Halloween 2020: October 23rd

Host (2020)

COVID-19 has changed how we interact with everything, pop culture certainly. Streaming services have become the main way we consume cinema now, with the future of movie theaters being in serious doubt. While we don’t know yet the full effect the pandemic will have on the film industry, as every tentpole release has been pushed back a full year, but the truth is we are already living in the post-pandemic era of filmmaking. Early in lockdown, filmmaker Rob Savage — previously of polished short “Salt” — created an effective jump-scare video over Zoom and posted it on Twitter. This was a prototype for a feature film assembled in the same fashion. Savage wrote, shot, and completed “Host” in twelve weeks, entirely over Zoom. It was released on Shudder over the summer and gained some healthy reviews, the first film truly conceived through the new restrictions we all now live with.

To keep themselves from going stir-crazy in quarantine, Haley and her friends — Jeema, Emma, Radina, and Caroline — participate in weekly Zoom calls. Usually, they drink, chat, joke around, and just keep in touch. This week, Haley has something else planned. She has contacted a medium to perform a séance over the group chat. It’s plagued with technical problems from the beginning and, despite the medium’s insistence everyone take this seriously, nobody really does. Jeema even jokingly invents a dead friend from her past that “contacts” her. Things get really weird after that, glass breaking, chairs being pulled, disturbing visions. It soon becomes clear that a malevolent entity has entered the chat.

“Host” is not the first movie to play out as if the entire thing is occurring on a computer screen. Nacho Vigolondo’s “Open Windows” and the “Unfriended” series are notable precursors. Yet Savage does find novel new uses for the “group chat” format. Whenever a call is dropped in “Host,” it takes on an ominous quality. One character has a video of themselves walking in their room as a default background, which is cleverly subverted later in the film. Characters use filters throughout, which later takes on a sinister touch when a body-less face appears. This inaction with the setting even extends to the end credits, which play out as a contact list on the app... Which I initially mistook for the demon searching out more victims, a clever sequel hook if Savage were to use it. If nothing else, “Host” shows that “Zoom movies” are a totally viable option. (For extra authenticity, I watched the movie on my computer.)

More than anything else, like many innovative new films, “Host” reminded me of the trick shorts of Georges Méliès. Everyone watching “Host” will know it was directed entirely remotely, with the actors doubling as special effects technicians. Which makes its numerous, clever supernatural scares feel like magic tricks. When a chair is pulled backwards with a screech, when a body floats in the air, or when drawers are violently yanked out, you know a grip wasn’t just off-screen holding the strings. The best moments in the film make the most of its particular format. “Host” often has you watching the space behind the cast’s heads for anything weird. In one clever moment, dangling legs appear in the attic. “Host” is also surprisingly patient, allowing that sense of unease build before the jump scares inevitably arrive... Which they do, the final scene being the most telegraphed. Yet “Host” got me jumping more than once, so it works. 

The question has to be asked though: Does “Host” offer anything more beyond the novelty of its premise? Though the film takes place in the context of the pandemic, a character even putting on a mask before making a frightened dash from their home, it doesn’t comment on the anxieties of living through this era. Any commentary on the communicating in the digital age is vague at best. Mostly, “Host’s” moral is the classic lesson of don’t fuck with forces you don’t understand. Speaking more grounded, I don’t care about any of the characters in this movie. Savage smartly doesn’t foreground Caroline’s trauma over her father’s suicide and keeps the panicked bickering to a minimum. The performances are fine because everyone is more-or-less playing themselves. But Savage doesn’t concern himself so much with weaving realistic, compelling characters as he does creating inventive scares.

Given that “Host” only runs 55 minutes, straddling the line between short and feature, some inventive scares are really enough. Glorified tech demo or not, ingenuity and novelty count for something in this genre. Whether anyone will feel the need to revisit “Host” once the pandemic is over remains to be seen. Considering video chat technology obviously isn’t going anywhere, “Host” will likely maintain some degree of relevancy. The “self-aware digital age thriller” subgenre has yet to produce a masterpiece but “Host” is certainly a clever magic trick. [7/10]

Hack-O-Lantern (1988)

About a decade ago, I used to occasionally attend a film revival series known as Horror Remix. Produced out of Texas, Horror Remix was a semi-monthly event wherein digest versions of three (or more) trashy old horror movies, connected by a theme, would play together. A pair of sarcastic puppets hosted, dropping jokes in-between the segments. The story of how I discovered this program involves a girl or two and I will probably be forced to tell it to a lawyer eventually. Anyway, the last Horror Remix I can recall attending was themed around Halloween. It collected together “Nights of the Demons” – which is, of course, actually a good movie – with “Hack-O-Lantern” and “HollowGate,” two thoroughly mind-melting trash slashers from the late eighties. Now, thanks to Shudder and Joe Bob Briggs' Halloween Hideaway, here I am watching the full version of “Hack-O-Lantern” about ten years later. How the time flies.

Tommy's granddad is a Satanist. The result of incest, Tommy has been groomed since birth by his grandpa to become the next leader of their local Satanic cult. His mom has always been against this and when his “father” tried to step in, the cult murdered him. Ten years later, Tommy's siblings, Roger and Vera, have grown up to be a local cop and a relatively normal young woman. Tommy lives in the basement, listening to rock music and working out. As Halloween approaches, Grandpa returns to fulfill Tommy's destiny. Soon, he's in the barn performing Satanic rights. At the same time, someone in a hood and demon mask is killing people around town. It all comes to a head at a rowdy party on October 31st.

“Hack-O-Lantern” is one of those wonderful low budget movies that, thanks to being made largely by outsiders, doesn't follow the traditional rules movies are suppose to follow. In the world of “Hack-O-Lantern,” it's totally normal for a Halloween party to include both a stripper and a belly dancer with a snake. The characters consider a freshly dug grave an appropriate place for some hanky-panky. No one is concerned by the sight of an obvious corpse, even asking it for help. In this strange alternate universe, there's nothing wrong with a movie stopping for a solid minute to focus on a shitty stand-up comic doing his thing. (Once again, outside a barn. 90% of this movie is in or around barns.) The most wacked-out sequence in “Hack-O-Lantern” occurs early. While listening to L.A. butt-rock band D.C. La Croix, Tommy has a vision of a bikini-clad woman shooting laser beams from her eyes, changing the physical properties of items around her, and eventually tearing his head off with a pitchfork. It's inexplicable, nonsensical, and utterly magical. 

“Hack-O-Lantern” never quite tops the joyful insanity of that hair metal dream sequence but remains entertainingly nuts throughout thanks to its bizarre cast. Minor character actor Hy Pike gets top-billing as Grandpa. To describe Pike's voice as gravelly is to make gravel sound comfortable. Pike growls and grumbles through the whole movie, coming off as ambiguously flamboyant. The script has him constantly talking about the devil, Halloween, or Satan worship in hilariously awkward ways. Greg C. Scott glares intensely through most of his scenes, sometimes while wearing a Rambo headband. Jeff Brown acts like a big dumb puppy as Roger. The screenplay runs the characters through melodrama about family shame, betrayals, and romantic entanglements. Because the acting is on such an otherworldly level, it all comes off as deranged posturing. 

Through all the batshittery, you can see that “Hack-O-Lantern” was intended to be a normal devil worshiper/slasher sleaze-fest. The murder scenes are actually semi-well done. A shovel-to-the-head gore gag looks pretty good. The devil mask and curved pitchfork combo is a cool look for a cinematic killer. A corset assisted stabbing is ridiculous but certainly memorable. If scenes of people in cloaks flashing devil horns and standing around pentagrams is your thing, “Hack-O-Lantern” has plenty of that too. It doesn't skimp on T&A either. The film rarely misses an opportunity to get its female cast members naked. Tommy's New Wave girlfriend – recognizable because of the tattoo on her ass – gets totally nude early on, setting up a pattern for the rest of the movie. (Though your mileage may vary on how attractive you find the actresses, most of whom appear to be in their forties.) If this movie hadn't been made by crazy people, it would probably be a totally competent – and certainly far less interesting – bit of low budget genre debris. 

Thanks to Job Bob, I now know all sorts of bizarre trivia about this film. Director Jag Mundhra was Indian and apparently inserted the musical numbers in an attempt to make the movie more Bollywood. Which was against the wishes of the also Indian producer, who just wanted to make a simple “Halloween” rip-off. (“Hack-O-Lantern” was still released in some markets as “Halloween Night,” a title that does little to prepare the viewer for what's to come.) Mundhra didn't speak English, leaving the cast often uncertain about what to do. Which explains a lot about the acting! While the full length experience does drag a little when compared to the Horror Remix cut I saw long ago, the crazy shit I remember about this movie still comprises the majority of its run time. “Hack-O-Lantern” is hilarious from start-to-finish and too baffling not to love. [7/10]

Black Mirror: Metalhead

Obviously, I've heard of “Black Mirror,” the British science fiction anthology series built around the premise of “What if technology was bad actually?” I heard about it when it was airing on Channel 4 in the U.K. Once it arrived on Netflix in 2014, people would not shut the hell up about it. Which might be why “Black Mirror” got pushed to the back of my watch list, even though its ostensibly exactly my kind of thing. The Netflix “binge-watch” model is terrible for the pop culture discourse. Anyway, “Black Mirror” is more sci-fi than horror usually but crosses over occasionally. Of the “scary” episodes, “Metalhead” sounded pretty cool so I decided to make it my first episode of this critically acclaimed show. 

In the empty Scottish country side, Belle and two friends drive to a warehouse, in search of something to help a sick friend. As they are sneaking around the building, a “dog” – a robotic weapon that is tiny but indomitable – is alerted. The machine quickly kills Belle's companions, striking her with shrapnel that doubles as a tracking device in the process. Though the dog looses its primary weapon in a car crash, it continues to relentlessly pursue Belle, now on foot, across the landscape. Eventually, she arrives at a home and is forced to have a one-on-one confrontation with the pint-sized murder bot. 

I'm happy to report that “Metalhead” is pretty cool. David Slade, of “Hard Candy” and “Nightmare Cinema,” directs in stark black-and-white. Slade knows exactly how to ramp up the tension, keeping the story moving at a break-neck pace without loosing track of the human element and degrading into shaky-cam theatrics. (As he did in the inferior “30 Days of Night.”) The musical score is stripped down but knows when to strike. The dog proves to be a frightening little robot. Patterned after the real life BigDog machines, the special effects tap into that same uncanny quality. Seeing such a small thing reduce people to rubble, via bombs and shotgun blasts, is genuinely startling. Similarly frightening is the robot's refusal to give up, doggedly pursuing Belle out no matter what. The way the dog coldly goes about its business, even attaching a butcher knife to its paw, gives the impression of a little psychopath... Even if it's just doing its job, which is even scarier.

Maxine Peake plays Belle and she's the only human around for most of the episode. Peake's determined performance works extremely well. She's terrified but refuses to give up, much like her mechanical pursuer. The ingenuity she shows in fighting the machine reveals how the human element will always outmatch artificial intelligence. The exact details of this episode's world is never revealed. Are the dogs the result of a war between man and robots? Are they simply the tools of a ruling class, designed to keep the poor from privileged resources? “Metalhead” doesn't elaborate, even leaving the viewer on an intentionally vague final image. I can dig it though. “Metalhead” is an intense 41 minutes, an elaborate chase scene with a terrifying villain. I guess I'm going to have to watch the rest of this show now. [8/10]

Dead Man's Lake (2012)

Here's another suggestion from the late, great Dissolve. “Dead Man's Lake” is yet another homage to the eighties slasher genre, the aesthetic horror fans just can't quit. Young couple Nick and Grace have traveled to a forbidden lake in the woods for a weekend of relaxation and sexy fun. There fireworks obsessed friend Pete tags along. As Pete sets off bottle rockets throughout the woods, Nick and Grave get closer. Inevitably, a hideously bloody wildman attacks the kids, leading to some gory special effects. “Dead Man's Lake” then rewinds and reveals the surprisingly sympathetic back story of its “monster.”

Director Ben Franklin earns points for nailing the retro-slasher aesthetic. The fashion, title font, color grading, and music are all right out of the eighties. (And just to let us know he's a real fan, there's a song from the “Slaughter High” soundtrack thrown in.) The thinly sketched characters, especially the annoying Pete, aren't very involving though. The special effects are well-done, a face burning being noteworthy in its grisliness. The twist here is an attempt to flip slasher conventions on its head, totally changing our perception of the hideously deformed man. It is very clever but, unfortunately, “Dead Man's Lake” stops right after delivering that twist. This one needed a little more meat on its bones for me to really enjoy it. Aside from the switcharoo and the pitch-perfect presentation, there's not much to it. [6/10]