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“The Substance,” The Substance
In an attempt to regain her lost youth, a 60-year-old fitness show host “activates herself” with the drug “Substance” – a flawless Sue with smooth skin and perfect forms emerges from the woman. The condition of the deal: every seven days they need to swap bodies. The heir to B-movie shockers, “Substance” is saturated with references to the visual culture of the last fifty years – from the monstrous images on Bacon’s canvases to Benny Benassi’s music videos and the transgressive visionary work of Nicolas Winding Refn. Here the viewer is sought to be exhausted, in addition to extreme manifestations of corporeality: hyper-detailing of everything, “binocular” angles, liminal spaces and bass cranked up to peaks. As a result – an exceptionally outstanding movie and one of the most excruciating performances of the year.
“Bramayugam”, Bramayugam
Indian b&w gothic-folk horror in the vein of Robert Eggers – how often do you see this combination? Gifted but cowardly Tevan sings folk epics about spirit deities in the powerful courts of Kerala. One day in the forest, an entity of the Yakshi class lures and kills his companion, and the hero himself, terrified, stumbles into a half-abandoned estate. There, a goblin in human form (the role is played by Mammootty, a 73-year-old Mollywood star) in the company of a lackey cook reigns supreme. The movie is woven from motifs of Indian folklore and reads as an allegory of power and corruption in an atmosphere of suffocating cyclicality: its three characters walk around waist-deep naked and regularly grab each other by the throat.
“Maxine XXX,” MaXXXine.
This contemporary thriller spoofs the aesthetics of jallo, snuff, and American maniacal thrillers like “Black Orchid” and “8 Millimeters.” Set in the ’80s, an era of TV preachers, video salons and neon signs. Former porn star Maxine gets a starring role in the Hollywood horror “Puritan 2” against the backdrop of a wave of strikes, murders and paranoia about morality in Los Angeles. The appearance of the stalker only slightly unnerves the heroine – not surprisingly, given that in the previous parts of the trilogy, she has already survived a massacre and walked around with an axe in the American wilderness. Director Ty West can be blamed for an over-reliance on quoting from the history of the saspense genre and abandoned to develop on a side road, too straightforward a plot. Even so, it’s a pretty driveable and technical thrash detective movie.
“Voodoo. Whispers of Darkness,” Stopmotion.
A girl settles into a half-abandoned apartment to complete her tyrannical mother’s animation project. Under the influence of a creepy neighbor, she takes on a new subject, perfecting the creation of puppets from spoiled steaks and fox corpses found in the woods. In addition, she takes LSD… This debut feature film by British Robert Morgan, a prominent figure in the world of puppet animation, refers the viewer to issues of self-actualization, manipulation, as well as disturbing images and the author’s love for David Lynch and Jan Schwankmeyer.
“Spaceman,” Spaceman
It seems like a few years ago Adam Sandler had a bet with Nicolas Cage over who would have a better career reboot. In Johan Renck’s movie, known for the TV series “Chernobyl” and “The Walking Dead,” Sandler plays an astronaut sent to study an anomalous phenomenon on the backside of Jupiter. Space loneliness turns into insanity – the hero comes into contact with an entity materialized on board. It is unclear, in fact, what exactly prompted Renk to screen the debut sci-fi novel by a young Czech writer Jaroslav Kalfarzha, because at the end he got “Solaris” healthy man.
“The Curse of the Call of the Grave,” Exhuma.
A shamaness and her protégé take it upon themselves to deal with an ailment within a well-to-do Korean family in Los Angeles. It turns out that the problem is rooted in a family curse, and it is urgent to rebury one particular ancestor. However, they dig up the wrong grave… Many elements of quality horror are combined here: occultism, cruelty, three-meter zombie, feng shui, references to “Viyu” and “Scooby-doo” (even if the creators did not plan to make them), and Choi Min-sik – the same actor from “Oldboy”. The rituals of Korean shamans were reproduced on the set so authentically that the actors were worried about what might actually happen.
“Devil’s Bath,” Des Teufels Bad.
In mid-eighteenth-century Austria, zealous Catholic Agnes marries, but each humdrum day drags her to new depths of darkness. She wanders through a forest where another woman has recently murdered her infant child. The severed finger of this “witch”, by the way, Agnes carries with her as a symbol of fertility. There are many signs in the painting – topi, butterflies, carp, dragonflies and dead lambs – reflecting the superstitions of Central Europe of that era. Picturesque landscapes in the movie act so depressingly ominous that the cameraman Martin Gschlacht was awarded the “Silver Bear” at the Berlinale 2024 for outstanding artistic achievement. The authors of The Devil’s Bath, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz – nephew and wife of the great and terrible Ulrich Seidl – were inspired by research on the practice of “suicide by proxy” in early modern Germany.
“Alien: Romulus,” Alien: Romulus.
The seventh installment of the franchise carefully addresses the canons of the “Alien” universe, combining gruesome murders, monster ships, dependence on technology, and ubiquitous corporate values. In an escape from the creepiness of civilization, a group of teenagers plot to squat an abandoned station and fly far away, but encounter them – xenomorphs. And, of course, it turns out that the most dangerous creature in the universe is human. With the temptation to use CGI to the maximum, the precepts of Ridley Scott and the style of “analog space” are observed: the suspense is heightened by lighting, unusual angles, empty spaces and contrasting sounds. Benjamin Wallfisch, the composer of “Blade Runner 2049” and “It”, was responsible for the sound atmosphere. On the whole, director Fede Alvarez made a vintage ride of cosmic horror.
“Stalker,” Strange Darling.
No, it’s not a remake of a cult movie, but a non-linear six chapter story about the encounter between a maniacal cop nicknamed “The Demon” and a serial killer victim, “The Electric Lady.” Or is it the other way around? The movie was on the verge of being a flop, but director J.T. Mollner proved to incredulous producers that it was possible to speculate qualitatively on the canons of the genre while still leaving room for experimentation and spontaneous twists. This is a tale of how a passion for toxic love affairs can turn into a cat-and-mouse game of survival in the vein of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
- Bonus: “Soul Collector” (Longlegs), despite its status as one of the most anticipated horror films of the year, was a solid middle-of-the-roader. The mix of a serial-killer-catching procedural, Satanic themes and the story of a lonely detective with parapsychic powers only evokes nostalgia for the best examples of the genre, such as “Seven,” “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Zodiac.” Besides, is Longlegs really a nickname for a maniac? The film is notable for adding an image to the list of roles embodied by Nicolas Cage over the past year: Lucifer-believing maniac; vengeful overripe surfer; apocalypse survivor; toxic professor; infernal car thief; “special forces dad”; Count Dracula.
