Film Clips: June 27, 2024

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Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1

(In Theaters June 28) 

From a story by Jon Baird, Kevin Costner directs, co-writes and stars in the first part of this planned quadrilogy. At three hours, chapter one focuses on early settlers of the American West. The story examines hazards confronted by various settlers. Some appear to have a future, while others don’t. Costner portrays Hayes, a lone traveler handy with a gun. Sienna Miller appears as a settler tragically losing half her family. Sam Worthington shows up as a first lieutenant, sent along with a sergeant major (Michael Rooker) to protect new territory. Luke Wilson portrays a captain while Abbey Lee’s Marigold turns tricks to make ends meet. Filmed mainly in Utah, its landscapes stand in for several Southwest locations and Montana. The film’s period designs are often gritty and always compelling. Costner claims this saga represents a 40-year pet project. A montage of action-packed bits from part two, coming in mid-August, closes the film. Chapter Three is reportedly in production now. (Lisa Miller) 

Mute Witness

(Arrow Video Blu-ray) 

The camera stalks its victim with the sharp strokes of the knife-wielding killer creeping into her flat, preparing to strike—we see him in the mirrored glass before she sees her fate. The slashing begins, the death agonies commence … but the cameras pull back to reveal a film crew, snickering at their handiwork, telling the actress to stop. She’s overacting! 

Writer-director Anthony Waller’s Mute Witness (1995) is a clever commentary on the sexual morbidity of the slasher genre. The protagonist, Billy (Marina Zudina), is a young deaf-mute special effects artist working on a low-budget American slasher flick in Moscow. She discovers something sinister is afoot in the studio where, after her cast and crew go home for the day, a snuff movie is being filmed. Snuff takes slasher to its logical, pathological conclusion. 

Mute Witness is a Hitchcockian marriage of visual and verbal with the visuals on top during several extraordinary scenes. In one, Billy clings to the wall of an elevator shaft (faces of Mount Rushmore?). Naturally, most people don’t believe her story about witnessing a murder on camera, the criminals are out to get her just in case and the authorities are unhelpful in this gripping thriller. (David Luhrssen) 

A Quiet Place: Day One

(In Theaters Fri June 28) 

This prequel to A Quiet Place depicts the day that killer sound-sensitive aliens first invade New York City. Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) has just arrived on a bus. She’s emotionally fragile, so brings along her support kitty Frodo. Samira was anticipating eating her favorite pizza at her favorite pizza parlor when she is obliged to hide with Frodo from marauding alien attackers. Having survived the initial onslaught, Samira and Frodo are joined by Eric, a young professional newly arrived from the U.K. This threesome silently thread through the ruined city on foot, hoping to avoid detection by the aliens. They witness the consequences of being caught as countless hapless victims are torn to shreds. Director Michael Sarnoski stages a tense set piece inside a dark, flooded subway tunnel. It’s here that the three survivors are holed up when an alien arrives, and Frodo takes on the role of decoy. While the film reveals little about who the aliens are or why they’ve chosen to attack our planet, it delivers on the gore and scares, as a sci-fi, horror mash-up. Djimon Hounsou and Alex Wolff appear in small, but pivotal, roles. (Lisa Miller) 

We Go On Remastered

(Lightyear Blu-ray/DVD/Digital) 

Miles is a young man beset by fear. He’s agoraphobic, scared of driving, frightened by decay and death. With money he inherited, he buys an ad offering $30,000 to anyone who can show proof of life after death. Miles is inundated by manic Evangelicals, cranks and druggies and scammers with fake ghost video and audio—Miles works as a production editor and can see through the impostures. With his skeptical mom at his side, he investigates the three most promising respondents: a scholar, a medium and an entrepreneur. Nothing is satisfying at first, but when you go searching for the uncanny, you’ll eventually hook something … 

The restored version of Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton’s 2016 film is good fiction of the sort once published in Weird Tales and other pulp magazines. Miles’ discussions with his mother are especially interesting. She doesn’t want an afterlife. “The idea of more doesn’t give me relief. I think everything should end,” she says. She adds that she’s convinced that “No one is waiting at the end to judge me,” and then admits, “That’s what really scares me,” being judged for what she did and did not do in this life. (David Luhrssen)