Ithaca is Horror: Cinematic Chills for Fall
Surprise, today is the autumnal equinox and it is fall in Ithaca, kids! But Libe Cafe isn’t even selling pumpkin spice lattes yet and you can only look at/photograph/call-your-grandparents-about the fall foliage for so long before you realize that you’re a person who uses the word “foliage.” Though if you really must get into the spirit of sweater weather and nutmeg, there’s no better way to do it than with a chill, right? Here’s a breakdown of Ithaca’s best scary stuff for fall … and here’s publically stating that a Bill Hader Saturday Night Live host (coming October 11!) will not be positively received without a visit from Vincent Price and co.
The Guest — now playing in wide release
The first 30 seconds of The Guest’s trailer plays like a Nicholas Sparks set-up: Young man (Dan Stevens) knocks on door of pretty lady (Sheila Kelley) with sweet-faced babies and explains the promises he made to her dead son back at the front; young man is role model for younger man (Brendan Meyer) who has no big brother now; young man is protective of (in the usual, disgustingly patriarchal ways) and “harmlessly” flirtatious with teenage daughter who is blonde (Maika Monroe). But hey, it’s directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett. If that means nothing to you, then cool, it didn’t to me either until I Googled it. They made a little slasher story called You’re Next last year. I don’t know what I like better: The notion of Sparks finally meeting a chainsaw or the fact that Barrett and Wingard are proving that every softspot of America’s nuclear-family-clutching, veteran-fetishizing, blue-eyed-beauty-trusting heart is fair game for destruction.
Courtesy of Warner Bros.