Nicolas Cage stars in “Mandy” (RLJE Films / SpectreVision)
Even if you’re not superstitious, 13 isn’t the luckiest year for the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival. This showcase for bloody genre offerings from around the world is less consistent than in past years, and the fear factor onscreen can sometimes pale in the face of the world’s horrors. Screenings like the 1979 thriller Phantasm (October 4 at 7:15 p.m., with director Don Coscarelli in person) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (October 5 at 10 p.m.) are known entities, but what of all the new films?
We’re here to sort the terrifying wheat from the ho-hum chaff of this year’s slate, all of which is screening at the AFI Silver Theatre starting Thursday. See the complete schedule here.
Nicolas Cage has long been caught in a seemingly endless cycle of lousy revenge movies released straight to VOD. So it’s something of a miracle that this hellish thriller is actually a good Nicolas Cage revenge movie. The quintessential ham stars as Red, a lumberjack—an apt excuse to bring out a prop, in the very first scene, that we may call Chekhov’s chainsaw. Red lives with his wife Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) in the woods of California, where they enjoy science fiction and horror movies, but their peaceful life is shattered when they become the target of deranged cult leader Jeremiah (Linus Roache). Although it’s set in the ’80s, Mandy is no mere retro trip. With a ferocious score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, hallucinatory visuals from cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, and Cage at his most emotionally raw, it’s a stunning fever dream that demands to be seen on the big screen. Read my full review here.
(Friday, October 5 at 9:20 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
(Vice Films)
Norwegian guitarist Øystein (Rory Culkin) wants you to call him Euronymous. Frontman of black metal legends Mayhem, he’s all into evil, unlike you poseurs. But when his bandmates start burning churches and leaning into real demonic stuff, he’s horrified. Based on the book by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, Lords of Chaos tells the true story of the infamous band, and at first it’s an unlikely black comedy that satirizes the rock ‘n’ roll nihilism of musicians striking up a menacing ‘tude to sell records. But even Euronymous wonders what happened to the fun of evil. Lords of Chaosdirector Jonas Åkerlund was drummer for the Swedish black metal band Bathory before he turned to directing Madonna videos, and he gives the film a delirious energy that doesn’t let up as the tone shifts from decadent to tragic. Culkin’s performance grounds the film with enough shaggy charisma to make him endearing and even sympathetic. As much as he protests that he has no friends, his dabblings in the dark side can’t hide the lost boy under that deadly swagger.
(Saturday, October 6 at 9:45 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
From Laura Moss’ short film “Fry Day” (Topic)
THE EYESLICER HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
Horror anthology films can be a crapshoot, but this feature-length selection, mostly made by female directors, has more hits than misses. The artist collective Meow Wolf, who’s behind the TV variety show The Eyeslicer has compiled a surreal and often unsettling mix that immerses you in its mindset from the start with a short about a woman trapped inside an ’80s Red Lobster commercial. The pieces shift from Grand Guignol set pieces to the anxiety dream of a bad stand-up comedian, but the strongest segment may be Laura Moss’s “Fry Day” (pictured), a coming-of-age drama about a 16-year old girl who makes money taking Polaroids of the media frenzy surrounding the execution of serial killer Ted Bundy.
(Thursday, October 4 at 10 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
(Sestero Productions)
BEST F(R)IENDS VOLUME 1 (2017) & VOLUME 2 (2018)
Jon (Greg Sestero) is a drifter who befriends Harvey (Tommy Wiseau), a mortician who keeps a huge stash of gold teeth pulled from cadavers. But Jon betrays his new friend’s trust, selling that dental scrap to a shady dealer. Sestero co-wrote this much-anticipated reunion with The Room auteur Wiseau, and admits it was inspired by copious amounts of edibles. But why did this need to be a two-part, three-and-a-half hour epic? The first volume is watchable, its wacky plot tempered by a slow, deliberate pace, But the second half is almost completely unnecessary, salvageable only when Wiseau is onscreen, which isn’t nearly enough. Despite better production values than The Room, and a sympathetic performance from Sestero, Best F(r)iends is far too indulgent, turning what could have been an intriguing 100-minute drama into a long hot mess, and not in the magical way that The Room was. Sestero will appear for a Q&A at the screening.
(Sunday, October 7 at 5 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
(Tencent Pictures)
A group of strangers from all walks of life are stuck in a hotel room in the middle of a strange viral outbreak. Based on the comics by Ruibo Cao, this Chinese zombie movie is the first feature from director Sky Wang, and it’s basically a variation on The Walking Dead. The zombie crisis reveals the strengths and flaws of these characters, elevating the humble and knocking the arrogant down a few pegs. While it can be hard to get a feel for its cast in a 90-minute whirlwind, by the end of the movie it hits all the right emotional beats of survival and sacrifice.
(Sunday, October 7 at 2:45 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
(IMDb)
Troubled teenager Angela (Ana Mulvoy Ten) still has nightmares months after her mother’s death, which occurred under mysterious circumstances. When her older sister Becca (Christie Burke) suddenly drops the goth mood for a goody-two-shoes look, the family seems fully under the spell of dark and brutal forces. First-time director Ross Wachsman weaves the coming-of-age drama into an increasingly effective and sinister tale of adolescent anxiety gone wild. Ascension rises from the soft-focus tones of the typical teen indie movie to the garish heights of domestic horror.
(Sunday, October 7 at 12:45 p.m.; watch the trailer. )
(A24)
The small town of Kingfisher is rocked when pizza delivery workers are murdered by what townspeople suspect is one of the area’s thousands of ghosts, many of which were patients at a notorious asylum. Chance the Rapper co-stars as a werewolf who just wants to offer quality Chinese food at affordable prices, which gives you an idea of the movie’s goofball aesthetic. But while there’s an intriguing undercurrent of gentrification (the haunted pizza joint is built on an Indian burial ground, of course), writer-director Austin Vesely (whose credits include music videos for Chance) hasn’t come up with anything funny enough or scary enough to make up for the loose and rambling plot.
(Sunday, October 7 at 9:20 p.m.; watch the trailer.)
The Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival runs Oct. 4-7 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. various times, $13 per show
