Halloween 2022: October 29th

Barbarian (2022)

What is the horror event of 2022's Halloweens season? “Halloween Ends” was suppose to be and has certainly generated a fair share of conversation, albeit mostly of the negative variety. “Terrifer 2” has become an indie success story, far outstripping expectations. Yet an extreme gore flick like that mostly appeals to a niche, die-hard audiences and continues to divide writers. For my money, the surprise hit of the year has been “Barbarian.” Released in September with little hype or expectation, the movie attracted rave reviews and built up a well-spring of positive hype. This is the movie people have been telling me to watch all season. Now that we're all but done, and the film is available on streaming, it's time for me to weigh in on “Barbarian.”

Tess arrives in Detroit for a job interview. As she pulls into her AirBnB in a particular rundown neighborhood, she's surprised to see someone else – a man named Keith – has already rented it. With few other options, she decides to stay the night. The next day, she accidentally locks herself in the basement and then makes a disturbing discovery. Meanwhile, Hollywood actor A.J. Gilbride has his career destroyed overnight by sexual assault allegations. Suddenly strapped for cash, he heads back to Detroit to sell homes he owns... Which includes the house of nightmares Tess is currently trapped in.

All throughout the hype train for “Barbarian,” I've been repeatedly told to go in as blind as possible. Amazingly, I managed to avoid having the movie spoiled for me in all the time it's been out. And I have to agree that this is absolutely a film you should see knowing as little as possible. “Barbarian's” script delights in continuously surprising the viewer. It begins with an uncomfortable situation – what if an AirBnB was double-booked? – and extrapolates to increasingly wild situations from there. When you have an inkling of where things might be going, the script swerves again. The nonlinear structure further disorientates the audience, leaving us unprepared for the next shock. Even after the last act kicks in, when the film has settled into a more traditional horror structure, it manages to surprise us with who is killed and in what manner. 

The film is the solo directorial debut of Zach Cregger, former member of the Whitest Kid U Know sketch comedy show. Cregger shows some surprisingly strong chops as a horror director. The earliest scenes have a stillness to them, establishing the distance between the characters and a feeling of discomfort. Once Tess descends into the spaces under the home, “Barbarian” gets increasingly frantic. When wandering through darkened tunnels, usually only lit by a small light, the camerawork and editing is fast-paced. This conveys the raw panic the characters are feeling in that moment, while also contributing to the cramped environment. As the “Barbarian” goes to increasingly wild places, getting gorier, Cregger's direction increases in creativity. A random flashback to the eighties also features a tighter aspect ratio and brighter colors, which is a clever choice.

Cregger has said “Barbarian” was inspired by a book about how women ignore their intuition around unsafe men. How they'll discard mental red flags and reassure themselves that a clearly dangerous situation is okay. This is definitely part of “Barbarian's” DNA. Tess repeatedly stays when she should've gotten the hell out of there. Yet “Barbarian's” most interesting touch, to me, is its Detroit setting. The crumbling infrastructure of the city contributes to the dreary mood. Tess is surrounded on all side by dilapidated buildings, making this area feel hopeless. There's the feeling that this whole city has been abandoned by those in power, allowing the depravity that follows to unfold. It's not just economical boundaries that keep the rotting city in disrepair. The useless cops leave Tess here after picking her up. It's notable how part of the cast is black and others are white. “Barbarian” gets a lot of mileage out of Detroit's sullied legacy, in smart and subtle ways.

That “Barbarian” repeatedly kept me guessing impressed me. The script randomly including a Hollywood scumbag, and then making him a major character, is maybe its biggest surprise. Justin Long plays A.J., an entitled Hollywood dude-bro who repeatedly shows his true colors. He says some not-so-nice things about the woman who has accused him. When asked to explain what happened, he does so in terms that make the reality of the situation clear. Yet there's something undeniably charming about Long. He's an idiot and a jerk, motivated by selfish needs. Being through this nightmarish situation threatens to make him grow as a person. Long has a surprisingly effective monologue. Yet the movie kicks that in the ass near the end, in another unexpectedly funny manner. “Barbarian” gets laughs and gasps out of the audience in equal measure. 

“Barbarian” is a hell of a ride. It keeps you guessing, even leaving a few things about its story unexplained. There are moments that will make you squirm, both because of how uneasy the situations are and because of the nasty gore on display. It has an impressive cast, Georgina Campbell and Long doing great work. Cregger is smart enough to know that just having Richard Brake and Bill Skarsgaard appear on screen creates certain expectations in the viewer, which are embraced and subverted in equal measure. I had a blast with this one. Is this the horror event of Halloween 2022? Sure, what the hell, why not? I declare it to be so! [8/10]

Eyes of Fire (1983)

“Eyes of Fire” is one of those movies that have gone from being entirely obscure to something of a cult classic in just the last few years. You can attribute this to two main factors. Avery Crounse's film been noted as likely influence on Robert Eggers' “The Witch,” as both movies explore the Thirteen Colonies era of America. “Eyes of Fire” also falls right into the folk horror subgenre, which has burst in popularity lately. The film's importance to the folk horror movement has been acknowledge by its inclusion in Severin's “All the Haunts Be Ours” box set. This is also the often overlooked film's first DVD/Blu-Ray release. I've never seen it before and was hoping I could sneak it in before October wrapped up.

In 1750, a group of French soldiers rescue a pair of orphans from the woods. They relate the bizarre story of what happened: After being accused of polygamy, religious leader Will Smythe is exiled from his community. He takes his followers and head into the wilderness. He is unaware that Leah, an Irish settler, is a white witch and has been using her powers to protect the group from Indian attacks. They soon arrive in a valley that the Shawnee dare not go into. Quickly, the settler discover why the valley has been abandoned. Increasingly strange things go on around them, as restless spirits arise from the forest floor and an evil entity grows out of the trees themselves. 

In “Eyes of Fire,” we see nature itself revolting against white settlers. Smythe and his followers come into the valley on a mission of colonization. Shortly after arriving, a native child wanders into the group. Smythe enthusiastically adopts her, with plans to baptize her as soon as possible. He never once considers that the native population are on to something when they abandoned this area. The land itself comes to life to reject them. The spirits of the dead, shown as nude bodies covered in mud, emerge from the ground. Faces appear in trees, before a witch-like entity emerges from the wood itself to attack. The white men don't belong in this place and have overstep the natural boundaries by coming here. 

To tell this tale of ancient forces lashing out at the colonizer, Crounse creates a very odd, eerie atmosphere. Despite the film's period setting, “Eyes of Fire” has an electronic score. In fact, the film's soundscape frequently uses electronic tones to signal when the otherworldly forces are at play. This is especially done anytime Leah uses her powers. These is examples of the off-beat creative choices the filmmakers make, to create “Eyes of Fire's” unusual ambiance. Weird editing is used to make figures appear and disappear. Inverted colors are added to some scenes. There's random explosions. The make-up effects are crude, often muddy substances caked on actors, but it make the characters seem genuinely out-of-the-Earth. “Eyes of Fire” really does capture an otherworldly feeling, which is reflected in every choice the production made. 

As compelling as the weirdo atmosphere “Eyes of Fire” creates, there's a big issue with the film. There's a large cast, with a whole group of people heading out into the woods. Very few of the characters are developed beyond general ideas. In fact, a lot of them are intentionally inscrutable. What is motivating the witchy Leah? The script switches between the two girls that narrate the movie at random, making it hard to get a bead on either one. The script doesn't really seem to have a protagonist at times, leaping between a handful of characters that aren't given distinct personalities. As “Eyes of Fire's” story grows more mystical and obscure, the people involve fade into the background even more. 

It's unsurprising to read that distributors didn't know what to do with a movie as aggressively weird as “Eyes of Fire.” It sat on a shelf for two years, not seeing theater screens until 1985. It would be another two years before a VHS release would follow. That was where the story ended for “Eyes of Fires'” for years, the movie existed in limbo as only fuzzy rips of used tapes. In was during this time that the film's reputation has grown and, now that a Blu-Ray is readily available, it's widely considered a hidden gem or a lost classic. I wouldn't go that far. I think “Eyes of Fire” puts its artistic ambitions ahead of brass-tacks narrative needs. Yet I can't deny that the film has an odd power all its own. [6/10]

50 States of Fright: 13 Steps to Hell

Regardless of what you think of the Quibi clusterfuck, I think “50 States of Fright” was a great premise for a horror anthology series. Each state has a rich vein of folklore all its own worth exploring. Taking from those stories and building a series around it is such a cool set-up. Yet the episode I watched last year left me wondering if the entire show was good or if “The Golden Arm” was good only because Sam Raimi directed it. So I decided to give “13 Steps to Hell,” Washington state's representation, a look. Aiden wants to bury his beloved pet hamster next to his deceased mother. His siblings, Mallory and Liam, accompany him. While digging the grave, Aiden drops his beloved stuffed toy – a gift form his late mother – into a grave. Mallory steps in to retrieve it, unaware that she's now on the legendary steps to Hell.

Before Raimi handed the latest “Evil Dead” movie to him, Lee Cronin directed this installment of “50 States.” He brings the same dreary direction – not to mention fixation on holes in the ground – that he did to “A Hole in the Ground.” Yet “13 Steps to Hell” is creepier than that movie. It gets a lot of mileage out of the spooky cemetery setting. The visuals inside the tunnel, the lights flicking overhead while slime oozes from the rocks, are nicely skin-crawling. The sickly mother makes for a ghastly image, adding a personal layer to the story here.

Yes, “13 Steps to Hell” is about grief. Mallory, played by up-and-coming scream queen Lulu Wilson, is haunted by her mother's death. By the specifics of that grief are interesting to me. She rubs her hand off after giving her dying mom one final hug, a gesture that deeply hurt Aiden's feelings. She climbs into the grave to retrieve the meaningful toy as a way to atone to her little brother for this action. It helps that Wilson's big blue eyes are so vulnerable, that she really sells the feelings the character is going through. Like “The Golden Arm,” the plotting here is weirdly contrived. However, the episode does make the smart decision to frame itself as a story being told by Rory Culkin, which fits the urban legend format. I think the two separate twist endings are probably unnecessary. Still a pretty decent, creepy quick bite of horror. [7/10]

No Through Road (2009)

2009 was, somehow, a lifetime ago. The internet, and Youtube specifically, has changed in so many ways. 13 years ago, it really was possible for a random short film, totally self-produced by nobodies, to go viral. Such was the case with “No Through Road,” a clever bit of found footage horror out of the U.K. The film is presented as the last known footage of a quarter of teen boys, driving through the English country side at night. After passing through a creepy tunnel, a “No through road” sign outside, they notice that they can't seem to escape the same stretch of road. Caught in this temporal loop, they soon discover something equally frightening: They aren't alone either.

“No Through Road” capitalizes on a fear I think anyone can relate to. We've all probably driven through some weird area, late at night, unsure exactly of where it'll lead. Even in the age of cellphones and GPS, it's still possible to get lost or turned around in the countryside. Director Steve Chamberlain takes this to its most extreme conclusion, having one wrong turn lead to a nightmarish scenario that's not seemingly impossible to escape from. It escalates nicely, with a disturbing sound loop on the radio. The final scene, where a masked figure appears to threaten the teens, sends us out on a disturbingly graphic note.

The found footage angle is also well utilized, albeit with an asterisk. The early scenes, of the boys goofing around and bantering among themselves, are effectively realistic. It's refreshing to see their panic moods escalate as they realize how in trouble they are, hiding their fears behind in-jokes and conversation. The film frequently cuts away to previously recorded footage on the tape, which was probably unnecessary. This leads to numerous moments of visual distortion, which wasn't needed to make this already effective horror short any creepier. Yet I still have to applaud Chamberlain for pulling this off with so little money. He'd spin “No Through Road” off into a whole series of Youtube videos. Even though that risks ruining the ambiguity of this sweet little slice of creepiness, I'll probably check them out anyway. [7/10]