Sundance Horror Breakdown: Motherhood Looms Massive Over a Crop of Formidable Indies

Spoiler alert: Plot factors from “Infinity Pool” are mentioned under.

One of the crucial indelible photos from Sundance 2023 got here on the finish of Brandon Cronenberg’s luxury-vacation-gone-wrong movie “Infinity Pool.” The protagonist, James (Alexander Skarsgård), is bruised and battered, bodily and emotionally, after killing a feral clone of himself along with his naked fingers. The mysterious Gabi (Mia Goth) reveals one in all her breasts, covers it with the blood of the killed clone, and invitations James to nurse from her, his hulking physique curled on her lap like a toddler.

It was clear that a lot of the indie filmmakers who debuted horror and Midnight movies at Sundance had maternal relationships on their minds. Of the eight midnight choices, seven featured robust thematic ties to mother-child relationships.

Whereas the theme wasn’t restricted to the Midnight part (see buzzy debuts equivalent to “The Persian Model” and “Dangerous Behaviour”), it wasn’t as all-encompassing at different corners of the pageant. And whereas mainstream horror seems to be prefer it may contact on this subject in upcoming studio fare equivalent to “Evil Useless Rise,” most of the key titles don’t level to it just like the indies do. The truth is, look no additional than January’s sudden horror hit “Skinamarink,” by which the principle characters spend a lot of their time looking for their mom.

Sundance 2022 featured a robust crop of Midnight options that ended up resonating with the horror group (together with “Communicate No Evil,” “Contemporary,” “Piggy,” and “Hatching,”), and this yr’s slate was an equally robust, if contemplative, bunch.