What Netflix did next: 80s ghosts & holocaust horror
- Text by Megan Nolan
- Photography by Malevolent / Netflix

Malevolent
Malevolent, Malevolent. How I’d have loved to love you. A horror film set in Glasgow in 1986 just sounds like it could potentially be amazing, doesn’t it? You imagine there’ll be some relevance to this setting, maybe some use of the city – oof, that brutalism could do you a few tricks – or the way people lived there then.
But alas, the bewilderingly arbitrary choice of locale and date go no further for Malevolent than the odd bad jacket. What we are left with instead is an unsteady car-sick mess of tropes and unfinished ideas, and – of course, of course – the icky inclusion of some brutalised little girls and young women to round it out.
Scam artist siblings Jackson (Ben Lloyd Hughes) and Angela (a very good Florence Pugh), who do a number in fake ghost-hunting, are contextualised for us when Jackson is accused of never being the same since their mother tore her eyes out. Hard to get over, that, in his defence.
The two are invited to clear the pesky spooks out of a haunted foster home, which seems like an easy money-maker until it transpires – oh shit! – the ghosts are real this time. Soon come half-baked plots borrowed from Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a crew of little girl ghosts with grotesque stitching sealing up their mouths.
What is it about the bloodied little girl, eh? When did they become the scariest thing we can think up? What did they ever do, except get murdered by men?
But there’s no end to it, no reprieve for these brutalised waifs in their painfully tiny socks and saddle shoes and their trauma carved all over their faces; their old-timey dresses and their overflowing wounds and the faint noise of a broken music box following wherever they go. Haven’t they suffered enough? Don’t they deserve a little peace, instead of being hauled out for every third-rate horror like this one?
HOW MANY POPCORNS OUT OF TEN? ????❌❌❌❌❌
WORTH A WATCH WHEN SOBER? Nah
WORTH A WATCH WHEN HUNGOVER/ DRUNK? No. Not flashy or fun or weird enough to engage with.
Operation Finale
Operation Finale has no right to not be a pretty good film, or at the very least a serviceable, knock-it-out-in-your-sleep passably prestige bit of Oscar-bait. It’s got great actors – Oscar Isaac, Nick Kroll, Melanie Laurent, Ben Kingsley – and is based on a fascinating true story. In 1960, Adolf Eichmann, the so-called “architect of the Holocaust”, was captured in Argentina by Mossad agents and brought back to Israel to stand trial for his crimes.
I was hoping for something akin to Hunger by Steve McQueen, in which Bobby Sands and a priest spend 23 minutes in a single room in conversation – a tense, intelligent and precise film which trusted the collision of ideological debate and human frailty to be dramatic enough to carry it through. What I got here was more akin to a sober version of Taken with shots of the Holocaust thrown in with unsettling carelessness.
Operation Finale inexplicably decides to treat this story as a battle against the clock thriller. The vast majority of the action concerns details of how the agents came to capture and then remove Eichmann. An hour passes before they’ve got him. 30 minutes follow – I’m not joking, 30 minutes – which are taken up with trying to get him to sign a document. Further bureaucratic wrangling set to a pacey soundtrack ensues, including a comically pointless last-minute delay on the airport runway.
Focusing on literally any other part of the narrative than this would have been a better idea – Eichmann’s day-to-day life before capture, the lives of his captors, the trial itself, the political climate in Argentina. Half-hearted attempts are made to add the psychological tension between the Holocaust survivor captors and Eichmann, which a better film would have prioritised, but they are so generically rendered, so without depth and life, that they make one feel embarrassed; the embarrassment and faint shame of watching what is tonally a run of the mill thriller, which lapses jarringly into impressionistic depictions of the Holocaust.
It’s notoriously difficult to make art about this subject without indulging in crass sentimentality, or relying on the shock of horrific images. Consuming and “enjoying” any art about it is something to consider and interrogate. But it feels especially wrong to have those images used to essentially spice up an unimaginative and otherwise dull piece of work, and it feels wrong, too, to mitigate this bad and cynical film by praising its redeeming points, of which there are a few, and which I will not bother to detail.
HOW MANY POPCORNS OUT OF TEN? ???❌❌❌❌❌❌
WORTH A WATCH WHEN SOBER? Maybe in a particular circumstance. Can imagine watching it with, for example, a friend’s stuffy family over Christmas and it being perfectly fine for that purpose. Otherwise no.
WORTH A WATCH WHEN HUNGOVER/ DRUNK? Oh God, no.
Follow Megan Nolan on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck

Tender, carefree portraits of young Ukrainians before the war
Diary of a Stolen Youth — On the day that a temporary ceasefire is announced, a new series from photographer Nastya Platinova looks back at Kyiv’s bubbling youth culture before Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. It presents a visual window for young people into a possible future, as well as the past.

Analogue Appreciation: 47SOUL
Dualism — In an ever more digital, online world, we ask our favourite artists about their most cherished pieces of physical culture. Today, it’s Palestinian shamstep pioneers 47SOUL.
Written by: 47SOUL
Meet the hair-raised radicals of Berlin’s noise punk scene
Powertool — In his new zine, George Nebieridze captures moments of loud rage and quiet intimacy of the German capital’s bands, while exploring the intersections between music, community and anti-establishment politics.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Amid tensions in Eastern Europe, young Latvians are reviving their country’s folk rhythms
Spaces Between the Beats — The Baltic nation’s ancient melodies have long been a symbol of resistance, but as Russia’s war with Ukraine rages on, new generations of singers and dancers are taking them to the mainstream.
Written by: Jack Styler

Uwade: “I was determined to transcend popular opinion”
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s Nigerian-born, South Carolina-raised indie-soul singer Uwade.
Written by: Uwade

Inside the obscured, closeted habitats of Britain’s exotic pets
“I have a few animals...” — For his new series, photographer Jonty Clark went behind closed doors to meet rare animal owners, finding ethical grey areas and close bonds.
Written by: Hannah Bentley