“The Ghost Dimension” was intended to be the final “Paranormal Activity” movie but evil – and profitable horror franchises – never die. When a major corporation is relaunching their streaming service, it helps to have a new installment from an established franchise on-board in hopes that it'll draw subscribers. This was presumably the logic behind Paramount's decision to reboot “Paranormal Activity” after six short years as a Paramount+ exclusive. “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” would debut on the streaming service right before last Halloween. Despite being a new entry in a long-running franchise, and having a promising director like “Underwater's” William Eubank behind it, I didn't hear a single peep about “Next of Kin” last year. Probably because nobody subscribes to Paramount+. But I digress. What about the latest sequel?
Documentary filmmaker Margot has recently reached out to Samuel, a man from the same Amish family her birth mother originated from. Seeking to learn more about her genetic family, she decides to make a movie about the community. With her cameraman Chris and sound guy Dale, she travels to the secluded area. As Margot learns more about the religious gathering, she discovers more unnerving clues. Such as a note from her mother, hidden in a secret room. There's a foreboding, abandoned church near-by, with a mysterious cave system underneath. The more Margot and her friends learn, the clearer it becomes that something demonic is going on here. The cameras capture it all.
Aside from its talk of evil spirit, the only connecting fiber to the rest of the series is the found footage format... But only barely. See, every previous “Paranormal Activity” movie was filmed (in-universe anyway) by consumer cameras. “Next of Kin” is shot by a professional film crew. Their footage is clean and frequently stable. Not a single sequence of people sleeping is present. There's even a slow-motion feature on their camera, that is utilized a few times. If this sounds like it abandons the visual gimmick that made the original “Paranormal Activity” so successful, basically it does. “Next of Kin” switches between multiple cameras, including drone shots. During the climatic struggle, I was pretty sure it dropped the found footage gimmick all together. It's back by the end, so I guess it was just an impossible camera angle. There's even a score in a few scenes!
The demon at the center of “Next of Kin's” chaos is Asmodeus, that prince of Hell with the catchiest name. The internet tells me that this is the true identity of “Tobi” from all the earlier movies. This connection is never stated in the film itself and the cult here seems unrelated to the Midwives coven that motivated the previous entries' plots, so I don't know why people are saying that. It seems “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” is not well regarded. It's probably too different from the established films for fans to like it and nobody else would be interested in seeing it. Even Jason Blum himself dismissed it as terrible. (This has apparently not stopped Paramount from going forward with an eighth film, though there's conflicting information about that topic.) Honestly, I kind of liked “Next of Kin” though. If it just ditched the found footage presentation it clearly has no interest in and reeled in the jump scares some, it would be a decent little demonic thriller. The cult setting is a nice change of pace, it has several creepy scenes, and the story ramps up decently. [6/10]
Leptirica
When the big folk horror documentary came out last year, I added over fifty titles to my watch list. What I really loved about “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched” was the sheer berth of its scope. Films from countries all over the world, no matter how obscure, were highlighted. A few of those countries don't even exist anymore. “Leptirica,” which roughly translates to “The She-Butterfly,” was the first horror movie ever made in Yugoslavia, which is now Serbia. It's actually a made-for-TV production and was entirely obscure outside its home country until it surfaced on the internet and DVD in the 2010s. With the recent renewal of interest in folk horror, the film has garnered a lot more attention and was, of course, included in Severen's box set on the subgenre.
Set in the small village of Zelinje, in what is modern day Bosnia, the film begins with the town miller being killed by a vampire. Without someone to operate the mill, the residents become concerned they'll starve to death. They force a young man named Strahinja into the role. That night, he barely survives an encounter with the bloodsucker. The other townsfolks believe the vampire is a man named Sava Savanović and go looking for his grave. Strahinja is in love with Radojka, the beautiful daughter of harsh farmer Živan. He refuses to allow the two young people to marry. When they sneak behind his back to do that anyway, Živan engineers a supernatural revenge.
No matter how cheap and awkward “Leptirica” undoubtedly is, there's something undeniably eerie about it. The movie truly feels like a broadcast from an older time and place. When a hundred year old woman enters the story, she really does look and act like an ancient grandmother. Zelinje is a real place and the mill in the movie is a genuine location, said to still be standing to this day. The only music in the film is traditional chants in the native language. Most of the soundscape is made up of nature sounds, furthering the feeling that this is a story deeply entrenched in another culture. The film's most striking images – Mirjana Nikolić's striking beauty, Strahinja emerging from the mill covered in flour, a wound in a chest, the vampire riding the hero's shoulders through the night – are utterly dream-like in their potency. There's a strange power to this movie that's impossibly not to be sucked into.
In other words, “Leptirica” is utterly fascinating, especially if you share an interest in folklore like I do. It only runs a little over an hour long, making it an easy film to watch too. While some are put off by its stodgy presentation and slow pace, I think anyone who knows me knows that is just as often a feature and not a bug for me. The film is based on a beloved Serbian novel called “After Ninety Years” and was directed by Đorđe Kadijević, who also made a version of the “Viy” story in 1990. If Severen gives their folk horror collection a volume two, hopefully that is included. I would say “The She-Butterfly” is as good an introduction to Serbian/Yugoslav cinema as I could hope for. It won't be for everyone but I loved it. [8/10]
I doubt anyone remembers but, last October, the episode of “The Hitchhiker” I really wanted to review was “Made for Each Other.” At the time, I couldn't find it streaming anywhere and had to settle for another episode. Well, I found it this time. Bill Paxton plays Trout, a sweaty and unhinged nut job who likes to murder clerks in gas stations. While out on the prowl, he runs into shy, socially awkward Wax. (Played by Bud Cort.) Wax is also a serial killer, though his methods of poisoning wine-coolers in liquor stores is far more subtle. Trout immediately feels a kinship with Wax. He forces the quiet man to go along, as he picks up a hooker and takes her back to Wax's apartment. Soon, everyone involved figures out what exactly everyone else is.
It should be immediately apparent that I sought out “Made for Each Other” because of its cast. Bill Paxton is, of course, brilliantly entertaining as a ranting, raving serial killer. His very first scene has him aggressively hitting on, and then threatening, a comely attendant at a gas station. The colorful script, from Thomas Baum, gives Paxton plenty of weird, profane dialogue to reel off exuberantly. His description of streetwalkers as he looks for the evening's prey is definitely a highlight. Bud Cort, meanwhile, is also perfectly cast-to-type as a twitchy, extremely nervous weirdo. He spends most of the episode starring with his beady eyes, on the verge of tears. Jonelle Allen is also pretty good at the sex worker that quickly discovers who her johns for the evening are.
The string of episodes that simply stick Herman in a random profession continues with “Follow That Munster,” which is “What if Herman Munster was a detective?” The Frankensteinian patriarch decides to be a detective, despite any agency's disinterest in hiring him. He starts to sneak out at night to hone his skills, which causes Lily to suspect he's cheating. She's so worried, that she hires a detective to trail Herman... And guess who ends up getting assigned the case. Lily remains annoyed with her husband in “Love Locked Out.” After he stays out late at a work party, after specifically asking him not to, she kicks him out of the bedroom. Both are talked into seeking marriage counseling, which they do separately.
“Follow That Munster” doesn't escalate a simple premise to ridiculous heights as well as “Don't Bank on Herman” did. It comes close at times. The sequence where Lily describes Herman's appearance is amusing. When Grandpa reads it back to Herman, quickly realizing what's up, that's far funnier. The fake synopsis of his evening that he gives to Lily stretches out in an entertainingly silly manner. However, the episode is unfortunately stained by a few elements. First off, it's another episode that ends with Lily comically loosing her temper with Herman, just to forgive him later. Secondly, this episode stumbles into some very unfortunate racial elements. Grandpa uses an anti-Mexican slur casually, in a scene that surely didn't read as offensive in 1963. While trying on different disguises, Herman dresses up as a Chinese caricature, pidgin accent included. We really could've done without that.
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