Credit...María Jesús Contreras

Fear Factors

Sometimes the scariest movies are the ones that depict the ordinary horrors of life.

by · NY Times

I was fascinated to discover recently that each October, my friend Alex undertakes a spooky-season film festival, endeavoring to watch one horror flick for each day of the month. I do not expect that his roster includes the 2012 documentary “Part of Me,” a chronicle of the musician Katy Perry’s California Dreams concert tour. But I happened to watch that film this week, and it made me contemplate what, exactly, makes a movie frightening.

“Part of Me” is not a scary movie, not outwardly at least. It’s mostly a confection, lots of footage of Perry dressed up in candy-themed costumes, dancing and singing and gamely greeting her devoted fans in arenas around the world. There is one scene, however, that comes near the end of the movie. Perry is in São Paulo, Brazil, where the largest crowd of the tour has gathered to see her perform. As fans fill the arena, we see Perry sprawled backstage sobbing. Her entourage mills about, fretting over how to handle the situation. “You have two options. You can cancel the show, or you can do your best,” her manager tells her gently. Perry thinks for a moment, then commands her makeup artist to begin his ministrations. She goes onstage and puts on the spectacle, even though she’s hanging on by a thread. (The film implies that this episode was, at least in part, precipitated by the breakdown of her marriage to the comedian Russell Brand.)

The scene of Perry crying wasn’t outright terrifying in the way a horror movie is, but it filled me with anxiety all the same. Here’s a person laid low with sadness who has to scrounge up some will to go out onstage and be a convincing avatar for uncomplicated joy and delight. This “show must go on” gumption is the stuff from which stories of cinematic uplift are made, but maybe it was my frame of mind, or the cultural moment, that made Perry’s resilience seem chilling. I admired her fortitude, and felt grateful that I didn’t have a multimillion-dollar machine depending on my being able to shake off a personal nightmare.

This might be why I don’t tend to seek out scary movies — there’s enough that fills me with dread in movies that don’t advertise themselves as particularly spine-chilling. One might expect that the new movie “Saturday Night,” about the making of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975, would be a fun romp, but that movie, too, was rife with the anxiety of artists needing to put on a show in spite of strong forces that would have it otherwise. The new FX documentary series “Social Studies,” about teenagers and their relationship with social media, gripped my attention, but I also found myself gritting my teeth as I worried about the kidstherein, their compulsion to perform carefree abandon for their followers while the realities of their offscreen lives were in many cases pretty bleak.

One of the appeals of scary movies is that one gets to undergo the experience of a worst-case scenario with the knowledge that this is a fiction, that no matter how anxiety-inducing or ghastly or gruesome the events onscreen, we are safe, we are going to walk out of this theater and have dinner with friends. There are no zombies in the bushes, there is no killer in a hockey mask lying in wait. The journey from sheer terror back to the gorgeous safety of real life offers an ecstatic release, a burst of gratitude for the unremarkable pleasures of the mundane.

For those of us who can find things to fear in the least fearsome of films, this, perhaps, is the key to enjoying a Halloween-season fright fest: find movies that deviate so much from real life that the anxieties they provoke aren’t even remotely plausible. Seek out depictions of horror whose stories offer maximum contrast with the actual dreadful content of everyday life. I’ve scoffed at the stock characters of Halloween — the witches and ghosts and skeletons rattling around in top hats and tails. Who would actually find these beings frightening? They don’t even exist! Maybe, for a fraidy cat like me, that’s a good place to start.

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THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

  • “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a crime-thriller-musical starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, is “such a dour, unpleasant slog that it is hard to know why it was made or for whom,” our critic writes. Read the review.
  • “The Outrun,” which stars Saoirse Ronan as an alcoholic who moves to an island off Scotland to heal, is one of five new movies our critics are talking about.
  • John Amos, who played the patriarch in “Good Times,” America’s first sitcom featuring a two-parent Black family, died at 84.
  • A judge in New Mexico declined to grant a new trial to the armorer in the fatal “Rust” shooting. Her lawyers had argued that an evidence dispute, which led to a mistrial in the case against the film’s star Alec Baldwin, had also deprived her of a fair trial.
  • The Netflix dating show “Love Is Blind” returned. A body language expert shared tips for divining participants’ motivations.

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  • The revival of David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” is a pointed critique of identity, masquerading as a mockumentary, our critic writes.
  • The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles announced its new director: Zoë Ryan, who leads the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania.
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By Desiree Ibekwe

🎥 The Apprentice (Friday): In this movie, a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is ascendant in New York real estate, aided by Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). It charts Trump’s rise in the 1970s and ’80s, and depicts him sexually assaulting his first wife and getting liposuction and a scalp reduction. With weeks to go until the election, it is a glimpse at the origins of a ubiquitous figure.

You’ve probably already heard about this movie, but there was a chance many wouldn’t get to see it: After it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Trump threatened to sue to block its release (a spokesman called it defamatory). Gabriel Sherman, the political journalist who wrote the film, described feeling validated by Trump’s response. “Life was imitating art,” he said. “Trump’s legal threat followed the first rule Cohn elucidates in the movie: Attack, attack, attack.”

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

By Melissa Clark

Sheet-Pan Sausages With Shallots and Apples

Crisp, juicy new-crop apples are back in season and ready for all your snacking, pie-making and teacher-gifting inclinations. But you can also turn them into a sweet-savory dinner with Lidey Heuck’s recipe for sheet-pan sausages with caramelized shallots and apples. A splash of cider vinegar and a spoonful of mustard brighten the richness of the sausages, which can be made from pork, turkey or chicken. Either red or green apples will work well here, or use a combination for a most colorful dish. Serve this with noodles or mashed potatoes for a cozy autumnal meal.

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Which coffee maker is right for you?

There’s no one perfect way to make coffee — and finding a just-right maker can feel overwhelming. Wirecutter’s kitchen experts recommend taking a moment to be honest with yourself about who you really are when you roll out of bed. How many cups do you drink a day? Do you need it ready the moment you wake up? Do you dream of making fancy lattes? The answers can help you narrow down the best method for you. For example, if you drink just a cup or two of black coffee a day, a simple dripper might be best. But if you love to experiment and have plenty of time — and money — an all-in-one espresso machine could be worth it. — Haley Jo Lewis

GAME OF THE WEEK

New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies, M.L.B. playoffs: The Mets and Phillies have been divisional rivals for as long as the major leagues have had divisions. Somehow, though, they had never met in the playoffs until now. The Phillies have been one of baseball’s best teams for the past few years. They reached the World Series in 2022, came one game shy last year and easily won the division this season. But the better story here is the Mets, who had a dreary start to the year until the McDonald’s mascot Grimace visited Citi Field in June to throw out the first pitch. They’ve had the best record in baseball since. Game 1 is today at 4 p.m. Eastern on Fox

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Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

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