Wow--guys.
After the first part of this series, I was absolutely blown away by the genuinely insightful
reception from the vast majority of you.
I kind of held off a little when thinking about picking this list--particularly down
to its subject matter.
Experimental cinema.
You see, the thing is--the genre itself is incredibly difficult to access, and as is
the case with the reception of many of these films--it’s hard to gage exactly where the
most populous opinion lies.
It’s hard to put such an open-ended artform into a box and say, yeah--this is the 4th
best experimental film I’ve seen--because all of them are so individually specific.
It’s like trying to judge smoke.
But hey--nobody said it was easy, right?
And Coldplay aside--let’s see what we can do.
Hello horror fans, what’s going on--and once again welcome back to the scariest channel
on YouTube--Top 5 Scary Videos.
As per usual, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch--as today, we curiously take a look
at the Top 5 Scariest Experimental Horror Movies--Part 2.
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you--that clip was from 2018’s Possum, an absolutely fantastic
British horror film that errs on the edge of experimental cinema in places, but for
this list--it’s a little bit tame compared to some of the others.
That’s not to say that this film isn’t utterly bleak and depressing though--because
it really is, and if you’re on the lookout for a horror movie that will make you feel
bleak and hollow--watch Possum because… yeah.
It’s not nice.
We better get on with the show.
Kicking off at Number 5--The Neon Demon, 2016
Okay, I said that it wouldn’t be easy--and it’s not going to be, so let’s kick off
with this little divisive enigma of cinema.
Which isn’t really a horror movie, but kind of is--and isn’t really an experimental
movie--but also kind of is.
Yeah, if we’re talking about the vacuous space that lies between the cinematic World
of Forms--this movie would be silently gliding around like some Kubrick Monolith of the Instagram
generation, absent-mindedly indifferent about any manner of Platonic love.
2016’s The Neon Demon is a bleak movie.
It’s almost Lynchian in its presentation--it’s cold, calculated, absent of any kind of outward
emotion--but in direct contrast to that, this film has a strange *love* throughout it.
Although I’m not entirely sure if love is the word.
It grapples with a difficult conversation--the world of modelling, and the victims and successors
that emerge from it--and because of that, this film has a lot to say.
And the truth is--not a lot of people like to face up to it.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, the brilliant mind that delivered us 2011’s Drive and
2013’s Only God Forgives--as well as the man responsible for the awesome Pusher trilogy
starring Mads Mikkelsen--The Neon Demon tells the tale of a sixteen year old girl, Jesse,
played by the remarkable Elle Fanning--an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles following
the death of her parents.
There--she meets an alluring photographer named Dean, as well as a host of other models,
Ruby, Gigi and Sarah--who are seasoned in the ways of narcissism and getting exactly
what they want.
Listen--if you’re watching this film for an A to B narrative--don’t.
It will frustrate you, because midway through the movie it’s seemingly captivating story
detaches itself from the tracks and ascends to a completely different level.
But in its bizarre, surreal series of ever increasing grotesque violence--this film has
something to say.
Again, you might not like what it has to say--but it says it with a grin and a mouth full of
blood.
If you enjoyed Under the Skin, which featured in part one of this series--I think you may
also enjoy this one.
Swinging in at Number 4--Beyond The Black Rainbow, 2010
Okayyyy.
Now we’re turning up the heat a little.
And we really, really are--because this film?
Uhhh.
Yeah--pass me the blowtorch--where do we even begin.
I had the pleasure--or, experience, I guess--of watching a midnight viewing of this movie,
and I think that’s the best way to experience it, and try and understand exactly what Panos
Cosmatos was trying to convey in his 110 minutes of mind-bending psycho-tropic spelunking.
This film is cavernous in it’s presentation, and it’s very, very easy to get lost--but
watching it late in the evening, after an entire day of your mind being active--and
then getting lambasted with this stuff?
Yeah.
I think that was the point.
And surprisingly enough, there’s actually an enjoyable coherent narrative in Beyond
The Black Rainbow, that harbors a pretty compelling message--if you can follow along with it,
that is--and many of the narrative points are only presented as visual allusions, so
don’t expect to be lead by the hand.
Written and directed by Panos Cosmatos in his debut feature film, an incredibly exciting
director who would later go on to direct 2018’s Mandy starring Nick Cage--which is probably
a more palatable version of this film, and you should give it a watch--Beyond The Black
Rainbow tells the tale of a man named Dr. Barry Nyle played by Michael Rogers.
Nyle, an incredibly charming scientist--is actually a psychopath, and is leading a fringe
Scientific Institution with the sole intention of bridging the gap between science and spirituality--whatever
the cost may be.
That cost, as it turns out--is at the expense of a young woman named Elena, a young girl
that Nyle keeps captured in the bowels beneath the institution--that also happens to be an
incredibly potent psychic.
Yeah, this film is essentially Stranger Things, without the same small town charm and fellowship--and
instead, a boatload of psychotropic drugs--contact lenses, wigs-- and strange black pools of
goo.
This film is heavy on everything.
It’s paranoid, and it lays itself into you like some spiritual tendrils from another
plane of existence.
In other words, it’s pretty damn good.
Next up at Number 3--Annihilation, 2018
Exactly.
What *is* it?
Now, some of you may be shocked to see 2018’s Annihilation appear on this list--and perhaps
even question whether it meets the parameters that we’ve set out so far--but in contrast
to that--I think it’s important that we shouldn’t disregard a piece of cinema just
because it already has the fully fleshed out bones of a narrative.
And, truth be told, I’ve been looking for quite a while for a list to fit this film
into.
So, yeah, there you go.
You see, a film doesn’t have to be senseless or *too* sensory to be experimental--sometimes
the very content itself can serve that purpose.
However, that’s not to say that 2018’s Annihilation doesn’t feature some absolutely
batshit visual set pieces--because it does--and albino alligators and skull-ridden talking
bears aside--yeah, this film is experimental.
I mean that in both theme and in Alex Garland’s creative vision, because you just need to
take one look at the second half of this film to understand the mind melding insanity of
the whole thing.
Written and directed by Alex Garland, based upon the 2014 novel of the same name that
formed part of the Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation paints the picture of a zone
known as Area X--a southern portion of the United States, that after a mysterious meteor
landed in a national wildlife refuge in Florida, has developed into a strange anomalous zone
where nature appears to be taking back control of any form of civilization.
It tells the tale of a U.S Army Soldier, Lena--played by the awesome Natalie Portman--who goes on
an expedition into the zone, following the successful journey of her husband a year prior.
You see, I’ll say no more--because if you haven’t seen Annihilation, you certainly
should--but when we talk about experimental forms, it’s in the presentation of this
film’s narrative where it truly shines.
This film doesn’t lead you by the hand.
It’s a puzzle that needs to be solved by the audience themselves.
It relies on it’s own ambiguity to deliver its message--and that’s rare.
You can work out our own answers to this dream-like miasma of a movie--instead of having it shoved
down our throats, and that’s important.
Coming in at Number 2--Possession, 1981
Okay, here we go--because the next two entries on this list are some of the most challenging
horror movies ever made.
The first--1981’s Possession--is no exception to greatness.
Just take that clip for example--where Isabelle Adjani delivers such an exhausting performance,
both physically and mentally--that the very essence of the acting method behind it *is*
experimental.
Given the fact that very few actors and filmmakers would subject themselves to such an ordeal.
And experimental cinema aside--this is certainly the most genuinely terrifying horror movie
on this list--and if you’re looking for a pure presentation of fear, then look no
further.
Written and directed by the legendary Andrzej Zulawski--Possession is a psychological horror
movie that stars the remarkable Isabelle Adjani--alongside Sam Neill, as Anna and Mark.
The couple live in West Berlin during the Cold War era--where Mark serves as a spy for
the Allies.
However, after returning home from a mysterious mission that is never fully tied up--Mark
is shocked to find out this his wife wants a divorce.
Although she won’t tell him exactly why, she insists that she’s found someone else
and is ready to move on--and she quickly descends into a series of bizarre excuses and lies--as
her mind appears to splinter and fragment--and gradually, the reason behind her change of
character becomes frighteningly clear.
I’ll say no more about the plot, because again--for an experimental film, there is
a lot of narrative to be consumed here--and the actual bones of this story are equal parts
simplistic and equal parts horrifying.
Genuinely, this film is a nightmare unlike many others.
It’s incoherent in many places--but all of the moments that stick out like a sore
thumb only serve to propel us further into the same fever of madness.
Really, Zulawski’s expertise is in maintaining this film--holding it together like a car
hurtling off a cliff into the abyss, just long enough for us to realise exactly what
is happening.
Isabelle Adjani’s performance in this film is the stuff of cinematic legend.
If anything, which it just for that.
And finally, coming in at our Number 1 spot--Stalker, 1979
Talking of nightmares--here’s one for you.
And this entry has to take our number one spot, although it *is* in close contest with
1981’s Possession--so consider them both worthy of the utmost experimental merits.
Now, I’m not entirely sure if you could ever call this film a horror film--because
in many ways it certainly is not, but the content--the themes--and the very essence
of what this film embodies--is the literal definition of horror.
And also many other things--the majority of which I’m not entirely sure if I’ll ever
be qualified to comment on.
Stalker is an experience--and whether you’re a fan of experimental cinema or not, if you’re
a fan of horror and the philosophy behind it--it’s a must see.
I like to think of Stalker as a prologue to Harlan Ellison’s 1967 sci-fi classic, I
Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
If you’ve read that particular story--which if you haven’t, you should--then you may
have an idea as to the themes crammed into this piece of cinema.
Written and directed by the legend of cinema that is Andrei Tarkovsky, the enigmatic and
celebrated Russian director responsible for the likes of 1972’s Solaris and 1975’s
Mirror--amongst many others, Stalker is a film like no other.
And I really mean that.
Some have come close--notably David Lynch in some respects, particularly in some of
the imagery conjured throughout this film--but Stalker stands alone as a complete and utter
enigma of filmmaking.
It tells the tale of an expedition of three men, led by a figure known as the Stalker--who
takes his two clients--one of them a writer seeking inspiration, and another a professor
seeking scientific discovery--to a mysterious and restricted area--known as The Zone.
In the Zone--supposedly, there exists a Room--which is alleged to grant a person their innermost
desires.
Whatever the price of that may be.
And then they set off--just like that, roaming through the wasteland of some form or other
of a forgotten civilization.
Honestly, there’s not a lot that I can say about Stalker--or even try and condense it
into some form of a point.
Give it a watch and see for yourself.
Well, there we have it horror fans, our list for the Top 5 Scariest Experimental Horror
Movies--Part 2.
What did you guys think?
DO you agree?
Disagree?
Have any more to add to this list?
Then let us know your thoughts down in the comment section below, as well as any choice
picks of your own.
Before we depart from today’s video though, let’s first take a quick look at some of
your more creative comments from over the past few days.
First up, Cameron Shepherd says--
Jack are you a Leeds Utd fan, if so you’ve gone up in my estimations a billion fold.
#ALAW #MOT.
--- Yes.
Cameron Shepherd.
I am indeed--from birth.
Leeds United--a club like no other.
In Marcelo Bielsa we trust, Marching on Together.
See you in the Premier League Cameron.
And then, believe it or not, Alun Farr says--
Super Leeds!
MOT
-- What?!
I didn’t know there were so many Leeds fans on Top 5 Scary Videos.
And then!
Anthony Lee says--
Leeds Leeds Leeds.
Wow.
Well.
Still top of the league.
But unfortunately, on that note--that’s all we’ve got time for in today's video.
Cheers for sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this video, or just Top 5 Scary Videos in general, then please--be
a dear and hit that thumbs up button, as well as that subscribe bell, and I’ll be seeing
you in the next one.
As per usual, I’ve been your horror host Jack Finch--you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary
Videos--and until next time, you take it easy.