I Dig Shudder!

As I'm co-parenting with someone who can deduct streaming services from their taxes, I have access to a considerable number of those things. Not all of them, though (they’re making it harder to share usernames, the devils!). So I’ve gotten in the habit of subscribing to one each month just for myself. Showtime lost interest once I sated my curiosity about a few series (am I the only person heartbroken Yellowjackets put Melanie Lynskey in a Yo La Tengo t-shirt & hoodie only after revealing she’s playing a selfish murderer? Sensitive indie guy boner-kill!) and discovered A24 movies eventually head to HBO Max. So I currently spend that sliver of bread on Shudder, and I regret nothing. The service has a considerable and quality mix of new horror movies, arty old gore and semi-legendary cheese. I’ve still got plenty of thrillers left on my watchlist, but I’ve already seen a handful I’d like to praise.

Barbarian will probably go down as my favorite horror movie of 2022, but Deadstream might grab the silver medal. They have a lot in common, both centering a recently cancelled celebrity who blithely tromps into dimly lit, transparently murder-graced hallways out of delusional self-interest. But where Justin Long’s smiling sitcom star AJ Gilbride is arguably more upsetting than the ghoul hiding in the dark, Deadstream’s Obnoxious vlogger Shawn (played by co-director Joseph Winter) is mostly just a danger to his own stupid ass. And while Long’s covert narcissist arrives late into the film, after a long, seemingly unrelated prelude, Winter’s grandiose narcissist spends the entire movie prattling if not shrieking into our face via faux-livestream, his vain, needy pathology immediately transparent and ridiculous. Deadstream is basically Evil Dead II except Ash is replaced by of those Try Guys and never had friends in the first place. Winter’s performance might actually be more impressive than Long’s, in that he has to play the Worst Person In The World and we literally never get a break from him. The Winters (wife Jessica co-directed) manage to create a context where this loud, insufferable character isn’t insufferable to watch, mostly through cultural satire and brutal schadenfreude (I wasn’t kidding with that Evil Dead II reference). If you’re someone embarrassed by how many vloggers you know about, or only learn about about them when they’ve become The Main Character online, Deadstream is a hilarious must-see.

“Look,” you’re saying, “I love horror movies about people profoundly in need of therapy, too. But I don’t always want the films to be ‘darkly witty,’ you know? Give me despair and nightmarish futility!” Well, don’t fret. Shudder’s currently the exclusive home of Resurrection, in which Rebecca Hall plays Margaret, a successful businesswoman and single mother who responds to an impending empty nest by slipping back into a sadomasochistic relationship from her past. Or at least that’s how it appears. As seen in films like Christine and The Night House, Hall is wonderful at playing women barreling towards collapse despite their remarkable intelligence and emotional sensitivity. Thankfully, the ensemble keeps Resurrection from feeling a star vehicle rehash,  particularly Grace Kaufman as her daughter, raised strong enough to debate the value of hanging around Mom, and Tim Roth, bloodcurdling as Peter, the manipulative older man responsible for Hall’s earlier trauma.

The contemptuous energy between Roth and Hall is so visceral that I wouldn’t have thought to question if what we’re seeing on screen is actually happening, had other characters not done so. Much of the film’s terror stems from how concepts like strength and weakness are blurred and corrupted to Peter’s benefit. While Margaret is capable of providing guidance to others about avoiding toxic dynamics, there’s a sense that - in her mind - it’s too late for her. She’s already at a place emotionally where this man is a source of immense shame and guilt, but also pride and solace. By putting her through such ordeals, he’s also the only person who knows what she’s capable of. Except maybe herself.

The climax violently settles whether the movie qualifies as “horror,” though plenty of other questions remain. In fact, Resurrection might be one of the least cathartic horror movies I’ve ever seen. Usually if a movie pointedly refuses to provide closure, I at least get to groan in annoyance; Hall’s performance denied me that relief. Jury’s out if I’m grateful for that.

Another Shudder exclusive putting a considerable spotlight on one of my favorite actors is 2017’s Mayhem, starring Steven Yeun. Where Resurrection needs Hall’s strength to keep from looking like psychological torture porn, Mayhem needs Yeun’s matter-of-fact charisma to avoid devolving into cartoon badassery. The concept is not unlike 28 Days Later, except this rage virus only makes you prone to violence, not inhumanly feral, and can be shaken off after 8 hours of quarantine. The set-up in Mayhem is that an office complex of a cutthroat legal firm has been cordoned off from the outside world to shake the bug off, Yeun a once idealistic associate who just got framed and fired by cold-hearted bosses needing a scapegoat. It was already an environment that rewarded selfishness and bravado, and now everyone inside has the internal impulse - and the legal justification - to achieve lethal levels of catharsis.

The role won’t earn Oscar nominations and accolades like playing a struggling immigrant father or a likely serial killer in an arthouse film, but having to provide excessive narration as an aspiring yuppie shark about to engage in slo-mo sociopathic violence is a hard thing to pull off without looking like a complete asshat. Remarkably, Yeun and director Joe Lynch manage to indulge violent cubicle fantasies and alpha-dog office politics without much middlebrow macho pretension - no one seems to think they can huff and puff this B movie bloodshed into Scorsese/Tarantino-tier glory. Admittedly, my perspective on how bad is bad may be skewed by having sat through both Boondock Saints movies. If you can fathom digging this kind of sci-fi aggro, though (and I assume most of Yeun’s fans from The Walking Dead can), Mayhem is a smart swing at the concept.

I promise to try and watch some non-genre films soon…maybe even like them! But expect plenty of Shudder chatter here. I still haven’t seen Flux Gourmet, Blood Relatives, She Will, the last two V/H/S movies…anything Italian… so I’m gonna be subscribing for a while. Then comes The Criterion Channel. I swear.