Host and The Suicide Squad

 This week sees me viewing The Suicide Squad (2021) and Host (2020). SPOILERS AHEAD

Lets start with Host, shall we? This is a film that should be really called "Jump Scare: The Movie". Its a technique that's often criticized, but, when done correctly, it is EFFECTIVE. Host uses it both effectively and ineffectively. The final shot is predictable, telegraphed.... and you STILL jump at it. However, there are other scares over the course of the film that actually do jump scares in new ways, which is not only effective, but also startling and scary.

The other things about Host is that it cleverly uses the techniques of "found footage" and the isolation of the Covid-19 quarantines of the year to ratchet up the tension. The film is set in a video conference call, with each person in their own separate locations. When things start happening, all the other people can do is look on in horror. Because this is a video call, there is a REASON for things to keep filming, which makes a nice change from other found footage films, where you find yourself wondering why they feel the compulsive need to film every last thing constantly. 

The story is essentially, 6 friends, during the lockdown in Britain, arrange to have weekly video meetups. On this one, one of the girls has arranged to bring in a medium into the call, who will conduct a séance for them. They are warned to take it seriously, but one of the girls in the call decides to play a prank anyway. The medium is dropped from the call, and then.... all hell breaks loose. It seems the prank invited a hostile entity or demon into their midst, and it decides to take them all out. 

The acting is pretty effective, as the people react more like genuine people that find themselves under assault by some supernatural agency. People drop in and out of the call periodically, and in one instance, one of the girls says 'screw the lockdown', puts on her mask, and runs to the apartment of one of the other girls who lives close to her. It is the only time in the film when two of the main actors come together, and its a nice reminder of the fear of Covid, even amid the paranormal siege. When they see each other, their first reaction is to hug one another, but at the last second they pull back and instead bump elbows. They may be terrified by a demonic assault, but they are just as terrified by the pandemic. 

By the same token though, because everyone is disconnected in this way, it seems the demon is rather arbitrary in its decision to target all of them. Some of the deaths are simply not "earned." One character, for example, drops out of the call before the séance even begins. He rejoins later on, after the presence has manifested, and is almost immediately targeted and killed. What exactly did HE do to earn that? 

Still, its not something you notice immediately. Its a worthwhile way to spend some time.

On the other end of the spectrum is The Suicide Squad from director James Gunn. This is a big budget film, with big stars, and a big release, in a big franchise... you get the picture. It is a sequel/reboot of the previous Suicide Squad film, done by David Ayers. The original film, released in 2016, was... problematic, on a number or levels. The premise is more than a little promising. Super villains who are currently serving prison sentences are offered the opportunity to reduce the time left on their sentence if they agree to participate in Black-Ops missions for a shady government agency. Because they are criminals, they are completely expendable.

In the original film, the premise got a little lost in a sub plot about The Joker and Harley Quinn, and a non-sensical plot involving the ultra-powerful being known as The Enchantress. It made little sense, and it was carried mostly on the charisma of its two leads in Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. As far as the "suicide mission" angle goes... well... a couple people die, largely telegraphed ahead of time. Who is Slipknot? Who cares, he dies shortly after he is introduced. And then.... no one of importance dies until the climax. The body count for the first movie is.... 3. Slipknot, El Diablo, Enchantress. And a bunch of faceless minions and soldiers. It is grim and suffers from the biggest problem of the DCEU films... a gritty over-seriousness that really detracts from the colorful nature of the original comics. 

Enter James Gunn... and out of a total of 14 Squad members, 4 survive the story. 6 if you pay attention to the post credits scenes. But more importantly he brings humor and brightness back into play, making it for a far more engaging film than the first one. And by engaging, I mean FUN. Is it a good film? No, but it is an ENTERTAINING film. And in some ways, that's all you need.

Again, its not without its problems. Idris Elba's Bloodsport is almost identical in backstory to Will Smith's Deadshot. You could swap them back and forth and not miss any character beats. That said, I do prefer Idris Elba to Will Smith. He carries more gravitas in the role, which I think makes a nice contrast to John Cena's Peacemaker. 

Speaking of Peacemaker, John Cena cannot necessarily be considered a good actor, but he is well suited to the part of Peacemaker, and creates a great deal of humor. Peacemaker likes to think he's deep and intelligent and philosophical. He's not, and that, for me, is one of the funniest things in the film. He never seems to realize how shallow he really is, and in one particularly funny moment, even loses track of his own arguments. 

Peacemaker: If this whole beach was completely covered in dicks, and somebody said I had to eat every dick until the beach was clean for liberty, I would say "no problemo!"
Ratcatcher II: Why would someone put penises all over the beach?
Peacemaker: Who knows why madmen do what they do?

Peacemaker literally forgets that HE was the one who originally imagined this scenario, and can't give a good explanation as to why he came up with it. And that's Peacemaker in a nutshell. He just doesn't think too far ahead, or about what he's saying. 

But in comparing this film to its predecessor, I also keep coming back to Viola Davis' Amanda Waller and the other members of 'Mission Control' back at Task Force X. In the original film, Waller is both practical and evil, but in a weird way. Inexplicably, she guns down her own technicians in the first film.... for.... reasons that are never made clear. To show how evil she is? I don't know... its one of the many scenes in the first film that made no sense to me. In this film Waller is still utterly ruthless, but she has been humanized. She may not like her technicians, she may get angry with them, but in this film, you can't imagine her randomly gunning them down. And frankly, they give her far more reason to. 

And, they give her a sense of humor, which was sorely lacking in the first film. Her eyerolling response to the activities of her team, as they try (none too successfully) to hide the fact they are betting on who will survive the mission, or the fantastic side-eyed death glare she gives John Economos when it turns out Weasel can't swim are amazingly funny. She grumpily complains about her golf game, because she has to play with a senator the next day, and doesn't want to be embarrassed. She falls asleep in her chair while they are waiting for the communications to be re-established. She is HUMAN. She is a formidable human, but she is still, in the end, just a human. 

This is a bloody film, and intentionally so. If you are going to do The Suicide Squad, you NEED the stakes to be made clearer than a single person dying. The opening scene takes out nearly EVERYONE. And it is by far my favorite part of the film. It is extremely violent, and it is extremely funny. Harley's reaction to TDK's powers is utterly classic, as is Flagg's helpless "*I* didn't pick the team!" 

Also of note, since this is James Gunn film, is the soundtrack. There are two standout tracks, both at the beginning... the first is Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash which is what opens the film, playing over Savant sitting in the prison yard on his own. And the next is the main theme, which is People Who Died, by The Jim Carroll band.. which, quite frankly is a perfect choice. Morbid, and still upbeat, it matches the tone of the film perfectly.

Quick Looks:

The Last Shift (2014): A rookie police officer is left on her own as the last shift at a closing police station. However, the history of the place and one of its more horrific cases returns to haunt her. This is a pretty disturbing film, but I can't say its a good film. There are a lot of really creepy imagery. There is a lot of gore. Its essentially mind games. Its worth a look, but there isn't a lot here.

One Cut of the Dead (2017): This is a tremendously fun film, that tricks you multiple times, to great effect. It took me by surprise, and became a lot more meta than I expected, but it is a celebration of not just horror and zombie movies, but of low budget filmmaking. Its a love letter to the independent horror film auteur. And the One Cut of the title you see at the very beginning, and it is a fantastic technical achievement. Pay attention in this film, because its clever, and there are multiple stories going on, which you don't necessarily know at first, but as the layers begin being pulled back, you learn what those other stories are, and things which seem like mistakes early on are revealed, and even better, things that WORK really well turn out to be complete accidents.

Teddy (2020): A French werewolf horror movie, which is uncomfortable to watch. It tries, I think, to be a sort of male counterpart to Ginger Snaps, but it rather fails at that. We follow our 'hero' Teddy, who is a sullen, somewhat rebellious teenager who gets infected with lycanthropy and we see his slow transformation to full fledged werewolf. The problem is, Teddy is still not that interesting a character, and unlike the Fitzgerald sisters, he has little charisma and no humor. The movie proceeds at a rather dull pace, and finally culminates in a bloodbath of truly epic proportions.... which happens mostly off screen. 

After Midnight (2019): This is another odd, indy film, that seems to work. We meet Hank who seems to spend his days wandering around his empty house drinking and daydreaming about his early relationship with Abby, while spending his nights drinking and shooting at a mysterious monster that tries to gain entry to his house every night. We discover that Abby has left Hank, leaving behind only a vague note. Hanks friends can't draw him out, and don't believe him about the monster. The film is a really weird combination of romance and monster movie. And oddly, it works.