2021, Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo) -- download
Starting in 2011 we (Marmy and I, as Kent is not much of a horror fan) began celebrating the Halloween season (all of October, of course) by watching too many horror / Halloween related movies, most of them bad. 2012 had a few flicks but not the full month. Un/Re-employment killed 2013. Apathy slayed 2014. But we returned in 2015 with a full run. 2016 had a good start, but stalled in the last few days, likely due to work life. 2017 almost started with a fizzle, but then I remembered, "It's October 1st !" It still fizzled. Life abounds. And in 2018, almost the entire year was Halloween *ahem* as in the year of posting was mostly October. 2019 did alright for itself, considering I went off to Las Vegas sometime in the month. 2020 was it's own horror fest, and I am not kidding or being pithy in the least; the horror movies we watched were almost a relief. 2021 was in full form, some good, most OK and some great/terrible. 2022 gave us a full run, counting in the TV we watched, which we did. Also, I absolutely love that Kent jumped in with some themed movies and even a We Agree(ish).
2023 is another of mostly, "Let's just save that movie for October." I would say we downloaded "the big ones", but were there any? I did make note of those that turned up on streaming services, but really never made any concerted effort to build a list. I just have a feeling we will have plenty to watch, which is a good sign, no?
What an odd re-edit of 2022's final paragraph...
Neill apparently lives in Canada now, in BC, and made this movie when he shouldn't have, during the 2020 pandemic, likely during a brief lifting of a lockdowns. It kind of looks like a pandemic movie, no not as in set during one, but the productions that arose from and around that time, where casts and settings are limited, extras are almost non-existent and everything is low-key. Given this is Blomkamp, low-key is not something I would expect him now capable of, but also, this is not a return to his chunky, low-budget of District 9. But it is very familiar of the lower-budget horror genre.
Carly (Carly Pope, Elysium) is returning to her home-town of "picturesque British Columbia" after a long absence. An old friend has reached out to her. She has been gone for years because her mother is a mass murderer and the town painted her with the same brush. But old friend Martin (Chris William Martin, The Vampire Diaries) was contacted by a medical company who has her comatose mother, and needs Carly to contact them.
Carly does and she is convinced to join in an experiment, once in which it will basically have her jump into her mom's locked-in mind, depicted as a low-poly simulation. While in her mom's VR head, she sees images of the place where her mother murdered everyone, as well as warned that Carly has to leave or "it" will find her. Given the movie is called "demonic" we can guess what "it" is.
And this is where a by-the-book demonic possession seeking a new host type of movie takes some very Blomkamp turns, but not entirely convincingly. The simulation is barely touched upon, but its who is running the sim that is ... striking. They are a Vatican trained group of black ops solders acting as demon hunters and exorcists. Which would be fine, and a lot of fun, in the right movie. But its not this movie. This movie is low-key, remember? But no matter, back to the possession playbook, Carly ends up heading back to the place where she believes the demon is and... well, a lot of dead soldiers. The other movie, the one we are not watching, the one that maaaaay have been more Uwe Boll than Blomkamp, happened off-screen.
Carly ends up finding the head-exorcist / soldier possessed by the demon and she has to fight it with ... well, the Spear of Destiny. When it jumps into her, she stabs herself which forces it to jump again, but with no living bodies around, well, I guess it has to go back to Hell?
Now, I actually enjoyed the movie, despite the heading hopping VR sim and wonky soldier / exorcist element, because the tension and possession playbook is ... well, played out effectively. Carly (Pope, not character) plays the lead with the genuine nature attributed to the horror movies I usually end up loving during this season, like the players in early Flanagan films. If the movie had just leaned more into that, it could have been... well, admittedly, probably just too unoriginal for Blomkamp. He was already playing outside his type-casting.
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