Two recent films explore new styles and meanings in the horror genre.
I think it’s significant that in our current historical moment the most prevalent film genre is horror. It might have something to do with the scariest stuff these days not being in movies, but in the news. Well, there are plenty of routine formulaic horror films, but horror is also attracting new artists that have more on their minds than just saying “Boo!”
Many horror films employ supernatural elements, like black magic or demonology. Weapons, written and directed by Zach Cregger, is one of those, but never attempts to make the story seem real or credible, which sounds like it’s a flaw, but isn’t. Cregger’s sense of humor doesn’t stray into jokes or parody, but there is something laughable in the preposterous nature of life in the world, in this case the world being an affluent suburban town that has seventeen kids from one elementary school class run out of their houses in the middle of the night and disappear. Only one kid shows up for the class the next morning, along with the teacher, played by Julia Garner. Naturally the school can’t explain how this could happen, and some parents think that this young teacher must be at fault somehow.
The premise being beyond rational explanation, Cregger doesn’t focus on the mystery, but on the experiences of certain characters, including the teacher and a parent played by Josh Brolin. I really like Garner’s performance here. She kept my attention playing this feisty young woman, basically accused of being a witch.
The movie is divided into sections that are devoted to different characters, sometimes showing scenes we’ve already witnessed except from a different person’s point of view this time. It’s a clever, dizzying method of telling a story. In one of the funnier parts, we follow a homeless meth addict through a couple of eventful days. Even the overbearing music, a few jump scares, and someone waking up screaming from a dream (which happens twice), seem as if Cregger is teasing the audience while also signaling some disturbing underlying issues, such as child abuse, and how people resort to scapegoating others. Weapons is slick entertainment, and a film of deeper interest if you’re open to it.
Horror without supernatural elements is a fine movie tradition that locates evil not in monsters, but in the human heart. One of the more unsettling examples from recent films is I Saw the TV Glow, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s second feature, released to theaters last year and now streaming.
Owen, a lonely 7th grader living in, you guessed it, the suburbs, is channel surfing one night past his bedtime, and stumbles on a weird show called “The Pink Opaque.” He forgets about it for awhile but then meets an older teenager, Maddy, who is reading a book about the show. Owen pretends he’s staying over at another friend’s house in order to watch “The Pink Opaque” at Maddy’s house. “The Pink Opaque” is about two psychic teens who work together to defeat a villain called Mr. Melancholy. The program speaks to Owen and Maddy’s experience of feeling alienated from their families, school, and home town. Maddy is an unstable person, and the relationship between the two becomes something very dark over the ensuing years.
Schoenbrun is skilled at making a lot out of limited resources. The visual style is lovely, haunting. The music is a perfect fit. And here I wish I could tell you more, but I think I’d rather you just watch I Saw the TV Glow and figure out what it means on your own. It will be much more rewarding that way.
