Deadwood (2019)
Directed by Daniel Minahan
When the HBO series Deadwood suddenly went off the air in 2006 with no finale, fans were pissed. This famously foul-mouthed western was certainly not for everyone, but for those of us who enjoyed its unconventional mix of history, politics, violence, and yes, language, its axing felt like a stab in the back from Al Swearengen himself. Thirteen years later, HBO finally decided to right its heinous wrong and give Deadwood the send-off it always deserved with a movie all its own. And it’s a pretty damn decent movie too. Minus Powers Boothe (who died in 2017), the entire cast returns to celebrate South Dakota’s 1889 admittance to the union, and needless to say, old rivalries have percolated and evolved. Fans of the series will no doubt revel in seeing their old friends again, and everyone else can f*ck right the f*ck off.
Klondike (2023)
Directed by Maryna Er Gorbach
Not enough war films tell their stories through the eyes of civilians. Time and again, we’re inundated with the heroic acts of brave soldiers fighting faceless foreign enemies in exotic but dangerous locales, but what of the people who live there? How do they deal with the invaders, the bombings, and the terror? Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike asks these very questions, and her answers are, unsurprisingly, more than a little upsetting. And they should upset you. In fact, they should outrage you. The tragedy faced by Irka and Tolik (Oksana Cherkashina and Serhiy Shadrin) as they prepare for the birth of their first child is horrendous. They are decent people caught in the crossfire of a conflict they have no desire to be a part of and have nothing to do with. They’re trapped by circumstance, geography, and the kind of geopolitical nonsense that will get us all killed one day. Klondike should infuriate you as much as it shocks you. It should disgust you to the point of activism, because what happens to Irka and Tolik happens to thousands of people every day all over the world on our watch. And so far, no one’s doing much of anything about it.
When Evil Lurks (2023)
Directed by Demián Rugna
From early on, Demián Rugna’s disgustingly beautiful Argentine gorefest, When Evil Lurks, grabs hold and doesn’t let go. Part demonic possession parable, part unsettling zombie apocalypse, and part traditional folk horror, When Evil Lurks spares no one from its wrath. It isn’t so much the body count that’s staggering, but who those bodies belong to and what made them that way is what makes this such a shocking and nearly repellent film—in all the best ways, of course. Superstition abounds as brothers Pedro and Jimi (Ezequiel Rodriguez and Demián Salomon) race against time and a series of unsettling encounters to stop a possessed young man from giving physical birth to an unborn demon that grows within him. Rugna’s use of practical effects and make-up wizardry are the stuff horror fans salivate over, and the nonchalance with which the community accepts what’s happening around them (peril to those who don’t!) is earthy folk horror at its finest. By simple contrast alone, When Evil Lurks is a great example of what American horror has been doing wrong for decades, and I, for one, can’t get enough of it.
James is a writer, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.