Movies

kvetcha said:
All that said, I am never gonna be mad about seeing Maggie Cheung's face.
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My first Popcorn Frights watch is Subject — coming to Screambox as a streaming exclusive on Aug. 22.

I quite enjoyed this lean yet stylish sci-fi horror which uses its limited, isolationist setting to strong effect.

Convict Willem submits to a secretive research program in lieu of imprisonment. From a (still) secluded cell, he watches home footage from his past while contending with the presence of a menacing figure in a a neighboring cell.

While I wouldn't categorize this movie as delivering anything too unexpected, the script, pacing and performances are all very satisfying. Easy recommend for introspective horror lovers.

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Subject (2022)

On his way to prison, a man gets intercepted by a secretive government agency who task him to monitor a secret experiment in exchange for commuting his sentence.
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Indymisanthrope said:
He and I have the same alma mater. There was a lot of "look at this famous alum!" attention when I was a student (while he was publishing Ilium & Olympos), but his star has really faded since then (aside from the adaptation of The Terror). He maintained a forum on his since-nuked website for years, and it was a terrifying cesspool of rightwing conspiracy theory well before the days of QAnon. I don't really have a point I guess, it's just been weird to watch his once-celebrated career fizzle out this way. Orson Scott Card is the closest example I can think of, although he comes with an order of magnitude more infamy (and no head injury that might get him to finally stop ruining Ender's Game with extra material).
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Fuck Orson Scott Card.
 
Popcorn Frights watch 2 is teen director Alice Maio Mackay's third(!) feature film T Blockers—a super queer riff on bodysnatchers.

A tight-knit group of queer friends is their community's only hope against an ancient parasite that takes hold of weak-minded, fearful transphobes.

Mackay's trajectory as a filmmaker is ever on the up with signature elements on full display (e.g., indulgent color saturation, high octane needle drops). While I enjoyed their campy, vampy debut So Vam (streaming on Shudder), I was admittedly less enthused by their possession slasher follow-up Bad Girl Boogey. They are totally an artist to watch though (especially at only 18 and making films on mere thousands of dollars).

T Blocker's themes are timely, urgent, and earnest. This feels quite personal, though the meta film watching and filmmaking elements throughout were the only thing that didn't quite work for me.

That said, I really enjoyed the remarkably natural character dynamics, central conflict, and campy goop factors. Mackay is absolutely a director to watch, and given their already prolific tendencies, I'm excited to not have to wait long for their next unabashedly/combatively queer offering.

letterboxd.com

T Blockers (2023)

When ancient parasites rise from beneath a small town, taking the most fearful and susceptible as hosts, a young trans filmmaker finds herself the only one who can sense the possessed, and rally the resistance before the horror escapes and spreads.
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