It’s a trio of films that took me back two decades to the days of vengeful girl ghosts skulking around claiming victims. They may not be groundbreaking, but I was glad to indulge in a comfort marathon of familiar horror territory.
LULLABY (2022)
This is the kind of early 2000s throwback film I needed right now: sleek production, dark lighting and shadows, cheap scares, an evil entity preying on a newborn, and a mythological backstory.
A woman who just had a baby receives a “care” package including baby items that belonged to her sister, who has been locked away after the death of her husband and disappearance of her baby. I don’t know—I personally wouldn’t think it a good idea to then use those items for my newborn, but this woman apparently never saw any baby horror movies. Among the items she receives is an old book, and she fricking sings a lullaby she finds within its pages to her baby.
From that point on, the baby never stops crying.
Slowly but surely, an evil presence in the house starts to reveal itself. The beautiful thing here is that the hot husband doesn’t think the wife is crazy, because they’re both being terrorized.
Just like all the supernatural specter films of the early 2000s, the couple has to delve into the mythology behind this entity, and it turns out it involves Jewish lore and the story of Lilith, a woman believed to have been Adam’s first wife, who was booted from the Garden of Eden for not being subservient. My kind of evil bitch.
Things get retro cheesy as the couple is forced to confront Lilith in a mirror dimension to save their baby. So satisfying.
THE INHABITANT (2022)
This fun twist on the true Lizzy Borden story with a supernatural slasher edge stars Odessa A’zion of the Hellraiser remake as a teenager who begins to think she’s losing her mind because she’s a distant relative of the famous, alleged axe murderer. I can’t imagine why they chose a title that doesn’t reference Lizzie’s name at all.
The parents are played by familiar faces: Leslie Bibb and Dermot Mulroney. They don’t get to do much for most of the movie, which focuses on Odessa having visions and nightmares about murdering people with an axe.
Good news is there are also people actually being murdered by someone with an axe, and although this isn’t a Halloween-heavy film, it does take place during the season, so we get a hint of seasonal atmosphere.
The body count is a bit low, and Odessa’s dream sequences feel like a desperate way to populate the film with (faux) horror, but the final act delivers good battle against “Lizzy Borden”.
There are some tight performances, enjoyable violence, and a good old silly passing of the torch—um, axe—in the final frame.
MARA (2018)
Several years old now, Mara would have been released around the time that sleep paralysis films were hot. Considering I can’t remember any of the ones I watched and covered at the time, I’m going to say this is the best of the bunch just because Mara is so awesomely creepy.
A police psychologist is investigating a series of deaths in which victims are found in bed, twisted like a pretzel.
Very quickly, she begins to experience sleep paralysis, and each time she does she sees a tall, lanky, decrepit woman from the corner of her eye.
Through group therapy sessions she oversees, the psychologist connects with a dude who seems crazy as he warns all the patients that Mara is coming for them.
The creepy-crawlie cracking joints ghost woman horror is reminiscent of movies like Lights Out and The Ring, and the paranormal research plot has been done to death, but that doesn’t matter. This is all about the Mara attack sequences. They are spooky good. There’s even a double whammy sleep clinic scene that rocks.
