Ten from the VoD Streamers for Halloween

Can't be arsed getting up from the couch to find a disc or try a fun round of spooky charades? Same here and it's not like we really get into Halloween in Australia, anyway. However, I've done the next best thing to a lucky dip and dragged out some things from the local streaming services. Caution: all such lists are folly. They never please all and sometimes please none. But these aren't necessarily from my favourite horror movies, more a mix of classics and new things that have caught my attention and then only from what you can click on from Netflix, Stan and SBS on Demand. I chose against Mubi (as I don't subscribe to it anymore) or TubiTV as while it has a few hard to see antiquities o' merit it can be daunting to navigate for the newbie (newbie? How old did I say I was?)  and Shudder still hasn't arrived here. And there are many I've left out. It was hard keeping it to ten. Anyway, Halloween.

THE EXORCIST (1973) - Netflix

I don't know how this happened but the version on Netflix is the original 1973 cut which is in every way superior to the bloated 2000 re-release. So, yes, this champ among horror flicks can be seen from the comfort of your living room while you hear all the sounds your house makes but normally don't notice. If you are watching with purpose tomorrow night and you haven't seen this cut (which should pinch the subtitle from the later cut as it now applies more accurately: the version you've never seen) choose this one. A great movie of any genre.

RAW (2016) - SBS on Demand

Starts as a kind of coming of age/loss of innocence but soon turns into a tale of newly discovered appetites and has a coda ending that lets its hitherto hidden tragedy into the light. French extremity is good for you.






LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008) - SBS on Demand and Stan

Superb fresh take on vampirism also manages to outrank its source material (at least the translation from Swedish that I read). Notes of Stephen King are undeniable but this gets a lot more queasy. Solid tale, also, of the costs and benefits of friendship.







SATANIC (2016) - Netflix

This tale of young adults dabbling in the dark (when they should be going to Lollapalooza as they set out to do) and paying the price is much, much better than that premise or the thumbnail art it gets on Netflix. There's a real mounting sense of sadness in the encroaching dark which does a lot of driving where, in a lesser film, it would just be scares. One character says with the eerie confidence of the self-taught zealot, "Hell is a beautiful confusion." It's poignant and chilling. And she ain't kidding.

SHUTTER (2004) - Netflix

A superb Thai outing in the then burgeoning world of Asian Horror in the 2000s, Shutter is a slowburn personal investigation which keeps its mystery icy and saves its weird and horrible surprise (note: surprise, not jump scare) for the very last. You won't expect it.





HEREDITARY (2018) - Netflix

Justly celebrated horror debut of Ari Aster packs a wallop early and then goes quietly bonkers as a family visited by grief also gets visited by some grievous folk. A pleasing mix of hard edged family drama (just watch Toni Collette go off) and the supernatural.






DUMPLINGS (2004) - Stan

An ageing star seeks a means of arresting the process that plagues us all and finds a wise woman who can help her. There's a price, of course, and it might turn you off Yum Cha for life.








THE THING (1982) - Netflix

Doesn't get much better than John Carpenter's reimagining of the story Who Goes There, pushing the horror into the very cells of the characters. See if you can get through the blood test scene without biting the tip of your tongue off.




THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2008) - Stan

Really, really, really not for everybody. This found footage mini-epic goes deep into the dark of a sexual sadist's mind and crimes. I still don't know if it indulges in the sleaze it portrays (like Compliance) or fearlessly examines it.






KILLING GROUND (2016) - Stan

An intentionally scattered timeline begins to find its pieces and we see the ghastliness they build. Significant indications of sexual assault (though almost all of it is shown as aftermath) but the real fight, when it happens proves that this film is not just about violence but our response to it and how that can be both triumphant and ugly.

Review: READY OR NOT

Grace and Alex travel to his family mansion to get married. Grace is treated to various shades of contempt by the American bluebloods she's about to join, feeling judged and excluded. There's a traditional remedy for this as Alex informs her: a ritual game at midnight which will be a kind of initiation ceremony. Not becalmed by this she joins them in a private chamber in the house and draws not chess or chequers as others claim they got but hide and seek. She agrees to it with relieved at the tokenism of it but is not informed of all the details. We have a good idea already from a prologue scene involving a young man being hunted down through the halls by people in hideous masks. How she finds out this particular bent introduces us to both the archness of the film's wit and its readiness for gore.

That's all the plot as this tale is too easily spoiled. But it's also a good place to leave the description as the balance of wit and gore can play for for and against this film. Such an odd juxtaposition is not so odd in satire like this where the rich are shown as ruthless sociopaths as it gives plenty of scope for comment on the brutality that buys privilege. In contrast Grace is well served by her own wit and wile against the tightening grip of the game.

But the balance doesn't always work. Some scenes which should be nail biting are undercut by humour which then feels mild for the sacrifice. Others amp up the gore with so slight a comedic payoff that makes the violence feel squandered. This is less a criticism of the film than a recognition of the difficulty in managing such a thing. Brian Yuzna's Society which partially informs this film, did this by spiralling into mutation, rendering the rich into physical monstrosities. Get Out added a sci-fi weirdness. While there is the suggestion of a supernatural motivation to the events it has to be kept subtle which means the human action needs to feel earthly. It's a tough gig but the film manages to fly above it and deliver real punches in the finale.

A lot of that transcendence has to do with one of the most vigorous and rangy performances you'll see on screen this year. Samara Weaving owns this film, going from an agreeably sassy urbane woman to a hunted animal to an all out warrior, managing a ton of nuance along the way. Take her out of it and it's an ok social comment, with her at the centre you have a battle of dusty status quo against the force of life itself. Actors don't get Oscars for genre movies and seldom for comedy and that's a pity.

Review: JOKER

The publicity fanfare for this one has been with us for so long that we already know the story. Ok, why not: dowdy clown for hire gets bullied by life, finds power in kicking back and becomes the joker. This is Batman's universe so we meet Bruce Wayne as a child and his father as a corporate despot. So, what's left to tell?

The style is stellar, strong colour usage to guide us and a deft hand with action plus a real way with world building as the streets of Gotham City crowd in on us and let us cling to the anti-hero and silently plead with him not to be so mentally ill. Don't get me wrong; this film is superbly crafted and doesn't drag for a frame of its two hours on screen. 

Arthur's condition makes him laugh when he's stressed and this often causes offence. That's ok as he has a card that explains this. That it doesn't mollify anyone who reads it is a major thematic statement. You just can't get away with a joke anymore. Part of the PR blitzkrieg for this film has been writer/director Todd Phillips claim that woke culture made him do it. That had the desired effect and kept everyone talking. Well, it's there on screen, like it or not, and it's presented openly.

But I started getting nagged by something even as I was sitting in a Hoyts plex watching and enjoying this movie: is this movie good because it's a good movie or is it good because it draws from great ones? By this I don't mean it reconstructs moments of mighty cinema because it plays pretty cleanly that way, too. You don't need Robert De Niro in his role ... unless you wanted to remind your audience of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. You do that because you want people to sit up, take notice and nod along with your bullshit about woke culture. The point is so compelling, is the suggeston, that we had to pretend to be Martin Scorsese to put it across. Try it in Hangover IV and who would notice?

I couldn't shake this off once it occurred to me and while I'm no champion of cultural coddling I have only weariness for attacks upon it and anyone who lunges on any figure or movement that, I mean this, just wants us to be a little nicer to each other (there are more complex ways of expressing that but I prefer the plain words). This is a pity. It's a pity because, in the middle of this, Joaquin Phoenix is delivering the performance of his career. It is nuanced and bold, brash here and almost silently subtle there, applying a jeweller's skill to a pond pebble. At major turns he's as thin as Travis Bickle or as cloying as Rupert Pupkin and it just makes me want to see those movies again (oh, and Network, but that's almost a spoiler) and let their higher style and greater depth weave their magic all over again.

I know, Marty himself wasn't above some vigorous cine-quoting even at his finest, but he always had more to say and none of it sounded like some old bastard ranting at a tramstop the way this film does. And this is much better than Wes Anderson busking Hal Ashby movies so violently you start wondering if the originals were any good or - Oops, I am become Ranter. Look, go and see it as a well made and substantial part of the superhero cosmos. It won't turn you into an incel or a social justice warrior but you'll get it (which you will if you see the movie, get it?)