13 Nights of Shocktober: The Addams Family (1991)

by A.J.

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

“We danced the mamushka while Nero fiddled. We danced the mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the mamushka for Jack the Ripper. And now Fester Addams, this mamushka is for you.”

The Addams Family (1991)

Around Halloween time at Vulcan Video, I and the rest of the staff typically spent a lot of our time recommending scary movies and helping customers track down horror movies (part of why I started this blog). However, it was a bit more difficult to help parents find something they could watch with their children. Kids, especially around 12 and under, want to feel like they are watching something spooky without actually being scared. One of our favorite movies to cover this problem: The Addams Family.

Of course this is not a horror movie; it is a spooky themed comedy with a macabre but fun sense of humor. I remember when I was a kid and the reruns of the 1960’s The Addams Family and The Munsters TV series would come on Nick At Night. I admit that I didn’t like The Munsters because they were monsters, but The Addams Family were just a bunch of fun weirdos. The 1991 big screen version is a big ball of kooky, spooky fun even now in 2025. It’s actually probably more fun to watch now that I’m 40 and notice jokes like when Morticia tells the unemployment agent that her major was “spells and hexes” and the unemployment agent shrugs and puts down “liberal arts.”

The performances are really what make the whole movie work. Anjelica Huston and the late great Raul Julia are perfectly cast as Morticia and Gomez Addams. Huston is great at playing Morticia as a lowkey character. She is the opposite of Raul Julia’s high energy Gomez, yet they are a perfect match. They have great chemistry and it’s nice to see how absolutely in love their characters they are. Raul Julia really stands out as Gomez. His enthusiasm is infectious for other characters and the audience. Julia had an incredible career on film and on the stage and Gomez Addams ranks among his best work. Of course Christina Ricci also stands out as the deadpan Wednesday Addams, who more than any other character has become a fixture of Halloween. 

For this movie, Gomez’s long suffering lawyer, Tully (Dan Hedaya), concocts a scheme with a conwoman for her strange adopted son, “Gordon” (Christopher Lloyd) to impersonate the long lost Fester Addams and gain access to the Addams Family vault. Of course, the odd, macabre charm of the Addams family, especially Gomez, wins Gordon over. Christopher Lloyd, forever Doc Brown of Back to the Future, does a great job portraying another distinct memorable character.

The humor is dark and macabre but it is never grim, inappropriate, or mean spirited. Nothing about the Addams family is mean spirited; they do things their own way and have no problem with others being different. The only time when they come close to being judgmental is when the family goes to Wednesday and Pugsley’s school program. Gomez is bored out of his mind watching a class perform a showtune. Wednesday’s teacher talks to Morticia  about the class “heroes” assignment and expresses concern that Wednesday picked an ancestor who was burned at the stake. Other children picked people like President George H.W. Bush and Jane Pauley. Morticia replies with, “Have you spoken to her parents?” The humor follows the simple formula of it’s-funny-because-they-do-the-opposite-of-what-you-expect. It might take a bit for young kids to catch on. I told my 6-year-olds that the Addams family are like cartoon characters that live in the real world; which makes sense because The Addams Family began as a cartoon strip by Charles Addams, which I admit I only learned about after I started working at Vulcan Video.

It feels strange to call a movie from the 1990’s a classic, especially when it’s one you watched as a kid, even more so when it is such a silly movie, but the 1991 version of The Addams Family is a classic. I am happy to report that it holds up (unlike many movies I saw as a kid in the late 80’s and early 90’s). It’s fun for grownups and a great way to introduce kids to spooky sensibilities. In short, it’s a perfect Shocktober movie. Happy Halloween!

The Addams Family is available to stream on Paramount+ and free on Kanopy. It is also probably on DVD/Blu-ray at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Cuckoo

by A.J.

Night 12: Hotel Horror Night

"If I were you, I wouldn't want to get hurt even more."

Cuckoo

Part monster movie, part mystery, part suspense picture, all of the seemingly disparate elements of director Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo come together for a strange and very entertaining horror movie that delivers everything the audience might want while also being something that stands out because it feels so different. Though this is a strange movie, it is not hard to follow. Director Singer plays fair and clues are here and there but this is not so much about solving the mystery or what it all means. This is also the rare movie that remains intriguing and interesting even after the big secret has been revealed. Singer’s direction and screenplay expertly build tension and mystery, increasing the strangeness of events so that by the time we reach the climax anything feels possible.

Teenage Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves with her family (father, stepmother, and younger half-sister) to the Bavarian Alps for her father to take an architecture job at a secluded mountain resort. The owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens), is very helpful. He remembers that Gretchen’s father and stepmother stayed there on their honeymoon. He insists that the family live at the resort and even gives Gretchen a job working at reception desk, but he insists that she not work at night or have an escort at night. From the mysterious prologue we know that Herr König is up to something secretive and sinister. 

Schafer is great at playing a believable and relatable teen and the script allows her to do dumb teen things like steal from the cash register and blow off work to make out with a girl she just met. She ignores the warning about going out at night alone and this is when the creepiness and horror really kick into gear. In a brilliant moment, all the creepier because it is underplayed, Gretchen rides her bike at night and in the woods a figure runs alongside her. Then she is attacked by a woman with glowing red eyes. She gets knocked around and that her injuries don’t just go away is a subtle but effective touch of realism. By the time the climax plays out Gretchen has an arm in a sling and bandage around her head. 

Other bizarre occurrences include Gretchen’s half sister Alma’s trance-like seizures that may, or may not, be linked with, or cause, time jumps. There is also Henry (Jan Bluthardt), a distraught former detective lurking around the resort grounds, who is set on some kind of revenge though he does not fully understand what happened in the past or what is happening now. 

Dan Stevens practically walks away with the whole movie, showing off not only his mastery of the German language but also a dark and villainous side. He is believably benevolent and dangerous. Unlike the detective, König never comes across as mad, though he is essentially a mad scientist. The most disturbing thing about his character is how cool and in control he comes across at all times. 

We eventually do find out what Herr König is up to and it may, or may not, be a surprise. Once the secret is revealed everything we’ve seen before makes sense and what follows is entertaining, even riveting, though it relies more on suspense and action than horror. This one of the very few times when a shootout in a horror movie is not a disappointment or used to make up for a lack of creativity. Herr König , Henry, and Gretchen stalking around, each with their own goal and agenda, is a very tense sequence. There is humor sprinkled throughout so neither dark plot points or themes become overwhelming. Gretchen is still mourning the death of her mother, but this used to build her character and explain her outlook and behavior, rather than as a shortcut for substance and subtext. Whether it is using horror or mystery techniques or even indulging in action, Cuckoo is well executed. Nothing happens randomly or for the sake of shock. It is weird, wild stuff.  

Cuckoo is available to stream on Hulu/Disney+.

13 Nights of Shocktober: House of Wax (1953)

by A.J.

Night 11: Vincent Price Night

“To you they are wax, but to me, their creator, they live and breath”

House of Wax (1953)

Here’s a Vincent Price classic for your Shocktober viewing: the horror remake House of Wax, not the 2005 remake, but the 1953 version which was a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, itself a horror classic. House of Wax (1953) is significant for two reasons: 1) Though it was not Vincent Price’s first appearance in a horror movie—he had previously voiced the Invisible Man in some of the Universal Studios sequels—it marked the significant shift in his career to the horror genre and solidified his standing as a horror star; 2) Though it was not the first 3-D movie, it is one of the more significant and famous examples of the short lived 3-D fad of the 1950’s. This will explain the completely unnecessary scene of a carnival barker hitting a paddle ball at the camera, the close ups of high kicking can-can dancers, and why so many characters and objects fall towards the camera. This is also why the 88 minute movie has an intermission since the 3D would cause headaches if people watched for too long without a break. Of course the real reason House of Wax has endured and become a horror classic has everything to do with the movie’s willingness to have fun and the performance of Vincent Price.

The plot is little changed from Mystery of the Wax Museum, aside from removing a reporter character and moving the setting from contemporary times to the late 1890’s. Vincent Price plays Professor Henry Jerrod, a master wax sculptor who prefers recreating historical scenes and figures instead of the macabre but lucrative “chamber of horrors” exhibits. His business partner sets fire to the museum to collect insurance money and Jarrod is presumed dead in the fire. Years later the business partner is murdered by a mysterious figure dressed in black and Jarrod returns with a new wax museum, this time with a chamber of horrors and wax figures that seem just a bit too realistic. 

Not a lot makes sense in House of Wax, but it is fun nonetheless so it’s easy to overlook the plot holes. Jarrod is in a wheelchair and his hands are disfigured and useless, so he has his henchmen–one of whom is a young Charles Buchinsky, later to be Charles Bronson–presumably following his verbal instructions, but he is plenty capable of working the giant wax vat at the end of the movie. The reveal of a character wearing a wax mask is a great horror moment, but the implied realism of the mask is a bit of a stretch.

Vincent Price’s role has all the hallmarks that would become part of his horror movie persona. He begins as a sympathetic character; then he is wronged, driven mad, and becomes a villain sometimes bent on revenge, sometimes bent on mayhem, sometimes both. Still, he is so charismatic you almost want him to succeed (except for when he played the real-life monster Mathew Hopkins who executed hundreds of people during one of England’s witch panics in Witchfinder General). As Price wheels his way through the wax museum leading a tour he is utterly delightful in his wry delivery of gallows humor and bad puns. When he is in disguise, Price does a great job sneaking around (he really knows how to twirl a cape). Not only is he great as a mad villain but he is also believable in the scenes where Jarrod talks about his love of art and sculpting.

The highlights are the epic fight between Price and his business partner as the original wax museum burns down around them. The other is the climax which has Jarrod’s intended victim strapped to a table under a giant vat of boiling wax as the police race to find her. The secret workroom resembles a classic mad scientist's lab. The 3-D gimmick scenes, even without the actual 3-D effect, stick out like sore thumbs but still contribute to the overall entertainment value. This is not exactly a campy movie, even with its dated effects and acting styles. It is less concerned with creating chilling scares than making sure you have a horror-themed fun time. It worked then and it works now. 

House of Wax airs on TCM on Halloween at 9AM CT and is available to stream on HBOmax.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Mr. Harrigan's Phone

by A.J. 

Night 10: Stephen King Night

“All of us need to be very frightened by this gizmo.”

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

Earlier this year The Life of Chuck was released in theaters to either deeply affected or puzzled audiences. It reminded me of another recent curious adaptation of a Stephen King story, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Both stories were published in the collection If It Bleeds and they share similar themes (both deal with the supernatural to some extent and are unconventional coming of age stories) even though they are quite different in subject matter. They would make an interesting double feature. Call it The Boy and the Beyond double feature. 

Somewhere in the rows of chaotic mayhem that is Netflix, you can find Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. It is not a horror movie, not really. In the tradition of gothic literature, it is not a ghost story but a story with a ghost. The film begins in 2003 when young Craig is offered a job reading books aloud to old Mr. Harrigan (Donald Sutherland), a wealthy and reclusive retired businessman who enjoyed Craig’s readings at the local church. Years pass and teenaged Craig (Jaeden Martell) receives an iPhone for Christmas; he loves it. After one of the scratch off lottery tickets Mr. Harrigan gives to Craig for Christmas pays off big, Craig uses part of the winnings to buy an iPhone for Mr. Harrigan. Harrigan is thankful but has no interest in the phone until Craig shows him the stocks app that updates in real time and the free access to the most current edition of the Wall Street Journal. 

Being a shrewd businessman, Mr. Harrigan foresees all of the possibilities and consequences of smart phones. Companies giving away their product for free can’t last forever and eventually people will have to pay. But will people pay, or go looking for other free news and entertainment sources, even if the source is questionable? King’s story heavily ponders the consequences and effects of smartphones and addictive technologies. This is present in the movie too but blends into the story and characters well so the movie never feels like it is preaching or trying to be prescient. 

When Mr. Harrigan passes away, as a final gesture Craig puts Mr. Harrigan’s phone in his suit pocket. Feeling lonely one night, Craig calls Harrigan’s phone and leaves a message. Then he receives a reply, a garbled text from Mr. Harrigan’s phone. Later, Craig calls Mr. Harrigan’s phone and leaves a message about a violent bully. The next morning he finds out the bully died suddenly. 

There are not really any scares but there is a sense of unease that pervades throughout the movie, especially after that iPhone makes its first appearance. Craig’s investigation about the mysterious deaths provides some answers but also more questions. Further text messages from Mr. Harrigan from beyond the grave only bring with more unease and more death. 

There is something gentle to this story of a teenage boy whose best friend is an old reclusive billionaire. Some scenes and music choices play with heartstrings, but there is also a pall over every scene. The decision Craig makes about his phone in the final scene may not be satisfying because it is likely the same decision we would make.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone is available to stream on Netflix.

13 Nights of Shocktober: JAWS

by A.J.

Night 9: Monster Movie Night

“It’s as if God created the devil and gave him… jaws.”

JAWS

Very few movies come close to being perfect. JAWS is one of them. It is an important film for many reasons. It was the first blockbuster, the first movie to make over $100 million, beginning the tradition of studios releasing big budget movies in the summer in hopes of big profits. It did not launch the career of Steven Spielberg–he had already directed TV shows and two films–but it did catapult him to becoming the most successful director of all time. JAWS has become part of pop culture; you don’t need to have seen the movie to recognize references and parodies, quote dialogue, or instantly recognize the famous score by the legendary composer John Williams. JAWS usually places near the top, if not at the very top, of lists of scariest movies ever made. Most people might not consider JAWS a horror movie, but that is the perfect description for a movie about a monster terrorizing a town.  

Roy Scheider plays Amity Police Chief Brody, who is new to the island community and hates being in the water. He is pressured by Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to change the cause of death on an autopsy report from shark attack to boating accident because the mayor and local business people are afraid a panic will keep away tourists, and their money, from Amity on the crucial 4th of July weekend. Of course, “this is no boating accident,” shark scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) declares after conducting his own autopsy. The attacks continue until finally Brody, Hooper, and Quint (Robert Shaw), the grizzled shark hunter, are at sea hunting the great white shark. 

The behind the scenes drama has become the stuff of movie legend, and to many may be as familiar as the scenes on screen. The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce, would not work and this is why Spielberg used the hide-the-monster-until-the-end approach; there was conflict about who would get top billing; the script was rewritten so many times that no one knows for sure who wrote Quint’s famous U.S.S. Indianapolis speech (it is not in the novel or early drafts, and depending on who is telling the story the speech was either written by writer-director and Spielberg friend John Milius or by Robert Shaw himself). 

According to legend, B-movie producer-director Roger Corman’s reaction to JAWS was concern because it was the first time a major studio put a major budget behind the kind of movie he would typically make for as little money as possible. While many Corman movies are better than their low budgets would suggest, young Spielberg made the most of his big studio budget, lack of executive interference, talented collaborators, and his own unparalleled talent and skill to make the ultimate monster-on-the-loose movie.

Consciously or not, Spielberg borrowed much from Hitchcock; most famously the uncanny zoom-dolly that pulls the camera away even as the camera lens zooms in fast on Brody's face when a shark attack happens (Hitchcock used this effect to visualize Jimmy Stewart's vertigo in Vertigo.). Since Spielberg could not show the shark, he suggests the shark. In a terrifying scene, two locals throw a roast tied to a chain off a dock. The shark takes the bait, pulling the dock apart, and one of the locals falls in the water. "Take my word for it Charlie, don't look back just swim!” says the other as we see the wrecked pier turn back and move toward the man in the water. POV shots also suggest the shark without showing it and build suspense (we know the shark is stalking swimmers but they do not). Countless slasher movies would also utilize the POV shot for the same reason but far less effectively. Nothing suggests the shark better than its ominous leitmotif by John Williams. However there are also many scenes and scares that would fit comfortably in any less sophisticated horror movie including: severed body parts, a geyser of blood, a close up of a decaying decapitated head, and an animal doing something it would never do, like a massive shark jumping onto a boat, but by that point you’re too caught up in the movie to care.

One of the many great things about JAWS is that there are many ways to enjoy it. You can watch it and analyze the filmmaking techniques: the staging, cinematography, editing, score, the combination of all of these and more. You can watch and pay attention to subtext and social commentary. Like all great movies, JAWS offers different interpretations for different eras. In 1975, some might have seen the coverup plot by the mayor and thought of the Watergate scandal and coverup. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic the arguments between the mayor and Brody and Hooper about closing the beaches for public safety vs keeping them open for the sake of the economy had an especially deep resonance. The dynamic between Brody, Hooper, and Quint is fascinating. Quint and Hooper can’t stand each other but Quint likes Brody and Brody likes Hooper so they all put up with each other. Each portrays a different kind of masculinity, each with positive and negative qualities, and that deserves its own thorough analytical essay. Or, you can just settle in and experience one of the scariest movies ever made. Even 50 years later, even after multiple viewings,  JAWS still works wonders and that is movie magic. 

JAWS is available to stream on Netflix. It is also available on 4K, Blu-ray, & DVD and is probably at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Eaten Alive

 by A.J.

Night 8: Creature Feature Night

Meet The Maniac And His Friend

Eaten Alive

The career of director Tobe Hooper consists of films you’ve certainly heard of (the landmark 1974 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), films that sound familiar (Lifeforce), and films you might never have heard of, like his follow up to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive. I doubt anyone would argue that Eaten Alive is scarier or more intense than Chainsaw, but it is very difficult to watch at times. This is the kind of sleazy and grimy low budget movie that will make your skin crawl. What’s to like?...What's not to like?

The opening seconds let you know what is in store. The very first words spoken are “My name is Buck. I’m rarin’ to fuck,” said by none other than a young Robert Englund over an extreme close up of a his crotch as he undoes his jeans. The reluctant sex worker responds, “Let’s just get it over with.” What follows is an attempted rape. The movie does not become any more pleasant. The sex worker, Clara (Roberta Collins), quits the brothel and ends up at an isolated hotel run by local yokel, Judd (Neville Brand), a puritanical psychopath who ends up killing and feeding her to the crocodile that lives in the swamp right next to the hotel. Other characters arrive for various reasons including Clara’s father Harvey (Mel Ferrer) and sister, Libby (Crystin Sinclaire), who are searching for her. A quarrelling husband and wife, Ray and Faye (Marilyn Burns), with their very young daughter, Angie, and dog named Snoopy also stop at the hotel. There is something off about the couple and Ray (William Finley) proves to be about as mentally unstable as Judd. 

There is no real protagonist. Libby and Faye are not so much passive characters as they are barely written. The town sheriff allows the brothel to operate and makes vague come-ons to Libby. Harvey disowned Clara causing her to run away in the first place. The closest we get to a hero is attempted rapist and all around troublemaker Buck, who looks around after hearing a child scream for help, but he only does this because the woman he is in bed with insists.

So much about this movie is off putting, but that is part of its appeal–though I will of course admit that for some it may be off putting entirely and that is okay too. A big element that takes the edge off and keeps things entertaining in spite of the unpleasantness on screen is the low budget and stylized look. The run down hotel and pier are obviously a set. Fog and mist straight out of old horror movies covers the seams of the sets and crocodile effects. If the crocodile looks fake that only helps. It is up to the actors to sell the killer croc, who needs victims brought to it–not unlike a later Tobe Hooper movie also featuring Robert Englund, The Mangler. The exterior of the hotel is almost always bathed in red light that at first I thought came from a neon sign but actually comes from nothing but the film itself. It helps build the hellish atmosphere. The overacting is another element that adds camp and takes the edge off the horror. Neville as Judd reminded me of Stephen King’s classic overacting in "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" segment of Creepshow (1982). 

The hard lines that I must bring up that may make the movie too much are: 1) the dog is eaten by the crocodile almost immediately 2) Angie, a small child, is in danger for most of the movie; there are scenes of a scythe wielding chasing after her and the crocodile chases after her too. She is too young to be clever but Judd is pretty dumb and seems to just forget about her when she hides under the hotel.

There is not enough of an ethos for Eaten Alive to qualify as “dark” but like many grindhouse exploitation movies, it is entertaining in spite of and because of its low elements.

Eaten Alive is available to stream for free on Tubi and Plex.