Boo! 'Host,' 'The Rental' and why horror matters

No Content for Old Men

with Matt Craig

Hey movie lovers!

As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word!

In this week's newsletter: It's spooky season, so today I'm taking a look at two of the best horror movies that 2020 has produced, and the unique position of the genre within the industry. Then I've got some really exciting streaming suggestions for you -- a pair of compelling TV dramas, a Sean Connery tribute, and the most underrated movie of 2017. In this week's "Trailer Watch," Michael Bay brings us the first of what is sure to be many movies about the coronavirus pandemic.

Word Count: 798 words
Reading time: 4 minutes

Host / The Rental

Horror movies are not for everyone. I get that. To be honest, I'm not much of a fan myself (the fact that they scare the crap out of me is not the ONLY reason, thank you very much). But it's important to understand the unique position the genre holds in the current Hollywood ecosystem.

What do the most successful directors in the world -- Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Oliver Stone, the Coen Brothers -- have in common? They all started their careers making a horror movie.

Why? Cuz money, obviously. Horror movies are relatively cheap to make, often using one location, unknown actors and no CGI without sacrificing quality. And if the movie catches on, the genre has enormous earnings potential. People can be convinced to go see a horror movie for no other reason than "I heard it's really scary," far easier the advanced calculus of movie star + director + great trailer required to get butts in seats for an Oscar contender.

Get Out, helmed by first time director Jordan Peele and starring no-name Daniel Kaluuya, turned a $4.5 million budget into over $255 million in worldwide box office. Think that's crazy? The Blair Witch Project was made for a measly $60,000 in 1999, and went on to make $248 million.

Notably, those movies are both independent of the big studios. If you thought the blockbusterization of the studio system was bad before, it's only going to get more drastic in the aftermath of the pandemic. Big distributors have no use for those meager margins, creating the opportunity for indies like Blumhouse to swoop in and fill the void. The lower barrier for entry and high upside allows for more creative freedom and bigger risks from financiers, often giving first-time filmmakers their big break.

Such is the case with The Rental, the directorial debut of actor James Franco. He crafted the screenplay alongside indie movie stalwart Joe Swanburg to take place in one location, an Airbnb "rental," with a couple barely recognizable TV actors and his wife, Alison Brie.

Franco shows some undeniable talent here, especially an eye for lighting and set design that set a perfect mood, but it's abundantly clear that he had little interest in making a horror movie. He clearly needed to, for all the financial reasons outlined above, but the actual horror elements don't come until the final 20 minutes of the 90-minute runtime and feel slapped on. Frankly they aren't that scary, and deflate all momentum leading to a very unsatisfying ending.

The first 70 minutes is a typical yet very successful indie about intersecting love triangles. Basically, it's just a Joe Swanburg movie. It's difficult not to give him the lion share of the credit, unless Franco has chosen to adopt Swanburg's exact tone and storytelling style. Never mind the fact that this exact love square dynamic was explored in Swanburg's Drinking Buddies, to a suspicious degree of similarity.

This is not a bad movie. It's fine. Franco has earned the right to get more money and make the movie he wants to make next time around. But in the meantime, just go rewatch Drinking Buddies.

On the other hand, Host is a perfect use of the horror genre's limitations. It's a truly remarkable piece of filmmaking, made entirely over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. I can't imagine the budget was more than a couple thousand bucks, with actors setting up their lighting and practical effects and shooting through their laptop camera.

The premise is simple. A group of friends in England attempt to hold a seance over Zoom. Things go wrong, obviously, and because the runtime is only 57 minutes the proceedings devolve into absolute chaos at an insane pace.

Because the movie never ever breaks its found-footage gimmick, it is very effective in holding the viewer's suspension of disbelief. Which makes it very scary. Well, I was freaking terrified anyway, as were the two friends I was watching the movie with via Zoom (in retrospect, watching a horror movie about a Zoom call gone terribly wrong while on an actual Zoom call may have been a bad choice).

Oftentimes for defined genres like horror and comedy, evaluations come down to a binary scale. Was it scary, was it funny? This movie passes on that most base level, a truly visceral heart-pounding experience.

It's slightly inconvenient to find, because it's an exclusive release on the horror-only streaming platform Shudder, but if you're looking for an hour-long fright I highly recommend it. I know me and my friends signed up for a free trial just to check it out, then cancelled before we were charged.

You may not be a horror movie fan, but if you love movies you should support the genre. Plus, it's spooky season! Boo.

Streaming Suggestions!

Something New

The Queen's Gambit (Netflix): The streaming giant has done it again, boosting a show that would've likely come and gone without any attention into the center of the pop culture universe this week. That's not to be critical, because this show is quite good, it's just being realistic. A 1950s period drama based on zero existing IP about an orphan chess prodigy isn't exactly the sexiest sell, even if Anya Taylor-Joy plays the lead in her ascent up the Hollywood star rankings. You're going to enjoy this show (or probably already are) for the same reason I am. It creates drama without taking every opportunity to inflict trauma on its main character, who like many heroes and heroines in 2020 shows carries a massive amount of emotional and psychological baggage. Meanwhile, wow, chess hasn't been this cool since Searching for Bobby Fischer.

The Undoing (HBO): No one can deny the outsized impact of Netflix on the streaming landscape, but for all their zeitgeist-y flare, the best TV dramas have always been and continue to be on HBO. Recently they've been taking that title a little too seriously, churning out overly dark and self-serious material, but the pairing of showrunner David E. Kelley with stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant was never going to fail. Kelley is known in recent years for "Goliath" and "Big Little Lies," but he’s still cashing checks from every legal and medical procedural of the 1990s, which is to say the guy just knows how to write compelling television. One quick tip for those that want to explore this crime mystery set on the Upper West Side of Manhattan: even if you don’t love the first episode, watch the second before making any judgements. If you aren’t hooked by then, I will refund you the money you pay for this newsletter.

Something Old

The Untouchables (1987, Starz): Rest in peace to Sir Sean Connery! Of course the legendary actor will always first and foremost be known as the epitome of suave mid-century masculinity for his portrayal of James Bond. That role is iconic, but the films themselves are kitschy B-movies, if we're being honest (not saying they aren't fun!). I prefer the movies from the silver fox era of Connery, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, and this one, The Untouchables. Connery is a part of a task force (which includes Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia) dedicated to arresting and capturing infamous gangster Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro. That's a big time lineup, especially when you consider the script comes from famous playwright David Mamet (The Verdict, Glengarry Glen Ross) and the direction from Brian De Palma (Scarface). If you want to memorialize Connery this week with one of his movies, you can't do better than this.

Something to Stream

The Only Living Boy in New York (Amazon Prime): This coming-of-age romantic drama was by far the most underrated movie of 2017 (it should be noted that was a FANTASTIC movie year). No one would accuse Marc Webb of being dispassionate, as the former music video director has shown in his other feature length work: 500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man and Gifted (though the latter I have not seen). I hate that his preference for sentimentality somehow diminishes the gravity of his work. This movie makes me feel things, and if that makes me a naive sap so be it. Maybe it's melodramatic at points, maybe it's too clever for its own good, but heightened or not this movie captures profoundly human emotions and experiences. Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Bridges and Kate Beckinsale are at the top of their game here. I rewatched it this week and it did not let me down.

Trailer Watch: Songbird

Well it was inevitable, but still a little unnerving to see the first of what is sure to be a whole set of movies set in or about the coronavirus. Because this one is made by Michael Bay, it's the turned-all-the-way-up-to-11 version, a world in which lockdown has gone on for four years and things have gone full dystopia. Since this is Bay, explosions and action and half-naked ladies are a guarantee. His best movies come when he keeps the primary plotting very simple, which could be difficult with something as complex as Covid. At the very least, he's packing a pretty insane supporting cast around two fairly unknown leads: Demi Moore, Bradley Whitford, Alexandra Daddario, Peter Stromare, Paul Walter Houser, and Craig Robinson. Is the world ready for epic movies about this pandemic?