Horror Actressing: Lupita Nyong'o in "Us"

by Jason Adams

Most folks first reference the voice, the Batman-needs-a-lozenge croak that Adelaide's underworld doppelganger Red speaks with, when praising Lupita Nyong'o's dual performance in Jordan Peele's Us, and for good reason -- she put a lot of work into it, meeting with people who've suffered from the very real neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia that's brought about by trauma, and that work memorably shows. I made the Batman joke but only because it's very nearly already as iconic a choice as that one -- go find somebody and talk like Red at them and see how movie-savvy people will get it; the percentage won't be low.

You'd also get a lot of mileage talking about Lupita's physicality in the roles...

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Christmas Movies of the Moment

by Tony Ruggio

Christmas movies, full of cheer, pretty lights, and sometimes reindeer. I grew up on ‘em, on Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. I continued loving ‘em as a big kid even, with Elf and The Santa Clause holding a special place in my cold heart. They used to be one of those seasonal things Hollywood did best, but as comedy has sunk, so have movies set during the holidays. 

They were on the fast track to extinction, in fact, until streaming came along. Sure, there were Hallmark hate-watches and other network specials gasping for attention. Hallmark still has a certain devoted fan base despite the decline of cable television, but theatrical movie-going has been devoid of the holiday spirit for some time now. Thanks to Netflix, I’ve been able to indulge and Christmas party like it’s 1999, so here are three new Christmas films you may have heard of (there are two more I won’t even mention) that you may or may not want to spend time with this season...

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Horror Actressing: Florence Pugh in "Midsommar"

by Jason Adams

There is a lot of bodily violence seen on-screen in Ari Aster's Midsommar -- a certain mallet comes to mind. But nowhere at any point did I wince harder than I did during a scene simply involving two people having a conversation in a college dormitory. I often reference the moment that the little ghoul girl crawls through the television screen in Ringu as being the apex of cinematic revulsion for me -- that I very nearly crawled backwards up and over my seat the first time I saw that. Midsommar's dorm scene dropped the same sensation, just emotionally...

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Horror Actressing: Luiza Kosovski in "Sick Sick Sick"

by Jason Adams

Anyone who's ever seen a Horror Movie surely already realizes that this genre is a good place to see Actresses really give it their all. Whatever the reasons are that connect the female experience with cinematic trauma -- and it's not that I don't know the reasons, it's just that there are too many to list -- no other genre has spent more time rooting around in what it means to be a woman than the Horror Genre has. From Carrie White to Rosemary Woodhouse to Mother Abagail and Annie Wilkes -- you name her, she's had her Horror Movie...

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Horror Actressing: Charlotte Burke in "Paperhouse"

by Jason Adams

Even though I've already admitted I can get pretty broad on defining movies as "Horror Movies" when other people might not consider them as such, I for some reason always hesitate when it comes to calling Bernard Rose's 1988 film Paperhouse a "horror film." The first two-thirds of the movie, yes, for sure. But -- without getting into spoilers because lord knows how many of you have had the luck to see this extraordinary film a first time yet -- the movie makes decisions, and comes to a point, that ultimately shows its intentions were not horror. 

That said there's enough of a Horror Movie in there for me to justify directing you towards one of the most foundational films and performances of my life, which I've just today discovered is available for streaming on Amazon here in the US. Rose directed Paperhouse two years before Candyman (a film we've already touched upon in this series) and you can see some of the same fascinations -- a female entering a Freudian Netherworld where her darkest fascinations consume her... just think of Paperhouse as Candyman Jr, I guess... 

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