We’ve got a lot of horror and thrillers this month (well, we are just a little more than four months from spooky season, after all!) so prepare yourselves for a few things a little out of the ordinary, because with films randing from Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing and Paul Feig’s The Housemaid to Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water, you’re in for quite a ride!

This month’s TTRs consists of: Caught Stealing; The Chronology of Water; Dead Man’s Wire; Him; The Housemaid; If I Had Legs I’d Kick You; They Will Kill You; We Bury the Dead

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Charlie Huston, based on his book
Cast: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane

Stepping away from his more frequent forays into the psychological, Darren Aronofsky delves into a dark comedy action film that sees Hank Thompson (Butler) get accidentally caught up with criminals in New York City. It is quite the rollickingly good ride, and Austin Butler is an eclectic leading man amongst a strong cast that includes a randomly punk Matt Smith, a seductive yet sweet Zoë Kravitz, Regina King as a cop making awkward, flat jokes, and Benito Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, as a brutal antagonist. There are some great action sequences and the pacing leaves nary a moment of peace. Sometimes the more savage scenes cover up aspects of the story that, frankly, don’t fully make sense, but as long as you’re willing to suspend your disbelief, you can just sit back and enjoy the insane ride.

Director: Kristen Stewart
Writer: Kristen Stewart, based on the memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch
Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Susannah Flood, Tom Sturridge, Kim Gordon, Michael Epp, Earl Cave, Esmé Creed-Miles, Jim Belushi

I recently read about Kristen Stewart admonishing the film industry (or at least Hollywood) for its lack of support for niche filmmakers and not investing in stories with a more human side (i.e. not massive action-packed blockbusters), especially regarding women in both respects. I can fully understand her frustration, especially after seeing her adaptation of The Chronology of Water, which tells the story of Lidia Yuknavitch (Poots) through the abuse and subsequent trauma she suffered at the hands of her father and the solace she sought in writing and swimming. It’s a harrowing and devastatingly common story, yet it has such a strong spark of hope, too. It is truly a wonder that studios cannot get behind more stories like this. Audiences want originality and they want to connect, and looking to our fellow humans, such as Yuknavitch, is where we are going to find these stories. Stewart has proven herself an observant and instinctive director in her feature debut.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writer: Austin Kolodney
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino

Based on a true story, in 1977, Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) becomes convinced a mortgage company is cheating him out of a profit from land he recently bought, so he takes Richard Hall (Montgomery), son of mortgage broker M.L. Hall (Pacino) hostage until he gets the money he feels he’s owed. Bill Skarsgård is great, as he generally is in as any character that has psychological issues, but the script was subpar and didn’t quite match what Skarsgård is capable of, true to the story or not. In reality, no one was hurt and the whole affair came to a safe end (thankfully), thus making the story less about the hostage-taking and more about how capitalism rules the roost, and angle that could have added more gravitas to the film.

Director: Justin Tipping
Writers: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping
Cast: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies

Fixing games has always been an issue in sport, but fixing the GOAT of a sport via supernatural means? That’s new. Cameron Cade (Withers) will do just about anything to become the GOAT in American football, and his training at the hands of former football star-turned coach Isaiah White (Wayans) is a more bloody affair than he could have realised. The film feels like a wannabe indie horror (unsurprising, considering Jordan Peele was a producer) but is a bit confused tonally, especially with Marlon Wayans, well known for his comedy, involved. The gory scenes are suitably shocking, and Withers turns in a great performance, however it needed to choose a lane when it came to its dark comedy versus social commentary. I can appreciate what it was trying to do regarding the obsession with being at the top athletically, a tale old as time, and the physical sacrifices that sportsmen and women make, and that in itself is an interesting facet of the film.

Director: Paul Feig
Writer: Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on the book by Freida McFadden
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brendan Sklenar

A rare suitable adaptation of a source novel, The Housemaid is staunchly true to Freida McFadden’s book. Millie (Sweeney), on parole after an incident a decade prior, has difficulty finding a job until she is employed as a housemaid by the affluent Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew (Sklenar) Winchester. Millie soon comes to find out that not everything in the Winchester household is as it seems. If you’re unfamiliar with the novel, the film does a good job of building up to the twists and turns that the story takes, perhaps even surpassing the novel’s ability to keep you on tenterhooks. Amanda Seyfried is particularly frightening at times, with Sydney Sweeney and Brendan Sklenar each having their own moments of madness amongst the straightlaced performances.

Director: Mary Bronstein
Writer: Mary Bronstein
Cast: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater, A$AP Rocky

In this psychological thriller, Linda (Byrne) is a psychotherapist very much in need of her own therapist as she grapples with demanding clients, a flooded apartment and a daughter with a feeding disorder that means she requires nightly care and daily hospital treatment, all while her husband works away. It’s a stark look at the pressures on women to proritise the needs of others above our own, leading to the neglect of our physical and mental health. Mary Bronstein creates a fever-dream that isn’t unlike the lives of some women who would describe themselves as ‘sleep-walking’ through life, going through the motions until the cogs rust and the machine falls apart. Rose Byrne put in an incredible performance that resulted in numerous well-deserved awards and nominations.

Director: Kirill Sokolov
Writer: Kirill Sokolov
Cast: Zazie Beetz, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Patricia Arquette

In this kind-of rip-off of Ready or Not, Asia (Beetz) comes out of jail wanting to find her sister and ends up getting a job working as a maid in a building exclusively for the rich. It soon comes to light that the tenants are involved in some dark activities, and the maids play an important role that Asia isn’t entirely on board with. It’s a fun, silly, classic B-style horror, with plenty of gore and gruesome scenes to satiate the blood-thirsty viewers among us. Zazie Beetz is a good lead, balancing comedy and drama, and the cast of building tenants lead by Patricia Arquette are a mismatched bunch that somehow work well when together. The story isn’t the most original (Rosemary’s Baby also comes to mind as a strong influence), but what it lacks in plot it slightly makes up for in action, dark comedy, and, well, blood. It could become a cult hit, being full of tropes that make this kind of film enjoyable.

Director: Zak Hilditch
Writer: Zak Hilditch
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Mat Whelan

Ava (Ridley), an American, heads to the Australian island of Tasmania to find her husband after an experimental weapon from the U.S. detonates and kills everyone in the city of Hobart. The explosion causes brain damage in the rest of the population, with many of them to reanimating as the ‘undead’ and attacking the living. The premise is quite unoriginal, but to be fair, trying to find anything original in a zombie story is a difficult thing to do these days. Thus, the strength of the film has to be found in its characters and performances, all of which are rather lacking, too. Hilditch attempts to fill the gaps with psychologically disturbed characters and throwing in backstory for Ava, but it does little to make the film any more interesting. There are some decent scenes with the undead and a great effort at practical effects, but there’s just not enough to hold interest for the full 95 minutes.