Halloween has become a real film-fan’s holiday and so Jen Yamato wrote a list of the 13 best new horror movies to stream this season. As she noted, “Wanna feel old? ‘M3GAN’ came out nine months ago.”
Among the titles Jen recommends are “When Evil Lurks” on Shudder, both the “90s Horror” and “Art House Horror” collections curated on the Criterion Channel, “The Oldest View” on YouTube, “Sister Death” on Netflix,” “No One Will Save You” on Hulu, “Cobweb” on various platforms, “Totally Killer” on Amazon Prime and “Suitable Flesh” on VOD. Truly something for everyone on a wide array of platforms.
And AFI Fest is already underway, finishing on Sunday with a screening of Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” at the Chinese Theatre. Though this is something of a rebuilding year for the festival, with a new programming team in place, there is still plenty to see, including Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” and Tran Anh Hung’s “The Taste of Things.”
‘Priscilla’
(A24)
Keeping with the weekend’s theme, there is a way to read many of the works of Sofia Coppola as horror films. I personally find her “The Bling Ring” to be a contemporary zombie tale and her latest, “Priscilla,” is essentially the story of a young woman trapped in a maze-like mansion as she attempts to break free from a world that imprisons her and limits her identity. That the woman is Priscilla Presley, the mansion is Graceland and the world is that of the extreme fame of Elvis Presley is what gives the movie its energy and power.
A natural extension of the glamorous but entangled realms depicted in Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette” and “Somewhere,” “Priscilla” is full of contradictions, as the soft, girly world of Priscilla’s imagination and her ongoing emotional growth runs alongside Elvis’ own boyish, sordid, stunted life. Cailee Spaeny won the actress prize when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and Jacob Elordi portrays Elvis as a moody, terrifying goofball.
As Times critic Justin Chang writes in his rave review of the film, the movie is “the story of a life lived in the shadow of one of the world’s most extraordinary entertainers. As such, it’s about the intoxication of too-young love, the pitfalls of celebrity, the ravages of addiction and, inescapably, the abuse of power. Mostly, though, it’s about disillusionment: the gradual weakening and collapse of an exquisite mirage.”
Fresh take on horror with ‘You’re Next’
A scene from the movie “You’re Next.”
(Corey Ransberg / Lionsgate)
Vidiots is celebrating the collaboration between director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett with a screening of 2013’s “You’re Next.” The pair brings a fresh sensibility to genre cinema — knowing without winking. Wingard and Barrett will do a Q&A after the film along with producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder.
“You’re Next” features a cast full of indie filmmakers and actors, including Larry Fessenden, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Calvin Reeder, AJ Bowen, Kate Lyn Sheil, Amy Seimetz and Barbara Crampton, for a tale of a wealthy family’s reunion invaded by psychotic killers.
In an interview from when the film was originally released, Vinson said of her character, a fearless version of horror’s final girl, “She doesn’t run up the stairs when she should be running out the door.”
Wingard also said, “We came to realize that the best way to deconstruct horror nowadays is actually just to make a really great horror movie. You don’t have to sell the reference thing or be that clever. Recognizing all the horror tropes and playing off audience expectations is kind of the new deconstruction.”
The film also makes magnificent, repeated use of the song “Looking for the Magic,” by Dwight Twilley, who recently died at age 72.
Wingard and Barrett also made the 2014 film “The Guest,” a late ‘80s/early ‘90s action throwback starring Dan Stevens and Maika Monroe, about a rampaging former soldier. It was originally scheduled to also screen on Friday but out of respect for the recent events in Maine, “The Guest” was postponed to a later date. Wingard and Barrett have continued to collaborate, with “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire,” scheduled for release next year.
Other points of interest
‘Messiah of Evil’ reemerges For a certain kind of person, Halloween is a take-the-whole-day-off kind of holiday, and for that kind of person (maybe that’s you?) on Tuesday there is a 3 p.m. matinee of 1973’s “Messiah of Evil” in USC’s Imax theater that is free and open to the public.
Directed by Willard Huyck, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gloria Katz (the duo would also write “American Graffiti,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Howard the Duck”), “Messiah” has been enjoying a recent rediscovery as a highlight of ‘70s independent horror cinema. The story of a young woman who goes in search of her father only to discover his small town has been overrun by cultists, the film features a particularly unsettling scene set in a Ralphs, which may be all too familiar to some Angelenos. (There’s also a cameo by future director Walter Hill.) The film will also be screening on a new 35mm print on Nov. 10-12 at the New Beverly and is coming out soon in an anticipated Blu-ray loaded with special features from the Radiance Films label.
‘Goodbye, Dragon Inn’ at UCLA The UCLA Film and Television Archive has an ongoing series “Time: It’s of the Essence,” that looks at films dealing explicitly with time and duration. Upcoming titles include Michael Snow’s “La Région Centrale,” Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and Edson Oda’s “Nine Days.”
Tonight will feature a screening of Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 “Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” in which a rundown old movie theater in Taipei plays King Hu’s 1967 wuxia classic “Dragon Inn” for one final showing before closing down. An examination and celebration of both the communal experience of seeing movies and the deeply interior and personal emotions they can rile up, the movie is a contemporary classic and transforms the space between the audience and screen in a magical way.
When I did an email interview with Tsai for the rerelease of his “Rebels of the Neon God,” he spoke about his longstanding collaboration with actor Lee Kang-sheng, who also stars in “Goodbye, Dragon Inn.” Tsai, who always shoots Lee’s face and body with a loving tenderness, said, “There was even one Taiwanese film critic who once complained to me that he has lost his feeling for Lee Kang-sheng’s behind, and asked me to shoot some new ones. I told him, ‘That’s why Lee Kang-sheng’s behind is the only one that counts.’ I don’t know why, but I just can’t move my camera away from him, not just the behind, but also his face.”
‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ with live orchestra The screening of classic horror films with live musical accompaniment has become a real local seasonal highlight. At the Theatre at Ace Hotel this year, the L.A. Opera Orchestra, conducted by Jenny Wong, will perform Franz Waxman’s score to James Whale’s 1935 “The Bride of Frankenstein.” One of the rare cases in which a sequel may be better than the original, “Bride” finds Boris Karloff reprising his role as the Monster after the success of 1931’s “Frankenstein,” with Colin Clive also returning as Dr. Frankenstein. Elsa Lanchester plays both author Mary Shelley and the title role. I’m going on Saturday because in years past the post-screening costume party has been a real hoot.