Sleepover Turns to a Night of Terror In ‘#Horror’

Sandra Miska

Vampires, zombies and chainsaw-wielding psychos are horror film staples but for her directorial debut, actress and artist Tara Subkoff chose the meanest villains of all time – 12-year-old girls. “#Horror” is about six girls whose slumber party turns into a night of terror after an intense argument leads to extreme cyberbullying. Social media amplifies tension in a number of horror films in recent years (the “Carrie” remake, for example), but Subkoff takes it to a new level.

Newcomer Sadie Seelert plays Sam, a scholarship student at a ritzy Connecticut school. Her mother (Natasha Lyonne) drops her off at the swanky home of her classmate Sofia Cox (Bridget McGarry) despite her misgivings and because of Sam’s desperation to belong. Sam arrives to party with Sofia, Georgie (Emma Adler), Ava (Blue Lindeberg) and Francesca (Mina Sundwell). The last to join the sleepover is Cat (Haley Murphy), an emotionally disturbed girl who has recently lost her mother.

It begins innocently enough, with the girls raiding the closet of Sofia’s fashion industry mom Alex (Chloë Sevigny) and taking selfie after selfie. The “likes” flash before the audience’s eyes in animated video art sequences. Things take a dark turn after Alex takes off for a twelve-step meeting, leaving the girls at home by themselves. They soon start to tease Georgie about her weight, believing their cruelty to be playful mocking. After Cat takes things too far for even the other mean girls, telling Georgie she should kill herself, Sofia orders her out of her house, alone into the snowy, New England winter.

Even with Cat physically gone, the terror continues, as Cat posts a stream of photos cruelly mocking her. The girls make the decision to ignore the cyberbullying by locking their phones in a safe, a wise decision at the time, but one that they later come to regret.

Social media isn’t the only thing corrupting the girls. All the adults in their lives, save for Sam’s mom, display incredible immaturity themselves. The film opens with Sofia’s father (Balthazar Getty) having an extramarital tryst with his art advisor, Lisa (Lydia Hearst), moments before his grisly demise. Cat’s father, Dr. White (Timothy Hutton) receives a voicemail from his sobbing daughter and subsequently storms the Cox house, reducing the girls to tears. He tracks down Alex at her meeting, and instead of working together to find Cat, they tear each other apart, revealing they were once lovers.

Not only does “#Horror” speak to teens and adults alike, it’s also a visually stunning film. Subkoff, who for ten years ran her conceptual art project/fashion label Imitation of Christ, borrowed works from many illustrious artists including Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel and her husband Urs Fischer.

The juxtaposition of the girls in this cold, art museum of a house adds to the creep factor. The place is anything but cozy, making them appear even more isolated than they actually are against the backdrop of the snowy outdoors that is visible through the tall windows.

“#Horror” will make viewers rethink their dependency on social media and put down their phones for at least a few hours.

“#Horror” opens in select theaters and VOD Nov. 20.