Movie Review: Fresh (2022)

Fresh (dir. Mimi Cave, 2022) – Noa’s dating life takes a turn when she learns about her new partner’s unusual appetite.

Ask any woman about her online dating experiences, and you are bound to hear more than a few horror stories. Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) has had her fair share, which might explain her eagerness to jump at her chance at love when she meets a seemingly decent man – Steve (Sebastian Stan) – in real life.

After all, their meet-cute in a supermarket aisle feels like the perfect set-up for a happily ever after. That is even if her best friend Molly (Jojo T Gibbs) calls red flag on his suspiciously quick moves and absence of online presence. Is it possible that Steve may be hiding something more? By now, any discerning viewer would be nodding along to Molly’s doubts.

Series Review: Them (2021)

Them: Covenant (by Little Marvin, 2021) – A black family moves to an all-white neighbourhood in L.A, where they begin to face disturbing threats from next door and within their new home.

The year is 1953. A black family, the Emorys, has just moved into an all-white neighbourhood in Los Angeles, in hopes of a fresh start and better life for their young daughters. It takes mere minutes before their dreams shatter. They are soon faced with hostility not just from their prejudiced neighbours, but something otherworldly in their own home.

Them, subtitled Covenant, is bottled-up dread that necessitates warning labels. It is not an easy watch, not by a far mile. The backdrop of blatant racism draws inspiration from an uneasy piece of recent history. During the Great Migration between 1916 and 1970, 6 million African Americans moved out of the rural Southern United States to predominantly white urban cities. Many had faced the same prejudices that the Emorys did – segregation, racist acts of abuse, and open discrimination in the workplace or at school.

Trailer: Tethered (2022)

Having left its mark as a suspenseful short film just 5 years ago, Tethered has finally been made into a much anticipated full-length feature. Its lengthened runtime only means a welcome bolstered backstory for Solomon (Brody Bett/Jared Laufree) and his mother Nidia (Alexandra Paul) at the centre of the horror lore.

We meet the intimate family of two, living in an isolated cabin. Solomon is born blind, but Nidia is there to ready him for the uncertain future. They hunt, guided to traps by sound. To keep him safe as they wander out into the woods, Nidia ties a long rope around his waist that remains tethered to their home.

Movie Review: Antlers (2021)

Antlers (dir. Scott Cooper, 2021) – A middle-school teacher grows concerned about the wellbeing of her student, who seems to be hiding dangerous secrets about his family.

From the Djinn to fae, old folklore is where many of the most chilling on-screen creatures are birthed. That includes the infamous Wendigo that has evoked shivers in myriad horror films and TV specials, from Antonia Bird’s masterwork Ravenous to a particularly memorable Supernatural arc.

As its title suggests, Antlers marks the most recent revisit to the gory flesh-eating subgenre. In this, the beast has made a den out of an abandoned mine, where it meets its next victims in two unsuspecting intruders. Meth dealer Frank Weaver (Scott Haze) and his son Aiden (Sawyer Jones) survive the brutal encounter, barely.

Movie Review: Two (2021)

Two / Dos (dir. Mar Targarona, 2021) – A couple wakes up to find themselves imprisoned in a strange room, with their abdomens sewn to each other.

Two strangers awaken in an unimaginable nightmare, in which they are sewn skin-to-skin and left alone in a locked room. This isn’t one of John Kramer’s demented games. Ostensibly reliant on the controversy of body horror and so-called torture porn, Dos veers in an unexpected direction, showing only glimpses of the disconcerting mutilation before having them hide it beneath white sheets.

Fear turns into anger as the couple begins to suspect each other to be the cause of their predicament. David (Pablo Derqui) admits to being an escort, who may have accepted a carnal request from the wrong man. Sara (Marina Gatell) isn’t off the hook either, for her jealous husband may just have had a hand in the twisted surgery.

Movie Review: Fever Dream (2021)

Fever Dream / Distancia de rescate (dir. Claudia Llosa, 2021) – Amanda lies in pain as she is questioned about what had happened to her – by a young child who is not her own.

Amanda (María Valverde) keeps her daughter Nina at a safe rescue distance, protective of her only child. Carola (Dolores Fonzi) doesn’t share the same love for hers, whom she had almost lost to poisoned water once. Not anymore. Her boy David had only survived because of a spirtual healer, but at the cost of part of his soul, or so she claims.

Before its filmic adaptation, Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream was once a book that begs to be read. Unlike a standard narrative, the story unfolds in nothing beyond a seamless conversation between a woman and a boy, who bear no direct relations as one might think. What ties them together is their bonds with their families that were similarly severed by circumstance.