Three Recs, horror edition

A real-life psychological thriller film, a murder mystery TV show, a 70s-set horror comedy film

Happy Friday, friends!

I didn’t mean for there to be a theme to my recs this week, but in retrospect, there sort of is. And it’s a weird one, for me.

See, I’m not a horror person. I’m not one of those people who likes being scared. (Life is scary enough, am I right?) When I wanted to see Get Out, I made a friend spoil it for me and tell me where the jump scares were. (And it was great, I loved it!) Despite recommending Yellowjackets to lots of people, I stopped like halfway through the first season because it had reached the point where I was watching it through my fingers. When a friend tricked me into watching The Exorcist because it was “silly and campy and the scary stuff is obviously fake” (you know who you are!), I didn’t sleep for a week. If you’re one of those people who’s now going to tell me that I really just have to see Hereditary or Barbarian, I’m sorry but I’m going to disappoint you.

Which is to say, if you’re like me: don’t worry. Only one of these rec actually calls itself a horror film. But one is a psychological thriller and one is a murder mystery, so they all do explore with the darker side of humanity. Why we do the bad things we do. How we can hurt people even while having (or because of having) good intentions. The structures that exist to enable and excuse our worst impulses. How deep the rot and corruption go.

But the thing that I like about all of these recs – the thing that makes them for me – is that there’s a hope underlying this exploration. All of them center on characters who refuse to have their spirits and their intrinsic sense of kindness broken by all of this. People – women – for whom it would sometimes be easier to just give up and give in and stop caring. And yet, they persevere.

When I was a kid, my idols were the characters in the books I read and the movies I watched. I wanted to be the (mostly young women) heroes who fought against villains and saved their friends and struggled to do the right thing in the face of adversity. (Yes, I read a lot of fantasy, how can you tell?) I was a nerd, sure, but it’s true that fictional characters are often meant to show us a path we could take, whether we might want to (heroes) or not (anti-heroes).

So I suppose it’s funny to realize that nothing much has changed: I’m still looking for a guide to existence in the stories I watch and read. But then, isn’t that what we’re all doing, even you crazy horror fans?

---

Thank you so much to everyone who liked last week’s issue and spread the word! And welcome to all the new subscribers! Please continue to like the posts (buttons at top and bottom) and tell your friends to come hang with us.

---

Rec 1
Reality (film)

I went into this film assuming everyone at least vaguely knew who Reality Winner was. If you’re wondering how that can possibly be a real person’s name (it is), then let me stop you right there and tell you not to google her. Just hear me out.

Because I knew who she was, I knew where the film was going. And still, it was a taut psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat for the less than an hour and a half it runs. (When was the last time you saw a film that short?!) It’s sharp, it’s funny, and it’s very smart. It runs essentially in real time, using the transcript of a real interview – the actors are performing real dialogue, and they’re doing it magnificently. Their physicality and the way it serves their performances is especially impressive. Despite only using the transcript, the film also does some very clever cinematic things to take full advantage of the medium. I’m now extra curious to see the play it’s taken from.

There’s a lot more I want to tell you. But the thing is, once I discovered that most people have never heard of Reality Winner, it occurred to me what an even more incredible experience getting to see this film would be if you didn’t know where it was going. I loved it knowing what it was building towards, but I wish I could have had the experience of going in blind, too. I’m sure some of you are going to go look her/the film up now, but I’m asking you to humor me and watch it without doing that. And then please come back and tell me what you thought.

Where to watch: HBO/Max (US), in cinemas (UK)

Rec 2
Poker Face (TV)

If you’re in the US, you might think I’m late to the party, but this road trip murder mystery series from the great Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Looper, The Last Jedi), starring the inimitable Natasha Lyonne, only just came out here. I got to hear all the hype and had to hope that it would live up to it when I finally got to watch it.

Here’s the lowdown: Natasha Lyonne plays Charlie, a quirky, good-hearted drifter who can always tell when someone’s lying (like, it’s a sense she was born with), and tries to use that ability to help people. She often turns amateur detective, and she sure does encounter a lot of murders for someone who’s just passing through, but she also gets in lots of more-dangerous-than-I-expected scrapes. Which is to say: this isn’t exactly a cozy murder mystery show. For all the humor and kindness and underlying hopefulness of the show, there are some genuinely bad villains and the murders can be grisly – though they’re mostly not shown on screen. I dig the mashup and think it makes the show stand out – there’s not really anything else like this out there.

I also really appreciate the creativity in how each episode is structured: it starts essentially with a long teaser / short film where you see not just the typical setup for the murder, but also the details of the actual murder. As Charlie discovers and solves the mystery, you do learn just how much the camera lies, but the fact that we know all the important info means that each episode is driven not by “whodunnit” but by “will she solve it in time, and how.” It’s a brave swing, which you know I love, and I think it pays off because 1) Rian Johnson is a storytelling genius, 2) Natasha Lyonne is as magnetic as ever, and 3) the guest stars every episode are a veritable murderer’s row (lol) of actors.

Oh, also, I almost forgot: Adrian Brody, as ever, stealing scenes.

Where to watch: Peacock (US), Sky/Now (UK)

Rec 3
Demon 79, Black Mirror (film/TV)

Okay, I’m going to get myself in trouble here, but I’ve never seen Black Mirror. This is not for lack of interest – anyone who knows my work and interests knows that my brain has Black Mirror tendencies. In fact, it’s because of these tendencies – and because I don’t do horror films – that I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch the Netflix show. It feels a bit too much like my brain come to life.

That changed this week when I went to a screening of the fifth (and final?) episode of the new season: Demon 79. I know, I just said I don’t like horror, but I was convinced to go and there was a q&a and I figured I’d just cover my eyes if it got too scary. (In the end, I only covered my eyes once, and that was for kind of campy gore.)

Turns out, Demon 79 (co-written by Charlie Brooker and Bisha K. Ali) isn’t typical Black Mirror. It’s set in Britain in the Thatcherite late 70s, so has nothing to do with technology run amok. It’s also an hour and a half, so it’s fundamentally just a film (see above classification). And I guess it is a horror film, but it’s also funny and heartfelt and philosophical and mind-bending and…enjoyable. It upends genre tropes and expectations in surprising ways, which I’m always here for, and of course Brooker’s usual political and social commentary is still in there quite overtly. Paapa Essiedu is predictably delightful as a quirky demon with great style, and the charismatic Anjana Vasan (whom I’d only seen on stage before) more than holds her own as a young woman trying to be a good person in a cruel world.

Caveat: As a not-horror person, I really enjoyed this. My friend who is a horror person was a little underwhelmed by it, feeling they could have done more with the horror elements. Take from that what you will.

Where to watch: Netflix

---

That’s all for issue 7! What are you reading/watching/listening to that I should be aware of? Drop me a line (or comment) to let me know if you check out any of my recs and what you think.

Please spread the word and I’ll see you in a couple weeks!

xo
Kate

---

Did someone share this with you?