A Quiet Place - John Krasinski (2018)

All my life, I've associated fear with cinema. I don't know how much of that fear came from growing up in the era of Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist," Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street," etc. The boy-into-donkey sequence in "Pinnochio" traumatized me as did the trailer of "Poltergeist" which they played before "E.T." Children are easy to scare, at least I sure as hell was, but as we mature we become jaded, desensitized.

But once that element of menace is established, our throats are in the hands of these storytellers, we're at their mercy. To genuinely terrify grown-ups, filmmakers have to work hard to fill us with that much-desired dread. So many turn to gore a lazy response. There are much better ways to successfully thrill, even terrify, horror movie fans. The element of sound is a time-honored method of injecting that bit, turning a bore into an experience where we find ourselves holding our breath.

Right at the start of John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place" it's made clear that nobody here is safe. It's a world where humans are hunted. These blind terrors can hear anything, any small noise and that's how they find their prey, for food or for sport, it doesn't really matter. They can't see, but they don't have to. Their ears are that sensitive and the hunters are that fast.

The Abbot family, with three children just like any family you might come across. In the opening sequence, the Aboots strip a small grocery store/pharmacy for whatever food and medical supplies they need. When the youngest child of the family if he can take a toy, Lee Abbot (John Krasinski) gives it to him, putting a finger against his lips, warning the child to play with it quietly.

Of course, there are other Abbot children. One sister, too young to grasp the gravity of their situation but old enough to take batteries off the shelf to power up a toy. Later, the child turns the toy on, setting off flashing lights and loud sirens, violating the primary rule of survival. What happens next is some of the tightest seconds in recent memory. So now the Abbot family shares a trauma.

Flash forward one year. We can see from Lee's scavenged newspapers' headlines that these creatures have taken the entire planet. That they are indestructible. That they are the end of the world.

The Abbot family still lives in silence and fear. Lee's wife, Evelyn Abbot (Emily Blunt) is expecting a baby which is problematic, to say the least. How the hell could a family survive with a baby? They have managed to keep their children silent, but how can one expect that from an infant?

The rest of the film follows what should have been a typical day for the Abbots in this hopeless, new reality - how they find their food, how they contact their neighbours, how they manage to stay alive. How they learn to enjoy life while walking on a tightrope.

One thing more needs to said about this film - what separates "A Quiet Place" apart from other horror films is that the focus is not only on the monsters but its characters. We come to deeply care for the Abbot family.

"A Quiet Place," effectively pins down an atmosphere of un-breathable fear and epic panic right at the start. Krasinski takes us to a place where making a sound, even a small one, could be fatal. The premise takes us to a malevolent place, how could anybody survive?

Split - M. Night Shyamalan (2017)

I approached M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" with mixed feelings. I had heard the film was the best work Shyamalan had done since his 2000 masterpiece, "Unbreakable."

But I had a problem with the film's concept. Until now, I had refused to watch the film because it looked like an excuse to exploit the mentally ill for plot twists, backstories and any other cheap tricks one could think of.

The story centers around three teenage girls (Anna Taylor-Jo, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula) who have been kidnapped by Kevin, (James McAvoy) a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID.) DID is better known as the term for MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder.) Kevin has twenty-three personalities and they all wait for a twenty-fourth personality known as "The Beast." We're meant to think there is something Messianic transpiring in his head.

The personality in charge at the time when he snatched the girls was violent and deliberate in the act. He was not frightened. Every movement was bold.


Then, as the man continues to interact with the girls, other personalities, kinder ones, have taken over.

As an actor, McAvoy deftly takes all alters, benign and malicious, and balances them like a pro.

And so goes the movie. They try to get help from some of Kevin's alters while trying not to get caught by some of the others. Before the story is wrapped up tight there are twists and turns we do not see coming.


All of the events thus far, all that we see of the other personalities, Kevin does out of fear for the oncoming twenty-fourth personality, known as "The Beast."

I will concede that "Split" is Shyamalan's best work since "Unbreakable."

It is a perfect psychological horror film.

Also, "Split" is the single most offensive movie I have ever seen.

Why is the concept of DID so frightening? Is it just morbid fascination? I have to admit Shyamalan has crafted an incredibly tense film wrapped around the phenomenon.

I think the idea of multiple personalities opens up a world of possible scenarios, especially to those who have no concept of what mental illness is. We don't even know who the villain is here. He or she hides in plain sight. The situation could blow up anytime because the villain is right there and can jump out at any scene.

Shyamalan uses his own presumptions of people with DID and crafts them into an accomplished film.

Not only does Shyamalan reveal himself as somebody who knows nothing about mental illness, he exploits DID and other disorders for entertainment. It  villainizes those who struggle with mental illness.

Shyamalan sees patients of this type of illness as sources of potential violence. He uses them to frighten us, just as our world is trying to get rid of the stigma of mental illness.

People with mental illness are not killers nor are they "Beasts." The name he gave the villain, Beast, identifies all people with DID or mental illness as potential monsters of whom we all should be afraid.

Kevin talks of all his personalities siting in one place together in a room with chairs. Shyamalan would have us believe that one with DID can switch from one personality to another at will. Medically and psychologically this is incorrect, as it is not particularly typical for DID patients to have that much control over their alters. Not only that, but this mindset is dangerous and irresponsible.

And not for nothing, but Shyamalan does not limit his prejudices to the mentally ill. "Split" is also unbelievably misogynistic, homophobic and most of all, trans-phobic.

And just as an aside, I don't usually address matters like this, because of my love for hardcore material, but as a father, I have to tell you that "Split" should been rated 'R.' I would never take a thirteen-year-old to see it.

And despite how clever of a thriller "Split" is, I can not, in good conscience, recommend this movie.

But I must admit, I am damn excited about the prospect of revisiting the "Unbreakable" universe in the near future.

David Dunn is an unsung hero.

Backcountry - Adam MacDonald (2015)

If you are willing to put yourself into the hands of a great storyteller, they can do wonderful and terrible things for you just with the backdrop of their story. If you rely on a mediocre storyteller, you are in for a tedious experience. So what advantages can a filmmaker take with the characters' surroundings? In the right hands, they can terrify you so deeply that you'll never, say, go into the water again ("Jaws") or never take another shower ("Psycho".)

So is Adam MacDonald up to the task? Does "Backcountry" do for the woods what "Jaws" did for the water?

Alex (Jeff Romp) has wonderful childhood memories about hiking and camping at a beautiful lake deep into the forest with his family. Now, he wants to share this place with his girlfriend, Jenn (Missy Peregyrn.)


So there's our background. We are in the woods where one can get turned around and lost or get into all sorts of trouble like meeting a threatening stranger or a bear. Our heroes deal with the fear of the uncivilized world.

First, they come across a stranger, Brad (Eric Balfour) who seems nice at first and has a campfire dinner with him: fresh fish. It's a sequence we have seen played out countless times. The stranger and our heroes laugh with each other, then the stranger turns rude, then aggressive. It's a trick used by suspense/thriller films as far back as any of use remember.

When they part ways, that specific threat is gone. Alex and Jenn only face the unknown of the wilderness.

Every time there is a small emergency, or the couple gets a fright, you expect them to turn around and go home like any of us would do. But of course, these guys are horror film protagonists and therefore, by definition, stupid. 

So they plow through the woods until they find their destination. But Alex doesn't seem to have the memory he used to. They can't find Alex' beloved lake. The're in the wrong place with no map, no cell phone, no food and no way out.

To put it simply, they're lost. At about the half-way point, the question of what is the most terrifying thing in the woods is answered: BEARS. Bears are the scariest things in the woods.

At the beginning of the "Backcountry," Alex teases Jenn about bringing bear spray with them. Turns out bear spray is no joke.

But if a bear is determined to drag you off somewhere into the woods, spray or no spray, he will most likely get his way.

It comes down to how fast can you run, how high can your crawl and how healthy is your will to live?

When "Backcountry" starts, you'll see some potential in the film.

Their interaction with Brad, the creepy stranger they came across in the first act, showed promise. That sequence was admittedly tight and menacing.

After that, all attempts at horror or suspense fall flat. We are left with a tedious exercise of a filmmaker trying in vain to build a successful suspense/thriller. But there is really no suspense here. We just sit there and to think to ourselves, "Could the bear just eat these two pricks so I can go make a sandwich?"

So skip the movie and you make that sandwich. You deserve.

I'm not sure why I took the energy to write about this, but I did, so the least you can do is skim it. Here you go.

The Dinner - Oren Moverman (2017)

For the first act of "The Dinner," you will have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on.

 At the start of "The Dinner," Paul, (Steve Coogan) his wife, Claire, (Laura Linney) are getting ready to have dinner with Paul's brother and U.S. Congressman, Stan (Richard Gere) and his wife, Katelyn (Rebecca Hall.)

Coogan gives the most memorable performance of the film. He plays Paul as a neurotic, like a subdued Woody Allen.

Paul stubbornly insists on staying home and skipping the dinner. There's history aside from this crisis and Paul clearly wants to avoid it.

The get-together is the stage for a confrontation. This is urgent business that pulls Stan away from the demands of his office and forces to focus, just for one evening, on his family.

Filmmaker Oren Moverman takes us back and forth between our quaint table of four and to sequences of events past.

Paul and Claire's son, Michael, as well as his cousin Rick, Stan and Katelyn's son, are in trouble. There is a recording of the boys viciously attacking a homeless women who was trying to sleep in an ATM vestibule.

Not only is there surveillance footage, but the boys recorded the event on their phones. 

Now, the depraved recording may be released and the boys will be exposed.

The third act, when the cards slowly lay themselves down on the table, is as intense as any suspense film.

As we learn more about the perverse attack, expect your sympathies to switch from one character to another. 

One thing Moverman does masterfully is surprise us through the film, changing our perspectives of the different characters.
The one member of the quartet who seems like a rational adult, the one who keeps the family at peace at first, is revealed as a cold monster in one scene toward the end.

"The Dinner" wears many hats. It's a mystery and a thriller. It's about inter-family antagonism and racial hostility. It's about thriving and failing marriages. It's a rare look inside the head of a mentally ill man. And it's a story of unshakable, if misplaced, love.

The character, who comes off as busy, stand-offish and shallow in the first act, turns out to be the one in the group who has a conscience.

The imagery of the film is heavy-handed to say the least. The brothers' conflict is illustrated through Paul's obsession with the Civil War. And there's a shot of Paul's reflection in a broken mirror, and overused and obvious picture of mental illness.

But these are minor complaints.

"The Dinner" has been marketed as a drama, but it's as unsettling as most horror film I've seen and more suspenseful than most thrillers.

Prepare yourself to be ashamed to be a human being. then, for the love of God, watch this film.





 

Glorious 39 by Stephen Poliakoff (2009)

I have to tell you, I was a bit disgruntled early into "Glorious 39" because, without spoiling any of those of you may see the film, an actor I adore was gone in the first 23 minutes.

His part was short, but it was passionate and well worth the top billing his name got.



As for the film, it takes a while to find its feet. I was not sure for a while what kind of movie it was and actually, that is more than okay with me.

To be honest, if I’m not sure if I’m going to be watching a love story or a political drama or a mystery or maybe even a ghost story, it enhances the entire experience and I went into this film completely cold.

Glorious 39 debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September and it kind of slipped under the radar. I understand why. It’s the kind of film that quietly seeps into you.

I didn’t even know I was being affected by it until it was almost over and I wasn’t sure it was memorable until a week later I realized that I’d thought about it every day since I saw it.

The film opens with an ultimately dispensable bookmark. It’s an ominous introduction featuring Christopher Lee recalling the story of a girl who was lost long ago, before the war.

As the story unfolds, the turns it takes are gradual. It seems innocent on the surface, but it isn’t too long before there’s a menacing quality just under its skin.

By the time our heroine, Anne hears the menacing recording of poor Hector, presumably murdered Parliament member and foe of Neville Chamberlain screaming for mercy from God knows what, we are duly and properly unsettled.

As the conspiracy grows, Anne’s family members very gradually grow more menacing.

For those Doctor Who fans out there, if you remember Human Nature & Family of Blood, Anne’s siblings take on a very ‘mother-of-mine,’ ‘sister-of-mine’ quality to them. Especially her brother, Ralph.

I don’t want to give too much away because I want everyone who reads this to seek this film out and watch it. As far as political thrillers go, you really can’t do any better than this one. It works in so many ways.

There’s a sequence that revolves around taking pets in to be euthanized. Putting the family cats down is incidental to the plot.

It’s the other things happening around them at the time that are critical to the story, but that whole atmosphere of calm, tranquil death is just so terrible and peaceful at the same time.

When we see the bodies of the animals being heaped onto pyres, it hardly seems awful.

That’s the kind of lull this film draws you into and then jolts you out of.

Truly, I don’t want to give away any more except to say that you will be disappointed by the ending bookmark, so be prepared for that.

But the end of the story itself is perfect. The revelations are timed beautifully and never feel manufactured even for a moment.

Each trust and each betrayal is genuine and painful. And the one final mercy shown in the film truly feels precious.

So, fans of the Doctor, seek out this film because you miss David Tennant. That’s why I got it. But then find yourself absorbed in one of those rare films that works as a character study, a theme and a narrative.