Year in Review: Jason's Fave "Horror Actressing"
Monday, December 23, 2019 at 1:54PM by Jason Adams
It's been easy to say this for several years running now but it's been a pretty darn good year for Horror Movies. There are filmmakers out there taking risks and big swings with the genre, from art-house oddities (Midsommar) right on up to the mainstream ones (Us). And once you really dig deep -- the Horror Genre has almost always been one where the most interesting stuff has been a dirty secret whispered between likeminded folk -- the beautiful freaks really come out to play.
For the past five weeks in our "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series I've covered five of my favorite female performances in the genre in 2019, so first let's recap those before we get to the other five -- click their names to read those earlier posts.
Sofia Boutella in Climax
Rebecca Ferguson in Doctor Sleep
Fatma Mohamed in In Fabric
Lupita Nyong'o in Us
Florence Pugh in Midsommar
And now let's round out our top ten...
Paola Lara in Tigers Are Not Afraid -- It's hard not to think of Pan's Labyrinth while watching Issa López's dark and dreamy fairy tale about gang violence in urban Mexico, and especially of Ivana Baquero's Ofelia while watching Paola Lara's Estrella wandering burned out buildings, her chalk drawings of jungle animals coming to life, fantasies spilling into the streets. But Lara makes Estrella much world wearier and all the sadder for it -- this performance broke my heart in the most empathetic ways.
Caitlin Gerard in The Wind -- This movie nearly rests wholly on Gerard's thinning shoulders as a frontierswoman in the late 1800s whose husband plunks them down in the literal middle of nowhere and then keeps traipsing off for extended periods of time leaving her to the emptiness, the ghosts, and yes indeed that blasted wind. And Gerard unspools this woman courageously -- she nails a woman of the time, beset by loneliness and the paranoia of superstitions she can't comprehend but feels, real as the heavy dirt caking her skin.
Samara Weaving in Ready or Not -- The movie doesn't entirely work for me; it keeps feeling like its straining for Iconic Moments in the place of delivering them naturally, as if -- perhaps appropriately! -- these are just pieces being moved around on a game board. But even when Weaving is being forced to strike a pose in her freshly torn wedding dress and sneakers as if she's modeling for some geek's brand new very expensive Action Figure TM she sells it, she sells it hard. A true star-making turn, furious and funny.
Octavia Spencer in Ma -- Spencer's having a blast in this racially-tinged blow-back to the so-called Hag Horror of the 1960s and 70s which always saw an older actress wallow in lurid trash to varying degrees of nuttiness. Yes Spencer is only 47 but Bette Davis was only 52 when she made Baby Jane, and the race edge gives Ma its edge -- you think white actresses have a tough time being taken seriously past a certain age, try being a black one. At any age. Race might give Ma its edge but it's also responsible for its cringe too, but that's alright -- this is exactly the sort of mainstream trash that speaks loudest to the future time capsules about our culture right this second, better than any sincere meaning product. Octavia knows exactly what she's doing.
Elisabeth Moss in Us -- Moss gave my personal favorite performance of 2019 in her rock-n-roller flick Her Smell and some might consider Becky Something enough of a monster to place on this list -- I don't think any movie in 2019 had me more tense than that one did -- but Moss has been spreading her versatility all over the place this year, blessed be all of us, and her supporting turn in Jordan Peele's film is worthy of its own recognition. Terrifically funny in her first few scenes and deeply unsettling in her last ones, she'd make this list for that mirror scene alone. Nobody does madness like Moss.
Reader Comments (5)
I believe we're in a golden age of horror right now and this list points to many of the reasons why. In particular these are great write-ups on Ma and Ready or Not, Jason!
Elisabeth Moss was awesome as her psychotic version in Us.
Isabelle Huppert and Octavia Spencer were my favourites this year by a considerable margin. Brilliant.
Not a big fan of Lupita ....
Isabelle Huppert in Greta is crazy as shit and I love it!