OCTOBER 31 ― It’s Halloween this weekend and even if Halloween has never been much of a thing in terms of actual celebrations and festivities over here in Malaysia, globalisation (or cultural imperialism to some) means that its existence and rituals are more or less common knowledge to a lot of us over here.
So while trick or treating, Halloween-themed house decorations and haunted house visits are not things that we’d commonly see here, spending the Halloween weekend watching horror movies is definitely something that a lot of us have been doing, not necessarily to celebrate Halloween but just for kicks.
Recommending the usual suspects (ie. the Halloween films, the Friday the 13th films and all those 80s classics) would be a bit boring, wouldn’t it, especially since there has never been a shortage of newly released films to cash in on the never-ending craze for horror flicks to watch on Halloween.
So why not check out the new stuff, right? There will no doubt be a lot of stinkers along the way, but who knows we might just stumble onto a future cult classic and new Halloween staple?
With that in mind, and having rummaged through quite a bunch of new horror flicks in the last week or so (leading me to not have the time to finish the whole season of The Haunting Of Bly Manor yet, but if you haven’t seen it then of course the Netflix series is one of the things you should definitely watch for Halloween), here are two of the more interesting ones I’ve come across.
Scare Package
Halloween season would not be complete without a horror anthology to provide you with fun, bite-sized chunks of scares and blood.
With Scare Package, you’ll get exactly that ― seven really fun, tongue-in-cheek short films from seven different directors that focus more on the comedy-horror-gore side of things, with a healthy dose of meta-horror sprinkled onto most of the stories.
This meta approach is apparent right from the start, with opening story “Cold Open” about a guy named Mike who’s tired of always being the minor character that usually sets up the plot in a horror movie (you know, the guy who innocently adjusts the sign the wrong way, or plants a satanic relic in the attic, at the beginning of horror movies), and who wants to be more involved in the good things, like being a hero.
Where director Emily Hagins takes this story, which is smart, hilarious and totally filled with blood and gore, I’ll let you discover for yourself.
Yes, there are some segments that are obviously weaker than the others, I’d say two out of the seven segments here are merely okay, but that’s already a pretty good hit rate compared to a lot of horror anthologies out there.
So if you’re looking to laugh out loud, get some pleasant surprises, and witness some of the most over-the-top gore set-pieces you’ll see this year, stop whatever you’re doing, seek this out and watch it now!
Spiral
Now that we’ve got the more fun part of Halloween out of the way with Scare Package, it’s time to explore another facet of horror flicks that film-makers very rarely do right, which is the horror movie with a conscience/socio-political commentary.
I first got intrigued to seek this one out after reading somewhere that this one’s like a gay version of Get Out, as in if Get Out is about racism, then this one is about the prejudices against the gay community.
Now that I’ve watched it, I’d definitely agree with the Get Out reference, as it’s about a gay couple moving into the suburbs with their teenage daughter, encountering a community that seems a bit too friendly that things do seem a bit ‘off’ even from the start.
But as things progress I’d throw in Rosemary’s Baby into the mix as well, as there are rituals and hallucinations/mental breakdowns involved as well.
In terms of narrative predictability, I won’t say that director Kurtis David Harder and writers Colin Minihan (of Grave Encounters and It Stains The Sands Red fame) and John Poliquin offer anything new with Spiral, because things progress just as you’d expect them to.
But by making the lead characters gay, and by piecing out the characters’ personal history gradually in a non-linear way, the film-makers have added a layer of social commentary that makes the film a lot more sophisticated than what it it first appears to be, especially when one ponders about the character motivations and psychology of not just the victims (i.e. the lead characters) but also the villains.
Again, I don’t want to spoil things for you, but just watch this all the way to the end, and have your mind blown (and your heart broken).
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
