X (2022)

I have a strange relationship with film-maker Ti West, and I suspect I am not the only horror fan to feel this way. He has been working on his craft for just over two decades now and the good stuff is often very good, but there’s a feeling throughout some of his work that he just wants to mess with people. And let’s not even mention his dubious honour of delivering arguably the worst horror anthology segment I have ever seen (in The ABCs Of Death). This meant that I started watching X with some trepidation, despite it having a potentially great premise. There was no need to worry though, thank goodness, as X is easily the best thing that Ti West has ever done.

The plot is fairly simple. A group of people rent a small farmhouse property in the middle of nowhere. It is the late 1970s and the leader of the group, Wayne (Martin Henderson), wants to make a fortune in the world of porn, which he knows is possible with this location, the people around him, and the equipment that will allow them to make an immediate impact on the new and lucrative home video market. Wayne has two starlets with him, Maxine (Mia Goth) and Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), as well as a well-endowed leading man, Jackson (Kid Cudi). Then you have the sound technician, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), and RJ the cameraman (Owen Campbell). All bodes well for the group, except for the fact that the man they are renting from, Howard (Stephen Ure), takes an instant dislike to them, and there may be problems caused by his wife, Pearl, who doesn’t always have her mental faculties working as well as they should.

If you haven’t seen any of the X marketing yet then you may want to look away now. Just trust me, it is worth your time. For everyone else, you already know what the set-up is here (a porn film crew get themselves caught up in a bit of peril that could easily turn into a full massacre) and I can reassure you that West delivers on it.

Taking his time with the first half of the movie, what you get is a nice slow burn that, in a pleasantly surprising turn of events, really rewards patient viewers with a third act full of grisly deaths and enjoyable “punchlines”. West seems to be having a lot of fun, with recreating a period style and sneakily layering his script with some interesting commentary on beauty as a coveted commodity, and that fun is infectious. X will make you wince, but it will also make you grin as you enjoy one gory set-piece after another. And realising how the movie has been cast will make you think about the main point that West is making, helping to appreciate further a film that has some unexpected depth beyond the nudity and bloodshed.

The cast all do great work, with Snow and Goth being the ones who have to be the least inhibited. Both of those ladies are excellent, and very believable, but Goth also has some more to do in helping West get across his main point, and she deserves some extra kudos for that. Cudi is also very good in his role, playing his character with a mixture of confidence and wariness, considering the time period and the setting, and he is matched by Ortega and Campbell, who feel a bit like supporting players, despite the former being a bit more involved in things in the second half of the movie. Henderson is an easygoing charmer, or at least tries to be, and his energy helps a lot, and Ure portrays the typical sullen “farmer” type who can barely stand the presence of younger folks anywhere near him, let alone on his land. Having just the right mix of anger and sadness, Ure acts in a way, like everyone else here, that allows him to feel like more than just an archetype.

While not feeling overdone in a pointed way, the clothing and design of the film feel nicely of the period, there’s hair and make-up on the characters that is just spot on, and the editing, music, and other aspects of the film all contribute to a nice recreation of something that was filmed in the seventies before being spruced up and presented to modern audiences.

Obviously not for the prudish, X could well be the best horror movie of this year. It’s certainly a strong contender, thanks in no small part to the intelligence hidden away under the exploitation garb. The more I think on it, the more I loved it. Easily the best movie yet from West, and I hope many other horror movie fans check it out. You may end up as pleasantly surprised as I was.

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: Super Dark Times (2017)

First of all, Super Dark Times was recommend to me by someone I like to think of as a good friend, yet also know doesn't always have tastes in line with my own. Whenever he recommends something highly though, well, I always go into it with a sense of optimism. That optimism isn't always well placed. Secondly, and important to note for others who may be debating whether or not to watch this movie, Super Dark Times starts off feeling very much like so many other movies that have mined the same ground as Stranger Things lately, but stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a very different beast.

Written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (who have built up a nice selection of genre films over the past few years, including the enjoyable Stephanie), this is the tale of teenagers being typical teenagers. The heart of the film is Zach (Owen Campbell) and his firm friendship with Josh (Charlie Tahan). Everything seems happy and normal until a nasty accident starts to push a wedge between them. Covering up their misdeed, to put it mildly, Zach becomes more and more worried, and Josh seems to be becoming more and more distant. And maybe even more determined to use the accident as a springboard for a whole new way of life.

The directorial feature debut from Kevin Phillips, this is a well-paced and well-crafted work that mixes together the ups and downs of teenage turbulence. And the journey that the main characters go on is done in a way that somehow manages to avoid feeling as if things have gone from 0 to 100 with no gradual increase in the speed of the changes. That's not to say that the plot doesn't actually unfold that way, it does, but there's enough time given to little moments scattered throughout that help to distract viewers from feeling rushed towards what is an enjoyably dark and twisted final reel.

I'm not sure there was any need to really set this in the early 1990s, and keeping everything set in the modern day would have helped to avoid that early feeling of "uh oh, they're going to do Stranger Things", but it doesn't feel forced down our throat for most of the runtime. It also doesn't really affect the plot in any way. Maybe Collins and Piotrowski assumed that the latest tech would remove any tension. Or maybe that's the time they remember from their own teenage years (I have no idea what age they actually are, this is purely hypothetical).

Campbell and Tahan are both great, and they both go through some big changes from their first scenes to their last. Max Talisman and Sawyer Barth are also good as part of the foursome who eventually start to go their separate ways, some less voluntarily than others. Elizabeth Cappuccino gets less to do, playing Allison, a subject of young love, but she does well in her role, and everyone else, whether teen or adult, helps to round out a movie world that stays quite believable and grounded.

Weak opening aside, Super Dark Times is an excellent little film that lives up to the title. Check it out if you already enjoyed Summer Of '84. Check it out even if you didn't enjoy that one. It's worth at least giving a shot.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: Depraved (2019)

I may have mentioned it before, but Larry Fessenden is seen as a bit of a glowing light within the horror community. People have so many nice things to say about him, and he always seems to be happy to lend his time/ear/advice to others asking for it. In fact, I KNOW I have mentioned this before, because it is how I started my review of Wendigo (a film I didn't really enjoy). I had more hope for Depraved, although it was completely unfounded. This is not a film I have heard anyone really discuss, but I wanted to enjoy a movie written and directed by Fessenden.

Well, I did. Phew!

A modern reworking of the classic Frankenstein tale, Depraved starts with a young couple, Alex (Owen Campbell) and Lucy (Chloë Levine), having a small argument. It's nothing permanent, although it's the final exchange within their relationship. Because Alex is killed. We then cut to the birth of a man named Adam (Alex Breaux), a man stitched together and brought to life by Henry (David Call), helped in his endeavours by the far-from-magnanimous Polidori (Joshua Leonard). Teaching Adam how to develop his skills is an interesting process, and leads to difficult times when his internal turmoil leads to him lashing out at those around him. He may also have some part of him connected to Lucy.

Not interested in gore or major set-pieces, although it's not a bloodless affair, Fessenden impressed with his approach to the material here. In fact, pair this up with Frankenstein (2015) and you have a very interesting double-bill of movies that manage to provide fresh takes on the text while never losing sight of the moral quandaries at the heart of the story. Neither feel as if they're trying to be too clever, or trendy, which can often happen with modernised takes on classic tales.

But let's get back to this. While Fessenden has taken care to have his writing and direction display the material in a suitable, and unfussy, way (with some nice visual touches showing the mental development of Adam), he's helped by a cast who do some great work for him. Call is a fantastic "Frankenstein", caring for his creation, yet also conflicted by the ways he wants to both push him and keep him under control. Breaux is an impressive creature, his look changing at various times in the movie, and delivers a physical performance that embodies that strong man-child figuring things out amidst a lot of confusion and mental struggles. Leonard is a lot of fun as Polidori, the one who is really trying to pull the strings, and Levine is likeable as Lucy, Ana Kayne, Maria Dizzia, and Addison Timlin help out as, respectively, Liz, Georgina, and Shelley.

If you know Fessenden, then you know that he often provides genre treats that don't like to conform to the box-ticking that some fans may prefer. That's a really good thing when the material is strong enough, and the final result interesting, as it is here. And when it doesn't work out, well, you still have to admire his constant attempts to deliver something new to audiences. I'll take a Fessenden misfire over 100 other attempts to make the next Paranormal Activity. And I'll take a Fessenden bullseye over pretty much every major studio attempt to revisit/reboot the horror IPs that they view as potential big money-makers.

8/10

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