Jeffrey Epstein looms over the gleefully offensive horror movie The Scary Of Sixty-First
Dasha Nekrasova knows how to push buttons for the lolz, but can that carry a feature?
Film Reviews Jeffrey Epstein
Two young women move into an impossibly available Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, only to discover that it was once utilized by (dum dum dum) the dead child-trafficking mogul Jeffrey Epstein. That’s the grotesquely button-pressing premise of The Scary Of Sixty-First, the bold but uneven debut feature from actor-podcaster-director Dasha Nekrasova. This is clearly a film with no interest in making friends—a proud provocation made in the sturdy spirit of ’70s exploitation movies. Nekrasova borrows from the best, courting comparisons to more highbrow pictures like Eyes Wide Shut and The Tenant. But she clearly started with an aim to get a rise out of people, and working backwards from there resulted in some slapdash storytelling.
The movie feels on brand for Nekrasova, who cohosts the “dirtbag leftist” Red Scare podcast, where the r-word flies freely and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones shows up for giggles and photo ops. Though being winkingly offensive for the lolz is a phase many blessedly grow out of after high school, Nekrasova has turned it into a shtick. In theory, it could be a fantastic fit for horror.
The pair’s disdain for a generation of self-appointed web sleuths with no self-awareness comes out in the dialogue between their heroines, college buds Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (Madeline Quinn). “Reddit’s for bottom-feeders, but there’s some really good threads,” Noelle mutters, staring at her laptop screen. Addie is the spiritual type, hooked on crystals and sage bundles that make her vulnerable to a supernatural invasion. She has boundary issues and acts childish—cooing baby-voiced at her boyfriend through her fingertip like a pathetic millennial bastardization of The Shining’s Danny Torrance—even before she’s possessed by the spirit of an an underage trafficking victim.
Everyone, including Addie’s beta boyfriend Greg (Mark Rapaport), is glued to their screens—a tech dependency Nekrasova previously explored via her starring role in the indie Wobble Palace. The arrival of the nameless Girl (Nekrasova) catalyzes a tumble into political obsession, with the same blasé unawareness. This mysterious character brings up Pizzagate and feeds Noelle an Ambien that’s really the Holden Caulfield contempt for phonies in pill form. (Whole thinkpieces could be written on the significance of the capsule’s colors.) “The important thing is that we’re awake,” the Girl sighs.
As Addie’s visibly wet post-masturbation fingertips glide pleasurably along Epstein’s monogram outside his apartment building, you realize that there’s still something forbidden about desperate, wanton female sexuality in movies. Nekrasova uses the trappings of horror and giallo (see: the traces of Francesco Barilli’s 1974 gem The Perfume Of The Lady In Black and its paranoid camerawork) to enable as much of it as possible. There comes a moment about 40 minutes into the movie when Addie’s semi-possessed gyrations give way to an intense physicality. Tonguing Prince Andrew’s photo one moment (enjoy that Epstein Google spiral, if you haven’t already) and screaming expletives the next, Brown communes with Possession’s Isabelle Adjani—both actors draw power and rage seemingly bigger than their wispy figures would ever allow. Brown is more than compelling enough to hold the frame, and her Addie is the only character of interest in the movie.
Real crime scene images of Epstein and the circumstances surrounding his death briefly flutter by during an investigative montage. It’s about as much venom as Scary spares for the disgraced pedophile. Was he simply the most effective lightning rod around which Nekrasova could build a movie? (Why, with an Epstein angle, you can have your mentally unstable character beg her boyfriend to make love to her “like I’m 13 years old!”) The film’s most successful shock value comes from a scene that juxtaposes fugue-state masturbation with an attempted recreation of Epstein’s alleged manner of death, essentially forcing an autoerotic asphyxiation onto the viewer via editing.
The offenses, both visual and sonic, are copious. Some strike true; menstrual fluid is still fairly taboo on screen these days, and this movie practically fingerpaints with the stuff. Putting shock in for shock’s sake is a staple of the classic exploitation film, so it’s not an automatic black mark against the movie. But there’s just not enough humor, tension, or character to lend all this gleeful offensiveness any real weight. Much of the slim runtime is spent in the space between midnight-movie provocations, waiting for the story to coalesce into something raw and powerful. It never quite gets there.
Filming the nocturnal streets of New York, cinematographer Hunter Zimny channels the twinkling trees and ominous night of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut—a point of reference justified by the sexual and occult elements of the story. As the sleuthing continues into the history of the apartment and Epstein’s trafficking, Eli Keszler’s pounding score raises the politi-thriller vibes. Nekrasova is tapping into the New Hollywood defeatism of raging bulls like Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola. Epstein, Prince Andrew, the Clintons, Pedophile Island—it’s all too big and too powerful to overcome, and those who go down the rabbit hole come back defeated, if they come back at all.
But when your characters don’t care about much and have no redeeming qualities, it’s hard to imprint an authentic sense of drive on them. By the end of Coppola’s The Conversation (another film about the dangers of messing with systems bigger and badder than yourself), Gene Hackman’s Harry Caul is a broken man precisely because he put so much of himself into the chase. There’s no such devastation or urgency here, because the characters are airheads, their descent a trollish shrug. The Scary Of Sixty First cuts, but not very deeply; it’s all blade and no handle, a prankish flesh wound of a thriller.
47 Comments
CORRECTION: Dashsa co-hosts the Red Scare podcast with Anna Khachiyan, not with Madeline Quinn. These are separate people.
If you’re going to write a review maybe do a quick web search on the director first? Madeline Quinn does not co-host Red Scare. I knew the bar was significantly lowered after the Kinja-pocalypse but Jesus Christ.
And it looks like the review was stealth edited without referencing a correction had been made. Argh.
At least this lady seems like she was an English major
The characters are airheads? So when do they hijack the radio station?
WHO’D WIN IN A WRESTLING MATCH – LEMMY OR GOD?!
Um…uh…LEMMY!
The movie feels on brand for Nekrasova, who hosts—along with co-writer and co-star Madeline Quinn—the “dirtbag leftist” Red Scare podcast, where the r-word flies freely and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones shows up for giggles and photo ops.
Oh okay so they’re horrible people, cool. Thanks for the heads up to skip this movie.
Im eagerly anticipating Cum Town’s a24 film
C+? This review makes it sound like a D-. I am glad I read this review as now I really don’t want to see this movie. Had no clue the director was a known rightwing nutcase.
Leftist, per the review above (although it was in scare-quotes).
‘dirtbag left’ = ’m pro queer, pro choice, and pro weed. I showed up at a BLM rally. We good? Can I rap along with Tupac and say (whisper) ‘the n word’ now?
wtf are you even talking about lmao
Yeah, I’m a leftist and these kinds of self-proclaimed leftists absolutely do not jibe with the values of that philosophy. Dirtbag leftists are basically just Republican edgelords who are too embarrassed to actually associate with Republicans. Incidentally, I saw the director on Succession this week and, after Googling her, gave her podcast a listen. Not to be needlessly petty, but I didn’t even hear any offensive stuff before I had to turn it off. She and her co-host’s “podcasting voices” sound like they belong on the dullest of NPR programs. Just a lot of droning on about nothing.
Uh… no. You can debate the merits of the philosophy all day, but I’d only call them republican edgelords if they vote republican. Most dirtbag leftists (if they vote), will vote for democrats.
I’m more inclined to think most dirtbag leftists don’t vote at all, because that would be so uncool to actually vote
Yeah, I’ve never heard the term “dirtbag leftist” before, but they sound like the people I know who are super left-wing but still think it’s hilarious to be needlessly cruel.
Indeed, I only ever blocked one person on this website and it was one of them.
You can block people on Kinja?
I don’t know, this was back when the site used Disqus.
Isn’t this “no true scotsman” logic? And I know nothing about the specific people in question here.
It is. It is more the other way around. Leftist in America doesn’t mean much. They don’t have a left really. If the person above is on the left, they probably didn’t vote for the Democrats against Trump. I’m guessing they did, though, thus taking their leftwing position away from themselves. It’s true there is a fine line between right and left, but in America, the vast majority of people who label themselves leftists, always undermine their position by voting against the left, be it for Trump (so many middle class Americans did, despite preaching the opposite) or for Biden (also a bigoted Conservative.)
Are we still doing this?
“I’m a leftist and these kinds of self-proclaimed leftists”Got an unintentional chuckle out of me tbh.
Yeah, you’re probably one of those centerists who do more to harm people than you think. As far as I can tell, dirtbag leftists always have a better shot at actually helping people, or at least sounding like that WANT to help people, more than individualist, Conservative centerists like yourself. It is the ‘Biden or bust’ crowd i am equating you with. They’re Conservative individualists. They create as much bigotry as they say they want to prevent.
The movie feels on brand for Nekrasova, who cohosts the “dirtbag leftist” Red Scare podcast, where the r-word flies freely and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones shows up for giggles and photo ops. So a lefty has Alex Jones on it? Or is the name dirtbag Leftist a dig at the left? Asking as someone who won’t give any loser that has jones on the time of the day.
Not all of these podcasts that have been called dirtbag left are the same. Chapo and trueanon are generally well researched or just riffing about movies, while cumtown and red scare are actively trying to be transgressive, but none of the people involved are like Maga people. I’m sure lots of people were big fans of Louie saying the N word before his sexual assaults came out, or like countless other white comedians.
If you get right wing nutcase from this, you seriously need to brush up on your politics.It’s not just that it says left wing in the review, but you also need to calm down with the immediate casting out of anyone who doesn’t agree with you, because, based on your reply here, you’re probably not the most ‘correct’ person on the Internet.
Two recent reviews, this one and the Silent Night one, admonish the films for having insensitive characters with no empathy. Coincidence?
We are living in the era of New Sincerity, possibly at it’s apex.
A lot of modern critics expect main characters to all be people they want to be friends with and who reflect their values back to them. This is also how I related to art when I was 9.
This is a great film. I’m really perplexed by the reviewer questioning why there’s the fuck me like I’m 13 scene. That’s— part of the film, not at all random, and important for the overall theme. I think this review really whiffs. And I never listen to Red Scare nor do I care about lols…I just know a modern classic when I see it.
The most I can really stand of Dasha Nekrasova is her trolling of Infowars, and her latest appearance on Succession. This trailer seems too much Dasha for me too handle.
I’ve never heard of this person or her work but your comment got me to googling. She’s Comfry on Succession. I’ve enjoyed that character and this movie sounds bonkers. I think I’ll give this a shot.
I also recommend looking up the “Sailor Socialism” video, where Infowars is trying their typically imbecillic attempt at “on the streets” reporting, and she absolutely trolls them.
even if she hung out with the infowars dude like two weeks ago lmao
believe me I’m no Infowars or Jones fan, but how does she troll them? She comes off looking like a dopey cosplayer drinking a latte who honestly doesn’t know anything about what she’s saying- just repeating things she’s heard, and playing coy about anything she doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the interviewer is about as smart as a bag of broken rocks, but Dasha doesn’t exactly come off like MENSA here rebutting any of the inane “
questions” or statements, either.Am I missing something?
The great thing about the Red Scare name is that they won’t have to change it when they become Republicans the instant their student loans are paid off.
Are you sure that it’s not them and you’re the one who’s already the Conservative who votes for bigots in elections? If you voted for Biden, then I have some bad news for you. You’re already voting for Conservative bigots to man the White House.
pair’s disdain for a generation of self-appointed web sleuths with no
self-awareness comes out in the dialogue between their heroines
What “pair”? I assume one person is Nekrasova, the director. But I don’t know who else you’re referring to.
I’m pretty sure that refers to the two main characters. It took me a minute to figure that out, and I’m still not totally sure. Anyway, this sounds dreadful.
Other comments here indicate that originally there was an inaccurate claim about an actress co-hosting the podcast with the director, and after people pointed that out it got edited, which then left this later sentence implicitly referring to text no longer in the article.
Real top-notch website.
I just wanna know if Witten will be in this
I saw this a little bit ago and thought it was pretty bad, but it was at least unintentionally funny. Though looking back, I’m starting to wonder how much of that was intentional and the satire went over my head. Like when the boyfriend is told the flat used to be owned by Epstein, he asks unironically “You mean that guy who murdered himself in prison?” Some of the plotting seemed weirdly haphazard too, like the possession was introduced way too early maybe, and an aspect I thought was funny was how passive a roommate possession movie is compared to others in the genre; at one point Dasha’s character and Noelle walk in on Addie acting really disturbing…and just go to a diner to continue discussing their theories. It’s like if the mom in The Exorcist said “aw dammit, now she’s speaking Latin and crawling on the ceiling. Screw this, I’m going out.”
What is this movie about?
Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the “R-word?”