Late Night with the Devil (2023): The 70s were the golden age of possession following the incredible success of Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1974). Late Night with the Devil builds on this and meshes it with themes of consumerism and media brainwashing, for the “suggestible bunch”es watching TV for shock and awe. The circular relation within this is evident in the evolution of Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), whose rise to fame as a midnight talk show host begins to stagnate and then dwindle, forcing him to explore the fringes for controversial content. The movie is stylish, effective, if not particularly scary, and barring the somewhat protracted finale, I felt it delivered very well on its premise. 7
Buzzard (2014): Before Joel Potrykus traumatised our collective consciousness with Relaxer (2018), he teamed up with Joshua Burge in front of the camera as well to portray the familiar outline of a character dedicated to beating life in the least meaningful of ways. Marty Jackitansky is a temp at a national US bank, but spends most of his time trying to work as little as possible and “beat the system” by committing minor frauds. Things take a turn when the familiar mechanisms stop working (e.g. ordering products on company money, then returning them to the seller for cash) and go from bad to worse from there. Marty is obnoxiously unlikable, a chronic liar and really not a swell dude, which makes Buzzard challenging, but Potrykus finds purpose even in the purposelessness of his characters. It feels more conventional than Relaxer, but still delivers. 7
Funny Pages (2022): A young aspiring cartoonist emancipates himself in order to quit high-school and focus on his career. Funny Pages is beautifully shot on film, with a typical 80s look and characters who seem to have popped out of someone’s drawing book. Robert (Daniel Zolghadri) is curious, ambitious, yet also evidently young and the people he comes across have a caricature-like flair, which verges towards the gross and obnoxious. Funny Pages feels a lot like a story about characters living on the fringes of society, maladapted to the rigours and demands of the civilised day-to-day. From Robert’s perspective, it’s a foray into his potential future, one rife with risk and uncertainty and horror-like tendencies that seem unpalatable, until even the domesticity of his middle-class home life proves instantly overbearing. A curious movie all around, a bit hard to classify, which makes it stand out, I reckon. 7
You’ll Never Find Me (2023): This Australian horror-thriller is a slow-burning, atmospheric piece. It features a lonely man, living in an isolated community, who shelters a young woman during a violent storm. Both quickly become skeptical of one another and tension ebbs and flows during the first two thirds of the film. It’s only in the last part that YNFM takes off and it does so effectively enough to reward patient viewers. Shaving off some of the runtime would probably have made for a more taut experience, but all in all it delivers on what it promises – an unsettling experience. 6
Abigail (2024): If there ever was a film guilty of shooting itself in the leg with a spoiler-filled trailer, it’s this one. The first half hour or so of the movie becomes mostly pointless if you know the film’s twist, amply advertised through all mediums. Sure, no need to take it so seriously, but if so, then it shouldn’t be played seriously either. After that reveal comes and goes, Abigail falls into a good rhythm with its inspired cast and has a good time before limping towards a gory, but not all-too-satisfying finale. It’s a shame, because it makes for an enjoyable genre flick. 6
tributary stu 