bleak bleak bleak

Jeff said of Hounds of Love that “I'm more than a little weary of suburban underbelly exposes like this; the idyllic community facade belying a deplorable evil behind the picket fence isn't an incisive observation at this point.  I'd say it's fairly clear to most people that evil can harbor anywhere; the true crime craze has probably killed any remnant of shock value the culture has for middle-class decay.”. To that point I would argue that the same underbelly has been dug up in regards to milquetoast youngsters looking to get out and enjoy nature, especially down under. Deplorable evil has been waiting just outside the flappy tent zipper for close to fifty years. I guess this is why I found myself surprised by my friend Mike’s late night texts regarding Killing Ground, where he bemoaned its dejection and inhumanity. I can’t blame the guy, we get plenty of palpable reminders of our species’ wicked proclivities. And throwing an endangered infant into the mix only raises the level of concern and disgust. I was admittedly shaken by the scene in Under the Skin, where an abandoned baby was likely swept out with the rising tide. All Jonathan Glazer did was took was the sight of that child crying and attempting to crawl away from the inching ocean to get my mind working in all sorts of terrible ways. Likewise, the last thing I would ever want to grant an A24-craft beard-toe dipping-horror-hating-kid such as Robert Eggers was the satisfaction of admitting that he got under my skin, but the scene where the little one is disposed of in his The VVitch had me hot and bothered in quite the literal sense. I must be in a sad moral state these days because Damien Power’s debut didn’t bother me much at all.

I’d concur with Jeff that the material is handled with care and respect, at least as far as these things go. The William Tell aftermath scene, shot wide and still, only shows bodies tied and worn down, two naked and one bound to a tree. One line of dialogue explains pretty much all that we hoped not to hear, especially regarding the very young daughter that we’ve spent the most time with. The callous nature of one killer sets him initially up as the one to fear while this is slightly contrasted by the other still battling trepidation. In this scene we witness the birth of this young hunter’s fresh thirst for a different kind of game. I’m not entirely sure, but I think he’s the one who shoots the daughter in the head as she lays unconscious. He’s also the man eager to return to the eponymous site, for no other conceivable reason than to engage in more sex and violence. Lord knows that he and his Neanderthal buddy left sufficient evidence (DNA, bullets, footprints) to land them in a prison for the rest of their lives. Earlier scenes show him scrolling through pictures on a cell phone like a teen on social media, the jumbled time-narrative revealing that he’s obsessively admiring his handy work.

The second couple proves more practical in their methods of survival. Power draws much attention to the terrified boyfriend’s decision to run and find help. The key to his supposed cowardice lies in his decision to leave the infant behind, which will lead many to believe that this poor little thing succumbed to the elements. I guess I’m a little skeptical of this theory, only because he has been given water and is being watched over by a dog who hunts the wild boars that would probably threaten its life the most. The same police and medical dispatches that discover the couple combed the wooded area and could have found the baby. I’m just sayin. Power lost me once the boyfriend left to get help. Suddenly the fledgling killer seemed to inherit boogeyman survival skills, only to be undone by the classic stone to head bludgeoning routine. All of Power’s steady nerves suddenly gave way to custom, almost as a sense of duty. As for the boyfriend’s decision; yeah it’s cowardly but practical. If Power really wanted us to hate the guy outright, he would have had the guy return to a scene of atrocity similar to the first.

-          It needs to be noted that my sensitive friend also dragged me to see Alien: Covenant, which he held in very high esteem, precisely the ending in which the film’s two sole survivors are trapped in stasis pods where they will undoubtedly be forcefully saddled with a fatal face-hugger whilst sleeping.  It’s been a bleak year at the movies.