The movies of summer 2020 mined the horror of isolation, got way too real about life in quarantine, and demonstrated both the promise and limitations of pandemic cinema.
Palm Springs, released in July, was perfect pandemic viewing and the perfect quarantine movie. Early Augusts She Dies Tomorrow was eerily in sync with the countrys other-people-equals-death mindset, a pandemic movie of the moment. The July release of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets was a pre-pandemic fever dream. First Cow, re-released digitally after a few precious days in theaters in March, was the perfect quarantine baking film. Shirley, out in June, was in some respects the ultimate quarantine movie. By its conclusion, late-July release The Rental became a brutal reminder that you should probably just never leave your house.
Nobody, least of all anyone in Hollywood, could have seen the summer of 2020 coming. (Not even Steven Soderbergh, who surely couldnt have anticipated that his pandemic thriller Contagion would shoot to the top of streaming charts nine years after its release.) But if you felt like every other movie that came out (digitally, of course) was made specifically for a time of loneliness, anxiety, and viruses, you werent alone. Comedies, biographical dramas, nonfiction, horror: It didnt seem to matter what the genre was they seemed made for our time.
But, of course, they werent. Movies usually take a while to make, and most of these films were already in the can at the start of 2020. Nearly all of this summers titles were finished months or even years before social distancing became ubiquitous. So when I saw First Cow at a festival way back in September 2019, I wasnt thinking about quarantine baking I was thinking of friendship, and capitalism, and clafoutis. When I saw Palm Springs in January at Sundance, I was laughing about its spot-on take on existential boredom, but I sure didnt realize Id soon feel as if Id slipped through a wormhole, sentenced to repeat the same day of my life with no end in sight. I loved the way Shirley depicted the life of an agoraphobic author who wrote housebound horror, but actually being housebound and perpetually stuck in a horror film was not on my calendar.
So why did it feel like every movie and not just those quar-horror films made and released in the period itself was made for this moment?
Back in 2015, when it didnt feel quite so much like some fresh apocalyptic scenario was making headlines every day (have you heard about the forthcoming Election Day asteroid?), I was writing a book on apocalyptic pop culture. Prior to pitching the project with my co-author, I hadnt thought much about the topic beyond knowing I enjoyed zombie movies and had liked Battlestar Galactica.
But in writing the book, I learned some things. One was that the word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokalypsis, which means something more like revelation or unveiling. Apocalypses are not really the end of the world though they can be the end of a world so much as they are moments in which a curtain gets drawn back and we see reality more clearly.
I found myself thinking about that a lot as Marchs lockdowns became Aprils cabin fever became Mays claustrophobia boiled over into Junes civil unrest, unleashed by people who took to the streets, some seemingly for the first time, to call for justice after a man was murdered on camera. I heard people who normally dont discuss certain topics such as unfair gender divisions of labor, or the privilege of having a second home to which you can flee, or unequal access to food and internet connections begin to talk about them. I noticed how some folks realized that designating low-paid, frequently low-respect jobs as essential felt like obfuscation, a euphemism that hid the truth about whose work and life we deem valuable.
The Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing, widespread pleas to stay home and away from others, also brought the scourge of loneliness and isolation to the surface. Its not that people werent lonely before, and its not as if screens werent occupying most of our attention, slowly taking over the way we interact with one another. Its just that once the computer screen became the place to work, attend school, have a baby shower, throw a seder, watch a play, and read a stream of nightmare headlines, the need for in-person contact became obvious, even to introverts and homebodies who joked about how theyd been training for social distancing their whole lives. Almost overnight, the human need for contact and physical proximity became blindingly clear.
Those revelations, and others, were available all along. Nobody can credibly claim ignorance. People have written libraries full of books and penned reams of articles and held hundreds of conferences on all of these injustices, crises, and existential concerns. But now they were right in front of our noses, inescapable parts of daily life.
And because movies so often reflect our collective anxieties and because these anxieties were always present, even in the background the movies that were already confronting loneliness and fear and boredom and inequality rang even truer.
The truth about our summer of movies that felt eerily relevant to circumstances nobody could have anticipated is just this: The ideas and situations weve been preoccupied with werent invented by the pandemic, they were hastened by it. That so many movies felt so resonant during our own current apocalypse or, well, one of them is evidence that the events were experiencing are heightened versions of a reality we already lived. Theyre exacerbations of what was always there. Like any apocalypse, this pandemic is pulling back a curtain that was hung to hide uncomfortable truths, and plenty of artists had confronted those truths first. The question, as always, is whether were ready to listen.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.
See the original post:
Summer films: Nobody saw the pandemic coming. So how come the movies did? - Vox.com
- Netflix Controversial R-Rated Adaptation Is A Horror Comedy Masterpiece - Giant Freakin Robot - July 25th, 2024
- Longlegs' Twist Ending Disappointed Me, And That Final Shot Left Me With A Major Question - CinemaBlend - July 25th, 2024
- Red-Band Trailer For The Heavy Metal Horror Film WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD - GeekTyrant - July 25th, 2024
- The Summers Best Indie and Art-House Horror Movies Are All Out This Month - Vogue - July 25th, 2024
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) WTF Really Happened to This Horror Movie? - JoBlo.com - July 25th, 2024
- Second Time's a Charm: 4 of the Best Horror Remakes of the 1980s - The Lineup - July 25th, 2024
- How Chris Stuckmann Went From YouTube Film Critic to Making His Own Horror Movie Courting Neon and Mike Flanagan in the Process - Variety - July 25th, 2024
- Friday, July 19: These 5 New Horror Movies Just Released Today - Bloody Disgusting - July 25th, 2024
- Terrifier 3 teaser trailer promises the scariest & goriest horror movie of 2024 - Dexerto - July 25th, 2024
- The 10 Best Horror Movies of the 2020s So Far, According to Letterboxd - Collider - July 25th, 2024
- New 'terrifying' horror movie thats left audiences 'screaming' in theatres draws near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score - UNILAD - July 25th, 2024
- A New Horror Movie Is Over 95% Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes, But You Might Not Have Heard Of It Yet - CinemaBlend - July 25th, 2024
- The Terrifying Monsters in This Nicolas Cage Horror Movie Were Inspired by Goofy - Collider - July 25th, 2024
- Netflix Horror Movie Goes Beyond Disturbing Within The First Few Minutes - Giant Freakin Robot - July 25th, 2024
- What is Longlegs about? Everything to know about the hit horror movie starring Nicolas Cage - Entertainment Weekly News - July 25th, 2024
- Oddity is THE scariest film of the year: Critics rave about new horror movie - The Independent - July 25th, 2024
- Eric Banas Only Appearance in a Horror Film Was Based on a True Story - MovieWeb - July 25th, 2024
- 1970s Horror TV Movie Thrilled A Generation But No One Remembers It - Giant Freakin Robot - July 25th, 2024
- The Beast Within Exclusive Clip Kit Harington Transforms in Werewolf Horror Movie - Bloody Disgusting - July 25th, 2024
- This Is the Hands Down The Weirdest Horror Film on Prime Video Right Now - Collider - July 25th, 2024
- Maika Monroe Sells the Terror of Oregon-set Horror Film Longlegs With Her Eyes - Willamette Week - July 17th, 2024
- Nicolas Cage's New 86% RT Horror Movie Is The Silence Of The Lambs Replacement I've Wanted For Years - Screen Rant - July 17th, 2024
- Review: Longlegs is the Silliest Horror Film of the Year - The Cosmic Circus - July 17th, 2024
- How Longlegs Shocked the Box Office to Become the Summers Breakout Horror Hit - Variety - July 17th, 2024
- Longlegs: The scariest horror movie of the year knows exactly how to weaponise Nicolas Cage - The Indian Express - July 17th, 2024
- Budget horror movie earns $22 million at the box office all by hiding its A-list star - UNILAD - July 17th, 2024
- The New Horror Film That Knows How to Rattle the Nerves - The Daily Beast - July 17th, 2024
- 'The Deliverance' Trailer - Netflix Spent Big Money on This Horror Movie from Director Lee Daniels - Bloody Disgusting - July 17th, 2024
- Apple's brilliant new iPhone ad is a mini horror movie meant to scare Android users - PhoneArena - July 17th, 2024
- Bride of Re-Animator (1990) WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? - JoBlo.com - July 17th, 2024
- Review: Starve Acre Is an Homage to Classic Folk Horror - The Mary Sue - July 17th, 2024
- The Most Acclaimed Horror Movie of the Year Is Here. Is It As Scary As Everyone Is Saying? - Slate - July 17th, 2024
- This Maika Monroe Movie Gave Us One of the Most Chilling Moments in Recent Horror - Collider - July 17th, 2024
- Celebrating Film Nostalgia With Ooze and Ahhs at Blobfest - The New York Times - July 17th, 2024
- Horror movie Longlegs has gone viral with its creepy marketing campaign. But is it more than just a stunt? - Northeastern University - July 17th, 2024
- Five Sci-Fi/Horror Movies That Take Place Inside an Apartment Building - Reactor - July 17th, 2024
- 8 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including Longlegs - Bloody Disgusting - July 17th, 2024
- Neons Longlegs scaring up strong box office as big-budget Fly Me to the Moon struggles - Los Angeles Times - July 17th, 2024
- The Deliverance: release date, trailer, cast and everything we know about the Lee Daniels horror movie - What To Watch - July 17th, 2024
- POLL: What Are The Best Horror Movies of 2024 (So Far)? - JoBlo.com - July 17th, 2024
- The Exorcism's Adam Goldberg, Ryan Simpkins and Filmmakers on Making the Meta Horror Film (Interview) - Nerd Reactor - June 20th, 2024
- Hanky Panky Review: The Right Kind of Silly - Fangirlish - June 20th, 2024
- 40th Anniversary screening of Children of the Corn coming up in July in Whiting - KTIV Siouxland's News Channel - June 20th, 2024
- Who Watches The Watchers? Unfortunately, Me - Reactor - June 20th, 2024
- 10 Best Horror Sequels Of The 1990s - Screen Rant - June 20th, 2024
- The Inheritance trailer: Alejandro Brugus horror film reaches theatres and VOD in July - JoBlo.com - June 20th, 2024
- Metal & Movies Mash-Up: Motorhead and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth - JoBlo.com - June 20th, 2024
- Live-Action Horror Film Sayuri to Open on August 23 - Anime News Network - June 20th, 2024
- The Netflix Sci-Fi Horror Action Blockbuster That Kicked Off A Mega Franchise - Giant Freakin Robot - June 20th, 2024
- Peyton List Wishes She Was Left Out of the Will in New 'The Inheritance' Trailer - Collider - June 20th, 2024
- Can't wait to never sleep again!: The Horror Film That Could Make or Break Mike Flanagan's Stellar Career Gets ... - FandomWire - June 20th, 2024
- MaXXXine team discuss blending fact and fiction by including a real-life serial killer in the horror movie sequel - Gamesradar - June 20th, 2024
- Where suspense and silliness collide - theSun - June 20th, 2024
- NWA wrestler Max the Impaler to star in horror movie - Figure Four Online - June 20th, 2024
- NWAs Max The Impaler To Star In Dolly Horror Movie - Wrestlezone - June 20th, 2024
- Fans all notice one particular thing as trailer drops to sequel 'so gory and disgusting' that star vomited - UNILAD - June 20th, 2024
- Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th: The Forgotten Horror Parody Movie - Flickering Myth - June 20th, 2024
- The Exorcism review: "The Russell Crowe horror veers more ridiculous than terrifying" - Gamesradar - June 20th, 2024
- Bloody Smile 2 trailer finally explains movie's mysterious marketing and promises a bigger scale for sequel to the hit ... - Gamesradar - June 19th, 2024
- Award-Winning Horror Movie Fang is Now Streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV - EIN News - June 19th, 2024
- My most anticipated horror movie of the year just got a whole lot creepier thanks to Nicolas Cage - Yahoo News UK - June 19th, 2024
- The Best Horror Anthology Ever Is Being Kept Away From The New Generation - Giant Freakin Robot - June 19th, 2024
- Kit Harington Shows Off the Real 'Beast Within' in New Horror Film - Collider - June 19th, 2024
- A sequel to the Netflix cult horror film Circle is in the works - imdb - June 19th, 2024
- Nicolas Cage's upcoming horror movie debuts to perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics calling it "the scariest film ... - Gamesradar - June 19th, 2024
- 5 best horror movies on Prime Video with 90% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes - Tom's Guide - June 19th, 2024
- Max The Impaler To Star In New Horror Film 'Dolly' - Fightful - June 19th, 2024
- Jordan Peele, Lee Cronin Have New Horror Films On The Way - Bleeding Cool News - June 19th, 2024
- This Horror Film Was Livestreamed: One More Round With Generation Loss - Alternate Reality Gaming Network - June 19th, 2024
- I'm Delighted This Horror Movie Is Now A Streaming Success After Its $53M Box Office Letdown 2 Months Ago - Screen Rant - June 19th, 2024
- Nicolas Cage's new apocalyptic horror movie often leaves viewers in the dark, but that's actually a good thing - Gamesradar - June 19th, 2024
- Fans and celebrities to gather for Tampa Bay Screams Horror Convention - Tampa Bay Newspapers - June 19th, 2024
- This Classic Horror Movie Influenced the Harkonnens of Denis Villeneuve's Dune - Collider - June 19th, 2024
- The Nasty Torture Horror Movie That the UK Branded Too Depraved for Release - Collider - June 19th, 2024
- Critics are shocked by Nicolas Cage's new horror movie and it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes - Tom's Guide - June 19th, 2024
- Joko Anwars Nightmares and Daydreams: Cast and Plot - Netflix Tudum - June 19th, 2024
- NWAs Max The Impaler To Star In Dolly Horror Film - eWrestlingNews - June 19th, 2024
- Bizarre dance with the unexpected - theSun - June 19th, 2024
- The Best Horror Movies on Max to Watch Right Now - CNET - June 1st, 2024
- This New Winnie-The-Pooh Horror Movie Might Actually Be Better Than Blood & Honey - Screen Rant - June 1st, 2024
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero