Vivarium (2020)

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Notable Cast: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris, Senana Jennings, Eanna Hardwicke

It’s not very often that a film hits home in such an unnerving way that it’s hard to shake. As a reviewer dedicated to cult cinema, particularly of the genre kind, it’s easy to think ‘well, been there, seen that’ to even the strangest corners of the cinematic world. Occasionally a film strikes out in an unexpected way. Vivarium is a film that has systematically flown under the radar in my sphere and it wasn’t until I saw it in a Redbox rental unit that I just randomly grabbed it for the night. Two days later and the film just writhes under my skin. It’s an odd film, yes, never quite embracing any one particular genre in full and never actively moving away from its Twilight Zone inspired roots, but Vivarium is a film seething with symbolism and empowered by its intimate and often emotionally raucous message.

Due to its high brow concept, Vivarium is a film that can be a little problematic to review without spoiling its many, many strange reveals. Thus, in the spirit of being spoiler free, this review may read a little vague. Hopefully the praise that I am about to lay onto the film still seeps through.

Black Christmas (2019)

Directed by: Sophia Takal

Notable cast: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donahue, Cary Elwes

Remakes are always a tricky business. I say this as one who’s generally more favorable to them than most. In theory, you have to serve the twin masters of appeasing the original fans and thrilling new ones or focus on one or the other, often alienating the unserved audience. There are certainly decent examples of all three and terrible examples as well, but it is a conflict all remakes share. The new version of Black Christmas largely focuses on the “thrilling new take” angle, and I think that it may have unlocked the true potential of this story’s concept, while admittedly walking into a few pitfalls of the genre as well.

Maintaining the basic conceit of sorority girls staying on campus during the holiday season and then being taunted by phone, stalked, and killed, it’s the only real callback to either previous version of this story. The original Black Christmas was very much an exploration of the “killer is calling from within the house” campfire story archetype, while this new one is a pure slasher focused through a lens of modern feminism. I think there are a lot of good ideas in play, although I do think the narrative fails the concept here.