A throwback to the dark FBI procedurals of the 1990s, with a twist of ’80s Satanic panic, the first great movie from writer-director Osgood ‘Son of Anthony’ Perkins opens a pit in your stomach in the first minutes. Nicolas Cage, looking like a cross between Marilyn Manson and a crazy cat lady, is the titular serial killer who purports to serve ‘the main downstairs’, but he’s really more spectre than star here The film’s true anchor is Maika Monroe, assuming the Clarice Starling role as a rookie agent investigating a series of grisly murders who seems to know more than even she is fully aware of. She’s at once hypnotic and seemingly hypnotised, and confirms the promise flashed in It Follows as a scream queen for the era of elevated horror. Know as little as possible going in and watch a cult classic in the making unfolding in front of you.
We’re only just past halfway through but 2024 is already starting to feel like a gala year for horror. There’s been everything from deviously meta spins on demonic possession flicks (Late Night With the Devil) to a paleolithic Blair Witch Project (Out of Darkness) to an alien invasion horror conducted at a whisper (A Quiet Place: Day One).
And ahead are singular scare-fests and bloodbaths from up-and-coming filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun and Tilman Singer, returning auteurs like Coralie Fargeat and some guy called Tim Burton. Right now, Oz Perkins’ chilling serial killer procedural Longlegs and Chris Nash’s slowburn slasher In a Violent Nature are turning the temperature right down in cinemas with superlative genre filmmaking that will haunt your nightmares. If you like things dark and disturbing, tick these off your list asap.
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