Review: My Best Friend's Exorcism (Damon Thomas, 2022)

                               My Best Friend's Exorcism's Girl Squad  (Damon Thomas, 2022)
 

I'm not immune to the plethora of horror film texts these days that look to the decade where I came of age--the 80s--with cultural nostalgia.  For me, it's largely the needle drops, for my tastes were formed by postpunk and new wave music from that period.  Likewise, I'm drawn to horror centering on women protagonists, so Damon Thomas's recent adaptation of Grady Hendrix's novel, My Best Friend's Exorcism, hits many of the marks.  The film zeroes in on Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller), best friends in the emotional hellscape of high school, who along with their two buds, Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu) and Glee (Cathy Ang), head to a girl's night of fun at Margaret's parents' summer cabin-in-the-woods.  Of course, the girls decide to pull out the Ouija board and see if any spirits are around, but initially their only surprise visitor is Margaret's crass and excessively horny boyfriend, Wallace (Clayton Johnson).  Oh, and the 5 of them decide to take LSD--although it never actually appears to work.  Abby and Gretchen decide to check out an abandoned and supposedly haunted house in the woods, because 80s horror film vibes, but are soon separated by a presence mimicking their voices and leading them astray.  I'm not giving too much away to say that something strange happens to Gretchen.

                                  Abby and Gretchen's charming (and queer leaning) friendship

While I'm sure viewers will read My Best Friend's Exorcism anyway they want, I could not help but be charmed by how adorably queer Abby and Gretchen are--even while trying to fit in to the requirements of girlhood circa 1988.  I mean, they both want to "marry" Boy George, for goodness sake, but Abby kindly is willing to relinquish The Culture Club lead singer to Gretchen, as long as she can just live with them both.  Their friendship has a heartbreaking time limit though, for Gretchen is moving two states away with her snobby Christian parents.  This note of melancholy hovers over the entire film as Abby tries desperately to help Gretchen at every turn.  Meanwhile, Gretchen's transformation through possession hits very few original notes.  She basically becomes a mean girl to all of her friends, and hurts them in a variety of personal and creative ways.  What happens to Margaret is the most disturbing, and gets some good gross-out moments into the film.

                                      The Lemon Brothers perform for their High School

I keep telling other people that have lived through the 80s, that culturally, in many ways, we're right back to where we started.  Fear of nuclear annihilation because of Russian aggression?  Check.  Prejudice and hatred toward gender fluidity and non-normative gender performance?  Check.  The rise of the religious right and their endless culture war?  Check.  Fierce fighting over women's bodies and reproductive health?  Check, Check, Check!!!  Yet, My Best Friend's Exorcism's approach to Evangelical Christianity is relatively gentle and amused in its critique, especially when it comes to The Lemon Brothers and their zeal for Jesus.  Unsurprisingly, they are hired to "perform" their literal song and dance at the private religious school to which Gretchen, Abby, Margaret, and Glee attend, espousing the pleasures of "faith" and "fitness." The Brothers are a trio of Himbos that run around, lift weights, and shout about religion with delight.  Yet, when Christian spots the sulking Gretchen in the crowd, his face turns from pleasure to horror, as he seemingly witnesses something lurking in her depths.  Since he possesses "the sight," when Abby searches him out after employing every other avenue to help her best friend, he tells her of the demon within.  The pair decide to go back to Margaret's parents' cabin and perform an exorcism.

            It's not an exorcism film without some gratuitous backbends and body mortification

Once the exorcism is underway, the focus on Abby and Gretchen's friendship veers a bit, as Christian's humorous approach to exorcising demons takes center stage.  Of course, when things get messy, he freaks out and runs away, leaving Abby to her inevitable standoff with the demon.  Then....things just kind of end.  Full disclosure, the last half hour of the film gets tedious, and you'll want to stick around to find out what happens, but there are no shocks or twists involved. While the film is a fun riff on Heathers with exorcisms, unless you're plugged into the 80s nostalgia train, and willing to take that ride, the film is not very groundbreaking.  Still, it's fun, and streaming on Amazon Prime.

Fantasia 2016--The Lure--Agnieszka Smoczynska (2015)

Golden (Michalina Olszanska) relaxes in the bath in Agnieszka Smoczynska's delightfully original The Lure (2015)

No matter what I've seen or will see at the 2016 Fantasia Film Festival this year, I pretty much guarantee that nothing will be as original or as visually and aurally inventive as Agnieszka Smoczynska's absolutely dazzling The Lure (2016).  This 80s musical fever dream about two beautiful but dangerous sirens/mermaids joining a nutso adult cabaret and finding love and food on land is startlingly gorgeous from its opening credits to its last poignant image.

Despite the Fantasia crowd's eagerness to meet this charming and talented woman director, alas, she could not make it to the festival.  In her stead, she sent a filmed introduction where Smoczynska explained how this film bubbles up from her childhood, combining fairytale elements with fond memories of being the daughter of restaurateurs.  All the while, what looked like her daughters danced with little flashlights in the background, the director's own little fairy chorus.  This sense of whimsy and fun permeated what at times could be a rather dark and foreboding tale.

One night on the beach, some wasted band members who work at a local nightclub encounter our two heroines, Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden (Michalina Olszanska) watching them from the water.  Since sirens are known for their seductive voices, the ladies begin to draw the men into the water with their bewitching song, singing "We won't eat you, my dear," although they surely will.  The sole female band-mate lets out a piercing scream, halting the process, but we soon realize that these savvy club employees see the benefits to Silver and Golden's strangely unique act, called unsurprisingly "The Lure."  They bring them to their boss, a raging pervert who is fascinated by the girls' lack of genitalia, until he pours water onto their lower half and they sprout magnificent muscular tails.  Everyone at the club quickly becomes mesmerized by their heavenly voices and their bodily transformations.

It's when Silver starts to fall for the tow-headed bass player of the band--a human--that things start to go off the rails.  Other members of the sea creature community (yes, there are others) warn the sirens that if one was to fall in love with a human, if he/she turned and loved another, superstition dictates that the siren would dissolve into sea foam.  The only cure for such a fate is to eat the fickle bastard.  While these women are certainly beautiful in their human guise, as hungry mermaids, they sprout razor sharp pointed teeth and a craving for human flesh.  Unsurprisingly, the denizens of the club soon realize that their lucrative new act is far more dangerous than they might initially appear.

Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden perform for the crowd in The Lure

Most of the film's energy comes from its unique and rather infectious musical numbers--and this praise is from someone who can honestly say despises almost all Musicals.  Spectators are introduced to the first of these scenes by a marvelous long take that tracks through the nightclub to the pulsing disco rhythms of I Feel Love.  These numbers feature a range of different styles--ballads, dance music, even a punk song that Golden performs with aplomb.  The film's dynamic mise-en-scene and cinematography ignite into a swirling array of sounds and images as number after musical number follow each other.  Everyone in the film gives energetic and strong performances, but no one outshines the two mermaid leads, who combine seductive grace and menace in equal measure.  The horror of the film is relatively subtle, but there's a "surgical" scene that elicited cheers from the Fantasia audience, who like a touch of gore with their fairy tale fantasies.

Silver looks over the wedding party from afar

Like Anna Biller's The Love Witch, The Lure explicitly comments on how fairy tale romance rarely ends well for the women (or mermaids) who succumb to such tales.  Certainly this fairy tale leans heavily toward the Grimm.  Like Biller's film, Smoczynska's debut feature is hyper-stylized, and its creative vision is also utterly unique.  With the dearth of female filmmakers showcased at Fantasia this year (and alas, most years), The Lure should convince everyone that more women's cinematic voices deserve to be heard.

The Neon Demon--Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)

Elle Fanning as aspiring model Jesse "playing dead" in Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon 2016

Ah, The Neon Demon.  I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to hate this film, or maybe I should be turning in my feminist credentials, but I oscillate back and forth between loving/hating it.  I think this review is going to come across in much the same way--sigh.  The things I hate about it though, tip the scale a bit.  I just can't write the film off as a misogynist's view of the hateful world of modeling, and the hunger for youth and beauty that is so endemic to Los Angeles and its ugly/pretty world.  I may have to see it again to make a final determination--but then I'm worried that I'll be mad at myself for succumbing to the film's temptations and seeing the thing again.  The BAD things about it are really BAD.  But it's so-o-o-o pretty!  Ugh.

Several things really appeal about Nicolas Winding Refn's latest style fest.  First off, the film is utterly gorgeous--a real visual feast.  Have a taste by watching the trailer.

Pretty/Ugly Los Angeles

Jesse walks the finale of the longest fashion show EVER

Second, I have to get a hold of this film's soundtrack, because it is truly amazing.  Cliff Martinez is an absolute genius.  Seems he's been scoring all of Winding Refn's goofy films, and most of Steven Soderbergh's as well, but he dazzles on this one.  The tracks during sleazy fashion designer Alessandro Nivola's show are truly mesmerizing, even if this super-cool visual scene (as well as all the other ones) goes on way, way, way, way too long.  Somehow I don't think Winding Refn was trying to bore his audience, but films can have some unexpected effects! Ooooh, Ahhhh, Wow, ZZZZZZZZZZZ.  That's pretty much how it went.  And repeat.  Until the last 15 minutes or so.

Channeling Helmut Newton with some Guy Bourdin thrown in for fun

Third, the sets and costumes are phenomenal.  The spaces they use for the fashion shoots, the nightclub in which they prowl, and Ruby's house-sitting manse, are truly gorgeous and embody the way I imagine really rich people in L.A. might live--if they were trapped in a Helmut Newton shoot or a remake of The Hunger.  Mind you, I like all the oodles and oodles of style that this film has on display, and I am not complaining about that.  But the story...well...

Sixteen-year old Jesse at her first (bloody) photo shoot

The film follows the young Jesse (Elle Fanning) as she heads to Los Angeles to break into the world of modeling.  Frankly, if you are going to break into modeling, you do not go to L.A. but whatever, this way is how Danish people imagine how modeling (and gender relations--see Lars Von Trier for more) must be. Jesse is a semi-self conscious gorgeous young empty vessel onto which people project their fantasies and fears.  She also seems to magically attract everyone, winning over photographers, fashion designers, and one seemingly savvy makeup artist played by Jenna Malone.

Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) hanging out at "the club"

Sarah (Abbey Lee) glares at Jesse (Elle Fanning) at a casting call

She also attracts the attention of two supernaturally gorgeous blondes, Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote), who are none too pleased to have Jesse worm her way into the scene and steals their jobs.  Viciously beautiful women out to get each other.  Check.  Some might read this film as a caustic critique of the modeling world.  I mean, everyone in the film except for poor worshipful photographer Dean (Karl Glusman) seems to want a piece of Jesse's lush innocence.  Oh right, he posed her as a corpse.  So everyone's sleazy in Los Angeles, right?  No.  I'm sorry, but this film does not effectively offer a critique of anything.  It revels in all the BAD Stuff of L.A. in all its neon-lit glory.  It cultivates a voyeuristic gaze rather than subverting it.  This film cannot have it both ways (critique/celebration), and here's where things get dicey, and I start to get disgusted.  Now I'm going to list some of the egregious stuff--***SPOILERS ahead.

Hank (Keanu Reeves) pulls out all the stops as the sleaziest motel owner EVER

I hate it when truly terrible roles happen to really good actors.  I understand that actors get these gigs and they are psyched, but then do not really know how things are going to turn out in the end.  I felt really bad for several of them.  Exhibit one: Keanu Reeves.  As actors go, I really like him, and I realize that I may be in the minority.  Whatever.  He's great in younger roles (River's Edge, My Own Private Idaho) and in more recent ones (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, John Wick).  He makes Something's Gotta Give watchable.  So to see him play the cold-hearted rapist of a 13-year old girl (thankfully we don't see that happen, but we hear it).  Well, I understand why he might be "sad."

Ruby (Jenna Malone) tries to comfort Jesse (Elle Fanning)

Exhibit two: Jenna Malone.  She's terrifically talented and I've loved her since films such as Donnie Darko and Saved!.  She definitely stole some scenes in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  So AT FIRST I was delighted to see Ruby take young Jesse under her wing, introduce her around, and provide a safe haven for Jesse after she flees that sleazy hotel (where Hank was raping that girl in the room right next door).  Ruby is a predatory lesbian though who puts the moves on Jesse, and when rejected, gets really, really murderously pissed and retaliates.

Ruby screws a look-alike corpse

But not before a memorable scene where Ruby screws a corpse that looks a bit like Jesse.  Yep.  (Ruby works part time at a funeral home putting her make-up skills to work).  Poor Jenna Malone.  She's a predatory lesbian who is also into necrophilia, murder and cannibalism.  Nice.

Jesse waxes on about how pretty she is--way better than everyone else

Exhibit three: Elle Fanning.  I guess all these young, cutie actresses performing in indies like Somewhere or Ginger and Rosa, or even in big films like Maleficent, yearn to grow up quickly and star in something truly sleazy and exploitative.  I guess she could have been in something like Spring Breakers...but is that film so much different? I think not.  For much of the film, spectators are implicated in the voyeuristic consumption of young, beautiful Jesse, and she seems a little like a pawn who will be devoured by this crass fashion industry.  Yet, as the film wears on, it suggests that Jesse's pretty aware of her effect on others, and she will use her youth and beauty to the fullest extent.  She has sleazy encounter after sleazy encounter, and after each one, the viewer catches her secret little satisfied smile.  At least that might explain her fantasy of being mouth-raped by Hank using a huge phallic knife.  Yes, you read that correctly, and the film shows you THAT.

When Jesse thinks about how lovely she is, she cannot help but touch herself

Poor Elle Fanning.  The film tries to suggest that she's more knowing than innocent, and the speech she gives about her own beauty and appeal does make her definitely annoying and despicable,  But does she really deserve to be killed and eaten by the predatory lesbian and her killer blondes (don't worry, cannibalism, like rape, is implied rather than shown).

Pretty or Pretty Awful?

Here's the thing--I actually like the cannibal part of the film, even though you don't see anything really.  To me, the fact that women are devouring the young and beautiful in order to absorb their essence makes perfect sense.  The film already demonizes women, especially queer women, so horribly--yet their murderous cannibalism is the only time in the whole film where they seem to have some agency.  Yes, you know a film's sexual politics are pretty bad when you are championing cannibalism, but honestly, when the killer ladies dispatch Jesse and eat her, something finally HAPPENS that sends the film into horror/giallo territory.  Up until that point, the film is equal parts tedium and dread. As per usual, this film could have lost 30 minutes easily with just some thoughtful editing.  That cutting doesn't necessarily make the film worth seeing, but would make it less painful (especially if I torture myself by watching it again).

The Neon Demon is not a feminist fable about the horrors of the fashion and modeling industries and the perpetual corruption of youth in the City of Angels.  Nope.  Under the Skin and Sucker Punch have similar issues.  These white male filmmakers think that if they show women being exploited and used that they are producing a "commentary" on these societal issues, when they are actually just putting more of that stuff into circulation and rationalizing it in the dumbest way imaginable.  Winding Refn's film is unfortunately just a lot of dazzlingly shiny surfaces with a truly rotten inner core.