A Nod to the Classics
THE UNITED MONSTER TALENT AGENCY - Greg Nicotero by davehouseofhorrors
Week 1 - Welcome to October
From "October Country" by Ray Bradbury
So here's the thing, rather than doing seven posts a week I'm going to start posting once a week covering all of the films I've watched over the past seven days. So four weeks, four posts, leading up to a three day countdown to Halloween. Some weeks will see a general theme to the sorts of films I watch. For example, next week I'm going to be doing classic Universal monsters remakes, so I'll be covering Dracula (1992), Frankenstein (1994), Hollow Man (2000), Wolf (1994), etc. I'll still probably be posting each day what I'm watching. I will also be implementing a ranking system to grade each movie on a number scale from 0 to 10; though to be honest, there's no such thing as a perfect movie, so there's probably no way I'll ever go over a 9. Also, there will be a few special posts about this or that - TV shows, books, etc - and, since this is my favorite month of the year, leading up to my favorite day of the year, and because Halloween isn't all about horror, I will be reviewing a few non-horror movies that have marked this time of year for me since I was a kid.
This week there wasn't really a theme so much as I just watched some of my favorite contemporary horror films mixed with one or two I had heard about but hadn't seen yet.
Saturday, Oct. 1st - Mimic Director's Cut (1997)
I've loved Mimic since I first saw it when I was twelve. I had intended to review it last month but then I heard about the forthcoming Director's Cut. I'm glad I waited. Guillermo Del Toro's American debut is a Frankenstein style cautionary tale about the dangers of science tampering with nature, this time in the form of a breed of genetically engineered insects created to wipe out a virus plaguing New York City. Three years after the release of the bugs, called the Judas breed, rather than dying off as planned, they've evolved, growing and reproducing in the subways and sewers, and learning to imitate their prey, humans. When I was younger these monstrous bugs scared the crap out of me the way they could disguise themselves and walk right past you on a dark street without being recognized. Del Toro, who is known for his more character driven stories, has always made it clear that this was the only movie he had made that he didn't like because the studio, wanting a scare a minute type movie, stepped in and took over during editing. With the Director's Cut however, Del Toro seems to have fixed this to some degree. There isn't a big difference time wise, some scenes were cut, others added, some extended, coming out just nine minutes longer than the original cut, but the difference is certainly noticeable. The clean up for Blu-ray also helps a great deal quality wise. In my opinion this is one of the greatest Frankenstein-esque stories since Mary Shelley's own.
Score: 9/10 - A must see creature feature.
Sunday, Oct. 2nd - Outcast (2010)
I only found out about Outcast because I was having Doctor Who separation issues after the season finale and found this film while snooping around on Karen Gillan's IMDB page. A mother and her teenage son have spent their entire lives running, in hiding from the boy's father. Now they've stopped running and are trying to settle as best they can. But daddy has pulled out all the stops to find them, and with a few new tricks up his sleeve, he's right on their tail. As something monstrous has begun picking people off in the apartment complex where the mother and son are living, the son is falling in love for the first time, but this new relationship will be severely tried amongst the unfolding chaos surrounding the boy. I'm still not sure if this is supposed to be a werewolf movie of sorts or if the creature in question is just supposed to be some outrageous monster, but that lack of distinction certainly doesn't hurt. Though pretty slow at times, this was still a fun movie full of dark magic and monsters. The only thing that really bugged me about the film was the love story aspect which felt forced. Otherwise, the cast was great, the story was entertaining, and the creature effects were outstanding.
Score: 6/10 - A strange monster movie.
Monday, Oct. 3rd - Dead Mary (2007)
I picked up this film at random from Blockbuster a few years ago expecting some low budget cheese fest based on the corny cover art. What I got was an interesting, Evil Dead-like story about a group of friends staying the weekend at a rural cabin and facing off against some unknown supernatural force that possesses people, turning them into monsters, sparking paranoia among the group and forcing them to turn on one another. My first thought when the movie ended was, my god, it's an Evil Dead remake. In essence, it might as well be. This movie is a little slow to start, opting to spend time on characterization rather than diving straight into the horror. Unfortunately, the horror aspect isn't all that intense once it gets going, but there are one or two scenes that I absolutely love. What I think I enjoy most about this film is how open ended it is. We're led to believe that whatever the darkness is that's terrorizing this group has begun its work before the even starts and will continue once the credits roll, as though we're only seeing a small portion of what's really happening. Overall, for such a seemingly low budget film, it does its job well.
Score: 7/10 - Definitely for fans of Evil Dead.
Tuesday, Oct. 4th - Scream 4 (2011)
I've already seen this movie almost half a dozen times since it hit theaters and decided that I would wait to review it the day it came out to DVD; today. So, if you can't tell, I absolutely loved this movie. I saw the first Scream on Halloween night when I was twelve and I've been a huge fan of the franchise ever since - though Scream 3 did sting a bit. This latest installment is just as great as the original. Like the first film, Scream 4 returns us to the town of Woodsboro just as Sidney Prescott makes her homecoming, and where a now married Dewey and Gale live. But no sooner has Sidney arrived than a new string of murders begins, this time trying to recreate or remake the events of the original story but with a new "meta" twist. One of the things that makes this franchise so great is that, unlike any other horror movie franchise, the three main characters of the first film have managed to survive this long. Unfortunately Sidney, Dewey, and Gale, while still a major presence in this film, have taken a bit of a backseat to the new young cast which includes Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, and Rory Culkin. Some fans seem to have more of a problem with this than myself. In my opinion it was the revitalizing presence of the younger cast that made this movie as good as it is. In a recent interview, Wes Craven said that his original vision for the film, which made a much bigger deal of trying to emulate the original, would have run for nearly three hours and so had to be cut. Personally, I would love to see a three hour cut, cut that's just me. One of the cut scenes, which recreated an easily recognizable scene from the original Scream, can be seen here. Also, an alternate opening scene, which I actually prefer to the theatrical version, can be seen here. As much as I loved this film, I'll keep my fingers crossed that we'll one day get to see a three hour Director's Cut.
Score: 9/10 - Another A+ to the Craven/Williamson team.
Wednesday, Oct. 5th - Splinter (2008)
This is one of those movies where the name kept showing up so much on the horror subreddit that eventually I just couldn't ignore it anymore. So I went in knowing absolutely nothing and with no expectations. That didn't help. In this story a couple, out camping for their anniversary, are hijacked by and ex-con and his drugged out girlfriend. but when they breakdown at a rural gas station they find themselves trapped by some indescribable creature that both feeds on and possesses any living being. Unfortunately I was very unimpressed by Splinter. The creature effects were interesting enough and gave me a definite The Thing vibe, and the acting wasn't bad, but that's about the only good I have to say about it. There was a definite lack of originality, there were no surprises, and there are a couple of plot holes. From what I've seen in general, genre fans in general seem to love this movie, but I can't see the appeal. So I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't waste my time on this movie again.
Score: 4/10 - Cool creature, cool idea . . . not much else.
Thursday, Oct. 6th - Cabin Fever (2002)
Usually I'm not a big fan of over-the-top gore in movies because I think it tends to be used as a cheap gimmick to gross people out rather than scare them. Cabin Fever is one of the few cases where excessive gore actually serves a function. In this film debut from Splat Pack member Eli Roth, a group of friends renting a remote cabin in the woods fall victim to a flesh eating virus which threatens to wipe them out one at a time. That is, if the locals don't get them first. Roth did a great job blending humor into the earlier scenes of this movie to help build a strong character foundation and draw the audience in, making it all the more difficult when we have to watch these people die slow, agonizing deaths. I can't remember any other movies of the killer disease variety that doesn't include zombies or some kind of monster/possession. Maybe that's why, almost ten years later, I'm still impressed by how well this film does its job. In other words, this is certainly not a movie for hypochondriacs.
Score: 8/10 - Excessive gore done right.
Friday, Oct. 7th - Jennifer's Body (2009)
This is one of those movies that catches way too much hate from horror fans in my opinion. When best friends Needy and Jennifer go out to a concert, a fire destroys the venue and Jennifer gets carted off by a shady, emo band. But when Jeniffer turns up again something is horribly wrong. Now she's eating boys left and right, and Needy will have to stand up against her demon possessed childhood friend. I've loved this movie from the first time I saw it in theaters and it has held up on every viewing since. The major factor in whether or not someone likes this movie seems to be whether or not you like Diablo Cody's writing. If you enjoyed the quick, snappy dialogue of Juno, then chances are you you'll like Jennifer's Body just fine. I'll admit, I can see how Cody's style might not be for everyone, but this movie is exactly what she intended it to be, just a fun horror movie. Also, I was never a fan of Megan Fox until this movie. A huge horror fan herself, Fox does a fin job of playing the stereotypical high school hottie, but does an even more outstanding job as a demonic, man-eating monster. So, whether or not my horror movie fan card is revoked for saying this, Jennifer's Body is one of my favorite horror films of the past decade.
Score: 8/10 - Fun! Lots of fun!
Day 30 - Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
In a small town, when a young girl is thought to have been killed by Bubba, a mentally handicapped local man, a group of vigilantes set out to instil their own justice, eye for an eye. When the group finds the man disguised as a scarecrow they shoot him dead, no questions asked. Then the truth comes out that the girl in question is alive, that it was a dog that attacked her, and that the now dead Bubba in fact saved her life. After lying in court that the killing was in self defense, the four murderers get off scot-free. Or so they think. One by one each man begins to see a scarecrow wearing the same clothes as Bubba, and after these sightings each man dies, leaving those still alive in a state of panic. Who is this mysterious person paying back justice for Bubba's death? Or could Bubba still be alive and enacting his revenge? Or worse, could it be his spirit seeking vengeance?
This movie was really just a bit of old, cheesy fun. There isn't anything all that special about it, but at the same time there really isn't anything wrong with it. This film is almost more of a murder mystery thriller than it is a horror movie, particularly since you never see the killer until the very end, but the horror element is still there. Something I did like, that I suppose had to be the case since this was intended for a TV audience, was the way the kills were handled; there is absolutely no gore to this movie. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy gore when it's used properly, but it has always seemed to me that 80's horror was always marked by over the top - for the time - kills filled with lots of red-paint-like blood. Personally I'm a bigger fan of the implied gore, where you know something horrific is happening just out of sight, or of those kills that find more inventive and less brutal ways to kill people, which is generally the case in DNotS.
I would generally recommend this to those fans of 80's horror movies or of made for TV movies. Like I said, there really isn't anything special here, but is just a good bit of fun.
Day 31 = Mimic The Director's Cut (1997).
Day 29 - Wake Wood (2011)
I only heard about this movie last week when I stumbled on a trailer for it on YouTube. From the trailer I couldn't really tell what the movie was supposed to be about, but from what I could tell, it was produced by the legendary Hammer Films, seemed to have a definite cult vibe, and there were people covered in blood. So I gave it a go.
Wake Wood is the story of Patrick and Louise, who, after the recent death of their young daughter, Alice, move to the small town of Wake Wood to try and start over. But there's something mysterious going on in this rural town whose inhabitants share a strange secret. After witnessing a bizarre ritual one night at the home of Patrick's employer - played by Timothy Spall, the only person I recognized in this film - the couple soon discover that the townsfolk have the ability to return the dead to life. But there are rules:
1. Once resurrected, the person must stay within the boundary of the town.
2. They can only remain alive for three days.
And perhaps most importantly,
3. The person in question cannot have been dead for more than one year.
Give the opportunity to bring Alice back, the couple jump at the chance. But in bringing their daughter back from dead they've told a lie and already broken one of the rules. Alice isn't back long before things begin to go wrong. Animals are being discovered, mutilated. Soon people are too. When Alice came back she didn't come back right, now they'll have to get her back in the ground.
This was a pretty fun movie. I really enjoyed the overall tone of the film. And who isn't a fan of kids being scary? Put simply, Wake Wood is a nice amalgam of Pet Sematary and The Wicker Man, with maybe a tough of The Bad Seed. There's a bit of a surprise to the ending as well which I appreciated. There were a few things I didn't like though. The thing that bothered me most were the killings we witness. Though there isn't anything really wrong with them, they just felt very boring and unimaginative to me; maybe I'm just tainted. This seemed like it might have been fixed had these scenes been filmed a bit differently so as to add a bit intensity and savagery to them, to make the audience feel it; I'm seeing a Rob Zombie-esque death scene in my head. Also, this is clearly a fairly low budget movie, and while most of the time this is a nonissue, there are a few moments in the film where there seemed a slight drop in quality. Neither of these are really major issues though.
This film is much more character driven rather than being driven by action so you shouldn't go into this expecting big scares and gore. The horror factor here is definitely more of the creeping, eerie style more than anything else. Overall I would definitely suggest Wake Wood. Though I wouldn't recommend watching with children nearby.
Day 30 = Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981).
HOLD
The nature of my comic being a horror story, I'll post it on here when it's complete.
Otherwise,
HAPPY OCTOBER 1st. Let the countdown to Halloween begin.
Change of plans . . .
Day 28 - Altitude (2010)
Five friends set off flying across the country to see a concert, in a chartered plane piloted by one of the friends. When things begin to go wrong and the plane begins to ascend into a storm, tensions soar as a simple flight becomes a life and death situation. On top of the already eminent threat of death from just being in the plane, dumb dumb dumb, suddenly there are Lovecraftian monsters in the clouds.
It’s usually a bad sign when you find yourself rolling your eyes two minutes in to a movie. After the first ten minutes I had to give up rolling my eyes and resort to face palming through the rest of it. Everything about this movie sucks. The acting is poor the writing is terrible and the story is all situational – everything that could go wrong does go wrong, but it’s all so sudden and ridiculous that you just don’t care. One thing that annoyed me from the start of the film was the way the girl flying the plane had to announce every little thing she does with the controls and how every radio transmission has to be heard just to fill all the empty silences. Nothing fits together here. There's too much craziness going in too many directions, and a complete lack of quality to any of it. There are a thousand things I could complain about here but I’d rather not bother.
In short, there is nothing redeeming about this movie. Don’t waste your time.
For Day 29 I’ll be watching The House by the Cemetery (1981).
Day 27 - The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009)
I do believe this mockumentary was one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen – it’s certainly one of the most frightening I can remember seeing in a long time - simply because it has done its job so well. I really knew nothing about this movie going in. I hadn’t even heard about it besides the fact that the name seemed to get dropped on the horror subreddit enough that it peaked my curiosity. From the very little bit I had heard, I was under the impression that this was going to be one long, horrible torture porn movie that pretends to be a horror film – I can’t stand that crap – so I went in fully expecting to shut it off a few minutes in. On the contrary, a few minutes in and I was hooked.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a documentary following the career of, and hunt for, a serial killer who would come to be known as the Water Street Butcher. In the killer’s house, in a closet, thousands of videos tapes were found, made by the killer, documenting the kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of all of his victims. This film cuts together a sort of highlight reel of the killers most notorious deeds, with interviews of investigators and affected family members, to create a timeline of the killer’s activity while simultaneously attempting to explore his methods and motives.
There are so many reasons that I loved this movie. For me the point of watching horror movies used to be for the scare, to feel that rush of fear and adrenaline. Watch enough horror movies though and it gets harder to find anything scary in them. This movie put the fear in me again in a way I hadn’t felt it in a long time. These filmmakers clearly understand what goes into the creation of a documentary, as this film does an exemplary job of mimicking one. Despite the unbelievably sadistic nature of this film, there is surprisingly little gore aside from a few quick moments, as most of the killings are off screen or implied. This is one of the things about this movie that I was really grateful for, as it would have been far too easy given the film’s style and subject matter to simply go for the over-the -top gore for effect, which would only have cheapened it. One scene in particular, my favorite, contained elements of Halloween and Psycho and had me on the edge of my seat, heart racing. I thought I was supposed to be desensitized to this stuff, that I wasn’t supposed to be shaken by movies anymore. But this did it. I literally had to get up and make sure the doors were locked when this was over.
Despite all my praise, this is far from a perfect movie, and I can easily understand most of the criticism it receives. While a lot of the acting here is outstanding there are a handful of off moments where a characters responses doesn’t seem to match the mood or just seems strangely out of character for whatever reason. On the other hand, some of the lower quality acting – of which there is little - can be attributed to the fact that this is a documentary, and we’ve all seen those boring, two dimensional people who drone on in real documentaries. Another complaint I’ve seen is that the murder/torture scenes seem too staged, too artificial. For me this flaw was solved by a quick clip of dialogue in which a profiler comments on the killer’s flair of theatrics. Problem solved. For those who whine that this isn't the first documentary-style serial killer film, yes, this is not the most original idea, it's been done before it'll be done again. There are no new ideas, get over it. The thing that really bothers me however, isn’t a problem with the movie itself, but the fact that I know this movie won’t have the same effect on me a second time around; unless maybe I wait a few years before watching it again.
It seems this movie is very hit or miss with people. This film won’t do for everyone what it did for me - it got under my skin and stayed there, pushing my paranoia button – but if it works for you, it works its magic well.
For Day 28 I’ll be reviewing Altitude (2010).
Tim Burton's Dark Shadows
While none of this information is all that new, I just wanted to express my excitement over it and to share a few of the photos that have been released so far. I know they aren't very clear reproduced here, so for a better image just click on the picture.
A few other photos can be found here.
Day 26 - Super 8 (2011)
Super 8 is the story of young Joe Lamb who, after recently having lost his mother, is helping his friends make a zombie movie for a film contest. After sneaking out one night to film a scene, the group of friends witnesses a horrific train crash caused intentionally by one of their teachers. Now, as the kids continue to make their movie and the military is stepping in to take over, something that escaped from the crash is working its way through the town snatching people, stealing odds and ends, and generally causing mayhem. Things really come to a head however, when Joe's crush is taken by the alien creature leaving he and the others to sneak back into the now evacuated town to rescue her.
This is an unbelievably beautiful movie, and it does just as it intended, recalling us to those great 80's classics such as The Goonies (from which its group of young protagonists is clearly based) and E.T. (the visual style of which is almost identical). Aside from Elle Fanning, I had never heard of any of these kids before, and yet I hope we see them again in the near future because the acting here was great. Between the story and the cinematography I was completely sucked in through both viewings, and I have the feeling that this is one of those films that can do that every time.
There are a few glitches here however, but they're fairly easy to overcome. The first time I saw Super 8, Abrams' overuse of the blue camera flare was driving me up the walls. This time, not so much. Yes, in small doses it adds to the tone and visual effect of the film, but in the quantities it's used here . . . that's just overkill. The only other real flaw here is in the story. Throughout the film we witness the creature terrorizing innocent people in a few frightening scenes, presumably killing at least a couple, but come the end of the movie, after all the devastation we've seen him cause, we're then supposed to feel bad for the alien. So long as you don't think about it, this works fine. But once the credits roll and you pull back from the story you're then going to realize that, however you might feel about the alien at the end, you still just watched him horrify a whole town (though the military did their fair share too). But like I said, these issues are fairly easy to get over in the big picture.
This is maybe one of my favorite movies of recent years, so, needless to say, I highly recommend it. Super 8 will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22, but it's in dollar theaters now, and this is really one of those films that needs to be seen on the big screen.
For Day 27 I'll be watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009).
Day 24 & 25 - Black Sunday (1960) / Curse of the Demon (1957)
Well my internet has been spotty the last couple days so it’s been harder to get on to write anything, but now I’m trying to catch up.
So I watched two movies Saturday night/Sunday morning, making a double feature. These black and white classics, both of which have been retitled - The Mask of Satan (or La Maschera del Demonio) became Black Sunday, and the UK titled Night of the Demon became Curse of the Demon in the US - are both fantastic examples of their breed. Both are gothic in tone and involve witchcraft and curses, So, I thought to myself, why not put the two together and do this old school? Double feature time!
In Black Sunday, though set in the late 1800's, the story starts 200 years before, when a convicted witch is put to death for her dalliances with the powers of Satan. But as she dies at the hands of her brother the witch curses her family. Now, on the same day, exactly 200 years later, two doctors on their way to a conference in Moscow, temporarily stopped on the road, come upon a chapel in ruins, in which they find the entombed body of the witch. By accident, the witch is set free, and, with power over a few undead minions, seeks her vengeance over her family’s household while also attempting to possess the body of her young look-alike descendant, the Princess Katia.
In Curse of the Demon – based on the classic short story “The Casting of the Runes” by M.R. James - a cult, led by a renowned dark magician, is under investigation by the scientific world. But when one scientist dies under mysterious circumstances, a young professor of paranormal psychology will have to step in and continue the investigation with the aid of the deceased's niece. But when he becomes the dark magician’s next target he will have to overcome his skeptical nature before he can figure out how to avoid the wrath of a demon that has been sicced on him. Any fans of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell – which I’ll be reviewing at some point in the future – shouldn’t be surprised to find several similarities between it and this classic story, as Raimi has pointed it out as being one of the primary influences for his own film.
I’ve loved both of these movies from the first time I saw them, and not just because I enjoy old black and white horror flicks. All of those greatest aspects of the gothic horror story are here in both of these movies; the gothic castle/manse, the demonic servant, science having to come to terms with magic. For me, my favorite characters in these old movies tend to be the villains. While the protagonists are so naïve and cynical, even a bit emo in certain cases, the villains are vibrant and amusing, not always the two dimensional cut out of a baddy you might expect. For as fun and enjoyable as they are however, these films do have their flaws. Just as you might expect from these older movies there is that certain degree of overacting and cheesiness that tends to be the signature of such early horror films. For me, that’s just one of the fun, nostalgic aspects of these movies that they wouldn’t feel complete without.
So if you’re a fan of classic double features I would definitely recommend trying this twofer out. Even on their own though, both of these films are a must see for fans of old horror films.
For Day 26 I'll be reviewing Super 8 (2011).
Day 23 - Mutants (2009)
Mutants jumps straight into the story of paramedics Marco and Sonia – who seem to be lovers as well as partners – sometime after a virus has spread through the world changing people into ravaging, cannibalistic monsters. Traveling with a member of the army towards a military safe zone called the NOAH base, the group soon comes into trouble leaving Marco and Sonia alone, stranded at an abandoned building in the mountains. Things go from bad to worse as Marco begins slowly and painfully changing into a mutant. As if things weren’t bad enough, things become even more complicated once another group of survivors shows up and all hell breaks loose.
I was really impressed by Mutants. Though there’s no great character development, and the story isn’t all that original, this was still fun to watch. There were plenty of good scares, the monsters were frightening and grotesque, and above all the cinematography was excellent. Everything sort of denigrates towards the end however. The story gets a little odd in certain aspects that cheapened it for me and over exposure of the mutants seemed to make them less ominous and scary than they were at the start. Despite its flaws, the excellent use of bodily horror through the first half of the film, its slow building sense of dread, and the visual quality throughout, seems to adequately make up for whatever this film maybe lacking.
This is a simple yet beautiful movie, and though there isn’t much to it, fans of 28 Days Later and similar movies will likely enjoys Mutants as much as I did.
For Day 24 I’ll be reviewing Black Sunday (1960).
