Halloween 2022: October 30th

You Are Not My Mother (2022)

Sometimes, all a horror movie has to do to get me really excited for it is set its story around the Halloween season. There’s two breeds of Halloween movies. Those that simply use the spooky season for set dressing and those that actually build the mythology and meaning behind the day into its story. Late last year, an exciting sounding Halloween-set horror picture started to play on festivals. “You Are Not My Mother” comes to us from Ireland, the land where this holiday has its roots. That alone was enough to pique my interest but when I learned that Kate Dolan’s debut feature had a tasty layer of folk horror to it as well, that was got it to crack my list of most anticipated titles for 2022. I’ve been waiting until nearly the day to watch the film to and now it is time.

Char is a schoolgirl in North Dublin, who is often bullied by her schoolmates. She lives with her grandmother, Rita, and mother, Angela. Angela has severe depression and frequently finds it difficult to get out of bed. After driving Char to school one morning, Angela disappears. When she reappears, a few days later, she acts differently. At first, more lively, Angela soon begins to display wild, violent mood swings. As the end of October approaches, and the locals gather to celebrate Halloween, Char must face the truth: That her mother has been replaced by a changeling. 

“You Are Not My Mother” fits in comfortably with the modern school of horror movies, what some would call “elevated horror,” that foreground the story’s subtext. “You Are Not My Mother” is, rather clearly, a movie about living with a bipolar parent. At the beginning, Angela is so distraught that she can’t get up and live her life. Char has happy memories of her childhood with her mom, of dancing and playing together. She seems like a different person now, twisted by the chemical imbalance inside her brain. Once she returns from her disappearance, Angela acts even more erratically. She slam-dances around the house, yelling and screaming and crawling on the floor. For a minute, I was wondering if the film even needed to introduce an element of supernatural horror. Growing up with a mentally ill parent is scary enough. 

While “You Are Not My Mother” is never exactly subtle about its horror metaphor, it does try its damnedest to be a scary movie too. Dolan creates a dreary atmosphere throughout, supported by the overcast Irish weather. The sinister, droning musical score increases this feeling, effecting a story filled with intense stares and a disquieted home. As the film progresses, it introduces freakier touches. Char spots her mother, late at night, cracking her neck at impossible angles and shoving her entire hand down her throat. Later, the mother-thing twists her ankle in a horribly uncomfortable manner. It all precedes an intense chase scene in the last act, as Char is pursued by the monster inhabiting her mother’s body and the two have a confrontation around a bonfire.

Those bonfires play a major role. All throughout “You Are Not My Mother,” it references the traditional rites of Samhain. The teenage delinquents that bully Char talk regularly about setting bonfires on Halloween night. Jack O’ Lanterns and pumpkins make prominent appearances throughout. There’s some great October 31st ambiance in the final act. Moreover, there’s heavy implication that the reason the changelings are being active now is because the wall between the world of the living and the other side are thin this time of year. That’s evident during a trip to a (ridiculously cool) museum, where a projected video talks all about the history of Samhain. Dolan’s film cooks the lore of Halloween into its story of mental illness and parental alienation. Not to mention a little bit of folk magik sprinkled throughout. 

A strong set of performances seal the deal on a film that’s handsome, tense, and with a well researched backstory. Hazel Doupe is a young heroine we can root for as Angela while Carolyn Bracken is suitably unsettling as the mother. Could the script been a little more fleshed out? Probably. A bit too much of “You Are Not My Mother” is composed of pregnant pauses, the story putting the character development more into the quiet performances. Ya know, there is a part of me that’s a bit tired of horror like this, that relies a lot on creating a dread-filled feeling and less on forward momentum. But, if horror like this must proliferate, “You Are Not My Mother’ is a good example of it. Any movie that digs into the Hallo’ween spirit as much as this one gets a thumbs-up from me. [7/10]

Night of the Demon (1980)

To what do we owe the cultural fascination with Bigfoot? This is not strictly an American phenomenon. Stories of hairy anthropoids, not quite human but more than apes, have been heard from all over the world. Maybe it’s a cultural memory of hairy hominids that we might’ve co-existed with hundreds of thousands of years ago. Maybe, once people got a look at monkeys, we just couldn’t avoid the conclusion that we share a common ancestor with them. Regardless of the reason why, Bigfoot is big business. Filmmakers have long tried to cash-in on the global curiosity with these elusive man-apes. Perhaps the grisliest, or maybe just the trashiest, example of Squatch-sploitation is 1980’s “Night of the Demon.” This skunk ape slasher was gruesome enough to get banned during the U.K.’s Video Nasty hysteria. 

Nugent, a professor in anthropology, has been left horribly mangled following a class trip into the woods. To the doctors and police, he explains his story. A die-hard believer in Bigfoot, he set out with his students to discover definitive proof of the creature. A young woman named Carla believes that Sasquatch murdered her father, as a distinctive footprint was found near his dismembered body. Similar beastly deaths have been occurring throughout the woods. The group soon uncovers a backwoods cult of grassman worshipers and Wanda, a mute woman living in a cabin who had a traumatic up-close encounter with the beast. It’s only a matter of time before Nugent and his students meet up with the bloody Bigfoot.  

 “Night of the Demon” is largely a delivery system for schlocky gore scenes. This is one pissed-off Momo and ripping people apart seems to be his favorite hobby. He tears an arm off before the opening title. He disrupts a couple in a shaggin’ wagon, slices throats on broken glass, rips guts out, and bashes faces in. This wildman is even a tool-using species, as he utilizes an axe, a pitchfork, and a hot stove in his murder spree. These death scenes are often ridiculously conveyed. The blood is syrupy looking. The ripped throats and dangling stumps look like raw meat. Chuckles of disbelief seem the likelier reaction to the carnage here. When Bigfoot swings a sleeping bag overhead, before impaling the man inside on a tree branch, is silly. A moment where the man-ape shoves two knife-wielding Girl Scouts into each other, awkwardly slicing them both up, is hysterical. The only moment more outrageous than that is when the hairy biped tears a roadside urinator’s dick off… Well, what can you even say in response to that? 

To say “Night of the Demon” is a crude production is an understatement. The film craft and narrative construction on display suggests an amateur crew. Whenever Professor Nugent recounts and anecdote of bloody sasquatch murder – this makes up about half the movie – the film fades to black. The camera movie is often shaky and unprofessional. The use of slow-motion in the climatic cascade of murder is gratuitous. The soundtrack is composed of warbling synth, when prosaic instrumentation isn’t playing. The sound mixing is echo-y. Bigfoot is brought to life by a body builder in a goofy mask with a shag carpet on his back. The performances are suitably ridiculous, with a woman’s mediocre attempt at a shocked face being the funniest bit of bad acting. On any sort of technical level, “Night of the Demon” is utter trash.

And therein lies the appeal. “Night of the Demon” is a hysterically bat-shit bit of sasquatch depravity. The attempts to expand the story beyond a mere collection of death scenes – there aren’t many – only makes the movie trashier. The discovery of a group of redneck Bigfoot worshipers sets up a lengthy flashback sequence, detailing Crazy Wanda’s backstory. That’s when maybe “Night of the Demon’s” sleaziest moment occurs, a bit of forced interspecies breeding between woman and sasquatch. Yes, we do see Bigfoot in the throes of passion. Yes, we see the result of this pairing too. There’s a focus on flesh here throughout, as we see lots of bare man-ass during the multiple sex scenes. To discover that this is the sole non-gay porn credit of director James C. Wasson is unsurprising. The lack of professionalism, stilted acting, and narrative incompetence recalls porn more than a traditional slasher film. It just cuts to murder, instead of fucking.

“Night of the Demon” – which, obviously, has nothing to do with Jacques Tourneur’s “Night of the Demon” or the “Night of the Demons” movies – will appeal to a limited group of trash horror fans. It doesn’t reach the dream-like heights of hilarious slasher incoherence as “The Prey” or “The Forest,” though it’s a little sturdier than similar murderdrone classic “Don’t Go in the Woods.” The mixture of do-it-yourself production values, writing that slides between tedium and insanity, and hilarious gore makes it a disreputable midnight movie classic or slasher heads.  Available for years as only an overly dark VHS rip, Severin’s Blu-Ray looks gorgeous and is packed with extras that tell the interesting story behind this weird-ass motion picture. Truly, Bigfoot’s O-face deserves to be seen in high-def! [7/10] 

Just Beyond: My Monster

Compared to Netflix and Hulu's strategy of just dropping something onto streaming with no advertisement, Disney+ does a better job of promoting its exclusive series. I actually saw a commercial for “Just Beyond,” a kid-friendly horror anthology series based on R.L. Stine penned comics, before deciding to watch it. “My Monster” is about fourteen year old Olivia. Following her parents' divorce, her and her little brother are moving into her mom's childhood home. Shortly afterwards arriving, Olivia begins to see a tall monster in a suit, wearing an expressionless mask. The creature follows her even to school, disrupting her attempts to make friends. Olivia soon learns that her mother saw the same beast when she was a girl.

I'm impressed to say that “Just Beyond” packs in the kid-friendly scares. The creature's appearance is also preceded by creepy music playing, which adds just the right amount of eeriness. Olivia encounters the spectre in the basement of the school and the darkened hallways of her home at night, in surprisingly spooky sequence. There's even a legitimate jump scare, when the creature appears suddenly next to her. Compared to Stine's own “Goosebumps,” which was so hokey that it was impossible to take seriously, “Just Beyond” has the skills and production values to produce just the right shivering feeling, especially for the young ones. The monster, who is obviously inspired by Slender Man, looks eerie and intimidating. 

The script is also a little more sophisticated than I expected. The eventual origins for the monster, as a manifestation for Olivia's anxiety, is clever. The conclusion is nuanced, even touching, as she learns the best way to cope with the creature. The premise of her parent's divorce is nodded to, without being lingered on to a distracting degree. There's some comic relief – in the form of a sarcastic friend and a dotting old babysitter – but it never supplants the scares. Newcomer Megan Stott is appealing as Olivia. “My Monster” is good and bodes well for the rest of “Just Beyond.” [7/10]

DyE: Fantasy (2011)

Earlier in the month, I watched a silent horror short that is arguably a music video. And so it seemed fitting to make the last short I reviewed this season also a horrific music video. Since I've already talked about “Thriller,” I knew “Fantasy” by DyE was my second choice. The animated music video depicts four teenagers sneaking into an in-door swimming pool for some drinking and hanky-panky. While one couple get closer, the shy girl notices that something isn't right. It seems the bottom of the pool contains a portal to another dimension. The young lovers then begin to mutate into hideous monsters. 

“Fantasy's” animesque movement and character designs, from French animator Jérémie Périn, is quite lovely to look at... Which makes the music video's surprising depravity all the more vivid. There's a clear air of sexual longing to “Fantasy.” One of the first images is a look up the redhead's skirt. Her ass, briefly exposed as she puts on her swimsuit, is on the title screen. Once the horror begins, it continues this sexual angle. The redhead's boyfriend manually stimulating her is turned into a hideous fusion once he becomes a worm-like monster. The other guy is attacked crotch-first. The first sign that something is wrong is the shy girl feeling something slither up the bottom of her swimsuit as she's in the pool. “Fantasy” seems to delight in vulgar displays of hentai-like sexual violation. 

Yet I don't think “Fantasy” is simply a work of shock value, combining cartoons and monstrous sex acts for the hell of it. The music video's protagonist is clearly uncomfortable with intimate acts. She rejects the guy she's been set-up with. The body horror shows the other couple becoming one, their sexual act bonding them together forever. This is what the final girl is attempting to escape. She's afraid of that final moment of maturity that sex signals, the idea of your life no longer being your own. “Fantasy” shows its teenage character being consumed by their sexual passions, an act full of bodily fluids that requires loosing total control. And that's exactly what its heroine fears most.

All of this is set to DyE's dreamy electro-pop. The thumping beats draw the ear. The lyrics, meanwhile, are a melancholy ode of giving up on your dreams. This seems to tie into the video's theme of one chapter of your life ending and another beginning... And did I mention there's a layer of Lovecraftian cosmic horror to all of this too? The final image of the music video is one of the best encapsulation of Lovecraft's themes that I've ever seen. “Fantasy” packs all of this into three and a half minutes. It's one of my favorite music video, telling a whole story and saying so much while including some seriously intense animated gross-outs. [9/10]