Halloween Films: Cannibalism as a Metaphor for Colonialism

I watched Cannibal Holocaust(1980) and a more recent film that was inspired by it the Green Inferno(2013).

TW: cannibalism(obviously), sa, animal abuse, racism

( Read more... )

Halloween Films III

Here's short reviews of some more films I've watched:

It Follows (2014)

First film that scared me (one jumpscare). The thought of an entity that changes it shapes following you... I have to say I was never scared when it was a woman but when it took the form of a man I was scared. It has beautiful cinematography and at the end it's a romance as well. The protagonist has a very stoic face which sometimes annoyed me but overall I liked this film.

Les iles (2017)

Short film by Yann Gonzales (who directed Knife + Heart). Slasher inspired queer erotica. Visually stunning.

Cuckoo (2024)

I watched this because Hunter Schafer is in the main role (her first one!). The film isn't scary to me but it was really mysterious and fascinating. It takes place in a hotel in the Alps and I really loved the cinematography in this film. It also has some lesbianism so naturally I loved it

I saw the TV Glow (2024)


I've seen many people talk about this film and it lived up to the hype and it might be one of my top favorite films I've watched this year. It's a trans allegory but I could relate to it as a lesbian. The horror of the film is more on the existential level. The acting and the cinematography is amazing. Adolescent queer angst and existential crisis and the importance of queer friendship and self acceptance really touched my feelings. I also really loved how it touched on the fact how a tv series shaped their lives and how they lived in a fiction rather than reality - I often thought about are there going to be queer art that deals with the fact that many of us grow up as isolated nerds who consume lot of media that shapes our identity. 

Halloween Films: Pause/Thoughts

Halfway through the month and I've watched some films but I'm constatly putting new ones to my watchlist but I'm at a point where I don't know what to watch next. There are lot of horror fans on tiktok and I've been looking through their recommendations. I've had to kind of estimate what is the scariest or grossest I can watch. I don't want to lose sleep for many nights. There is this popular iceberg for fucked up films which has 7 levels and the most shoking film I've seen(Cannibal Holocaust) is on tier 4. Out of pure curiosity I checked some videos about the films on the lowest levels. It seems like they're all just gore. I saw some clips that were really scary and disturbed me. They all seem to be very low budget found footage films. I feel like I would be really fucked up if i watched some of those films. I'm not so decensitized after all.

I don't know the psychology of watching horror films and I've talked about this with my therapist and she said that it could be comforting to watch your unshaped fears and horror take place on a screen and put into a story format. I've been thinking that nothing can be scarier than the fear and anxiety I've produced on my own without any influence from horror films. I've read dark/toxic/problematic BL and the combination of horror and romance (hurt/comfort) is something I really like...

So I think I will stay away from gore and the more scarier paranormal ones (I had a religious upbringing so I still do believe in the devil...sometimes).
Right now I want to watch more American classics, Dario Argento, and some Thai horror.
I think I will focus on less scarier ones... unless my morbid curiosity takes over me...