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Does the Director's Cut make Midsommar better? Midsommar is a 2019 cult horror movie notable for its use of bright settings and colors while depicting a slow burn terror. Smiling faces and open dwellings are tinged with impending doom. The main characters are a group of graduate school students traveling from the USA to Sweden for a multi-day midsummer festival. William Jackson Harper plays Josh, an anthropology graduate student working on his thesis about Medieval Midsummer Festivities in Europe. Josh's friend Pelle is a member of the Hårga, a secretive and isolated community in Sweden that celebrates midsummer with a series of big festivities every 90 years. Pelle invites Josh to spend the festival with them as part of his trip to research his thesis. Their friend group includes Will Poulter who plays Mark and Christian who is played by Jack Reynor; both of which have their own motivations for attending. Mark comes along on the trip for fun, not caring about the cultural aspects but rather the stereotype of Swedish women being attractive while Christian's motivations are a bit more guarded, him also pursuing his thesis but without a declared topic. Two other outsiders are brought by Pelle's commune brother, Ingemar, from London, England where he’s been living. The two are a couple, Connie played by Ellora Torchia and her fiancé Simon played by Archie Madekwe. The commune is called the Hårga, living in remote Sweden the fifty or so member group comes off as friendly and light. Grandma Siv and Father Odd, played by Gunnel Fred and Mats Blomgren respectively, are two of the elder leaders that orchestrate much of the rituals and coordination of the cult. Other members include Maja played by Isabelle Grill, a younger member who pursues Christian upon his arrival. A group of women members surround Dani as the plot progresses, some of which are Inga played by Julia Ragnarsson, Ulla played by Liv Mjönes, Hanna played by Louise Peterhoff, Dagny played by Agnes Westerland, and Karin played by Anna Åström.   Some of the other members include Dan played by Björn Andrésen, Irma played by Anki Larsson who has since passed away, Ulf played by Henrik Norlén, and Ylva played by Katarina Weidhagen who play essential roles in the rituals that make up the 9-day midsummer festival. CAUTION: This is the one and only trigger warning in the video for images, audio, and subject matter. Gruesome images have been blurred but subject matters in the movie will also be in this video so please proceed with caution. Topics like cults, brainwashing, toxic relationships, murder, and more are all included in the Midsommar plot. From this point on the video will also contain spoilers about the Midsommar Director's Cut. PLOT BREAKDOWN INTRODUCTION & PRE-TRIP Prior to the trip coming together the film opens with Dani's sister sending her a handful of messages late at night while Dani is in her studio apartment. She is trying to get ahold of her sister but instead calls a close friend and then Christian to check in if she is overreacting or if she is rightfully worried. Off rip it’s clear she doesn’t trust herself and what happens next only deepens her mistrust in herself. Christian is at a restaurant with his friends, Mark, Josh, and Pelle, discussing Christian’s need to follow through with his plan to dump Dani. He complains that her reliance on him emotionally is too much due to her sister and family life being unpredictably unstable and her needing his support. It’s clear that the group has a varying degree of opinion on the matter, with Josh being quite uninterested and mostly focused on the trip, Pelle seeming concerned and wanting to provide the other side, and Mark being a typical d-bag recommending that he break up with her based on how many hot women he could pursue and sleep with then.   While there he receives another call from Dani and through the phone we can hear her guttural sobs, so harsh on her throat she breaks into whooping coughs from deep in her chest. The despair is striking, and he immediately rushes to her apartment in the snow. We learn that her sis commit suicide while also killing their parents. She does so by carbon monoxide poisoning via gas she has pumped directly into their room from the exhaust pipes of their cars. We cut to inside and Dani and Christian appear in the center of the room with minimal lighting on the couch, him holding her as she grapples with the grief of her new reality. Dani and Christian keep heading towards breakup after her family's deaths. In a cool pan outside the window into the title card and then back into the window following sunshine that informs there’s been a time jump. Dani is dealing with depression following her family's deaths and Christian looking to get back to normal life sooner rather than later, wants to go out to a party. At this party Dani struggles to focus on the conversations, drowning out the world around her until the summer trip to Sweden is mentioned. An awkward and uncomfortable interaction ensues of the party group all poorly trying to figure out what they can and cannot talk about in the convo due to Dani’s prescence. This interaction is interspersed with their car ride home and Christian on his phone being weird.   In a scene from the director's cut we see Dani talking with Christian about the trip after she finds out at the party and this scene adds crucial context to their relationship. Christian has obviously done something hurtful in this scenario but rather than feeling badly that he hurt someone he loves he flips it and makes her apologize for her reaction. He comes up with the flimsy excuse that he had planned to ask her in a romantic way, saying her being a part of the trip had always been the plan. It's vaguer in the theatre release without details about their relationship like this one, rather than feeling like Christian gaslights Dani and is awful we see it in real time and have it as an example to refer to during the movie when more behavior like this is displayed.   Christian tells the group that he invited Dani as she's arriving at the apartment to talk about the trip. They're put in the position to not say no when presented with this as it would mean telling Dani, who's family just died, they don't want her there on their bro-trip. Director's cut includes a shot of Christian behind Dani, hunching over her like a bear in the reflection behind the group as we see their reactions. It's clearly awkward for everyone but they all believe there's a different cause for that awkwardness. Christian has built Dani up to be a villain to his friend group, we have no idea how true or untrue this is but he's implied at this point she's overbearing and expects too much emotional support from him. FIRST ARRIVING IN SWEDEN The movie transitions from the apartment in the college town to an airplane bathroom that Dani has just entered to cry in another moment of panic. The door slams behind her and she covers her mouth to muffle her panicked screams. She returns to her seat with red eyes and worried awkward looks from the group, making it seem like a similarly uncomfortable situation had ensued that triggered her panic. The group arrives in Sweden and makes it to a camp where they'll stay overnight before continuing onto the community. During the long car ride Dani notices that one of Josh's books he's brought is a book about Nazi symbols. She asks about this, and he explains the connection but not in a way that is at all calming. This peaked my mind to the fact that they already seemed very Aryan-race cult-like without this detail prior.   Stopping to camp overnight just outside of the Hårga commune and at the camp they all do shrooms. Expectedly Dani has a bad trip, at first feeling like she's one with the grass beneath her in a disturbing image but then Mark mentions that they feel like family, his actual family and she snaps into panic, running down the hill towards other groups. She further panics after thinking another group is laughing at her and she runs into the outhouse nearby. In a jump scare we see Dani look in the mirror and think she sees her sister with the hose in her mouth behind her in the mirror and she runs into the forest after rushing out of the outhouse. She blacks out and wakes in the clearing the next day being informed from a seemingly annoyed group that they'd found her, and she'd slept for a long time. While asleep she has an eerie dream about her parents and sister sitting watching TV in the dark. They meet two other outsiders at the camp, from London and brought by Pelle's brother, Ingemar. The couple met briefly after Ingemar tried to unsuccessfully date the woman, Connie around the same time she met her now fiancé, Simon.   ARRIVING AT THE HÅRGA COMMUNE Following the very awkward waking they make their way to the commune by traveling through the forest to another clearing where they reside. Immediately they are given shots and a treat while meeting various community members already dressed in traditional garb. Particularly striking for the open spaces filled with bright colors and white clothed commune members. They meet several Hårga members who all seem friendly, nice, and accommodating to the outsiders. Josh has lots of questions about the community, being knowledgeable but wanting clarification on details of their midsummer festivities. Despite asking about the yellow A-frame hut he's brushed off and we begin the never-ending obscuring and assuring from commune-members when things seem wonky. No one really gives direct answers ever about what is going on or why, they often speak in motivational sounding phrases or philosophies about life rather than direct information. They end up seated as dances are done around them, Maja, a young girl in the commune kicking Christian as she goes by denoting, she is interested in him. Pelle gives Dani a drawing of her that he has done for her birthday, and she tells him that Christian forgot. At the place they'll be sleeping they are informed about some of the key practices and values of the commune including their philosophy on seasons of life. Pelle informs them they'll be doing an "attestupa" ceremony the next day which only Josh knows the meaning of. Josh teases the group and refuses to tell them what the ceremony is. FIRST CEREMONY The first ceremony starts the next day with a feast and two elder members of the commune come out during it, starting the eating, and leading the feast to a close with some odd chanting. After a group shot, they are carried in chairs up a cliff while the rest of the Hårga stand below. The ceremony is the two elders cutting their hands and smearing their blood on ruins at the top of a cliff and then jumping to their death on the below rocks in front of the Hårga and group of friends. Shocked and appalled Simon and Connie want to leave immediately and even try to stop the ceremony. The man doesn't die on impact and part of the ceremony is other members using a giant mallet to crush his head four separate times. Not only brutal but disgusting each hammer blow intensifies Simon and Connie's calls to leave. Siv, the leader, talks to Connie and Simon about the ritual and explains that it's a sacred honor and something each member does when they turn 72. Dani starts to panic similarly to how she did after taking shrooms or back in the apartment when she ran to the bathroom. She rushes to the edge of the commune rather than back to the main lodge with the rest of the group to cry. While she is breaking down Christian decides he's not only inspired by the Hårga but is fascinated enough to do a thesis on the unknown and mysterious death cult. Immediately following the ceremony, they end up back in the lodge, both finding they're not as impacted by the ceremony as Dani, Simon, and Connie had been.   Christian tells Josh that he plans to do his thesis on the Hårga community and their midsummer festival, the same thing that Josh plans to do his on. The trip having been a creation of Josh's desire to do his thesis on medieval celebrations of midsummer. This scene confirms that the things we're seeing between Chris and Dani are features of Chris' personality. He is selfish and gaslights his way out of admitting when he is in the wrong. Chris suggests he's open to collaborate with Josh but that he'll do his thesis on the Hårga regardless of what he does. Following this back and forth when Josh finally tells Chris to fuck off.   Chris starts making his rounds in the community, meeting Maja and having an uncomfortable conversation while as part of his quote-unquote, "research" for his thesis. Dani decides to leave after witnessing the ceremony and Pelle comes across her when she's packing, coming to convince her to stay.   He offers her a sniffing herb thing to calm her down that she ends up using of her own volition later in the film and shares his own personal loss of his mother and father in a fire earlier in the film. He explains to Dani that the cult took him in and made him part of the family--which to that I wonder, were his parent’s victims of the cult also?   The timeline of the cult is in question particularly around the May Queens and whether they do that each year or once every 92 years as suggested earlier. In addition to this detail there is a wall of photos said to show the May Queens of the past but the number of photos is far too many to suggest it occurred only once every 92 years considering the probable age of the cult. The way Pelle explains the loss of his family and the Hårga picking him back up sounds like a roadmap of cult control. They find him in (or create the circumstances surrounding) his lowest and darkest state. They then prey upon his need and desire for family, community, and purpose. He is brought in like one of their own immediately, something he cites as a positive and reason he loves the Hårga. Pelle even suggesting to Dani that that could be a possibility for her this early on, reminiscent of love bombing tactics. Josh finally talks to Pelle about covering the Hårga traditions and people in his thesis to which he's informed Chris has already done so. Chris had already asked, and Pelle had passed along the request to the elders of the community. He makes it clear that they'd probably have to do it in tandem with one another and that they'd need to change details to keep the true identity a secret. Chris catches up with Dani outside and calms her despite concerns and discomfort around the ceremony he's able to make her question her feelings by brushing their differences as simply cultural. Chris compares their suicide ceremony to out the conditions of nursing homes in America. His intentions are to selfishly stay for his thesis despite her being uncomfortable and wanting to leave. While they're going back and forth the group passes by where they're chatting on their way to another ceremony. THE SECOND CEREMONY (DIRECTOR'S CUT) The group comes by on their way to another, secret ceremony and they go along. At this ceremony a badly acted skit plays out with a young boy in the community offering himself as a sacrifice to the universe. The ritual entails him wearing a vest covered in locks, metal, pictures, and other trinkets then being thrown into the lake nearby by two other Hårga and a boulder on his lap.   Dani panics during this skit but since it's not real it ends with them deciding not to sacrifice the boy after all citing his bravery as good enough. This further upsets Dani and she rushes off into the woods, more steadfast in her decision to leave but also now believing the group to be dangerous. Dani and Christian have a fight after she rushes off where he accuses her of being conniving and transactional with acts of kindness towards him. He goes as far as to claim her collecting flowers for him earlier in the day on a whim had been calculated. It is so out of left field that she doesn't register what he's even talking about when he references her gifting him flowers. Whether intentional or not I like that at first Chris is rightfully going after Dani, as the circumstance would shake out with rational adults. Mid conversation however Chris starts to storm off instead and they switch sides on screen with her chasing after him in the conversation. It's a visual representation of the shifting of blame in their relationship.   During this fight Christian reveals he hadn't wanted Dani to come originally and Dani reveals she sensed the impending breakup. She states he had been in the devaluation stage, having already passed through depersonalization towards her. Dani is a psych student and I felt that reminding the audience while she's mid brainwash was a smart tool to reengage the viewer if they'd started to see through the cult, heightening the WTF of the movie more so in the director's cut.   There's a stigma around cult members and an idea that one would be impervious to a cult's tricks and mind games unlike the members. A stigma rooted in the belief that cults only brainwash the weaker or less intelligent. This however leaves us more susceptible because without this reminder to humble your perception you find yourself questioning if the Hårga are really that bad when watching the theatrical release. This stigma makes it seem less scary when the Hårga is doing seemingly innocuous things because you feel you'd be able to tell, you'd be able to stop it, but Dani is a seemingly smart woman who is literally noticing the cult behavior and bizarre nature and has the educational background to know what she's talking about but is still victim to them. IMPORTANT RISING ACTION They return to the lodge to sleep for the night and it's unclear where the two-stand other than a fundamental disagreement about who's in the wrong. Dani has a nightmare that the group gets up in the middle of the night and leaves without her. She goes outside to scream but only black smoke comes out, she sees flashes of her family's bodies on the rock the two elders had jumped onto earlier in the day.   Dani dreams that night that the group leaves that night without her and that they drive off in a car, Mark laughing at her. She screams but no sound comes out, only black smoke. Her largest fear is abandonment which makes sense and makes her perfect for Christian who does reckless and selfish things but expects apologies if you're upset about it. Maja is awake and places a rune underneath Chris' bed, something we know from earlier in the film to be part of an ancient love spell that begins with the rune under the bed. Josh is awake and witnesses her do this, he seems to be starting to question the group's transparency with them. The following day Mark pisses on the tree where all the elder's ashes are spread, inciting Ulf to lose it. This understandably upsets and angers another member, leaving him distraught and looking for retribution against Mark. Mark doesn't understand what the issue is and protests it's just a tree more than a few times. Christian laughs at the Hårga's upset reaction, having not witness Mark piss on the tree and just approaching to Mark being called out. He brushes it off as Mark-being-Mark, no biggie.   At dinner that night Mark is pulled aside and led into the forest with a woman he believes has been making eyes at him since they arrived. Tensions at the dinner build between the group of friends and Christian eats a meat pie with a pube in it, presumably from Maja. Christian also consumes what appears to be her menstrual blood in his juice which had been earlier alluded to in a tapestry portraying a pagan love spell. Josh sneaks out of their cabin at night and into the temple where he takes loud and bright photos of their sacred text. He's caught by a commune member wearing Mark's face with his penis out and is bashed over the head. His body is dragged off camera leaving a blood trail. Dani dreams that night that the group leaves that night without her and that they drive off in a car, Mark laughing at her. She screams but no sound comes out, only black smoke. Her largest fear is abandonment which makes sense and makes her perfect for Christian who does reckless and selfish things but expects apologies if you're upset about it. THINGS GO SOUTH & DANI'S TRANSITION The next day Dani accidentally starts participating in their May Queen dance competition after drinking hallucinogenic tea. Having befriended some of the women they dance gleefully and at one point Dani believes she can speak Swedish and that another commune member can understand her. The girls are all falling into one another while following instructions to stop, reverse, and go in their drug induced state.   Dani ends up being the last one standing, which made me wonder if her ability to deal with a panicked state and loss of control of her body if that made her more likely to be able to stay standing and dancing during the dance competition or if they intentionally kept her going and knocked themselves out. Dani is crowned the May Queen, and they settle into a feast that she is now commanding. At the feast Dani hallucinates that the plants on the chair are moving and the group takes more shots. The food is pulsing on the table, and we start to see and hear details we hadn't before, like flies buzzing around the table and that the food is rather grotesque looking. Christian is starting to panic, not having wanted to take the hallucinogenic drinks earlier and fearing something is amiss.   Post feast Dani is taken in a carriage drawn by women Hårga members to a clearing to complete another ritual. During this ritual they bury meat, eggs, and rice and do a dance with torches atop this mound while singing. Christian is led away from the feast by a path of flowers to the temple where Hårga men undress him and dress him in a white smock, all the while he's having a bad trip. He's led into a room where naked Hårga women stand around Maja in a semicircle with her on a bed of flowers, also naked. They begin to have sex and the women in the room start moaning along, mimicking Maja. This whole scene is wild and a total escalation in a less than expected direction. Prior to this scene it seemed like despite the cult ritualistic practices and ceremonies they generally had free will and didn't do much weirdness. This however is extremely weird, even at one point a Hårga woman assisting with the completion of the ritual and Maja exclaiming she can feel the baby already post-nut. Dani decides to go into the temple during the ceremony because she hears the moaning from outside and has a bad feeling. She peeks through the keyhole in the door and witnesses the ceremony, instantly sickened and distraught. She goes outside, vomiting right outside the temple and being held up and carried off by women in the commune. They lay Dani in her bed and try to comfort her but in her distraught state she crawls to the floor wanting to leave only to be mimicked by them. They match her cries of pain, and all of the women scream and cry on the floor together. An example of trauma bonding in real time through actions on screen rather than words.   Christian gets post-nut mid-drug induced haze clarity and runs out of the temple. With no where else to go he hides in the chicken coup only to find Simon in a medieval torture method not even confirmed to have taken places called a blood eagle. His lungs are ripped from his back and hung like wings above him, still breathing in the movie. In complete shock and fear Christian turns to run out of the barn but is met by a community elder who blows dust into his face. He's paralyzed and falls to the ground, seeing Pelle peering in from outside watching his demise with glee. Hårga men approach and close his eyes, turning the screen to black. THE CEREMONY'S FINALE Our POV is through Christian's eyes first, opening one at a time to show Ulla in his face telling him to come to. Dani sits on a platform stage on a flower throne, looking like a bee's fantasy covered head to toe in flowers. She's informed that the midsummer festivities will culminate in the final sacrifices of nine. One of which will be drawn from a rusty, busted lottery machine with wooden balls inside, each with a name written in runes on it to represent a community member.   We're informed that 5 of the 4 of the sacrifices are Hårga and are the man and woman who commit suicide, two volunteers Ingemar and Ulf while the other 4 are Mark, Josh, Simon, and Carrie the latter two having been brought by Ingemar. The May Queen picks between a random community member chosen via the lottery and Christian. Dani chooses Christian as the 9th and final sacrifice and the Hårga get to work with final preparations. The yellow A frame that had been off limits before is the final ceremony site where all 9 will be sacrificed. Christian is put inside of a disemboweled bear that the cult had brushed off when asked about earlier. He's placed in the center of the temple with the other sacrifices all of which are dead except the two Hårga volunteers. Mark, Josh, Simon, and the two elderly are brought in, and Connie is wearing the same tunic that the boy had been wearing in the skit, she's soaked seemingly drowned as part of the ritual they claimed not to do. The A frame is set on fire from the inside and the cult members watch as it burns, the flames engulfing the frozen and silent Christian while we hear the screams of Ulf burning alive. THE ENDING IS THE CLIMAX The screams of Ulf dying are mimicked by the cult members who all break into crazed screams and Revelations the spirit is within your body movements. What had felt ordered not long ago was now fully out of control and Dani sobs as the group descends into madness. As the temple collapses and the ritual is complete Dani looks at it falling and smiles, her eyes exhausted and red from crying. Rather than watching a midsummer festival we had watched a cult induct another member while strengthening and solidifying the ties of the current cult members. CAMERA ANGLES Director Ari Aster and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski used camera angles to add context to relationships, foreshadow, and cause distress. For example, atypical camera angles induce discomfort or disgust, and wide angled shots are used to show that a lot of things are always happening. In addition, the use of reflective surfaces to build tension and show both actors during conversations adds suspense and at times a physical cringe.   The way that Christian grabs onto from behind Dani in the apartment that the group is hanging out in adds a layer of discontent to his actions that confirm the weird feelings about him are founded despite the manipulation. Scene changes in the start building the plot are beautifully seamless going from a dingy college apartment hallway to an airplane bathroom and an upside down shot while they travel to Pelle's hometown, where the midsummer festival will take place.   Wide shots while at the Hårga commune is contrasted with closer shots back in the college town. Open, wide spaces on screen give the appearance of freedom and juxtapose the very unfree feeling circumstances of the outsiders. The bright colors also serve as an eerie juxtaposition to the dark imagery and actions of the cult. Elders present you with terrible options while smiling with encouragement, young ladies pursue you to steal your sperm, everything is drugged and apparently the food sucks. Their tapestries and walls covered in violence, genitalia, and sex depicted in bright and flowery designs causes you to do a double take and question yourself, "am I just being judge mental and weird?" rather than an immediate association with darkness and danger. Details are included, and sometimes tucked away, in the background of a shot in half focus. The attention to detail gives you something to look at that adds to the plot no matter where you look, like looking at a perfectly crafted diorama of the scene, Hereditary reference intended. The Hårga smile, are calm and reassuring as awful things are happening around them, the most emotion seen is mirroring in the final scene. Most of the mirroring scenes are close shots, focused on the human participants rather than the scene itself. Florence's ability to break down in a way that comes across as gut wrenching as her performance is chef's kiss good. She's truly amazing in this movie but I will also add that everyone plays their roles exceptionally well. THE HARGA CULT One thing we do know for sure by the end of the movie is the Hårga's connection to real world cult conspiracy theories like that of the Nazis and Elder Euthark runes. In addition, some runes have become associated and co-opted by hate groups typically of a white supremacist nature, so not good.   To add to those clues most of the characters are blonde haired and blue-eyed people which is typical in groups based around Aryan heritage. At one point we see Josh's book cover that talks about the connection of Nazism to the Uthark language. Prior to the first ceremony we learn about the life cycle of the Hårga and the significance of each stage. Those stages are 0-18 which is childhood and the spring of life, 18-34 is a pilgrim which is the summer of life, 34-54 age group are laborers and in their fall, and then 54-72 Hårga are considered mentors in their winter. It is asked what happens after 72 and the ceremony is alluded to, but Mark and Chris say they know and won't say anything. That is even wilder when considering what Dani recently went through and their knowledge of her attending said ceremony the next day--bizarre behavior from both. They sit at an Rahdio rune shaped table at the start which means ride or journey, it can also have to do with rhythm and land travel which the Hårga proceed to do up to the top of the cliff. It isn't fully clear what the overarching goal is of the midsummer festival. The Hårga believe it's a time of thanks and sacrifice to purify themselves and the land for the next harvest. On the other hand, it seems to be at least one if not the one recruitment audition and ceremony coupled with a hopeful impregnation and additional member. It also seems to serve as a bonding celebration of hard work despite that hard work seeming to in part go to the celebration itself. Dani's background and displayed fear of abandonment makes her a perfect target and possibly more susceptible to the tactics of the group in the theatrical release in particular. In the director's cut however with the added details on Dani's mental state and her argument with Chris after the second ceremony her reaction at the end, albeit extreme and probably coerced, makes more sense. The scenes of the ritual by the lake and Dani's requests to leave right after shocked me, I had the perception of her being less aware of the cult's behavior.   Rather than being appalled by the man burning in the bear suit I became more shocked by Dani's full transition into a cult member by the end. I also noticed just how much they drugged them which I hadn't before. I think with more time in the innocuous scenes of the group engaging with the cult allowed me to pick up on more details and hints that heightened the viewing experience. The cult becomes far more sinister with more dialogue, especially regarding details like the cult members having the same rehearsed stories for disappeared guests, and the ability to slither out of any questioning with plausible deniability. DIRECTOR'S CUT DIFFERENCES I'm always left with questions at the end of Midsommar, as I'm sure many are. The director's cut answered a good portion of those questions like did Dani know what was happening? How complicit is Christian? How did they manage to get her into the state she ends up in? Prior to watching this version, the cult's main points had felt a little choppy and hadn't felt like enough to warn about the events later in the film to make them more impactful. Rather than confused this time I had gone, "oh shit?" when the pieces came together in the final scene. In the theatrical release we didn't get nearly as much detail about Dani and Christian's relationship--much of it left to inference before. Christian reveals that he has no clue about his thesis which is implied before and we also see direct gaslighting from him towards Dani. Christian is more transparent in his unabashed desire to fail upwards while being rather callous and elitist in multiple scenes towards the Hårga individuals, their rituals, and cultural norms. We also don't get as much detail about the group's dynamic going into the vacation. It makes sense to cut a lot of that due to the cult being the focus and much of the group's dynamic not mattering once things start to fall apart. However, without that it's a lot harder to care about those characters and their fates, it's easier to just write them off as stupid Americans (which they kind of are) rather than cult victims.   The original group becomes so separated, going on their own journeys with the cult and the festivities, that their interconnected story can be sparred to keep things closer to 2 hours rather than 3 even though you lose that element that deepens the plot. So many little details had either been cut out in the theatrical release or hadn't made any sense without other building details and that took my opinion of it from, "it's good--I like that Aster experiments with a daytime horror with bright colors and settings “and now, "oh--I get it now". The theatrical releases' timeline of events felt a bit choppy and rushed but with the added scenes it's obvious where fluidity got lost on the cutting room floor. I know it's wild to recommend watching something you didn't love at 2.3 hours at closer to 3 hours but believe me when I say, it's worth the extra details for the overall movie if you do get a chance to rewatch Midsommar and didn't love it before. CONCLUSION Every month of 2024 I'm posting a video, in part to grow my skills and also as a creative outlet. Currently I'm working on an iZombie video that will be posted at the end of August covering the comics and seasons 1-2 of the show which will be followed by a part 2 posted in early September covering seasons 3-5. October's video will cover 69 (as of now, this could grow or decrease as movie releases are announced or release dates are changed) different horror movies coming out this year that'll be posted on 10/6. This will include a brief overview of each movie and spoiler free reviews of the majority of the movies already out.

What do the fashion industry, the dating scene, and ritualistic cults have in common? Undertones of consumption, sensationalization, scandal laden headlines, the list can go on. This article however is only about one of the many commonalities: cannibalism. In March of 2022 Hulu did something rather surprising, they released a horror movie I not only liked but quickly became obsessed with, Fresh . At one hour and fifty-four minutes run time this movie took me on a roller coaster ride I didn’t know I needed to take. By the end of this movie, I felt satisfied but still very open to another two hours of the characters on my screen, a praise I reserve for movies I think very highly of. INTRODUCTION: HOW A ‘FRESH’ MEAL LURED ME DOWN A RABBIT HOLE Normally I walk away from a movie thinking, “I really loved [insert plot point here] ...but I would have really loved it if they’d done [insert my suggestion of a plot change here]". This usually ends up being what I would’ve done as the protagonist to have a better ending. Fresh makes all the decisions you as a watcher would make and even comes up with some you wouldn’t automatically think of to spice things up. Moments happen throughout that lead you to believe you know what will come next, but I found myself wrong every time. Together Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan give such a compelling performance I almost believed she might be into him at one point despite him removing her glute muscles without her consent. While I am still side-eyeing Stan for playing Tommy Lee in another Hulu production he gives a stellar performance in Fresh . I can wrap my head around him being able to lure and even subdue captive women into his grasp while schmoozing up the vile clientele that order his cuts. Enough dancing around the subject matter: Edgar-Jones is taken hostage by a new suitor, Stan, after some modern dating red flags are understandably ignored. While in captivity she learns that our man Stan is somewhat of a butcher for the bizarre. Not only does he harvest and sell human flesh, but he also consumes it. Allow me to introduce you to our first cannibal of the article, Steve, played by Sebastian Stan. Steve views his cannibalism as something that makes him superior and it’s more than alluded to that his clientele are of the wealthy variety. By the end of the movie, we can pretty much guess that a secret group of wealthy people, most of which are men, are casual cannibals who receive regular deliveries from Steve. In Steve’s circle cannibalism is just the next, reasonable step in one’s culinary journey if they dabble in the taboo long enough. By taboo I mean highly illegal, unethical, and immoral based on the methods Steve implores in his business. Leaving a wake of missing women in his path, only a wall of souvenirs exists as proof of Steve’s history and the depth of his career. Noa, our Portland based leading lady played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, can seduce Steve. She does this by appealing to his mind and showing a willingness to not only understand him but share a special meal with him. Of course, this meal is of the cannibal variety. Noa’s slow burn of an escape plan reaches a fever pitch in the third act of the film that I highly recommend watching. Faced with an evolving situation, new information, and other characters with their own intentions Noa makes the best decisions she can. All while her friend, Mollie, played by Jonica T. Gibbs investigates her disappearance and goes to get her back. At a time when I had grown tired of the same old horror plots, Fresh shocked me in the best ways and with unexpected subject matter I typically avoided. This intrigued me past just the plot of this movie but about cannibalism in general. BACKGROUND RESEARCH & INITIAL FINDINGS I set out to find if cannibalism historically or even modernly resembled that of the cannibalism in Fresh. I wanted to determine if this whole time a hidden trove of horror masterpieces lie just beyond the ability to stomach human consumption. Unfortunately, I have bad news from the other side of more than one cannibal horror marathon, the prognosis is bleak. Before I dive into the movies, I chose to focus on I began researching cannibalism as a topic, its meanings, history, and more. Rather naively I figured the history of cannibalism would be clear blue water sailing, but I found instead a muddy water source of speculation and anthropology debates intermixed with a few islands of solid facts or recorded instances. My look into cannibalism became more about coming to terms with the murkiness of our historical telling’s than about the ins and outs of cannibals. Not only that but the examples that do exist are less of the "savage" variety and more of the Western European variety. If the history isn’t factual, I would posture the horror movie portrayals based on that history are inaccurate as well. The definition of the word “cannibalism” is, “the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food.” For the purposes of this article, I chose to exclude cannibalism related to demonic possession, zombies, and the animal kingdom. Two types of cannibalism are commonly referenced in anthropology: endocannibalism, which is the practice of cannibalism in one’s own community , and exocannibalism which is the consumption of flesh outside of one’s close social group . An example of endo cannibalism is also the only example of disease spreading from consumption of human flesh by other humans, called the Kuru disease, found in some Papua New Guinea tribes . Kuru spread in these tribes due to families in them practicing cannibalism as part of the funeral process for their loved ones. A broad example of acceptable exocannibalism in human culture is consuming one's enemy after war . In some cultures, this is believed to allow the person consuming their enemy to obtain their abilities and attributes. A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANNIBALISM Most of the historical documentation and analysis relating to cannibalism and cannibalistic societies comes from Western culture, specifically Western European culture. According to some legends the word “cannibalism” itself is named after the people on the Island of Carib, whom explorers claimed were cannibals. Some important historical context to consider is when such legends start showing up on record and what was also happening at the same time. During the early 12th to 14th century crusaders representing various countries and special interests explored lands separated from their home continents by vast oceans. Explorers had a vested interest in being able to claim the lands they discovered belonged to the group they represented, even when people already inhabited the land. For example noble society in Spain had but one rule at the time: land should not be taken from natives unless the natives practiced cannibalism or other things seen as barbaric. An explorer and merchant, Amerigo Vespucci , born in 1451 in Italy once wrote, “...they themselves wonder why we do not eat our enemies and do not use as food their flesh, which they say is most savory. Their weapons are bows and arrows, and when they advance to war they cover no part of their bodies for the sake of protection, like beasts, they are in this matter , ” in a letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, the treasurer of the King and Queen of Spain. Vespucci isn’t the only one to have written back to Sanchez and thus the King and Queen of Spain about the encounters with Natives in the Americas. In one such letter Christopher Columbus wrote about the natives as if they were animals in awe of his group's arrival rather than a more accurate representation along the lines of needing to be saved by natives with vast knowledge of their environment. Accounts like that of Columbus and Vespucci’s continued and the ideas they created spread until a strong narrative existed. This narrative allowed Native’s land to be taken and the natural resources, like gold and corn, to be claimed by the Spanish, Portuguese, and anyone else that felt they too stood to gain from imperialism. All of that pain and torment due to the idea that the Native owners of the land were “Godless people” unworthy of being treated better than an animal. Due to this historical context, we cannot in good faith trust European accounts of natives practicing cannibalism from at least this time period onward. Painting natives as savages who had become so depraved they practiced cannibalis m and thus making stealing their lands and torturing their people for centuries an easier pill for perpetrators of imperialism to swallow. As the saying goes, those in glass houses should not throw stones, and Medieval Age Western Europeans sure seemed to love stones. The most documented, widespread practices of cannibalism come from European groups. At the time these groups viewed their cannibalistic practices to be medicinal and thus acceptable. From a Medical News Today article one such common practice involved consuming crushed up mummified human remains all the way back in the 12th century called Mumia . This crushed powder became widely considered a cure-all drug being used as a blood thinner, cough suppressant, anti-inflammatory, and cure for epilepsy . Some physicians doubted its usefulness but that did not stop other practitioners from robbing graves when their supply of mummies ran low. However, it doesn’t stop with mumia, cannibalism in the West exists still, widely encouraged in some circles. Western, 21st century mothers have taken to saving and consuming their placenta post birth , which is technically cannibalism. Some companies even offer to dry and crush the placenta up and put that into a capsule for easy consumption. Mayo Clinic has reported on their website that consuming the placenta post birth , or placentophagy, can be of harm to the mother and the baby based on how it’s prepared. Two forms of cannibalism usually at the very least understood, are survival and famine cannibalism. Both types occur when facing imminent death due to harsh conditions forces one person to consume another person in order to survive. Famine cannibalism has happened during various human crises around the world and is also an occurrence of cannibalism out of necessity to survive. The Donner Party is one of the most known examples of survival cannibalism specifically. A group of migrants traveling to California spent the winter of 1846-47 stuck in the Sierra Nevada mountains and of the 87 people in the party only 48 survived following three separate rescue and relief attempts. It is said that " roughly half of the party’s survivors “eventually resorted to eating human flesh” during the ordeal. In addition to historical examples cannibalism also reaches into the territory of legend. Some of these legends include the Wendigo, a Plains and Great Lakes Native legend of an evil spirit created from an act of cannibalism, the witch in Hansel & Gretel who lures children to their demise , and the Wechuge, an Athabaskan legend of a man-eating creature . All of whom are cannibals or are created through the act of cannibalism to inflict harm or a lesson on other humans. Cannibalism is the stuff of nightmares so it isn't a surprise to find so many examples of human inflicted horror related to it. Something we can only accept in the most dire of circumstances, sets apart the awful criminals from the horrendous, and is so grotesque that even the mention of it causes some to stop the conversation entirely. Honestly, it's surprising more cannibal movies aren't made-it seems even horror fanatics don't always have the stomach for it. FIRST CANNIBAL HORROR MOVIES So, how did cannibal films come to be? Who are those that first dared to use cannibalism as a horror influence? In the 1970’s and 80’s a genre made predominantly by Italian filmmakers hit the horror scene that is now known as cannibal horror movies. Generally known to be graphic movies that depicted primitive civilizations of cannibals. Now also considered exploitation films they mostly focused on South America and the Amazon, specifically remote tribes living primitively. Umberto Lenzi is one of these filmmakers, releasing Deep River in 1972. In 1980 Ruggero Deodato’s movie, Cannibal Holocaust , released and is still regarded as a mainstay of the cannibal horror genre. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST To this day Cannibal Holocaust , released in 1980 , is probably still the most well known representation of the cannibal horror movie genre. Having not been able to bring myself to watch this one, watching Ryan Hollinger’s 2018 video in which he goes into detail about the movie and surrounding controversy will have to work. One of the major instances of controversy was Deadato and the crew taking advantage of natives on set, even trapping them inside burning huts with no safety precautions. Along with actual, graphic animal murder and confusion surrounding what was reality and what was fiction, the real crew faced charges for acts committed while making the film. Something this graphic in the found footage format hadn’t been attempted at the time of its release in the eighties. To top it all off the film had not been presented as a horror film prior to its release, to the shock of viewers when they went to see it. While trying to show the ignorance of Western media, Deadato believed that his art would not be received as a snuff film despite all the evidence to the contrary. Ironically he has the film’s plot open with a film crew that goes to the Amazon to find and record a tribe of cannibals-similar to himself. After the initial film crew in his movie goes missing another, second film crew goes to search for the original crew. The perception in their professional circles is that the original film crew died heroes. In a dark twist, the second crew discovers the first crew’s footage only to find that the original crew orchestrated scenes of the tribe murdering and cannibalizing people to make a good, interesting film. After the original crew raped, killed, and abused the native people on film, the natives justifiably killed them. The footage is destroyed in order to let the positive narrative of the original crew and those connected to that expedition in their professional circles, live on. This is accidentally a one to one representation of the stance that the true savages are the ones documenting the acts of societies unlike their own. The lesson learned that it is worth considering the whole picture when crafting a narrative, especially a cultural one that could have dire consequences. Unfortunately, this message is largely lost due to the overly gruesome depictions of violence and the unethical conduct of the real life film crew. SOYLENT GREEN On the very opposite side of the spectrum we have Soylent Green , released in 1973 but set in a 2022 dystopian society. Directed by Richard Fleischer the film is somewhat based on a sci-fi novel from the sixties, Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison . Rather than primitive, this society is futuristic and a warning about continuing on the same path. In this dystopian future, due to overpopulation and climate change, ( very top of mind in actual 2022 as well ) , worldwide shortages of food, water, and adequate shelter began. The uber wealthy live a safe life behind security systems while the rest of the people do the labor necessary to make the city work, sacrificing their time and bodies. The poor are so bad off they only eat wafers, called Soylent Red. There's also Soylent Yellow, a highly processed and not so great version and the new Soylent Green wafers . a more nutritious option . Unfortunately, the NYPD detective, Robert Thorn, that we follow comes to learn that Soylent Green isn’t made from ocean plankton like people are led to believe. In actuality, the oceans and the plankton in them are dying, and to compensate for that lack of resource the government started making Soylent Green out of human corpses. Corpses that are transported from a facility providing medically assisted suicides to those who wish to escape the hellscape that is 2022 in New York City. It’s not news that things in the United States have dramatically devolved following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the culmination of a decades long slow decline . In an adjacent story not completely related to cannibalism , US prisoners are being offered reduced sentences in return for their spare organs like kidneys and liver lobes . Though not human consumption of human flesh in the literal sense it still translates into an evil sub form of parasitic behavior on those most heavily affected by wealth inequality. Starting in March of 2024 people in Canada can consider Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) due solely to suffering mental illness , a controversial policy addition to their 2016 passing of medically assisted death for patients. Some have argued that MAID is Canada's way of financially avoiding funding action to address mental health issues, lack of disability care, and rampent poverty in society. CANNIBAL HORROR REVIEWS: FROM ICONIC TO UNKNOWN Not necessarily a full-blown genre with constant installments, cannibal horror has both popular franchises and true hidden gems. As time goes on many stand out movies with cannibalistic aspects or about cannibalism are made and gain recognition. Not unlike Fresh that inspired this deep dive, Raw (2016) and The Neon Demon (2016) are two modern horror films about cannibalism that have become personal favorites and garnered much praise. Before those wonderfully interesting films got made, some truly eyebrow raising movies came out like Eating Raoul (1982) and Society (1989) . Some gross and others straight up foul; each film included in this deep dive portrays cannibalism in a unique and varied way. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE One of the most popular portrayals of cannibalism is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , centered around a family that sustains off of unsuspecting visitors to their farm. The original movie came out in 1974 and like many movies of that era the plot is not as complicated or steeped in backstory as today’s horror movies. Focusing more on the violent murders, the poster for the theatrical release had the tagline, “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” over a chainsaw swinging Leather Face, highlighting the main points of the movie quite clearly. Today, the most recent 2022 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre focuses more on the backstory of Leather Face and big reveals about his history. The story of the family is the second most important thing behind the bloodbath that it turns into as opposed to the original leaving more questions than answers. All movies in the franchise do portray Leather Face as a super villain of sorts, able to survive far more damage than the average slasher. Reveling in the murders of unsuspecting travelers makes the family evil and in addition to this evil their unnecessary cannibalism is an additional affront to the victims. More true crime than spiritual or anthropological, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is rooted in our nature as humans and our capability for bizarre, evil acts. THE HILLS HAVE EYES Similar to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , another franchise, The Hills Have Eyes , is focused around a family of people who cannibalize unlucky passing travelers. Unlike Leather Face’s family the family in this franchise have been subjected to nuclear testing waste nearby. This nuclear waste has caused them to have physical mutations, becoming increasingly worse with each generation of inbreeding and exposure to the nuclear waste. Influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this Wes Craven created franchise portrays the cannibal characters as depraved, on various levels. Not only does this family murder, but oftentimes those murders are accompanied by violent sexual assaults. At times we delve into what I hope is unintended commentary on the moral nature of those with birth defects or mutations. No explanation exists in the series for why they eat people other than that they live a bizarre, dark life. It could be argued they cannibalize people because they live in the middle of nowhere desert with little access to food, but it is worth mentioning they collect and hide the belongings of the travelers they consume. So why would they eat people if they could just sell their belongings for money to improve their lives? The family’s actions seem to be a choice, albeit a cruel and unusual choice. From a nuanced perspective this characterization of the disabled community as savages, who when given the option to be free, would assault and murder unsuspecting victims for the sake of it. This characterization sometimes crosses the line into ableist commentary and portraying of disabled people as uncivilized, their actions being more animalistic than human in nature. Furthermore, this connects back to the designed stereotype of native people as savages which we can draw from the historical context which they are presented. Once again, the deeply ingrained idea that only savages would consume another human and therefore cannibals are only ever savages is present. EATING RAOUL (1982) Family cannibal stories are not the only ones to have existed however, in the 80’s horror movies overall took on a sexual undertone and with that came movies about cannibalism incorporating commentary on sex and sex lives. Eating Raoul is a perfect example of this shift towards openly sexual commentary in popular media. A black comedy released in 1982, Eating Raoul follows what is described as a “prudish couple” who have big dreams to open a restaurant and escape the mundane, bleak direction of their lives. A series of events follow that lead the couple to start financing their dreams with stolen money. They also decide to steal this money specifically from murdered swingers they lure into their home via the classifieds section in a local magazine, Hollywood Press . Mary Bland poses as a dominatrix and while meeting with clients Paul Bland, hiding in their apartment unbeknownst to the client, comes out and robs them. The Bland couple continues this for quite some time, disposing of the remains in their trash chute until they stumble across Raoul, a locksmith, also looking to rob people. The Blands makes an agreement with Raoul that they will let him take the bodies of their victims in exchange for not reporting them. Why would Raoul want the bodies you may ask despite the Blands not being too concerned. To further complicate this trio, Raoul and Mary begin having an affair behind Paul’s back. We learn through hints that Raoul is selling the bodies to a local dog food company. The growing company offers a versatile food that can be enjoyed by both humans and man's best friend. The tension comes to a head when Mary must choose between the two men and to Raoul’s shock, she chooses Paul. This leads to the murder of Raoul by Mary since they can’t let him go and also her and Paul get away with everything. Mary and Paul are in a pickle however because they've scheduled a dinner with their loan agent for the very night that they kill Raoul. In the 80’s to receive a loan you often had to meet with and impress a loan officer, the meeting with the loan officer in this case is the only thing standing between The Blands and their dreams. So, Mary cooks Raoul to cover up the murder and to make sure they have an actual dinner to show the loan officer they have the culinary skills to run a successful restaurant. This plan works great and the loan officer is impressed with the meal, the three finish the night with a nice meal and having secured the loan. In the end the couple believe they are hardworking Americans who achieved the American Dream. After passing judgement on other's ways of life during the film The Bland Couple are cannibals, adulterers, and criminals. Taking this into consideration, Eating Raoul is more social commentary than straight up horror, still cannibals but the shock of cannibalism is used in a social context rather than portraying the gruesome aspects. Punctuated with non-addressed sexual assault and problematic 80’s jokes, Eating Raoul comments on the culture of the US through the cultural lens of our practices that incorporate eating into everything from sex to success. The hypocrisy of condemning the actions of others while committing bad acts oneself ties everything together for a decent watch. SOCIETY (1989) Seven years later in 1989, just a few years after Eating Raoul a head scratching cannibal-like movie came out titled simply, Society . Uncertainty, this can qualify as a cannibal horror movie in an abstract sense; however, this movie is grotesque and about the consumption of people still. It also harkens back to Western Society's hypocrisy regarding cannibalism and other unusual acts being acceptable from the wealthy and savagery from the impoverished. The first part of Society is surprising because of where the movie ends up, it has all the typical 1980’s teen movie features, school president races, night drives, and school events. Our protagonist is Bill Whitney, a popular high school student from a well-off family who feels that he doesn’t belong in his Beverly Hills socialite community. Surprisingly, his family seem to feel the same, often excluding him from information, plans, and secrets. We come to learn that the society group his parents are a part of is a group of human-like aliens infiltrating society. They have been quietly climbing the ranks of power with their “elite, biologically selective group" aiming to become the majority on Earth. The aliens live by consuming human beings’ “juices” and “nutrients” straight from their bodies. They accomplish this in the most grotesque way possible, melding into slug-like creatures that then go inside of the human body, consuming them from the inside out. The best way to describe the imagery is a human juice box being sucked too hard. The special effects aren't bad but rather they are too good. The activities that come to life on screen are not easy to forget and probably not easy to come up with either. The final few scenes leave jaws dropped and eyebrows furrowed as the alternate species shows the viewer what it is made of, literally. Some parallels can be drawn from the events in the film and our current wealth inequality fueled system. The rich and connected hiding their true selves with the intention of sucking the life force out of unsuspecting working-class people to live. Forms of cannibalism and other taboo activities performed by the rich are often not viewed in the same light as those performed by groups considered low class, savage, or even average. DR. HANNIBAL LECTER Side stepping a little bit we enter the world of true crime cannibalism, previously mentioned in connection with infamous and tragic real-life cases. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a character often immediately recognized as the cannibal horror character, one of the most mainstream portrayals. In 1991 Silence of the Lambs focused on an imprisoned serial killer, Hannibal Lecter , known to consume his victims, being interviewed to help FBI agent Clarice Starling catch a killer. Much of the plot focuses on the interactions between Clarice and Hannibal during the investigation, Hannibal orchestrating a cat and mouse back and forth between the two. Lore says that Lecter, born in 1933, went from being an orphan in Lithuania to a cannibalistic serial killer. A successful psychiatrist, Dr. Lecter killed his patients and others he considered “rude” or a nuisance to society. Both Dexter and a real true crime case, justification is sought and added to cruel and unusual murders that should not be justified. While Silence of the Lambs doesn’t go much into detail other than the first and last victim early in the series, what is known about his MO is rather gross. Known to consume (or feed to dogs) his victims while holding them in captivity and torturing them both physically and psychologically. What is now a common Criminal Minds plot, caught cinema by a storm in 1988 with Clarice stopping the serial killer and the door being left open for Hannibal Lecter to return. In total the character appears in five movies between 1986 and 2007 with countless pop culture references and works inspired by him. RAVENOUS (1999) Ravenous , a 1999 “horror Western cannibal film” set in the 1840s California, is a good example of survival cannibalism in horror. The screenwriter, Ted Griffin, stated that the script had been written with elements from the Donner Party and Alfred Packer stories as inspiration for the film, both instances of people being lost and forced to choose between starvation and turning on one another. Additionally influenced by legends like the Wendigo, Ravenous also draws influence from Manifest Destiny, an ideological movement characterized most often by Americans forcibly taking land from Indigenous people while migrating west towards the Pacific Ocean. Circumstances in the Ravenous lead to a group of characters being trapped in the mountains, and like the Wendigo legend, once they consume human flesh their ailments are cured in exchange for an insatiable hunger for humans. The tradeoff for surviving the harsh circumstances trapping them is an inability to stop hunting humans for food. Unlike the Wendigo legend however the character in Ravenous , who is now affected, is of semi-sound mind, able to lure people out into the forest to eat them. This ability to evade simple traps keeps the cat and mouse game going with unexpected twists and turns in the trajectory of the plot. Ravenous didn’t break even at the box office, accidentally signaling a trend moving away from experimental, or first time plots in horror. After this period a drought in cannibal horror content ensued with sparse worthwhile installments. THE WOMAN (2011) A more fantastical portrayal of cannibalism, The Woman , dropped in 2011, following one cannibal woman’s journey. This woman, a member of a cannibal tribe on the Northeast coast of North America, is captured by a wannabe alpha male named Chris Cleek. The Woman never receives a character name other than “The Woman” which is just one example of dehumanizing of women in the film. Cleek lives with his wife and children in the woods, The Woman who is camping out nearby catches Chris' attention who decides to abduct and trap her. The Cleek family lives under the abusive rule of Chris, who seeks to civilize the uncivilized through any means necessary. Civility in his opinion aligning more with the Old Testament than compassion. Of course, The Woman presents a perfect opportunity for him to save someone, to make them civilized, with a touch of nefarious intentions. In his first attempt to approach The Woman once he's trapped her she bites off and eats his finger. This caused him to become even more dedicated to his “civilization program" for The Woman. While in continued captivity The Woman is assaulted by both Chris and his son and before an additionally horrific attack can be carried out Chris’ daughter, Peggy, catches and stops them. The abuse towards the women in the film ramps up in violence and control causing Belle, his wife, to make plans to leave and take their children with her. Her attempts to save her family causes a violent outburst from Chris that carries into the climax of the movie. We learn that the Cleek family has a fourth child, a daughter born with deformities that they have conditioned to behave like a dog, living in their outside dog cellar. The Woman ends up escaping and murders Belle, Chris, and the son. After climactic scenes of The Woman finishing off the family members she frees the daughter from the barn. The three Cleek daughters and her walk off into the woods behind the house. Particularly interesting throughout The Woman is the juxtaposition of Chris’ claims of civility and the abuse levied towards the women in his life. His own behavior pushes past the boundary of evil while negatively judging the women in his life for normal human behavior. He is evil personified, committing sexual assault, incest, and physical assault and ordaining himself the moral leader while doing it. As with many of the other examples of cannibalism in history and media this one points out a stereotype; the “savage” is the one that gets justice for the victims and herself. RAW (2016) Unique storytelling makes Raw , a 2016 French-Belgian movie, more fascinating than gross. The main character, Justine, has lived as a vegetarian her whole life alongside her family, both parents working as veterinarians. Jumping right into the action Justine is hazed along with her cohort of veterinarian school classmates. This hazing concludes with everyone eating a rabbit kidney which Justine, as a lifelong vegetarian, is opposed to. Unfortunately, Justine is forced to have the rabbit kidney which results in an itchy rash to form all over her body that is diagnosed as food poisoning. Justine’s desire for meat grows, making her insatiable. An accident causes her older sister’s finger to be chopped off and Justine to eat it in a rather gross but well-acted scene. Alexia covers with their parents for Justine. Now aware that Justine is experiencing the same thing Alexia takes her to a road and causes a car to crash, consuming one of the passengers and directing Justine to consume the other. Rather than go along Justine is horrified and runs away from her developing reality. Justine falls further into her cannibalistic desires after assaulting a boy mid-make out and biting her own arm to stop her from attacking her friend, Adrien. Cut to another party and Alexia gets Justine very drunk only to record her trying to take bites out of a corpse and pass that video around the school. The sisters' relationship reaches a fever pitch as they fight and bite one another's arms in a standoff. In retaliation Alexia kills and eats Adrien, but rather than report her Justine helps clean up. Alexia is shown to be in jail only to find out that their desire to eat people is a genetic trait passed down to them from their mother, who consumes pieces of him, their father, to survive. The final twist and reveal of the family secret going beyond the sisters is interesting and not expected upon first watch. Overall Raw is a good, interesting story about family dynamics and coming of age under strenuous circumstances. It makes sense to have come out later in the 2010’s as more unique stories, and foreign to the US stories, got funded and mass released on streaming platforms. THE NEON DEMON (2016) A busy year for reimagining cannibalism, The Neon Demon, also came out in 2016; part commentary on the fashion industry in LA and part examining female competition the story is hard to put into one box. Crossing multiple genres and taking various twists, what seems to be a coming-of-age story quickly devolves into one young woman’s ravenous rise and fall from grace. Young model, Jesse, moves to Los Angeles to model. Upon arrival she meets Dean who invites her to a photo shoot where she meets a makeup artist named Ruby. Through Ruby, Sarah, and Gigi, two other models are introduced as nosey women getting a little more desperate with age in the harsh LA modeling world. Jesse ends up being the new, fresh face that LA fashion is looking for after a successful photoshoot with a known fashion photographer. As Jesse gets further into the seedy underworld of young models breaking into the industry, she catches more ire from Sarah and Gigi, even being attacked by one in a bathroom. The recognition and desire go to Jesse’s head immediately and she finds herself running right into the arms of danger after narrowly avoiding a break in and subsequent assault at her hotel. With Jesse now in Ruby’s home the three older women, Ruby, Sarah, and Gigi attack her, dismembering and consuming her. The women bathe in her blood, and it’s revealed that Ruby has tattoos of an occult nature. More of a through line to spiritual cannibalism the women in this film are revealed to be participating in a ritual of sorts. Post consuming Jesse the two models, Sarah, and Gigi, are irresistible and back on fire with a famous photographer. Their intention is not to consume human flesh but rather want the effects of consuming her power; their cannibalism is a byproduct of them being willing to go to any length to fulfill their desires. IN CONCLUSION Our lack of unbiased and unmotivated evidence of cannibalism makes it hard to discern fact from bias and historical re-telling from fiction. With the history barely untangled it’s clear why cannibalism's portrayal in horror movies would be as varied and complicated as it is. The interpretations of cannibalism serve as mirrors held up to society, a look at how we see something like cannibalism provides invaluable insights into how we view ourselves and each other. Few portrayals are without the stain of bias however, bias against groups of people and ways of life, especially ones steeped in misdirection and confusion. Still, all of that aside, eating people is not an inherently good thing free of harm as it requires either death or suffering from the individual being eaten. Not to mention, it’s all rather gross. Sources used for this article rewrite and the original article. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, February 23). Cannibalism . Wikipedia. Retrieved March 8, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism#:~:text=Cannibalism%20is%20the%20act%20of,ancient%20and%20in%20recent%20times Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, March 3). Human cannibalism . Wikipedia. Retrieved March 8, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cannibalism Tikkanen, A. (n.d.). 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Initially I wanted to focus on only witchcraft and witches this summer when it comes to the horror genre, that has clearly changed. Hereditary (2018) technically doesn’t center around a witch but magic, albeit dark magic, is the catalyst and driving force of the story. Ari Aster has managed to create some instant classics in the 2010’s that branch off into a new type of horror, the slow burn. The first time I saw Hereditary (2018) I went to the theater extremely uninterested. I viewed the trailer and took away a stereotypical horror movie not worth the cost of viewing it in the flesh. I’m not above admitting I was wrong and completely off base. Not only did I enjoy the movie, but it surprised me and left me asking, “wait what?!” as the credits appeared on the screen. Don’t worry, my opinion in this post comes from a recent re-watch and not solely my 2018 viewing. Upon my most recent viewing, something I noticed in it’s actuality is the use of camera angles to cause discomfort, the dioramas changing along with the story (even using them as a tool to scare and inform the viewer towards the end), and out of nowhere action in moments that are hard to anticipate. By this point I figure most horror fans have seen Hereditary and know the basic plot points but just in case I’ll go into a few main details. A woman, Annie Graham played by Toni Collette, is a diorama artist whose mother has just passed. After her mother’s passing her family begins to unravel as they come closer to the truth about their family. Her daughter, Charlie Graham played by Milly Shapiro, is decapitated while in a car by a light pole, her son, Peter Graham played by Alex Wolff, begins to lose his mind and becomes possessed by a demon, and her husband, Steve Graham played by Gabriel Bryne, struggles to keep his family together in spite of the trauma and horror. Annie makes efforts to investigate the strange happenings, seeking comfort after her daughter passes, and finds answers from a woman she believes she can trust who is also grieving. Unfortunately for her the woman is a member of her mother’s coven and worshiper of the demon Paimon. Annie decides to take Joan, played by Ann Dowd, up on her offer to help relieve some of her pain. Joan teaches her how to contact those that have moved to the beyond aka died. Joan contacts her grandson and informs Annie how she can contact Charlie again. No surprise: Annie is terrified at first but not terrified enough to run in the other direction of this nonsense. Not only does she mess with this unknown magic, but she also terrorizes her son and husband in the process. Some heart wrenching scenes that are so well acted you feel that you’re hurt as well between Annie and Peter take place, her screaming that she never wanted him after sleepwalking into his room. Not only does Annie reveal that she didn’t want him but that she kept him away from her mother but reconciled with her and let her be overly involved with Charlie pre and post birth. Annie forces Peter and Steve to participate in the ritual she learned from Joan to talk to Charlie. Obviously, this does not go well. Even after all the shit hits the fan they cannot get out of the situation, finding that burning Charlie’s creepy sketchbook will cause her and Steve to catch on fire, now linked to the object. One of the best scenes in the movie is brought to us by Alex Wolff who dislocated his jaw while filming. How that happened is no mystery as the scene I’ve mentioned includes Peter smashing his head into his desk while possessed. This moment is a peak in the action of the film and things go from zero to 100 real fuckin quick. Some other noteworthy moments include Annie decapitating herself with a instrument cord, her body levitating to Charlie’s tree house, and of course the big reveal that several naked people (the coven that worships Paimon) are bowing down to Charlie’s dead body (including Annie’s headless body). We find out that due to the ritual needs to bring Paimon here (I think anyways, I’ll be real I am personally still confused about the goal and methods of this coven but they’re still scary) they needed the first born of this blood line but since Charlie had been primed for this her whole life and not Peter they need to kill (or possess?) Peter with Charlie. Paimon is one of the kings of hell and now he’s here or something like that, which will then provide the coven with riches for doing him that solid from what I understand. The atmosphere that Ari Aster creates in this family’s home through lighting, sound, and camera work causes discomfort. When watching most recently I felt a general layer of tension in the air while watching the movie. The characters tiptoe around this large, dark home while also tip-toeing around Annie’s grief. Her grief is an invisible character of its own. I have compassion for Annie that she is experiencing a horrible time in her life and I also recognize that she is becoming an all consuming black hole in her life She’s only able to recognize her own pain, wants, and needs and often tramples over Peter and Steve’s pain, wants, and needs. Annie transforms into her worse self throughout the plot, at the beginning we can see she’s barely keeping it together but once Charlie passes she’s unable to hide the cracks in her foundation (understandably so). I often felt more horrified by how Peter’s treated and his mounting grief that has no space in the house more so than I ever became by Paimon waiting in the wings. Motifs are another tool used to create building tension, the biggest being Charlie’s tongue pops, it’s always one loud, random tongue pop noise usually during a quiet or tense moment. In the start of the film it’s not a huge plot piece but rather a character attribute, possibly to demonstrate that Charlie isn’t totally run of the mill tween girl energy. After Charlie dies we don’t hear many pops but as we pick up pace towards the climax we hear more and more in closer succession. Culminating in a tongue pop occurring during the final ritual as if to signify the ritual's completion and the full arrival of Paimon. Decapitation is another motif throughout the movie. Charlie cuts the head off of a dead bird while being watched from afar by Joan, Charlie is killed by decapitation, the grandma’s dead and rotting body in the attic is missing the head, and Annie decapitates herself to name a few. I may have forgotten to mention that Annie’s mother’s grave had been desecrated early on in the movie and Peter finds the body in their attic, decomposing above their heads. Now, when it comes to magic this is a great warning that you should not mess with shit you do not understand. Annie has made a lifetime effort to not get into her mother’s practice and frankly knows zero helpful information that could’ve saved this family. The lady participates in a seance (and/or summoning) led by a woman who is a virtual stranger she met in a parking lot. All of a sudden she’s frantically waking her family up in the night to teach them to perform a ritual to communicate with the other side… what? Annie sucks at this magic shit, even if she couldn’t stop the pieces already in motion, she still annoyed me. The coven has been playing this game for who knows how long and have finally reached a pivotal moment in their goal, nothing is stopping these worshipers. So what is the big deal about Paimon? Paimon appears in grimoires as a spirit, said to be obedient to Lucifer that requires a sacrifice if he appears alone. Different sources mention different numbers of spirits under him but nevertheless he’s up there in the hierarchy of demons and spirits. In Livre des Esperitz Paimon is said to answer all questions asked of him truthfully, to reveal treasures, and to know all of the happenings and goings on in the world. Hereditary uses the myths and folklore about Paimon to create a haunting scenario where grief is not the only inheritance a close family death brings. The coven of practitioners uses the characters as means to their ends and by providing Paimon with what he wants they will receive what they want in return, granted by his “magic” or rather powers. It’s a really fucked up genie in a bottle situation except Paimon is up to other things and not just waiting for summoning (I assume anyways). I enjoy Hereditary (2018) and like many others view it as part of the modern Ari Aster horror works that have carved out a genre of their own, inspiring many similarly styled films. I see Hereditary as helping cultivate a turning point for modern horror, horror that is psychological and serious and sometimes doesn’t make a lot of sense upon first watch. The artistic choices don’t go without notice and effect on the movie viewing experience and without fully explaining the story to the viewer we’re left feeling somewhat unfinished and unsettled, not bad feelings to have at the end of a horror movie watch.

Finally, The Menu dropped on HBO Max streaming. Since it’s November 2022 release in theaters I patiently waited to be able to watch it from home. Why would I choose to watch from home? So I could talk shit during my viewing of course. The initial trailer for The Menu doesn’t bury the lead, it full stop tells us what to expect: a chef is going to torture his dinner guests, assuming due to their arrogant wealth, but one guest, our main character, Margot Mills played by Anya Taylor-Joy, puts a wrench in his plan when she attends unexpectedly and not so wealthy after-all. After watching I scratched my head and wondered, “since they told us the plot, what else is there to see?” but regardless based on the cast and set details alone I planned on watching. It’s no secret that since 2020 the wealth disparity in our world, and more specifically the US, is out of control. According to Ineqaulity.org the “combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by $2.947 trillion to $5.019 trillion between the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to October of 2021 . While some lost jobs, homes, loved ones, and futures, the most well off in our country almost doubled their net worth, which had already reached astronomical disparity from the rest of the country prior to the pandemic. It is hard for us normies to wrap our heads around such obscene levels of wealth as well as such obscene and blatant wealth hoarding. Three men alone, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, “own as much as the bottom half of Americans” as far back as pre-pandemic times. Most of us have no idea outside of speculation how “the other half lives” and vice versa for their understanding of how normal people live (we only have to remind ourselves of the celeb “Imagine” scandal at the start of 2020). The Menu takes us behind the curtain into how bizarre and unhinged those who can afford over $1,000 tickets to one dinner act and what they’ll put up with. Despite the staff doing odd and threatening things from start to finish all of the dinner guests aside from Margot believe it’s normal and part of this immersive dinner experience and the mystical menu by chef Julian Slowik, played expertly by Ralph Fiennes. Slowik is the chef all of the dinner guests have come for, a celebrity in his own right, something of a Gordon Ramsey if Ramsey got really pretentious in his career. This elite, private dining experience is only accessible via boat, isolated from society. All of the food comes from the island itself and is grown, gathered, and prepared by loyal Slowik followers who also live on the island in cult-like quarters. They eat, sleep, breathe the menu and curate these dinners. This doesn’t appear as off as it should to the dinner guests however, as they tour the island and learn about Slowick’s set up prior to being seated at dinner. To Margot and anyone watching this is a huge red flag worthy of keeping in the back of one’s mind. The red flags don’t stop there, the crew is precise to a fault, responding to Slowick’s loud, domineering claps with a resounding (and in union), “Yes Chef!” from wherever they are working. Slowick maintains a watchful eye over their work and the inner workings of the dinner guest’s relationships and conversations. Every group (or pair) at this restaurant is there for a reason though, unbeknownst to them, that pertains to Chef Slowick’s attempts at a career finale of sorts. Without giving too much away each person has pissed him off, wronged him, or stands for something he believes took the integrity and passion out of his career. One spoiler worth talking about being how he informs them of this detail that has seemed to slip their self-centered minds. During the main course, which the attending food critic points out is his signature tacos, comes with personalized, laser engraved tortilla shells in metal wraps. Each table’s tortillas have images or symbols alluding to why they’re there tonight. For example, the group of finance-bros who work for a scummy business man that screwed over Sowlick receive tortillas with financial statements on them. The type of financial statements no one should have access to but them, that prove their illegal dealings. This is the perfect way to inform the audience of the character’s connections to the chef without weirdly placed flashbacks or lame exposition. The character’s are for the most part multidimensional (aside from the finance bros) and interesting to learn about. While learning about them we see how they either unravel or adapt to this out of the norm scenario of being informed everyone will die tonight before dinner ends. We have the rich older couple with an estranged daughter and an escort loving patriarch, the stan level obsessed Slowick fan played by Nicholas Hoult, the out of touch food critic played by Janet McTeer and her yes man lackey, Paul Adelstein. A washed up celebrity, John Leguizamo, with his clout chasing assistant, played by Aimee Carrero and of course the insufferable, elitist, classist finance bros: played by Rob Yang, Mark St. Cyr, and Arturo Castro. Each a satirical representation of the wealthy elite that tortures us all with their flashy attempts at feeling fulfilled. One can only assume that the type of people who’d spend this much money on dinner and take a boat to a private island in order to have it probably aren’t of the most sound minds. This is shown to be apparent by the conversations that show what these people care about (nothing outside of themselves or their own wants and desires) and how they treat those they view as “beneath them” like the host, played by Hong Chau. Hong Chau gives an excellent performance as someone who follows the Chef and aspires to be a dutiful disciple but also puts some of the dinner guests in their place. The character, Elsa, is not impressed or intimidated by the guest’s status which throws more than one of them off during the dinner. It’s a refreshing juxtaposition to the guests who often caused me to roll my eyes at their obscenity. Once things hit a fever pitch and it becomes clearer to the guests that the odd occurrences of the night are not a part of some experimental dinner but in fact this cult carrying out their big suicide and murder plot they still do very little to save themselves. It’s a great overall show that people in positions like this have proven they often lack the fight to survive that comes with day in and day out reminders to be grateful for what you do have. The various meal courses that become more dangerous and scary throughout the movie develop the various characters and their relations to one another. One big example being the dinner among the women guests and how they relate to and view one another as women but also with the intersectionality of class. Characters I found to be insufferable at the start I found myself warmed up to by the end, to the point of being almost sad when the final moments of the night unfold and their fates are revealed. The ending makes sense and fulfills the film's promises in unexpected but interesting ways. Despite feelings that not many things could be revealed that hadn’t been in the trailer I found myself pleasantly surprised at the level of attention and detail to this straightforward thriller. I found the funny moments landed excellently and despite a lack of gore I felt uncomfortable and tense based on the situations unfolding throughout. Not to mention, who doesn’t like a little “get out the guillotine” horror these days. I highly recommend watching this movie, I myself plan on watching it a few more times just to see what details I missed the first go around. Well done and much applause to the director, Mark Mylod, and the excellent cast.

Shudder comes through again with an enjoyable, twisty, and WTF filled movie, Influencer, available now. What seems like a cautionary tale about the dangers of influencer culture turns into a twisty thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. MOVIE OVERVIEW & INTRODUCTION The movie Influencer , released on the horror focused streaming platform, Shudder , in 2022, takes us alongside a vacation gone awry. An influencer, named Madison played by Emily Tennant , is on a trip in Thailand originally meant for her and her boyfriend, Ryan played by Rory J. Saper , before he broke things off pre-trip. Luckily for her she meets a go-with-the-flow fellow English speaking tourist, named CW played by Cassandra Naud , that wants to show her a more laid back way of enjoying Thailand. CW has a sweet house to stay in, knows what to do around the area and what places to go, she's even available after-hours to be there in crisis. After a meet-cute start to their relationship the two are instant friends, so much so that if this weren't on Shudder one might assume they would have a once in a lifetime vacation filled with lessons, growth, and healing. Unfortunately for Madison this is a horror movie, and she is ignoring every single red flag CW is waving in her face. Generally, by the time most of us are adults we have learned the hard way that if something is too good to be true it probably is, Madison however is looking at the world through the luck of the influencer perspective. From the outside looking in it appears that influencers easily lose touch with their former reality (and sometimes reality in general) after gaining clout. Madison seems disillusioned with her life, missing the core pillars of fulfilling days, like non-transactional relationships and being present. What appears to her clouded glance as a millennial's version of Eat, Prey, Love vacay philosophy by disconnecting with technology is actually an attempt to stay anonymous. What seems like reconnecting with nature on an island is actually a convenient place to kill and dump victims before stealing their identities. What Madison doesn't necessarily learn about CW's murderous ways she goes on to teach us: that it's not about the money and there is no length too far to protect oneself. PLOT COMMENTARY W/ SPOILERS Cassandra Naud as CW is a chameleon, sliding in and out of characters to suite her needs at any given moment. She can quickly turn on a child-like naivety to appeal to a woman more comfortable in a big sister role and then right back into a natural quiet confidence that commands respect when dealing with those that are looking to her for direction. She has a keen attention to detail that slowly unravels as the movie goes on and she finds herself in increasingly close calls with exposure. At first the POV of the movie is through Madison's eyes, not being privy to CW's intentions or the danger she poses, and life happening to her rather than her happening to those around her. Madison looks to CW as a doorway to a fresh perspective and a new start, someone who can teach her about a new way of life. Heartbroken from her recent breakup Madison's guard is down when she meets the calm, cool, collected CW at a bar. After spending time together for a few days CW is there when Madison's room is broken into and her passport stolen. CW offers Madison to stay with her while they work out getting her another passport, approximately two weeks. Overwhelmed by the circumstances Madison doesn't see the coincidence in timing of the events or any holes in CW's background or reasoning for being in Thailand. With Madison's affairs squared away CW suggests they visit an island in the middle of the ocean to escape and disconnect. CW tells Madison she found this island by chance and spends a lot of time in the ocean, other than that we don't learn much about CW's past. We don't find out what happens for sure on the island aside from CW returning to the main island and Madison not. POV of CW, the plot now following her as she assumes Madison's identity. Using a blonde wig, camera, and AI-like editing software she's able to transpose Madison's image onto new content. With this new content showing Madison enjoying her disconnection from social media in Thailand she can stave off suspicion while using Madison's credit cards to extend the stay at the luxurious beach house. Just as soon as Madison's identity has been assumed CW is on the hunt again, showing that no encounters or victims have been by chance. CW has a bulletin board with photos that Madison's is added to, alluding to there being at least four other victims, all looking like Madison-bubbly, long-haired blonde women on the beach. The victim this time however is more attune to the red flags CW lets slip. Things aren't going as smoothly as they had with Madison, and CW seems challenged but determined with her new victim, Jessica played by Sara Canning , who is more wary of a perfect stranger. Jessica questions CW and can piece together inconsistencies or oddities when talking to her but ultimately falls for adoration of her social media presence and lets CW closer. As suspected Jessica finds her hotel room having been broken into and needing a place to stay, to which CW gladly offers. Unfortunately for CW Madison's boyfriend, Ryan, didn't take her texts and social media posts as good enough reason to stay away and has broken into the house, using Madison's credit card purchase history to find where she was and planning a surprise dinner to get her back. Upon running into one another in the house Madison and Ryan are both wary, Ryan not believing that Madison had trusted a total stranger enough to stay in a house she's renting and speak on her behalf. Ryan and Jessica feed off one another's suspicions and grow increasingly weary of CW and the stories she's told them so far. At one point while the three are on a hike Jessica asks CW questions suspecting that CW has told both Ryan and Jessica different stories, which she has. CW trips up slightly on the questions and there is a tension filled back and forth between them. It's clear at this point that Jessica is at the very least onto CW and at the worst going to expose her. At this point in the movie, we have switched POV's once and are headed for yet two more. The last two switches between characters we experienced got increasingly unexpected and at the point where CW and Ryan are left in the beach villa, I figured the movie had reached a natural end only to find out we'd only had a turning point. I won't say much more about the plot to keep some of the best twists a mystery. AUDIENCE RECEPTION & MY THOUGHTS Recently I've noticed more experimenting in horror with plots and less common story lines. Rather than trying to find the most unexpected they happen upon the unexpected unexpectedly and transition the story with fluidity. Rather than having a jump-scare sprinkled plot the scares build with tension and an overall sense of discomfort. With that experimentation we get some gems, like Influencer , that are as deep as the ocean the characters willingly follow one another across. Speaking of which, one moment that stood out to me happened after the first POV switch when we see CW’s process for finding and stalking her eventual victims. Unlike Madison and her relationship woes this woman is more mature, established, and street smart, even hesitant to get to know CW…until CW mentions she’s a fan of her Instagram account. The moments between these two women juxtaposed to CW when she interacts with other characters is a highlight of Naud’s amazing performance. She can make subtle changes in her delivery that display how manipulating, skilled, and intelligent CW is. To appeal to Madison, she’s closer to her natural self, bold and confident with more masculine hairstyles, outfits, and mannerisms. To appeal to Jessica CW becomes softer, stealing Madison’s clothes, using a higher pitched voice, and trying to seem as naïve and innocent as possible. The way Naud and the wardrobe, makeup, and hair people can make the subtle shifts so well and even use them as a plot point in her interactions with Ryan, the male addition, left me in awe. Currently Influencer has a Shudder rating of 4.1/5, an IMDb rating of 6.1/10, and a staggering 92% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes . With an audience score of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes it’s safe to say that most are impressed. Some however, as expected are not as stoked about it, one reviewer writing “How is this movie getting good ratings? So predictable it is not thrilling, not a mystery and not a horror movie,” with a rating of a ½ of a star. Personally, I would give this movie a 4/5, I believe the performances by all the actors and especially Naud push this movie past issues one might have with setting, plot, or script. On top of those good performances the plot itself is interesting, surprising, and going in blind had me shook more than a few times about what direction we would head toward.

Fall of 2009 feels simultaneously like two and twenty years ago; a distant lifetime away and also within reach. June of that year Facebook overtook Myspace as the most popular social network in America and the idea of a Fourth-Wave Feminism through the internet became a hot blog topic, both negative and positive. Amid this chaos bubbling and building beneath the surface Jennifer’s Body (2009) premiered and Hell officially became a teenage girl. INTRODUCTION & MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE At the time I was the age of 13 and I planned to sneak into the R-rated feature despite having a baby face to this day. Lo and behold, thirteen-year-old me had to not so patiently wait for the movie to hit a premium channel because I didn’t have any adults who shared my interest in horror or who I would’ve felt comfortable asking to take me. I loved Transformers and had been a Megan Fox fan since her performance in Holiday in the Sun , the 2001 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen island vacation movie. If a target audience member existed it would’ve been me. The moment it became available I set up a DVR recording, which I would end up watching when I couldn’t sleep for the next four years of high school, making sure it didn’t get deleted when we moved from place to place. The first time I watched Jennifer’s Body it entranced me, turning me into an immediate “stan” before such a concept had become popular. I couldn’t understand why people online, specifically on Twitter, disliked it so much. I wanted to be Jennifer even though I naturally related more with Needy. I found the movie relatable and comforting, I could see myself and my relationships in the characters. Being so close with a best friend they’re more like a toxic significant other than your actual boyfriend. Always forgiving one another despite lashing out because it’s always been that way. It felt like maybe, just maybe, I could be understood and seen in more places than just my corners of the internet. Be it teenage angst or the silent, simmering female rage throughout, I felt the movie spoke to me in a secret language. Unlike the critics who went to see the movie I didn’t mind if Jennifer ate all the boys in the movie as long as I got to watch. She’s a character that is both desirable and unhinged, imperfect. Needy is the opposite, very much hinged, sometimes so clued into reality she misses red flags of the supernatural nature, also imperfect. Watching it back today is like stepping into a time capsule except you’re still bumping Fall Out Boy on all your playlists. Jokes tended on the side of quirky and the entanglements of toxic female friendship got brushed aside as commonplace, normal, and even expected amongst modern teenage girls. Before we knew the language of psychology, now viral on TikTok, we didn’t know how to describe the weight of these relationships we all seemed to have or the potential lasting effects. EXAMINATION BOX OFFICE, RECEPTION, & CRITIQUE The campaign for the movie, created by an agency working solely on behalf of the studio’s best interest, portrayed an image of a low-thought late-aughts comedy hellbent on relegating women and what a woman can be to the most Andrew-Tate-adjacent definition. The male dominated industry only saw what Jennifer’s Body looks like on the surface–hot girl becomes demon succubus and most likely some misfit boy, probably the Chip character, will defeat her while finding himself…and then go off to college and use it as evidence of growth. To the dismay of teenage boys and Hollywood movie bloggers the film didn’t deliver on its promise of a fully naked Megan Fox, one of the two female leads, but did deliver a compelling horror movie focused on teen girls reckoning their closest relationships amid toxic standards. After sitting through over an hour and forty-minutes of what they did not expect, reviewers and critics took to blogs, magazines, and the papers to diss Jennifer’s Body , its screenwriter, Diablo Cody , and Fox. In stark contrast to Cody and Fox’s treatment, Karyn Kusama , the director, and Amanda Seyfried , the other lead, did not receive nearly the same level of vitriol. After reading the script, director Karyn Kusama signed onto the movie in 2008 noting she wanted to be involved with an imaginative and original project like Jennifer’s Body . Most involved in the movie stated how they wanted to work on oddball-like projects, including producers , yet the only ones held so harshly to the standard of normative big screen movies are Cody and Fox. The backlash began prior to the movie’s release with questionings about both Cody and Fox’s artistic abilities, or perceived lack thereof. In a 2018 Vox article titled “How Jennifer’s Body went from a flop in 2009 to a feminist cult classic today” the author Constance Grady explains the reception of the movie as “knee jerk misogyny” and points out the movie’s use of the “female gaze” which is a concept that had not even been named at the time. With hindsight it is easy to see that the issue is less-so the movie itself and more-so the women who made it. Rather than characterizing the perception at the time of the film’s release, I’ve included some quotes from articles: “Being a lead (like Megan)...you have that weird pressure of feeling like you have to look attractive.” a direct quote from Amanda Seyfried and “I plan on sucking up my Fox-hate for a few hours and seeing Jennifer’s Body in September. Will You?” - from “Amanda Seyfried rolls her eyes about kissing Megan Fox” by Jen Sabella on AfterEllen.com , August 18, 2009 “For all its pedigree, the film is an all-too-routine fright flick saddled with lazy writing and characterization and not much in the way of suspense or terror.” - from “‘ Jennifer’s Body ’ fails at horror and comedy” by Alonso Duralde on Today.com , September 17, 2009 “From her earlier days and nights as blogger and a pole dancer, screenwriter Diablo Cody knows a lot about the power of eyeballs, the predominance of the male gaze and the raging narcissism that feeds so many personalities, good and evil.” - from “How bad do you want it?” by Michael Phillips in Chicago Tribune , September 18, 2009 “Jennifer’s Body seems designed more to be quoted than watched.” and “Lines like “Sandbox love never dies,” could be lyrics to the Warped Tour riffs to which Fox slo-mo sashays at the camera” - from “ Jennifer’s Body ” by Nick Pinkerton on SFWeekly.com, September 18 2009 “So, what’s with all the Diablo hate? Don’t a lot of authors create their own vibe?...I’m fascinated by the criticism that Diablo receives for creating a language, as if that, as a writer, is some unspeakable horror. It’s as if people haven’t read ‘ Trainspotting ’ or watched ‘ A Clockwork Orange ’ …or listened to a f–cking Shakespeare, as far as I’m concerned.” and “... ‘oh, so this is so appalling that a woman decides to take language back and create it for herself in a meaningful way?’ That’s what gets me, is I ultimately feel like it’s a subtle referendum on her entitlement to her art and there’s a sense that she doesn’t deserve it and that pisses me off a lot.” - Karyn Kusama quotes from “ ‘Jennifer’s Body’ Director Karyn Kusama On Women In Hollywood, Diablo Cody and Outsiders” by Jenni Miller on MTV.com , September 18, 2009 “It’s almost as if no one knows what to do with Megan Fox. They eye her appraisingly…and then hand her a script. They hope for the best. They release a vapid and directionless film. Someone else stumbles on a photo of her…The cycle of abuse continues.” - from “Review: Jennifer’s Body–Cute Dialogue, Less Filling” by Laremy Legel on MTV.com, September 18, 2009 “The starlet worked it as hard as she could, but that can’t stop a simple truth about the box office: horror-comedies always tank.” - from “Did Jennifer’s Body Bomb Because of Megan Fox?” by Leslie Gornstein on EOnline.com, September 21, 2009 “Megan Fox wields her sexuality like a blunt object–a sledgehammer in lipgloss–in the new horror-comedy Jennifer’s Body. ” and “You can’t imagine the character working half as well with any of today’s other brittle young actors, and Fox seems to know it.” - from “ Jennifer’s Body ” by Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out New York, Issue 729: September 17-23, 2009 “I feel like I was mocking the way people perceive me in real life…People assume that I’m self-obsessed or a typical narcissistic starlet…stupid, manipulative, boy crazy…whatever–all of those things.” and “There’s nothing to distract you from my performance. So if it’s bad it’s going to be f–cking bad for me. And if it’s good, then I will have achieved something on some level.” - quotes from Megan Fox cited in the article “Megan Fox Predicted ‘ Jennifer’s Body’ Could Be A ‘Complete Failure’” by Eric Ditzian on MTV.com, September 29, 2009 “Brody thinks the movie’s female leads and crew should have taken center stage. “The film was directed by a woman, starring two women, written by that year’s screenwriting Oscar winner…And instead they’re like ‘Let’s bury all of that. Don’t tell anyone that. This is for people who like Transformers .’” - direct quote from Adam Brody in “Adam Brody says the negative reaction to Jennifer’s Body ‘felt s–ty,’ film’s poster ‘missed the mark” by Emlyn Travis on EW.com , February 18, 2023 The gendered criticisms, harsh language, and lack of sound critique characterized many women-centric projects of the time, especially in male-dominated genres like horror. The perception, documented on web archives, is a good pop culture comparison to life for Hollywood actresses prior to the #MeToo movement. Despite Fox’s successful performances on the big screen and Cody’s Academy Award for Best Screenplay Writer most critics automatically dismissed them and came away from the movie with no understanding of the nuance or commentary let alone the unique comedy. It also seemed that at times they reveled in their dislike of the film and treated it as confirmation of misogynistic beliefs about women rather than attempting to truly watch it. BECOMING A CULT CLASSIC In the shadows of this outspoken backlash, the intended audience of young women discovered the movie in relative obscurity, often rationalizing the negativity from the outer world and their personal interest in the story. The gap between the two created a perfect breeding ground for a Cult Classic Fandom and sites like Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter fostered the perfect way for that fandom to gain membership. Like most cult-classics, fans argue Jennifer’s Body is overlooked by the general public and far more complex and thought provoking than most would imagine. It’s worth noting that over half of the negative reviews mention the movie’s resemblance to the 80’s teen black comedy, Heathers , as an insult without realizing the film's creators intended it to be that way. It’s also clear as day to anyone interested that all of the main people who worked on this film not only took pride in their work but put care, effort, and genuinely thought provoking detail into all of the movie’s facets. One example is that even the famous kissing scene is not just there to be there but rather serves a purpose tying back to the feminist notes throughout the movie. Cody has said that Kusama and her wanted the scene to be “profound and meaningful” noting their own experiences with teenage relationships became so intense they bordered on intimate. It’s realistic and authentic while addressing a standing question for the film, are they in love? All areas of the production infused meaning into details like Fox wanting Jennifer to wear almost childlike clothing at times to juxtapose her adult-heavy behaviors or how they did the snake-like jaw opening special effects for demon Jennifer after much consideration. The way the sacrifice scenes are done with the band’s flippant view of Jennifer as only a body and a means to an end, alluding to seeing all women that way as they speak to one another as if she’s not there. The movie’s various perspectives are all women-focused, even the male characters who become victims are background to the actual story. There are endless examples like those that can express how well Karyn Kusama, Diablo Cody, Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, and everyone else involved in the making of this movie did with their dedication to the film’s message and essence. With a better understanding of the circumstances in Hollywood, the gendered media backlash of the time, and the weirdly misguided promo campaign it is clear as day why the movie’s fans might not have originally discovered the film. A huge tipping point in the movie’s trajectory came in the form of its own advertising campaign. With hindsight from the future and post-Roe era discussions about gender we can see the failure of the film’s marketing strategy mis-communicating what the movie was about and drawing in the wrong audience. Some called it back in 2009, one article by Jenni Miller stating , “Many women were turned off by the initial red band trailer for “Jennifer’s Body,” which featured a sexy lip lock between Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, among other instances of typically tantalizing shots of Fox being foxy,” on MTV.com . Not just the woman audience got alienated however, the teen audience got largely pushed out of the theater by the R rating. Another article by Leslie Goldstein quotes a box-office analyst on Jennifer’s Body box office flop, “So you have an R-rated film marketed to whom, exactly?” on EOnline.com . In 2018 an article published in BuzzFeed states Kusama and screenwriter Cody knew that the ad campaigns and company that made them did not align with the movie they’d actually made. The trailer garnered ire from women as a cash grab meant to draw in men attracted to Fox. Horror movies used to go hand in hand with female exploitation or “ sexploitation ,” the genre earning that stigma when most blockbusters focused on which young starlet might appear naked on the big screen rather than the scary story. Cody and Kusama stated that at one point the marketing firm they’d worked with replied, “Jennifer sexy, she steal your boyfriend,” to their inquiries about the marketing campaign. Much of the focus centered on Megan Fox’s sexual appeal and cannibal innuendos than the comedic indie horror about female’s experiences as teenagers that Jennifer’s Body is. To imagine someone not seeing the story as focused on a complicated friendship bordering on obsession and the desperation to protect others from her wrath while maintaining her affection is mind blowing-ly shallow. To see the movie as only a boy-eating teenage girl who’s fate is inexplicably aligned with the male band doing anything for success willfully misses the point in favor of sexist ideas about women. The movie’s appeal to the feminine is extremely deep-Cody even saying she sees the horror genre as having always been inherently feminist leaning. Specifically Cody regards the trope of a strong woman, or Final Girl, left standing at the end of the movie partially intact, displaying grit and strength traditionally reserved for their male presenting counterparts, to exemplify feminist ideals. The article by Grady in Vox mentioned earlier said it best in 2018 , “ Jennifer’s Body is good now. More precisely, Jennifer’s Body was always good, and everyone is just now starting to get on its level,” couldn’t be more true, especially five years later. Since the pandemic and the end of Roe v. Wade protections in the United States society in general progressed to more liberal stances regarding gender, race, and sexuality at hyper speed. Personally, this is amazing and the more progress the better. A lot of that progress is propped up on giving women their power back, and even exploring hyperfemininity as a way to do that. The term “bimbofication” is a more positive way to approach femininity than “#girlboss feminism” that became “The year of the bimbo” in 2021 . Reclaiming the slur ‘bimbo’ the ideas behind bimbofication are anti-capitalism and anti-MAGA, rooted in the goal of eliminating the barriers put in place by academia that would traditionally exclude those considered “bimbos” from conversations around gender and society. Mostly credited to Gen-Z, bimbofication is a left-leaning ideology centered around femininity. Bimbofication also promotes the idea that “The Girls, Gays, and Theys” are the only opinions that matter and that men are disposable and for benefit, very similar to how Jennifer views men. Not feminism, which by definition is the pursuit of gender equality, but an offshoot of more radical ideas about gender that subvert the patriarchy into a matriarchy similar to what this movie does for the horror genre. More “go best friend, that’s my best friend” than “kill all men” Jennifer’s Body may seem anti-man but is more pro-woman than anything else. BARBENHEIMER & WHERE WE ARE WITH WOMEN CENTRIC MEDIA We can look back to the summer of 2023 “Barbenheimer” showdown to see an example of pro-women media being mistaken for anti-man media. Barbenheimer marked the release of two polar opposite movies with polar opposite target audiences vying for box office success pitted up against one another. From my POV, and For You page, it seemed like a Man vs. Woman showdown. After years of building friction over who dominates media (and thus is the focus of media for the foreseeable future) a reasonable cultural temperature test could be conducted. Both Barbie , directed by Greta Getwig, and Oppenheimer , directed by Christopher Nolan, both received attention long before release for clickable headlines regarding budget, distribution disputes, high budgets, and a brewing SAG-AFTRA strike start that drew anticipation around their respective releases and subsequent receptions. Neither movie suffered however, both benefiting from an unprecedented level of organic advertising in addition to their large marketing budgets , with historic box office numbers. Raking in over $2 billion on opening weekend alone , Barbenheimer both paid off for their respective studios’ investments. With all of that in mind, that both movies surpassed expectations in both earnings and reviews , Barbie won that hands down. Not only did Barbie ’s numbers dwarf those of Oppenheimer but the media spent the next few weeks making sure the coverage did not focus on how embarrassingly Oppenheimer lost to Barbie . I would bet money that if Barbie had sucked and failed miserably like many Team Oppenheimer proponents had prophesied online we would’ve never heard the end of how much women suck and shouldn’t be allowed to even have leadership roles let alone be high-budget directors in the film industry. Just to put this into perspective: Barbie grossed $162,022,044 domestically during its opening which is an extremely easy number to find and on the other hand Oppenheimer grossed half of that at $82,455,420 domestically during opening (aka Oppenheimer made only 51% of what Barbie made). Today, in October of 2023, Barbie has grossed a staggering $1.44 billion worldwide and Oppenheimer $945 million, both still not fully released on streaming and to purchase. Barbie has gone on to be a cultural phenomenon and is reviving a dying toy brands’ titular product while opening the floodgates to women-centered and women-led media projects. Oppenheimer still gets acclaim but has come in at the third highest grossing film of 2023, not the second, not the first, third. Which would be fine if the narrative leaned toward Oppenheimer being just an alright movie, not a masterpiece but a blockbuster and that Barbie is in fact a cultural masterpiece that reignited the love of being a woman. Barbie has carried the torch that movies like Jennifer’s Body, visual albums like Electra Heart , and the supportive drunk girl meme started on the internet, letting girls and women be whatever they are, imperfectly perfect, and encouraging them to have pride in that. NEEDY & JENNIFER'S RELATIONSHIP Nowadays we’d probably refer to Needy and Jennifer’s relationship as that of high school frenemies or queer coded . Queer coding refers to characters being LGBTQ without it explicitly being confirmed during the film . I suppose Jennifer’s Body is less coded than just queer if taking into account the kiss right after Jennifer says, “But we always share your bed when we have slumber parties,” and the famous “I go both ways” double entendre line in the pool fight scene. Nevertheless, it’s not confirmed if either of them even wants to be in a romantic relationship with one another or if they are just blending romantic relationship attributes into their friendship while coming to terms with sexuality. This take-away confirms that Diablo wrote the film in such a way that the core essence of it comes through the screen, the conflict of the relationship embodies the turmoil that is being a teen navigating your first loves and obsessions stacked in a horror bun. In addition to examining the queer aspects of their relationship we can also examine the inner workings of the toxic friendship. On a Bullying Recovery Resource Center blog post, “I Thought We Were Friends!” refers to frenemies as friends who have become bullies and goes on to declare that professionals determined you cannot be friends with someone who treats you poorly, which is fair. The controlling and intense behaviors indicative of this type of relationship are riddled throughout the movie; when Needy makes a decision about what to wear based on what Jennifer will like and approve of, at the bar when Needy questions Jennifer and gets a condescending lecture about sex appeal, or when Jennifer blatantly flirts with Chip in front of Needy to upset her. An NBC News article from 2011 cited Today.com and Self.com to state 84% of women have a toxic friend at some point in their life, and I’d imagine many were like the friendship between the two main characters. I wanted to dive deeper into the inner workings of relationships like this and how it is shown through storytelling tools in Jennifer’s Body to prove just how thoughtful the film is. A Women’s Health article, “15 Signs You’re In A Toxic Friendship According To Experts,” seems click-bait-y but simplifies the complex subject matter into a BuzzFeed style list backed by experts. After quickly remembering examples for each sign, I believe their friendship doesn’t just clearly exemplify a few of the signs of toxicity, but all of them, hitting the nail on the head but with good storytelling. Number one is literally “you’re giving more than you’re getting” which basically defines the whole plot from Needy’s POV. She often goes above and beyond for Jennifer, cleaning up the black goo vomit without asking anything of Jennifer but an explanation, defending her when others bring up her bad behavior, and ultimately avenging her death even after she kills Needy’s boyfriend, Chip. Number two, “you no longer trust them” is the second half of the film when Needy starts to pay more attention to the demon red flags and rather than blindly following Jennifer she questions her . Once she begins to connect the dots she no longer trusts Jennifer to even be left unsupervised around Chip for fear she’ll just eat him…or make out with him. Number three and four are, “you dread checking your phone” and “you don’t enjoy spending time with them” show up in one of the most iconic scenes from the movie. After eating a football player in the woods behind the school Jennifer is feeling herself and calls Needy. Burning her tongue mid-convo with a lighter only for her blackened, burnt tongue to immediately heal and states, “I am a God,” to Needy but Needy seems annoyed to have Jennifer even calling in such a good mood despite all of the tragedy in town. She ends up putting Jennifer on hold to answer Chip’s call. This is in stark contrast to the start of the movie when Needy cannot focus on anything not related to Jennifer even when hanging out with Chip. Furthermore, in the first quarter of the movie most scenes have both characters and we know what’s going on in Jennifer’s life through Needy’s POV but as the film progresses we know less and less about her and most of what we do know we learn by watching her rather than through Needy . We see the magnetism through the eyes of the magnet until they start losing pull with one another and become separate entities for the first time. This goes directly into number five, "you don't like yourself when you're with them," a very recognizable sign that someone is not the best for you to be around. Needy pieces together what Jennifer is doing and when her confrontation to stop the behavior falls short, she tells Chip the details and warns it's not safe for them to be together, further isolating herself. Number six, "you know they talk shit about you," – when Jennifer convinces Chip to go to the abandoned pool with her to make out she bad mouths Needy and lies about Needy's feelings while representing herself as an authority on the matter. Of course, Chip is also responsible for listening to Jennifer, who he claims to dislike so much, over believing his girlfriend is telling the truth that Jennifer is eating boys. Number seven, "you compete with them," – showing up as the push and pull with how to handle the predicament Jennifer is in, whether it’s a curse to be cured or a blessing to revel in. Needy is naive and slower to come to reality whereas Jennifer makes the best out of the traumatic events and avoids processing her murder by enjoying her newfound demon-hood. Jennifer wants to eat boys and tell her BFF about it (maybe make her a little jealous too), but Needy wants to stop boys in her town from being murdered by a hungry Jennifer. Jennifer is also noticeably disappointed when Needy is able to distract Chip from her attention with physical affection thus making him an unavailable victim and in the same scene does a complete 180 on her interest in Colin’s date request when she finds out Needy is friends with him . Both actions literally push Jennifer to take Colin up on a date with him that she originally rejected five seconds earlier with the plan to eat him now that she’s realized the good aspects of demon-hood wear off and she starts to deteriorate if she doesn’t eat people. Number eight is self explanatory: you don't think they have good intentions . Personally, I don't hate the idea of Jennifer eating people like a Dexter setup, however the boys she chooses to eat in the movie don't deserve it. This logically makes her intentions bad even if one argues that she is only eating boys to stay alive and well now that she's more demon than girl, it doesn’t matter which boys she's eating because it’s all relative. I believe intention is a big reason we are able to view Needy in a more positive light by the end of the film. She did kill her best friend but with her newfound demon-bite-induced abilities she is going after greater evils like the bandmates from Low Shoulder that sacrificed Jennifer to go viral. Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with the next sign, "you can't depend on their advice" as Jennifer is proven to lie to get what she wants and obviously stands in opposition to Needy’s goal of keeping everyone relatively innocent safe. Number ten, "you're embarrassed by their behavior toward others," is ratcheted up a notch by Jennifer's behavior being murderous rather than just rude or some small slight. It would stand within reason that Needy is not only confused by Jennifer's behavior but scared, angry, appalled, righteous, and disgusted. One moment of actual embarrassment does exist though, when their science teacher, Mr. Wroblewski , breaks the news about the fire and Jennifer responds to one classmate breaking down in tears by laughing. Right before this Needy has to defend their story to another classmate who is our first sign that Low Shoulder is walking away from this tragedy looking like heroes rather than the fire starting murderers they are. The only sign included in the list that could be argued doesn't apply to the friendship of Needy and Jennifer, number eleven, "you feel used" . Both Needy and Jennifer arguably use one another for personal gain but it's undeniable that they love and care for one another and despite playing high school games gone wrong they would, if need be, stop in order to protect one another. I believe that Needy in a lot of ways believes she is helping Jennifer by killing her in the end, releasing her from being a demon and stopping her from continuing down the path she's on. While this is one possibility, it's also arguable that Jennifer knowingly manipulates and influences Needy when she doesn't get her way, for example gaslighting Needy that she came to her house and threw up in her kitchen. Number thirteen, "you don't know why you're friends with them," can be drawn back to Needy's feelings that their friendship has always been bad for Needy and not beneficial but that it continues due to its history. Despite them making you feel crappy, often by criticizing you, which is number fourteen, "they criticize you. all. the. time.” Jennifer has conditioned Needy with criticism so much that she knows exactly what to do and not to do in order to not set Jennifer off. In the beginning she's quick to feed into Jennifer's wants and doesn't stand up for herself but by the end she's saying things she knows will piss Jennifer off, like Jennifer being irrelevant. And finally, number fifteen, "they make you second guess yourself," which is all Jennifer does in order to make sure Needy doesn't expose her or stop her. Despite leading her to the answer and almost telling her multiple times she ultimately chooses to protect herself over confirming Needy’s suspicions. After telling Needy the truth following their moment of closeness after she eats Colin and Needy reacts in a way Jennifer didn’t expect she sows doubt in Needy's mind that she could be imagining things. It’s clear that by the end Needy is taking things life and death seriously because they are and Jennifer is acting like they’re having a fight over a boy-toy, Chip. My read (which could be confirmed true or completely wrong somewhere in an interview or book already) is that Jennifer never expected Needy to actually leave her, no matter what. They refer back to "Sandbox Love" in the movie and state that it never dies. There has not been a Needy and Jennifer without one another and the fear of the unknown had been bad enough to make them stick in their comfort zone together until this makes it impossible to ignore their growing apart anymore. Jennifer chooses to leave after Needy impales her rather than just finishing her off and never seems to be trying that hard to kill Needy. She pretty easily eats men, one time with little more than a flirt and quick make out but with Needy it’s more playful than dangerous. The look on her face after Needy delivers the fatal blow is that of true heartbreak. Needy collapsing next to her afterwards only to fall off the bed is a great physical representation of the emotion after the climax of the movie. CONCLUSION Writing something that felt as thoughtful as my favorite movie deserved has been a nagging thought in my head for over a year–so much so that I avoided it all together. After writing something at 30% this is the rewrite that is probably closer to like 75% which is a big improvement to before. I hope to write more about Jennifer’s Body in the future, especially if there’s ever a reboot or additional project of some sort. For now, sending a thank you out to the universe to the people who made this movie, it’s truly been one of my favorite movies and I don’t know how I would’ve made it through sleepless nights without it in my rotation. 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Many movies take on the feat of commentating on the genre they are creating in. Satire, the act of self aware humor, we aren’t actually saying we believe this or that or that we condone this or that we are just commenting on it. Sarcasm is to interaction as satire is to humor. Starting with scenes of a blood sacrifices, cannibalism, and war taking place across multiple cultures and circumstances, depictions of torture and hell on earth we have our first clues to the mysteries of the plot. Stockholm goes south and we find out it’s just Japan and us, most likely the USA, with Sitterson, played by Richard Jenkins , the highest up in command that we see and Hadley, played by Bradley Whitford , his second in command. The last time we had a glitch is 1998, and despite Lin from chem raising concerns they assure her they have a plan, and back then it had been the chem departments fault. Bam, Cabin in the Woods flashes across the scene and immediately if you’ve come in blind you’re probably thinking, “um, okay, what even?” while we cut to yet another different scene of a quaint college town. Pants-less college girl, named Dana played by Kristen Connolly , pining over her professor and her roomie who just dyed her hair blonde, named Jules played by Anna Hutchinson , and has just the right thing for her roommate–a setup with the new guy on the football team, Holden played by Jesse Williams , whom her boyfriend, Curt played by Chris Hemsworth , is bringing on their trip this weekend. From the start things are seriously unserious, with Curt throwing a football through the two girls and out the window only for Holden to catch it perfectly on time with them talking about the set up with Holden. My personal favorite character is introduced next, Marty played by Fran Kanz , the random stoner of the group who is endearing if not questionable morally, showing up smoking and driving just in time to make the trip. They treat him like the lovable idiot but he makes rather intelligent remarks and jokes that go somewhat unnoticed. So already there’s a weird feeling like you’re noticing something but since none of the other characters are you’re not sure if it’s actually a thing in the movie or not, luckily in this case it is. Marty brings along his retractable bong disguised as a metal coffee thermos with the bowl as the handle, an extremely sick accessory definitely conceived by some high people. A spy like man on the roof reports to the main office that they’re right on time but we still aren’t sure what for. And just like that we have our squad of horror archetypes together: the not-like-other-girls quieter girl, the dumb blonde best friend and her jock boyfriend who’s cousin’s new cabin they’re visiting (with no further details other than general landmarks near the cabin), the too perfect guy they brought for the main girl, and the stoner tag along fifth wheel comedic relief. We, the audience, are briefed alongside a security hire special agent type guy named Truman played by Brian White, that this is a serious and special operation that requires him to have been given the low-down by the big guys, whoever they are. The security hire is a really cool way of giving us narrator like information without having weird, unrealistic conversations between the other characters who are senior executives at this corporation. Wasting no time we’re next introduced to the first milestone of any textbook horror movie, a moment where the characters make the choice to continue down the path towards doom rather than turn back and follow their instincts, The Harbinger played by Tim DeZarn , an old man who’s gas station they stop at to fill up and get directions to the cabin–which they only have landmarks to, extremely dangerous and reckless to plan a trip somewhere with no information at all about it. He scares the shit out of Holden who stupidly enters the closed gas station and snoops around looking for an attendant of some kind. He’s an archetype himself, with a hardened but vague background of “The War” but when asked which war he snaps at Jules saying she knows which war. He had made it clear he doesn’t like people coming and going in regard to that property and Marty stands his ground to the old man, making jokes about the man being so old it could possibly be the Civil War. Despite this interaction the group pushes forward. In a very Evil Dead like cabin the group finds themselves filled with unease and getting constant evidence that things are not right (like a horrifying painting hung on the wall covering a one way mirror into the bedroom next door and the general state of the cabin being in decline) they decide to continue on with their vacation. The Harbinger, Mordecai aka Mordy, calls the office to report feedback about the interaction with the group to Hadley who puts him on speaker for Sitterson, Lin, and even Truman to listen in on and rambles on warnings that “The Fool” almost derailed the plans. He warns them about The Fool, seemingly talking about Marty who burned him and isn’t so much of a fool afterall. Through Truman asking questions we learn that the group must choose what happens and that they have to incite some sort of punishment in order for “The System” to work the way it’s meant to. Everyone sets aside the obvious moral quandary of setting the group up for slaughter of some sort in order to make bets. We aren’t privy to what they’re betting on, each bet placed on a note and given to Hadley who is running the bet with Sitterson. Hadley tells an intern he’ll have to split the pot for his bet with maintenance because they bet the same every year, so we can assume that this happens annually. We learn that the director and upper management don’t particularly care if the employees bet on the outcome despite controlling the outcome. But alas, they still need the participants to ultimately make their own choice and can only set the stage for them rather than make them. The group back in the cabin goes on to play a game of truth-or-dare and like in most horror movies the game becomes oddly sexual, Jules making out with a taxidermy wolf on the wall. Midway through the game a door puts swiftly open, extremely odd yet the group brushes it off, Curt even saying it must’ve been the wind…from the basement cellar…that pushed the door up and open…anyways. After general childish taunting the group dares Dana to go downstairs and not opt out of playing by choosing truth instead of dare and she does, only to scream out for help prompting Curt to tell her she needs to strip now since she failed, which ew. In the basement cellar they find a trove of creepy treasures, each of them becoming transfixed by a specific item: Jules on an old wedding dress with a black choker she wants to put on, Holden on a music box with a ballerina he’s gazing into the mirror of, Curt on solving a sphere shaped puzzle reminiscent of a Hellraiser cube, Dana on going through a desk full of old papers with clues about the family that owned the cabin originally, and Marty on holding old reels of retro footage negatives up to the light. They end up all focusing on a creepy diary that Dana finds belonging to the girl who’s family lived in the cabin. Patience Buckner, played by Jodelle Ferland, wrote about her family’s torture and murders that took place at the cabin. She wrote as she died, after losing her arm, ultimately wanting someone to come there in the future to read included phrases in latin to bring them back to finish their mission of pain. Marty, acting like the only rational one doesn’t want them to read it, but the rest of the group thinks it’s a completely normal idea to do so, and so Dana does. Of course this summons the family from beyond the grave as murderous zombie hillbillies but the group doesn’t know that yet and continue to go about their night in the cabin. Ronald The Intern and the maintenance team won the bet with their pick “Zombie Redneck Torture Family”, which we find out was for what monster would be summoned to take out the group. Options had been many and far between from merman (Hadley’s pick that he’s always wanted to see despite Sitterson warning him it’s actually disgusting), to Angry Molesting Tree and Dismemberment Goblins. Word comes in that the Japan team is known to be successful, showoffs, and that things are going according to plan, raising the stakes slightly while still keeping the vibe that of regional office competition. Jules and Curt are acting odd enough that the group notices, being aggressive and sexual, unlike themselves. We of course know there’s pheromones at play and hair dye infused with chemicals to make Jules dumber. Marty pieces things together, that puppeteers are up to something here. He reminds Dana that Curt is a sociology major who is a star athlete and Jules is extremely intelligent as well which makes their behavior even more odd. Dana states she notices the night is weird too but only after Marty goes off in search of a book with pictures in it after she brushes him off. His high thoughts literally help make him see reality for what it is but he’s too high so even he brushes it off. We follow Jules and Curt into the forest, which the office team helps manufacture to ensure Of course even the possibility of seeing a naked college woman on the camera feeds causes every man back in the office to crowd into the main command center. There is apparently a customer that needs to be satisfied and somehow this display is important to make that happen so despite knowing it’s wrong, especially in light of her imminent death, they will still engage in it and rationalize it. A rather brutal attack ensues while Curt and Jules get frisky in the very orchestrated scene of the forest night. After she’s murdered by the hillbilly group we get more clues about who the bosses are and what we’re doing for them when both pray and then the one goes over to pull a lever that activates Jules’ blood pouring down over a stone engraved design we don’t know yet. Her blood fills it and we now know that this is for sure the blood sacrifice referenced at the start of the film and that they are sacrificing the group. Marty notices there aren’t any stars outside and says, “We are abandoned,” unintentionally referencing the circumstances and the religious group conducting the sacrifices. After Curt returns and informs the group of what happened and the hillbilly zombies she still wants The group wants to stay together and barricade the doors, which is the smart thing to do but they have a fail safe for that, pheromones into the room that encouraged Curt to suggest breaking up and Holden to follow his lead as a beta to his alpha. Marty of course notices this and questions them but the group is separated anyways when the Buckner zombies break into the cabin. Marty smashes a lamp by accident and finds a camera in the lamp. Of course, due to being the burnout he thinks his parents would think of him if they could see him, he assumes this means he’s on a reality TV show and is grabbed through a window. Luckily, he has his trusty bong mug which might’ve saved him if the Buckner’s didn’t have a 100% clearance rate level of abilities. Marty is killed and another lever is pulled but this time we see the image, a person outline dancing with a cup which we can assume to be The Fool. Unfortunately the group finds themselves in The Black Room from the diary they found the Latin incantation in earlier, the room used to kill the victims. Using a bear claw trap the big guy of the Buckner’s gets ahold of Holden but Dana is a bad bitch and kills him anyways, her man, her man, her man. They use shock to make Dana drop the weapon which is really smart and interesting as there isn't a reason for any sane and in control person in this circumstance to leave behind a weapon despite it always seeming that they do in horror movies. Unfortunately for our office peeps the kids in Japan defeated the evil and vanquished the spirit with zero fatality. It’s confirmed we’re watching the American team when they make a comment about buying American. We are sacrificing to something to keep ancients at bay and without said sacrifice they will rise up, we still don’t know what that means at this point but someone is about to lose their job–the tunnel that’s supposed to be blocked with rocks is completely open and the last three sacrifice victims are heading through that tunnel out of the controlled environment of the dome with which the cabin is. At this point we know that the cabin is in a dome on top and below the cabin at an undetermined depth is the office where the employees are orchestrating the sacrifice offering. Below all of that even lower is where the boss or upper management or the ancients (which could all be the same at this point) are at. Demolition didn’t get the orders to blow and block the tunnel and there’s a glitch in electrical which sends the whole office into mayhem wondering why the tunnel hasn’t blown. Midway through the tunnel our guy sparks the right wires and gets that baby blown. It’s hard to decide who you’re even rooting for because on one hand they don't deserve to be sacrifice but on the other hand we don’t know what happens if “the ancients” rise up and if they’ll be killed regardless. We now have the last three of the group stuck on one side of the road and the tunnel on the other. Curt decides to cross it on his dirt bike in order to go get help and bring cops back and seek revenge on the Buckner’s in honor of Jules. What starts as a majestic and heroic feat quickly turns into one of the most, “oh shit?” moments of the movie, him flying right into the dome wall and crashing to his dead below. Dana realizes that Marty had been right but we have another lever pulled and another image sort of revealed, a man with a spear and a ball, athletic and active looking. Holden still doesn’t believe this is some sort of weird set up, rather believing there has to be another way out, another way through but Dana is steadfast in her certainty that something else is happening other than just zombies. Out of fricking no where however Holden gets stabbed through the neck by the big dude from the Buckner squad, which took me by very much surprise even upon rewatch. After crashing into the lake below Dana fends off the Buckner zombie as she escapes to the surface and the dock. The new hire asks the group how it’s possible that everything is complete if she’s alive and we learn that the “virgin death” is optional and as long as she suffers they’re good to go. What would normally be the final scene of a horror movie about a cabin in the woods, Dana having a final battle with the Buckner zombie, pulls out to an office party. The office party celebration of completing the ritual and the office shmoozing and gossiping. Demolition is still adamant they didn’t get the order, informing them the power glitch came from upstairs. Suddenly, the red phone on the wall next to the ritual levers rings and everyone goes silent, “That’s impossible….” and just like that Marty my man is back. Just as things are about to be over THE BONG is used to stop the bear trap and Marty gives a simple, “hi,” the true prophet returns! Marty has not only survived but he’s found a trap down in the grave the zombies climbed out of and pulls Dana down into that grave. He dismembered the zombie with a trowel, and is truly the hero we need. Marty has also found out how to open the elevator and figured out about maintenance overrides which would allow them to go down into the unknown below. All of a sudden our horror story is not in a cabin in the woods, but an underground Resident Evil style bunker. We are taken on a sideways, down and around elevator that momentarily pauses in front of various monsters like a ghost skeleton head, a werewolf, a ballerina with a gullet tooth thing for a mouth, and a Hellraiser demon with a sphere puzzle instead of a cube. Dana puts together that they chose, that they made them choose how they’d die and she’s encensed, banging the wall as we pull out to reveal an entire collection of horrifying demons. The main office knows that they’re in one of the monster cages and chem informs them that what he’s been smoking makes him immune, so not so much the fool after all. It’s revealed that he, as The Fool, needs to die before her, The Virgin, or the ritual will be ruined. They’re confronted by a man with a gun only for him to be thwarted and them to get out of the cage and into the facility. A voice over an intercom system informs them that they’re sorry for the circumstances and that this ritual is older than time and that it’s their task to “placate the ancient ones” and for them to be offers, they just want to get this dirty task over with. Dana and Marty are able to secure themselves in a guard booth that’s bulletproof and release the monsters that the overcome voice had just informed them are the worst of the worst monsters (but not as bad as the ancient ones). Being the bad bitch she is Dana releases all the monsters. An extremely funny and gross scene ensues–the SWAT-like team that came in to kill Marty and Dana, in that order, hears movement of the cages so halts advancing and pauses all sound only for an elevator ding to happen, a brief pause, the squad leader saying, “oh shit,” and a flood of monsters crash into and gruesomely kill them. This is probably the most known scene from the movie and definitely the most fun when all someone knows is that and the title. More special forces dudes come in and all of the walls are covered in blood and remains as yet another round of monsters are released from the elevators. We see everything from supernatural, to demon, to beast, and back. It’s a code black, all of the sectors are down and things are mayhem, in the background you can see the intern holding up a sign to the cameras assumably asking for help as he barricades. Dana and Marty’s respite doesn’t last for long, a screeching bat creature crashing through the window causing them to make a break for it. A zombie horde comes after them while we see a murdering clown impervious to bullets, a unicorn using it’s horn to murder, and the Buckner zombie girl making her way down. Despite weaponry, security protocol, and barricades the security dude gets got and decides to blow himself up, also blowing up the control office area. Only for a merman to come and devour him right as he says, “oh, come on,” and a gruesome blow hole death ensues. Our lady is taken out from the ceiling via a reptile creature and he makes it into the ancient tunnel below only to be stabbed by Dana. His final words to Dana are to kill Marty which throws her off enough for her to second guess what he’d been talking about. They make their way down even further into the room we’ve been seeing with the blood and the photos. All five are archetypes connected by a pentagon with spokes coming off of it in a circular pattern. Marty peers below the platform that the stone images are surrounding to see fiery pit down below. She realizes it’s a ritual sacrifice and that it’s intention is to punish them. Sigourney Weaver is the director and comes out of no where to explain. Every culture is different but for us there’s five, the whore who dies first, the athlete who dies, the scholar, the fool who all suffer and die at the hands of the horror they raised. The last is the virgin who lives or dies by fate, they acknowledge she’s not a virgin and they work with what they have. The ancient ones below will remain there if they complete the sacrifice but if not they’ll rise up. Marty is about loyalty and Dana about the ethical thing but it doesn't matter because a wolf attacks her and she’s dying while Weaver fights with Marty on the mount. The Buckner zombie, ever persistent, returns to finish them off and kills her rather than Marty, allowing him to knock them off the mount. Marty has survived and walks over to sit with the still dying Dana who tells him, “I don’t think Curt even has a cousin,” which is even funnier. She apologizes she almost shooting him and he apologizes that she’s dying, telling her he gets it and pulling out a joint and a lighter. Marty apologizes for letting her get attacked and for letting the world end and they are chill with that as they smoke the J because eh, humanity, which is very 2012. Dana tells him she wishes she could’ve seen humanity end and Marty agrees it would’ve been a fun weekend as they brace for the collapse of the temple they’re inside of. Out from the cabin in the woods comes a giant hand crackled with fire within that slams down onto the forrest floor and the camera to bring on the end credits. This is a badass movie that makes me laugh every time I watch it. I’m a sucker for attention to detail and easter eggs and this movie is littered with them from start to finish. With so many that I find new ones even now like the intern in the background security footage this go around. Cabin in the Woods is still one of my favorites, especially because it’s an underdog of a favorite, with many people writing it off early on due to the premise and cast. I recall this being around the time when you couldn't think anything was cool or that would be lame. This is definitely something cool however, creating an interesting and fun world that we discover as we go, albeit sometimes a little too on the nose, it’s fun and keeps you entertained.