Category: Entertainment

★★★☆☆ Director Zach Cregger’s third feature is a tight, claustrophobic horror that starts strongly but descends into schlock and regrettable cliché in its final third. With surprises, compelling performances and strong visuals across the board, Barbarian warrants recommendation but with serious caveats.

★★★☆☆

Director Zach Cregger’s third feature is a tight, claustrophobic horror that starts strongly but descends into schlock and regrettable cliché in its final third. With surprises, compelling performances and strong visuals across the board, Barbarian warrants recommendation but with serious caveats.

On a miserable night in suburban Detroit, Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives at an Airbnb where she is staying for a job interview with a documentary maker. But horror of horrors, the place has been double booked and Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already there. Reluctantly, Tess agrees to come in to try to sort out the mess, understandably wary of Keith. However, they gradually relax, agree to share the place with Keith taking the couch and Tess in the bedroom, and get their money back in the morning. After sharing a bottle of wine and discovering their shared love of documentaries and jazz music, there’s even a touch of sexual frisson between the pair.

It’s a brilliant way to open a horror film: the scenario is mundane and believable, more frustrating than scary but with an unshakeable sense of threat. Both actors are terrific but Campbell steals the show, carrying the film through even its lowest moments. The performances are made all the more compelling by superb writing where everyone acts completely understandably. The script flips an old horror cliché – don’t go into the scary house – by making entry the only viable option, while Keith awkwardly takes every reasonable step to assure Tess that he’s not dangerous, even opening the bottle of wine in front of her so that she knows he hasn’t spiked it. As the tension subsides, Cregger plays with the audience: when Keith jokes that he’s not a monster, a winking reminder of Skarsgård’s past role as Pennywise the clown, Cregger is signalling directly to us that sooner or later, the other shoe is going to drop.

Warning: Spoilers from this point

The marketing of the film has been just as smart as Barbarian’s first act. Trailers using footage only from the first third obscure the sharp turn to entirely new character, AJ (Justin Long), in the middle portion of the film. The introduction of a #MeToo-esque subplot expands upon the threat of sexual tension of the first act in an interesting way, but one which is fluffed when the final act descends into horror clichés and schlock. Similarly, there’s a theme of urban and suburban decay running throughout the film, underlined by a flashback to the 1980s which goes someway to explaining the horrors dwelling underneath the house. But again, Barbarian squanders the opportunity to explore its own metaphor with any depth or complexity; Nia DaCosta’s recent Candyman sequel tackled similar themes far more elegantly and without resort to the tired tropes that Cregger employs here.

On those tropes, measured by the creep-factor they’re certainly successful and the film crafts a lot of effective scares. Nevertheless, the film’s empathy with its monster, who is in fact a profoundly disabled woman (Matthew Patrick Davis) and the product of multiple generations of rape and incest, is undermined by the delight it takes in using her for schlocky gross out moments and sadistic comedy. It’s deeply disappointing that after all the originality and intelligence of its first two acts, Barbarian falls back on to the old cliché of abused and marginalised women as monstrous hags.

For all its crudity, schlock, which rests on the premise that the shocking, the tasteless and the base are fundamentally entertaining, can be tricky to pull off without falling into mean-spiritedness. It is usually a mistake to use schlock to try to make a serious point, a trap that Barbarian sadly falls into. A more sensitive film would better elicit empathy for the nameless woman that stalks Tess, but instead those moments of sincere pity for her are undercut by eliciting laughter and disgust. The film’s fundamental cruelty is further emphasised by its treatment of Andre (Jaymes Butler), a homeless black man who exists solely to be ripped apart. For a film that seems to think it is satirising the patriarchy, Barbarian delights in the misery of its marginalised characters.

Christopher Machell

One of the breakout films at this year’s SXSW, Hannah Barlow & Kane Senes’ Sissy has also played internationally at Sitges Fantastic Film Festival, where it won the Midnight X-treme People’s Choice Award, Festival Fantasia in Montreal, and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, winning the Audience Award, to name a few.

Shot entirely in Canberra, and the second feature film [following 2017’s For Now] by directing duo Barlow and Senes, the Aussie horror slash comedy stars Aisha Dee (The Bold Type, Channel Zero) as an influencer who is invited away on a hen’s weekend by her friend Emma (Barlow), where she comes face to face with her high school bully Alex (Emily De Margheriti).

The film was also recently nominated for three AACTA nominations: AACTA Award for Best Direction in Film, AACTA Award for Best Film and AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in Film (Aisha Dee).

FilmInk caught up with Barlow & Senes to discuss where it began.

How did Sissy come about?

Hannah Barlow: “We were living in LA just as Trump was being inaugurated, and [at the time], were like, ‘Goodbye. We don’t wanna live here through this era [laughs], and it was time to go home’. And we thought, ‘we should be taking advantage of the government incentives and seeing if we can make a film on our own soil’. We came back and were just kind of looking at our generation’s and our own personal interaction with social media and reading about dopamine addiction and (this) epidemic globally for millennials and Gen Z, how our brains are changing physiologically because we’re morphing with social media and that’s only ever gonna continue to spiral out of control and have long lasting effects on our brains; all those big things.”

Kane Senes: “But, also just wanting to make an eighties movie, wanting to make a horror slasher, and to step into that incredible genre world and just have fun squashing heads [laughs].”

You’ve said you wanted to make a film that was scary for millennials?

Kane Senes: “Yeah. Even if you go back and look at Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween or any of these kinds of films that you’d grow up with in the eighties… The ones that have endured like those ones and others, it’s because they’re saying something about the era in which they were made. I think that’s what’s so great about horror, it’s able to entertain. But also, the best ones always have something to say about the time in which they’re made.

“For us, it was like, ‘well, what scares us today?’ And the reality is, the world’s a crazy place and there’s a lot to be scared about, but in our day-to-day existence, the idea that maybe our brains are getting morphed in some way and affected by technology that we willingly use and absorb and are addicted to, is kind of a terrifying concept. What happens when someone just has a little too much of that? And, what’s the worst case scenario of that? If we plugged that into a kind of ‘80s slasher film, but do something different with it… That’s where it all came from – those two forces meeting each other.”

Social media and its impact on mental health is a big part of the film.

Kane Senes: “That’s something that we talk about all the time – our mental health and the era in which we live in and the increase in anxiety that I think we’re all feeling, even if we aren’t aware of it or aren’t talking about it, just living in the modern world.”

Hannah Barlow: “Millennials are the first generation where we’re calling out mental health as a buzz word, a prevailing concern. We’re looking up at the boomers and the generations above and asking questions and it’s a priority. With Gen Z, it’s becoming even more of a priority. Now it’s morphing on TikTok into this generation of self-diagnoses. There’s this weird thing brewing online, where everybody thinks that they have a neurotypical disorder, which is good and bad because it means that people are getting diagnosed in the thousands, but it also leads to our health institutions considering ADHD as a neurotypical disorder, which gives people the chance to be medicated and to live with their conditions.

“(You look at) social media, what it’s able to do politically and socially. People have a voice now and the masses can rise up if they don’t like something or they don’t wanna be oppressed anymore. It’s a gift and a curse. That’s something that we wanted to demonstrate a little bit with the film – you can love this person, but she’s still doing these things that maybe aren’t okay. And that represents all of us in some way. We all have the good and the bad and we’re all trying not necessarily effectively or in the right way, but we’re reaching for something as opposed to just living under a rock. We’re reaching for self-actualization and self-acceptance and giving space to people living on the fringes of society to have a voice and to be seen and heard. But that’s also allowing for really toxic, dangerous people to emerge through the cracks. People like Belle Gibson who take advantage of vulnerable communities, and we’re creating a platform and a space for celebrating them and allowing these people to (prophesize) bullshit.”

You’ve said the film is a comedy first, horror slasher second. Can you expand on that?

Kane Senes: “It’s funny how people are reacting to the gore. Because in our minds, it’s nowhere near as gory as some of the films that we grew up with. But I think what is tripping people out is that when you typically watch Nightmare on Elm Street or something, you are expecting that kind of violence. But when you go into this film, it’s a hen’s weekend. Sorry to misuse this term, but it feels like a chick flick, and then suddenly it turns violent. And I think that’s a combination that people aren’t expecting. In many ways, it makes it feel more violent.

“And yes, there is definitely some shots where if you just look at the shot out of context, it’s an incredibly violent image. But if you take the violence, I think for us, it was always a little bit of a metaphor. It’s like, in order to cut off those toxic friendships in your life, sometimes it’s really painful and it’s like you’re ripping a piece outta yourself or you’re killing a piece of yourself. Like you are killing your past in order to move on. Sometimes, people just choose to ghost someone, right? And to just stop getting back to them and, and go to therapy and that’s a very passive way to do it, but it can feel very emotionally violent to the person who’s been ghosted. For us, it was like, what is a literal version of that emotional violence that we go through with toxic relationships? That’s why I think the violence grew out of the theme and why it’s warranted as opposed to just being or shock value.”

Have you been pleased with success the film has had internationally?

Hannah Barlow: “We never expected to get into SXSW, so that was a phenomenal start and that those audiences at our screenings were so fun. We went to Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea and that was just such an incredible experience getting to know the programmers and all the filmmakers from around the world and traveling with those filmmakers. And, then we landed in Sitges, and that was like a class of ‘22 reunion together; seeing how well everybody was doing, catching up with our peers. And, then we won People’s Choice Award in our section, which we never expected, because our film played at like 4am and we were the first called up onto stage in front of 1300 people. I had beachy hair and normal clothes on when everybody’s dressed up to the nines, it was wild.”

Kane Senes: “It played Sydney and Melbourne [film festivals] in Australia, and other festivals in Australia obviously, but it definitely also has been doing that kind of genre circuit, which has actually been the most fun out of all of them because it’s just such a community at those things. Everyone just loves the same stuff. Sitges was amazing. The audiences there were insane, really fun. It’s kind of like the most genre crazy audience in the world.”

You shot the film in 21 days. How difficult was this?

Hannah Barlow: “We shot it in 20 days with a one-day pickup. We had 11 days pre-production, which is actually the hardest part. I think if you prep a film for eight weeks and you have 21 days , it’s very different, you’re just executing in a short amount of time, but you’ve got everything laid out and ready to go. We were still prepping the film in many ways as we were shooting it. We had to improvise on set, which was really hard. Doing such short group production creates consequences for all the Heads of Department, and dumps into different people’s departments. But we managed, we survived and we luckily had very talented people in our heads of department and our cast that were able to deliver in one or two takes as an actor or in very short amount of time, like Michael Price, our production designer, Renate Henschke, our costume designer,  Steve Arnold, our D.O.P , and then obviously later on, once we got into the edit room, Margie Hoye, who also had to cut the film on a reduced schedule.

“But, I think as filmmakers, you’re very resilient and if there’s a window to make a movie and you are told, ‘Okay, it’s financed, we’re going in two weeks, it’s either that or it gets pushed a year or maybe it never gets made’. You take that deal 10 times outta 10 and then you complain about it and pull your hair out, but you somehow just group together to get it done. We’re here and the movie is done and it’s getting released, and so you kind of look back and go, ‘gee, it definitely was worth it’. But it’s always a bit of like that kind of stepping off the ledge, and just hoping that you’ve all got enough gas in the tank to get it done on a short amount of time.”

What was the biggest challenge making film?

Kane Senes: “It was difficult with Covid. We definitely were a height of Covid film, where everyone was kind of in lockdown in their homes and we were in a bubble in Canberra. So, if anyone got sick, if we got Covid or anything like that, who knows what would’ve happened. We would’ve had to have breaks in production, which would’ve been devastating. So, for us, it was just crossing our fingers, hoping that we got through without any real kind of damage to the film. It was a challenge all the way up until the last day of post. It was gnarly. It was very difficult doing a sound mix remotely with people in different rooms, not able to be in a theater together, it’s very hard to make a movie that way.”

Hannah Barlow: “You never got to complete the mix… And, as perfectionists, it sticks with you. But it’s done well regardless, so we’re just grateful. And films, at the end of the day, are a product of the circumstances in which they were made. There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of art. We’re just happy that we’ve gotten through that and that people don’t necessarily know that and they don’t care. They just judge the finished work.”

Sissy is in cinemas November 3, 2022

Nearly 40 years ago, Shelley Duvall starred in one of the greatest horror films ever, The Shining. Now, two decades after her last film appearance, Duvall is returning to the genre with The Forest Hills.

Shelley Duvall, who is now 73, will appear in The Forest Hills, a horror movie written and directed by Scott Goldberg, who has primarily directed shorts and documentaries. On his admiration for Duvall, Goldberg said, “Shelley contributed to The Shining being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation.”

Werewolf movie The Forest Hills also co-stars Edward Furlong and Dee Wallace, who starred in one of the greatest werewolf movies ever, Joe Dante’s The Howling. By all accounts, Shelley Duvall had officially retired from acting following the 2002 comedy Manna from Heaven, so this casting news is a welcome surprise for fans of both Duvall and the genre.

Shelley Duvall’s most recognizable works include, most notably, Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining, in addition to Terry Gilliam’s fantastical Time Bandits and numerous Robert Altman films, most infamously the ill-fated Popeye, where she played Olive Oyl. She also partook in various kid-friendly fare such as Faerie Tale Theatre and Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, playing Little Bo Peep.

For 1980’sThe Shining, she was nominated for Worst Actress at the inaugural Razzie Awards. Just this year, the Razzies rescinded her nomination, stating, “We have since discovered that Duvall’s performance was impacted by Stanley Kubrick’s treatment of her throughout the production.”

The Forest Hills’ plot: “A man is tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill woods.”

Are you excited for Shelley Duvall’s return to movies? Let us know your favorite Shelley Duvall performance below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18dBhK2F-OE

Struggling to find something to watch this Halloween? Well here are 13 of the best films to stream. I have deliberately avoided the obvious choices, the likes of Cronenberg, Carpenter, Argento, Bava, Romero etc. to offer something a little different. Happy Spookies!

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Lonely teen Casey (Anna Cobb) begins to look inwards as she engages with the online Creepypasta-like role-playing game We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. As she immerses herself in the game reality begins to slip and she feels herself losing control of her body and emotions. The breakout film from director Jane Schoenbrun is a beautiful and haunting portrait of the confluence of dysphoria and online culture. Available on Shudder.

Mad God

Visual effects genius Phil Tippet (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Robocop) presents his magnum opus, a work thirty years in the making. A stop-motion Inferno, a journey through a tortured landscape, a squelchy, vile, and grotesque nightmare. Every second takes you deeper into revulsion. Unmissable. Available on Shudder.

His House

After escaping war-torn Sudan a refugee couple are allocated a dilapidated house in England, but a spirit in the walls tells them they are not welcome. Equally a tight-knit ghost story and a dense allegory, Remi Weeks’ debut feature interrogates the racist politicising and inhumane treatment of refugees. Available on Netflix until 29th October, then BBC iPlayer.

Dead Set

What would happen if you were on Big Brother UK during the zombie outbreak? Well, pre-Black Mirror Charlie Brooker decided to answer that very specific question. A Romero-like zombie thriller loaded with sharp criticism of reality TV culture, although bizarrely allowed to use BB branding and starring Davina McCall? (Admittedly a TV-series but with a full runtime of 2hrs21mins I’ve made an exception.) Available on Netflix.

Pulse

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s early internet ghost story feels ominously prescient as people become paradoxically more connected and increasingly isolated as the technology becomes more prevalent. A masterfully suspenseful tale of techno-paranoia, with some of the most intense and unsettling scares of the century so far. Available on the BFI Player.

Eyes Without a Face

A surgeon culpable for his daughter’s disfiguration abducts young women in order to successfully perform a face transplant and restore her visage. A seedy body horror that is viscerally oppressive, assaulting both aurally and visually, playing deep into the uncanny valley and our discomfort with our own mortal flesh. Available on the BFI Player.

The Slumber Party Massacre & The Slumber Party Massacre II

The Slumber Party Massacre films have that campy charm one wants from a slasher, but they have enough bite to make them meaningful and memorable. The original manoeuvres accordingly between burgeoning teenage feminine sexuality and malevolent masculine presence, but the sequel goes all the way and becomes a flamboyant, outlandish, bad-taste riot. Available on Amazon Prime Video.

The Changeling

After losing both his wife and daughter in a car crash composer John Russell takes up residency in an old abandoned mansion, little did he know, the house has secrets of its own. Sometimes all it takes is a big, scary, not-so-empty house to scare the life out of you, and Peter Medak’s The Changeling delivers exactly that. Available on Amazon Prime Video.

Cat People

One of the cornerstones of horror, Jacques Tourneur’s (I Walked With a Zombie) 1942 tale of gendered sexual repression turned dangerous. Layered with animal instincts and longing stares, Cat People does what Horror does best and turns sub-text into super-text. To call it iconic would be an understatement. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Horror Express

Hammer alumni Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in this 70s paranormal thrill ride. After unearthing a well-preserved humanoid creature from the ice in Manchuria, Professor Saxton (Christopher Lee) must escort it back to Europe on the Trans-Siberian express. But when several of the passengers suffer mysterious and confounding deaths, they begin to suspect that their cargo is something not of our world. Eye bulging, paranoia, and Telly Savalas hurtling through the snow at breakneck speed, all aboard! Available on BBC iPlayer.

Night Tide

A displaced gothic romance resituated in a seaside town. A sailor on shore leave (Dennis Hopper) falls for the mysterious Mora (Linda Lawson) at the local Jazz bar, but as their relationship grows so too do the rumours spread by the local townspeople. What is Mora, a mermaid? A murderer? Available on MUBI.

Knife + Heart

Anne, a producer for gay porn films in the late 70s, is caught at the center of a mystery when a serial murderer begins targeting her stars. With stunningly lit colourful set pieces and an abundance of leather Knife + Heart is a gorgeously grotty queer giallo up there with the best in the genre. Available on MUBI.