Six horror movies from 2019 to (re)watch for Halloween
D-1 before Halloween: the perfect opportunity to get in the mood with some good horror movies. Here are six released this year
1. “Us” by Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele provoked in 2017 a little jolt in the world of horror, with Get Out and his criticism of the hypocrisy of the American progressives. But it is with Us, an even more ambitious creation, that his leg has been confirmed: that of a director who uses the horror genre to explore issues of inequality in every way.
Here, the director attacks the notion of privilege, this great partition that separates the American people in two. To support his point, he uses the motive of the evil double, the doppelgänger: on vacation in the seaside town of Santa Cruz, the Winston family is suddenly attacked by a family with the appearance identical to his own, who wants to take his place. These shadows are physically similar to them, but they are angry because they have never known the happiness or comfort that the Winston take for granted.
The power of the film is largely based on the double performances of its exceptional casting. Lupita Nyong’o proves once again the full extent of her talent, with a bluffing physical interpretation that manages to make us forget that we watch the same actress embody two distinct roles. Winston Duke and Shahadi Wright Joseph, in the roles of father and daughter, are remarkable, while Elisabeth Moss reminds us that it can be funny (what three seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale had actively tried to make us forget) .
Most impressive is the way Jordan Peele builds sympathy for these terrifying aggressors; the doppelgängers are not intrinsically bad, their only difference is that they have had the misfortune to live on the wrong side of the surface.
The only flaw in the film is that by dint of ambition, it sometimes runs the risk of derailing, so much Jordan Peele wants to accumulate ideas, references, and explanations that could have happened. But it’s a sign of a director who has a lot to say, and we can not wait to hear more.
2. “Crawl” by Alexandre Aja
To reflect our increasingly connected world, many horror movies have recently been inspired by innovations that invade our daily lives: apps, social networks, escape games … In this ecosystem, Crawl is a refreshing alternative and almost radical simplicity: while Florida is hit by a hurricane category 5, a young woman and her father find themselves trapped in the basement of their house facing a huge alligator. (Or two… Or five.)
Alexandre Aja, our French national treasure of horror (High Voltage, La Colline has eyes), thus operates a real homecoming and offers to the genre of the film of alligator (unfortunately less prestigious than the shark film) one of his best specimens.
Kaya Scodelario, revealed in Skins, carries the film with energy and charisma, and her excellent alchemy with Barry Pepper, who plays her father, provides many moments of humor and emotion between the multiple action scenes.
Halfway between the film disaster, the thriller and the horror film, Crawl is a small nugget effective (less than 90 minutes) that never releases the tension.
3. One Cut of the Dead / カメラを止めるな！(Kamera o tomeru na!) By
Shin’ichirō Ueda
It’s been fifteen years since the huge success of Shaun of the dead has revived the fashion of the zombie comedy, resulting in dozens of variations mostly mediocre. It is therefore with delight that we discovered this excellent Japanese film, released in 2017 but arrived here only this year.
Shot in a few days by a team of students with a very small budget of $ 27,000, One Cut of the Dead! comes to revitalize a genre that was starting to seriously feel stale.
We follow the shooting of a horror film to micro-budget, which goes wrong when real zombies invade the set … Our summary will stop there because the less you know about the film, the more you will appreciate it. We will just say that appearances are extremely misleading and that we advise you to pay attention to what you see in the first third of the film.
The more time passes, the more energy One cut the dead! impresses, literally: the first thirty-seven minutes are composed of a single and unique fantastic shot, where the cameraman’s incessant sprints through the sets have given us a side point.
Gradually, the film takes more and more meta dimensions, and the last half-hour is a true declaration of love to the seventh art, methods of guerrilla cinema and works made with pieces of string, an identity that many claims of horror classics (Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal activity). But behind all this audacity, the film also reveals a surprisingly pure and touching twist. An instant classic.
4. «Midsommar», By Ari Aster
We all panicked because one of our relatives was not answering his phone and we had to imagine the worst. In real life, often, the person ends up answering. But in Midsommar, the heroine’s parents do not respond, because they were killed by her sister, who then committed suicide. It is with this chilling sequence that opens Ari Aster’s second film, which confirms his place as one of the most exciting horror film directors of the moment.
After his terrifying Heredity, the American continues his exploration of the family, mental health, and religious sects. But this time, he takes us to Sweden, where the heroine Dani goes with her boyfriend to try to recover from the mourning that completely changed her life.
As if this trauma was not enough, Dani is also locked in a toxic relationship that does not flourish but is, according to her, his last buoy after losing his family. Quickly, the trip to Sweden exposes tensions within the couple and the film is transformed into an extremely twisted story of emancipation.
pain. Driven by a stunning performance by Florence Pugh, the film reaches peaks of psychological terror, but also creates surprising moments of emotion, as when the heroine and the women of the community cry and scream in unison to evacuate their pain . With sumptuous sets and superb music by Bobby Krlic, Midsommar is an unforgettable trip.
5. «Ready or Not», de Tyler Gillett et Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
This year, the world of horror has understood this: there are few things more terrifying than having a crap boyfriend. If Midsommar offered a more spiritual reflection on the subject, Ready or Not gets straight to the point and delivers one of the most fun horror movies of the year.
The night of her wedding, Grace is invited to spend the night at her in-laws’ house and play a game of hide and seek a little special (the kind where your in-laws start chasing you with rifles and crossbows). ). In the same vein, as You’re next, Ready or Nottakes the concept of the Hell Family Night and offers us the most nightmarish wedding night in history.
The film follows a fairly predictable plot, but gets thicker thanks to the engaged performance of Samara Weaving, scream queen supercharged as we had not seen in a very long time. With her, each replica turns into a hilarious heart cry (“fucking rich people” being our favorite, of course).
It is indeed the American Wasp tradition (for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) that the film attacks, mocking the monstrous habits of this wealthy family to which the Roy of Succession have nothing to envy.
The film shines every time it offers us these tasty moments of catharsis, and we can not resist the urge to applaud each time the heroine screams dozens of insults to let off steam.
6. “The Lighthouse” by Robert Eggers
If we had been told that a closed black and white and square format on two lighthouse keepers would be one of the funniest movies of the year, it would have been hard to believe. Especially coming from Robert Eggers, a young prodigy director who made a name for himself in 2015 with The Witch, and is creating a niche of his own with his horror films located in remote and austere places.
In The Witch, he meticulously reproduced the daily life of a Puritan New England family in 1630, terrified that the devil could attack their crops. In The Lighthouse, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, the American puts the action in a lighthouse at the end of the nineteenth century, and films the slow plunge into the madness of the two guards forced to live together in this hostile space.
Rather than resting on jump scares, the director builds an increasingly oppressive and icy atmosphere where wind, rain, and seagulls seem to exacerbate the paranoia of the characters.
But The Lighthouse might as well be described as a horror movie rather than a comedy, thanks in large part to the explosive chemistry between Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, who deliver raging performances and exchange insults of such creativity. that the characters of Veep would probably be jealous.
There are still a few weeks before the release of the film, but we suggest you put a reminder on your calendar: you are guaranteed that you will not see anything similar this year.
