Satan's Slaves and Satan's Slaves 2: Communion

If you are a fan of The Conjuring, then buckle up and keep reading. If not, stop right here and move on to another review. If you are still with me, then let me tell you about these two Indonesian horror films which are just as good as any of The Conjuring films. Satan's Slaves and its even better sequel follow the story of a family which starts off living in small house in the rural countryside. There is a dying grandmother, a sick mother, and a father who leaves for a good chunk of the film, leaving in charge Rini (Tara Basro), who is in her early twenties, to take care of her three brothers, ages sixteen, ten, and six. The six-year-old doesn't speak. The mother has a mysterious illness and the grandmother lies in bed looking as pale as a geisha, and when she opens her eyes, they open frighteningly wide. Just her appearance alone will scare you. I don't want to bog you down in plot details, but trust me, this one will possess your attention. And the sequel is even better.

The family ends up moving to an apartment building. Satan's Slaves 2: Communion is kind of like The Raid meets Poltergeist. The family finds themselves trapped in the building by a massive storm and inside with them is a big elevator ride of supernatural horror. You will want to stop at every floor! Both are terrifyingly fun. Director Joko Anwar has made two masterful horror films and third in this series is due out in 2027 - I am Scooby Doo excited. Catch these films streaming on Shudder or go rent them from Movies 'N Stuff here in Ottawa. 

The Exorcist III: Legion

How is it that I've been walking around the Earth without anyone telling me about this film? How is it that nobody told me that The Exorcist III is one of greatest sequels and one of the greatest horror films of all time? Maybe because nobody I know has watched it. Well I'm here to remedy this situation. Or at least do my part to alert you, dear reader, and bring this important horror film to your attention. It stars the late, great, George C. Scott as a police detective who is investigating a murder. The film was written and directed by William Peter Blatty. Blatty's career was spent mainly as a writer. He wrote the screenplay for the first Exorcist film. He only directed two movies, this being his second and last. It's a holy moly show. There is a hallway scene,  a mise-en-scène shot, where the camera sits at the end of the hall and we are waiting, possibly for something bad to happen. In fact, we are sure of it and this just amplifies the tension as it goes on. Hitchcock, De Palma, or Dario Argento would be proud of this shot. It's magnificent. There is a dream sequence which lasts only a few minutes, but it feels like it had the budget and scale of Caligula - impressive. But the best part of the film is the dialogue. As I mentioned before, Blatty was mainly a writer. The script swells with earnest writing. The back and forth between Scott and Ed Flanders (who plays Father Dyer) in a gritty diner is wonderful - a man of faith vs. the grizzled cop who has seen too much violence and asks, "How could your God do such a thing?" These two characters are the best of friends, which makes it more interesting. The killings in this movie are gruesome and unnerving, although there is little actual gore - mostly discussed (and maybe what is left to your imagination is worse). George C. Scott screaming out "I believe in slime!" is one of the great moments in horror cinema. Loved it. The Exorcist III: Legion is the director's cut of the same film. Have faith in this one and catch it on Prime or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff. 

Backrooms

So I haven't watched any of director Kane Parsons' YouTube videos which, as I have read, led to the making of this film, his first feature-length movie. I went in cold except for the trailer. I recommend doing the same if possible. What's it all about? It follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the owner and operator of a discount furniture store in a warehouse area, circa 1990 - Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire. Clark performs cheesy TV commercials dressed as a pirate with a wooden leg. Clark is in therapy after the demise of his last relationship. His store is sad with ugly and outdated pieces that scream grandpa's couch. And no customers. The store also seems to have some serious electrical issues. Clark discovers a secret passage to another part of his store that looks like '70s or '80s office space. It's like Clark entered The Twilight Zone if it were a Guggenheim Museum art installation. Clark's therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) also has her own messed-up childhood backstory, which plays a role when she enters the backrooms in search of the missing Clark. Backrooms is like if you took Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 and gave it characters and a plot. Or if you took Synecdoche New York and turned it into The Maze Runner. It's kind of like the 1997 Canadian film, Cube if the world was turned to a yellow-beige and you added bad furniture. If all of these film references are too obscure, no worries, you can still go get happily lost in Backrooms. It's strange, like doing mushrooms in your friend's basement that hasn't been updated since the early '90s - you may have a bit of a panic attack trying to find your way out. Catch this conundrum in a dark theatre room or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when it becomes available.  

I Love Boosters

This is Boots Riley's second directorial feature. His first was Sorry to Bother You which made my top 22 films of 2018 on my very first blog entry here on the Marquee. Had I started doing this earlier, I would have written a full entry about it. That film is about a black man working in a call center. It was bold, colourful, satirical, irreverent, pissed-off, arty, original, intelligent, and entertaining. Riley went on to make a TV series, I'm a Virgo, which I have not seen (but now I intend to). I Love Boosters is a bananas ride and all the adjectives I gave to his first film apply to his second. I loved it and thought it was a mess at the same time - like some of the ludicrous fashion designs that are the subject of this film. What's it all about? A gang of women are stealing and reselling high-end clothes from Metro Designers, a fashion empire run by Christie Smith (Demi Moore). Each store has its own primary colour - all the clothes in one location are yellow, for example. It's a gag and it's a hoot. Although it is a mockery of the fashion world, the designs remain outrageous and fun - The Hunger Games of primary colours. Then the film goes into the realm of science fiction with a teleportation device - a Chinese worker has teleported from China, where all the clothes are made. Her plan is to steal the clothes back as ransom to get workers some rights. She teams up with the boosters and all hell breaks loose. It becomes unhinged. A slapstick, Three Stooges, car-chase, roller-coaster of action. It's kind of like Everything Everywhere All at Once but add in a demon (LaKeith Stanfield - who is also the lead in Sorry to Bother You) who sucks women's souls out of their bodies through their coochies. Yeah, it's pretty wild and it's not for everyone. That said, it has to be one of the most interesting films of 2026 and I feel like I need to watch it again. Anxiety in this film is literally depicted as a giant ball of ATMs, computers, advertising, bills, phones, clothes, food, etc. rolling and roaming the streets of the city like an Indiana Jones boulder. It's brilliant. Go find something to wear and head to the cinema to catch this original film (not a cheap knock-off). Or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when available.  

Silent Friend

If Sound of Falling was your cup of tea, then I have another one for you. If you don't know what I'm speaking about, not to worry, I'll explain. What we have here is another long (2.5 hours), beautiful, German art film which is slow and spans three different time periods, with three different stories all revolving around scientists and their relationships to plants. I know, it might sound boring as all hell, but trust me, it's great. Hungarian filmmaker, Ildikó Enyedi, has made a complex and gorgeous film. If you are willing to give some time and patience to this film, like watering and taking care of a plant, you will be rewarded with a bouquet of emotions. The first story, if we take them chronologically, takes place in 1908 with Grete (Luna Wedler) who is studying botany. This part of the film is shot in black and white. Breaking into a scientific men's world in 1908 is as unpleasant as poison ivy (if we continue with the plant metaphors). Grete takes up the new art of photography as a way to make ends meet - her pictures are stunning. The second story take place in 1972 and it looks like Enyedi did her best to make it look as though the film stock was from this time period. If you cried when Tom Hanks lost Wilson, his volleyball in Cast Away, well this film will give you anxiety over a geranium. Someone could argue that there is too much anthropomorphizing going on here - I don't care, I loved it anyway. The last story takes place in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Brain scientist Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) is stuck by himself on a large university campus when he turns his research towards a tree and discovers an unlikely friendship as a result. The film explores our relationship with plants but also the relationships we have with each other, and how we treat one another. There is a meditative quality to the film, spiritual pantheism, an interconnectivity of all living things. You will come out feeling like you just walked through a lovely afternoon at the botanical gardens. So go grab your watering can, block out the sunshine, and go plant yourself in the dark theatre of the Mayfair, or the Bytowne, or go rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when it becomes available. 

Widow's Bay

I don't recall writing about a series before having finished it. Well, there is a first for everything. Widow's Bay is now streaming on Apple+. A horror-comedy is how I would classify it. Normally, this isn't the sort of thing I would enjoy. Often it doesn't work. For reasons I'm not altogether sure of, this works great. Perhaps because all the gags are played straight, deadpan. Dead is right. What's it all about? Matthew Rhys (The Beast in Me, The Americans) plays Tom Loftis, Widow's Bay's town mayor. Widow's Bay is a small, one-sheriff, island town. Oh, and the island, it's cursed. However, Tom wants it to be the next Martha's Vineyard. He is hoping that a positive article written by a New York Times reporter will help turn the island's reputation around and start bringing in boatloads of tourists. The show has a kind of parallel to Jaws, if it was told from the perspective of the mayor. Instead of a shark, it's a curse. And the curse is deliberately vague, so we can have multiple different horror tropes, and each one gives us a fresh episode - a Gilligan's Island of horror stories: Haunted fog, evil sea sirens, books of witchcraft, etc. Like Chief Brody in Jaws, the Mayor has a quirky old secretary, who has vision problems and a propensity to leave her job early every day. Everyone seems to be working against poor Mayor Loftis. It's a hoot. The tone is something similar to Steve Miner's 1985 film, House. It has an almost nostalgic feel to the show, with elements of John Carpenter's The Fog and Prince of Darkness. Grab your lifejacket and sail your boat immediately to Widow's Bay. Streaming on Apple or grab it from Movies 'N Stuff when available. 

The Plague

Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) - I have said it before but in case you weren't following along, I will say it again: I will follow Mr. Edgerton wherever he goes. He continues to pick material which is always smart and engaging. He only has a supporting role here in The Plague as the coach of a young boys' water polo camp. Our main protagonist is Ben (Everett Blunck), a geeky kid from out of town who is just trying to fit in with the well-established pack of boys led by Jake (Kayo Martin). "Jake" - a name reserved for the cool kid and I can hear  Anthony Michael Hall saying it in Sixteen Candles. Pardon me, I digressed. Also in the water polo camp is Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who all the kids say has the plague because he has a bad skin rash, which I believe is eczema or psoriasis. They run away from Eli and if anyone comes into contact with him, they run to the tap to wash off "the plague." Kids can be downright cruel. Mean rotten little bastards, which is the whole subject here. When Ben tries to form a friendship with Eli, suddenly he finds himself on the outside of the clique. . .  and wait, what is that red bump forming on his skin? It's well-worn territory, The Lord of the Flies being the major pig head on the pole. Why should you watch this one then? It's gorgeous - the underwater shots are particularly hypnotic, upside down, you will be spun around like poor Ben. It also verges on body horror (which may or may not be your thing). The main reason to watch is the performances of these young men. Kenny Rasmussen as Eli is a standout - his dance scene in the rain is wow. These young actors are going to go places. Catch this in a rep theatre if possible, streaming, or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.