April was halfway-to-October month, as in, halfway to SHORT HORROR OCTOBER. Hence, I took it upon myself to watch more in the way of horror shorts than usual. It’s my responsibility, after all, to bring you the best in short horror when October comes around. As selective as I’m trying to be, I have 12 short films on my list so far. This number will probably (at least) double in the next six months, so you’ll likely get several horror shorts per post in October. I’m looking at the list and seeing nothing that I want to cut.

That aside, I’m here to tell you about the feature films and series that we/I watched in April, because that’s all that’s on my list this time. There were no new food items or products to try in April.

We were glad to be able to catch the three movies we’d wanted to watch in theaters in the last six months. As a wonderful coincidence, they’re all set on or in the ocean: The Lighthouse, Aquaman, and Underwater.

Then, Netflix dropped an original movie, Extraction, which readily delivered the sort of entertainment you expect and want from a high-octane action movie.

Also in April, I discovered the dark, arthouse films of Greek writer/director/producer Yorgos Lanthimos, whose work held my fascination for days after viewing it. I watched The Killing of a Sacred Deer, went on to The Lobster, and then to Dogtooth. One after the other, the films drew me into their simple yet elaborately designed little worlds, each one small in scope, grand in situation, and surreal on any scale. The minimalism of Lanthimos’ cinematic style is interesting, too, in the way that it isolates the story, with you in front of it like the proverbial fly on the wall – you can either walk away, or allow yourself to become engrossed in the material that’s ultimately thought-provoking, often macabre, and sometimes perverse. I found myself caught up in the spare complexity of Lanthimos’ excellent films with their carefully crafted, awkward characters. The only film of his I’d heard about in the mainstream was The Favorite. I’ll get to that one eventually, but the next two I plan to watch will be Alps and Kinetta.

As for series, Ozark’s third season dropped in April, along with The Terror: Infamy (season 2 of The Terror) and the Netflix mini-series Unorthodox. 

On with the list, then! The first four, I watched with Callaghan. The rest, I watched alone. (I’m going to start making that distinction.)

 

First, the “recently in theaters” from newest to oldest:

1). Underwater (Amazon Prime)

 

 

2). Aquaman (Amazon Prime)

 

 

3). The Lighthouse (Amazon Prime)

 

 

 

Next, the Netflix Original:

4). Extraction (Netflix Original Movie)

 

 

 

(That wraps up the four that I watched with Callaghan!)

Now for Yorgos Lanthimos’ excellent films:

5). The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Netflix)

 

 

6). The Lobster (Netflix)

 

 

7). Dogtooth (original title: Kynodontas) (Amazon Prime)

 

 

These last three on the list are series, which I found to be outstanding:

8). Ozark (S3) (Netflix)

 

 

9). The Terror: Infamy (S2) (Hulu)

 

 

10). Unorthodox (Netflix)

 

 

That does it for April, my friends. Happy Friday Eve!