Visions--Kevin Greutert (2015)

Isla Fisher plays the pregnant, and in peril, Evie in Kevin Greutert's Visions (2015)

Ah, pregnancy horror.  After a film like Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo's Inside (2007), any film involving a pregnant woman in peril is going to come off as derivative.  Insert Kevin Greutert's Visions (2015), currently streaming on Netflix, a film indebted to that earlier film with some Lifetime channel haunted house stuff thrown in for good measure.  The film opens with a car accident, and Evie (Isla Fisher) coming to in the hospital with the realization that she killed a baby (she has flashes of a kiddie seat, empty and askew in the road near her wreck).  Cue a title card proclaiming "one year later," and Evie and her husband, David (Anson Mount), have just bought a vineyard in Paso Robles, CA as a way to start over after the earlier accident.  AND Evie is newly pregnant and having a baby of her own!  She's leery of medicating, even though she was on major anti-depressants after "killing a baby," as one probably would be; yet, she starts seeing weird things that suggest that she might be "losing her mind" again, and David, in his typical way, thinks she's losing it too.

Evie's creepy mannequin would freak anyone out

Hallucinations start in earnest.  Nickels balance en masse on their edge, hooded figures bang on her front door, wine bottles explode, guns suddenly appear, and even mannequins attack, forcing Evie to tumble through a glass door.  As her husband doesn't believe anything she says, or sees, shattering glass seems like the last straw for him, and he and Evie's smarmy doctor, played by Jim Parsons, insist that she goes back on the meds "for her own good."  Meanwhile, fellow expecting mom Sadie (Gillian Jacobs) is Evie's drug free enabler, insisting that Evie knows what is best for her own body, and that she shouldn't let these men tell her what to do!  Of course, with David possibly gaslighting Evie, we side with the pregnant women, and support Evie refusing to take her meds.  Yet some crazy stuff is happening in her house, and Evie's the only one who seems to see it.  Coincidence??

Evie is a quintessential haunted heroine, broken by trauma and haunted by ghosts (maybe)

In previous posts, I've tried to outline some of the chief characteristics of what I term "the Haunted Heroine," a repeated female figure in horror just as ubiquitous as the more well known "Final Girl."  The Haunted Heroine is a fragile and sensitive soul, broken by some traumatic event, and frequently looking to start over in a new house, but seemingly haunted by spirits there.  Yet are there ghosts, or is she just crazy?  On this question the entire narrative hinges, and much of the film has spectators questioning everything our female protagonist sees, says, and believes.  Much of the film is spent rendering her unreliable as hell--all the other characters seem to think she's nuts, so why not spectators too.  Things get so bad for Evie in Visions, that her husband and friends perform an intervention!!  They suck...but not for long, because at that very moment in the narrative, the film's super-predictable climax unfolds, and exactly what you thought would happen, does.  Sigh.

***Spoilers!  Turns out that Evie was partially right.  She is seeing things, but rather than ghosts or spirits, Evie is experiencing premonitions of the future.  Somehow her anti-depressants tamper with her clairvoyance, so it's a good thing she quit them.  The film firmly comes down on the side of "not really crazy" (like Sadie).  Even more strange, every single woman who's lived in this house or on the property has succumbed to visions of the exact same night, when Evie et al. are attacked by the murderously psycho Sadie and her lame boyfriend, what's-his-name.  He's only there to shoot some people on Sadie's orders--and obviously because its fun for him.  I felt really, really badly for Gillian Jacobs when watching this film.  She deserves so much better.  I'm not going to give away the ending, or what happens to Evie, but I will describe the film's last sequence.  A couple are being shown the house by a realtor; "the wife/girlfriend" looks possibly pregnant, and as they pass one of the tables, the nickels (from earlier) seem to magically materialize, all balanced on their edge.  This final sequence makes absolutely no sense, and throws the previous events into question AGAIN, although who knows why???  This film will never have a sequel (I hope).  I appreciate the film for its haunted heroine and her traumatic travails, but I am not recommending this film unless you are looking for totally predictable genre fare with a female lead.  Then, yawn-n-n-n, go for it.

Dearest Sister--Mattie Do (2016)

Blind Ana is haunted by spirits in Mattie Do's sophomore feature Dearest Sister (2016)

Streaming on Shudder, Mattie Do's Dearest Sister is an unsettling and atmospheric slow burn horror that highlights class differences in Laotian culture in a rather stark and horrifying manner.  Do is Laos' first female director, and has so far worked exclusively in the horror genre.  Dearest Sister was Laos' first ever submission for the foreign language Academy award, and tells a very female-oriented story--one where male characters are more props then actual fleshed out characters.  Kind of refreshing.

Nok, Ana's cousin, becomes tempted by pleasures that money can bring

Dearest Sister focuses on village girl Nok (Amphaiphun Phommapunya), who is shuttled off by her poverty-stricken parents to Lao capital Vientiane, to become a paid companion to her "city" cousin, Ana (Vilouna Phetmany), whose sight is rapidly deteriorating and needs help.  Despite Ana's increasing disability, she has done well for herself, with a handsome white Estonian dude, Jakob, as her devoted husband, and two servants to take care of her home.  Nok is not completely considered "family" by Ana, but not really a servant either, so she's trapped in a kind of liminal space between the two roles.  Unsurprisingly, the servants really resent the hell out of Nok because of it, while Anna is a raging jerk who treats both her servants and Nok like crap.  Ergo the servants move the furniture around just to mess with Ana, and everyone only pretends to get along when Jakob is home.

Ana's ability to see ghosts, and premonitions of death, inadvertently turn her into a cash cow

Nok susses out rather quickly that while Ana is losing her sight, she's gaining another kind of sense--she sees ghosts and spirits.  Even though Ana is initially rather cruel and dismissive of Nok, she gradually becomes closer to her companion, and Nok comforts her through her ghostly encounters.  During these spectral moments, Ana recites three numbers (told to her by the spirits she sees), and on a whim, Nok uses the numbers to play the lottery, and wins big a couple of times.  This largesse (of which Ana is oblivious) allows Nok entree into consumer culture.  Instead of sending money home, she buys a new smart phone, a dress, dies her hair, has drinks at a fine restaurant--trying to fit into the culture, and tempted by its pleasures.  She still helps Ana, but nevertheless takes advantage of the young woman's affliction.  Ana's servants do not take kindly to Nok's sudden influx of cash, and steal from both Ana and Nok at every turn.  The film implies that they have been employed by Ana and Jacob for quite some time, and the wealth gap in play becomes more intolerable as Nok rises in Ana's estimation.  Of course, Nok can play the lottery only so often without all parties becoming increasingly suspicious.  Ana's discovery of Nok's deception is simultaneous with an expensive surgery she gets in Thailand to restore her eyesight--one that may get rid of her "ghost sight" for good.  As Jakob takes off on yet another business trip, Ana and Nok are left alone together during Ana's recovery, and things seriously unravel from there.

The gore in Dearest Sister is subtle, but its suspense is pretty acute

Mattie Do does a remarkable job of creating sympathetic portraits of these complicated, and at times, unlikeable female characters, and the women who play Ana and Nok convince us to care for them through their nuanced performances.  Unlike many horror films, these two women are our sole identification points--we only see through their POV.  Throughout the film, one roots for Nok, even when she makes quite a few questionable decisions, and spectators feel for Ana, empathizing with her loneliness, fear, and vulnerability.  The only clearcut villains are Ana's servants, but viewers can still feel a smattering of understanding as to what drives their resentment and final acts of cruelty.  The film emphasizes above all that rampant economic inequalities can turn women against each other in the most insidious ways, and that the endearment "dearest sister" can shift into a bitter curse.  Visually, the film is rather low-key with hand-held camerawork and a definite low-budget vibe, but the performances and the film's sharp script allow it to rise above its budgetary limitations.  This film is a fine example of a woman director developing a distinctive and expressive voice.  Definitely worth checking out!