The Devil's Muse

Category: horror

  • Horror Cinema: Anything for Jackson

    I have a long-lasting love for Canadian actress Sheila McCarthy. As an Ontario teen of the 1990s, I rewatched the 1987 feminist movie I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing countless times after-hours on the Women’s Channel. Out of all the characters I worshipped as a teenager, from Virginia Woolf’s Orlando to Angela Chase on My So-Called Life, the Girl Friday in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing was the most me: a quirky, misunderstood, sincere, romantic weirdo. I sat through 40 minutes of tampon and diet cola commercials for those 90 minutes every time I happened to see it. And, usually, the week after, I would dye my hair red.

    More recently, Sheila McCarthy was in Women Talking, and she was her usual perfect self, but in a small role. When I saw her in a trailer for Anything for Jackson, I was excited to see her in a starring role.

    I was not disappointed. Her character was weird only in so far as the tragedy in her life made her weird, and Sheila McCarthy did a great and sensitive job of portraying that complexity and nuance. The movie itself was spooky, and I really liked how it leaned into truly demonic visuals. In fact, at one point, I was scared of the imagination that could come up with them!

    A strong cast of characters, jump scares and things I can’t unsee: Anything for Jackson stood up as a good horror movie. For me, where it deflated was in its ending. I understand that the fate of the protagonists was a commentary on being a servant of a deceitful savior, but I was hoping that, although they got stupidly caught up in ancient forces, they would either find a way to control those forces and become master Satanists or the forces would grant them power for being good servants. For the fact that they were the impetus for the release of the forces and that they were the heart of the narrative and movie, their fate felt very flat.

    And the actual ending felt like the last thirty pages of the book were missing. I would have loved some kind of epilogue, even a crying demonic baby as the credits rolled or a creepy lullaby like in Rosemary’s Baby. For all the drama of the movie, I really wanted a more satisfying last 10 minutes.

    However, despite the ending, the rest was worth it, especially Sheila McCarthy. My favorite scene was her bringing a crow back to life. I wish the story had leaned more into her discovering her power and harnessing it to become a boss b*tch. Anything for Jackson!

    Dyck, Justin G. Anything for Jackson, Shudder, 2020.

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  • Horror Cinema: Watcher

    Watcher was a slow burn. More of a psychological thriller than horror movie, the weight of the story relied on if you could hold on to believing the protagonist’s concerns about her safety in a strange land. The narrative played with the insecurities that have come with believing survivors, and the story did a good job of portraying a love interest who was both fed up with the protagonist’s incessant worrying about her safety and invested in trying to maintain her safety.

    In the end, the only person who believed the protagonist came to the rescue, and, although somewhat cheesy and hard to believe, the final scene was satisfying. My one ask for the movie was for an epilogue. I would have loved to find out what happened in the end … could the protagonist forgive her lover, or anyone for that matter, for not believing her?

    For raising these issues and telling a solid, thrilling story, Watcher was good for a night in with a bowl of popcorn.

    Okuno, Chloe. Watcher, IFC Midnight Shudder (US), Universal Pictures, Focus Features (International), 2022.

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  • Horror Cinema: Talk to Me

    On Halloween, I rented Talk to Me, a horror movie I had been hearing about throughout the spooky season. It’s a rare occasion when a movie is as good as its hype, and this one certainly was.

    I particularly liked how the paranormal was introduced in the story, keeping the viewer ignorant of it until the protagonist discovered it. At the start of the film, I was skeptical of the party trick until I experienced it with the protagonist. And, from that point on, I was captivated.

    What separated Talk to Me from other horror movies was its social commentary on addictions. The horror of the paranormal with the impacts of drugs on individuals and youth was very well done.

    Philippou, Danny, and Michael Philippou. Talk to Me, Maslow Entertainment, Umbrella Entertainment, Ahi Films, 2023.

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  • The Camden Town Murder, or What Shall We Do for the Rent?

    The Camden Town Murder or What Shall We Do for the Rent? by Walter Richard Sickert, ca 1908

    From the Yale Center for British Art:

    This is one of several paintings Walter Sickert made in response to a gruesome murder of a prostitute that took place in Camden, North London, in September 1907. Sickert, who had worked in the area for several years, was intrigued by the unsolved case, using the title The Camden Town Murder for a group of paintings between 1908 and 1909. None of these works depict an actual murder, with the woman in this painting popularly supposed to be sleeping rather than dead. Sickert’s use of the alternative title in parentheses—a wry parody of Victorian narrative paintings—confirms the artist’s refusal to confirm a single meaning for this enigmatic picture. What is never in doubt, however, is Sickert’s commitment to subject matter that many of his contemporaries would have seen as sordid, rendered in a markedly modern style.

    Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

    For a full discussion on the painting and the series, visit Walter Sickert: The Camden Town Murder and Tabloid Crime by Lisa Tickner published by the Tate.

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  • Horror Cinema: They Look Like People

    At face value, They Look Like People was not my kind of horror movie. I am skeptical of horror narratives that rely on mental instability or illness, and casts of characters made of mostly men do not interest me. I went into it with an open mind, and I am glad I did. Funnily, what I appreciated most about the film was its sensitive and thoughtful takes on mental illness, masculinity and friendship between men.

    When I finished the movie, I felt like it was more of a drama than a horror movie, but I could not discount that it was scary, so I was still satisfied that it was a horror movie. Its strength was its characters, who, to me, were sympathetic men seeking to live up to personal and social expectations of what a man should be. As a horror movie, its surreal moments of the mental instability of one of the characters contrasted against the sympathy I felt for the other characters made it scary to think that the mentally unstable character would hurt them. A slow burn, but worth it.

    Blackshear, Perry. They Look Like People, 2015.

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  • Horror Cinema: Haunting of the Queen Mary

    I watched a trailer for Haunting of the Queen Mary with my Dad, and although he was not interested in seeing a horror movie, he was keen to note that my grandfather rode the Queen Mary during World War Two. The boat is now docked and is a museum that he had visited.

    On my own time, I watched the movie, looking forward to seeing if my historical connection to the ship would come up in the story. It didn’t.

    I can’t say that I disliked the movie, but I found it unnecessarily weird in parts, and it told multiple narratives that made it frantic at times. In addition to the ghosts and the spirit of the ship, which could have been done more fully, like including a storyline about being a naval ship, there were storylines about a boy’s soul getting stolen and the parents getting caught up in a chase from a murderer overnight on the ship. The jump from the paranormal to fantasy and murder was odd.

    Aside from the movie’s issue with its mix of genres, it did do a good job of moving back and forth from a historical narrative to the ghosts in the modern narrative, and I would recommend it for that portion of the film. I would also recommend it for its beautiful historical sets.

    Shore, Gary. Haunting of the Queen Mary, Vertigo Films, 2023.

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  • Bone Appétit!

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  • Horror Decor: Tales From the Crypt Bookends

    I love these EC Comics Tales From the Crypt bookends from Dark Horse Direct!

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  • Horror Junior: Return to Oz

    I was a child of the 1980s, and I first saw Return to Oz on a Sunday night as the weekly Disney family movie. I was excited to see it as a sequel to The Wizard of Oz, but I was not expecting it to be so scary. The witch with the replaceable heads was freaky and surreal, and I loved it. I had never seen anything like it.

    I rewatched the film this past week for nostalgia, not thinking it would be as intense as I remembered. Oh, no. It was intense. The movie began with poor little Dorothy narrowly escaping electro-shock therapy to discourage her imagination. It was terrifying.

    The other frightening scenes were equally as scary today. I liked the story of this movie more than The Wizard of Oz, both then and now. Also, as an adult, I have read L. Frank Baum books from the Oz series, and I better appreciate how Return to Oz captured the threatening and sinister tone of his storytelling.

    Murch, Walter. Return to Oz, Buena Vista Distribution, 1985.

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  • Horror Cinema: The Bye Bye Man

    The premise of The Bye Bye Man is similar to Candy Man, where saying a villain’s name makes him appear. For this reason, I went into the movie with low expectations. I was happily surprised to discover a movie with spooky ghost scares and dramatic mental instability between characters that was shocking at times.

    One scene in particular that had a lasting impression was when the protagonist defiantly drove headlong into what he thought was an illusion. I was really rooting for him to overcome the insane hallucinations caused by the villain, but the result turned out to make me feel awful in a way that I want a horror movie to make me feel.

    Image from Basement Rejects

    The movie had a great sorority-slasher feel mixed with ghostly jump scares. The narrative kept me captivated, and I was impressed by this gem.

    Title, Stacy. The Bye Bye Man, STX Entertainment, 2017.

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