For the last two weeks, we’ve partnered with Pluto TV to bring you Terror Tuesdays! For the uninitiated, each Tuesday in June FANGORIA will be presenting a triple feature of horror films personally selected by a member of the Fango fam on the streaming service Pluto TV. Each week, one of us will curate three titles with a theme of some sort. Join us every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific on the Pluto TV Terror channel. It’s all free!
The party continues tonight with a bit of at-home horror: The House of the Devil, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, and The Invitation. The three titles in tonight’s triple feature primarily take place inside the home, and may leave you questioning what’s real and what rules we’re playing by.
Before Ti West hit the Australian outback with Mia Goth and Co., he hit Connecticut with 16mm film and transported us to The House of the Devil. A lovingly crafted homage to ’70s and ’80s horror, the first time I sat down with this little 2009 gem, I was hooked within the first few seconds. Dee Wallace, a freeze-frame title slam, and a killer opening theme were enough to go all in. The story centers on broke college student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) as she answers an ad for a babysitting job, hustling to make rent. Greta Gerwig plays Samantha’s amazing and smart best friend, but there’s an eclipse a-comin’ and strange things are afoot. West brings in elements of Satanic Panic and ’70s-style editing techniques that have since become his signature, for a stylish and macabre tale. Are there supernatural elements at play? Is this family a little off? Is the babysitter safe? Watch and find out.
Patrick Fugit (Wristcutters, Almost Famous), Ingrid Sophie Schram (Licorice Pizza), and Owen Campbell (X) star as a trio of siblings in Jonathan Cuartas’ My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To. Thomas (Campbell) is chronically ill, and his two siblings Jessie (Schram) and Dwight (Fugit) care for him… by habitually murdering strangers to fulfill Thomas’ need to consume blood. Thomas is also unable to venture out into the sunlight, and there’s a very sweet (albeit strange) dynamic between the three siblings. Is Thomas’ affliction really as sinister as it seems? This one is an interesting exploration of what we’ll do for love (and our loved ones) and the toll it can take on us.
Not to be confused with the 2022 vampire flick, Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation closes us out for the evening. What would you say if we cordially invited you to a dinner party, thrown by your ex and their new spouse, in the house you used to live in together? Well, The Invitation‘s Will (Logan Marshall-Green) says yes, and as histories are unraveled and revealed, the reunion of sorts begins to take on some potentially sinister vibes. In keeping with the theme of the night, it’s a real “are they or aren’t they?” situation. Are Will’s anxieties getting the better of him in an admittedly uncomfortable setting, or does he have reason to suspect something strange is going on here? Kusama hive rise up for an enjoyably uncomfortable exploration of when to go with your gut and stop being polite. In a 2015 interview, Kusama notes, “It’s very, very transgressive to get up and say, ‘You know what? I’m really uncomfortable. I’m not really feeling what’s going on in this party and I can’t be a part of it. I have to go.‘ It takes a lot of certainty to do something like that. And I do think that’s part of what the movie is playing with, is this notion of what our sense of tolerance is for just plain weirdness.”
We sure hope you enjoy a just plain weird night of horror at home. Our triple feature starts tonight at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific on the Pluto TV Terror channel. Enjoy the party and come back next week for another trifecta of terror!
