Time moves differently in the summer, especially as a kid.

It’s strange…

Growing up in the muggy heat of Maryland, I spent a lot of my summers without much structure, lulled to sleep each night by the symphony of crickets and cicadas. The flying insects were louder in the ‘90s, before the steady decline of their habitats which was worsened to what it is today. When I re-watch old home movies of my sister and me, enjoying popsicles in the waning dusk, I listen carefully for the buzzing with a kind of bittersweet nostalgia. A deep longing. Sure, these insects still exist, but I’m convinced they will never sound quite the same.

For many years, my sister and I attended an all-girls sleepaway camp in the mountains of West Virginia where we played archery, competed in dance-offs, and rode horses in the ring and through the river. For two to three weeks at a time, we would be sequestered into separate units, left to our own devices to handle the occasional bumps and bruises, bouts of homesickness, and mean girls on our own. There were no parents there to guide or console us, just college-aged counselors who were more or less our peers. We weren’t allowed to bring our CD players or iPods to camp, and back in the early ‘00s, none of us had phones yet, anyway. All we could do was exist in the present moment. It was a formative time of growth for me, especially as a young queer girl.

I always considered summertime as a kid to be a kind of liminal space, or transitory period, like an empty movie theater after-hours or a long lonely highway at midnight. Summer moments feel similarly both fleeting and sacred. There is no shuffling through the daily motions of school, no hassle of teachers or usual familiar faces of classmates. A lot can happen in these in-between spaces where days are full of newfound freedom and possibility.

A lot can happen in just two to three weeks at a time.

Summer camp was where I first tried and failed to use a tampon, me and my bunkmates giggling with shared confusion as we shared amateur advice. It was where I showered in an outdoor stall with horrifyingly huge moths in the sink nearly scaring me away from brushing my teeth. It was, one summer, where a cabin full of girls bullied me so mercilessly that I sobbed by myself by the clotheslines outside, desperately missing my mom. Camp was also where I had my first kiss with a girl, my cheeks flushed that whole night, something new in me ignited.

That same summer that I was bullied, the bullies targeted two other girls who liked to play fight in the swimming pool. The word on their lips was used like a slur as they snickered it: lesbians. I remember hearing it and feeling my stomach sink, but I kept quiet, not wanting to draw more attention to myself. I knew that I wasn’t a lesbian, but I didn’t have a word for what I maybe was, either. How I felt. When the counselors of the victims got wind of the bullying, they herded our entire cabin into a meeting with the victims and berated my bunkmates and me, the bullies and bystanders alike for daring to use that word…and on their campers, no less. The bullies denied they’d said anything, of course, playing innocent as the victims sat there, silent and utterly humiliated.

I remember the rage I felt, climbing through me, along with my own humiliation and confusion. What if these girls were lesbians? I wondered. What if they were only curious? What if none of it mattered? Would they ever feel safe playing together again in a pool? Or exploring physical touch in public, platonic or otherwise? I wanted so badly to say something during that meeting, to defend both myself and these girls, to scream that “lesbian” is and never was an insult, no matter the intentions of the people using the word. At the time, however, I was wracked with anxiety and self-consciousness, weighted down by my own heavy shame.

Much of Primal Animals is based on summer camp experiences and memories such as these, though I chose not to include any overt homophobia in the book, as I wanted to envision a world without that one terrible thing. In many ways, this novel is not only an ode to summers spent away from teachers and parents out in the woods, but to the bittersweet liminality of summertime, and the freedom and exploration it leads to.

At camp, cliques form just like in school and kids get bullied, but there’s far less oversight to behavior, as adults are less often around. Girls at my camp formed incredible bonds, but they could also be mercilessly. Impossibly cruel.

Essentially, I thought, what an excellent setting for a horror novel.

By the way, if you love the setting, themes and characters in the following books, movies and TV shows, you’ll likely enjoy Primal Animals:

• Yellowjackets
• Twin Peaks
• The Wicker Man
• The Wilds
• The Fear Street Trilogy
• Pretty Little Liars
• One of Us Is Lying
• Midsommar

The post You’ll Love ‘Primal Animals’ If You’re a Fan of These Dark, Twisty Movies & Shows appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

After catching wind of Ari Aster’s second feature Midsommar, I implored the deities above to use every speck of their mighty power to set him on the right path. The writer-director’s award-winning debut feature Hereditary was one of the most terrifying, disturbing, and devastating films of all time; easily finding a forever home in the horror hall of fame. But any movie critic worth their salt appreciates that newbie film-makers – especially those strutting their stuff in the horror genre – can stumble at their follow-up project. Take Babak Anvari, for instance, whose freshman film Under the Shadow completely obscured his ensuing effort Wounds. Not Aster though, succeeding in dodging the infernal sophomore jitters to produce yet another tour-de-force, and securing a place in the global horror canon.

Although initially sceptical of the idea, arguing he couldn’t see a way into the story, Aster takes his latest plot out of the U.S. and all the way to the breath-taking, balmy, rural province of Hålsingland, Sweden. There, in the small settlement of Hårga, the film-maker sets what he describes as “a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film.” And what a breakup movie it is; its ingenious, gruesome, and haunting premise pushing the envelope and subverting expectations even further than we could possibly have imagined. The stark, claustrophobic atmosphere of Hereditary is replaced by colour and cheer, but don’t let that fool you, for the eyes can deceive.

Aster sets Midsommar in motion with a powerful prologue, at the core of which is loss, betrayal, and tragedy. Grad student Dani (Florence Pugh) is devastated when her depressive sister commits suicide and take their parents with her. She reluctantly agrees to go on a backpacking trip to Sweden with taciturn boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his pals. Before tragedy struck, he’d been close to breaking up with Dani – not that she knew this though. And things have only got worse since, Christian’s friends extremely vocal about their objections to the relationship. They’re not keen on her tagging along, especially odious Mark (Will Poulter), but she believes it to be the best solution. Yet, we know better; Aster using these unsettling, dread-inducing intro scenes to wink at our soon-to-be validated pessimism.

As the plot burns gently, the group touch down in Sweden. After a trippy, shroom-fuelled night of camping, seemingly caring Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) – who develops a glaring fixation with his buddy’s girlfriend – takes them off to stay at his family’s bizarrely joyous commune for a flowery festival. It’s all new, but utterly enchanting; a sentiment shared by Pelle’s British guests Connie (Ellora Torchia) and Simon (Archie Madekwe). Mark finds himself the object of a winsome local’s affection, and fellow group member Josh (William Jackson Harper) thinks the community might just make for the perfect thesis study. Before long, the festivities are in full swing, and without warning, unthinkable rituals traumatise the outsiders. Events are explained away, and as the strange traditions continue, as the behaviour of the Swede’s gets odder, and as the visitors begin to disappear, those remaining fail to crank up the suspicion.

Midsommar is a rich, layered, and considered example of cinematographic prowess. Every shot is a visual treat, some slyly foreshadowing the bloody atrocities ahead just enough to allow fear to creep over the audience, and others happy and welcoming enough to throw our protagonists off the scent. Aster builds tension and suspense like a pro, offering satisfactory titbits one by one while leaving us shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Of course, we know something isn’t right, but by the time it’s clear a Get Out style entrapment has taken place, ensnaring the group in the guileful trap of what is nothing less than a depraved cult with nefarious intentions, it’s too late for them.

As the film sweeps ceremoniously towards it’s demented, grotesque, and almost comical closing moments, a dance to the death around the Maypole sees a surprising victor crowned May Queen. A feast follows, meat pies are munched, virgins deflowered, suffering expunged, bears donned, and fire eventually fills a curious, angular construction. It’s all exceptionally outlandish, entirely engrossing, and supported by some incredible acting. Despite the madness sandwiched between the beginning and conclusion, Midsommar brings this fable full-circle. We’re made to see it was all about Dani and Christian the whole time, even if the prologue falls a little short on setting us up to grasp this throughout – this is my only minor niggle. The end product is a near-masterpiece that’ll leave your jaw slack, skin crawling, and mind fucked.

What do you think of Midsommar? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Movie Review: Midsommar appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Also a highly anticipated release is Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time Hollywood, which sees some big actors star such as Leonardio DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, while also marking the last project the late Luke Perry worked on.

Read on to discover what movies are coming out this month and tell us in the comments below what you’re looking forward to!

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever. Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marisa Tomei, and Michael Keaton.

The Lion King

From Disney Live Action, director Jon Favreau’s all-new “The Lion King” journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. The all-star cast includes Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon.

Midsommar

A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult. Starring Florence Pugh (Outlaw King), Will Poulter (The Maze Runner), Jack Reynor (Strange Angel), and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place).

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning, and James Marsden.

Stuber

When a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu picks up a passenger who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer, he’s thrust into a harrowing ordeal where he desperately tries to hold onto his wits, his life and his five-star rating. Starring Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy).

Crawl

A young woman, while attempting to save her father during a Category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators. Starring Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner), Barry Pepper (True Grit), and Ross Anderson.

Lying and Stealing

Ivan is a gifted and discerning art thief who wants out. Elyse is an aspiring actress whose own past transgressions in Hollywood haunt her, as well as a mountain of debt.These two outsiders are drawn to each other. Starring Theo James (Divergent) and Emily Ratajkowski (I Feel Pretty).

Saving Zoë

Based on the novel of the same name by Alyson Noël, one year after the murder of her sister, a freshman in high school uncovers the truth about her secret life by reading her diary. Starring Laura Marano (The Perfect Date), Vanessa Marano (Switched At Birth), and Giorgia Whigham (The Punisher).

What movie are you most excited to see this month? Tell us in the comments below!

The post July 2019 Movie Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

There’s nothing like a summer festival. Blue skies, green grass, flower crowns, dancing—just add some ritualistic bloodletting and occult leanings and you truly have some hashtags to one-up those vacation posts on Instagram.

If you’re Ari Aster, that is.

The writer and director of last year’s popular and divisive family-based horror film Hereditary returns with what looks like an intriguingly twisted addition to folk horror, Midsommar scheduled to premiere in theaters July 3. Two trailers have dropped thus far and the information they give us isn’t much, but what is there is tantalisingly creepy. A couple whose relationship is on the rocks, Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Raynor) decide on a vacation to rural Sweden for a festival that happens once every 90 years. With friends Mark (William Jackson Harper) and Josh (Will Poulter) accompanying them, there’s already a palpable tension among the group, an undefined personal tragedy having just happened to Dani before their departure.

Whereas Hereditary was a horror drama that laced its narrative through dark spaces and darker family secrets, Midsommar seems delicately and deviously woven with the characteristics of folk horror. The sub-genre is not strictly defined, but it tends to lean toward old European traditions and pagan influences, with the natural world playing a central role. One could proffer that it’s the subversion of our comfortable, modern perception of nature as a fecund nurturer that grounds us in oneness with all living things.

Case in point, the village in Midsommar looks like just the sort of halcyon hamlet designed to alleviate woes. Verdant and filled with friendly-looking locals that like to bust a move or two around a garlanded maypole, on the surface it’s a place that should promote a sense of tranquillity and belonging. The more we watch the trailers we realise it’s anything but those things. Beneath the sunny, illuminated exterior is a current of dread leading toward a terrifying conclusion.

Before we get there though, let’s look at some of the films in folk horror that are proper examples in their own right. Below are my top five picks for favourite folk horror movies; you can see my complete top 10 list on the Stardust app at MovieswithPhia.

1. The Wicker Man (1973)

What else were you expecting? Considered one of the “unholy trinity” of folk horror, along with The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and Witchfinder General (1968), The Wicker Man is akin to the fictional Fyre Festival of its day, with all of the deception and some May Day nudity thrown in to boot. Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate reports of a missing girl. A conservative Christian, the policeman observes the residents’ frolicsome sexual displays and pagan rituals with suspicion, especially since none of them seem concerned, or will even acknowledge, that a local child is gone. For all its ritualistic trappings, the scariest thing about The Wicker Man is the people’s belief systems. Sgt. Howie, in the certainty of his faith, can’t conceive of another way of being, so he’s blind to the danger around him. The people of Summerisle, despite their veneer of sensuality and blitheness, are fundamentalists willing to hurt others as long as it enables them to continue on in their bohemian status quo.

2. Onibaba (1964)

If you guessed from the title that this movie is set nowhere near Europe, you’re not wrong. Onibaba is actually labelled a historical horror drama by most film buffs, but hear me out. Kaneto Shindo’s tale of two peasant women in 14th century Japan that murder samurai in order to sell their possessions pulses with the hallmarks of folk horror. Tall grass and reeds next to a lake seemingly depict an idyllic natural setting that is actually claustrophobic and mysterious in what it conceals, and religious superstition is used to suppress and control when one of the women starts to fear that the return of a male neighbour from war will cause her daughter-in-law to leave her. Not jump-out-of-your seat scary, but a nuanced, layered look at the powerful, sometimes frightening urges inspired by desire and reflected back at us through the indifference of nature.

3. The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)

Some purists might be upset that this doesn’t rank higher on the list (to really get their dander up, Witchfinder General doesn’t event crack my top five), but they can always create their own compendium of folk horror. Meanwhile, let’s talk about this entertaining, temperamental scare-fest. Directed by Piers Haggard, The Blood on Satan’s Claw tells the story of teenagers turned demon-worshippers in 17^th-century Cornwall after a plowboy accidentally exposes the strange remains of an inhuman creature. Despite the melodramatic title, there’s not a lot of camp here, mostly thanks to the acting, particularly a smouldering performance by Linda Hayden as Angel Blake, self-appointed leader of this band of children gone bad. If Hayden were a young actress now you can bet she’d have a strong social media following that was well deserved.

Trigger warning: There is a rape scene.

4. Apostle (2018)

While Gareth Evan’s movie owes plenty to The Wicker Man, it is its own potent concoction of terror and brutality. Apostle doesn’t delve into characterisation as deep as it thinks it does, but the atmosphere, cinematography and performances keep your attention. In the early 1900s, former missionary Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) returns home to rescue his sister, who is being held for ransom by a religious cult lead by Malcolm Howe (Michael Sheen). Thomas travels undercover to the pleasant-looking island where the cult lives, soon learning that the group’s religious devotion to an ancient nature goddess is bastardised by the same vice Malcolm and his inner-circle claim to reject. There’s an underlying theme of people’s hypocrisy toward nature, in that we tend to revere it as long as it’s bountifully beautiful and able to be controlled.

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Love it or hate it, this found footage mock-doc directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez created its own supernatural legend with the woods of Maryland serving as the omnipresent backdrop. If you don’t know the story of three film students who come to inexplicable, violent ends after becoming lost in the forest while making a documentary about the folkloric Blair Witch, then just go watch it right now. With roots in European folk horror, its Americana influence turns The Blair Witch Project into a tale told around a campfire, a story that has worked its way so deeply into popular subconscious that many people thought it was based on real events. The lore is branching out into an Xbox video game, slated for release on August 30. It’s safe to say that for better or worse, this story is here to stay.

Have you watched any of these films? Or are there any others you would add? Tell us in the comments below!

The post 5 Films To Watch In The Folk Horror Sub-Genre appeared first on The Nerd Daily.