31 Days of Horror: Halloween Day Blowout - New stuff

With the first volume, earlier today, we talked about some very strange older movies. With this post, we're going to October 2020 out talking about some this year's horror releases. Just like the post about the older movies, there's a lot here, so let's get started.

His House

(2020)

We meet Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) in a British detention center. They are a married couple who had to flee from war-torn Sudan and are seeking refuge. We also discover that in the process of getting there, they lost their daughter. They're granted asylum on a probationary basis and given a house to live in. Right away, things start going bump in the night. At first, both encounter the house's supernatural residents separately and have very different experiences. It's a really interesting, and fresh-feeling take on the haunted house genre. There is lots of creepy imagery and tension to go with it. More importantly, this film also has plenty of heart. It also deals heavily with the effects of both PTSD and loss. It even fits in some commentary on the struggles of an immigrant trying to assimilate into a new place and culture. Amazingly, it never feels rushed despite running only a scant 93 minutes. The acting by Dirisu and Mosaku is so genuine they enhance our emotions. When the credits rolled, it immediately became one of my favorite 2020 movies of any genre.

The Witches

(2020)

This updated adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel moves the action to Alabama in 1968 and gives us a kid only billed as Hero Boy, for a protagonist. His parents die in a horrific car accident and he goes to live with Grandma (Octavia Spencer). Soon, they discover witches are after them and go to stay in a swanky hotel until they can figure things out. What they didn't know was the a coven of those same witches are having a convention, of sorts, and staying in the same hotel. It's kooky, campy, kid-friendly horror with lots of plot holes and shortcomings that the target audience won't mind. The second biggest offender is that the movie goes through all of the trouble of changing the setting from Norway and giving us a black lead character and doing absolutely nothing with it. My biggest disappointment would be a spoiler, so I won't bring it up, here (with a knowing wink to Rambling Film). Most of it looks really good, except they unnecessarily cgi'd a cat instead of just getting a real one. Presumably, it's for the cat's one scene where he has do some ridiculous scenes. However, just using cgi for that scene, already dark and filmed from distance, would've worked much better. Spencer is delightful, as is Stanley Tucci as the hotel manager. The real reason to watch, however, is Anne Hathaway ferociously chewing every bit of scenery that dares to get in her way. She makes it a fun, if deeply flawed film.

Tales From the Hood 3

(2020)

This anthology horror series is back. This time, we follow old man William (horror icon Tony Todd) leading a little girl named Brooklyn (Sage Arrindell) through a graveyard by the hand. In a wonderful subversion of expectations, Brooklyn starts telling William the stories that make up our vignettes for this edition. Entertaining and poignant as the franchise has ever been. Where this one has it over part 2 is that it's not nearly as heavy-handed, and maintains a sense of humor throughout all the stories. That it manages to keep its tongue planted in its cheek without dulling the edge of its social commentary is an impressive feat. The first segment might be my favorite of the bunch. I say might because I don't think there's a weak story in the lot this time around. A few of the special fx clearly strain the budget, but overall I had a great time watching this.

Vampires vs. The Bronx

(2020)

Miguel, aka Lil' Mayor (Jaden Michael), is a teenager trying to do all he can to help his neighborhood which is in the midst of undergoing gentrification. Aside from the normal issues this causes, it seems the owners who sold their businesses have mysteriously disappeared. Soon, Lil' Mayor and his bestest buddies Bobby (Gerald W. Jones III) and Luis (Gregory Diaz IV) discover what we know from jump, there are vampires afoot. The film takes lots of cues from The Lost Boys and Blade. It also takes some from Monster Squad and throws in a splash of Do the Right Thing. I mention all of these because, honestly, they're pretty easy to spot. Thankfully, the movie synthesizes them all into a fun time that attacks gentrification both literally and metaphorically. The cast does a good job bringing us along for the ride. Aside from those already mentioned, there's Sarah Gadon as Vivian, who eventually joins our heroes. Of the adults, Method Man is the unsung hero as Father Jackson. The movie runs into some issues in the third act and doesn't quite work as well as it should. However, the first two acts build up enough good will to earn forgiveness.

#Alive

(2020)

Oh Joon-woo (Yoo Ah-in) is in his early 20s and not much different from lots of his peers. He lives with his parents and his sister in an apartment in a high rise apartment complex. He spends most days live streaming while playing video games. One day he's home alone when an apparent zombie apocalypse breaks out. He locks himself in the apartment and periodically tries to contact his parents and/or find help otherwise. Soon he discovers Yoo-bin (Park Shin-hye), a young woman in the same predicament who lives in the building across from him. Though it starts off fast, this movie takes it slow enough to do some real character development. Our two stars are wonderful and have an easy chemistry that carries the latter half of the film. They're working with an odd premise for a boy-meets-girl picture, but it works because of them. They help make the action even more tense than it might be otherwise. A plus for the squeamish, there's a good deal of zombie action, but not really a ton of gore. By the end, it also becomes one of the genre's better incorporations of this generation's technology.

Bad Hair

(2020)

In 1989, Anna (Ella Lorraine) is an aspiring VJ at a TV station awfully reminiscent of where BET was at the time. Anna is often overlooked and undervalued because she fails to meet accepted beauty standards, especially when it comes to her hair. At the urging of her domineering boss Zora (Vanessa Williams), Anna goes and gets her done at a particular shop by a particular stylist. She leaves the shop with head full of hair weave, nice and straight the way her boss wanted. Soon, opportunities are opening up for her left and right. The problem is that Anna soon discovers her new hair seems to be alive and craves human blood. It's an excellent, if weird, set-up to make a powerful statement, but completely drops the ball. It's ideas are half baked and communicated poorly. On the surface level, it rushes through its plot, and struggles with its tone. It's part dark comedy, part horror, and never quite figures out how to mesh the two. I commend it for having a cast made up of almost all Black women (I think there are only two men with speaking parts in the film), but there's a problem. What's clearly a story that needs to be told by Black women, was written and directed by a man, Justin Simien who did the same for <i>Dear White People.</i> That film also has a female protagonist. What works there is that the story doesn't necessarily need to be from a female perspective. What is happening to the main character mostly transcends gender. That's not the case, here. Simien is simply inadequate to tell this tale. Not surprisingly, the finished product feels more like a first draft than a fully realized film.