Film critic Steve Prokopy's Fantastic Fest coverage continues with reviews of three upcoming feature films.
V/H/S/Beyond
Marking the seventh installment of the annual V/H/S anthology franchise, V/H/S/Beyond leans hard into the scary side of science fiction to give us six new found-footage tapes, including a faux-documentary wraparound segment (Abduction/Adduction) directed by Cursed Films’ Jay Cheel and concerning a pair of alien-encounter tapes that supposedly prove beyond doubt that aliens are real.
Things kick off with Jordan Downey’s Stork, about a group of soldiers who enter a building full of…zombie-like somethings who all seems to serve a very specific, unique master. It seems like every V/H/S entry has at least one chapter that feels like a first-person shooter game, and this is it. Next up is one of the most original tapes this series has ever given us, Dream Girl from Virat Pal, which features a bonafide Bollywood musical number and a spectacular performance by Namrata Sheth as Tara, a movie star with a terrible secret to her success and a pair of tabloid cameramen who want to capture her in exclusive footage, getting far more than they bargained for.
One of my favorite segments is Justin Martinez’s (part of Radio Silence, V/H/S, Southbound) Live and Let Dive, about a birthday celebration that involves skydiving that just happens to occur right as an alien invasion is beginning and the subsequent aliens vs. human chase on the ground. It’s an action movie waiting to be expanded. Easily my least favorite in Beyond is Justin & Christian Long’s Fur Babies, which features an animal lover who adores cuddly creatures so much she thinks everyone should be one. The special effects makeup is pretty great, but that’s about it.
Finally, the film gives us the directing debut of actress Kate Siegel, Stowaway (working from a screenplay by husband Mike Flanagan) and featuring a powerhouse performance by Alanah Pearce as Halle, a UFO/UAP investigator who discovers something disorienting and perhaps terrifying. It’s a perfectly paced character study, done in just a few minutes of note-perfect acting, directing, and writing. As much as I marvel at the creativity and blood & guts of it all, it’s gems like this that ultimately make the V/H/S films worth checking out, with Beyond being among the best collection of stories this series has given us.
The film debuts October 4 on Shudder.
Little Bites
An exercise in raw existential dread, the latest from Spider One (Bury the Bride), Little Bites concerns young widow Mindy (Krsy Fox) and the terrible thing that she’s hiding in a small bedroom in the basement of her home. For reasons we aren’t quite sure of at first, she’s made a literal deal with the devil (or a devil) that he may feed on her body, small bites at a time. The hideous creature known as Agyar (Jon Sklaroff) calls her every so often for his feeding, allowing her to recover before he nibbles off bits of leg or arm, a process that will clearly lead to her having scars across her entire body.
What she gets out of the deal is that the creature promises to leave her young daughter, Alice (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro) alone and not swallow her whole. The film is thick with grotesque atmosphere and visual style, and when Alice finally does return to the home, it becomes clear that Little Bites serves as both horror and a metaphor for the worst kind of abusive, controlling relationship, one that requires Mindy to stand up to this monster in order to break free of him. The always-great Barbara Crampton shows up as a child welfare worker checking in on the home situation and ultimately regretting it; and Heather Langenkamp pops in for one scene to offer Mindy sage advice about how to escape her seemingly inescapable situation. Also Chaz Bono (who also has an executive producer credit, along with his mother Cher) has a role in the movie.
The film doesn’t have many surprises, but it does have nuance, mood, a generous creep factor, and a devastating lead performance from Fox. And by the time it’s over, you’ll feel something gnawing at your extremities as well.
The film will be in theaters and available on VOD beginning October 4.
House of Spoils
Taking its cues from the current craze surrounding series and films about master chefs, House of Spoils follows an ambitious (and nameless) Chef (Ariana DeBose) as she leaves the safe space of being a sous chef for Marcello (Marton Csokas) to start her own destination restaurant with her business partner Andres (Arian Moayed) located in the middle of nowhere. The remote estate seems to bring with it a haunting force that also gives Chef inspiration and even a few key homegrown ingredients that transform her non-distinct dishes into something unforgettable. But when she seeks to separate herself from these forces, they turn against her and sabotage key investor events that she needs to go exactly right in order for her restaurant to see the light of day.
There are moments where we wonder if this spirit force is real or simply the product of an incredible amount of pressure, uncertainty, and anxiety, all of which threaten to crush her psyche and her dreams. Writers-directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy (Blow the Man Down) give House of Spoils a folk horror tone without fully committing to the process, instead focusing on Chef’s various failed and successful recipes and the business side of the operation, which is interesting but not nearly as compelling or tense. I appreciate that the production got “food stylist” Zoe Hegedus to consult on the film; her previous work on edible installations in movies like Midsommar and Poor Things has been exceptional, and the actual plates here look inventive.
The preparation process itself is fascinating, especially with possible ghosts messing with you every step of the way, but the film itself isn’t especially harrowing or filled with tension.
There’s an interpretation of this movie that is simply the Chef can’t handle the pressure, and I’d hate to think that a story of about a female chef includes that message. The climactic meal sequence is a bit silly, and ultimately the film didn’t do much for me, but it does have its culinary moments.
The film begins streaming October 3 on Prime Video.
Did you enjoy this post? Please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support!