THE HORROR OF IT ALL
Greetings to all my semi-constant readers and fellow horror enthusiasts. Halloween maybe over, but horror lives on throughout the year. There have been some decent horror series -Midnight Club and Devil in Ohio to a disappointing finale for Halloween Ends. But there have been some very good movies out there too.
1) Bodies, Bodies, Bodies available for rent is a smart, funny and irreverent slasher film. A great cast including a wacky Pete Davidson and Lee Pace. A group of twenty-somethings meet at a remote house to have a big party weekend. Drugs, Booze and Backstabbing lead to paranoia and murder. Fast paced with some very snarky dialogue reminded me a bit of the first Scream movie and it sped all the way to a very surprising end.
2) Barbarian streaming on HBO Max is probably one of the creepiest, unpredictable movies in horror that I have seen in awhile and I actually loved it. Three separate storylines and timelines can be a disconcerting with the quick cutaways but everything wrapped up together. The film starts up with two people who end up booked at the same AirB&B in Detroit and they find themselves spending the night in a terrifying situation that just escalates. Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long round out this tight cast. The score, jump scares and overall creepiness of Detroit make this one of my favorites. My only regret is that they could have spend more time on one of the backstories.
3) Cabinet of Curiosities streaming on Netflix from Guillermo del Toro is an anthology series that wants to be the new Night Gallery. It isn't. I had high hopes.So far I have watched four of them with anticipation that they would get better. The only one so far was The Outside about a woman obsessed with her looks to the extreme. The Viewing had some gripping scenes but ended abruptly. I can only hope season two offers some better stories.
