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Overlord 2018 ★˝
To be honest, I don't see why this gets good reviews.
I've seen this type of war horror before, just with lower budgets and more B-movie appeal. Cruel nazis, brave soldiers, a doctor Mengele-ish figure,... It has it all.
Maybe I was not in the right place for this one, but it did not do anything for me.
The Lighthouse 2019 ★★★
A24 delivers a solid mood piece about the horrors of isolation with William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two maintenance men taking care of the lighthouse.
This is one of the movies that could have driven the final nail in the Twilight-coffin. Proving it only managed to reduce two solid actors to moon eyes. Kristen Stewart overcame that with solid or even great performances in The Runaways, Spencer, On the road,... This is the first I've seen of Robert Pattinson and it did not convince me all that much. He just does the generic insolent youngen and not even all that convincingly.
This becomes even more obvious because he's up against a powerhouse performance by William Dafoe. Dafoe had every last detail of his character down, right up until the old timey accent and the magnificent beard. While Pattinson's mustache, on the other hand, looked silly and glued on at the start.
Nonetheless, it was an entertaining piece of mood cinema. The isolation and the ensuing hallucinations are well shot and add to Pattinson's character slowly losing his mind. I also like the choice to film this in black and white, only further enhancing said atmosphere.
This also lends itself for a rewatch. Then you can pick up on details that you might elude on a first watch.
For fans of psychological horror.
Possessor 2020 ★★★★★
Good lord, I love the Cronenbergs.
The opening shot immediately has you hooked. Like any good Cronenberg-flick, it drags you into a surreal universe full of emotionally detached characters that you somehow end up getting attached to.
In this case, we follow a sort of hired killer who takes on the body of somebody else to do her job. Both men and women. Which should also be a clue for her “victim” wife. Anyway.
Sure enough, she gets stuck in this body and things get more and more sour with her fear and despair becoming ever more suffocating. Creating a great feel of unheimlichkeit with one or two shots that had me thinking “put that in one of Davids eighties movies and the people who are now bitching about how 'there are no more great horrors' would all call it brilliant and genious and so and so”.
I loved Jennifer Jason Leigh in her role as Girder. She did the manipulative part of her character really well and the dynamic between her and Tasya was very well done. Also, can we get Cara Delevigne to star in a Cronenberg-film? She'd be great for it.
5 stars. Highly recommended.
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