By Charlie Kendellen
As summer is steadily drawing to a close, we are now approaching the new academic year. For many of us, that is a welcomed change in pace and a plunge back into a much needed routine, and for others, it is a time filled with anxiety, deadlines, and impending dread. To ease some of this stress, I have compiled a list of slightly alternative college themed films for back-to-uni season to hype you up for the new semester.
Thesis (1996)
Dir. Alejandro Amenábar
The Others (2001) starring powerhouse Nicole Kidman is often cited as one of the greatest horror films of the 2000s. Five years before this, Alejandro Amenábar gave us Thesis (1996) — a criminally underrated thriller following Angela, a college student writing her thesis on violence in media, who stumbles upon a potentially real snuff film that turns out to be a former student at her university.
Shiva Baby (2020)
Dir. Emma Seligman
Shiva Baby, the 2018 short film was Emma Seligman’s thesis for her undergraduate degree at New York University, which eventually led to her directing the 2020 feature film of the same name. Shiva Baby is an impressively slick directorial debut following a college student Danielle (Rachel Sennot) who runs into her ex and her sugar daddy at a shiva. If you’re looking for an anxiety fueled, yet oddly comforting ride, then look no further.
Raw (2016)
Dir. Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau won the Palme D’or for her transgressive genre-bending film Titane (2021). Before this, she delivered her directorial debut Raw (2016), a masterfully directed exercise in dread and tension-building that kickstarted her career as a visionary director with a fresh take on body horror — with a feminist twist. Raw is a deliciously macabre horror that follows a vegetarian college student Justine (Garance Marillier), whose appetite becomes more than she bargained for after a hazing ritual gone awry on her first day of college.
Thelma (2017)
Dir. Joachim Trier
From the mind of The Worst Person in the World (2021) that garnered a substantial amount of praise from audiences and critics alike upon its premiere at Cannes Film Festival. Thelma (2017) is an earlier, yet no less fantastic feature that follows a college student who begins to experience terrifying seizures, soon leading her to realise these are symptoms of supernatural abilities.
American Mary (2012)
Dir. Jen & Sylvia Soska
The Soska sisters are a directorial duo that have essentially functioned as underdogs of the genre throughout the 2010s. Their fast-paced and endlessly entertaining style of filmmaking is colossally underrated. American Mary is by all means their best feature film to date – it has an abundance of gore, a high concept premise, and a bold performance from Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps). The film follows Mary, a financially struggling med student who is drawn into the underground body modification scene. The film is delightfully creative and an overlooked gem in the horror genre.