A WORD FROM OUR PROGRAMMER - 8/18/21

Why horror, Cinema friends?

For those amongst our readership who need no cajoling to wade waist-deep into the darker realms of projected entertainment, I apologize. For the terror-averse, the cajoling begins now.

This Friday, we open The Night House, an unnerving and genuinely terrifying mystery that surrounds a recently widowed Rebecca Hall left with the lake house her late lover built for her. 

Director David Bruckner finds himself and his work varyingly referred to as Mumblegore — owing equal parts to old-school horror inventiveness and the scattershot millennial movement of Mumblecore and its cohorts Joe Swanberg, Mark Duplass, and Greta Gerwig — and Elevated Horror — a contentious label that simultaneously scolds seedier endeavors and somewhat erroneously crafts common cause between the polished and heady horrors of Ari Aster’s Midsommar, Robert Eggers’ The Witch, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out. 

But labels are a fickle shorthand and when the name-drops and comparisons still don’t paint a clear picture, what remains is an enthusiastic invitation to immerse oneself completely, and in this particular parable, to not just to ruminate on grief, but skewer it.

But don’t just take my word for it, listen to friend-of-the-Fest, and longtime Film Comment contributor and podcast-host, Nicolas Rapold’s conversation with the film’s star, Rebecca Hall, on The Last Thing I Saw.

-Ted