Netflix And Chill: Lord Of Misrule (2023)

I might not have taken a chance on Lord Of Misrule if I'd remembered some of the past films from the director and writer. William Brent Bell has more good than bad in his filmography, just, but writer Tom de Ville was responsible for one of the worst mainstream modern horror movies of the last decade (although his screenplay for The Quiet Ones was then filtered so thoroughly through a trio of other writers that I barely mentioned him in my review of it). Anyway, it's thanks to the cast that I decided to give this a go. I am glad that I did.

Tuppence Middleton plays Rebecca Holland, a new minister in a small country village. The area has the usual traditions and local lore that you'd expect to encounter, especially if you have seen any folk horror movie over the years, but Rebecca tries to balance her traditional approach to ministering with the unique sensibilities of the locals. Things change for the worse when her daughter, Grace (Evie Templeton), goes missing, leading both Rebecca and her husband, Henry (Matt Stokoe), to believe that everyone around them is actually conspiring to ensure that there's not going to be a happy resolution to the situation. Jocelyn Abney (Ralph Ineson) should know how this feels, having lost his own son about twelve years ago, but he's resolute in his belief that everything happens for a very good reason.

There's nothing here that is going to surprise anyone with even the slightest experience with movies in this vein, but neither Bell nor De Ville ever attempt to convince viewers that they are looking to surprise anyone or create something startling new to add to this particular area of the horror landscape. It may be a bit too predictable and derivative, but at least there are a number of individual moments that all simply work. There's less chance to build a sense of dread when you know roughly what's going to happen, but Brett Detar tries to help with his musical score, and Simon Rowling's cinematography also helps add to the atmosphere.

The biggest plus point that the movie has is Ineson though, a fantastic actor who is used to great effect here. Brooding, often slightly ambiguous even as everything around him becomes much more overt and obvious, and with that distinctive voice making every word he utters feel like a tombstone being moved into place, Ineson is the essential ingredient that helps to make this a success. Not to take too much away from Middleton, Stokoe, and Templeton, or anyone else appearing onscreen. Everyone delivers solid performances, whether they are shown acting in a relatively normal manner, or getting ready to don masks and robes and join in with the kind of festivities that would amuse and please Lord Summerisle.

I liked this. A quick look around shows that most people didn’t, and the main complaint tends to be the familiar feeling that permeates it, as well as many claiming that it just isn’t scary. I can see their point, but I felt that the atmosphere and pacing worked well, even as I knew where we would be heading for the third act.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Disappearance At Clifton Hill (2019)

A young girl meets a young boy, he has one bleeding eye bandaged over. The boy is clearly trying to stay hidden from someone. A car drives by. The boy runs. The car reverses, and an adult grabs the boy and bundles him into the back of the car. The young girl returns to the rest of her family, told to pose for a photo as she cannot stop looking at the car now driving past them. That's how Disappearance At Clifton Hill starts. It's a good start, and it then moves into interesting territory when we meet Abby (Tuppence Middleton), the grown-up incarnation of that young girl. Abby is back in her hometown, Niagara Falls, after the death of her mother. She wants to see if she can make a go of her mother's business, the Rainbow Inn, before having to sell it to developers. She has six weeks, even if her sister, Laure (Hannah Gross), would just like it all done and over with already. Abby finds a photo from that memorable day that has haunted her for years, which starts her on an investigation into the potential kidnapping/murder of a young boy. But it's hard to get anyone to believe her after so much time has passed, especially as she has a habit of not being able to tell the truth to anyone.

Some friends of mine had recommended Disappearance At Clifton Hall over the past couple of months, which meant I was excited to finally make time for it. Unfortunately, this is one time when my friends and I disagree. Quite strongly.

A feature debut for both director Albert Shin and writer James Schultz, Disappearance At Clifton Hill is a horrible mess for most of the runtime. It also has music from Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty that ranks as some of the worst I have ever heard. Obviously aiming for an unnerving and strange atmosphere throughout, it almost constantly moves from standard strangeness to sound that replicates cassette tape being chewed around some tape heads. Why would you want that? Maybe if your film was as strange, in terms of visuals and plotting, as that soundtrack then it might work. But Shin and Schultz don't have that level of strangeness here. They have a rather traditional mystery tale, with an obvious villain and one enduring clear recollection guiding the amateur investigator, and then try to add layers of distracting oddness. It doesn't work. Perhaps aiming for something like Inherent Vice or Under The Silver Lake, or any number of noirs that have managed to work with strange quirks bolted to the main story thread, neither of the men succeed in their aim. The third act is exceptionally dull in the way it tries to tie everything up neatly, and then becomes tiresome with a final grace note that may or may not be a real underlining of the pointlessness of everything you've just watched.

Middleton is very good in the lead role, a clearly troubled young woman who becomes exasperated as she tries to prove that her other mistakes don't mean she is wrong with her attempts here to discover the fate of a young boy. Gross is equally good as the understandably tense sister, having been hurt and betrayed in the past, but willing to forgive and love and move forward, if possible, and Noah Reid is very likeable as her supportive husband. David Cronenberg is a lot of fun as a local historian and podcaster also trying to get to the truth of things, Andy McQueen is decent as a young cop who is new in town, and Eric Johnson is Charlie Lake, the local businessman who basically owns the town. There are other characters who come to the fore, including the potential kidnappers and a cheesy stage magic act, but the performances aren't that good, mainly thanks to the lack of any consistent tone, and the unsure notion of whether we are seeing people or seeing Abby's version of people. Although only in one or two scenes, Elizabeth Saunders stands out in her role, a suspect named Bev Mole, but that's the only other performance worth praising.

I was hoping for something really good here. Even as things started to falter, I held out hope that it would get back on track. That didn't happen. The opening scenes work well, but then it's a slow and steady downward slide towards real awfulness. Which is a shame, because there are elements here that work. They're just drowned by so many things that don't.

4/10

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Possessor (2020)

It must be both a blessing and a curse to be Brandon Cronenberg. On the one hand, your father is the top name in psychologically-intriguing body horror movies. On the other hand, that's a huge shadow to step out from. After making a decent impression with his debut feature, Antiviral (a film many people enjoyed more than I did), Cronenberg looks like he may be about to solidify his reputation among horror fans with Possessor, a dark and bloody movie that is arguably much more horror of the mind than anything to do with the body.

Andrea Riseborough is Vos, an assassin who takes over the bodies of other people, via an implant, in order to get to her victims. When the job is done, Vos gets the unwitting "host" to commit suicide, thus allowing her psyche to return to her body, which is housed in the machinery allowing her connection to the implant. Vos seems to be struggling with her own identity, understandably so, and also has certain attachments to items/people that may be an issue to someone in her line of work. This all comes to a head in her next job, when she's placed inside Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott). Tate isn't as easily controlled as others, but maybe that is partly to do with Vos not necessarily wanting to immediately return to her own body.

The start of Possessor is certainly a sequence that immediately draws in viewers, showing the assassination M.O. of Vos and then adding enough little details for things to be pieced together. And the end of Possessor is quite jaw-dropping. This is a film book-ended by moments that you won't forget, with Cronenberg showing an ability to deliver real shocks that aren't just delivered in a vacuum. The middle section is where things are a bit problematic, with a number of scenes that are surreal and dark, but not as interesting as the more energised moments around them.

Cronenberg has a bit more room to play here, or so it seems, compared to his debut, and he doesn't squander the opportunity. There's a cast that also includes Sean Bean, Tuppence Middleton, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in small roles, and there's a feeling of a more completely-realised movie world here than there was in Antiviral. Dialogue may not always seem to make sense, but a lot of it is loaded with more meaning that becomes obvious on a rewatch.

Riseborough is very good in her role (although I remain convinced that she isn't now able to take on a role without knowing that it satisfies a certain misery quotient). Even while not seen onscreen, her quiet and cold performance, and how the script conveys this, means that you always feel her presence. Abbott is equally good, and in mostly the same way. He may be onscreen a lot more than Riseborough, but he's portraying someone not always in control of his own actions or thoughts. Everyone else already mentioned does good work, but it's Riseborough and Abbot who own the movie.

I rate this very highly, despite my problems with the middle act. That's how effective the rest of the film is, and how unique it feels. I've not seen anything that caused me to react so strongly in a long time, and a film that can manage that deserves a fair amount of credit.

8/10

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