13 Nights of Shocktober: Twixt (2011)

 by A.J.

Night 8: Ghost Story Night

“Our work must be the grave that we prepare for its lovely tenant.”

Twixt (2011)

My podcast The Directors’ Wall, co-hosted by Bryan Connolly, recently wrapped up season 2, covering the career of Francis Ford Coppola and we ended on a high note with Coppola’s most recently released film, Twixt, which we both enjoyed very much. We also reviewed Coppola’s re-edit titled B’twixt Now and Sunrise: The Authentic Cut. While both begin the same, major changes to the ending give B’twixt a more open ended “arthouse” conclusion (or lack thereof). The emphasis is on the main character’s emotional journey to confront the tragedy in his past and the horror plot is downplayed. Coppola’s original cut of Twixt, we both agreed, captures the character’s emotional journey while also being a lively and fun horror movie. Currently, only B’twixt is available to stream, but Twixt, if you can find it, is the version we both recommend. Our discussion contains major spoilers, but if you don’t mind (or care) or think it might peak your interest please give it a listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

A brief spoiler-free summary and review:

Released in 2011, Twixt marked Coppola’s return to the horror genre for the first time since Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. Twixt tells the tale of third-rate horror novelist Hall Baltimore, played by Val Kilmer, who stops on his book tour in a small town with a dark past and a recent mysterious murder. The local sheriff, played by Bruce Dern, thinks that the murder is tied to a group of goth teens, led by Alden Ehrenreich, who he believes are vampires, and wants to collaborate with Hall on a book about the murder. Hall is desperately in need of money, so he reluctantly agrees. 

Coppola effectively creates an eerie atmosphere through striking dream sequences, encounters with strange characters, and touches like the body in the morgue with a giant stake still stuck in it and the seven-faced clock tower that tells seven different times. The dream sequences are what really make the movie. They are not so much in black and white as they are drained of color, except for certain things like a red carpet or yellow lantern. In these dreams Hall wanders in the woods and meets V (Elle Fanning), a ghost and victim of the long ago murders. In the dreams Hall is also visited by Edgar Allan Poe, played wonderfully by Ben Chaplin, who discusses writing techniques, the nature of tragedy and melancholy, and also reveals the secrets of the terrible murders that happened in the town decades before. There are also some funny moments like Hall’s video calls to his wife and then his publisher and an out of control Ouija board session. These scenes add in some comedy without turning the movie into a horror-comedy. Twixt is not especially violent and not especially scary, but it is eerie and creepy and entertaining and the kind of movie you should settle in with on a Shocktober night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Poltergeist (1982)

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

Night 4: Haunted House Night Redux

“They’re here.”

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist is the rarest kind of horror movie: a non-R-rated horror movie that is truly terrifying. It also proves that a glossy mainstream studio movie can be as scary and disturbing as any indie or underground horror movie. Steven Spielberg produced and co-wrote the screenplay and it feels very much like a Spielberg movie that picked the wrong path through the forest. The dark, at times gruesome, nature of the scares can be attributed to director Tobe Hooper, most famous for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). There is controversy over who actually directed the movie, with claims that Spielberg either filled in for Hooper or micromanaged every detail of the production (the reason why depends on the source). Of course, this is all background and regardless of any behind the scenes controversy the final film is a horror movie that doesn’t pull any punches but is still widely appealing. 

Poltergeist is about a reasonably content average American family who lives in an idyllic suburb. A good portion of the movie is spent just getting to know the family on an emotional level. We don’t get much background about the parents, Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams), but thanks to the intimate moments we see and their performances, we feel as though we know them very well. Then, out of nowhere strange things start happening in their home. Their youngest daughter Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) starts talking to voices only she can hear coming through the static of the television. In one of the best non-monster scares in the movie, or maybe any movie, Diane looks away for a brief moment and when she looks back all of the dining room chairs have stacked themselves on top of the table. Things escalate quickly to terrifying levels when one night, again seemingly out of nowhere, an old spooky looking tree reaches into the son’s bedroom and takes him and tries to swallow him. Meanwhile, Carol Anne is sucked into another plane of existence by a vortex in her closet. Steven and Diane reach out to paranormal investigators at a university to try to figure out how to get Carol Ann back.  

From low key creepy touches like the flickering blue glow of the static on the television with its roar like a storm to a screaming demonic monster face to being tapped in a muddy swimming pool with corpses, there are all kinds of scares in Poltergeist. Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes involves an oversized clown doll that is already creepy to begin with before any paranormal activity starts. There are scares that involve only practical effects and makeup effects and scares that involve optical effects and composite shots. It’s no surprise that Poltergeist received Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects. They hold up very, very well and still pack tremendous shock value. It’s hard to pin down any one moment or scene as the scariest. There’s a good scare for everyone in Poltergeist and that is what makes it a great and lasting horror movie. 

As much as the special effects take center stage, the cast is great and what really grounds the film and makes all the scary moments so affecting. JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson are cast perfectly as the parents and they have a great casual chemistry. Maybe my favorite scene in the whole movie happens after they first experience the seemingly benign paranormal activity and go to a neighbor’s house to ask if they have experienced anything similar. In the middle of their question Steve and Diane become awkwardly giddy as they realize the strangeness of what they want to ask, all the while mosquitoes buzz around them. Child performances are always tricky as they can make or break an entire movie and O’Rourke does a great job as Carol Anne, too young and innocent to be suspicious of the voices she hears. A perfect example of the “there are no small parts” adage is Zelda Rubinstein as Tangina, a psychic the paranormal investigators turn to after they are totally overwhelmed. Emanating her own spooky atmosphere, she enters the film late, doesn't have much screen time and still manages to be one of the most memorable things about the movie, even along with the special effects.  

Poltergeist is a movie that a lot of kids end up watching because it is rated PG. At the time the PG-13 rating did not exist but it's still hard to believe that this movie is only PG and airs on television unedited. This was always a popular rental at Vulcan Video around Halloween in part because parents were renting it to watch with their kids or for their kids to watch on their own. It should be remembered, however, that this is a movie where, in one of the most impressive and grossest use of practical effects, a man hallucinates ripping his face apart and it’s not even the scariest thing in the movie. Horror movies that are just as scary 40 years after their first release are a rare thing indeed. It’s not a stretch to call Poltergeist a classic horror movie. 

Poltergeist airs on TCM on Friday, October 28th at 7PM CST and is streaming on HBOmax.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Night House

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

Night 3: Haunted House Night 

“I think there’s something in my house.”

The Night House 

The Night House is a perfect movie to watch late at night when the tiny creaks and groans of your house or apartment become suspicious and ominous. Like the best haunted house stories, it creates an eerie atmosphere at odds with an ordinary setting and puts us in the same mindset as the confused and frightened protagonist. I wouldn’t be surprised if the budget was low, but the quality of the production and craft and scares are high. 

The setting, a quiet lakeside house at the onset of summer, certainly should be idyllic but for recently widowed Beth (Rebecca Hall), whose husband, Owen (Evan Jonigkeit), left a cryptic suicide note, a cloud of foreboding looms over the house. Beth has a supportive group of friends, especially Claire (Sarah Goldberg) and her neighbor, Mel (Vondie Curtis-Hall), but she spends most of her days and nights at home alone. After Beth receives mysterious phone calls and text messages that seem to be from Owen, she goes through his things and finds a picture of a woman that resembles her and a book on the occult. The most disturbing thing she discovers is a secret house identical to her own except reversed in design on the other side of the lake. The idea of the ghost of her beloved husband trying to contact her from beyond should be comforting, but it never feels right and an aura of malevolence and danger swirls around Beth’s house at night.

The Night House works as a low-key but effective psychological horror thanks to the emphasis on mood and atmosphere. Director David Bruckner shows great confidence in the character driven screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski as well as the talents of Rebecca Hall. This is the kind of role that some actors would take full advantage of to showcase their total emotive range, but Hall’s skill here is in holding back while making clear the emotions swirling just beneath the surface. Beth is not the kind of person who would show what she is really feeling to others or even herself. Hall is the rare kind of performer who, with the right role, makes you believe you are watching a real person.

Is the haunting Beth experiences a metaphor? Sure, every horror movie works as a metaphor or allegory in one way or another, even the schlock movies. However, unlike many recent arthouse or “elevated” horror movies, the subtext is where it belongs, in the background lurking like a shadow. Yes, The Night House is a horror movie about trauma and grief but it is also a creepy and scary one. It is about the search for meaning after a devastating loss, but that search leads to a spooky secret house and unseen malevolent forces. It grabs you with the scares and it stays with you because of the themes and the great performance at the center. 

Like the classic The Haunting, (1963) directed by Robert Wise, The Night House uses sound design and limited visual effects to build suspense and put you in the same unnerved state as the main character. You don’t need elaborate effects when you have a red-light filter and Rebecca Hall. As she makes one chilling discovery after another, The Night House goes from being a creepy drama to frightening horror movie. 

The Night House slipped under the radar in 2020/2021, like many films, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and confusion about what films were on what streaming services, or DVD, or theaters. It is currently streaming on HBOmax.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

 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: Youth Horror Night

Don’t you ever laugh as a hearse goes by/For you may be the next to die

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

A movie based on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series has a lot to live up to. These stories, a collection of folktales, urban legends, songs, and poems written by Alvin Schwartz and the frightening, nightmarish drawings by Stephen Gammell are indeed scary, so much so that they fully traumatized and fascinated an entire generation of children, myself included. If you read only a few of the stories or saw any of the drawings, you never forgot them. The books, published between 1981 and 1991, caused all sorts of controversies and protests from parents and sold millions and millions of copies. A wonderful and impressive oversight by my Catholic elementary school meant that I bought my copies at the school book fair. My mother thought some of the stories were amusing but they thoroughly disturbed me as a first grader, so she gave them to a friend whose child was very excited by them. I’ve seen the movie twice now, but I’ve never revisited the books. 

The Scary Stories books would have made for a great anthology film but the team behind the camera, including producer Guillermo Del Toro, who receives a screen story credit with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, screenwriters Dan and Kevin Hageman, and director Andre Ovredal give us a compelling narrative worked around the short stories. Set in the Autumn of 1968, during that extra spooky time between Halloween and Election Day, the plot follows high schooler Stella and her friends Auggie and Chuck. On Halloween Night while fleeing a malicious and dangerous bully, they meet Ramon, a teenage drifter, and end up hiding out in the town’s old haunted house. Stella finds a book full of stories handwritten by Sarah Bellows, the dreadful witch that poisoned children at the turn of the century. Then new stories appear in the book, written in fresh, wet blood that tap into the fears of teens and foretell their doom.

Scenes involving the monsters are legitimately frightening. Perhaps the most well-known is Harold the scarecrow, who the bully encounters in a cornfield on Halloween night. The most frightening and disturbing scene for me had one of the characters trapped in a red room with a pale faced woman coming towards him from every end of every hallway. The blend of computer generated and practical effects is very well done. The creatures of Harold and the Pale Faced Woman are as frightening and haunting as the original drawings. The climax combines action, scares, and monsters with a full realization of the themes and subtext in a compelling and masterful way.   

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark believes that if stories are told enough, they become real, even if they are about yourself. This is what Stella, played wonderfully by Zoe Margaret Coletti, with Velma from Scooby-Doo glasses and smarts to match, comes to realize about her town’s legendary witch and even about herself. Her mother left mysteriously when she was little and the town has circulated rumors ever since. Ramon (Michael Garza) is pegged by the all-American looking bully as a “wet-back” and by the well-intentioned but misguided town sheriff (Gil Bellows) as a suspicious person to blame the recent misfortunes on. Ramon is on the run from something, but there is more to the truth than first assumptions.

The young actors are especially good and believable at playing teenagers. Most of the movie is Stella, Ramon, Auggie, and Chuck investigating the history of Sarah Bellows and her book of stories to save themselves before it is too late. Being 1968, this means that they look at microfiche newspaper archives and old records buried away in forgotten rooms. These scenes reminded me of the better episodes of The X-Files and the scenes of them snooping around an old house reminded me of the original Scooby-Doo series. There are lighter moments and levity that not only relieve tension but build the characters and their relationships with each other. The screenplay and performers do a great job creating characters we want to see escape the monsters, which is something rare for horror films.  

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is also that most elusive and improbable kind of horror movie: a scary PG-13 movie. The confrontations with the monsters and other horrors are as creepy and scary as anything in an R-rated horror movie. You don’t need blood and gore when you have impending, inescapable dread. The visual style and aesthetic sets the film firmly in the real world, so when the characters are confronted with the supernatural it is all the more disconcerting and frightening. This movie is something quite rare these days, a horror movie for kids. Not just a horror themed movie for kids, but a movie with real frights and scares, with compelling themes and enough substance to become something that every great horror movie is: haunting. In that way, the movie is very true to the books.

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.   

13 Nights of Shocktober: Kwaidan

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 9: Anthology Horror Night
Ghost Stories of Old Japan

Kwaidan (1964)

Kwaidan is one of my favorite Japanese horror movies. It is also an anthology film, another favorite genre of mine. I first saw this film several years ago on TCM late at night. It has since become part of their programming rotation and usually airs in October. Kwaidan translates to “Ghost Stories” or “Strange Stories” and the film is exactly that: a collection of ghost stories from Japanese folklore. The vignettes are based on the writings of Lafcadio Hearn, a writer and folklorist who was born in Greece, spent time in the United States, and eventually moved to Japan in the late 1800’s where he married into a samurai family and changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi. Everything about Kwaidan feels so distinctly Japanese that I was surprised to learn that a Westerner was in any way involved.

The first story, titled "The Black Hair," is about a young samurai that abandons his wife to marry into another family of higher status. He comes to regret his decision and returns to his first wife to make amends, but all it not what it seems. This where the story turns to the supernatural. This first segment is a slow burn, but builds to a satisfyingly spooky reveal and sets the tone for the rest of the film. 

The second story, "The Woman of the Snow," is my favorite. A young woodcutter becomes lost in a forest during a snowstorm. The Woman of the Snow, a cold, icy spirit comes to drink the warm blood of the woodcutter, but she takes pity on him because he is so young and handsome. She tells him that he ever tells anyone what he saw in the snowy woods, even his own mother, she will return and kill him. Soon after, the woodcutter meets a lovely girl alone on a road and invites her to take shelter with him and his mother. He and the woman fall in love, marry, and have children, but as the years go by the other women in the village notice that the woman doesn’t age... 

In "Hoichi the Earless," a mysterious samurai comes to a temple at night and asks Hoichi, a blind singer, to perform the ballad of a massacred samurai clan for his lord. The samurai leads Hoichi to a mysterious gathering every night and Hoichi must keep it a secret. The final story, "In a Cup of Tea," is the shortest and most peculiar. A samurai fills up a cup with tea and sees the reflection of another man in the cup. He drinks the tea, mysterious reflection included. Later, at night the samurai gets an otherworldly visitation from the man he drank.

Kwaidan is directed by Masaki Kobayashi whose previous films were social dramas. This was his first horror film and also his first film in color. Kobayashi brilliantly and effectively utilizes color throughout his nearly 3-hour film. Rich, bold colors along with a surreal production design fill Kwaidan with memorable, vivid visuals. The sets and matte paintings are highly stylized so that they appear obviously artificial and surreal. This only enriches the ethereal, storybook atmosphere of the movie. When the woodcutter is lost in the forest in "The Woman of the Snow," the painted clouds in the sky resemble watching eyes. Somehow even the white snow is vivid and intense. Probably the most memorable image in all of Kwaidan is of Hoichi with a holy text written all over his body... except for his ears. This was the image chosen for the Criterion DVD release of Kwaidan.

Kwaidan won the Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. It also received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Picture, making it part of the very small club of Oscar nominated horror films. Kwaidan was heavily edited for its American theatrical release but has since been restored to its original version. Though this movie does take its time telling these stories, it doesn’t drag and its epic scope justifies the runtime. Kwaidan feels unique among anthology horror films, and even among other Japanese horror films. It chronicles folklore and evokes the same tone and feel these stories likely had when told by one generation to the next. There is not blood or gore or pop-up scares in Kwaidan, but there is plenty to chill you and make you want to keep the lights on. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Woman in Black

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 7: Hammer Horror Night, “There are those who believe the whole town is cursed/But the house in the marsh is by far the worst.”

The Woman In Black 

The Woman in Black is a film I’ve been wanting to see for a while, but I was hesitant because it was released in theaters in February, which is notoriously a dumping ground for bad and mediocre films. However, it did well at the box office and since then it has been a popular rental every October at the video store where I work,  Vulcan Video. The Woman in Black is also rated PG-13, which horror movie fans will tell you usually indicates a tepid, unfrightening movie. There are exceptions to every rule and The Woman in Black can join the small club of good, scary PG-13 horror movies. 

The Woman in Black was produced by the recently revived Hammer Films and it is a fine, solid entry in the Hammer filmography. Hammer Films is a British production company best known for its horror films of the 1950s and 60s that were shot in Technicolor, typically had Gothic settings, and had violence and special effects more graphic than had been seen in horror films up to that point. Like many of the classic Hammer horror films, The Woman in Black has a period setting and relies on mainly on mood and atmosphere to transport the audience to a world of supernatural horrors, but still casts great British actors to fill out the cast.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer in Edwardian era England who travels to a remote, gloomy village to collect the papers of a recently deceased client. This is Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter role and seeing him as someone other than the iconic Harry Potter is easier than you think. Radcliffe has grown into a fine actor and gives a good performance, though there is not much to do with this character. That is not a big problem, however, because this film knows the real star is its mood and atmosphere, which is thick and dreary. Fog and mist float though several scenes. The period setting (the clothes, the old cars, and candlelight) only strengthen the eerie, spooky feel of the movie.

Kipps finds himself staying in the decaying, ominous mansion of his dead client which is on an island accessible only by a road on a sandbar at low tide. The mansion in the marsh is exactly what you hope to see in a haunted house. In addition to being on an island in a marsh, the house is next to a graveyard. The production design of the house itself is incredible. It has long hallways and rooms filled with creepy antiques and dusty old toys. The scenes of Kipps alone in the mansion are the scariest because of the sound design. The best and most frightening sequence in the movie has Kipps being tormented late at night by creepy, unexplainable sounds and flickering ghostly visions. When we finally see her, the woman in black herself is very scary and creepy. There are some CGI effects which is only to be expected in any effects movie made in the 21^st century, but The Woman in Black relies most on shadows and whispers to scare us.

Kipps is determined to stay and complete his job as his future at his law firm depends on it and he has a young son to support all on his own; his wife died in childbirth. The locals all want him to leave because the house in the marsh is haunted by a sinister spirit whose apparition signals the death of a child. After village children begin suffering tragic accidents, Kipps begins to investigate the identity of the spirit and the history of the mansion in the marsh.

With its ending, The Woman in Black manages to have its cake and eat it too. It moves towards a logical, satisfying ending but still feels compelled to give us the obligatory “final scare” that typically ruins most horror movies. This movie manages to have a final scare, but also have a satisfying, yet somber ending. If you watch a lot of horror movies, there are scenes you know are going to happen because they are practically required in a scary movies, but even these moments are well done. There is some great macabre imagery, but no gore and nothing too intense for more skittish viewers. This is a fine example of a movie being scary without being violent, or dark, or cynical. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Kuroneko (Black Cat)

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: "Why have you taken the forms of my mother and wife?" Kuroneko (Black Cat)

I first saw Kuroneko, or Black Cat, very late at night on TCM a few years ago and for the first time in a long time I knew I would have trouble falling asleep. But late at night in a dark room is the perfect setting to watch Kuroneko. This Japanese ghost story from 1968 is shot in stark black and white, making it as beautiful as it is eerie. The film begins with a band of samurai descending upon a house occupied by two women: a mother, Yone, and her daughter-in-law, Shige. The samurai attack and rape the women, burn the house, and leave them to die. A black cat finds their bodies.

The women return to haunt a bamboo grove and kill and drink the blood of samurai. In what form they return is unclear: ghosts? demons? cats? Yone’s son, Gintoki, was abducted by samurai and drafted into their ranks. He is now a war hero tasked by a samurai chief who is more bureaucrat than warrior to find and destroy the demon ghosts that have been killing samurai. When Gintoki finds them he wonders why they look so much like his mother and wife, and, if they are his mother and wife, why would they want to kill samurai?

Kuroneko is effective, low key horror at its best. Otherworldly moments are downplayed giving the film a tone of eerie wonder. When one of the women’s long black hair moves like an animal’s tail, or when one reaches for a kettle, but we see a hairy claw pour the sake, the music cues do not shriek; they are subtle or non-existent. The cinematography and set design create an atmosphere and environment that is beautifully haunting and ethereal. Shots are backlit giving white robes, curtains, and the pale skin of the characters a ghostly glow. Everything in the scenes in the haunted bamboo forest and the house where the mother and daughter-in-law now live is made of glowing whites or pitch black darkness. There is no in-between, so the ghosts literally appear and disappear into darkness. I watched Kuroneko again in daylight was still haunted and entranced by what I saw.