Over the course of October, I shall be watching one horror movie a day and reviewing it right here for your reading pleasure. I haven't seen any of the films I'll be watching before and you can find the full list here.
Serial killers are very old hat now when it comes to horrors, thrillers and chillers, but there's still the odd film that crops up every now and again to bring something new to this particular character brand. A Horrible Way to Die attempts this by presenting AJ Bowen's very domestic serial killer, Garrick Turrell (something which has also recently been explored in Stephen King's A Good Marriage and the short story on which it is based) and his relationship with his girlfriend. Played by Amy Seimetz, Sarah is an alcoholic whose drunken state ensures a lack of awareness when it comes to her boyfriend's violent moonlighting. Their addictions and the conflicts that result are paralleled throughout the film; his for killing women, hers for the bottle.
The performances elevate the film somewhat, rising out of the dullness by giving these characters a real sense of dimension. Seimetz in particular is excellent as the fractured and downtrodden Sarah. Her tentative romance with a fellow alcoholic from her meetings, played by Joe Swanberg, is disarmingly sweet at first and their sense of shared difficulties adds an extra layer of pathos. As the serial killer at the centre of the piece, AJ Bowen is all the more sinister because of how non-threatening he appears to be
There are a few successful attempts to make strong links between Garrick and Sarah's respective trials and tribulations. When he is preparing to make his escape from the police car transporting him, the film segues into Sarah's lunch date with Swanberg's Kevin, her attempt to escape from her old relationship into a new one. However, overall, the film is rather hackneyed in its approach, stumbling around without any sense of urgency or purpose. The minimalist score seems designed to do exactly this, but the film is too quiet, too fractured for it to have any effect.
When the violence does come, it's a bit of a relief and the ending does go some way to elevating what has gone before. There's a couple of twists in there, one that I saw coming very early on and another that I missed completely. That final switcheroo is neatly done and ties together the somewhat disparate story threads to resolve the film in a satisfying manner. It's a shame then that this same creativity isn't consistent throughout and it never really goes anywhere with the links between the respective addictions of Sarah and Garrick which is where my primary interest lay.
I'm all for grim and bleak, as you'll have seen over the course of this month, and my tolerance for slow-burners is pretty high. But there has to be something to latch on to within that, which this film can't provide. There's shades of the wit and inventiveness that Wingard and Barrett would later bring to You're Next and one of this year's finest films, The Guest (and I suspect I've been somewhat spoiled by the latter), but the experimentation with narrative staples here doesn't feel as assured, nor as effective.
- Becky
You can check out the full list of Shocktober reviews so far here.
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As you may have guessed from my extensive coverage of Downton Abbey (soon to resume), I'm a bit of a fan of Dan Stevens. He's been mainly confined to period dramas of the stiff upper lip variety like the lovely adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (he actually managed to make Edward Ferrars remotely interesting). Yet there was always a sense that he was capable of branching out beyond the cravat and doing something really interesting. When he left Downton Abbey amidst a hail of flying car parts, it gave him a chance to do exactly that and boy does his turn in The Guest deliver.
Stevens stars as David Collins who arrives on the doorstep of the Peterson family, claiming to be the friend of their recently deceased son, Caleb. David claims that the two men served in the army together and he was present when Caleb passed. Despite initial reservations, the Petersons take David in and he soon ingratiates himself with each member of the family with a mixture of charm and good manners. It's pretty clear from the start that there's something a little off about the Petersons' house guest and it's not long before that proves to be the case.
To talk about the plot anymore would spoil what is a constant surprise of a film, offering up twists and turns; some you'll see coming, others you may not. Simon Barrett's screenplay is a skilful genre mash-up, combining elements of small town horror and thriller with a vein of humour that could be none more black. Adam Wingard's direction deftly flits between them all, bringing a sense of domestic claustrophobia to seemingly the most innocent of proceedings whilst knowing when to scale back for some of the bigger sequences.
It creates a deep, foreboding atmosphere throughout the film as revelations are sometimes dropped casually into conversation and sometimes occur on screen. Wingard relishes the opportunity to shock and the film can turn on you remarkably quickly, producing a nice, unsettling effect that never quite lets you get comfortable. It's helped at all times by a fantastic soundtrack that adds to the John Carpenter-like aesthetic that influences all aspects of the film. It underpins the action beautifully, ramping up the tension to almost unbearable levels in some of the film's more violent sequences.
It also helps that the cast are all excellent; Leland Orser as the put-upon father and Sheila Kelley as the grieving mother may not get a huge amount of screentime but provide a strong emotional core. Their children, Anna (Maika Monroe) and Luke (Brendan Meyer), shoulder much of the important narrative work and do so well, particularly in their highly differing reactions to the presence of David in their lives.
However, this film belongs to Dan Stevens. From the moment he appears on screen to the closing moments, his brilliantly unpredictable performance dominates, creating a charismatic central character that is both fascinating and scary. It's in the smaller moments that it works to startling effect, a simple shift in his eyes or the sudden absence of a smile. He also plays for the broader comedic moments too; his line delivery of how to deal with people who pick on you is delightfully dark. About as far from Downton Abbey and Matthew Crawley as you could possibly get, it's a delight to see an actor relishing a role as much as Stevens clearly does here.
A nice surprise in more ways than one, The Guest is a taut, well-made thriller with shades of just about everything else in between and it certainly helps that there is a wildly entertaining performance in the middle of it all.
- Becky
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Over the course of October, I shall be watching one horror movie a day and reviewing it right here for your reading pleasure. I haven't seen any of the films I'll be watching before and you can find the full list here.
