Sunday Scaries: Has NEON Become a Horror Powerhouse?

The Sunday Scaries are upon us once again! Yes, as the weekend concludes, most of us feel an oncoming sense of anticipatory dread about the week ahead. Anxiety about work manifests itself into a feeling that’s known as the Sunday Scaries. However, we at Awards Radar are here to combat that, by taking back the name. Now, we want you think about a horror-centric piece on the site when you hear the term. So, let us continue on with another installment of the Awards Radar Sunday Scaries! This time around, we’re focusing in on how one particular distributor seems to be acing it when it comes to the world of horror…

NEON has only been around since 2017, but in that short span of time, they’ve managed to accomplish a lot. They’ve become one of the cool independent distributors, won Best Picture with Parasite, and really established a brand. They’ve also done something that I’m not sure people are as aware of. To me, they’ve become an indie horror powerhouse. The release and success of Longlegs this month just hammers that home.

This year alone, the studio has put out Handling the Undead (which, admittedly, I had a major issue with here), Immaculate (reviewed here), and the aforementioned Longlegs, with Cuckoo about to come out. That’s a rock solid year for fright flicks, all NEON, with a stone cold classic in Longlegs that’s going to stand the test of time. This year really did hammer it home that NEON knows horror, plain and simple.

My review of Immaculate began like so:

Religious themed horror is generally not my favorite sub-genre. Of course, believing or not believing doesn’t fully impact if the scary movie works on you, but having some degree of faith does add to the potential terror. Lacking that, I see these fright flicks as just being set in interesting locations, to half-jokingly break this down to the bones. So, when something like Immaculate chooses not to focus too heavily on the religion of it all, I see it as a positive. Combined with a strong central performance and some surprising carnage, genre fans should be pretty pleased.

Immaculate has some ideas it’s toying with, but at its core it’s mostly gore, jump scares, and a showcase for a scream queen. The horror wheel is decidedly not being reinvented, though the convent setting is used slightly differently than usual. More than anything else, it’s a star vehicle, and in that regard, it’s largely successful.

As for Longlegs, I’ve raved about it here and here, though in my review I specifically said the following, which speaks to its quality:

I’m rarely scared by horror. Now, I love the genre, but the more you know how the sausage is made, an appreciation for scary movies does tend to lead to fewer and fewer actually frightening you. So, when I’m unnerved or even outright terrified by something, it bears notice. With Longlegs, the very essence of the film chilled me to my core. There are some scares to be found, sure, but the movie injects fear into your very marrow. Anything and everything can happen, which puts you on edge. This is a masterpiece of the genre and just out and out art. Nothing I’ve seen so far this year has come close to Longlegs. Yes, it’s that good.

Longlegs is the best serial killer horror film since The Silence of the Lambs. They don’t quite traffic in the same territory, but they’re cousins in some ways, notably in petrifying vibes, impeccable craftsmanship, and just overall quality. Watching this mix of police procedural, occult slayings, and atmospheric stress, you’re able to give yourself over to the filmmaker. For about 100 minutes, you’re allowing the possibilities of a great horror movie to just wash over you.

In prior years, NEON has released work like Climax, Crimes of the Future (reviewed here), Infinity Pool (reviewed here), It Lives Inside, Little Monsters, The Lodge, Possessor, She Dies Tomorrow, Titane (reviewed here), and more. Next year, the distributor has The Monkey from Oz Perkins coming out. One has to be incredibly excited for that one, coming off of Perkins’ Longlegs. Plus, at this point, the combination of NEON and Perkins seems like a match made in cinematic heaven. You also have to assume that the distributor will pick more up in the genre throughout this year and next year. It’s a good time for horror when NEON is in town.

NEON tends to have good taste in all genres, but it’s clear to me that they’re emerging at the forefront of horror. We’ll see what happens, but Longlegs, as well as their overall fright flick output, has me thinking that they’re in rarified air. Stay tuned for my take on Cuckoo, as well as whatever else they put out going forward. NEON has me hooked.

Stay tuned for another Sunday Scaries installment next week!