06 | Florence Pugh's Psychological Thrillers
In this issue: Malevolent, Don't Worry Darling, The Wonder, Lady Macbeth, and Midsommar.
What’s up! 🫶🏼
A lot of actors are continuously typecasted into roles and one that stood out to me recently is Florence Pugh. My first introduction to her was in Black Widow where she played the fierce Yelena Belova. Then, I blame her Mukbang for getting me immediately hooked onto her work.
After making my way through most of her filmography, it’s undeniable that Pugh is the scream queen for female-centric psychological thrillers. So let’s go through them together and see which ones are worth watching!
Malevolent
Genre: Horror
Language: English
Gist: A brother-sister duo scam their way through exorcisms until they find a case that won’t let them go alive.
Review: There’s nothing quite so unique about this film — run-of-the-mill horror flick, if you may. But for a quick run-time of 88 minutes, it’s a good enough movie to watch during Halloween if you’ve exhausted the classics and are a fan of Pugh.
Warning: It can get quite gory!
SYWT? For pure horror lovers, yes. For the faint of heart1, no.
Don’t Worry Darling
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Dystopian
Language: English
Gist: It all goes sideways when Alice realizes that the 1950s utopia she and her husband are living in might be a complete sham.
Review: Despite all the IRL drama and discourse surrounding this film, I didn’t find Don’t Worry Darling all that bad — Perhaps my advantage here was that I watched it almost six months later and with zero expectations.
To be honest, the concept and the story were quite intriguing. But sadly, most of the drama was contained to the surface level. It felt like director Wilde feared digging deeper and putting down any real emotional weight — I mean, there were just SO MANY avenues where she could’ve developed the story more and given it some laudable flavor, but alas…
Overall, it was a good film but it could’ve been an even better one.
SYWT? It’s interesting enough for one watch, but even if you decide to skip it you won’t be missing out on much.
The Wonder
Genre: Religious Psychological Drama
Language: English
Gist: In 1862, a nurse is called to record a “miracle girl” who hasn’t eaten for 4 months and is still alive. She vows to uncover the truth.
Review: What pulls you in immediately is trying to figure out how exactly this miracle girl is surviving — is it truly because of something supernatural, forgive me, divine? If not, what kind of horrid trauma is stopping this girl from eating? You’ll be surprised to learn that this film has been inspired by real-life fasting girls, and like many of Pugh’s films, it will leave you with a lot to ponder about and research. Somber is most parts, heartwarming in others; you’ll be glad to have watched this.
SYWT? For sure!
Lady Macbeth
Genre: Period Drama
Language: English
Gist: After being forced to marry an older man, Katherine begins taking matters into her own hands to finally become the lady of the house.
Review: This was Pugh’s breakout role and you’re really missing out if you haven’t watched her here!
The trailer is quite deceptive in the way that the story doesn’t go where you expect it to and instead, unpeels a perversive onion that we’re often scared to slice: the agency of women, their desires, and the limits they’re willing to push to acquire power and control. And while the film doesn’t claim to have all the answers, the questions it leaves you with are very well worth the watch.
PS: If you’re into Shakespeare, there’s quite an analysis to make here on Pugh’s character.
SYWT? Please do!
Midsommar
Genre: Folk Horror
Language: English
Gist: Dani, her boyfriend and his friends attend the Midsommar festival in Sweden which takes place every 90 years. Unfamiliar with the customs, they’re wholly unprepared for what awaits them.
Review: Most folks have called this film “unsettling,” rather than frightening, which is the only way one can start to describe it. Everything, from its brightly lit scenes to its floral aesthetic, is meant to disorientate your sense of fear because these are not things you’d traditionally associate with horror. And yet, a flower crown can catapult you into a narrative that sends chills down your spine.
There’s also something unequivocably scary about cultures you are unfamiliar with or don’t understand, and in an absolutely unparallelled endeavor, director Aster ties that in with how we deal with grief as well.
SYWT? Yes (but at your own risk).
Another issue, done and dusted!
Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room: I was away for way too long, mostly because of this lovely (but hectic) job opportunity I was part of. But now that I’ve settled in, I have a lot more time to watch, review & write!
Shout-out to Jes who encouraged me to make a comeback with this issue. I promise the next issue will show up in your inbox sooner than two months (unless I get dragged to the Upside Down or something).
Let me know in the comments what you’ve been watching this week/what I should consider reviewing next!
Before I go:
Why are public spaces so uncomfortable nowadays?2 on Not Controversial.
If you’d like to read the previous issues, here’s a link to SYWT’s archive.
Looking for any title in particular? Cue the database — This has the list of movies/TV shows covered so far with ratings and links to the newsletters they were reviewed in.
What’s stuck in my head:
See you soon,
sal.
AKA poor me who had to watch this all alone.
Not recommending this just because my quote is featured in it, nope, nothing of that sort.