Dear friend,
this year I’m honouring ‘spooky season’ in quite a different way: getting real scares, working hard only to disappoint my expectations, being obliged to waste time, feeling like I live in a different reality from everyone else.
But we’ll always have movies and sometimes a trial period for MUBI, so life goes on.
[REC]⁴ Apocalypse/[REC]⁴ Apocalipsis, directed by Jaume Balagueró, co-written with Manu Díez, Spain, 2014 - ⭐⭐
After Plaza with Genesis, Balagueró returns too with his own ‘solo’ sequel to [REC], focusing back on the original storyline and, once again, starting straight after chapter 2 had ended. But what should have been the strong asset for this film - Manuela Velasco’s Angela being back at the centre of it - fell flat for me, because at this point I felt quite uninterested in her story. I think the idea behind this chapter was quite solid, but it could have been developed in a more intimate plot, instead of assembling another high-speed zombie siege that felt very rushed (I don’t know whether I spaced out during the film, or things just happened very suddenly because anyway we know the drill - all of a sudden there were zombies everywhere and I understood it was justified as food poisoning?). Also, this film features the most resourceful uncool IT guy I can remember.

Final Destination, directed by James Wong, co-written with Jeffrey Reddick and Glen Morgan, US, 2000 - ⭐⭐⭐
The positive effect of going for a short work trip abroad is that Netflix has a different catalogue there, so I could revisit the original Final Destination, which I first watched when it was released in cinemas. In my memory, it was better. The characters and acting are mostly insufferable - the worst offenders being the unnecessarily stupid detectives -, and poor John Denver (who died just three years before this film was released!), now becomes the harbinger of doom (I hope his estate got a lot of money).
I had two memories of my previous viewing; one was incorrect (no actual Moulin Rouge in this film, I guess they had spent all their budget in John Denver’s royalties), and the other one was unfortunately very faithful: for the second time, I was very annoyed by the fact that ‘death’ (or destiny, or whatever it is) tries to cover its tracks and make the first single killing look like a suicide. Why should it do that? Rookie mistake?

Trouble Every Day, directed by Claire Denis, co-written with Jean-Pol Fargeau, France, 2001 - ⭐⭐⭐
Here’s where (and why) my (new) one-week trial period with MUBI started. I was curious to see how an auteur like Claire Denis could be included in discussions about French Extremity (which continues to be a baffling categorisation for me). There are two moments in Trouble Every Day that are definitely very uncomfortable to witness (one made me feel as on the edge as I was while watching Audition, the other one reminded me that I haven’t ever seen Irreversible and I don’t feel like ever doing so), so if that’s what all of the fuss is, I understand.
The rest is a sketch of a story composed of different moments (which reminded me of Denis’ Vendredi Soir), mostly including Vincent Gallo at the height of his unsettling coolness being quietly nasty and/or a dangerously sexy Beatrice Dalle. I feel like Under the Skin has some debt towards this film.

Tokyo Sonata/トウキョウソナタ, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, co-written with Max Mannix and Sachiko Tanaka, Japan, 2008 - ⭐⭐⭐½
I continue exploring Kurosawa’s filmography. This is the first non-horror movie of his I watched, driven by the all-too-real tragedy of loyal and dedicated workers being set aside by their employers as soon as the illusion of a cheaper alternative presents itself (whether it’s delocalisation, or AI). It’s all quite sad (despite lighter tones popping up here and there) until it becomes clear that the professional downfall of the pater familias shakes him so much that it affects his role as the family’s authoritarian leader, and may bring a breeze of fresh air in the household. Then change is accelerated by a series of events that feels a bit forced and unbelievable (Cure’s and Seance’s Kōji Yakusho makes an appearance), but also gives the film the energy it needs to get to its moving finale.

Woman of the Hour, directed by Anna Kendrick, written by Ian McDonald, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½
I like Anna Kendrick, so I was glad to hear positive reviews about her first film as a director. It’s indeed a solid debut, that beyond an (incredible) true story serves as a chilling representation of a man’s world I’m not sure we have fully moved away from. The frequent flashbacks - especially in the first half - may be a bit disorienting (wait, in what year are we now?) but overall they do a good job of slowly and patiently building a tension that makes you genuinely worried for Kendrick’s character. The way the film decides to tell the story ending is rather unexpected from a dramatic point of view, but it’s probably the only reasonable way.
In summary, five films:
- three horrors, a drama, a thriller
- four first-watches, one rewatch
- three originals, one sequel, one ’true story’ adaptation
- two US films, and one each from Spain, France and Japan
- three films from the 2000s, one from the 2010s, and one released this year