I’ve always been perplexed that Flannery O’Connor, or her haunting novels and short stories for that matter, were never really given proper cinematic treatment. I understand why there’s so much focus on the Lost Generation or even the Beat generation, but O’Connor sort of exists between those two literary movements. writing a flurry of work in the 1950s and very early 60s. Still, there’s a lot to mine in terms of her life story, including her close friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert “Cal” Lowell, who was her teacher at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, or her battle with Lupus, which took her life in 1964, or even her devout Catholicism. For the most part, other than a PBS documentary from a few years ago, O’Connor’s life and work have largely been ignored by filmmakers.
Again, I find this baffling. I’ve taught O’Connor’s work nearly every semester, though not always the same short stories. I teach her in American literature and often, Intro to Creative Writing. Students tend to really dig her, be it the Southern Gothic undertones, or even the sardonic statements in some of her lectures and essays. They like her, and her themes are incredibly resonant today, especially her address of the shifting views in the South and tension brought by the Civil Rights Movement. We’re rehashing those very debates today.
Finally, O’Connor gets the proper treatment in film at the hands of Ethan and Maya Hawke. He directs and she stars both as O’Connor and various characters from her story in the film Wildcat, which is one part biopic and one part literary adaptation of about half a dozen of her stories, including “Parker’s Back,” “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” “Good Country People,” among a few others. The film also tackles O’Connor’s time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her personal faith, and her illness. It’s a beautiful testament to her art and life. I suspect fans of her work will enjoy it. Maya Hawke especially gives a heck of a performance, showing what she’s capable of post-Stranger Things. I’m confident she’ll have a long career.
If you want to read my full thoughts on the film, you can check out my review for 1428 Elm. Wildcat is getting a very limited theatrical release on May 3, before expanding to more theaters.
Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing TV writer/creator Little Marvin and the cast of Them: The Scare, coming to Prime Video on April 25, for 1428 Elm. The cast members include the legendary Pam Grier, Luke James, Deborah Ayorinde, and Joshua J. Williams. It’s not every day that I get to say I interviewed Pam Grier!
Here’s a link to the interview. The horror anthology’s second season is set in 1991, shortly after the release of the Rodney King tape that rocks LA. Ayorinde, the only cast member from Them: Season 1, plays Detective Dawn Reeve, tasked with solving grisly murders. She’s joined by Grier, who plays Dawn’s mom, Athena. James plays aspiring actor Edward Gaines, while Williams is cast as Dawn’s son, Kel Reeve. The season has nods to classic slashers, Seven, Get Out, and other genre classics, and it’s steeped in 90s culture, including some impressive needle drops.
With 2023 basically in the rearview, it’s time for all of those reflective, “best-of” lists. While I don’t think 2023 was quite as strong of a year for the horror genre as previous years, it still had plenty of decent offerings, with some features outside of franchises that terrified. My list only includes films that received distribution this year and either played in theaters or hit streaming. I would have loved to includeStrange Darling(probably my favorite movie of the year) and Mami Wata, but both features only had festival releases thus far. Hopefully, they reach a larger audience in 2024.
Without further ado, here’s my Best of 2023 horror movie list!
M3GAN
Okay, okay, I know that some horror purists and black shirts may gripe that I included a PG-13 horror movie on this list, but the truth is that no other genre movie this year had the cultural impact of M3GAN. The Blumhouse film birthed a new icon, and this will likely spawn at least a few sequels. She’s sassy. She has her own dance, and she’s a metaphor for the dangers of AI.
Infinity Pool
Other than Jenna Ortega, Mia Goth has been the genre’s it girl since 2022. She’s all kinds of sinister and delightful as Gabi in Brandon Cronenberg’s third feature Infinity Pool, which also stars Alexander Skarsgard as James, who’s psychologically tormented and abused by Gabi. While this one has plenty of WTF moments, it’s also the most mainstream of Cronenberg’s work thus far, while still addressing heavy issues such as cloning and technology.
The Outwaters
If I had to give an award out for the most WTF moments in a single movie this past year, I’d give it to The Outwaters, the feature debut of Robbie Banfitch. This gnarly found footage film released around the same time as Skinamarink, maybe the most divisive horror film of 2023. Both generated plenty of healthy debate in the horror community, and while I really appreciate Skinamarink and its portrayal of childhood fears and (maybe) abuse, The Outwaters is a leaner movie with some truly Lovecraftian horror moments. It’s currently streaming on Screambox.
Talk to Me
Talk to Me is now A24’s highest grossing horror movie. That’s right. It beat Hereditary. This year, I included the feature on the syllabus for my Horror Literature and Film class, and it generated the most discussion out of any film on the list. Some students told me it was their favorite film we covered, so I’m not surprised this movie generated so much money at the box office. It found an audience and through a spooky hand, it put a clever spin on the tired possession subgenre. Sophie Wilde’s performance as the grief-stricken Mia really carries this film. After losing he mother, she’ll do anything to communicate with the dead, including holding a creepy hand and saying, “Talk to me and let me in.” While this movie deals with grief, the “possession” plot here is also an apt metaphor for addiction.
The Passanger
Okay, okay, so The Passenger is a bit more of a thriller than straight-up horror, but there’s plenty of violence after fast food worker Benson (Kyler Ganner) shoots a bunch of his co-workers and boss after one of them bullies the hapless Randolph Bradley (Johnny Brechtold) to eat a day-old burger. From there, the two go on a twisted joy ride and Benson urges Randolph to take control of his life and be more active instead of well, a passenger. Director Carter Smith (The Ruins, Swallowed) is no stranger to genre films. His work often explores male relationships, and that’s very much true here. Benson comes across like an alpha sorta male who refuses to let anyone tell him what to do, but he’s also prone to eruptions of violence, be it with his fists or a gun. The performances here are top-notch, especially Ganner. For as explosive as this one is at times, it’s also really funny at moments.
Birth/Rebirth
Birth/Rebirthwas a festival darling this year, and for good reason. Writer/director Laura Moss’ feature debut is a clever and feminist take on Frankenstein. It stars Marin Ireland in a knock-out performance as Rose, a doctor who harbors dead bodies in the hopes of well, finding a cure for death. Ireland stars alongside Judy Reyes as Celie, a nurse who loses her daughter and will do anything to bring her back. The performances are great, and this feels like a fresh take on a classic story.
Appendage
Anna Zlokovic’sAppendage started out as a short that played Sundance a few years ago. The feature, which debuted at SXSW in March before hitting Hulu, expands upon the short’s concept about a fashion designer plagued by self-doubt who has a foul-mouthed appendage monster that jumps to life. The feature fleshes out the initial concept and calls to mind films like Basket Case, The Fly, Raw, and other body horror and creature features. This one also contains two fantastic female performances, Hadley Robinson as the lead and Emily Hampshire as the cunning Claudia.
When Evil Lurks
I suspect Demian Rugna’s second feature, When Evil Lurks, will be on a lot of best-of lists this year. The Argentinian film is one of the most brutal movies released this year to have a theatrical release before it landed on VOD and Shudder. Like Rugna’s first film, Terrified, When Evil Lurks tackles the theme of possession again, only this time, an entire village is possessed. There are sequences in this movie that you just can’t forget once the credits roll, and there’s no promise of any sort of happy ending here. Like Talk to Me, When Evil Lurks did something new, interesting, and horrifying with the well-worn possession subgenre. This is my favorite horror film of the year and the scariest on this list.
Thanksgiving
Ever since the fake Thanksgiving trailer that debuted as part of the Grindhouse double feature in 2007, Eli Roth has teased turning the concept into a feature-length film. Well, this year he finally did that. In short, Thanksgiving is an absolute blast with plenty of dark humor and gnarly kills. It sticks to the mission at hand and doesn’t stray. Oh, and it’s already getting a sequel. Me thinks the crazed John Carver killer pilgrim will be a new slasher icon. It’s also nice to have a new slasher in which every character isn’t hyper-aware they’re in a slasher movie.
Godzilla Minus One
Who would have thought 70 years into the franchise, we’d get a kaiju movie as great as Godzilla Minus One? This one returns the franchise to its post-WWII roots and focuses on a disgraced kamikaze pilot. Part horror and part Japanese melodrama, the movie, like the 1954 original, addresses trauma and effects of war and the bomb. Oh, and the King of the Monsters is horrifying in this film. HIs blue atomic breath has the effects of the bomb. It slaughters civilians, shatters windows, and pulverizes buildings. The shots of the big G at sea are equally as terrifying. All hail the king!
Overall, while 2023 wasn’t quite as strong for the horror genre as the last few years, there are still plenty of features I plan to rewatch heading into 2024. I’m looking forward to covering more film fests in the new year and seeing what films end up on my best-of list for 2024!
Let me be upfront. I don’t think The Exorcist: Believer is all that bad of a film, nor do I think it’s deserving of the 20 percent rating it currently has on RT or the fierce hate it’s facing on social media. The issue with the film is its relationship to William Friedkin’s masterpiece and the whole issue of legacy in general. If everything regarding The Exorcist universe was stripped out of the film, you would actually have a pretty unique possession movie that takes a few big swings.
No matter what, David Gordon Green had a monumental feat before him. Universal paid $400 million for the rights to The Exorcist and ordered a new trilogy. Green was already a polarizing figure to write/direct the new project after the rebooted Halloween movies. The last two entries, for various reasons, divided audiences after the massive success of the first entry, Halloween 2018. Green had a far bigger task before him when taking on the legacy of The Exorcist. Simply put, Friedkin’s film is a product of its time. Seeing Linda Blair’s Regan spew curses and pea soup at priests shocked audiences in 1973. If you want an idea of just how stunned audiences were by his film, I suggest this 20-minute documentary on YouTube, which features countless interviews with audience members at the time. You simply can’t pull that off a second time, which is why all of the sequels failed and never touched the box office success of the OG. You just can’t shock audiences in a similar fashion anymore. Most possession films feel like a retread of what Friedkin already did 50 years ago.
Cue The Exorcist: Believer. There’s actually a decent film here, but it’s pulled down by the issue of legacy. The feature follows two best friends, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill). They venture into the woods to perform a seance of sorts so Angela can connect to her deceased mother, who died after suffering serious injuries during an earthquake in Haiti. Angela and her father, Victor (Leslie Odom Jr), have the most compelling storyline in the film, dealing with grief and trauma. The seance doesn’t go as planned, however, and the girls go missing. Three days later, they turn up not quite right. We all know what happens next.
As a whole, the movie has some frightful scenes, but far too many quick cuts and jump scares. It also has some heavy sequences about the very nature of religion, and unlike typical possession films, Green’s feature explores other religions outside of Catholicism. This is its most interesting element that’s too undercooked and over simplified. It needed more of this aspect to make it stand out more from similar films. Again, if Green didn’t have to grapple with Friedkin’s film, he would have had more breathing room to play with his film’s more unique concepts.
The film fumbles terribly when it grapples with Friedkin’s masterpiece. To be blunt, Ellen Burstyn’s inclusion is totally and wholly unnecessary. The film adds nothing by including Chris MacNeil. The fate of the two girls is what drives the film, along with the underdeveloped exploration of the very nature of religion. Everything dealing with the first film just weighs down the new story. All callbacks and legacy characters feel shoehorned in and divert attention from the main narrative.
What’s especially frustrating about The Exorcist: Believer is that this could have been a good movie, if Green didn’t have to grapple with what just might be the best American horror film of all time. It’s never going to be topped, so why try? I truly wish that this movie did not have The Exorcist in its title or had to deal with that world. It would have been far more compelling if Green could have focused solely on the stories of two girls and their families forced to come together, despite their religious differences, to save their souls.
While Universal paid big bucks for the franchise rights, The Exorcist: Believer only earned about $27 million at the box office, an underwhelming figure considering the heavy marketing and huge money Universal spent. Will the next two movies be released in theaters? Will Green direct them? It’s too early to tell, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re dumped on Peacock. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to leave this world alone and instead greenlit scripts that aren’t so tied up in classic franchises.
In honor of “The X-Files” 30-year anniversary, I wanted to share two articles I worked on in celebration of the show. The first is a list sharing my 10 favorite episodes, and the second is an analysis of the show’s scariest episode, Season 4’s “Home.”
This semester, I’m teaching Frankenstein again. To coincide with the novel, I always teach a few of the film adaptations, typically Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, and I’m also including The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, released this year, directed by Bomani J. Story. If you like the Frankenstein story, I highly recommend this latest take on it, staring a teenager, Vicaria (Layla DeLeon Hayes), who resurrects her brother, killed by gang violence. I caught the film initially at the Jim Thorpe International Film Festival, and I was surprised how fresh it felt, how relevant to 2023, for the way it dealt with issues of gang violence, familial bonds, and racial tension. There’s one classroom scene in particular that’s just harrowing. It was one of the toughest scenes I’ve seen all year.
If you want a full list of my favorite Frankenstein films, you can check out my list for 1428 Elm. One film on the list is Birth/Rebirth, also released this year. To learn more about the film, check out the list.
If you have a favorite Frankenstein adaptation, let me know!
For 1428 Elm, I had the pleasure of chatting with Joseph Winter, co-director/star of the found footage horror comedy Deadstream. You can read the full interview here. We talked found footage, what scares him, and of course, horror comedies.
Winter plays Shawn Ruddy, an influencer who livestreams from a haunted house and is generally spooked by everything that goes bump in the night. The film also stars Melanie Stone as Chrissy, an apparent superfan of Shawn’s livestreams. The movie draws a lot of influence from the Evil Dead franchise, and it’s a rare horror comedy that gets both the comedic beats and scares just right.
While there has been a lot of screen horror lately, reflecting the times we live in, Deadstream is unique for some of its gross-out horror and jokes. It was one of my favorite films last year, a true standout compared to the glut of screen horror we’ve seen these last few years.
Deadstream is currently streaming on Shudder, and a physical release, including a Walmart exlusive Steelbook, will be released on July 18.
There’s something about New Mexico. If you’ve been there, then maybe you understand why it deserves its “Land of Enchantment” moniker. The place feels mystical and magical. It has endless miles of desert, which are quite spooky at night, if you’re driving on the highway, with the next town dozens upon dozens of miles away. I’ve never quite encountered darkness like that, an endless, inky expanse, until the orange lights of the next dustbowl town. It also has dips and curves of mountains that overlook said deserts, and other places where the terrain just flattens out.
I had the pleasure of visiting the state, including two of its National Parks (White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns). The parks are just as extraordinary as the rest of the state. The White Sands in particular feel like some strange anomaly that cause you to lose all sense of perception. The trip concluded with the Roswell UFO Festival, and if I wasn’t a believer in the incident prior to the festival, I at least become open-minded after. Roswell isn’t a huge town, with a population of just shy of 50,000, but it really leans on whatever happened that summer of 1947. Weather balloon? Military craft? UFO? Who knows! But everywhere in the town, and I mean everywhere, celebrates the lore. The McDonald’s is shaped like a UFO. Countless gift shops sell alien Ts.
If you get a chance to visit New Mexico, do it, and if you want more info about the UFO Festival, check out my articles for 1428 Elm by clicking here, complete with more pictures.
Horror has a long and layered queer history, going all the way back to James Whale’s films for Universal Studios, including Bride of Frankenstein, That Old Dark House, and The Invisible Man. More recent examples include Jennifer’s Body, Let the Right One In, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which has found a new audience thanks to its obvious queer themes.
In honor of Pride Month, I wanted to share two articles. One examines Anthony Perkins’ life in the context of Psycho II and its 40-year anniversary this month. You can read that by clicking here. The second article is a list of five queer horror classics to stream during Pride Month, and you can click that here.
It’s long overdue, but Robert Englund finally has his own documentary, Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story. While there have been plenty of docs on The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, oddly there’s been none about its main man. The documentary mostly features Englund, seated on a stool, telling one story after the other from his long career in Hollywood. He’s always entertaining, sometimes personal, and often funny. The doc also features a who’s who of the horror genre, including Tony Todd, Eli Roth, Kane Hodder, Heather Langenkamp, among others.
To read my full review, published over 1428 Elm, click here.
The documentary comes to Screambox on June 6 and will release on Blu-ray on July 25.
Brian Fanelli 