Around the World in 31 Days: Pakistan

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It’s official: James Wan’s Conjuringverse has set its stamp on global horror cinema. A lot of the foreign horror films coming across my streaming platforms are taking the formula of haunted abodes, nuclear family, demonic evil and resolution by faith, and placing it within their own cultural context. At least that’s how it seems to me; hopefully I’m wrong and there’s a wealth of horror cinema telling all kinds of different stories.

To my highly-limited knowledge horror movies from Pakistan are rare, and I was happy to checkout Pari, currently streaming on Netflix.

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We’re Here for Your Children: The Curse of La Llorona

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As of this writing it has been one day since Lorraine Warren – half of the infamous duo responsible for the ‘true haunting’ tales inspiring the billion dollar Conjuring franchisehas died. I’ve been observing many social media messages not only mourning her death, but pseudo-canonizing her as some sort of spiritual warrior to fight evil in the beyond. There are also reminders out there of the Warrens’ con-artistry, and unfortunately, worse than that.

Stepping out of that debate, Lorraine’s death coincided with opening weekend of The Curse of La Llorona, a spin-off of the “Conjuringverse” and one that’s surprisingly free of many of the typical tropes of this franchise.

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Being A Witch Ain’t One

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October 17, 2017 – Do we have a witch problem in recent horror cinema? Or are some filmmakers taking a mirror to something around us? I’m referencing three semi-recent films that look to me like a brutal, radical trifecta of witchcraft. Are they more Malleus Maleficarum, or more like a horror movie Valerie Solanas might have cared to make? Continue reading

An Insidious Conjuring in Lima

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We Are Not AloneOctober 9, 2017 – If all goes well, what I write below (plus some sort of introduction and minus the more spoilery parts) I’ll submit in a sound file to Gary Hill of Legion Podcasts, who has requested short horror reviews for his October 2017 project. Check out Cinema Beef Podcast and all of the great podcasts on the Legion network which have been keeping me sane in tough times.

I was excited to watch 2016’s No Estamos Solos (directed by Daniel Rodriguez) on Netflix, released as We Are Not Alone. It is a Peruvian horror movie, something I have never seen. I may dedicate next year’s 31 Days of Halloween to covering international horror.  Continue reading