13 Nights of Shocktober: Goosebumps

by A.J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

Viewer Beware, You’re in for a Scare

Goosebumps (2015)

Even if you weren’t into horror as kid, chances are pretty good you still knew about the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine and maybe even read a few of the spooky children’s books. When I was a kid in the 1990’s, it was impossible to avoid Goosebumps. The books were at every book store, library, school book fair, and there was also the TV series on Fox hosted by Stine himself. Long after I lost interest in the books, Goosebumps continued to be a presence in kid’s pop culture and finally made it to the big screen in 2015.

Goosebumps, the movie, isn’t a specific adaptation of any one of the 60 plus books, but It incorporates elements from several books into an original story. The books were most memorable for their monsters and plot twists, and the screenplay by Darren Lemke and Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski uses a clever device to put the most memorable monsters together in a universe with new characters, including Stine himself. The result is a smorgasbord of monstrous spooky fun.

Teenage Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan), move to a small town where she will be the new high school vice principal and he’ll be the new kid whose mom is a vice principal. One bright spot for Zach is meeting the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush), who he comes to believe is being held prisoner by her mysterious and reclusive father. Zach and his self-appointed new best friend, Champ (Ryan Lee), break into her house to attempt a rescue. Once inside they learn that Hannah’s father is author R.L. Stine (Jack Black) and unknowingly unleash the monsters trapped within Stine’s original manuscripts. The teens, along with Stine, have to recapture the monsters before the town is destroyed.

Jack Black’s highly stylized performance as Stine sets the tone for the whole movie: over the top but with just the right amount of self-awareness. Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell, as Gales’ sister, are a welcome presence, as they would be in any movie. The teen actors do a good job playing believable teens and carrying the action of the movie.

The monsters are nearly all CGI and fit right in to the movie visually. Since the monsters are all creations of Stine’s imagination, their artificial look actually works to the movie’s advantage. The Werewolf of Fever Swamp has a memorable sequence chasing the kids around a grocery store and the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena rampages through the town, but the main villain is Slappy, from Night of the Living Dummy. Slappy has a malevolent and devious personality. He is intent on getting revenge on Stine for locking him away; the fact that he is a ventriloquist dummy also makes him inherently creepy. Zach and his mom and the other teens are not especially memorable characters, but they service the story adequately. It’s Jack Black that loads up the fictionalized Stine with so much personality that it brings the whole movie to life.

The Goosebumps books introduced a whole generation of kids to horror and I think movie will serve as a good entry point for kids to (age appropriate) horror stories. Goosebumps is a smorgasbord of horror themed fun and though it still retains some of the dark edge of the books, it never gets too intense or scary. This is a great movie to watch with kids that are interested in horror, or kids that just want to watch something spooky for Halloween or a stormy day. And if you’re a grownup, it’s still a spooky fun time.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Extraordinary 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.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Horror Anthology Night

Poe: “I want to be sure my words will survive me, that they will never be lost in time.”

Death: “That, my friend, Nevermore.”

Extraordinary Tales 

Adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous and beloved works, his short stories and poems, to a feature length film is tricky and difficult. The short stories get padded out and, in some cases, only vaguely resemble their source material. Some of these are good but barely resemble the original story: The Black Cat (1934) has a black cat in one shot and a completely made up plot. Some are utter dreck: The Raven features a raven briefly and a plot about wizards and magic. And a few actually capture the events and the essence of the story, adding plot and characters that feel like an extension of the story, not extraneous additions: The Masque of the Red Death (1964), directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price, which I’ve written about for a previous Shocktober and highly recommend. To adapt Poe’s stories without added plot or characters could only be done with short films, or an anthology.

The stories of Poe and the anthology film format are such a perfect combination I’m surprised there aren’t more Poe based anthology films, or at least more noteworthy ones. The animated anthology Extraordinary Tales, written and directed by Raul Garcia, is indeed noteworthy, not just for its approach to Poe’s stories, but also its superb execution and unexpected, haunting pathos.

Each vignette has a distinct animation style with great imagery and notable narrator. The Fall of the House of Usher, narrated by Christopher Lee, is the first and longest of the short films, and it is an excellent start to this moody and atmospheric collection. It captures wonderfully the melancholy and dread that looms over the house of Rodrick Usher as he fears his sister has been buried alive. The Tell-Tale Heart is animated in stark black and white. This short segment is narrated by Bela Lugosi, whose voice comes through the distant hiss and crackle of an old phonograph. The third segment, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, animated to resemble a comic book, is probably the least known story in the film. This story, narrated by Julian Sands, tells of a mesmerist who hypnotizes an ill friend at the moment of death in an attempt to stop death and learn about the great beyond. 

The Pit and the Pendulum, about a prisoner facing torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition, is told by Guillermo Del Toro and done in a realistic computer animation. The final segment is the silent The Masque of the Red Death. This story shows us the gruesome effects of a plague and the decadence of people celebrating in the castle of Prince Prospero, believing themselves safe from the plague. There is only one line of dialogue in this film, when the Prince (voiced by Roger Corman) questions the identity of the strange guest that dares to wear a mask resembling the effects of the plague.

The stories are all tied together with a peculiar and clever device: a raven visits a cemetery and has a conversation with a stone statue of a woman. The Raven is the soul of Poe, and the female voice of the motionless statue is Death. Their conversation is a gateway to Poe’s stories. The Raven is melancholy and proud and anxious and defiant of death and time. “My work is eternal,” it says, “I want that eternity.” The soft sweet voice of death is gentle, beguiling, and alluring, but also content and peaceful and inviting. The scenes of the Raven and Death are haunting and give us glimpses into Poe’s life and thoughts.

Extraordinary Tales is a wonderful and fitting tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, a love letter to his work and influence. It is a great way to enjoy some of his most famous stories or introduce someone to them. It’s also great to watch with someone that isn’t really into horror and makes for a perfect moody Shocktober night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Christine (1983)

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 11: John Carpenter/Stephen King Night

“You better watch what you say about my car. She's real sensitive.”

Christine (1983)          

John Carpenter’s Christine, based on Stephen King’s novel about a demonic classic car that kills people, is a hard sell. The story has an undeniably ridiculous premise, but it is excellently crafted and well worth watching. The approach taken by director John Carpenter and screenwriter Bill Phillips takes the premise as seriously as a movie about a haunted car should be taken. That tone is serious enough to allow for legitimate suspense and scares but never gets desperate for believability. Thanks to the skill at work behind the camera and a great cast, there is no trouble believing the characters or the unbelievable situations in which they find themselves.

Christine is a cherry red 1958 Plymouth Fury that was just born evil; she killed someone even before she came off the assembly line. Twenty years later, Arnie (Keith Gordon), a stereotypical teenage nerd—thick glasses, clumsy, low self-esteem, relentlessly bullied—finds the rusted, broken down Plymouth Fury for sale in the yard of a creepy old man. As Arnie fixes up Christine he changes too. He stops wearing glasses, slicks back his hair, and goes from put-upon wimp, to brimming with confidence, to an entitled sociopath. His best friend, Dennis (John Stockwell), a popular but level headed jock, is puzzled and troubled by Arnie’s change and suspects it is linked to Christine. 

Arnie begins dating Leigh, the attractive and demure new girl that every boy at school wants to get with, played by Alexandra Paul. When they are at the drive-in, Leigh finds herself alone in Christine for just a moment. The radio turns on by itself, glowing green and playing a 50’s pop song, and Leigh is choking suddenly.

The special effects in Christine are impressive to say the least. Scenes of the car on fire chasing down someone or smashing itself into a narrow ally to get one of Arnie’s bullies are surprisingly scary. The big showcase scene comes after Christine has been completely destroyed by Arnie’s bullies. Out of the corner of his eye, Arnie sees that the rearview mirror is fixed. He walks in front of Christine, says “show me,” and watches as Christine repairs herself to perfect condition. It is a titillating sight for Arnie and the score goes from eerie synthesizer to a salacious saxophone; it’s a sort of love scene. Needless to say, the special effects hold up so well because they are all practical. Christine’s impressive self-repairing scene was achieved by crushing the car and running the footage in reverse. When Christine smashes into something, a real car is really smashing into another car or through a wall. The sight and sounds of real twisted metal make the danger feel real.  

A lot of small touches add up to give Christine an eerie, uncanny tone: the soundtrack of synth music and 1950’s rock and roll, the out of time feel (made in 1983, set in 1978, but feels like it takes place in 1958), the understated approach to the supernatural scenes. My favorite eerie element is Christine’s green glowing radio that only plays music from the 1950’s. There are good performances all around. Keith Gordon gives a great and believable performance as Arnie becomes more and more dangerous. John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, and Harry Dean Stanton, as a state police detective, give solid performances that ground the movie in an acceptable reality.

There is very little blood and no gore in Christine and since the monster is a classic car you could easily watch this with someone squeamish. Christine doesn’t get talked about as much as other Stephen King adaptations, or John Carpenter movies, or horror movies in general, but it should because this a top tier horror film from two true masters of horror.

13 Nights of Shocktober: She-Wolf of London

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 10: Werewolf Party Night!
“It’s the she-wolf herself!”

She-Wolf of London 

Good werewolf movies are hard to find, so even a decently made, entertaining movie that may, or may not, have a werewolf is quite welcome. Made by Universal in 1946, She-Wolf of London took a different approach to the Universal Monster movie. The heyday of the Universal Monster movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and their many sequels) began in the early 1930's and now was on the decline. The monsters were already meeting each other, though they wouldn’t meet Abbott and Costello until the 1950’s. Thanks to producer Val Lewton, RKO was the big name in horror movies. Lewton’s approach to horror was nearly the opposite of the Universal model. His films were more psychological often only hinting at the supernatural, emphasizing mood and atmosphere over monsters. She-Wolf of London was almost certainly made to compete with the RKO Val Lewton horror pictures. Like Lewton’s Cat People or I Walked With a Zombie, She-Wolf of London takes a sensational title and delivers something more than just a monster movie. Though admittedly, She-Wolf of London doesn’t match the substance or quality of the better RKO Lewton movies, it is still a solid and entertaining mystery and thriller.

Set in London during the early years of the 20^th century, She-Wolf of London centers on Phyllis Allenby (June Lockhart), the sole living descendant of a wealthy family with a dark history. She lives with her cousin Carol (Jan Wiley), and stern aunt, Mrs. Winthrop (Sara Haden), who became the guardian of Phyllis and caretaker of the the Allenby estate after Phyllis’s parents died. Now Phyllis is about to be married to a wealthy lawyer, Barry (Don Porter), but she worries that the Allenby curse is now affecting her. The family dogs bark at her angrily and constantly. She has dreams of turning into a wolf and wakes up with her hands covered in dirt and blood. 

The next morning, Carol reads newspaper reports of night time attacks by a wolf in the nearby park. We also see the family dogs escape at night, presenting the possibility that Phyllis might not be responsible for the attacks. Mrs. Winthrop isn’t much comfort or help and won’t let Barry visit Phyllis. Detective Latham (Lloyd Corrigan) believes that the animal attacks are being done by a werewolf, specifically a female werewolf. He is not exactly comic relief, but he does not come across as especially sharp either. He simply has a hunch based on witness reports that he believes is worth pursuing, even if it is outlandish.

Don Porter gets top billing over June Lockhart though she is clearly the main character and even Carol and Mrs. Winthrop have bigger role than him, or at least more interesting ones. Barry is a pretty dull hero. There is not much to him aside from being a decent man and good fiancé. Lockhart gives a good performance as the distraught Phyllis; she has big, wide eyes great at conveying worry and anxiety. She is just on the cusp of a nervous breakdown but never goes into shrieking hysterics, drawing out her anxiety and fright.

The period setting gives the story several elements that create an eerie fantasy atmosphere. Costumes, horse drawn carriages, foggy roads and woods lend this movie a visual style. Fog and shadows obscure the attacks which adds to the atmosphere and saves on special effects. This may not be the straight up horror werewolf movie you would expect from the classic era of Universal, but it works as a mystery and thriller and effectively uses the possibility of the supernatural to create tension and suspense and atmosphere. This is definitely a less well-known horror movie from the classic era but I’ll count it as one of the better werewolf movies.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Rabid

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Cronenberg Night

“So, don’t let anybody bite you.”

Rabid (1977)

David Cronenberg’s second feature film, Rabid, along with his controversial debut feature, Shivers (aka They Came From Within), established him as a distinct and creative voice in horror cinema and helped make his name synonymous with the body horror subgenre. Rabid shares a lot of common ground with Shivers. Both involve a manmade infection or plague that spreads through bodily contact and causes the veneer of civilization to crumble. Both involve a “mad,” or at least overconfident, scientist experimenting on a woman’s body, causing it to become monstrous. In Rabid, however, the woman that has been experimented on is the main character, and she comes across as more of a victim than a monster.

After a bad motorcycle accident, Rose is rushed to the nearest medical facility where an experimental skin graft is performed, even though the doctor is aware of the potentially dangerous side effects. One side effect the doctor did not foresee is Rose growing a bloodsucking needlelike appendage that shoots out of a slit in her armpit so she can feed an uncontrollable bloodlust. Rose becomes a sort of vampire, but the people she feeds on become like ravenous zombies attacking anyone they encounter.

Rose is played by Marilyn Chambers, the adult film star most famous for the cult classic porn film Behind the Green Door. Chambers was looking to transition to mainstream movies, and the producers decided to cash in on her notorious fame. As a legitimate actress, Chambers gives a sympathetic and believable performance as the tragic Rose. Rose oscillates between embracing being a bloodthirsty predator and fighting her monstrous desires, and Chambers does a good job portraying both sides of the character. There is a complexity to her role that is not typically given to female characters in horror movies. If there is a stiff, underwritten character, it is Rose’s boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), who spends most of the movie being confused or receiving exposition. In any other horror movie, Hart would be the hero and Rose would just be the monster.

Rabid does not oversexualize Marilyn Chambers. There are nude scenes of Chambers, but there are more scenes where Rabid uses the Marilyn Chambers persona to subvert lurid audience expectations. When Rose is on the prowl, she exudes a seductive aura. Her encounters with her prey (mostly lascivious, predatory men) appear as though they will lead to sex, but they end abruptly and very un-erotically.

Rabid makes such good use of its resources that it does not feel like a low budget movie. There are impressive car crashes, chaotic crowd scenes, shoot outs, and even soldiers and tanks in the streets of Montreal. The special makeup effects have a dated look (the blood is that certain shade of bright orange-red that was popular in 1970’s horror films), but they are still effective. Rabid is not as gory or effects heavy as Cronenberg’s later movies, but a more squeamish viewer would still probably have to avert their eyes more than a few times.

There is more to Rabid than some would be willing to give it credit for. Cronenberg packs in themes of science run amok, how society responds to a crisis, and women losing body autonomy. In the world of Cronenberg, supernatural occurrences stem from radical scientific discoveries and are accepted by the characters. The challenge characters in a Cronenberg movie face isn’t convincing skeptics, but in how they will deal with an extraordinary problem. Whether you dive into the subtext and themes or just want to enjoy a hybrid vampire-zombie movie, Rabid will make for a thrilling and interesting Shocktober viewing.

13 Nights of Shocktober: I Walked With a Zombie

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night  8: Val Lewton Night

“She makes a beautiful zombie, doesn’t she?”

I Walked With a Zombie

Throughout the 1940’s, the movie studio RKO released a series of low budget horror hits that despite their exploitative titles (Cat People, Isle of the Dead, Curse of the Cat People) were films of first-rate quality and substance. These films were developed and overseen by producer Val Lewton, who has the rare distinction of being a producer seen as an auteur (or author) by modern film critics and historians. The best of Val Lewton’s RKO horror films were his collaborations with director Jacques Tourneur, including I Walked With a Zombie.

You won’t find any flesh eating ghouls in this zombie movie. Before George Romero’s landmark film Night of the Living Dead in 1968, a zombie was a dark myth of the Voodoo religion. Specifically, a zombie was a person that had been put in a deathlike trance, buried, dug up, and then continued in a trance as a slave to the Voodoo priest that performed the “resurrection.” This is the type of zombie the characters in I Walked With a Zombie are confronted with.

Betsy (Frances Dee) travels to the island of St. Sebastian in the West Indies to take a job as a private nurse. She moves in to the Holland family sugar plantation and becomes friendly with Tom Holland (Tom Conway) and his half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison), though the brothers are at odds. Her patient is Tom’s wife, Jessica, who is in a perpetual catatonic trance and wanders the plantation at night. As Betsy tries to understand Jessica’s illness, she uncovers dark secrets about the Holland family.

The Val Lewton RKO horror movies emphasized atmosphere over visual scares, though there are naturally a few of those in I Walked With a Zombie. The titular scene of Betsy walking with Jessica through the cane fields coming across eerie markers like a hanging dead animal and a skull in the dirt is accompanied only by the sound of wind. The possibility of the supernatural looms over the characters, but this film delves more into the psychological effects of superstition. Betsy is a in a new and exotic land with customs and beliefs strange to her; her lack of familiarity puts her on edge. Perhaps the creepiest scene is also the unlikeliest. When trying to wake Wesley at a bar patio, a street musician sings a melancholy calypso ballad of the Holland family while walking slowly towards Betsy. Then he includes her in the ballad. It’s easily the creepiest use a calypso song in a movie and also a clever way to deliver exposition. The beautiful Film Noir-like use of light and shadow further adds to the eerie atmosphere of every scene.

Slavery is at the heart of the Voodoo zombie myth. I Walked With a Zombie is aware of this and deals indirectly with the lingering effects of slavery, albeit only for the white descendants of the slaveowners. A black carriage driver tells Betsy how the Holland family brought “the long ago fathers and long ago mothers of us all” to the island, “chained to the bottom of the boat.” The figurehead of that slave ship rests in the center of the courtyard of the Holland estate, an ever present and morbid reminder of the family’s past. It’s interesting that when Tom Holland says that the slave ship brought “our people” to the island, he is referring to his family as well as the slaves.

The central theme of I Walked With a Zombie is a simple one: things are not what they seem. When Betsy is admiring the beauty of the sea, Tom tells her with a resigned melancholy: “Those flying fish, they’re not leaping for joy, they’re jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies. The glitter of putrescence.” Voodoo is not dangerous; it is just a religion that can be used for good or evil. The zombie is a victim, not a monster. The harm to Holland family was done not by the natives; it was done by the Hollands themselves. From its title, I Walked With a Zombie seems like a silly exploitation film, but it is a genuine horror classic made with exquisite talent on and off screen. This Lewton/Tourneur film is not as well-known as their signature film Cat People, but is easily of the same quality. Its moody and eerie atmosphere hold up solidly, as do the performances, and will make for a great Shocktober night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Witchfinder General

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 7: Vincent Price Night
“They swim. The mark of Satan is upon them. They must hang.”

Witchfinder General 

Vincent Price played villains and antiheros throughout his career, but he never played a character as evil as Matthew Hopkins, also known as the Witchfinder General. Matthew Hopkins and his assistant/enforcer John Stearne were real people that traveled from town to town during the time of the English Civil War offering to root out any witches, for a fee, of course. Hopkins declared himself “Witchfinder General” and during his reign of terror from 1644-1647 he was responsible for more executions of accused witches than all other witch hunters in England over the previous 100 years combined. It only makes sense that a movie about Hopkins would be a dark and violent one.

Though Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne are historical figures, Witchfinder General is not technically based on a true story. The source material is a novel by Ronald Bassett which fictionalizes the story of Matthew Hopkins. The plot follows Richard (Ian Ogilvy), a soldier in Oliver Cromwell’s army, rooting out remnants of the royalist supporters of King Charles. He is engaged to Sara (Hilary Heath), who, along with her uncle, is targeted by local Cromwell supporters. Hopkins and Stearne ride into town and arrest her uncle as a witch. Hopkins tells Sara that he will spare her uncle’s life for a lascivious price. Hopkins also tortures and executes other innocent people while holding Sara prisoner. After learning what has happened to Sarah, Richard becomes obsessed with taking revenge.

The details of the plot are fictionalized, but the means of torture used by Hopkins and his desire for personal and political gain are unfortunately accurate. Vincent Price gives an unsettling but excellent performance as Matthew Hopkins. Director Michael Reeves wanted Donald Pleasance to play the Witchfinder and was reportedly standoffish with Price. Reeves claimed he acted that way intentionally to get Price to give an angry performance. Personally, I think Vincent Price was professional enough and talented enough to give a great performance without the director intentionally pissing him off. Price comes across as the kind of actor that could pick up on the exact tone and needs of a film and deliver a performance to match. He could go over the top, or be subtle and nuanced with ease. As a villain, he could be comedic, campy, sinister, or even sympathetic, but as Hopkins he is completely vile, cruel, sadistic, and malevolent. Though he played murderers in movies before and after this, Matthew Hopkins is Price’s most heinous role.

Witchfinder General feels more violent than it actually is. In terms of blood and gore it is mild by today’s standards, but its violent moments feel as intense and shocking as anything from a more explicit modern horror movie. Even though the scenes of torture were edited to satisfy the British censors, it still received an X rating and caused controversy when released. The reason this film feels so brutal is because it does not shy away from showing the methods of conducting a witch “trial.” Sara’s uncle is stabbed with a needle repeatedly to search for a spot that doesn’t bleed (a sign of witchcraft). A group of poor villagers are thrown into a river to see if they will swim (also a sign of witchcraft). People are dragged screaming to the gallows or burned at the stake. The film also doesn’t shy away from showing the witchfinders as sexual predators as well.

Reeves said he wanted to make an antiviolence film, which is usually just an excuse for showing a lot of violence, but it’s likely Reeves was sincere because there is nothing entertaining or thrilling about the violent scenes in Witchfinder General. This is a very dark movie thematically but it is also a very good one. And, of course, it has one of Vincent Price’s best performances. This is a horror movie without the slightest hint of the supernatural, but it is just as intense as any monster movie or ghost story.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Fly (1958)

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Creature Feature Night

“They wouldn't harm anything, not even a fly.”

The Fly (1958)

The 1950’s saw the rise of the science fiction genre as the framework to tell both adventure stories and horror stories. Concerns brought on by the Atomic Age and sudden advances in science and technology manifested themselves on screen with stories about mad scientists, man-made monsters, and the unintended consequences of science run amok. Given its premise and its more famous, and grotesque, remake, the original version of The Fly, released in 1958, may not be the sci-fi/horror movie you would expect.

The premise is certainly schlock B-movie material, but the screenplay by Shogun author James Clavell and solid performances from the cast give this movie just enough depth to make it a step above a hokey exploitation picture. The story of a brilliant scientist that accidentally merges his body with a housefly while experimenting with teleportation checks all the boxes of a 1950’s sci-fi/horror, but this movie also works as a drama and presents itself as a mystery. The film opens with the body of a scientist, Andre Delambre (Al Hedison), being discovered in a metal factory he owns. His head and left arm were crushed in a metal press. His wife, Helene (Patricia Owens), says she murdered him but was only following his final wish. Andre’s brother, François (Vincent Price) and a police inspector listen to her tell her story.

Most of the movie is of Andre and Helene’s happy, idyllic homelife with their son. Andre is a good husband and father and an ambitious, hardworking scientist. He is nowhere close to being like the mad scientists that were common in sci-fi movies of 1950’s. The movie invests so much in Andre that it is more tragic than thrilling when he is transformed into a fly-man creature. Hedison does a good job in human form, but when he loses the ability to speak, he uses exaggerated body language to communicate and goes a bit over the top. Patricia Owens gives a great and believable performance that is the emotional center of the movie. Vincent Price is a supporting player here and does an excellent job playing the kind and caring brother of Andre.

The Fly plays like a slow burn to a big reveal. You can see that reveal coming from several miles away, but it still feels like a shocking moment. This is by no means a gross film in terms of special effects, but because the subject involves flies, which nearly every person finds repulsive, it has an icky feel. Even with dated special effects, the shock value of The Fly still works. When Vincent Price finally finds the fly with a human head and arm, it is still a creepy and disturbing sight.

The Fly became an influential film thanks in large part to its two big reveals. It would become a common pop culture reference (even parodied in The Simpsons' Halloween special Treehouse of Horror VIII) and be remade with great success in 1986 by David Cronenberg. In Joe Dante’s 1993 film Matinee, the fictional B-movie promoter played by John Goodman is debuting a film called MANT, about a half-man half-ant creature. I put off watching this version of The Fly for a long time because I wasn’t expecting much more than a hokey drive-in movie. After finally watching it earlier this year, I can see why this film stood apart from others in the genre and has stuck around for so long.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Deep Red

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.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 5: Argento Night

“I can feel death in this room!”

Deep Red     

  

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento is most famous for his work in the horror genre, namely Suspiria, but he began his career writing and directing films known as giallos, an Italian subgenre of violent murder mysteries and thrillers. This genre, which takes its name from pulp novels printed on yellow paper (giallo is Italian for yellow), often skirted the line between thriller and horror. Giallo plotlines would be murder mysteries or who-done-its but sometimes also followed the structure of a slasher movie, with the violence to match. For this reason, many, if not all, giallo films can be considered horror movies, including Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso, or Deep Red.

David Hemmings plays Marcus, an English pianist visiting Rome who witnesses the brutal murder of Helga Ulman (Macha Meril), a famous psychic. He teams up with a persistent reporter, Gianna (Daria Nicolodi), to solve the murder. They interview potential witnesses, collect clues, and are pretty competent detectives. The police seem to be only slightly involved in the investigation and mostly just help Marcus conduct his own investigation. At the initial crime scene, Marcus asks the police if they touched or moved anything in the dead psychic’s apartment. It’s a peculiar choice but it allows Marcus to be at the center of the action.

Dario Argento’s directorial style is, well, being stylish. The auditorium where Helga demonstrates her psychic abilities for an audience (mentioning that she can only read people’s thoughts and see their past, not predict the future... hence her bloody murder with a cleaver) has lush red curtains and table where she sits is draped in the same bold red. The production design and color palette are bold and eye catching in every scene. Blood in Deep Red, and there’s a lot of it, is actually a bright, bold red bordering on orange-red in certain scenes. It looks completely fake, but it’s stylish to the point of turning the murder scenes into gruesome tableaus. The progressive synth rock score by Goblin is creepy and thrilling in all the right ways and of course, gives the movie a stylish soundtrack. The cinematography by Luigi Kuveiller is a feast for the eyes; every shot is well composed and photographed. Even a scene with not much happening visually, like Marcus and his friend Carlo talking on a deserted street with a Roman statue in the background looks impressive. Light and shadow, close-ups, and POV shots are used to great effect. Not only do they create a distinct look, but they also create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. In a particularly effective scene, we see extreme close ups of the inner workings of a piano as Marcus composes a song followed by a POV shot of the killer approaching Marcus. Then we see a wide shot of the room and a shadow covers Marcus and his piano.

In its best moments, Deep Red is reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film: an excellent blend of style and suspense. Also like in a Hitchcock film, Hemmings plays an everyman caught in an extraordinary situation that he has to solve (mostly) on his own. Like the protagonists in Argento’s previous films The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cat O’Nine Tails, Marcus must solve a murder by picking apart his memory. While the supernatural sets up the premise for Deep Red, the rest of the movie is a straightforward mystery. However, the gruesome deaths, an increasing body count, and creepy touches like the killer playing a recording of children singing, a random ghastly faced automaton firmly plant Deep Red in the horror genre. It is not without lighter moments, usually of Marcus and Gianna being at odds, and bizarre moments, like Gianna mistakenly stabbing a bird in midair. All of that style takes the dread out of the violence and makes Argento’s macabre mystery a thoroughly engaging picture.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Haunting (1963)

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.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 4: Haunted House Night
“A House That Was Born Bad”

The Haunting (1963)

The 1963 version of The Haunting ranks among the top of haunted house movies. Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson and directed by Robert Wise, this horror classic remains just as moody, atmospheric, and scary for viewers today as when it was first released. It is also a great example of a horror movie proving that less is more. You won’t find spectral apparitions or bleeding walls or creatures locked away in hidden rooms, but there is plenty to put you on edge in Hill House.

A prologue explains the dark history of Hill House. It was built in the 1870's by a tyrannical man named Hugh Crane, whose first wife died when approaching the house by horse. His second wife and daughter lived longer but fared no better. It is a spooky sequence that effectively sets the tone of the film. It also efficiently, and spookily, gets a lot of exposition out of the way. The prologue is narrated by Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson), who is investigating the paranormal nature of Hill House with the help of two women, Eleanor (Julie Harris) and Theo (Claire Bloom). Both women possess psychic abilities to some degree. Also with them is Luke (Russ Tamblyn), a member of the family that now owns Hill House. Eleanor, or Nell, as Theo calls her, is the central character and we hear her narrate her thoughts in a thin and distant voice. She feels a connection with the imposing mansion right away and says she feels like she is home. Other times she cannot stand the effect the house has on her. As their stay in Hill House goes on and the paranormal activity increases, it becomes clear that the house has targeted Eleanor.

Everyone in the house believes in ghosts or the supernatural, but Dr. Markway comes across as the skeptic since he has an academic approach to investigating Hill House. Russ Tamblyn as Luke isn’t exactly comic relief but his character breaks the tension and lightens up certain scenes. Claire Bloom and Julie Harris have great chemistry together. As Theo, Bloom exudes a cool, easy confidence that is a perfect compliment to, and exact opposite of, Harris as the meek, insecure Eleanor. Harris does an especially good job portraying a put-upon person that draws as much sympathy as annoyance.

If acting is reacting then the cast has a lot to react to and does so quite well. A lot of horror movies from the classic era have over time lost the full force of their original scare value (though not their overall effect), but the scare scenes in The Haunting hold up to say the least. Using little more than sound effects and well-chosen camera angles, The Haunting creates some truly chilling and scary moments. There are a few well timed pop-up scares, but the scariest scenes involve the characters being menaced by eerie and violent sounds. In one scene the characters are huddled together as loud banging sounds grow closer and closer and the door bulges unnaturally from whatever is on the other side.

From the outside, the imposing Victorian style manor house is shot in just the right ways to make it look like a house that was born bad. Well framed shots of the garish ornaments and statues that decorate the inside of the house add as much to the film’s unsettling atmosphere as its creepy sound design. The film's pacing allows the scary moments to sneak up on you. This is a subtle but frightening film that is perfect to watch late at night with the lights off (and preferably without any interruptions or distractions). Once you watch it, it’s easy to understand why The Haunting is a horror classic.