THE DEVIL'S BATH - I don't imagine the life of the average 18th century Austrian peasant was a laugh a minute, but anyone who does at least has 'The Devil's Bath' to put them right. It's a gruelling trawl through the world of Agnes, who lives in a tiny woodland village where survival is predicated on the blind acceptance of ritual and obligation; who wouldn't heed the call of madness? A real sackcloth-and-ashes slow burn that will look lovely as it snuffs out your sunny afternoon. From the makers of 'Goodnight Mommy' and 'The Lodge'.
SANTET - Eighties Indonesian horror from the director of 'Satan's Slave' and many others. Suzanna is Katemi, a villager who takes supernatural revenge after the local mobster murders her honey. Tonal swerves and shonky digressions can go either way for me; in this case, I thought 'Santet' fell back on comedy interludes and talk about local politics too often for comfort. But... there are many highlights, including a human-headed crocodile, a humorous breast-rip(!), and wounds crawling with worms, a pile-up of sorcerous practical effects that nearly grabs centre stage. And I was transfixed by the musical number, in which a guy sings about being basically a decent guy looking for a job.
HOWLING 2 - I used to hate H2 with a vengeance! I don't know why really, I think I just felt it didn't live up to the first. It's certainly very different, more bothered about eighties style monstrosity, kinky werewolves and odd moments like the one when Christopher Lee gets thrown out of a punk club. It just kind of hits the silly switch and doesn't let up. I wouldn't think this blizzard of schlock and sleaze, whose spiritual essence is all there in that bit at the end where Sybil Danning rips her top off ad infinitum, could be bested for bizarre laughs by any other entry in the series had I not seen its companion piece, the also-by-Philippe-Mora-directed 'Howling 3'. I'll write about that one when I've recovered.
ASSASINATION NATION - A small American town erupts into violence after a social media witch hunt pins the blame for a series of hacks on a high school student - she takes up arms against the mob. Comes on like a like a vaguely Greg Araki-influenced look at sassy yoot facing a gradually dawning apocalypse and ends up a Trump-era version of 'The Cull' with more mobile phones and texting. Sam Levinson piles on the mannerism and a fair bit of violence. Liked more than I intended.
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