Operating somewhere between science and superstition, a shaman and her protégé (Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun, respectively) acquire the case of a wealthy client (Hong Seo-jun) whose newborn son won’t stop crying. As the shaman determines, the baby and father are part of a lineage in which all firstborns are haunted, thanks to an ancestor having a tantrum.

With assistance from a mortician (Yoo Hai-jin) and an aging, vaping geomancer (Oldboy himself, Choi Min-sik), the solution exists in an exhumation ceremony. Or so they think. 

Told in chapters like a thick, chewy novel, Exhuma is a slow burn of high order, almost to the level of The Wailing. The way writer and director Jang Jae-hyun gets into the story is intoxicating, giving his audience a good 15 minutes to determine on our own whether the principal characters are believers or scammers.  

Following up his first two films, the acclaimed Svaha: The Sixth Finger and The Priests, writer/director Jang Jae-hyun completes an unofficial trilogy of religious-based horror. Rather than merely use the themes as a crutch or entry point, Exhuma positively drips in adherence to rituals, as well as man’s ability to set aside skepticism in times of desperation.

While the movie maintains an ominous vibe for more than two hours’ time, breaking tension only for masterfully constructed scares, its best scene is when our protagonists set out to ease the restless spirit in the excavation rite. We see it in full, step by step, including fire, knives, drums, dance and five impaled pig carcasses — all carefully choreographed in such a massive production it could take Broadway by storm. We accept it because the actors sell that their characters do; their incredible and realistic chemistry goes a long way, too.

Even if my knowledge of Korean culture isn’t up to the level the movie assumes, it doesn’t matter. I also can’t deny the mastery at work. With a few surprises up its sleeve — or in the ground and within mirrored surfaces — this is horror on an epic scale. Resist the urge to pause and rewind to confirm what you think you just saw. At least give yourself over to one full viewing first, the way it’s intended. —Rod Lott

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While watching any of the 10 Friday the 13th sequels, have you ever wondered how Jason Voorhees conveniently winds up at exactly the right place to impale a promiscuous camper? Chris Nash’s deconstructionist slasher, In a Violent Nature, provides an undeniably poignant answer: He just walks.

Well, he walks after a random camper nabs a necklace that kept the monster buried beneath a charred sawmill. The plot is intentionally bare bones: The killer wanders into town, then finds an iconic mask and weapon before brutally dismembering folks with blood-chilling creativity.

The film rebukes most of the genre’s typical quick cuts and relentless jump scares. Instead, it favors a slow, methodical and over-the-shoulder approach that follows a reanimated serial killer as he slaughters foul-mouthed farmers, angsty campers and a lawman with a narratively convenient legacy. It’d be easy to compare the shifted focus to Scott Glosserman’s Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, though even that mockumentary falls headfirst into the conventions it tries to critique.

That’s not to suggest In a Violent Nature doesn’t lean on tropes, but it at least juggles and harnesses them in a unique and mostly satisfying way. Its contemplative pace and unflinching cinematography don’t beg questions, but evoke a feeling like David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset. The film only wanes when it gives into slasher norms — specifically breaking away from the killer’s perspective — in what is presumably an attempt to break up the monotony. And though the frequent, slower sequences sometimes border meandering, they also allow the film’s bloated zombie to float above a swamp of nameless, uninspired killers.

In dissecting slashers, however, the flick also must lean into them. This means campy dialogue runs rampant. At times, it works to cast historically poor lighting in a different light, sort of like the ineffable chirps of some finches before they’re snagged by a bird-eating spider. A particularly egregious campfire scene almost squanders this effect, as the film spends a bit too long removed from its subject for the sake of dumping some ultimately unnecessary exposition. It’s as though Nash didn’t trust his premise, fearing it would veer into Skinamarink territory and bore the audience. While he might be right, leaning into the gory nature doc vibe a bit more could’ve help the film garner a little more permeance.

Some small stumbles aside, In a Violent Nature still manages to carve a path that should intrigue even those less inclined to slashers. Its clinical approach to kills paired with a genuinely haunting ending makes it a clear frontrunner (or maybe “frontwalker”) for the best horror film of 2024. —Daniel Bokemper

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Hell is other people. That, you knew. But in the case of Pandemonium, an artful French anthology, the saying is literal, as a newcomer to the underworld gets to see the origin stories of the corpses strewn about him.

That person is Nathan (Hugo Dillon, The Sisters Brothers), entering hell through a portal appearing on the snowy highway after he’s involved in a car crash that claims three lives in total. Upon arrival, it looks like he’s stepped into the barren wasteland at the finale of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond. 

Furthering examining and exorcising themes he explored in 2018’s All the Gods in the Sky, writer/director Quarxx — just Quarxx, merci beaucoup — shows us how two others arrived there. First, a little girl (Manon Maindivide) who wakes to find her parents murdered, presumably at the hands of a deformed man (Meander’s Carl Laforêt, acting behind a triumph of makeup) residing in the cellar.

In another scenario, a single mother (Ophélia Kolb, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life) goes to extremes in denying that her bullied daughter (Sidwell Weber, 2014’s Among the Living) has committed suicide. Finally, it’s Nathan’s turn. Then, unlike the others, we get to witness punishment meted. And, with Quarxx as a card-carrying member of the New French Extremity, it ain’t pretty.

Story to story, the acting is superb. As a child, Maindivide deserves special mention for turning in a performance somehow in line with the segment’s dark comedic overtones. Throughout, whether the vibe is philosophical or unspeakable, the visuals startle. As Pandemonium descends further and further, building to a depraved ending Clive Barker would admire, Quarxx’s imagination grows. Pretentious moniker notwithstanding, he’s one to watch. —Rod Lott

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Filled to the brim with incomprehensible horror, The Church is director Michele Soavi’s follow-up to his feature film debut, Stagefright. Billed in some areas as the third Demons entry, the film has more in common with Rosemary’s Baby and John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, released only two years prior, than it does with the series.

There is some connective tissue between the two, namely the presence of producer Dario Argento and the premise of people trapped together fending off supernatural entities. But while Demons and its sequel features superb creature makeup and tons of gore, The Church trades in surreal imagery and set pieces that form a somewhat cohesive but altogether disjointed story. 

The narrative begins in the Middle Ages, where a group of knights slaughter an entire village based on the assumption one of its citizens is a devil-worshipping witch. The knights bury the corpses in a mass grave and construct the titular church atop it, as a means of keeping the supposed evil trapped within.

Fast-forward to present day, where Evan (Tomas Arana), the church’s new librarian, arrives for his first day at work. A wannabe archeologist, Evan loathes his new job and seeks a project that will bring him fame and fortune. He thinks he’s found what he’s looking for when Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) discovers a parchment in the church’s dilapidated catacombs that appears to be hundreds of years old. Evan obsesses over the document, eventually discovering hidden passages in latin that speak of a stone with seven eyes.

This leads Evan to return to the church in the middle of the night to search for the stone. He finds it in the catacombs, affixed to a large cross on the ground, and when he moves it aside, naturally, all hell breaks loose. It becomes up to a friendly archer priest (Hugh Quarshie) and the young daughter of the church’s sacristan (Asia Argento, in one of her earliest film roles) to restore balance and keep the evil contained. 

While not much more can be said of the story, the film’s visuals and special effects deserve special recognition, in particular a shot of a winged creature embracing a nude woman — a direct reference to Boris Vallejo’s Vampire’s Kiss painting Also of note is the music, alternately by Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer fame), Philip Glass and Goblin. The Church is overall a splendid audio/visual experience that’s a must-see for fans of surreal horror. —Christopher Shultz

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While Dad’s out dining with his bitchy new girlfriend, troubled teenaged girl Morgan is grounded and home alone — well, almost home alone, if not for her invalid grandmother. 

So the prodigiously chested Morgan (Jordan Phipps, Amazon Hot Box) ditches her shirt immediately and hangs out in a red bra. Between bong rips and asthma inhaler hits, she receives creepy, increasingly obscene phone calls, likely from her incel stalker. 

The sitter-in-peril flick is an exploitation staple. Close Calls may be the only one to dare go this far. I don’t mean in content; I mean in literal running time. 

Look, as a heterosexual male, let me say unequivocally that I love boobs. But let me also say unequivocally there is no reason — none! Not even those! — for Close Calls to play out for 128 minutes. On one hand, I get that writer/director Richard Stringham (who also worked with Phipps on that year’s 10/31 anthology) would want to showcase his lovely leading lady and her special effects as much as possible. The camera placement makes that clear, especially when her face isn’t even in frame.

On the other, needless scenes litter and clutter the movie — often a problem of directors making the leap from shorts to their first feature, which is the case with Close Calls. It needs to be tight in order to be taut. For example, what does a scene of Morgan pleasuring herself add? Nothing, except for the squish-squish-squish SFX, which are more than a bit much.

So is that twist ending, which emerges from nowhere and goes to the same place. —Rod Lott

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