13 Nights of Shocktober: Prince of Darkness

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober. 

Night 5: "Say goodbye to classical reality, because our logic collapses on the subatomic level... into ghosts and shadows." John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness 

John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness is the second film in his Apocalypse Trilogy (the first is The Thing, the third is In the Mouth of Madness), which are films that focus on a small group of people dealing with the beginnings of events that could lead to the end of the world. We get the set up for the movie in scenes interspersed with one of the longest opening titles sequences of any movie; John Carpenter’s director credit comes about 10 minutes after the movie starts. Donald Pleasence plays a priest who enlists the help of a physicist, played by Victor Wong, and his graduate students to stop an otherworldly evil from being unleashed on the world.

The movie takes place in the basement of an old church in Los Angeles where a mysterious and evil cylinder containing a green liquid has been hidden away by the Catholic Church. It is transmitting a signal, so Professor Birack (Wong) and his team of grad students set up equipment to decipher the message. As you might expect, creepy stuff begins to happen. An army of zombie-like homeless people (led by Alice Cooper) surrounds the church. We learn from a conversation between Father Loomis (Pleasance) and Professor Birack that the origin of the 7 million year old cylinder is an alternate universe made of anti-matter, ruled by an Anti-God. The liquid in the cylinder is the physical form of an Anti-Christ attempting to bring the Anti-God into our universe. It’s an interesting attempt to blend quantum physics and Christian dogma. For a physics and horror nerd like me, their conversation is the highlight of the movie.

The green liquid infects some of the scientists and turns them into essentially zombies. This is when the real horror of the film kicks into gear. Prince of Darkness turns into a siege movie when the heroes barricade themselves from the zombie-like homeless outside and the possessed team members inside. In a nice twist on the siege movie because these people have no arsenal of weapons since all they brought with them is their lab gear. The scientists having no weapons is more exciting than you might think. They fight off the zombies with pieces of lumber or just outrun them which heightens the sense of danger the characters are facing. Also, they still have to prevent an evil Anti-God from coming into our universe. 

There are good and gross visual effects in Prince of Darkness, including a pretty famous one in which Alice Cooper impales someone with a bicycle. One character becomes more and more monstrously decayed as she becomes possessed. The grossest part to me are the insects that swarm the building. Another special effect that holds up quite well is mirrors turning into liquid portals between universes. 

Prince of Darkness takes its time with the set up and zombie climax. It has interesting ideas about religion and mirrors being portals to other dimensions. It has fun playing with concepts from quantum physics (each particle of matter has an opposite antiparticle) and  horror/sci-fi riffs on those ideas (our God has an opposite anti-God, different from Satan). Those ideas are interesting, but are not explored as much as they could have been. Some things are never explained; for example, what do the zombie homeless people have to do with any of this aside from menacing the scientists? Despite its flaws, Prince of Darkness is still an interesting take on the apocalyptic horror subgenre. This is a lesser seen John Carpenter movie and though it is not his best (it’s hard to top films like Halloween and The Thing) it is still a good scary, creepy movie and contains a lot of interesting ideas that make this movie worth watching. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Twice-Told Tales

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and, October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 4: A Trio of Terror: Twice-Told Tales

It’s hard to go wrong with a horror anthology movie starring Vincent Price, especially when the source material for the stories is the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Released in 1963, Twice-Told Tales has a bold color pallet and excellent production design that help make this a wonderful collection of Gothic short films. Though the sets may not have the most realistic appearance, their artificiality only adds to the surreal nature of these supernatural stories.

Each of the three stories begins with skeleton hands opening a book and Price providing the opening narration. In "Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment" two elderly friends celebrate Dr. Heidegger’s 79th birthday. A storm blows open the entrance to the crypt that holds the body of Dr. Heidegger’s dead fiancé. They find that a natural spring has been dripping on her tomb and though she has been dead for 38 years her body has not decayed at all. They experiment with the spring to make themselves young again, but soon find that the joys of youth also come with the troubles of youth. "Rappaccini’s Daughter" has Price playing the sinister Rappaccini who keeps his daughter, Beatrice, locked in a garden and away from all human contact. Young Giovanni falls in love with Beatrice and becomes determined to free her from her father and his experiments with plants. The final story is a short adaptation of the novel The House of the Seven Gables in which Price plays Gerald Pyncheon, who returns to his family home to search for a secret vault that holds a treasure, but is also cursed because of the family’s dark past.  

For being over 50 years old, this movie has some special effects that hold up well. The lapse photography used to de-age the characters in "Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment" is not as dated as you might expect and looks more convincing than CGI in a recent movie would look. Other effects are a little humorous, but also bizarre, such as a guinea pig that turns purple from one of Rappaccini’s experiments. However, the film as a whole relies more on set design and the performances of the actors than special effects to engage the audience. 

Typically, when you think of 19th century horror stories Edgar Allan Poe comes to mind before Nathaniel Hawthorne, but after watching this movie you’ll want to read some of Hawthorne's spooky stories. I know I do. Twice-Told Tales is classic, spooky fun from a time when horror films where almost always period films and shocks were accomplished without blood and gore. If you’re looking for a horror film that is enjoyable without being intense, let Vincent Price and Nathaniel Hawthorne provide you with three eerie flights of horror and the fantastic.   

13 Nights of Shocktober: Sleepy Hollow

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

 Night 3: "Watch your heads." Sleepy Hollow 

The 1999 film of Sleepy Hollow is very loosely based on the famous Washington Irving story, but this big budget adaptation directed by Tim Burton succeeds where so many re-imaginings/reboots/re-whatevers fail. Burton brings more than enough style and substance to make what would otherwise be a bloated, bloody mess of a classic story something exciting and engaging.  

Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane who, in this version, is a New York City constable in the year 1799 sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of beheadings. He is a strong believer in science and reason and using methods of detection to solve crimes, methods that are new and not taken seriously. Crane is welcomed by few and unwelcomed by most in the town. The town elders tell Crane the legend of the ghoulish Headless Horseman -- a story that scares Crane enough to make his hands tremble -- but he rejects the story and resolves to find the logical explanation for the beheadings. This is what makes the new story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman engaging, it is not just a horror story, but also a murder mystery. 

The mood and atmosphere of this movie is as thick as the fog in the town of Sleepy Hollow. This movie won an Academy Award for its art direction which is wonderfully gothic, with its dreary skies, abundant fog, muted colors, and period architecture. This has to be one of the heaviest atmospheres of any Tim Burton movie. Burton has said that the inspiration for this movie was, in part, the movies of Hammer Films, which if you’ve seen a Hammer horror movie is easy to observe. Hammer film veteran Christopher Lee even makes a cameo at the beginning of the movie. 

Sleepy Hollow is heavy on gore and violence. When those heads come off, the blood flows and flows. Unlike most horror movies, however, the gore in Sleepy Hollow is not the focus of the film and is not mean spirited. You never root for a beheading or dismemberment in this movie. There are CGI effects used in certain scenes that hold up surprisingly well. The third act of the movie is essentially just a big action sequence, which somewhat overshadows the revelations that resolved the central mystery. However, despite that action climax, the overall conclusion of the movie is still satisfying. I wouldn’t call Sleepy Hollow scary, but it is still a fun movie to watch, even for people that are skittish of horror films.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Hound of the Baskervilles

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 2: "The Curse of the Hound is on you!" The Hound of the Baskervilles

There are many versions of what is likely Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, but none of the others have Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Throw in director Terence Fisher and you have they key ingredients for a top notch Hammer Film production. By 1959, when this film was released, Hammer Film Productions had already begun its cycle of horror films that would make the company infamous, especially for the films that paired Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The best of these were directed by Terence Fisher.

Peter Cushing is excellent as Sherlock Holmes. Andre Morell plays Dr. John Watson and is very good playing the straight man to Cushing's wily portrayal of Holmes. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a story from which Holmes is absent for a long stretch so Watson carries the story, which means Morell keeps the film moving and lively even while the main character is absent. Christopher Lee plays Sir Henry Baskerville, the last of the Baskerville line who recently inherited the family estate after his uncle died, perhaps of the family curse involving a hell hound. Lee plays Sir Henry with the authority and seriousness of a Victorian aristocrat.

From London, the film moves to the Baskerville estate on the eerie and foggy moors of Devonshire. Like many of the Hammer horror films, The Hound of Baskervilles gets its mood and atmosphere from the period costumes and sets. Though it’s a Victorian mystery, the sets, the fog, and the Baskerville curse give the story a gothic feel. The Hound of the Baskervilles is at heart a mystery, not a horror story but there are still many spooky elements to the story: a family curse, mysterious deaths, a mysterious farmer and his daughter, a dark family past, foggy  and dangerous landscape, not to mention that hell hound. But this movie does rely on the performances and setting to engage the audience more than blood and special effects. There are still some good fright scenes, especially one involving a tarantula. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a good, fun, and not too spooky seemingly supernatural story. You'll have a great time watching Sherlock Holmes solve his most famous case.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and, October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: “There are witch confessions that are totally insane.” Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages

I first saw Haxan late one night on TCM. It’s one of those movies that you’ll want to watch with someone so there’s another witness to the crazy, bizarre, spooky, and oddly funny scenes that make up this silent movie. Haxan is a truly unique film: part documentary, part history lesson, part folklore study, part “reenactment” of witchcraft confessions, and part social commentary.

There are 7 chapters to the film, each showcasing a particular time period or aspect of the era of witchcraft. The first shows us pages of old books with macabre drawings of devils and witches and explains the belief system of the medieval period (the Earth was the center of the universe, surrounded by the planets, then spheres of angels with God in the 10^th sphere and Hell at the center of the earth). We see how the beliefs of the time let people draw the wrong conclusions to things they could not explain. For example, a pair of medieval doctors rob a grave to use the corpse to study anatomy. A peasant sees this and assumes they must be witches. Why else would someone cut open a corpse? From there the imagery only gets more bizarre and more macabre. There are witches flying through the air and devils and demons that look just like the grotesque, monstrous paintings of the medieval period, dancing and coercing people to do evil things. 

Chapter 4 has some of the craziest, goofiest, most disturbing, and creepiest things ever put on film. A woman is accused of being a witch and tortured until she gives a confession. What she confesses is in line with what we learned of common notions of witchcraft from the first chapter. The movie shows us what she confesses. We see a Witches’ Sabbath with devils and “witches” (medieval peasant women) dancing and writhing around together and witches lining up to kiss Satan’s behind to show respect. Chapter 6 shows us the instruments of torture used to get such outlandish confessions. None of the devices are actually used, but it is still unnerving to see a real hand or foot in a torture device and see how it is supposed to work. Chapter 7 is an interesting examination of how the modern era (of the 1920s) treats the behavior that used to be seen as a symptom of or caused by witchcraft.

Most scenes of Haxan are filtered either in red or blue which was not uncommon for silent films but works especially well for the eerie and creepy scenes of this movie. The creepiest part of the movie is easily Satan himself, done up in full body makeup like medieval portrayals with horns and long claws for fingers. It doesn’t help that he gesticulates and flicks his tongue wildly, either. In one scene he churns butter. In another, he clubs a nun over the head. Each scene is as bizarre and ridiculous as you might imagine. All of this is set to a score that fluctuates between being ominous and whimsical. The whimsy of the score and absurd nature of the scenes witchcraft and devils make this an unusually funny movie.  

Silent films usually get overlooked when people are searching for scary movies for October, but there are a lot of great ones, and Haxan is a spooky and interesting movie to start with.

Classic Movie Picks: October 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

10/3: Bogie in Africa

8 PM - The African Queen (1951)
10 PM - Sahara (1943)
12 AM - Beat the Devil (1953)
2 AM - Casablanca (1942)
TCM's Friday Night Spotlight this month shines on films set in Africa, with one night's lineup devoted to films starring Humphrey Bogart. Surely, I don't have to vouch for Casablanca, as I expect most film fans have seen it at least once. If it's been a while since you last visited Rick's Cafe Americain, perhaps you should take this opportunity. I find that no matter how many times I watch, the dialogue still sparkles and the performances still captivate. 
Before I saw The African Queen for the first time, I wasn't really interested in it -- so it's a couple of grumpy old people arguing on a boat, who cares? (Apparently, producer Alexander Korda shared my skepticism.) But I have to say, the film proved to be an entertaining adventure with far more action than I expected. I'm looking forward to going downriver with Bogie and Katharine Hepburn again.
I've not seen Sahara yet, but it comes highly recommended by my father, himself a war movie connoisseur. In this film, Bogart plays a WWII tank commander leading American and British troops through the Libyan desert in search of an oasis. Essentially stranded at a remote outpost, they must defend what little water they have from a thirsty German battalion.
The wild card for me tonight is Beat the Devil; however, I'm intrigued by the story involving a group of con men using various means of subterfuge to get their hands on an African uranium mine. Alongside Bogart are ace character actors Peter Lorre and Robert Morley; Jennifer Jones (this time a blonde!) and Gina Lollobrigida provide the romantic complications. The script by Truman Capote is said to be a sharp spoof of conventional detective stories and noir -- sounds worth a look! 

10/16: Ghost...Smashers?
8 PM - The Ghost Breakers (1940)
2:15 AM - Ghost Chasers (1951)
3:30 AM - The Spook Busters (1946)
Long before Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd strapped on their proton packs as Ghostbusters, the likes of Bob Hope and the Bowery Boys were busting, breaking, and chasing unruly spirits for the sake of comedy. It seems that movie makers have run through almost every permutation of how to describe those that bust ghosts, and tonight's lineup includes some head scratchers...how does one "break" a ghost, anyway? With a hammer? Intense interrogation techniques?
Ghost Breakers pits Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard against ghosts, zombies, and other assorted shady characters inside a haunted castle. The other two films star the Bowery Boys, employing slapstick humor to expose phony spiritualists in Ghost Chasers and to rid a spooky mansion of ghosts in Spook Busters.

10/17, 12:15 AM - Mountains of the Moon (1990)
As a fan of Game of Thrones, I'm curious to see a young Iain Glen (aka Ser Jorah from the HBO series) in an early role that received critical praise. Glen and Patrick Bergin portray two real life British explorers searching for the source of the Nile in the 1800s. This adventure epic was a passion project for director Bob Rafelson, better known for contemporary dramas like Five Easy Pieces. The film was also shot by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins and includes Fiona Shaw, Richard E. Grant, and Delroy Lindo in the supporting cast. Sounds like a winner -- we'll see!
(For the Downtown Abbey fans, you may recognize Glen as Sir Richard Carlisle.)

BONUS PICK: 10/24, 10:45 PM - Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
Another early film role for Iain Glen, but the main attraction here is Sigourney Weaver as naturalist Dian Fossey, who risked her life to study & protect gorillas in their natural habitat. The beautiful footage of real gorillas (some of the shots in the film use stuntmen in gorilla costumes designed by makeup artist Rick Baker) was shot in the Rwanda at Fossey's Karisoke Research Centre.

10/28: Horror Anthologies
8 PM - Dead of Night (1945)
10 PM - Twice Told Tales (1963)
12:15 AM - Kwaidan (1965)
3 AM - The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
5 AM - Torture Garden (1967)
Get in the Halloween mood with five anthology films featuring spooky stories to tell in the dark. The films range from the relatively classy Dead of Night to the more lurid House That Dripped Blood  and Torture Garden (the titles really say it all, don't they?). Twice Told Tales features three adaptations of Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, all starring horror stalwart Vincent Price, whom I regard as a national treasure for his ability to do things like shoot at skeletons or urge people to "scream for their lives" with utter believability and commitment. However, the creepiest film of the bunch may be Kwaidan which features four Japanese stories about encounters with the supernatural.

Classic Movie Picks: September 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Star of the Month: Melvyn Douglas
I always enjoy it when Melvyn Douglas appears in a film, whether he's a suave continental in Ninotchka (9/10, 8 PM), the sardonic best friend in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (9/3, 10:15 PM), or a wily, but ailing, politico in Being There (9/3, 8 PM) -- a role for which he won an Oscar. His parts in these great films, as well as his other Oscar-winning turn as a tough rancher in Hud (9/24, 9:45 PM), are the Douglas roles I know best;  watch any of these films and you'll soon be a Melvyn Douglas fan. But the Star of the Month tribute also presents the chance to catch Douglas in other roles and displays his incredible range as an actor. The whole schedule looks strong, but I'm especially interested in the pre-code horror of The Vampire Bat (9/10, 3:15 AM), the jewel caper Arsene Lupin Returns (9/11, 7:45 AM), and the screwball comedy She Married Her Boss (9/10, 1:45 AM).

9/4: Rick's Picks
8 PM - Some Came Running (1958)
10:30 PM - The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
12:45 AM - Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Writer-director Richard Linklater is one of my favorite filmmakers working today and for his stint as a Guest Programmer, he's chosen films by three iconic directors of classic cinema: Vincente Minnelli, John Huston, and Ingmar Bergman. It's no surprise that Linklater is a student of classic cinema -- as a co-founder and artistic director of the Austin Film Society, he actively champions the appreciation of classic, arthouse, and independent films. His own varied filmography -- from high school comedy Dazed and Confused, to experimental animated dramas Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, to the close examination of romance & relationships in the Before trilogy -- suggests a filmmaker interested in taking risks and not being pigeonholed into a single genre, something that could also be said for Minnelli, Huston, and Bergman. 
(If Linklater's latest film Boyhood is playing in your area, it is well-worth seeing -- a beautiful and groundbreaking film!)

9/22: Belle Brigitte 
8 PM - And God Created Woman (1956)
9:45 PM - Une Parisienne (1957)
11:30 PM - En Effeuillant la Marguerite (1956)
1:30 AM - The Night Heaven Fell (1958)
3:15 AM - Contempt (1963)
Tonight TCM has programmed five films starring the woman for whom the term "sex kitten" was invented: French actress Brigitte Bardot. The plots of most of her films generally revolve around Mme. Bardot beguiling every man who crosses her path, just by virtue of Bardot being Bardot. That's certainly true of the films directed or written by Roger Vadim, the director who discovered and married Bardot when she was still a teenager. Both Vadim and Bardot gained international fame with their film And God Created Woman. While the thinly plotted film is mostly concerned with presenting Brigitte in various provocative outfits, the uninhibited sexuality of Bardot's character was something notable and new; an example of postwar filmmakers testing the boundaries of what was permissible to show onscreen after decades hampered by the restrictive Hays Code. Bardot's status as an international movie icon is undeniable and for this reason, her  films remain relevant, a chance to experience the sex symbol who once captivated the world.

9/28: Whit Stillman Double Feature 
8 PM - Metropolitan (1990)
10 PM - Barcelona (1994)
Whit Stillman is another of my favorite contemporary filmmakers, so of course, I was delighted to see that he would be appearing on TCM to introduce two of his films, including one of my all-time favorites, Barcelona. Stillman makes comedies of manners, chronicling the social and romantic misadventures of young, bourgeois WASPs with a satirical eye, sharp wit, and obvious affection. His films have a sense of authenticity and specificity, probably because his stories are inspired by personal experience;  Metropolitan draws upon his season attending NYC debutante balls, while Barcelona is informed by time spent living & working in Spain in the 1980s, in the wake of a sexual revolution and during a period of anti-American politics.