Invoking the late icon with sequined jumpsuits and sculpted waves of black hair, Elvis impersonators are already the walking dead—Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead only takes the extra step of turning them into flesh-eating zombies. Parachuting onto Netflix after a limited theatrical release, Snyder’s exhilarating return to the zombie genre turns the hedonistic joy…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 3: Fact and Fiction in The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was released in 2005; this was long after the 1970s heyday of the poltergeist girl subgenre, but the film nonetheless has its roots in that era. It was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1976 – one far more horrific than the 1949 case that inspired The Exorcist.
Poltergeist Girls, Part 1: The Exorcist and Regan’s Rebellion
After she foolishly plays with a Ouija board, an innocent and cheerful early-adolescent girl begins showing a distinct change in personality. Her behaviour becomes strange, even sinister. Before long, she is the focal point of apparently supernatural phenomena: objects around her are moved by unseen forces, while her body undergoes hideous transformations. All the time…
An Insubstantial Visit: It Comes at Night
It Comes at Night Director + Screeplay: Trey Edward Shults Starring: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr. A24 June 9, 2017 Minor spoilers It Comes at Night is Trey Edward Shults’ second feature-length film, and like 2015’s Krisha, it is a study of familial tension and rising anxiety. Unfortunately, the…
Stranger Things: Cool Girls, Missing Girls, and Our Girls
This essay will contain spoilers for the full run of Stranger Things. Teen boys playing D&D in a lovingly reproduced 1980s basement. That’s how Stranger Things really gets going, and that’s when I knew that this show probably wasn’t going to be for me.