Horror Costuming: Hellraiser (1987)

by Cláudio Alves

Last October, I had a lot of fun exploring the art of costume design in horror movies. This Halloween season, the miniseries is back with new misadventures through the annals of horror history and some of its boldest sartorial visions. To get some semblance of order, the write-ups will start with an iconic nightmare of 1980s cinema and move, decade by decade, until a grand finale in the form of an Oscar FYC for the current awards season. So let's start things off by looking towards the meeting point of pleasure and pain, seeking where they become indivisible, and contemplating how such ideas can be materialized in costumes. Clive Barker's Hellraiser has such sights to show us…

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Deborah Kerr @ 100: The legend, the legacy, "The Innocents"

by Cláudio Alves

For decades she held the record of being the most Oscar-nominated actress never to have won the statuette, with six unsuccessful nominations. In a piteous gesture, the Academy granted her an honorary award in 1994. How fitting that Deborah Kerr received such tribute from the hands of Glenn Close, the current holder of the older actress' erstwhile record. Considering this trivia, it'd be easy to remember Kerr's legacy through the prism of Oscar history. That would be a mistake. I state it as someone who first encountered the British thespian through her nominated roles, constructing a mental image limited by AMPAS' taste. As it turns out, despite her numerous nods, the most outstanding Kerr performances weren't so highly celebrated by the Academy. Simply told, that Oscar-y sextet doesn't do her justice. 

To celebrate Deborah Kerr's centennial, let's remember her range beyond golden laurels, her incandescent talent, the power she brought to her films. Let's honor her by reflecting on the actress' greatest work - the nightmare that is The Innocents…

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The Mad "Titane" Snaps

by Jason Adams

An inky black oil smudge smeared across a scarred face, big bosoms sway and heave, belly splitting up the seam, the space where sex begins to sound like a car engine revving up to eleven -- Julia Ducournau's Titane doesn't mince a breath of its runtime with anything but pedal-to-the-metal everything. Titane, the director's follow-up to her also-deranged (but somehow less so!) cannibal-drama Raw, won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes, a perfect signifier for the grease-fingered teetering psychosis of our age. After playing NYFF last weekend, it opens in US theaters tomorrow, October 1st.

And this movie, it is a lot!

As Raw already proved Ducournau loves a car accident (I can't imagine that David Cronenberg's Crash wasn't formative) and Titane offers up a doozy early on...

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Review: Nia DaCosta's "Candyman"

by Matt St. Clair

When the 1992 horror classic Candyman made its way to theaters, audiences were introduced to a figure who serves as a representation of America’s original sin and a tragic monster akin to those from the classic era. The original Candyman (Tony Todd) pursuing grad student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) has invited comparisons to The Phantom of the Opera, another lovelorn monster.  But the latest direct sequel of the same name by director Nia DaCosta is less of a Universal Monster-esque tragedy.

Though it continues the original storyline, the new Candyman (2021) expands its racial commentary to tackle generational pain, police brutality, and gentrification...

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Locarno Diary #5: Italian Horror Stories

by Elisa Giudici

I was really curious to see Italian movies selected this year in Locarno, after the change of the artistic director. Italy and this part of Switzerland have strong ties: everyone here speaks Italian. You can drive from Milan to Locarno in a couple of hours, so it is not that surprising that the Swiss Festival has strong connections with Italian movie industry. So why are the Italian movies shown in Locarno almost always a disappointment? (The two worst Italian films I saw in the past decade were both showcased here. ) I have my own little conspiracy theories on this topic but that's for another time.

This year there are three prominent Italian movies in Locarno: one in competition, one in Piazza Grande and one in the Cineasti del presente section (which is reserved for young, promising directors). After seeing Il legionario, I was quite optimistic about the fact the something has changed and the "Italian curse" in Locarno has lifted. Perhaps I was too optimistic...

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