly all the details of its twisted yarn, and takes incredible liberties in order to deliver a crackling thriller that doesn't ever quite become so extreme as to become punishing to sit through. That said, however, it is tense, and not a little harrowing, often leaving you perched on the edge of your seat for the majority of the film's runtime. For such a stark serial killer narrative, the film is very tasteful with what it actually shows of the dehumanizing sexual violence it's centered around. In our introduction to the villains, we hardly see or hear anything of their victim, just the faintest hint of her presence and what they've done to her; and yet it's clear, concise, and chilling. Its strongest aspect is perhaps the psychological complexity in its writing. What makes each character tick is explored in de...

You know, after A Field in England, Anchoress, and now this film, I can't help but notice a pattern of British folk horrors that treat the landscape itself as a character, ascribing to it a kind of sentience. The mystery of such films, when done right, is a beautiful thing. Yes, almost from the opening shot and credits, Penda's Fen sets up everything it has to say all in one curious, attention-grabbing sequence. The film is something of an answer to the age-old claim from censors and crusaders that Britain is a Christian country, founded on Christian principles, and thus should embrace discrimination and shut out the voices of the 'atheists.' If this sounds familiar to American readers, that's because the same is often said of America by the same kinds of people, only I know for a fact that they're wrong: the founding fathers were into Enlightment-era thinkers and philosophy, and the American Revolution only ever happened because they envisioned a place where ...

It's not often that films like Kill List come along. On the surface unconcerned with genre or traditional screenplay structure, it is actually carefully and thoroughly conceived so that no one element overtakes the whole and it stays true to the story it's trying to tell; a story that balances crime drama, domestic drama, occult horror, and Arthurian legend deftly. Despite its wild ambitions, it is brought to life with such restraint in all aspects, which is startling from such young talent. The film is always in the thick of transformation, leaving you forever unsure of where the film is headed. Hell, the horror elements really only become prominent in the last twenty minutes of the film. But we're grounded by our leads, brought to life by the wonderful Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley in top form, both of whom feel utterly real. They anchor things, and keep us engaged; despite their issues, we want them to succeed. And they're not the only ones, as the film bucks clich...

Anchoress is unique amongst the films I've covered that could be considered folk horror: for one, it's concerned primarily with Christian sacrifice as opposed to pagan, and the fair maiden who sacrifices herself does so voluntarily. You see, our heroine Christine sees a statue of the Virgin Mary one day out in the fields and immediately makes up her mind to dedicate her life to this holy icon. The local priest tells her the story of a previous anchoress, who walled herself up in the church as an offering to Mary, which Christine decides is exactly what she wants to do. The big question the film leaves us with is whether or not the force that is inspiring Christine is really the Virgin at all, and not some other, more subterranean sort of supernatural force that seeks to draw her deeper and deeper into the Earth for reasons unknown.  Local villagers are initially quite uneasy with the slow sacrifice, but perhaps none more so than Christine's mother, a woman oft-accused of w...

There's a fine line that a film must observe when working against a cripplingly-small budget: it's true a lot can be done with some actors and one good location, but you also need to remember that a cheap camera might be better utilized by a more expensive cinematographer than an expensive camera wielded by your auntie Ellen or uncle Bob. Coherence struggles in this department and with polish in general, and at times feels a little too "tell don't show," but overall ends up a fun, if convoluted budget thriller. I wish to state up-front that I admire this film's dedication to ideas over spectacle, and to good old-fashioned character drama, though it may occasionally cause the eyes to roll; there's nothing wrong with talkiness, but it should be more thematically adjacent to everything and sparse if possible rather than a constant source of clarification and exposition, and it certainly shouldn't consist mostly of characters summarizing exciting things th...

Director Ben Wheatley has done it again. A Field in England, like Kill List before it, will satisfy fans of folk horror and take you back to a time when the sub-genre was in full bloom and interest was at an all-time high. This film, which could almost be considered high-concept, takes place entirely in the titular field, and like its spiritual relative Witchfinder General, is set   during the tumultuous period of England's seventeenth-century civil war. It wears its low-budget like a badge of honor: the film is mostly a handful of very talented actors conversing and fighting amongst each other, with special effects being used mostly to cover up things like planes, cellphone towers, and power lines. While it becomes a bit arcane and messy as it goes on, its wild flights of fancy and chaotic storytelling still won me over, and there simply isn't much else like it. Within the realm of folk horror, this film is quite unique in that it's barely a horror film at all: this is act...

There have been many controversial movies made over the years, but do you know of any that are still impossible to acquire on home video, after over forty years? (unless one is willing to turn to less than legal means) Do you know of anyone that is still currently held hostage by vengeful studio executives? Well, may I present to you a Mr. Ken Russel's masterpiece, The Devils, one of the best films I've ever seen and certainly one of the most disturbing horror films ever made. It's got it all: religion, seventies cynicism, and human understanding and pathos that make it all feel more tragic than exploitative. Religion and human nature collide and as always, there will be hell to pay, especially once the fundamentalists start firebombing your local theater. The last time that we discussed Ken Russel, we were discussing his later film  The Lair of the White Worm, a knowing B-movie made with all the care and attention in the world by a genuine craftsman of whatever the film ...

The definition of a hidden gem, Mariano Baino's Dark Waters really surprised me. Almost from the first frame, I knew I was going to be in for a real treat. Evil nuns, occult ritual, a cool gothic setting, and Lovecraftian horrors: this film has it all, at least from a genre enthusiast's point of view. While it isn't earth-shatteringly original, I feel this film adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It stands as an immersive descent into madness with lavish, storybook visuals propped up by a nightmarish atmosphere that does away with notions of realism or normal storytelling logic to hypnotic results. The film, despite its story of a murderous convent of nuns that live alone on a remote island, takes itself relatively seriously. After an inexplicable opening scene bursting with visual flair, we then cut forward in time to something that resembles the opening of Dracula or perhaps an Agatha Christie mystery, where we meet our protagonist en route to the island where our ...

Last October, I embarked on a mission to plow through every single 2D Metroid game leading up to Metroid Dread so that I could appreciate what came off as a love letter to fans of this oft-ignored franchise (at least in terms of its creators.) Long story short, I got through them all fairly quickly, though I must confess I gave up on the original and hoped that both remakes of Metroid 2 would work in place of the Game Boy exclusive original. I put down that sort of game for a while after finishing ...Dread , mostly burnt out after all those repetitions of exploring, upgrading, and eventually conquering an alien environment and its many dangers, though I certainly appreciated my time nonetheless. All along, I must confess I assumed Castlevania would be more my cup of tea, especially the famous and heavily influential  Symphony of the Night, a unique game in the awkward early-3D PS1 days in that it continued forward with 2D graphics and side-scrolling gameplay and was all the bett...

Il Demonio starts in a striking way. It claims to be based entirely on a true story, though that hardly seems likely, at least in any meaningful way. In a style that recalls its American contemporary Burn, Witch, Burn, we're introduced to the story by a voiceover urging us to take everything deadly seriously and to believe every bit of its dissemination of folk beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, and superstitions, only here it's not done for comic effect so much as out of historical anguish. It concerns that old witchy canard: the love potion that bewitches a man to fall in love with you, and takes it to a dark, and ugly conclusion that I feel uneasy about. But where were we? Oh yes: imagine whatever the inverse of Valerie and Her Weeks of Wonders would be and you likely have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this nightmarish descent into depravity and violence done unto a young woman who may or may not be mentally ill. Everywhere our heroine turns, she's mauled, manha...

Though Bram Stoker's Dracula is considered by many to be a permanent fixture of English literature, having just finished it, I find myself torn on how I feel about it. On the one hand, the opening third or so is pretty creepy at points, and I love the folklore aspect, arbitrary and silly as it can sometimes be; on the other, it may be one of the most dreadfully boring and irritating books I've ever read, with most of the story consisting of the characters standing around discussing what their plan of action should be while Dracula runs around off-screen. That perhaps wouldn't be a serious issue were it not for the characters themselves, especially the women in attendance, and the way they repeat themselves endlessly from one chapter to the next. So, not my favorite, needless to say. However, we're not talking about the book today. No, sir, we've gathered here to talk about Francis Ford Coppola's wonderful, operatic retelling of the novel; an adaptation that sta...

What Clearcut brings to the table as far as its folk horror kin and similar films like Deliverance are concerned is a bitter, confrontational tone and a crystal clear environmental message. It perhaps goes about this a little too aggressively, but I concede that the environment should be taken seriously. Others will likely be put off, and that's before an Indian avenger shows up to murder and torture white folk with a cruel satisfaction, like an animal or worse: a savage. The film is more intelligent than it initially lets on though, and by the end, everything makes sense and you can appreciate the way the film attempts to provoke discussion and awareness, even if it does so a bit crudely at times. The native folklore that's explored here, and particularly the way it's explored, distinguishes the film greatly. It takes some very quite literate concepts drawn from ancient beliefs and oral traditions and fits them into the story and structure of something caught between hi...