The films that will light up the Midnight Cinema this year are as diverse as in previous years. From a horror film that incorporates personal women's stories that reflect current trends, to a film that combines politics with horror, to a traditional horror film that incorporates teen movie elements, to a Korean zombie film, there will be something for everyone.
Animale is set in the Camargue, a region of France that is renowned for bullfighting. This mystery/horror drama focuses on the tension between human beings and an unknown beast. The central character is Nejma, a woman in her early twenties who chooses a masculine path in order to survive in a deeply androcentric society. With the bullfighting season in full swing, the bodies of young people are discovered, and the village is rocked by rumors that a wild bull is on the rampage. This film delicately captures Nejma's efforts to survive in a setting where male chauvinism dominates.
The Irish-set horror film Fréwaka tells the story of Shoo, a home care nurse who is sent to a remote village to look after Peig, an elderly woman who suffers from agoraphobia. Peig lives in fear of Na Sídhe, an evil entity from Irish legend. While she comes across as curmudgeonly at first, a deep bond forms between the two as Shoo is drawn deeper into the older woman's dark secrets. The film becomes a story of female solidarity as Shoo comes to confront a terror originating in Peig's past.
The Wailing is a tale of supernatural horror that focuses on three women who are separated by both time and space. Andrea, a resident of contemporary Madrid, hears the sound of a lone voice wailing. She ends up suffering horrific events in connection with that voice, at which point the story suddenly shifts back 20 years in time to the Argentine city of La Plata, where two women named Camila and Marie hear the same wailing as Andrea. The Wailing is a film that comments on violence against women and the associated feelings of anguish, madness, and loneliness, showing how that terror comes to exist as a curse spanning distances in time and space.
The Argentine film 1978 shares a story of political madness and even greater supernatural terror. The setting is the year 1978, when Argentina is hosting the World Cup as the military dictatorship attempts to whitewash its brutal crimes for domestic and international audiences. As the final match is taking place between Argentina and the Netherlands, a military torture unit abducts young people and takes them off to a secret camp to be tortured. The abduction turns out to have been a grave mistake, and the camp is plunged into a nightmare as it emerges that the abductees are members of a cult serving a supernatural force. This might be an especially terrifying watch for people who throw their support behind dictators.
Grafted may be the closest to a traditional horror film among the features in this year's Midnight Cinema selection. Wei is a young genius in China who studies skin graft techniques with her father. While their methods have yet to be tested, they have the potential to bring the father and daughter great fame and wealth. When one seemingly successful experiment ends up taking her father's life, Wei decides to continue his research by traveling to a university in New Zealand, where her relatives live. In this unfamiliar setting, she ends up having to confront fellow students who shun her and a professor jealous of her research.
The only Korean film in this year's Midnight Cinema lineup is Some Like It Cold! This film was directed by Hong Seung-eun, whose previous work Aloners (2021) featured in the Korean Competition at the 22nd JEONJU International Film Festival. The work is also the 16th feature from the human rights film projected by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. As this description might suggest, Some Like It Cold! may present itself as a zombie film, but it is anything but typical. The story is set in South Korea where a raging zombie virus has created a national crisis, prompting the government to implement policies to eradicate zombies. The story focuses on what happens when Nahee, a member of one of the zombie eradication teams, meets a zombie named Eunbi. Behind the genre film trappings is a film with a good deal of philosophical food for thought. (Moon Seok)
