Director: Christopher Smith

Writers: David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich, and Dean Lines

Stars: Jessica Brown Findlay, John Heffernan, Anya McKenna-Bruce

Synopsis: The Banishing tells the story of the most haunted house in England. In the 1930s, a young reverend, his wife and daughter move into a manor with a horrifying secret.

Vicar’s wife Marianne (Jessica Brown Findlay) joins her husband Linus (John Heffernan) at his new ominous Morley Hall post where Linus butts heads with local occultist Harry Reed (Sean Harris) and his secretive, threatening superior Bishop Malachi (John Lynch) in director Christopher Smith’s (Black Death) 2021 interwar parable The Banishing. Marianne’s daughter Adelaide (Anya McKenna-Bruce) finds hooded dolls in the playroom and both begin seeing doppelgangers and hearing bumps in the night – further dividing Linus and Marianne’s frosty relationship. As the history of previous religious orders comes to light; past evils, present sins, and continental whispers of war merge into fresh fear and violence for the young family.

Damaged olden bibles warn of controlling one’s sexual immorality before blood, hangings, and “emigrated to Australia” cover ups provide this pastoral vacancy. Unconsummated repression, Grace at the table, and scripture on wrongful lust and passion establish the tension in The Banishing before peepholes, heavy breathing, lingering paganism, red hair fears, and defaced texts. Heavy crosses high on the wall look down upon the bed – only the church can see one through tough times, and this pent-up generation between wars makes for a great backdrop to the horror, tombs, and rumors of Nazi occult. The previously burned down monastery history and the suspect manor built on top the ruins are forewarned up front rather than chopping up and delaying the story for the audience. Call and response or hide and seek games give the chance to explore the rusty, industrial basement, and dark corridors visualize the horrors in the mind sneaking up on you when we try to forget them.

These characters are shamed into facing who they are, and the struggle to look oneself in the mirror is worse when their reflections don’t match. Is it the distortion of who we are versus who we present or images from the past pressuring us to escape ourselves? Objects move by themselves and chilling hooded figures approach in the garden as the delayed seeing of oneself committing bloody acts of violence leaves the viewers questioning which side of the mirror we’re watching. Townsfolk whisper about men who convince others to do bad things because torture brings one closer to god, but church sanctioned thugs silence those who speak of past drownings and behind closed doors suspicions. Distorted consequences and disturbing vignettes in the final act escalate as counter rituals and biblical readings combat secrets, medieval mutilation, and calls for the dirty to confess their heretics. Candles snuff out as premonitions and delirium mount in the race to save innocents with proper rectification. Unfortunately, power will corrupt even the most peaceful if good men do nothing – leading to frightful desecrations and real world evil. 

The previous wife at Morley Hall is said to have done things unbecoming a vicar’s wife, but Jessica Brown Finlay’s Marianne tries to tell her husband it is okay to share a bed. She is admired for her fiery spirit yet chastised for having previously given up her out of wedlock daughter and lying that the child was her sister’s. Young Anya McKenna-Bruce as daughter Adelaide does what she has to do with spooky toys, creepy play tea parties, and eerily telling Marianne she is not her mother.  There is no precocious excess necessary as the denials fester and evil awaits to shame Marianne. Legs open birthing imagery and visions of Marianne pregnant and institutionalized for her condition exacerbate the stigma as she is called a slut for cherishing her child’s conception. 

Women are upheld as dutiful yet condemned as sinful, and such secrets leave Adelaide open to evil exposure. Marianne sought solace in the church, but the institution giveths or takeths away as needed. His congregation is small, attendance is poor, and John Heffernan’s (Dickensian) new vicar is surprised his wife has come to join him. Linus is angry at their mute housekeeper for wearing a superstitious pendant when not praying, kneeling, lighting candles, and wondering why evil exists. He won’t help unzip Marianne’s dress, yet yells at her for wanting to donate the house’s unused metal for a war drive that’s not their business because it is the property of the church. She doesn’t think he should correct her if he is not going to touch her like a wife, but he is content to look the other way, assured that England is completely safe and hushing her for saying the church alone will not get them through their troubles. 

Linus’ sermons proclaim that violence only begets violence and that war is a sin, and locals call him out for saying that The Great War deceased were sinners. The Banishing shrewdly addresses history and closed mindedness with horror as the current men of Morley Hall drive the past darkness and fear. Their shortcomings and exploitations spread division rather than unity, and the villagers also confront Bishop Malachi (John Lynch), a cruel leader who knows everyone’s secrets. He snaps the increasingly repressed, drunken Linus in place, warning him against Harry Reid (Sean Harris) as so called charlatan occultist. Linus demands everything be clean and refuses to hear the local history from Reed, but Harry asks what his vice is, for Morley Hall will use it against his family. 

Unlike cutting corners often seen in low budget horror, The Banishing is filmed as a drama with open church spaces, long hallways, and stairs making room for in camera bizarre, foreground and background multiples, doubles on the ceiling, and figures coming and going through the looking glass. Well lit natural lighting highlights the gardens, wallpaper, woodworks, and antiques; but most of the costly manor is shuttered with faulty electricity, humble furnishings, a playroom with vintage toys, and dolls without eyes. There’s no gross out horror or torture porn, but flashlights and cold blue schemes herald the eerie nursery ward with dolls in the cribs. Orange firelight and red lights provide horror coloring, yet the ecclesiastic motifs, religious iconography, and ritual in The Banishing are meager.

The church as an institution looms large but its customs are not steeped in daily life. Period undergarments, however, add a then scandalous lingerie allure to contrast the innocent gramophone, retro phone ring ring, vintage cars, and demure hats. Taking inspiration from the real life Borely Rectory, The Banishing could simply be described as a straightforward haunting with our protagonists trying to bring peace to the past tortured. Thankfully, the sophisticated storytelling doesn’t underestimate the audience with the jump scares, cool effects, and frights a minute but instead provides viewer food for thought as the past and present images merge. The interwar period setting anchors the slow burn unease as chilling introspection, social commentary, and “thoughts and prayers” metaphors in The Banishing ask who we show others versus who we really are. Just like our contemporary social stigmas and cancel culture, this house feeds on your shame, and our past is always waiting in the mirror, forcing us to look over our shoulder, and haunting our lives.    

Grade – B+

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Writers: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman

Stars: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint

Synopsis: While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.

While its messaging may be muddled due to narrative changes from its source material, Paul G. Tremblay’s ‘The Cabin at the End of the World’ (2018), which might have given it a darker and dread-filled tone, Knock at the Cabin marks M. Night Shyamalan’s return to form, delivering his strongest feature in decades since the severely underrated The Village (2004). 

 Knock at the Cabin centers around a family, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), who are vacationing with their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), at an isolated cabin in the woods. Everything seems to be going fine, and the skies are blue; however, something will ruin their peaceful break and turn it into a nightmare they won’t return the same from. A martyr-like quarter, led by Leonard (Dave Bautista), is invading their home to make an impossible choice that might change the fate of the earth. Alongside Leonard, there’s Remond (Rupert Grint), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), all of whom have traveled from afar to get to the cabin. They try to convince the family that if one of them isn’t sacrificed in a couple of hours, the world will commence its end. Like Signs, M. Night’s latest centers around the faith and beliefs of  characters in an uncertain predicament. While in the Joaquin Phoenix-led picture, it’s aliens; here, four people are invading a home, proclaiming that the world will end in a couple of hours if they don’t sacrifice one family member. 

Eric and Andrew are baffled by this decision, mainly because they don’t believe that sacrificing one of them will actually stop the end of the world, even if it is true that it is going to happen. So, Knock at the Cabin relies on deceit and fear to fuel its simple yet thematically multilayered premise. It brings to mind Mike Tolkin’s film The Rapture, where a woman finds God after living an empty and amoral life, only to have her faith tested once she encounters a man. Both films play with people getting their convictions stretched by vessels who proclaim that bad things will happen. Although there almost aren’t any subplots attached to this primarily one-location picture, two movies are running simultaneously during Knock at the Cabin’s runtime. However, you can’t see one of them until the very end. The first and most discernible one can be taken from the film’s title alone: the home invasion thriller mixed with a cabin in the woods movie. 

The other is an “end of the world” movie, in which the apocalypse breaks the sky in half, and everything is in flames – utter destruction caused by disastrous mayhem. M. Night Shyamalan has played with these subgenres of films before (cabin in the woods, sort of, with The Visit and end of the world with The Happening). Yet, in Knock at the Cabin, he gets bolder with his narrative choices to subvert our expectations and more creative to keep us hooked and on the edge of our seats during its thrilling sequences. The first movie, the home invasion thriller, is its priority, as the duelings between faith, belief, and ignorance are being fought. This is where we get the main confrontations, and the film’s tension arises because of their dialogue. The second movie, the end of the world disaster flick, is primarily showcased through TV footage, although later on, we begin to see glimpses of catastrophe through the snap of Shyamalan’s fingers. 

When the line “humanity has been judged” is spoken, the audience starts to see disastrous events occurring… or are they? That second movie is happening, but we don’t see it. The outskirts of this one-location thriller have bright skies and beautiful green forests. Shyamalan plays with the setting and the television recordings to make us (and the characters in the film) believe that something terrible is happening, even though we can’t perceive it at the moment. This intertwining between the two co-running pictures creates a cinematic dynamic that creates tension from both inside the cabin and outside – what’s going on (or what isn’t going on) out there in the world. It is crafty and bold to use such a mechanism because the audience might lose interest in the former and want to see the latter due to the primarily theatrical presentation of its narrative. Yet, M. Night keeps us hooked due to some well-crafted scenarios of violence and claustrophobic camerawork by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (known for working with Robert Eggers). 

Since his “comeback” (when he began self-financing his films), whether you like the features so far or not, Shyamalan has been slowly lifting his directorial game. Many stylistic decisions work in its favor while adding some heft to the film’s themes. He leans more into letting the camera breathe by not cutting at every single moment, except when there’s a scene of violence, and doing closeups of the actors’ faces, leaving the audience closely observing for the minute details that might decipher is Leonard and his crew is telling the truth regarding upcoming damnation or not. I think the main problem with Knock at the Cabin is that occasionally M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t stop himself regarding his features’ ideas. He pours all of them without restraint, and occasionally it feels forced (sometimes even silly) rather than adequately put together. Whether it is dialogue choices or the addition of KC & The Sunshine Band’s ‘Boogie Shoes’, there are moments that take you off the experience for a quick second because it doesn’t fit the tone it was setting up. But, at least it all adds to a unique experience where he engages us by not doing the same shtick or stories. 

The second issue I have with this film is the changes M. Night made to the source material, which ends up giving Knock at the Cabin a lesser darker tone in comparison. The dialogue in Paul G. Tremblay’s book is rougher and somber. And although M. Night occasionally pours some dread onto the scenery, most of the time, it is being handled by the performances more so than dialogue being said. Everyone brings their A-game here, notably Dave Bautista, who we can call the best wrestler-turned-actor of all time and has nailed the sensible-yet-intimidating character portrayal. Then there’s Jonathan Groff, who does not have the intensity that his co-lead Ben Aldridge has when it comes to the nail-biter sequences. Yet, still, Groff balances his performance by focusing more on broken mental stability, coincidentally standing out when the camera is doing a close-up on him. Another actor that nails the balancing act tension of “we come in peace” and fiery intensity is Abby Quinn, whose eyes are haunting yet sincere. There’s nothing to complain about when it comes to the cast overall.

In addition to the plethora of ideas M. Night is putting onto the screen, the ending has also been changed; the final death (or sacrifices) are not the same in the film as in the book. The original climax is more tragic than what M. Night concocted. Although, if you have seen some of the director’s work, you know he wasn’t going to do that ending because it was quite “shocking”. M. Night Shyamalan isn’t a director that dwells on shock factor, so I can see the reasoning behind the change, but I would’ve liked it if he went full throttle with that narrative decision. This same dilemma happened with his previous feature Old. Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederick Peeters’ graphic novel was very depressive and melancholic, and M. Night didn’t replicate those emotional sensibilities onto the screen as much as he could. It seems to me that although he could, M. Night doesn’t want to put the audience into a hypnotic, melancholic trance because it loses some of its potential popcorn entertainment. 

I would have liked it if he expressed these themes with their full force rather than planting them at half their strengths. Sure, Knock at the Cabin is compelling and moves the viewer, but it could have been more gripping and emotionally titillating than the final product. The director’s latest work shines bright despite the fact that it’s mostly a gloomy picture; M. Night delivers his best film in many years. It might not surpass The Village, but it does provide a glimpse of what’s to come for the director-screenwriter’s future projects – and it has me, and hopefully many, excited. 

Grade: B+

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Writers: Akela Cooper, James Wan (story)

Stars: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng

Synopsis: A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

The promotion for M3GAN may have been short, with a trailer only being released less than a month before the release of the film itself, but it quickly took the internet by storm. The life-like doll for which the film is named was being hailed – especially by gay twitter – as being iconic for her high camp. She was dubbed “the yassified Chucky”, and it was clear almost immediately this film was going to be a hit. Indeed, the marketing campaign quickly leaned into its inevitable cult classic status, really playing up every slay that M3GAN was going to serve when the film finally hit theaters. As a January release horror movie, it’s definitely filled with all the cliches that you would expect, but the main draw to this film is just how perfectly it is able to use the horror genre to make an incredibly hilarious film.

Gemma (Allison Williams) is a toy designer at a high tech company, and decides to design a life-like doll as a passion project at work. To convince her boss of its potential success, she pairs it with her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), and continues to use the pair and relationship as demonstrations for what exactly this doll can do. However, due to her eagerness to complete the project, she overlooks putting in some severely important safety procedures, and M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) quickly becomes possessive of her new friend, and violent to those around her who might threaten that relationship. Information moves fast on the internet, and twitter knew that it had struck gold with this trailer. While staying true to its horror roots, there are more funny moments than there are scary ones. There’s, of course, the iconic dance that’s shown in the trailer, but there are so many more unexpected moments that really surprise and entertain throughout.

Allison Williams is a grounded and realistic core to this film, and I was incredibly impressed by child actor Violet McGraw’s performance as well, but of course, it’s the titular character who steals the film. The perfectly curled blonde hair, the oversized baby doll idea, the button nose, and of course, the snarky pout that this doll has gives it a look that drag queens and models alike only strive for, it’s hard not to be drawn to her.

And at the end of the day, that’s what there really is to it. It’s easy to see how this film could have easily been lost in the endless shuffle of smaller horror movies that are slated for a January release – a month that is typically known for not doing very well at the box office – and instead just being forgotten to time. But M3GAN has the camp, serves, and slays (literally) that just makes gay people go wild, and maybe there’s not much else. It falls back on horror tropes for the story’s convenience, but M3GAN herself keeps things fresh and fun throughout. It’s a fun experience, and is filled with insane moments that will have you belly laughing endlessly, while also having genuinely scary moments as well. The writing is a bit surface level and predictable, but it’s so easy to overlook all of that when you’re having a time that’s as fun as this movie is.

Grade: B+

Director: Kenya Barris

Writer: Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill

Stars: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy

Synopsis: Follows a new couple and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences.

While you embraced him with television’s Blackish (and you probably found his remake of Shaft dismissible), Kenya Barris’s latest, You People, brings to Netflix’s steaming waves his brand of biting comedic commentary on race. While the script has no problem filling the air with irreverent humor and absurd characters, he is unafraid to abandon a sharp and distinct point of view. One that attempts, not always successfully, to examine different generations’ thoughts on oppression and race relations that surface during those times of change.

The story follows a new couple, a financial investor named Ezra (Jonah Hill) and stylist Amira (Lauren London). They met when Ezra jumped into the wrong car – he thought Amira was an Uber driver because the vehicle and the person matched the description. (Evidently, he never thought to check the license plate). She immediately thinks he feels it’s his “God-given white right” to jump in the back of her inexpensive car and order her around. However, Ezra manages to turn things around, explaining that she drove the same car and looks much like the driver. It’s a “23andMe” situation, he explains. (The script allows her to agree with his assessment). While following the rules of romantic comedies regarding “cute” ways to meet, he is immediately smitten with her. Why? Well, Aaron Sorkin once wrote men love being insulted by women because it makes them feel loved, so now we have our answer.

Ezra is passionate about podcasting and hosts one discussing race and other social issues with his best friend, Mo (SNL alum Sam Jay), called the “Mo and E-Z show.” Ezra comes from a Jewish family. His mother, Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), keeps setting him up with women from their synagogue. It’s no different for Amira. Her father, Akbar (Eddie Murphy), tries to set her up with respectable young black men blindly, which is literal. She figures it out because he keeps feeding them quotes about James Baldwin. Akbar is a proud man and a loyal follower of Louis Farrakhan. As you can imagine, things do not go well for Ezra, especially when she asks Amira’s parents for her hand in marriage. Keep in mind this is even before Amira introduces her to them. You can then imagine how the first dinner between the families will go.

Barris co-wrote his film with Jonah Hill. You People owes an obvious debt to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, while putting on its modern comedic spin. Watching Hill squirm around Murphy’s Akbar needling him, especially their bachelor party trip or barbershop (that includes an Anthony Anderson cameo), has a handful of solid belly laughs.

The film has some hilarious performances outside of Hill and Murphy. Deon Cole has one of the more humorous guest spots in the movie, wanting room to grow into his role of a wedding planner. And it’s almost shocking how surprisingly funny and effective David Duchovny is with Barris and Hill’s script. As the now suddenly comically skillful actor keeps talking to Amira or any member of her friends or family about the iconic rapper, actor, presenter, and personality, Xzibit. Trust me. His toast is a stunner.

While the film isn’t perfect – the chemistry between the leads, an ending that plays it too safe, guest stars like Rhea Perlman have virtually nothing to do, and there is an odd choice of almost episodic transition choices between scenes that are distracting to the point of ruining the story’s flow – the film is refreshingly blunt. How? By allowing ruminating thoughts to simmer to the surface, which can be side-splittingly funny. That’s because the script works. After all, Barris wants to deconstruct the argument of the social construct of race. (Social scientists today prefer to describe race now in terms of “ancestry”). 

For example, an article from the Harvard Divinity School tackles a Judaism case study (2018) that discovers members of the Jewish community have not only taken on a racial identity but it was thrust upon them at the turn of the 20th century. Amira’s family is African American and part of the Nation of Islam, which takes on the prejudicial brand of Islamophobia. There is an experience here of intersectionality that many viewers may not be aware of or understand.

Some may argue that the film has much to say about the older generation’s attitudes toward race relations dressed in modern-day trappings, like podcasts and style. However, that is rather the point of this Barris comedy. He is looking at how an older peer group’s views have affected the younger one, which is growing increasingly multicultural by the day. (Read Frey’s 2018 book, “Diversity Explosion,” and how this boom will reshape the country in the future).

Barris is fearless in confronting these issues, albeit in a sophomoric way, about views that must be addressed even in today’s increasingly self-aware society. And that includes the nescient behavior (or ignorance) when it comes to showing off someone who is Black as a member of the family or friend (Dreyfus) or an evident lack of respect for the LGBTQ+ community (Murphy). Barris is dismantling the issues between generational attitudes to show growth. As Jane Elliott would say, the writer/director here embraces the sentiment of getting the phrase “I don’t see color” out of our lexicon.

It’s a conversation and a case in point when Amira confronts her future mother-in-law at the rehearsal dinner, which will be hard to hear but necessary. And the issue of Shelley and Akbar, if not for us, but for the next generation.

Grade – B