LEVITICUS doesn’t need a monster

Film

There’s a particular kind of horror that doesn’t require a monster at all — the fear of being seen, known, of getting what you thought you wanted. Great horror has always understood this. Leviticus understands it too, and is at its best when the film trusts that that’s enough. It’s at its worst when it reaches for the trappings of the genre to prove the point.

BACKROOMS excavates the fear of turning a corner

Film

If you had to describe a dog to someone who’d never seen one, and then asked them to draw it, would it look like a dog? If they’d never seen an actual dog, could any approximation of what you’d described – 4 legs, 2 ears, wagging tail – get them close enough? And even if it did: would “close enough” to an actual dog just be all the creepier?

This is an image Kane Parsons’s Backrooms keeps circling back to. Is it possible to transmit your interior self to someone else? And if it is, would the result even be recognizable?

Folk horror meets pop glamour in MOTHER MARY

Film

Director David Lowery is not exactly known for broad films that appeal to the masses. So there’s some irony in the fact that Mother Mary is – on paper – Lowery’s most commercial film. It features Anne Hathaway as a pop star, a soundtrack from Charli XCX and FKA Twigs, stunning gowns, and centers on the dissolution of a female friendship. It’s appealing and relatable in concept, but surprisingly, Mother Mary may turn out to be Lowery’s most polarizing film yet.

How HAMNET sticks the landing

Film

I went into Hamnet cold, aware from the awards-circuit rumors that I could expect a lot of crying, but knowing little else. When I showed up for a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival at 8 in the morning, surrounded by exhausted festival-goers who were running on caffeine fumes and a steady diet of 5 films a day, I half expected I’d struggle to stay awake.

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