2010s

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)

Many films feature memorable seance scenes or scenes of some kind of interaction between the living and the dead or the never-alive, facilitated through genuine mediumship. Some of which we've discussed on this podcast, like Insidious, Drag Me to Hell, The Legend of Hell House, and Talk to Me. And some of which we have not, like those in Seance on a Wet Afternoon and Hereditary, City of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, The Others, A Haunting in Connecticut.  Some of which seem akin to tonight's picture, Ouija: Origin of Evil, in that the locus of the supernatural activity is often a sensitive child and that the supernatural entities that seek a vessel to communicate are tied to the place history of a home or another physical space.  

Insidious (2010)

Insidious (2010)

When the movie came out, it was a bit of a sensation. It was a real genre juggernaut. I remember the poster, and being annoyed by the poster. “Insidious is.” I -S, Is in red in the middle of the title. I remember seeing the trailer. Boy, did they make liberal use of that “Insidious is.” Fashioning it into the marketing tagline to beat all marketing taglines, “Insidious is… insidious.” Which in fact, it kind of is, because it has a way of insidiously making you feel like maybe you've seen it before. And that might give you a false sense of security or complacency, until it expertly subverts or exceeds your expectations, terrifying you. But its claws are sharp and getting sharper, and they get under your skin. Because it is a little self-referential and it's a lot genre-referential.

Frankenstein's Army (2013)

Frankenstein's Army (2013)

The gruesome discoveries that the recon team stumble upon: are they simply the horrors of war? Or are they somehow something even sicker? How is there artillery damage to a church in this region, wherever we are, when there have been no soldiers deployed here? Why is there a giant pile of immolated nuns? And why is there a churchyard that's just punched open with empty graves? And to return to the idea of watching the full-frame without distraction, I think this is especially important, because the director utilizes it in very complete, imaginative, and surprising ways that you might not be able to appreciate if you're not giving his composition your full attention.

Sinister (2012)

Sinister (2012)

Sinister is, ostensibly, an occult crime story. It is set in Pennsylvania, where I come from, though not in a real place in Pennsylvania; but I find it to be a taut, muscular, visceral fright fest. It requires no deep thinking or excavation. It is a scary, scary movie, perfect vintage Blumhouse at the height of its ethos and power: spend a very small amount of money and maximize every dollar's worth of scare.

Livid (2011)

Livid (2011)

Everything I'm about to say is ostensibly a spoiler, but in the sense that having the flavor of a beautiful macaron described to you can spoil the experience of actually eating the macaron. So as I kind of alluded to, this is not an old favorite. This is a film I only discovered during the pandemic, 2020, but in the intervening time, l've seen it probably four or five times. I thought this would be a great match for this team, having seen their incredible work. And I would say that the most recent viewing of Livid for me for this conversation has been my favorite viewing of the film.

Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not (2019)

The overall quality of Ready or Not is extremely high, especially when considering the relatively modest budget. Yet this yields is a bounty of extremely stylish design and fabulousIv eccentric architecture. It might be my favorite horror movie mansion, and it looked like real rich people lived in it. I think that in another film, in another story that happened to be set in this location, you could easily say that the house is a character in the film, which is a song our listeners have heard from me more than once.