13 Nights of Shocktober: House (1977)

 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 5: Japanese Horror Night

“Any old cat can open a door. Only a witch cat can close a door.”

House (1977)

The 1977 Japanese horror film House (AKA Hausu) is weird, wild stuff, to put it mildly. This is a movie with so many peculiar cinematic choices and strange, puzzling sights that the demonic cat, floating severed head, or killer piano might make you forget about the watermelon laughing over someone’s shoulder. So much about House is intentionally off kilter that it is equally funny, interesting, creepy, silly, thoughtful, scary, but, above all, unforgettable.

The weird and bizarre nature of House comes from what happens on screen, not from how it is told. There is no toying with narrative structure, or points of view, or chronology. This goes a long way to keeping the audience engaged. At the start of summer break, teenager Gorgeous invites six of her friends to stay at her estranged aunt’s house. Unfortunately, the house is haunted by a vengeful spirit that preys on unmarried (virgin) girls. Yes, the main character’s name is Gorgeous. Her friends are: Fantasy, Mac (short for Stomach), Prof (short for Professor), Melody, Sweet, and Kung-Fu. Those names are descriptive (Prof reads a lot, Kung Fu knows kung fu, etc.) but the actresses all bring youthful energy to the roles. Each girl finds herself attacked by her fear or distinctive trait (Melody is attacked by the piano, for example). 

The making of House is a fascinating story. In 1975 Japanese movie studio Toho (the studio behind the Godzilla movies) hired Nobuhiko Obayashi to make a film that would be a box office hit like JAWS. Instead, he asked his adolescent daughter, Chigumi, what she thought was scary. She said it would be scary if her reflection in the mirror suddenly attacked her. Obayashi wisely chose his daughter’s idea over the studio’s order. “It’s not all that strange for ants or bears to attack people, but to be attacked by your reflection in a mirror is a fantasy that could only happen in a movie,” Obayashi says in a documentary included with the Criterion home video release.

Many of Chigumi’s other ideas made it into the movie and she received a story credit. Obayashi never expected for the movie to be made so he gave it an English title, something “taboo” for Japanese films at the time. When he finally did make the film two years later, Obayashi made a conscious decision to do things unlike the traditional Japanese filmmaking style of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) and Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story), two of not only the greatest Japanese directors but the greatest of all directors. If Obayashi thought that Kurosawa or Ozu would be offended by a stylistic choice, that was the choice he made. The result is a film unlike any that came before, or even after for that matter. 

You can enjoy House purely as a phantasmagoria of the bizarre and macabre, as I did the first time I saw it, but it is also rich with subtext. Gorgeous’s aunt has a substantial backstory that is presented as a black and white silent film with the girls watching and making comments. In short, her fiancé was drafted into the army and never returned from the war but she continued to wait for him. When they see brief footage of the atomic bomb one of the girls says that the mushroom cloud looks like cotton candy. It is worth noting that Obayashi grew up in Hiroshima and lost many of his childhood friends to the devastation of the atomic bomb. The divide between the older generation that fought and lived through World War II and the younger generation that was born after the war also looms large. Gorgeous and her friends are separated from her aunt not just because of their youth but because of their varied personalities and opportunities thanks to post war feminism. 

The generational divide played a big part in the movie’s success too. It was the movie that every kid wanted to see and no parent wanted their kid to see. It was a commercial success thanks to its younger audience but a major flop with critics. Even executives at Toho were unhappy with the success of House. One studio executive even told screenwriter Chiho Katsura, right to his face, that he was upset with House’s success because he wanted a hit but not with a movie like this. Katsura was understandably offended. Time passed and the kids that loved House grew up to be critics and filmmakers and moviegoers and its influence and place in international cinema is firmly secure.

House airs on TCM on Wednesday, Oct 26th at 1AM CT and is streaming on the Criterion Channel and HBOmax. 

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: 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: 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.