#RecomendacionPurga: (Anti) Holy Week Marathon

At last, that time of year has arrived when everyone wants to go on vacation, hit the beach, and watch biblical movies; since none of that interests us, we here at Macabro put together a selection from PURGA's lineup to counteract all that sun, sea, and crucifixion. Here's our recommendation for spending these days with pure horror cinema. Subscribe to PURGA.TV (abre en nueva pestaña) with one month free and 3 months for just $99.00

1. THIRST (South Korea, Chan Wook Park, 2009)

This isn't the first time Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) has given us a film whose characters are entangled with tragedy and violence, and Thirst is no exception. This supernatural drama, which won the 2009 Jury Prize at Cannes, was originally titled The bat and represents Park's foray into the genre. The film preserves the essence of the Korean director, who introduces a vampire into a love triangle whose passionate consequences are inevitable and fatal: temptation, guilt, decadence, and disillusionment.

Park Chan-Wook gives us a story charged with intense drama and, of course, a thirst for blood.

A must for fans of Asian horror, doubting priests, and, of course, vampires.

2. THE DESCENT (England, Neil Marshall, 2005)

The Descent became an instant classic of horror cinema thanks to its masterful handling of atmosphere, tension, and malice, in a story where five friends descend into a cave where they must fight terrifying creatures lurking at every step. The exploration of an eternal, hidden, and secret femininity runs hand in hand throughout with the fight for survival against those ravenous creatures and each woman's inner demons. Neil Marshall established himself with this film as one of the most interesting directors in contemporary genre cinema.

A must for fans of suspense and the monstrousness lurking latent in the bowels of the earth.

3. HUSET | Dir. Reinert Kiil | Norway | 2016 | 85 min.

If you missed the extraordinary Norwegian film Huset (The House) this year, which was included in the lineup of Macabro's most recent edition, this is your big chance.

Two European soldiers take a Norwegian soldier prisoner during World War II. They take shelter from the harsh winter in a house in the middle of nowhere, but a strange presence will be waiting for them inside. The film is told as a great time loop within a period story, a house possessed by demons and ghosts trapped and doomed to repeat their tragic fate.

Recommended for fans of ghost-story narratives.

4. A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT NIGHT |Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour| United States | 2014

In the Iranian city of Bad City, anything can happen. Amid a range of marginal characters, a vampire wanders in search of blood. To this vampire western is added a romance tinged with blood. A girl walks home alone at night combines genres and styles such as horror comedy and the western.

A girl walks home alone at night brought fresh energy to vampire cinema in a contemporary urban setting, in which the main character shows us the advantage of her condition to build her freedom step by step in a hostile and repressive environment.

Director Ana Lily Amirpour belongs to the generation of bloody girls behind the camera, standing out alongside Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary) and Julia Ducournau (Raw), who have given horror a new vision from a female/feminist point of view, with stories and visions of horror that explore timeless fears with freshness and passion.

5. SUSPIRIA | Dir. Dario Argento | Italy | 1977

A young woman enrolls in an exclusive dance academy the same night one of the students is murdered. The school's deputy director offers the new student every comfort and convenience so she can study and learn. But little by little it begins to flood the place, and her stay turns into a true nightmare.

Argento began with Suspiria the trilogy of the three mothers, which continued in 1980 with Inferno and concluded much later with The Third Mother (Mother of Tears), starring his daughter, filmmaker Asia Argento, in 2007.

Suspiria is a great work that combines visual artistry, atmosphere, and horror, thanks to a brilliant choice of shots, cinematographer Luciano Tovoli's psychedelic color palette, and the music of progressive rock band Goblin (Argento's frequent collaborators), which, to name just a few elements, make it one of the most terrifying and beautiful films in the history of cinema, one in which the viewer is guided by the eye of one of the most imaginative directors when it comes to depicting murder.

Suspiria is an essential, highly recommended film not only for any genre-film fan, but for every cinephile who wants to experience the beauty that can be found in a bloody, terrifying cinematic image.

6. THE MIST | Dir. Frank Darabont | United States| 2007 | 126 min

In a small town in Maine, a thick fog covers the area, killing anyone who ventures into its darkness. The terrified survivors seek refuge in a supermarket while a group of cruel, tentacled creatures try to get in.

Based on a short story by Stephen King, The Mist is considered one of the best adaptations of his work and an unmissable classic for those who love horror in and of itself and, of course, the master himself, King.

7. SAINT ANGE | Dir. Pascal Laugier | 2004 | 99 min

In 1958, young assistant Anna arrives at the Saint Ange Orphanage to help keep the place in order while the children are sent off to their new families. There she meets Judith, the last orphan, who is set aside because of her mental health issues. Judith tells her about the voices and children's footsteps she constantly hears, and when Anna also starts to notice them, together they must investigate the terrible secret this place hides.

Amid a wave of violent, bloody horror films from France's so-called New French Extremity, which gave us gems such as Haute Tension(2003), Al Interior (2007), Frontiers (2007) and Martyrs (2008), Saint Ange presents a classic horror story that explores the terrors of motherhood and femininity faced by the character of Judith, played by one of the stars of early 21st-century French cinema, Virginie Ledoyen.

A must for fans of European horror cinema, classic horror, and haunted convents.

8. ANTICHRIST | Dir. Lars Von Trier |Denmark | 2009 | 89 min

A psychologist who wants to help his wife overcome the death of their son in an accident decides to take her to a remote cabin in the middle of a forest where she had spent the last summer with the boy. However, the therapy doesn't work, and both she and nature begin to behave strangely.

A disturbing psychological horror film starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainbourg. A must for fans of the ever-transgressive and controversial Lars Von Trier.

9. LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG |Dir. Mladen Djordjevic | Serbia | 2009

Marko, after failing as a film director, partners with Cane, a successful porn filmmaker, and together they form an outlandish filming gang. They travel from town to town staging controversial performances until Marko decides to double down, and things get complicated.

Life and Death of a Porn Gang was one of the most representative films of Balkan horror, which between 2008 and 2010 showed the world the horrors of Serbia's postwar era in a completely divided country with a numb society and deep psychological wounds. Life and Death of a Porn Gang is perhaps less well-known than its contemporary A Serbian Film, however, it is a well-made film with striking images that shakes the conscience and the mind in a similar way.

Screened at #Macabro2011, it is an unmissable film for strong, seasoned minds.

10. REPULSION (England, Roman Polanski, 1965)

Probably one of the most unsettling works psychological horror has ever produced, it came from the great Polish master filmmaker and auteur, Roman Polanski. Repulsion (1965), is a film shot in England and starring French cinema diva Catherine Deneuve, who plays Carol Ledoux, a beautiful young woman who, when left alone in her sister's apartment, comes face to face with one of her greatest fears: a feeling of attraction and repulsion toward men, toward sex, and toward her own body. Her fear evolves into the horror of feeling estranged from herself and others. From hallucination she moves to delirium, and from there to the destruction of her own psyche.

Polanski delivers one of his finest films, in which he demonstrates, with great mastery and artistry, a sublime exploration of one of the great themes in his filmography: the destruction of the human psyche.

Essential for lovers of psychological horror.