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James Jay Edwards’ Top Ten Fringe(ish) Horror Movies of 2019
Hey there, it’s your friendly neighborhood fringe horror guy back with another year-end list that will either intrigue or anger you. The choice is yours. Because my choices for best horror-ish movies have all been made.
Remember, these are fringe horror movies. Although this year’s list includes more “traditional” horror than it usually does, every movie here has been accused of “not being horror” by someone, most likely in the comments section of the internet. Of course, I’ve also seen It Chapter 2 accused of not being a horror movie in these comments sections, and it literally has a shape-shifting murderous clown, so maybe I really do know as little as people say I do.
So, without further ado, here are my top ten fringe(ish) horror movies of 2019.
10. Knives Out
The body count in Knives Out may be low (it’s one), but it’s a brilliant twist-a-minute tribute to Agatha Christie that will make even the most ardent haters of The Last Jedi forgive writer/director Rian Johnson. Basically, the patriarch of a family turns up dead, and an enigmatic private detective (played by Daniel Craig) has to sort through a mansion full of suspects. Whodunnit indeed.
9. Parasite
Parasite is another twisty and turny one that ends as a completely different movie than it started. This Bong Joon-ho joint is about a family of schemers who infiltrates a rich household by posing as skilled and talented workers. But, of course, there’s more to the story than that. Much more.
8. Bliss
This one is more of a pure horror flick, possibly the most so on this list. Bliss is about an artist who is under the gun as she faces the terrible combination of a creative block and a looming deadline. She turns to drugs to spark her inspiration, but the drugs she gets are not the normal, run-of-the-mill hallucinogens.
7. Brightburn
If you’ve ever wondered what would have happened if Superman was evil, Brightburn is for you. It’s basically the origin story of the Man of Steel – a boy comes crashing down from the stars and is raised by a midwestern couple. But this alien child doesn’t stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. He’s a naughty little camper.
6. Joker
Ah, yes. Joker. This is ostensibly an origin story for the most notorious villain in pop culture history (at least until Darth Vader came along). It steers away from the comics and makes up a lot of the story in places, but since the Joker has always been a famously unreliable narrator (“wanna know how I got these scars?”), we’re going to allow it. This may be the most important film of the year on a social level, and that’s in a year that includes Parasite.
5. Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep is the long overdue cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s long overdue sequel to The Shining. Director Mike Flanagan does the impossible by bridging the gap between the story telling of King and the visual aesthetic of the 1980 Stanley Kubrick original. Great fun for admirers of either camp, or especially, of both.
4. The Death of Dick Long
Probably the least known movie on this list. Try to go into The Death of Dick Long with as little prior knowledge as possible. If you need a brief synopsis, it’s about a band whose drummer, one Richard Long, winds up dead after a night of partying. His pals spend the next day trying to cover up the cause. This one is more Coen Brothers than traditional horror, but it’s a shocker.
3. Greta
What do you get when you cast a bona-fide Oscar caliber actress to play across from two modern scream queens? You get Greta, that’s what. Elle’s Isabelle Huppert has a devilishly delicious time villainizing Carrie’s Chloë Grace Moretz and It Follows’s Maika Monroe in this stalkery slasher. Along with Ma and The Intruder, this was one of three respected-thespians-tormenting-innocents movies this year, but it’s easily the best of the bunch.
2. Us
Jordan Peele’s Get Out established the filmmaker as one to watch in the horror world, and Us just confirms that notion. The movie is about a family who goes takes a trip to their vacation home, and are the victims of a home invasion. The kicker is that the invaders are carbon copies of themselves. And it just gets weirder and more disturbing from there. Not quite the social message that Get Out is, but it’s close.
1. Midsommar
And speaking of establishing a reputation as a master of horror…Ari Aster’s Hereditary was one of last year’s best movies, and Midsommar shows the writer/director picking up right where he left off. Midsommar is about a group of Americans that travels to Sweden for a cultural festival, and things go very wrong. Believe it or not, the three-hour director’s cut is better than the two-and-a-half hour theatrical – and that’s coming from a guy who lives for 80 minute slashers. Midsommar is a brutal treatise on grief and mourning, all wrapped up in a neat little condemnation of toxic relationships. And it’s the best movie of the year.
For more year-end best-of lists, check here.
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Movies
’28 Years Later’ Trilogy Taking Shape With Serious Star Power
Danny Boyle is revisiting his 28 Days Later universe with three new films. He will direct the first, 28 Years Later, with two more to follow. Deadline is reporting that sources say Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes have been cast for the first entry, a sequel to the original. Details are being kept under wraps so we don’t know how or if the first original sequel 28 Weeks Later fits into the project.
Boyle will direct the first movie but it’s unclear which role he will take on in the subsequent films. What is known is Candyman (2021) director Nia DaCosta is scheduled to direct the second film in this trilogy and that the third will be filmed immediately afterward. Whether DaCosta will direct both is still unclear.
Alex Garland is writing the scripts. Garland is having a successful time at the box office right now. He wrote and directed the current action/thriller Civil War which was just knocked out of the theatrical top spot by Radio Silence’s Abigail.
There is no word yet on when, or where, 28 Years Later will start production.
The original film followed Jim (Cillian Murphy) who wakes from a coma to find that London is currently dealing with a zombie outbreak.
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News
Watch ‘The Burning’ At The Location Where It Was Filmed
Fangoria is reporting that fans of the 1981 slasher The Burning will be able to have a screening of the film at the location where it was filmed. The movie is set at Camp Blackfoot which is actually the Stonehaven Nature Preserve in Ransomville, New York.
This ticketed event will take place on August 3. Guests will be able to take a tour of the grounds as well as enjoy some campfire snacks along with the screening of The Burning.
The film came out in the early ’80s when teen slashers were being churned out in magnum force. Thanks to Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th, filmmakers wanted to get in on the low-budget, high-profit movie market and a casket load of these types of films were produced, some better than others.
The Burning is one of the good ones, mostly because of the special effects from Tom Savini who had just come off of his groundbreaking work on Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th. He declined to do the sequel because of its illogical premise and instead signed on to do this movie. Also, a young Jason Alexander who would later go on to play George in Seinfeld is a featured player.
Because of its practical gore, The Burning had to be heavily edited before it received an R-rating. The MPAA was under the thumb of protest groups and political bigwigs to censor violent films at the time because slashers were just so graphic and detailed in their gore.
Tickets are $50, and if you want a special t-shirt, that will cost you another $25, You can get all the information by visiting the On Set Cinema webpage.
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Movies
‘Longlegs’ Creepy “Part 2” Teaser Appears on Instagram
Neon Films released an Insta-teaser for their horror film Longlegs today. Titled Dirty: Part 2, the clip only furthers the mystery of what we are in for when this movie is finally released on July 12.
The official logline is: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.
Directed by former actor Oz Perkins who also gave us The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs is already creating buzz with its moody images and cryptic hints. The film is rated R for bloody violence, and disturbing images.
Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, and Alicia Witt.
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