Film Fests
[REVIEW] BHFF 2024: ‘Grafted’ Delivers One of the Best Coming-Of-Age Horror Films Since ‘Carrie’
Wei’s expansive scarring on her face and neck isn’t just a disfigurement, it is an ever-present reminder of her past: it was the same condition her father had sought to cure in both of them before his mysterious and horrific death in front of her. When her mother sends her to live with her absent aunt and estranged cousin to attend college in New Zealand, her father’s scientific experiments are brought back to life. But as Wei’s awkward attempts at assimilation intersect with her miraculous discovery, what results is an ever-maddening spiral of physical and psychological suffering, sending her falling through a grotesque biological nightmare with no end in sight.
Every year you’re bound to be caught off guard by at least one film you see at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. It’s hardly a surprise; the festival is a nexus of talent where filmmakers come together to show off some of their best work. But I certainly didn’t expect to come out of the festival having a new film I consider one of my all-time favorites. Grafted has taught me to dash my expectations going forward, and expect the unexpectedly fantastic.
Body Horror and Trauma Drive Grafted’s Harrowing Premise
Wei’s expansive scarring on her face and neck isn’t just a disfigurement, it is an ever-present reminder of her past: it was the same condition her father had sought to cure in both of them before his mysterious and horrific death in front of her. When her mother sends her to live with her absent aunt and estranged cousin to attend college in New Zealand, her father’s scientific experiments are brought back to life. But as Wei’s awkward attempts at assimilation intersect with her miraculous discovery, what results is an ever-maddening spiral of physical and psychological suffering, sending her falling through a grotesque biological nightmare with no end in sight.
There are echoes of beloved horror films past throughout Grafted; Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser are especially prominent thanks to the film’s Miskatonic premise and absolutely dastardly body horror. The effects may be heavily digital as opposed to those alumni of the subgenre, but make no mistake, they are solid and blended well with the practicals that are present. When your hard-to-pull-off flesh ripping (pun very intended) manages to make the entire theatre squirm and react out loud, you have to be doing something very right.
Horror Comedy Meets Cultural Assimilation in Grafted
Much like Re-Animator, Grafted indulges itself in some humor throughout, cutting through its harrowing themes with more tongue-in-cheek moments. The struggles of cultural assimilation the film tackles come to life through Wei’s fight to fit in, feeding into some of its more comedic moments while still maintaining the level of pensiveness needed to address the subject matter with respect. The film’s script feels less like its tightrope walking the thin line between horror comedy and horror drama, and more like its dramatic elements are being complemented as they dance with the dark sensibilities of its laughs.
This dance is undoubtedly carried by relative newcomer Joyena Sun, who is whipsmart in her performance as Wei. With a true grasp of who Wei is and the sometimes-amusing-sometimes-uncomfortable quirks that entails as a young woman trying to force herself into a new mold, Sun doesn’t just make you feel for her. You’re outright driven to root for her, and this seems to only heighten and become more intense as she makes all the wrong moves. Jess Hong (playing Wei’s cousin Angela) and Eden Hart (playing Eve, Angela’s cold friend) likewise are absolutely phenomenal, displaying expertise in their cadence and expressiveness that hails them as some of the next great horror actresses.
The way the three leads play off each other’s performances is the movie’s greatest strength, with each successive scene feeling fun and unexpected. There’s a memorable tone that reminded me of much of the fun I had watching Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama’s outing in Jennifer’s Body, and it’s most pronounced when these three are put center stage.
Sasha Rainbow’s Direction Builds a Living, Breathing World
The cinematic landscape set for them by director Sasha Rainbow proves itself to be crafted with love by her creative choices. Framing her environments to accentuate the characters on screen comes with ease. It is a funny parallel to see the mainstage of the movie is a house under construction, because Rainbow is constantly playing with the surroundings, building and rebuilding spaces to fit the mood like an architect. She’s a filmmaker who is intimately aware of the space and place she has control over.
The film’s color palette and lighting regularly shifts around, creating new and vivid moods for moments of absolutely gnarly body horror and even more disturbing emotional beats to take place in. The setting and visuals are enhanced by an original soundtrack full of exciting music, experimental pop sounds accompanying Wei on her exploration of body and self, and becoming all the more intense as things just continue to go wrong in all the best ways.
A Modern Coming-of-Age Body Horror Classic
Grafted is a perfect balance of substance and style, and one of the best additions to the pantheon of coming-of-age horror films since Raw, and even Carrie before it. It’s got everything you could want out of a body horror film, driven by an ensemble of up-and-coming talent bringing to life the vision of Rainbow’s strong new voice in the genre. I’m eagerly awaiting its distribution to Shudder, as it easily deserves its soon-to-be-found fan-favorite status. Be sure to keep your eyes (and maybe just a little bit of your skin) peeled for this one.
Grafted played at Brooklyn Horror Film Fest on October 21st, 2024, and will be heading to Shudder January 24th, 2025.
Corpus
Corrin Evans premiered her debut feature film Corpus at Fantasia Film Festival.
Corpus is a steamy thriller set in 1997 New York, which follows a group of friends who travel to a remote mansion for a party, though what they find is not quite what they expected.
Intimacy and consent are at the heart of this film. The characters often long for and lust after each other, and Evans makes sure that the audience feels every breath and every touch. The film looks exquisite, thanks in part to cinematographer Charlie Cole. Together they designed a lighting setup using either natural lighting or very hot tungsten lights (which added to the steamy aesthetic). “I just love the body,” explained Evans at the world premiere in Montreal. “I knew I wanted it to feel very visceral and flowing from the gut, like you’re really with these characters up close. I wanted to be able to feel skin and pores.”
Having worked as an intimacy coordinator for several years, Evans brought her industry experience to both the story and her directing choices. Co-writer and actor Lily Cowles (who plays Billie in the film) praised Evans for her directing style. “I’ve often thought the reason that you’re a good director is the same reason you’re a good intimacy coordinator.” Cowles continued, adding that “when you’re on set, there’s a level of safety and an openness, and you can really trust that Corrin’s going to keep you in that pocket.”
So much of Corpus was crafted by the hands of the cast and the crew. Many of the effects were done practically (including one devastating moment that we will not spoil here), and the main location – an old mansion – was dressed and designed to feel authentically lived in. Even the score, composed by VAAAL (pronounced like wall with a v), was created using an organic process. “ I’ve been wanting to work with him forever,” explained Evans about their collaboration. “He’s an insane musician.”
Corpus will leave your skin crawling in all the best possible ways.
Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage
Louise Weard showcased an excerpt from the third part of her anthology epic Castration Movie at Fantasia Film Festival last month.
Weard’s epic anthology film is all about exploring “trans-temporality”, as she explained to the Fantasia crowd. “Your timeline gets so skewed in an interesting way, where transition becomes this benchmark.” Her original intent was to release one long 24h film as a way to reclaim that lost time, so to speak. She uses her family’s digital camcorder to shoot everything and uses tapes of her as a child to record and re-record her footage. She writes, directs, shoots, and edits everything, often exploring very dark topics.
While this may sound intimidating on paper, Weard writes with a vicious sense of humor, and has an excellent sense of how to balance sincerity with cringe. This particular section focuses its story on a romantic couple as one partner transitions. Weard’s excerpt produced maybe the most visceral reactions of the festival, with audience members actively heckling one of the onscreen characters during the film’s final act. While previous chapters have featured both graphic and sexually explicit content, this part focused instead on a kind of deep emotional trauma that is usually left to the most toxic of internet forums.
“This movie is my parody of Lawrence Anyways,” quipped Weard (who is trans herself) as the audience was still reeling from the film. She went on to explain how often trans stories are told from the perspective of the cis gaze, that the narrative arc focuses on how a cis person feels about another person’s transness. Weard’s camera work often zooms into the cis partner’s eyes as they watch their trans partner go about their day. “We’re going to really put that gaze under the microscope, almost literally in terms of how zoomed in we are on those eyes. And I think it creates a horror atmosphere in a lot of ways.”
The full scope of Castration Movie is yet to be revealed. Castration Movie Anthology i: Traps has a daunting runtime of 4h 35m, while Castration Movie Anthology ii: The Best of Both Worlds runs 5h. The excerpt presented at Montreal’s International Fantasia Festival ran 2h 10m, though Weard plans to release the full Castration Movie Anthology iii: Year of the Hyaena later this year, and is already working on an Anthology IV and V. “I like to think of it at this point like show running. Because it’s been literally nonstop production for coming up on four years. I’ve been shooting every weekend for four years.”
Weard was working as a PA when she started shooting her film, but “unfortunately, I kept running out of money,” she laughed, and of course the 2023 writer’s strike did not help her situation. She decided to release segments of her film to raise funds so she could keep shooting. With this specific 2h segment, Weard hopes to bring more audiences into her universe. “This gets to be the easy access point where someone can demo the castration movie experience for just two hours and decide if they want to commit to the whole 24-hour endeavor,” she chuckled.
After the immense success of their sophomore film I Saw The TV Glow, Jane Schoenbrun returns to the big screen this month with their highly anticipated third film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The film is a true celebration of queerness, self-exploration, and the joys of breaking free.
Hannah Einbinder stars as Kris, an awkward, queer indie filmmaker tasked with reviving the ‘problematic’ slasher franchise Camp Miasma. In order to chip away at her writer’s block, she travels to the snow covered camp that inspired the franchise to meet Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the reclusive star of the initial film. Jack Haven, who captivated audiences as Maddy in I Saw The TV Glow, plays the mesmerizing, mischievous slasher villain Little Death, a figure who haunts both Kris and Billy as they uncover the mysteries of the camp.
“I remember being like, ‘It is very important in the very first scene of the movie that there’d be a huge fucking geyser of blood,’” Schoenbrun told Deadline at Cannes this year. Schoenbrun felt it was important that Camp Miasma differentiate itself from the painful sadness of I Saw The TV Glow. “With this, I want people to feel like we’re hanging out. We’re sharing a joint on the porch and eating candy and talking about real things.”
Photo Credit: Charles-Antoine Marcotte
Fantasia Film Festival Highlights the Power of Queer Community Filmmaking
The ‘hang-out-vibe’ was just as important behind the scenes as it was on screen. Following the film’s Canadian premiere at Montreal’s International Fantasia Film Festival, Schoenbrun spoke at a panel alongside Einbinder, Avalon Fast, Louise Weard, and Alice Maio Mackay (Fast and Weard both appear in Camp Miasma, Weard and Mackay both had films screening at the festival). The group talked about friendship and the importance of community filmmaking. Fast confirmed that they’d been filming footage for a behind the scenes documentary about the making of Camp Miasma, and everyone expressed delight at being able to make art alongside each other.
“One of the biggest obstacles we have is that trans people don’t get hired on set very often, which thankfully all of us have corrected within our production capacities, on our sets specifically,” said Weard when talking about her own project, Castration Movie. When the question came up of making radical queer art under a capitalist umbrella, Weard continued, laughing that “any success we get, beyond our community that we’re making [our art] for, is just siphoning money from the bourgeois class, and then giving it out to other trans people, trans artists, people who need their rent paid, whatever.”
Jane Schoenbrun on Making Trans Art Without Creative Expectations
The conversation also delved into the intrinsic pressure of ‘needing’ to make art about trans/queerness as a trans/queer artist. “You’re making trans films if you’re trans” said Schoenbrun, while explaining there was no specific need to make all of one’s art about one’s own transness. “Cis dudes, they’re not like ‘how do I make a movie about being a cis dude?’ They’re just like ‘it’s the ~ ~ mafia ~ ~ ‘,” they laughed.
“Such a big part of how I taught myself to make movies was just being like, oh yeah, I know this grocery store.” With Camp Miasma, Schoenbrun continues to rely on the familiar, in the best possible way. “It’s X-Files and Twin Peaks, you know? Those are my primary reference points.” Camp Miasma is indeed loaded with references to many beloved franchises, including Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th, and Videodrome, though knowing those intellectual properties is far from necessary (everything is spelled out in the title). Nor is the film an ironic nod or a parody of those properties. “We were really thinking about how it felt like as a kid to watch those things [scary movies],” Schoenbrun explained at the Cannes premiere.
How Camp Miasma Blends Slasher Horror With Surreal Visual Storytelling
Every penny of the relatively small budget was clearly put to use making this film. There is a gorgeous opening sequence filled with artifacts that explain the lore behind the fictional Miasma franchise, and there is an impressive killing spree that was shot in one take and set to “A Long December” by Counting Crows. “It’s still probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do as an actor, just in terms of physical intensity,” Haven told Deadline back in May. Schoenbrun and cinematographer Eric Yue nailed the slasher aesthetic, often using dramatic shadows and buckets of blood, but they also create truly beautiful, surrealist landscapes that heighten the emotional drama swirling around the two main characters.
Why Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Is One of Jane Schoenbrun’s Best Films
With Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun cements their reputation as both a must see filmmaker and a sharp writer. Their work consistently nails the feelings and complexities of relationships rooted in our very online world, starting with their debut feature We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (which premiered at a virtual Sundance due to the COVID-19 pandemic). There’s a stickiness that’s unique to Schoenbrun’s writing. Certain phrases ring so right, they feel like they could open a portal to a new universe. They often do!
Camp Miasma blurs the lines between nightmare and fantasy, and taps into a feeling horror fans know all too well. “It’s such a joyful thing” expressed Schoenbrun at the Fantasia panel, about making films with their peers. “You make these things to share with people.” There is a carnal thrill to feeling scared from the comfort of one’s own home, and Schoenbrun feeds that feeling to their characters. As Gillian Anderson’s Billy whispers with a knowing smile, life is all about two things; flesh and fluids.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma opens in theaters on August 7th
