Monthly Archive: October 2024

The Demon Disorder

It’s the 4th day of Spooktober and time for another horror movie review! The last new horror movie I covered, Oddity, was a critical darling and told a restrained spooky tale that relied more on implication and creepy imagery – not so much for this one! Among the first things I heard about The Demon Disorder were how great its gory special effects are, and I am kind of a gorehound so I couldn’t resist this Australian splatterfest. The Demon Disorder’s story is very simple, it tells the story of three brothers living in rural Australia, reunited after the death of their father. Their father became very strange in the days before his death, and though his sons thought that they would simply move past the traumatic experience, the bizarre events on the family farm continued, with the youngest son beginning to act like his deceased father.

While The Demon Disorder isn’t the most complicated in terms of plot, it more than makes up for that in terms of visuals, both in the atmospheric nature of the movie and in the awesome gore effects that hit hard and don’t stop hitting once they start. Rural horror has always been interesting to me, and the quiet desperation of the rural poor trying to deal with a bizarre horrific situation when they know no one is coming to save them is more compelling than many realize. Even though the horror is supernatural in origin, the main thrust of what’s scary comes from the isolation and powerlessness of dealing with family situations, and the use of a supernatural aspect to not soften, but translate something like that is a pretty smart move. So many movies try to be about trauma without doing anything with it, but The Demon Disorder tackles this topic in a much smarter way.

The Demon Disorder doesn’t redefine cinema, but it is another good addition to the possession genre that is still doing weird things without just being another ripoff of The Exorcist. This definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you enjoy over the top gore and great special effects, this is definitely something you should give a watch.

We’re taking it old school for the third day of Spooktober and dipping into the countercultural realm of John Waters. I’m not too familiar with Waters, I know of him but this is the first of his movies I’ve seen in its entirety, and now I’m even more interested in the rest of his films because I really liked Serial Mom! Purportedly based on a true story and court case, Serial Mom tells the story of the picture-perfect American housewife Beverly Sutphin, whose excessively wholesome façade hides dark secrets – secrets that come out when she begins murdering people in ways that become more and more absurdly over the top. Serial Mom gets even wilder as we venture deeper and deeper into Beverly’s psychosis bringing us to the above-mentioned court case, which is something I will never forget.
 
The cast here is absolutely stacked. Kathleen Turner is excellent as Beverly Sutphin, but her supporting players are just as good. Matthew Lillard and Ricki Lake are fantastic as her weird children, each with their own quirky interests, and Sam Waterston of Law & Order is fantastic as the comedically straight-laced Mr. Sutphin, a mild-mannered dentist. Even the neighborhood ladies are hysterical, with the most memorable played by Mary Jo Catlett, someone who you may not know by name, but you definitely know by voice, as she’s played Mrs. Puff for the last twenty-something years. Everyone’s chemistry is fantastic and even if the script wasn’t as good as it is, then it would still be fun to see these performers play off of each other.   
 
While the comedy is the bread and butter of this movie, Serial Mom isn’t afraid to dig into cultural commentary, a majority of which has to do with how the effects of celebrity and true crime cultures influence each other, among other things. Though true crime has been popular for a long time, the current explosion of true crime movies, podcasts, TV shows, and books plays entirely into Serial Mom’s hands; the issues here haven’t gone away, if anything they’ve intensified, along with the problematic issues of financial compensation brought up at the very beginning of the film. Without giving too much away, Serial Mom takes on a lot of different aspects of society; a desire for control and order, the need for squeaky-clean harmless entertainment, how violence and money intersect, and even how public opinion can sway with the breeze. There’s a lot going on here, and that makes it a fun movie to discuss and think over, even if not every point is perfectly made. I hadn’t heard much of Serial Mom before, but this absolutely needs to make a comeback and is totally worth a rental.

Oddity

After the brutal murder of a woman in a creepy old estate, the woman’s sister and widower are left to deal with the strange aftereffects of the event. This isn’t a simple whodunnit though, because the sister is a powerful medium who brings a strange artifact into the house; a mysterious crate containing an unusual wooden figure.

Coming out on streaming services only recently, I watched it on Shudder but it’s also available on other VoD sites, Oddity had a massive amount of buzz behind it and I was pretty excited to get a chance to watch it. This movie has received almost universal acclaim, and for good reason, its setting, atmosphere, and visuals are all top-notch, making an essentially two-room movie feel much grander than it actually is. The wooden figure in the shape of a man steals the show, it’s so damn creepy and I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes a cult horror icon in the coming years. I was also pretty into the performances, they’re mostly natural and clear in their dramatic purposes.

The big problem for me here is twofold, I didn’t find the characters or storyline interesting at all. The widower is the stock hyper-logical doctor who admonishes anyone for ever suggesting anything supernatural or even inexplicable, while the sister is a literal psychic who seems to have 100% accurate psychic powers and is wise and right all the time. Additionally, the story is an extremely basic murder mystery where the mystery isn’t a mystery at all. None of this is my thing. I don’t usually like murder mysteries, I don’t like movies about all-seeing mediums, and I was preparing myself to not enjoy Oddity. But there was a lot I liked about Oddity and I did enjoy the movie, so maybe that’s an even bigger recommendation than I thought, that if someone who doesn’t even like this kind of movie enjoyed it, then it must really be someone’s jam.

After coercing/convincing his girlfriend and her friends/coworkers to accompany him to an island resort, the group’s vacation is cut short by the dual threats of a powerful hurricane and an undead shark making an army of zombie sharks. Obviously, this is low budget and schlocky with usually spotty special effects. That isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for me though, because the hammy performances, absurd shark attack sequences, and barebones setpieces provide more than enough charm. This movie was clearly made by a couple people with more gumption than sense and I have to applaud them because that is the backbone of indie filmmaking and why I love the genre so much. Also, this is an entry in the seemingly endless ocean of Z grade shark movies, Zombie Shark represents something intensely nostalgic for me. I’ve shared dozens upon dozens of terrible shark movies with friends, family, and loved ones, and while Zombie Shark isn’t a masterpiece, it remains a fun time that is certainly worth a beer and riffing night. Finally, good job to whoever demanded this movie be retitled Zombie Shark, it’s a way better title than Shark Island. Maybe it would have been a good idea to replace the ‘Shark Island’ title card with a ‘Zombie Shark’ title card though, because when that Shark Island title card came up I was concerned I got catfished. Catsharked? Sharkfished? Anyway, thanks for joining me for the first day of Spooktober!