It shouldn’t be a surprise to any of our readers that we here at PopOptiq love horror movies. All month long we’ve been counting down the 200 greatest horror films ever made alongside our 31 Days of Horror marathon. And every year just before Halloween, our staff bands together to decide what our favourite horror …
The less you know about Spring before its arrival, the more enthralling its subtle charms. This is a delicate little gem that reveals its mysteries grudgingly; a seamless blend of moods and genres that never stops surprising you. Darkly comic and unflinchingly romantic, Spring steeps its horror mythology in realism to create a genuine sense of uneasiness. Director Justin Benson’s exquisite story of painful transformation is one of 2015’s best films.
This list is in alphabetical order. Only Lovers Left Alive (voted by Rick) Only Lovers Left Alive, the latest film from cult indie director Jim Jarmusch, stars Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as Adam and Eve, two century old vampires. Adam is an underground musician with a dedicated cult following. In his past time, he …
When the first film in this series was released 2 years ago, it came as a much-needed breath of fresh air for the found-footage subgenre, a subgenre that had tired itself out by the time even Paranormal Activity 2 came out. What stood out the most about it was that none of the filmmakers involved were trying to fool you into thinking that any of it was real, while studio made found footage films still marketed themselves as “this is real footage”. Rather than try to pull a trick you wouldn’t fall for, they just had fun with the format and sought to break down the limitations of it. V/H/S 2 doubled down on the scope and ambition and was an exhilarating anthology to witness. Does the whole endeavor begin to feel tired at this point? Yeah, but then again most film series tend to feel that way their third time at bat.
Following their mildly acclaimed 2012 effort Resolution, directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead further establish themselves as some of the most promising gruesome genre mechanics to be observed – if from a safe and secure distance. In their new film Spring they turn their gaze to a beloved titan of the macabre, channeling an eternal struggle of the ancient ones that H.P Lovecraft would enjoy, with creatures most cryptic dwelling among an unsuspecting population.
Spring can most easily be described as a romantic-horror: a monster movie with a heart set mostly in a small tourist destination in Italy. After the death of his mother, Evan(Lou Taylor Pucci) loses his job and gets himself in a fight that causes him to be pursued by police. With nothing left in California, he hops on the first available flight, which brings him to Italy. This adventure leads him to meeting the beautiful and mysterious Louise (Nadia Hilker).
Over the years, TIFF’s Midnight Madness programme has lost some of its grit. Once upon a time, a film as bodacious as Shrew’s Nest would have graced its lineup. Now, the Vanguard programme seems to have stepped up to take its place. Where Madness highlights trendier, more easily digestible content, Vanguard takes on the more obscure. Sexy, gritty, dirty, and horrific, Vanguard’s content is far more outlandish than its older, now slightly more restrained, cousin. Odd when you consider both programmes are curated by the jovial horror fanatic Colin Geddes.
Special Mention: Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram and Alice Lowe UK, 2012 This bloody, satirical road trip comedy is by no means as great as Terrence Mallick’s Badlands, but it is truly unique, strange, disquieting, and uncomfortably funny. Ben Wheatley is one of the most exciting genre filmmakers working in the …
#1: West of Memphis Directed by Amy Berg Written by Billy McMillin and Amy Berg 2012, USA Following from the original Paradise Lost film and its two sequels, West of Memphis follows the events of one of the most media-covered American crime stories of the last two decades: The West Memphis Three, a case in which three teenagers (Jessie …
One of the few horror films kicking around the film festival circuit in 2012 that the entire Sound On Sight staff seemed to agree on, was Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Resolution. My colleagues and I have been tracking it ever since it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and so when the filmmakers recently …
Resolution Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead Written by Justin Benson USA, 2012 In Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Resolution, Michael (Peter Cilella), after receiving a mysterious video, sets out to the backwaters to help save and sober up his estranged crack-addicted friend Chris (Vinny Curran). Finding him in a rundown cabin, Michael handcuffs …
Resolution Written by Justin Benson Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead USA 2012 Fantasia imdb It would be easy to compare Resolution to The Cabin in the Woods, both films tackle the horror tropes surrounding the titular isolated cabin in the woods, digging into the meta-narrative that informs the trope, but they come at the text from completely opposite …
Resolution Directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson USA, 2012 An exploration of urban legends, examining our eternal relationship with storytelling, Resolution begins as the story of two friends. Michael, whose life is on the right path, receives a disturbing video of his friend Chris, and decides to go to the backwoods in order to …