Fearful Inequalities: Brea Grant's "Lucky" unmasks gender dynamics with a horror that unmasks deeper societal fears

Lucky - Brea Grant - 2020

★★★★★-A seemingly typical home-invasion thriller takes a twisted turn, revealing a much more unsettling and enigmatic narrative. Lucky is not just another horror movie. It delves deep into profound themes, exploring violence against women, trauma, and gender-based assumptions. 

Gist is a self-help relationship author who isn't selling and her dude (a philosophy professor) have a supernatural psycho slasher “guy” come to their home and try to kill them every night. So this is in the trailer so no spoiler, but she doesn't know that this happens when the movie starts, though she has been married or whatever to this guy for however long. He knows what's up and is like, “oh, the guy, he tries to kill us every night; we better get to fighting for our lives.” Totally a mundane part of his day. This guy seems like a real turd, of course, but he is not the only one. As time goes by, we see all these shitty ways that her husband and those that write it off are terrible. “This has nothing to do with my husband,” she keeps saying. The most obvious metaphor I've ever seen, sure, also the reoccurring image of cracked glass, but the movie wants to be obvious. The slasher (who looks just her husband wearing a clear mask) is directing all this violence at her, you see. It is a part of her life and this dude treats it as normal. It's actually pretty powerful. 

Stars Brea Grant, who also directs, in the lead. Also, Dhruv Uday Singh as Ted (the husband), Kausar Mohammed as her assistant, Yasmine Al-Bustami as her sister-in-law, Leith M. Burke as her publisher, and Hunter C. Smith as "The Man". Mostly unknowns. One woman I recognized from the Rob Zombie Halloween movie. The one who played the PJ Soles role. Kristina Klebe is her name. I like her. She pops up in this type of horror flick from time to time. Most recently saw her in Brooklyn 45. 

Deconstructs a lot of the conventions of the genre. Also, as a man, I'm guilty of some of the things that these shitty people do in this movie. Obviously not to that extreme, but enough to know that I need to try harder. It's not often that a piece of media elicits real change. It's a metaphor for #yesallmen. i.e. there may be only one literal guy attacking her, but the other men share some of the blame for their part in "normalizing" it.

This is the biggest margin between the Tomatometer and the Audience Score on RT that I've ever seen. 93% among critics; 29% for us regular schmoes. Based on the trailer, I was thinking Happy Death Day or something like that. This is way, way more unsettling/disturbing than the preview makes it out to be. 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the audience score is mostly reflective of the type of dudes the movie is saying might want to tone it down, show a little empathy, and acknowledge that what women go through is often terrifying in lots of shitty ways, and such. I get why it makes people so angry. Everyday misogyny is indeed horror.

I think it stems from self-important groupthink. Probably from the people that watch a movie that offends them because they are terrible/weren't raised right and shit on it because it challenges them. Critics get paid to critically think about this stuff. There is a reason we care about their takes, which obviously discourages groupthink. 

Overall, I loved it. The payoff near the end is insane and super powerful. From a scary movie perspective, it had a lot of suspense. A horror movie that makes you think and unnerved. Every dude should watch it. 

Sick - John Hyams - 2022

★★★★-You had me at home invasion slasher from Blumhouse written by Kevin Williamson of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Faculty fame. The whole COVID-19 backdrop is having a smart toilet in April 2020 shit. With that, I was able to make due with the rolls I embezzled from work until the supply chain stabilized. Fuck yeah. 

So how was it? Not too bad. Fun, tight slasher that made me sort of nostalgic for the start of the pandemic when I thought I was going to die and never left the house. Fun times those were. Also fun, a movie that gets some audience participation, which this film does by throwing us back into the early days of the lockdown. 

The flick follows two best buds, Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million), riding it out at one of their parents' secluded lake house. To try and make quarantine “fun”, Parker’s on-again, off-again DJ (Dylan Sprayberry) shows up. He's trying to save whatever they have after a video surfaces of her making out with some other dude on spring break or whatever. Soon after they hit the hay, shit goes down. A masked killer (remember, social distancing!) slips in, steals their phones, and begins to terrorize them, first with loud music and then violence. Major plot hole here, by the by, why not just kill everyone in their sleep and not wake them up with bullshit? Sport/torture, I guess, plus we gotta get to it somehow. 

Adlon was the only young person I really recognized, though they all are pretty stellar. You may remember her from Blockers. I sort of get her confused with Mikey Madison who was Manson gal Sadie Atkins in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, one of the kids in the fifth Scream movie, one of the daughters in Better Things, so forth. What is weird is that Better Things is a show where Pamela Adlon raises her girls, one who looks just like this woman. Then I find out the star of this movie is Pamela Adlon's real daughter. Some others that show up are one of the Langmores from Ozark, Marc Menchaca, who's lane is apparently creepy lake person, and the actress Jane Adams whom I recognize from The Anniversary Party and Happiness which I've been trying to forget since watching in 1999, fucking IFC. One Joel Courtney makes an appearance and is murdered at the beginning. I couldn't place him but looked him up. He was the main kid in Super 8, which was great. Only other things I've seen from director John Hyams was the exorcism episode from the second season of Chucky, a show I'm kind of obsessed with, and an alright movie from 2020 called Alone. Someone else in the movie that is sort of interesting is one Chris Reid. He is Brad Pitt's stunt double. Pretty good likeness. 

Besides the irritating plot hole, there were a couple other things that maybe should've been work shopped. Not trying to give anything away here, but the whole vengeance/motivation was a little weak. However, it isn't obvious. Also, I guess everyone's motivation for becoming a slasher in these types of movies is pretty bullshitty. So whatever. 

The other thing is that the killer thinks they're going to get away with it. When a victim points out that there is DNA everywhere, the solution is to burn down the house and the cops will blame it on selfish kids who couldn't social distance nor even keep a cabin from going up in flames. Well, that won't work since there are murders at multiple locations and people that aren't even part of the group. Whatever, best not to overthink. But these things were sort of dumb. 

However, all in all, this is a film that pays off. It snapshots a collective shitty time for everyone, and offers some surprises. Not a lot more I could ask for. Good shit.

The Furies - Tony D'Aquino - 2019

★★★★- Games gone wrong night for the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge.  Love a good hunting humans movie. Goes back to the days of Surviving the Game and The Pest for me. So a logical game gone wrong night for me. Really liked it, though it is not for everyone. Female viewing companion liked it as well. Just saying. 

Gist is a woman is kidnapped and wakes up in the woods. She and a group of other women find themselves fighting to stay alive as unwilling participants in a deadly game where women are hunted by “masked” men. The masks are all disgusting. One has a Leatherface thing going except with a whole human outfit. 

The main girl has a friend who just sucks. Giving her tough love and what not because she isn’t tough enough. This is not what I want from a friend, yo. 

In the middle of that when the ladies get kidnapped and wake up in the shit. Doesn’t have her seizure pills. My female companion is in this boat. If she misses one dose, she’s seizing. This woman is in a bad way. Most of the girls have something going on. 

The friend, again, sucks. She doesn’t go looking for the main epileptic girl because, according to another girl, “she isn’t a real friend.” Plus, she has adult braces. 

Flick is brutal. One random example. Guy throws an ax at a woman. Misses. She pulls the ax out of the tree and tries to hit him with it. He blocks it and slowly cuts off her face with it. Doesn’t waste any time getting there either. “It’s a fucked up world full of fucked up men.” That it is. 

There are some dumb things. Running off with no weapon bullshit. You are getting chased by killers, but leave the ax/machete on the ground… How the main girl finds one of the dudes in the cult or whatever, won’t get into that, and sees her dead friend. Does set up a sequel I’d sure as shit watch.

Halloween Ends - David Gordon Green - 2022

★★★-  Just going to get right into it. Great opening. Great ending though it’s cray. Not exactly what you’d call SOP. Everything else was trash. A huge swing, sure, but no where near to connecting. Michael Myers is barely in the movie and when he does pop up, he is a bitch.

Not a good sendoff for the character of The Shape. At one point I thought it was maybe the worst movie I’d ever seen but it got better from there. However, it was fun AF and I thought it was a crazy way to wrap it up. 

Gist is this kid Corey, whom we've never seen before, is canceled after he accidentally kills a kid. He ends up working at his dad’s junkyard instead of going off to college. Corey, this fucking guy, is bullied by the band kids (no way these token stereotypes would ever hang out in real life, by the by). He eventually finds and has a wrastlin' match with Michael Myers (who has been on loose, living in the sewers for years. The Myers mystique then starts rubbing off on him and things get cray. Needless to say, dude really should have got out of Haddonfield when he could have. The film is mostly his becoming a monster. 

Laurie Strode, remember her?, is even crazier somehow in this movie. She was a shut in when Michael Myers was locked away in an insane asylum for 40 years and now that he’s out of the lamb she’s living her best life and shit in fucking Haddonfield. Fucking insane. 

Also insane is the black sheriff in the cowboy hat who in Kills was the “law and fucking order” candidate. At the end of this movie when Laurie straps Michael Myers onto the top of her car to put him in a car crusher at the junkyard some cop is like “yeah, we don’t do that with dead bodies in an active murder investigation,“ and the sheriff is like, “tonight we do.“ Then Myers explodes in a car shipper. Spoiler. Wait, so that isn't standard operating procedure.

An extremely messy film. I feel like it shouldn’t have worked, but did to some extent. The ending, as insane as it was, was pretty satisfying. Had a great time (the picture of me and my buddy Levi was from opening night in New York at an Alamo Drafthouse, a phenomenal way to watch a movie. 

Overall, this is probably my fourth favorite Halloween movie. Maybe lower depending on the day. The original is a work of art. Season of the Witch is batshit fun. H2O, Halloween II, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, the Zombie films, and this movie are all on this next tier. Maybe a little flawed, but solid or at least a lot of fun and interesting. The rest range from really bad to fucking disastrous with Resurrection at the very, very bottom. 

Assassination Nation is the greatest movie of all time

Solid but fucked up movie. Really intense. Home invasion shit is REAL. This is a terrifying movie. Comes out the gate with a trigger warning. You should pay attention to it. 

More or less a data hack horror flick where a small town's secrets are exposed. Ultimately, chaos descends and four girls must fight to survive as the town blames them even they were victims of the hack themselves. While things start out being set in reality, things devolve into The Purge by the end. 

Supposedly a satirical black comedy, I didn't see much humor in the film. Directed by Sam Levinson. Ensemble cast has some star power behind it. The star is this Odessa Young woman. Only seen her in The Stand so far. Her crew consists of Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, and Abra. 

A bunch of minor but pivotal roles from Anika Noni Rose (who was a real heat check performance), Bill Skarsgård from It, Joel McHale, and Colman Domingo from the new Candyman flick. 

Feel super shit for the principal. A photo of his child in the bath got leaked. She's like kindergarten aged. Everyone is sure he is a pedophile. "Look at the context of who I am as a person!" Nah, "LOCK HIM UP!!!" 

Bret Easton Ellis aspect to it. Example, there is a voice-over about why a girl loves a guy while he berates her IRT.