3 for 1

Good morning Consumers, This is Please Consume, the newsletter that loves the Godfather and Fast Five equally.

This week we will be taking you into the depth of horror cinema for the Halloween season.

The genre is simultaneously one of the most beloved and most maligned, but we here at Please Consume love horror in all of its blood-splattered glory.

We are excited and hope you are too!

Ready or Not and The Hunt and The Menu

Written by Tyler Clark

Over the last couple of days, we've been exploring horror films from the past decade. We started with Caleb discussing What We Do In the Shadows, a movie that reflects on the tropes of horror history. Then, Tom showed us the direction horror is taking, with a trend toward strange avant-garde horror emerging from the internet age. 

But what about the current moment?

Where are we right now? Well, today, we'll be looking at a peculiar but fantastic triple feature and discussing what that tells us about the state of horror cinema today.

How Do They Fit Together?

These films are inexplicably linked in four ways: story, casting, tone, and themes. So let's quickly go through these topics and compare these wonderful movies.

Story:

All three films feature women thrust into situations where they are in peril from the bourgeoisie. In Ready or Not, it focuses on Samara Weaving on her wedding night, fleeing from her in-laws. In The Hunt, Betty Gilpin wakes up with a gag in her mouth in the middle of a field. And finally, The Menu follows a woman tricked into attending an event by a mysterious date of hers.

Casting:

As mentioned before, all of these films star women. More importantly, they feature up-and-coming actresses with a steely exterior but expressive eyes that captivate the audience, keeping them guessing. They use their emotional vulnerability not only with the characters but also with the audience, allowing viewers to project their own thoughts and feelings onto them. This emotional connection builds until the climax when the film reaches its violent peak and the characters hit their emotional peaks.

Tone:

These movies are all incredibly fun, offering charming and witty roller coasters that never lose sight of the stakes. The game here is that violence is fun, disturbing, life-altering, and viscerally engaging, but still fun! The violence propels the story forward, with a set number of characters, and as we watch them get picked off one by one, it gets us closer to the finish line - survival.

Themes:

Once again, these films focus on the proletariat vs. bourgeoisie conflict. These women represent the proletariat, fighting against the oppressive powers. Each film scrutinizes different aspects of wealth. 

Ready or Not delves into old money and the entitled offspring of business leaders, a Sam Raimi-style horror with a touch of Succession. The Hunt takes a shot at the ultra-wealthy left, or as the late comedian Richard Jeni once called them, “The Limousine Liberals" - depraved thought leaders who turn Q-Anon conspiracy into a reality to spite those beneath them. The Menu mocks snooty cuisine, celebrity chefs, and the abusive power dynamics and god complexes in the culinary world. 

Watching these films together is like taking a tour through the most despicable aspects of wealth, and honestly, it's a good time.

(Spoilers ahead for all three films)

These themes are driven home in each film's final moments, with the young heroine indulging in a vice. In Ready or Not, it's a post-wedding night cigarette on the front porch. The Hunt ends with Betty Gilpin on an airplane, sharing a bottle of champagne with the mistreated assistant to the grand master behind the scheme. And perhaps best of all, The Menu concludes with a triumphant bite of a greasy burger as the rich elites burn to death in their pursuit of "nirvana" through status and material possessions.

Conclusion:

Taken together, these three films show us that in contemporary horror, audiences are looking for relatable stars to follow, tongue-in-cheek takes on horror with suspense rather than cheap jump scares, and thought-provoking messages. This trend has been ongoing with the rise of "elevated horror" films that address societal issues, questions of inequality, and trauma. While there are excellent films in that genre, typically crafted by filmmakers like Ari Aster and Jordan Peele, these films allow themselves to have fun with these themes, and audiences love them for it.

Today’s Scene