Dear Watchers,If you’re sitting down to watch a vampire movie called “Bleeding,” you might think you know what to expect. But this new offering from a first-time feature director subverts some of those assumptions. On this Genre Movie Wednesday, our horror expert, Erik Piepenburg, highlights that film along with a minimalist high-concept ghost story from Steven Soderbergh, which is also not as simple as it might seem. Read more below about what Erik has to say about each, then head here for three more of his picks. Happy viewing. ‘Bleeding’
Where to watch: Stream “Bleeding” on Screambox; Rent or buy it on major platforms. Not since “The Outwaters” blew me away two years ago have I been as wowed by a debut horror feature as I was by the writer-director-actor Andrew Bell’s brutal new vampire film. If his muscular direction and compassionate script are any indication, Bell is going to be a filmmaker to watch. The movie takes place in a small American suburb in a dystopian future in which blood is a drug. Eric (John R. Howley) and his cousin Sean (Jasper Jones) are surrounded by the consequences of addiction: Eric’s brother died of an overdose, and Sean’s alcoholic father kicks him out of the house after finding and destroying Sean’s stash. Unable to pay back his dealer, Sean convinces Eric to break into an empty house, where they discover that a former classmate, Sara (Tori Wong), has become a vampire whose blood is being harvested. Is this a vampire film? Yes. But like the best of that genre — “The Addiction,” “My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To” — Bell’s movie is more than just an exercise in empty bloodsucking. It is a mythic coming-of-age story, underscored by the opioid epidemic. It is a cautionary tale, warning against making assumptions about what makes a monster. It is a stark and foreboding cinematic experience, thanks to sublime cinematography, by Daniel Cho, that makes evil out of shadows. This is full-throttle horror and one of my favorite movies of the year. ‘Presence’
Where to watch: Stream it on Hulu. I fell hard for Steven Soderbergh’s heartbreaking and formally thrilling ghost story when it came out in January. I remember leaving the theater feeling unsettled but also deeply moved, almost to the point of tears, by how Soderbergh and the screenwriter David Koepp dealt with the aftermaths of loss. The film has elements of a standard haunted house story: Mom and Dad (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) move with their teenage kids (Eddy Maday and Callina Liang) into a beautiful home in a lovely neighborhood. But in an emotional twist, their story is told from the point of view of another, unseen character: a spirit who watches the goings-on of their new housemates, especially the young daughter. The spirit mostly keeps to itself until, in one of the year’s most sinister scenes, it takes a break from the ghost world for a vengeful detour into the living one.
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