by Justin Query

***

With time, horror movies have recycled a number of the motifs that have become second nature to scary movies: sudden gusts of wind, the electricity suddenly going off, and torrential rainstorms in the night.

But sometimes, genre filmmaking can explore new elements that turn traditional horror films on their heads, and Front Center Seat has curated another week of cinema that fills that bill — as well as recommends a midnight movie that might satiate a viewer’s rather rarefied palette.

***

10/16 … One Cut of the Dead (2017)

The zombie apocalypse is turned on its unsevered head in this independent Japanese horror comedy written and directed by Shin’ichirō Ueda and roduced for only ¥3 million – approximately $25K. Over the course of the innovative film-within-a-film-within-a-film, a movie crew making a cheap motion picture about zombies finds itself the target of real-life zombies. The film is recognized in box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.
Available on Amazon Prime.

10/17 … Near Dark (1987)

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break (1991), The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012)), this liquor-soaked, dusty, southern-fried road movie about a nomad clan of vampires forced to adopt a local ranch hand (Adrian Pasdar) turned into a creature of the night by one of its own (Jenny Wright). The film also stars a Who’s Who of James Cameron alumni: Lance Hendrickson, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton.
Available on YouTube by subscription.

10/18 … Spring (2014)

In this independent horror film from Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (Disney+’s Moon Knight), a troubled, young American (Lou Taylor Pucci) travels to Italy, where he meets and falls in love with a young woman (Nadia Hilker), who must nightly transform into a Lovecraftian creature and devour flesh in order to return to her human form and thereby live an immortal life.
Available on Fandango At Home, Tubi, and more.

10/19 … The Final Girls (2015)

Meta horror has a huge heart in this comedy horror film from Stage 6 Films about grieving daughter Max (Taissa Farmiga), who is mystically catapulted with her friends into the cult slasher film of which her late mother (Malin Akerman) once starred. Now, Max hopes not only to survive the film but also to reconnect on a personal level with her dead mother.
Available for purchase on multiple streaming services.

10/20 … Host (2020)

Written & directed by Rob Savage, this pandemic horror film – clocking in at less than 60 minutes – finds a handful of social distancing female friends consigned to host their girls’ night gathering via Zoom. But electing to host a spiritual seance online, the women inadvertently invite something sinister into the chat. And it might take more than CTRL+ALT+DEL to save them now.
Available on Shudder.

*************
This week’s Unique Horror Midnight Feature
Red State (2011)

Directed by “That Kevin Smith” (Clerks (1994), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999)), this alarmingly visceral Lionsgate film looks like nothing Smith has done before. Based upon the disturbing, real life exploits of the Westboro Baptists – the picture tells the story of three teenage boys who are abducted by a criminally fundamentalist church, drawing the attention of the FBI in a gun-toting, philosophy-laden standoff that few will survive.
Available on Amazon Prime.

+++

Next week’s theme: Fate

In horror films or otherwise, Fate is what awaits us all, but — next week — Front Center Seat will confront a young boy haunted by the ghosts that surround him; a genre-bending vampire film of feminism; a home invasion film that documents both the physical & emotional murder of a couple; and more …