#satanic horror

[dogmaz]

[Skullduggery - 1983]

[melodiesofmidnight]

i love that LONGLEGS (2024) let lee harker be clearly & indisputably autistic whilst also being accepted by her colleagues as being competent and just fine as she was. nobody ever even commented amongst themselves about her personality/mannerisms. it was so refreshing to see.

[ladamarossa]

The First Omen (2024)

[euphoric-mars]

longlegs // the devil

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

The boys are in! Read my review here!

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/22/2025: HIM

While I would be hard pressed to say that Justin Tipping's sophomore feature HIM is a "good movie," it is such an interesting movie that I feel critics have done the film and its potential fans a disservice by focusing on its flaws. This baroque modern fable is thrillingly overstimulating, and while it may not meet the challenge of delivering a clearly articulated Final Word on the gender trouble faced by young Black men especially in pro ball, it sure makes a daring effort.

Tyriq Withers plays Cam, a rising football star who is called to greatness by legendary QB Isaiah White (Marlon "look at my 53-year-old muscles!" Wayans). At Isaiah's subterranean desert compound, Cam is put through a series of increasingly bizarre and sadomasochistic tests of constitution and character, leading up to the disturbing revelation of the occult system that creates every great football hero. None of this will surprise the seasoned horror viewer, who has seen this setup a thousand times, and HIM takes a big swing at so many hot topics simultaneously that it can't possibly achieve much profundity. The embattled figure of the Black father, the pressure for Black men to perform an extreme version of masculinity, the association of manliness with destructive sex and violence, the corrupting power of celebrity, the predatory grooming and disposal of professional athletes, the scourge of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and to some degree even the vampiric antics of Bryan Johnson are invoked during HIM's 96-minute run time...and I'm sure I'm missing a few obvious items, too.

From the very beginning of the movie, and especially in response to Withers' surprisingly sensitive performance, I couldn't stop thinking about American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. Though executive producer Ryan Murphy was not the primary creative force behind that true crime drama, it fits in with his other depictions of gay angst and the way violent oppression can lead to bloody backlash. I'm coming out as a Ryan Murphy apologist here; you can say what you want about his lucrative commodification of real-life misery, but I think that even in his biggest producorial missteps (I'm looking at you, Miss Gein), there is always a sincere desire for understanding. The Aaron Hernandez series, led by the achingly sympathetic Josh Andrés Rivera, addressed many (perhaps all, actually) of the issues raised by HIM with an intelligence and humanity rarely seen in TV biopics, and so I keep imagining an impossible wedding of this film and that series, with meaningfully elaborate character development AND all the homoerotic hallucinations you can eat.

But anyway, is it really so important for HIM to solve the problems of the modern age? Or, given the choice, is it better for this brief horror treat to deliver on Matthew Barney-by-way-of Sun Ra imagery, offering audiences some dietary variety in a trough of nostalgic slasher revivals and preachy social justice allegories? HIM is pretty, and often pretty exciting, and the fun-loving horror fan is well advised to just eat around the tough parts.

[skinetom]

Double Feature of 70’s HORROR ~

Legacy of Satan ~ AKA ~ Muldavo ~ 1974

Blood ~ AKA ~ Black Nightmare in Blood ~ 1973

[uncannyarchive]

Tragic Ceremony (1972), dir. Riccardo Freda