In the past, August has been the dumping ground for summer movies that are either bad or … well, worse than that. Not so this year. Alien: Romulus promises to breathe new life into the beloved sci-fi franchise while M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap taps into a lot of people’s fear that going to a Taylor Swift concert may just kill you.
Aside from those films, August has a quietly awesome lineup of below-the-radar movies that are worth checking out. From yet another horror movie about a killer AI to a quiet drama about a sex worker in London, these three films offer something that most mainstream films like Deadpool & Wolverine can’t.
Sebastian (August 2)
Max looks and acts like every other twentysomething in London: He’s good-looking; he likes to go out at night; and he’s determined to succeed at his chosen craft. He aspires to be a writer, and his first book promises to be eye-catching — an expose about what it’s like to be a male sex worker.
Yet instead of relying solely on his imagination, Max decides to become a sex worker himself to inform his writing better. For a while, Max enjoys his double life, navigating his day and night life with equal aplomb, but soon Max finds himself in over his head, with his literary ambitions in jeopardy. A standout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Sebastian is an intimate look at a world seldom depicted without exaggeration, excess, and exploitation.
Duchess (August 9)
Fans of Kill Bill and I Spit On Your Grave are about to be rewarded with a new movie that promises to spin yet another tale of revenge and murder. Instead of a bloody bride, Duchess has a petty small-time crook, Scarlett, as the titular heroine. It seems Scarlett has crossed the wrong people when she tried to join the shady world of diamond trafficking.
Left for dead after a deal gone horribly wrong, she vows revenge on the people who wronged her. Head weapon of choice? A double-barreled shotgun. The director, Neil Marshall, knows a thing or two about orchestrating onscreen bloodshed, having helmed the movies The Descent and Doomsday in the 2000s and episodes of Game of Thrones in the 2010s. Duchess gives off a pulpy B-movie vibe, which is a high compliment. Madame Web this ain’t, and that’s good for us all.
Afraid (August 30)
For decades, book authors and filmmakers have spun tales about the negative effects of AI. It’s only reasonable that with the rise of ChatGPT, we’d get even more of them, and in Afraid, the new film from About a Boy director Chris Weitz, the horror happens without taking a step outside.
The Curtis family have been selected to test run a new AI-assisted home operating system named AIA. AIA is there to serve the family, and to anticipate their every need before they even think about them. Would it surprise you to learn that AIA is too good to be true and begins to turn the children against their parents?
A horror movie about an evil Amazon Echo isn’t very original, but it is effective. Everyone has one of the things, and most owners don’t entirely trust them. Afraid promises to confirm their worst fears, and my staunch refusal to ever get one.