Here is a quick question for all the haters demonstrating on college campuses:
do you enjoy horror films? They would hardly exist as we know them without Jewish
artists and creators. Yiddish films like The Golem and silent German movies
such as [Jewish director] Paul Leni’s Waxworks largely created the
genre. Horror became commercially viable thanks to Universal Studio boss Carl Laemmle and Karl Freund, the cinematographer or director of many classic
Universal Monster movies. Since then, filmmakers like William Friedkin, Sam
Raimi, Lloyd Kaufman, and Eli Roth substantially contributed to the horror genre’s
evolution. Recently, several horror films have re-embraced horror’s Jewish
roots. The Raimi-produced The Possession led the pack, featuring the
child-snatching demon Abyzou a decade prior to Oliver Lake’s The Offering.
Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal’s Possession deserves a second look when
it airs Friday on the Movies! Network.
College
basketball coach Clyde Brenek is somewhat separated from his wife Stephanie,
but she is extremely separated from him. Their daughters Hannah and Emily are
stuck in the middle. During their weekend with dad, Emily acquires a mysterious
box with Hebrew inscriptions at an estate sale. She quickly becomes weirdly attached
to it. Soon thereafter, she starts lashing out and even tries to frame her
father for abuse.
After
consulting with a campus folklorist, Brenek realizes his daughter released the
demon held captive in a dybbuk box. He seeks help from the Brooklyn Hassidic
establishment, but they are too scared to help. However, the chief rabbi’s
young, rebellious son, Rabbi Tzadok Shapir believes he is bound by his faith
and duty to help the desperate Brenek family. Indeed, things get so bad while
Brenek is in Brooklyn, his ex and their teen daughter are willing to listen to
him when he returns with a strange rabbi.
Juliet
Snowden & Stiles White’s screenplay is based on a non-fiction article
chronicling the checkered history of the real-life dybbuk box now in the
possession (so to speak) of Zak Bagans. Many of the demonic elements will feel
familiar, but the film still fruitfully taps into deep archetypal themes. It is
also not as graphic as many horror films, having successfully appealed its way
down to a PG-13 rating.
The Quibi short-bite 5-to-10-minute programming-platform folly was only in business
from April to December last year, but it still managed to squeeze in two “seasons”
of Sam Raimi’s horror anthology. They still didn’t have time to get to all
fifty states, let alone territories like Guam. Nevertheless, if any of their
series had a following this would be it, so fans will be happy to see Raimi’s 50
States of Fright will be available again this Friday on the Roku Channel.
To
hook fans, Raimi himself helmed the first episode, “The Golden Arm (Michigan),”
up in Hemingway’s and Nick Adams’ neck of the Michigan woods. The golden arm has
nothing in common with Frank Sinatra in Man with the Golden Arm. It is
the sparkly prosthetic of the old folk tale Mark Twain and scores of others
used to tell. In this case, it belongs to Heather, the vain wife of Dave, a rugged
furniture artisan, following her misadventure in the forest. She intends to
keep that arm with her even if it kills her and even then, she still isn’t
letting go.
Michigan
probably
boasts the most star-studded cast of the anthology, with Rachel Brosnahan and
Travis Fimmel portraying the ill-fated couple. However, it is John Marshall
Jones who really makes the three-episode arc work with the way he tells the
tale as Dave’s friend Andy. Old man Clemens would approve.
Yoko
Okumura’s “Ball of Twine (Kansas)” should have been titled “What’s the Matter
with Kansas.” Regardless, it does a nice job tapping into both the nostalgia of
road trips and the uneasy feeling you get when driving through long, flat,
not-particularly-well-lit states like Kansas. In this case, the scenic
attraction Susan and her daughter Amelia stop to gawk at, the titular twine,
seems to exert an uncanny control over the entire town. Even Sheriff Stallings
is rather unhelpful when Amelia disappears, but Susan is not about to be
intimidated by their cultish small-town ways.
Ming-Na
Wen really makes these three ex-quibis standout with her fierce axe-wielding performance
as Susan. She is pretty awesome, plus Karen Allen is quite sinister, in an
unusually understated kind of way, as Sheriff Stallings. There are also some
cool makeup effects going on, as an extra bonus.
