Dear Watchers,It’s Genre Movie Wednesday, and usually we bring you little gems we’ve uncovered on our Watching journey. But genre movies got a big boost last week, as Ryan Coogler’s vampire tale “Sinners” broke Oscar nomination records, with 16. It wasn’t the only best picture nominee from the genre world, though. “Frankenstein” also made the list, along with one of the selections we’re discussing below: “Bugonia,” an alien conspiracy oddity with a shaved-head movie star. Our sci-fi expert, Elisabeth Vincentelli, has thoughts on what makes “Bugonia” so intriguing and so incredibly strange. The second pick is an indie that cleverly sets a time-loop premise inside a haunted mansion, with things going bump in the night over and over. Read what Elisabeth has to say about her two selections below, then head here for three more of her picks. Happy Watching. ‘Bugonia’
Where to watch: Stream “Bugonia” on Peacock. At this point it is easy to take the continuing collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone for granted. Yet it is also hard to overstate how weird the movies they make together are — by mainstream Hollywood standards, at least. In this baroque remake of the South Korean movie “Save the Green Planet!” (2003), Stone plays a powerful chief executive, Michelle, who is kidnapped by a couple of men including, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), who is convinced she is an Andromedan alien. She is embedded on Earth to enslave humans, Teddy believes, and he wants to be taken to her mother ship. Nominated for a best picture Oscar, “Bugonia” is an outré look at conspiracy theories and the paranoid mind’s ability to find seemingly logical answers for everything. But is there more to the story than that? A deep sadness lurks behind the flamboyant exterior, especially as we learn more about Teddy’s past. And little can prepare a viewer for the film’s visually stunning ending, which is richly satisfying on a cosmic level. ‘Manor of Darkness’
Where to watch: Stream “Manor of Darkness” on Tubi. The title of this movie by Blake Ridder has an old-fashioned quality that brings to mind classic Hammer Horror productions from the 1960s and ’70s. That may not be entirely coincidental given the vibe, which includes a spooky old mansion in the British countryside whose shower suddenly flows with blood. And that’s even before a group of four crooks shows up to case the home, masquerading as documentary filmmakers. Once inside, they find things like a chest that belches clouds of black smoke when opened. (Probably a good sign to leave.) After one of the would-be burglars, Laura (Kim Spearman), is stabbed by the house’s mysterious owner (Stuart Wolfe-Murray), she realizes that they’re all stuck in a terrifying time loop and sets out to end it. Despite working with what looks like a fairly low budget, Ridder dispenses the frights effectively as he attempts to put a new spin on both the time-loop and haunted-house genres. I’m surprised “horror on repeat” isn’t tried more often.
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