It’s October! That means it’s horror lovers’ favorite time of year– global pandemic and wild, wacky, and unbelievable national headlines be damned. In a month when streaming services make a big push in any normal year to appeal to those of us who love things that go bump in the night, 2020 seems to have thrown filmmakers over the edge and into the great abyss of horror. From Huluween to Amazon Prime’s Welcome to the Blumhouse, streaming services are going big while we all stay home. Sure, big box office production companies are still rolling out at least some horror films like Antebellum (long story short, it’s good—it’s far from what you might expect, and not exactly an escape from the real-life horror of 2020, but it’s beautifully-acted, terrifying, and thought-provoking all at once—see it, and then let’s all have a real conversation about that ending). However, today I choose to devote some time to a few lesser-known and upcoming titles.
The Lie is one of the four films released this October by Welcome to the Blumhouse, a straight-to-streaming collaboration between up-and-coming filmmakers, powerhouse horror producer Jason Blum, and Amazon Studios. In The Lie, a teenage girl and her parents take on cops, neighbors, and all that’s good and holy in the world to cover up—you guessed it—one big lie in order to protect the daughter’s future. The film is appropriately set in the heart of a Canadian winter when parkas and warm boots save the day, and gray and white hues set the tone for a frozen suburban tundra. Terrifying indeed. 
It’s also nice to see lead Joey King depart from her recent jaunts into teen rom com and drama to dig back into her horrorific roots and really own her performance in this film as an obliviously spoiled and troubled teen of divorced parents. Then again, I suppose she can’t go wrong with pros Peter Sarsgaard and The Killing’s Mireille Enos playing her tortured, conflicted parents, whose medevac approach to parenting makes regular helicopter parents look normal. The film’s twist is good, albeit a bit expected, and while I seem to 
have an inability to watch any level of insidious deception in a film without experiencing a low-grade anxiety attack, what’s perhaps most terrifying about The Lie is that it paints a portrait of the epitome of privilege—yes, even in Canada. See this film, picture how it would have unfolded if the characters were not White and privileged, and find yourself even more horrified at the state of so much injustice today. The Lie is available on Amazon Prime tomorrow, Tuesday, October 6.
It’s not uncommon to find a horror film that prods at the possibilities – and potential pitfalls – of applying high-tech medicine to the inner workings of the human brain. From erasing memories of the past to rubber stamping a new life onto someone’s mind, films have been toying with the idea for some time with varying degrees of success. Black Box is the latest addition to this mix, and is the other half of the first two Welcome to the Blumhouse films released this October. Black Box follows the journey of Nolan, a man trying to recover his memories after losing his wife in a car accident. His daughter and doctors try their best to bring his brain back in line with his normal life, but a special treatment seems to awaken new demons in his memories. Nolan soon learns that the treatment isn’t exactly what it appears to be, and we join him in wondering what’s really going on here. 
Although the plot meanders significantly and at times slowly, this film terrifies on a few levels – there’s the loss of one’s own identity, the abstract fear of a future when reshaping minds might not be so impossible, and the inescapable terror of reckoning with deep personal truths that you may not be ready to confront. Oh, and there’s a pretty freaky, creaky demon played by the one-and-only Troy James. Black Box also boasts an impressively moving and dynamic lead performance by Mamoudou Athie, who you may remember as the endearing 
sidekick Basterd from Patti Cake$. As if all of that weren’t enough, this film is technically a Black film (one that features a Black cast where White people only hold a few minor roles on the periphery of the plot), but one that I’d argue successfully contributes to bridging the Racial Empathy Gap. As Andre Seewood wrote in IndieWire back in 2014, “For the visionary Black filmmaker the task is really to destroy the notion of a singular Black experience of the world by any means necessary.” In this compelling, creative film, director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour certainly achieves that goal. Black Box is available on Amazon Prime tomorrow, Tuesday, October 6.
Although not part of a larger Halloween release package, IFC Midnight’s Rent-A-Pal offers a deeply dark take on loneliness in 1990 – long before one swipe of a smartphone could connect you to your closest circle of friends or hundreds of singles in your area. Brian Landis Folkins plays David, a middle-aged man living in his mother’s basement, warmly tending to her every need as she suffers through aging and memory loss. We soon get the sense that David has foregone making real friends or even dating in order to care for his ailing mother. In an effort to wrestle back some semblance of control within his personal life, David tries a VHS dating service that feels like it moves at a snail’s pace compared to today’s mishmash of 
online app-tions. But it’s through that service that David discovers Rent-A-Pal, a videotape that purports to provide him with a “true” friend—in prerecorded video form. As David befriends his virtual buddy, something in him seems to snap – he’s increasingly less generous and patient with others, and incrementally moving closer to the razor’s edge of sanity. With Folkins transforming his character from sweet and helpful to creepy and Ed Kemper-esque, we soon wonder if he can right the ship before it’s too late. While Rent-A-Pal isn’t exactly uplifting, October is the perfect time to take in this dark, disturbing film, and as a bonus, you’ll get to enjoy some totally radical late 80s production design – it’s a win-win. Rent-A-Pal became available to stream on the IFC Films channel or for rent on demand on September 11.
Let’s be honest, a lot of us were happy that #ProudBoys was taken over in a big way by LGBTQ+ posts this week. At least those of us with souls. But perhaps our elation over such a simple show of support for pride groups in the face of hate underscores how much heternormativity still reigns in the United States. Thankfully, slowly but surely, mainstream filmmaking – even within the horror genre – is presenting more and more creative ways to tell the stories of people who are anything other than straight. Spiral follows one family as they move into their new house in the ‘burbs and try to raise a teenage daughter. But the couple’s angsty
teen isn’t the only problem they have to navigate in this Shudder Original film: the neighbors across the street seem to be a bit . . . off. That is, if you consider it weird to host meetings late at night that involve swaying and chanting in circles. As Aaron and Malik (who yes, happen to be a same-sex, mixed-race couple) navigate all the complexities of their new life in 
suburban America, the terror mounts as Malik (played effectively by UnREAL star Jeffrey Bowyer-Champan) tries to figure out whether the sense of impending dread is all in his head or whether there really is a cult festering amidst the cookie cutter homes of their subdivision. An otherwise straightforward take on the cult horror genre, Spiral smartly adds complex layers of subtle social commentary on the experience of being LGBTQ+ in suburban America. While the scares aren’t totally terrifying, this film is eerie, smart, and even funny all at once, and definitely worth checking out. Spiral became available for streaming on Shudder on September 17.
SpecialK Verdict: While no one of these films is a total home run alone, they definitely hit it out of the park as a season-appropriate set, so stream The Lie, Black Box, Rent-A-Pal, and Spiral, and let the Halloweening begin!
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