Catriona Ward, interview for The Guardian Mark Gatiss, in A History of Horror (2010) Pascal Laugier, for Electric Sheep Candyman (1992), dir. Bernard Rose Colin Dickey, Ghostland Carmen Maria Machado, for Paris Review Kier-La Janisse, House of Psychotic Women Possession (1981), dir. Andrzej Żuławski Mariana Enríquez, ‘Notes on Craft’, Granta Guillermo del Toro, Haunted Castles, Dark Mirrors
Excited to help promote the launch of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new book ‘SILVER NITRATE’ from Del Rey Publishing! Available on July 18. I created a faux poster for the movie ‘Beyond the Yellow Door,’ which is a key component in the novel. A fantastic read. Highly recommended.
For more information on Silvia’s works and where to order ‘Silver Nitrate’ visit: https://silviamoreno-garcia.com an amazing Canadian author. If you have not got into her stuff yet, now is the time to do so.
I think we all have a horror story in us. Maybe you don’t wanna write it down, say it out loud, but it’s there and it’s waiting.
Boy, this is the latest I have ever finished Blogtober. Fortunately I picked a pretty memorable movie for the last entry–and one I don’t have much to say about! But what I do have to say is mostly positive. Brian Duffield’s saucer invasion thriller is a lot of fun, even if it never fully develops its thesis. Kaitlyn Dever plays a young woman who has been mysteriously ostracized from her rural community, and so she lives out a fantasy of rustic contentment on the outskirts of town. Her peaceful solitude is marred by her nagging grief over a past catastrophe that is never fully articulated, because NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU commits to the gimmick of dialog-free storytelling. This might be sort of annoying–and it definitely doesn’t do the left-field ending any favors–but this movie is less about story than spectacle, and sometimes that is just fine.
The polymorphic gray aliens that descend on the heroine’s home look great, and the action is legitimately scary and exciting. Actually, I put this movie on one night during a bout of insomnia, thinking it would be a breezy timekiller, and then I found the initial invasion scene so scary I wondered if I’d made a big mistake! But the thing that impressed me more than anything else in NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU is the set design (by Jaime Salazar if I’m not mistaken). I’d hazard to guess that most people think about set design more in terms of appearance than functionality, but the handsome, naturalistic farmhouse in which most of the movie unspools furnishes seemingly endless opportunities for wonderfully surprising chases and fight scenes. Every nook and cranny of the place becomes a hiding place, a shortcut, a booby trap; each cute, collectible tchotchke becomes a crucial tool or a brutal weapon. While I was watching this movie, I became intensely aware that it takes a special kind of genius to figure out the right architecture to enable the fast-paced, complicated action that makes up most of NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU. I enjoyed this aspect of the film so much that I didn’t wind up worrying about the hokey silent movie gimmick, or the fact that the underlying trauma-drama was only half-baked, or that the gonzo ending didn’t quite make any sense. Sometimes when you insist on perfection, you deprive yourself of some pleasure that is abundantly available between the flaws–and I think that’s a pretty good message to leave you with at the conclusion of this speed run season for Blogtober. Thanks for sticking with it! See you in 2024 (or as soon as I have another urgent judgment to hand down).
The first half kind of drags before it finally gets to the titular setting, then it’s surreal melty wall terror. That makes up for the slow start and cements it as another great entry. I’ll be back for the next one in 2024.
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“So, just be aware, the characters do tend to wander a bit.”
I always avoided this one because the jumpscare gameplay wasn’t for me, but I figured I had to at least see the first one through to the end. I don’t know that I can recommend it what with Cawthon’s problematic nonsense, but it’s an interesting product from an indie dev of the time.
New Horror 2023 – Day 30
“If the thing could follow him it was of no use to go away.”
Somehow this light-hearted spirit tale is spookier than a lot of other work I’ve read this month. Perhaps it’s the earnestness of the telling and the ages of the subjects.
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“They’re both an integral part of my overachiever confit with class president puree!”
“Soylent Teen” by Jordan Morris, Liana Kangas, Ellie Wright, Jack Morelli (2023)
A neat little story but that title gives it away too quickly.
Robinson does to the viewer what her character does to those in the movie, and it’s brilliant. Everyone nailed the vibe and I’d mistake it for something from the early 70s if not for the lack of grain in the film and occasional usage of modern tech.
