It (2017)

Editor's Note: The following review contains spoilers for 'Barbarian'

Barbarian has a lot of set-up. By the hour 20-minute mark I had to tell myself that perhaps not everything in this story will be explained. With only 15-20 minutes left in the film, it would be impossible for every question to be answered or every mystery to be revealed. Recent movies have somewhat trained me to prepare myself for such withholding of information. Pig never really gets to why Nicholas Cage’s character became a hermit. Nope never really explains why Gordy the chimpanzee went on a killing spree. While I appreciated both of those movies, the lack of explanations for these story points left me dissatisfied.

But I was ready for Barbarian. I was ready to appreciate whatever ending it was going to throw at me. We may not learn why this one house on Barbary lane is the only liveable space on the block, why ‘The Mother’ has super strength, how Frank ends up capturing all his victims, or what exactly is on those VHS tapes. And that’s okay. In some cases, what’s left to the imagination ends up being the scariest thing of all.

Barbarian begins with a young African American woman named Tess, played by Georgina Campbell, arriving at an Air BnB late one rainy night. Due to some scheduling mishap, Tess finds herself sharing the rental with another man named Keith, played by Bill Skarsgard of It fame. Unable to contact the property manager, they end up agreeing to share the place. The next afternoon Tess discovers a hidden corridor after accidentally locking herself in the basement. Down the corridor, there is a room with a camcorder and a dirty mattress. Panicked and still trapped in the basement, she, fortunately, escapes through a window with Keith’s help. After hearing what Tess has seen, Keith goes down to the basement to investigate. When he does not return, Tess goes down and into the underground tunnel to find Keith, only to make a startling discovery.

From there, we’re introduced to a character named AJ, played by Justin Long, driving down some sunny west coast highway. AJ is an actor whose career is on the brink of collapse due to accusations of sexual assault from a TV series co-star. As the owner of the property that Keith and Tess are staying in, he visits the site in anticipation of selling his assets to cover lawyer expenses. Soon AJ discovers the corridor in the basement and ventures in, where something horrible awaits.

When it comes to cult classics, the horror genre has always had an overwhelming number of B-movies. Horror B-movies refer to the low-budget feature films as compared to major feature films. One might call them “low-grade” cinema as opposed to the more artistic endeavours, but I’d refrain from saying that. The horror B-movie is a source of unbridled entertainment and for the fans of spooky business, it’s the perfect way to round out Halloween night or any night in which they’re in the mood for horror. Usually characterized by a somewhat loose storyline, sometimes some quite silly characters, a little over-the-top acting and a bunch of practical effects, horror B-movies used to rule the world of horror during the ’70s and ’80s with franchises like Friday the 13, Slumber Party Massacre and Halloween.

But since the late '90s, with big-budget horror films like End of Days and Hollow Man, the focus has shifted from the horror B-movie. We now have major horror features like It and Midsommar and every year, there are almost ceremonial releases from the studio A24 which gave us The Witch and Hereditary. This year itself, Ti West's X and Jordan Peele’s Nope came out, which are far from being horror B-movies. But that being said, it’s only the focus that has shifted because we still have horror B-movies being made. If you enjoy the bizarre, less refined and entertaining world of the horror B-movies and want a break from the nuanced and poignant big-budget horror releases, I have a list of gore-fests from the last ten years to enjoy this October. Here are fifteen films for the fifteen days that remain till the auspicious date of Halloween!

The biggest subcategory of horror B-movies by percentage is the slasher film. Almost overdone violence and heavy reliance on practical effects as opposed to CGI characterize the slasher. And of course, the heavily criticized but also equally loved trope of the final girl is a slasher staple. Some of the most gruesome on-screen deaths have been courtesy of the slasher horror B-movie and I’m here to offer you some more horrible killings. If gore makes you queasy, you may consider skipping this segment.

When I was ten years old, the Goosebumps series ruled my life. As soon as I finished one book, I would open another which eventually led to the Fear Street Series, written by R. L. Stine as well. The series was a step-up from Goosebumps in terms of maturity, but also provided a deeper form of storytelling that spanned many generations. Since Goosebumps ended up as a min-series in the 90s inevitably, the Fear Street Series would eventually venture onto our screens. In July 2021, Netflix released Part 1 of a trilogy titled Fear Street 1994.

My inner child squealed with excitement. Horror is my favorite genre in both films and books. Nostalgia can often give us exceedingly high expectations though, and I found myself filled with nostalgia during the opening scene. It wasn't the books or the feelings I had in the nineties reading R. L. Stine. The opening scene was a complete rip-off of the opening to the original Scream. This realization did not hit me immediately, because I sincerely wanted to enjoy the movie and trilogy. But everything from the chase scene to the killer stalking Maya Hawke's character in the same method as Ghostface? I was deeply disappointed.

I believe in homages, but there's a proper way to borrow a creative idea instead of making it appear as if you hit the copy and paste button. Without exposition, explanation, or any context they thrust us into a psycho-killer scene in which the killer seems to be more than human, and they subject us to gratuitous violence. This may not seem like a serious consequence, but by the time that Heather (Maya Hawke) was killed, not only did I not care- but wanted to put Scream on instead. If Netflix had wanted to open with a bang, such as with Scream, they should have cast a different actress in this small but pivotal role. Who? One that holds a presence beyond what we know about her, so when without context her character is murdered? We care, therefore we remain invested in the story.

Following the opening, you're bombarded with images and newspaper clippings for the opening credits. A cheap and easy method in which the audience is supposed to formulate some understanding of the rules of this world. Whether you can put together the puzzle pieces or not, following the introduction they introduce you to two new characters that are somehow supposed to be related.