-
The Sundance Film Festival 2021
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, film festivals have grappled with the same questions facing many businesses and non-profits. Chiefly, how do they keep the money pouring in? We’ve seen many film studios largely switch to streaming platforms, allowing consumers unlimited access to their curated library of content for a monthly fee. Film festivals…
-
Scream Unto the Lord
When’s the last time your body demanded movement? If you’ve watched Ari Aster’s Hereditary at any point in the recent past, perhaps you’ll have an answer. There’s a moment in the modern horror classic that demands movement from the viewer, be it internal or external. Alex Wolff’s Peter Graham is racing down a dark country…
-
Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
Let the Right One In is a foreign, art-house, vampire film starring a bunch of weird-looking Swedish kids. But also it’s a haunting look at isolation, childhood trauma and intimacy somewhere in the hazy realm between friendship and first love. Stark and matter-of-fact about its subject matter (Swedish vampires), this minimalist film was good enough…
-
Carnival of Souls
Nothing quite agitates an artist like asking to explain their art. Perhaps it is the perceived implication that they didn’t communicate effectively, or that you aren’t willing to fully engage with their work, or that you are only concerned with being right. For the artistic partnership behind Carnival of Souls, the agitation is simply the…
-
Hold the Dark
When critics of all stripes – film, TV, video games, music – write about art that is hard to pin down aesthetically, you’ll often see them use a specific word: dreamlike. Nightmarish if it skews darker. Dreams are an especially apt grounding point for movies because of the way they’re both constructed. There’s a separation…
-
Hereditary
Despite the billing it has received, Hereditary is not primarily a horror film. Yes, it continues A24’s unsettling run of hybrid horror successes, along with The Witch and It Comes At Night. And yes, it is the scariest, most unsettling movie to hit theaters in years. But at the heart of Hereditary’s blackened soul lies…
-
A Quiet Place
A young family faces the horrors of an unearthly enemy where even the smallest sound means a gruesome death. Actor/director John Krasinski (yes, it’s a bearded Jim from The Office) stars with Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins forthcoming) in a tight, intense thriller that’s equal parts monster movie and interpersonal drama. You don’t have to strain…
-
It
Stephen King doesn’t typically make the “must read” list for Christians. On the surface, his tales appear dark and deranged, but a deeper look reveals a different story. Regardless of whether King is a practicing Christian (he declared himself one on his website, but has since pushed back on the label), his work speaks for…
-
Lady MacBeth
I’ve been really into horror films lately, but not the type you might have in mind. I’m talking less about Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more Suspiria; not so much A Nightmare on Elm Street as Mulholland Drive. Yes, I know that latter choice probably isn’t “horror” by many classifications, but I think it fits the…
-
Get Out
