13 Nights of Shocktober: JAWS

by A.J.

Night 9: Monster Movie Night

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

JAWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Uncanny

 by A.J.

Night 6: Anthology Horror Night

“It was the cat that did it.”

The Uncanny

It’s good for a horror anthology to have a theme to keep it on track and tie the stories together, even in a loose way; it makes the collection a more satisfying and cohesive experience. The 1977 horror anthology The Uncanny has perhaps the best possible theme: cats. The legendary Peter Cushing plays an author who is finally ready to reveal his latest book, which will make public how cats are actually intelligent and devious creatures who seek to control and even kill humans. His potential publisher, played by Ray Milland, is very skeptical, so Cushing tells him three stories that will prove the murderous nature of cats. If that sounds silly, that’s because, well, it is. If it sounds like not that much of a stretch because cats are clever and intelligent, that’s because, well, they are. The Uncanny takes full advantage of the unlikely combination of  deviousness and cuteness in such a creature. This movie never asks you to take it seriously and thus is quite entertaining. 

The first story is set in London in 1912. Joan Greenwood plays the wealthy Ms. Malkin who has cut her nerdowell nephew out of her will and left everything to her cats. Her housemaid, Janet (Susan Penhaligon), overhears this and alerts the nephew, with whom she is having an affair. He tells her to steal the will and Janet complies but is caught and smothers Ms. Malkin. The only witnesses are the cats who are determined on revenge. In Quebec 1975 young Lucy (Katrina Holden Bronson), whose parents recently died, is sent to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Lucy’s only comfort is her beloved cat Wellington but her aunt can’t wait to get rid of Wellington and Lucy’s books about magic, tarot, and witchcraft. Wellington is sent away to be put down but escapes and returns and for revenge. In the final story, set in Hollywood in 1936, Donald Pleasence stars as Valentine De’ath whose wife tragically dies of an “accident” while on a movie set. He suggests that the production should continue with his mistress, Edina (Samantha Eggar), taking over his late wife’s role. He never paid attention to his wife’s cat, whose name he doesn’t remember, nor is he aware that the cat is actually a female. When he finds that the cat has a litter of newborn kittens, he drowns them in the toilet (off screen). If any cat ever deserved her revenge it is this cat and she gets quite inventive. Neither Cushing’s or Milland’s character seems to realize that the cats in these stories, though murderous, are not actually evil. They only seek revenge after being wronged.

Each of these segments and the interstitials with Cushing and Milland are filled with countless shots of staring cats set to ominous music. The laughs that come when a tiny fake paw darts out and scratches Janet’s hand every time she tries to reach for the will are perhaps unintended but fun. The same goes for shots of the cat in the Hollywood story trotting on the catwalk of the soundstage and chewing through the rope of an overhead light.

The London 1912 story is more of a thriller story. Janet was not able to clean up the crime scene before being attacked by the cats so she cannot answer the door or phone for help and is basically trapped. The Quebec segment is perhaps the weakest. The most shocking revelation of this story should be not that cats understand injustice, but that witchcraft is real. It has a dark joke of an ending that plays like a punchline that doesn’t really work. The third segment has dark humor that works. Pleasence does a great job playing an overly serious hammy actor. 

There’s comedy in every scene where an adult human is outwitted and outfought by a cat. A scene where a cat jumps on a man and rips his throat out and then runs off is ridiculous but also kind of scary. Some of the effects are dated (fake paws and fake cats) but others are still effectively gruesome. Peter Cushing is 100 percent committed to being frightened and paranoid about cats. He is doing the work of believing the incredulous premise so that we can just be entertained. Aside from one or two graphic horror images, this makes for a great and enjoyable movie for the more squeamish crowd. The Uncanny has everything you’d want in a Shocktober movie: some scares, great acting, a sense of fun, and lots and lots of cats.

The Uncanny is available to stream for free on Tubi and Plex.  

13 Nights of Shocktober: Mulholland Drive

by A.J.

Night 4: David Lynch Memorial Night

“I hope that I never see that face, ever, outside of a dream.”

Mulholland Drive

Earlier this year the great David Lynch passed away at the at age of 78 and his loss was greatly felt by fans and cinephiles. I never considered myself a fan but his death affected me more than I expected. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I came to appreciate his films and style. I think what really helped was that I realized his films are not puzzles to be solved. There are no answers because that was never the point. The point was what the experience made you feel. There was something very sincere and even endearing in the experience that he wanted to give the viewer.

Of all his notable films, Mulholland Drive has come to be regarded as Lynch’s masterpiece, at least by film critics. In terms of indecipherableness, Mulholland Drive rests in a sweet spot between being frustratingly incomprehensible like Inland Empire or Lost Highway and being relatively straight forward with some oddness here and there like Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart. I don’t mean to suggest that Mulholland Drive is decipherable but it is certainly less intimidating than the 3-hour surreal odyssey of Inland Empire. Mulholland Drive may not technically be a horror movie but it is frightening at times and unsettling throughout. The first time I saw it was late at night and it so unnerved me that I did not want to go to sleep. 

The plot oscillates between a fun amateur detective story and a strange, dark Noir. Naomi Watts plays fresh faced Betty who has just moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of being an actress. She is so impossibly innocent and kind hearted that when she finds another woman (Laura Harring) showering in her aunt’s vacant apartment she assumes the woman is a friend of her aunt. Actually the woman doesn’t know who she is but we know she barely escaped being murdered and was in a bad car accident. She calls herself Rita after a poster of Rita Hayworth and Betty befriends her and becomes determined to find out Rita’s lost identity. There is also the plot involving Adam (Justin Theroux), a young movie director being forced to cast a specific actress by mysterious men in suits. The plots do converge though not in a conventional way. 

What makes this a horror movie, more than any of the surreal, frightening imagery are the ideas at play. Dreams, nightmares, and what is really real loom large and foreboding over Mulholland Drive; not being sure which is which seems to be the main theme of the movie, at least for me. If you ever wondered what it is like to be trapped in a dream or not know whether you are awake or dreaming, this is a good example. Lynch rejected being labeled a surrealist, though that is the easiest way to describe his approach to films and television. Of course, the best adjective is Lynchian, though you have to watch a few of his movies before you understand what that entails, and even then the term has been defined only loosely. Lynchian can refer to how his films often presented a seemingly idyllic setting only to reveal the dark secrets and hidden violence known but not spoken of (Blue Velvet is a good example of this). It can refer to nightmarish but captivating imagery mixed with the mundane (Eraserhead, Lost Highway). It can refer just to the overall ominous mood that dominates whatever is on screen no matter how cheery or mundane it may seem. More than a story or theme, it is a mood or feeling that Lynch wants his films to convey. 

The scariest moment happens in a seemingly unrelated scene with minor characters. Dan (Patrick Fischler, a character actor who you’ll recognize even if you don’t recognize the name) meets with a friend at Winkie’s Diner and tells him about a dream. In the dream he is at Winkie’s Diner with that friend who is standing in line to pay and he is terrified and realizes that there is a “man” behind the restaurant making him scared. Dan brought his friend there to prove to himself that there is nothing to the dream. Then the friend gets up to pay and Dan realizes that the dream is happening. They go outside behind the restaurant and what happens is maybe the most effective jump-scare in film history, even though, like Dan, you know what is going to happen. Did he make the dream come true? Was he having the dream again? His experience is the same whether what happens is real or not, so does it matter? This dilemma reflects Betty’s experience, even in the surreal third act. It also reflects a real life fear that many people have, that in trying to find comfort in disproving something they make it true. 

Mulholland Drive began as a TV pilot for ABC, the same network that produced Lynch’s beloved and classic series Twin Peaks, but the network canceled the pilot after an illfated early morning preview. After a year of negotiations, Lynch secured additional funding from the French production company Canal+, wrote 18 additional pages, reassembled the cast, and turned the failed pilot into a movie. You can probably guess the point where the pilot ends and the additional scenes begin. Yet, this provides another possible point for where dreams or reality stop, or start. A TV pilot typically contains many starting points for a series to expand upon in later episodes. This happens here but not every character or plot is expanded  or tied together, at least not in a conclusive way. My favorite of these false starts is the inept hitman. The most disturbing is the character of the Cowboy who meets with Adam the director and tells him, “Now... you will see me one more time, if you do good. You will see me... two more times, if you do bad.” 

You’ll hear or read that the first two thirds of the movie are a dream and the final third is the nightmarish reality. Of course the first two thirds could be a reality unrecognizable to us and the final third is a nightmare, quotidian and grim by comparison. Maybe the dream had a nightmare? One of the very first images we see is someone under bedsheets. Is everything after a dream? Was it Betty in bed? Or Rita? Or Diane? Or Camilla? Even Adam? Lynch, famously, would never answer direct questions about the meaning of his movies. When asked about symbolism or meaning of Mulholland Drive he would wryly answer with statements like “I think you know” or respond to an interpretation with a simple and definitive but polite, “No.” He began his career as an artist and painter, then an avant-garde experimental filmmaker before making his first feature, Eraserhead. I think understanding Lynch’s career path goes a long to way to understanding not the meaning but the purpose of his films. He created the work, set it out, and it is up to the viewer to provide the interpretation.

Mullholland Drive is available to rent on AppleTV and Fandango At Home. It is also available on DVD & Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection and probably at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Summer of 84

 by A.J.

Night 3: Suburban Horror Night I

“Even serial killers live next door to somebody.”

Summer of 84

The poster for Summer of ‘84 makes it seem like a hokey 80’s throwback or something intentionally campy. I admit I was skeptical of this random find–an independent Canadian production that received a marginal theatrical release and was essentially a direct to streaming movie–especially when I saw that there were 3 credited directors, but this is actually a solid suspense picture and coming of age story that draws on Hitchcock as much as it does any of the 1980s movies it references. The screenplay, production design, and costumes are steeped in the specific kind of 80’s nostalgia ushered in by Stranger Things. The basic premise shares similarities with Stranger Things, among many other movies and television series: 4 teenage boys investigate something mysterious and have an adventure of sorts. They even ride bikes, but the similarities end there. More than Stranger Things or even Rear Window, Summer of ‘84 is on the same wavelength as David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt; these are films young people who discover the dark and shocking secrets of their seemingly perfect small towns.

The idea is simple enough: even serial killers live next door to somebody. 15 year old Davey (Graham Verchere) becomes concerned that his neighbor, amiable local police officer Mackey (Rich Sommer), is secretly the Cape May Killer, responsible for a series of disappearances of young teen boys. Davey recruits his friends Woody, “Eats”, and Curtis to help investigate. At first it is nothing more than another game to them but then evidence begins to accumulate. The plot more or less unfolds how you expect but it is well done regardless and there are some truly tense scenes. The eerie synth score is highly effective in creating an unsettling and mysterious mood. 

The teenagers are all well played though some get more backstory than others. They are recognizable in the way they talk and in their behavior, likeable or not. They let each other spend the night to avoid troubled home lives. They insult each other affectionately. Like all teenage boys they are sex obsessed and routinely try to spy on Davey’s former babysitter and neighbor, Nikki (Tiera Skovbye). She gets enough of a backstory and is played well enough by Skovbye to be more than eye candy or a potential trophy. Davey’s conversations with her reveal that she is bound for Stanford and dealing with her parents’ divorce. Woody (Caleb Emery) is dealing with his overworked, alcoholic mother. “Eats” (Judah Lewis) is dealing with his possibly abusive father and quarrelling parents. 

What really makes Summer of 84 something special is its final act and resolution. Up to this point things unfold as you might expect but then the story takes a decidedly dark turn. The final confrontation between Davey and Mackey is all the more terrifying for how unconventional it is. Davey’s final scenes fit the harsh reality that was the 1980’s, with the dim outlook that many had about their present and potential future. This tone will probably resonate with people watching in 2025. Still this movie is not mean; it is not grim for the sake of being grim or shocking for the sake of being different. Teenage anxiety and the fear of things yet to come that is dismissed by adults never really goes away or becomes less felt (it just becomes general anxiety). In the season one finale of Mad Men, Don Draper tells Kodak executives that nostalgia is Greek for the “pain from an old wound.” I think Davey would agree. That is the kind of nostalgia on display here. 

Summer of 84 is available to stream for free on Kanopy and Hoopla (Kanopy has the better quality transfer).

13 Nights of Shocktober: Rosemary's Baby (1968)

 by A.J. 

Night 2: New Hollywood Horror Night

“This is no dream. This is really happening!”

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

In 1968 two films were released that would forever change the landscape of horror movies: Rosemary’s Baby and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Prior to these films, most horror films were period pieces and fantasies set in castles with period costumes and monsters. Universal monster movies of the 1930’s and the British Hammer Films and Roger Corman produced movies of the late 50’s and early to mid-60’s typified the genre. Both Rosemary’s Baby and Night of the Living Dead had contemporary settings—though Rosemary’s Baby is technically set two or three years before it was released—and approached their respective plots with a stark realism missing from most horror movies (Val Lewton’s horror movies for RKO in the 1940’s being the exception). It is hard to believe that a dark and disturbing movie like Rosemary’s Baby had such broad appeal upon its release. It's hard to believe that Rosemary’s Baby has sustained its appeal over the decades. Even today it casts its creepy spell and people who say they do not like horror movies will watch Rosemary’s Baby.

I think the most difficult thing for a modern viewer to understand is that the movie’s final revelation is supposed to be a twist. Like Psycho (1960) and Planet of the Apes (also released in 1968), the final twist is maybe the most famous thing about the movie. Both Ira Levin’s novel and the film adaptation play up suspicions about witches, witchcraft, and secret covens. All of the evidence Rosemary finds points to her new neighbors, friends, and doctor being part of a coven but she does not guess the true nature of her pregnancy. She comes to believe that they plan to sacrifice her baby in some sort of ritual.

Mia Farrow gives her signature performance as Rosemary Woodhouse. She is not a damsel but she is a person unaware of the danger around them until it is too late. Her petite figure accentuated by her pixie haircut (it’s “Vidal Sassoon” she says to everyone taken aback by her short hair) visually enhances that sense of looming danger. This only increases with her pregnancy. The stress of an unusual pregnancy, changing personality of her husband, and her isolation, paranoia, and realization that the circle of people she can trust is shrinking are effectively portrayed by Farrow. 

It is interesting that Rosemary’s Baby was such a watershed for horror movies, yet it began as a more conventional horror movie. William Castle, the B-movie producer famous for cheesy horror movies that used outlandish gimmicks (most famously rigging certain seats with buzzers for The Tingler), wanted to try his hand at more serious filmmaking. He optioned the rights to Ira Levin’s novel and planned to direct with his friend and frequent collaborator Vincent Price playing Rosemary’s sinister doctor. However, Paramount executive Robert Evans saw the potential for a substantial horror movie and hired Roman Polanski, then an upcoming European filmmaker of tense movies like Repulsion, later to be a fugitive from America, to direct.

Castle remained on the movie as producer, but Polanski as writer and director unlocked the potential that Evans saw. Polanski did not upend horror tropes of the time; rather, he stayed away from sensationalism, downplayed the supernatural, and grounded the film in a recognizable reality. Even the dream scenes retain a realistic but strange look, which only increases their surreal and disturbing tone–especially since one of those dreams turns out to be very real. The most important thing the film does is put us in Rosemary’s place, sometimes literally though POV shots. Unlike countless other horror movies, we don’t want anything bad to happen to her. The horror of Rosemary’s Baby is that it all feels so plausible. 

Whether you know the conclusion or not, Rosemary’s Baby is an incredibly effective horror film. Fashions and automobiles aside, little about it feels dated. In his review, Roger Ebert notes that instead of using surprise to scare the audience the movie uses a feeling of inevitability to create horror. That feeling of inevitability casts a tone of doom and dread over the whole movie and it lingers in the mind of the viewer. This is one of the greats of the modern horror era, but not the last thing you want to watch before going to bed.

Rosemary's Baby airs on TCM on Saturday, October 25th at 8:30CT and is available to stream on Paramount+, Kanopy, and Hoopla.