13 Nights of Shocktober: Cuckoo

by A.J.

Night 12: Hotel Horror Night

"If I were you, I wouldn't want to get hurt even more."

Cuckoo

Part monster movie, part mystery, part suspense picture, all of the seemingly disparate elements of director Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo come together for a strange and very entertaining horror movie that delivers everything the audience might want while also being something that stands out because it feels so different. Though this is a strange movie, it is not hard to follow. Director Singer plays fair and clues are here and there but this is not so much about solving the mystery or what it all means. This is also the rare movie that remains intriguing and interesting even after the big secret has been revealed. Singer’s direction and screenplay expertly build tension and mystery, increasing the strangeness of events so that by the time we reach the climax anything feels possible.

Teenage Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves with her family (father, stepmother, and younger half-sister) to the Bavarian Alps for her father to take an architecture job at a secluded mountain resort. The owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens), is very helpful. He remembers that Gretchen’s father and stepmother stayed there on their honeymoon. He insists that the family live at the resort and even gives Gretchen a job working at reception desk, but he insists that she not work at night or have an escort at night. From the mysterious prologue we know that Herr König is up to something secretive and sinister. 

Schafer is great at playing a believable and relatable teen and the script allows her to do dumb teen things like steal from the cash register and blow off work to make out with a girl she just met. She ignores the warning about going out at night alone and this is when the creepiness and horror really kick into gear. In a brilliant moment, all the creepier because it is underplayed, Gretchen rides her bike at night and in the woods a figure runs alongside her. Then she is attacked by a woman with glowing red eyes. She gets knocked around and that her injuries don’t just go away is a subtle but effective touch of realism. By the time the climax plays out Gretchen has an arm in a sling and bandage around her head. 

Other bizarre occurrences include Gretchen’s half sister Alma’s trance-like seizures that may, or may not, be linked with, or cause, time jumps. There is also Henry (Jan Bluthardt), a distraught former detective lurking around the resort grounds, who is set on some kind of revenge though he does not fully understand what happened in the past or what is happening now. 

Dan Stevens practically walks away with the whole movie, showing off not only his mastery of the German language but also a dark and villainous side. He is believably benevolent and dangerous. Unlike the detective, König never comes across as mad, though he is essentially a mad scientist. The most disturbing thing about his character is how cool and in control he comes across at all times. 

We eventually do find out what Herr König is up to and it may, or may not, be a surprise. Once the secret is revealed everything we’ve seen before makes sense and what follows is entertaining, even riveting, though it relies more on suspense and action than horror. This one of the very few times when a shootout in a horror movie is not a disappointment or used to make up for a lack of creativity. Herr König , Henry, and Gretchen stalking around, each with their own goal and agenda, is a very tense sequence. There is humor sprinkled throughout so neither dark plot points or themes become overwhelming. Gretchen is still mourning the death of her mother, but this used to build her character and explain her outlook and behavior, rather than as a shortcut for substance and subtext. Whether it is using horror or mystery techniques or even indulging in action, Cuckoo is well executed. Nothing happens randomly or for the sake of shock. It is weird, wild stuff.  

Cuckoo is available to stream on Hulu/Disney+.

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: Eaten Alive

 by A.J.

Night 8: Creature Feature Night

Meet The Maniac And His Friend

Eaten Alive

The career of director Tobe Hooper consists of films you’ve certainly heard of (the landmark 1974 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), films that sound familiar (Lifeforce), and films you might never have heard of, like his follow up to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive. I doubt anyone would argue that Eaten Alive is scarier or more intense than Chainsaw, but it is very difficult to watch at times. This is the kind of sleazy and grimy low budget movie that will make your skin crawl. What’s to like?...What's not to like?

The opening seconds let you know what is in store. The very first words spoken are “My name is Buck. I’m rarin’ to fuck,” said by none other than a young Robert Englund over an extreme close up of a his crotch as he undoes his jeans. The reluctant sex worker responds, “Let’s just get it over with.” What follows is an attempted rape. The movie does not become any more pleasant. The sex worker, Clara (Roberta Collins), quits the brothel and ends up at an isolated hotel run by local yokel, Judd (Neville Brand), a puritanical psychopath who ends up killing and feeding her to the crocodile that lives in the swamp right next to the hotel. Other characters arrive for various reasons including Clara’s father Harvey (Mel Ferrer) and sister, Libby (Crystin Sinclaire), who are searching for her. A quarrelling husband and wife, Ray and Faye (Marilyn Burns), with their very young daughter, Angie, and dog named Snoopy also stop at the hotel. There is something off about the couple and Ray (William Finley) proves to be about as mentally unstable as Judd. 

There is no real protagonist. Libby and Faye are not so much passive characters as they are barely written. The town sheriff allows the brothel to operate and makes vague come-ons to Libby. Harvey disowned Clara causing her to run away in the first place. The closest we get to a hero is attempted rapist and all around troublemaker Buck, who looks around after hearing a child scream for help, but he only does this because the woman he is in bed with insists.

So much about this movie is off putting, but that is part of its appeal–though I will of course admit that for some it may be off putting entirely and that is okay too. A big element that takes the edge off and keeps things entertaining in spite of the unpleasantness on screen is the low budget and stylized look. The run down hotel and pier are obviously a set. Fog and mist straight out of old horror movies covers the seams of the sets and crocodile effects. If the crocodile looks fake that only helps. It is up to the actors to sell the killer croc, who needs victims brought to it–not unlike a later Tobe Hooper movie also featuring Robert Englund, The Mangler. The exterior of the hotel is almost always bathed in red light that at first I thought came from a neon sign but actually comes from nothing but the film itself. It helps build the hellish atmosphere. The overacting is another element that adds camp and takes the edge off the horror. Neville as Judd reminded me of Stephen King’s classic overacting in "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" segment of Creepshow (1982). 

The hard lines that I must bring up that may make the movie too much are: 1) the dog is eaten by the crocodile almost immediately 2) Angie, a small child, is in danger for most of the movie; there are scenes of a scythe wielding chasing after her and the crocodile chases after her too. She is too young to be clever but Judd is pretty dumb and seems to just forget about her when she hides under the hotel.

There is not enough of an ethos for Eaten Alive to qualify as “dark” but like many grindhouse exploitation movies, it is entertaining in spite of and because of its low elements.

Eaten Alive is available to stream for free on Tubi and Plex.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Bride of Frankenstein

by A.J.

Night 1: Classic Horror Night

The Monster: You…make man…like me?

Doctor Pretorius: No. Woman. Friend for you.

The Monster: Woman?

The Bride of Frankenstein

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the release of one of the greatest and most influential movie sequels of all time: The Bride of Frankenstein. Naturally, after the success of Frankenstein in 1931, directed by James Whale, Universal Studios executive Carl Laemmle Jr. was eager to follow up with a sequel, but Whale was reluctant. Laemmle was wisely reluctant to do a sequel without Whale. When the sequel finally arrived in 1935, it proved to be worth the wait. Not only was The Bride of Frankenstein a hit and influential on later horror movies and filmmakers, its scenes and images have become iconic and part of the landscape of Halloween. 

There is a lot going on in The Bride of Frankenstein, which is impressive because it is only 75 minutes and never feels rushed. In a delightfully amusing prologue Mary and Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are gathered together again to celebrate the success of Mary’s novel, Frankenstein. Bryon summarizes the book, which serves as a recap of the first movie (though that movie bears little resemblance to Shelley’s novel). Then Mary Shelley reveals the details of a second volume deemed too shocking to publish. This is The Bride of Frankenstein. The story of The Monster and Frankenstein picks up right where the first movie left off and we learn that they both survived the fire at the windmill. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is at first unrepentant and wants to get back to experimenting, that is until he is approached by the truly mad Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) who wants them to combine discoveries in a new creation. Meanwhile, The Monster (Boris Karloff reprising his iconic role) wanders around and is abused and harassed by everyone he encounters, even after he saves a girl from drowning (perhaps a callback or attempt to make up for the infamous lake scene in the first movie). Then he encounters a kindly blind man who shows him friendship and teaches him to speak. Eventually though, he ends up with Frankenstein and Pretorius.

As far as mad scientists go, Dr. Pretorius, with his wild hair and nonchalance toward the macabre, puts Dr. Frankenstein to shame. Frankenstein comes across as a man who became lost in obsession. Pretorius, on the other hand, delights in being so mad that he was booted out of his university for “knowing too much.” When he shows Frankenstein his own creations, living miniatures of a king, queen, bishop, and more, he does so with all the flair and scripted delight of a magician putting on a show. When Pretorius finally meets The Monster his reaction is so understated that it makes him seem even more insane. 

One of the movie’s most famous scenes, perhaps one of the most famous of classic cinema, is The Monster meeting the blind hermit. This is where The Monster learns to speak and develops his iconic speech pattern: “Fire…No good!” Many horror fans and movie monster fans find The Monster to be exceedingly sympathetic and that is in large part because of this movie and this scene. The other iconic scene is the creation of The Bride, with the elaborate laboratory, lightning storm, and, of course, the Monster’s Mate herself. At first she looks like a mummy wrapped in bandages; then a dissolve shows her in her iconic look: a flowing white gown, high-top black hair with a silver jagged streak on each side. She shrieks and hisses and does little else, yet her striking visage has had such a profound impact that she has become a figure, a totem, of classic horror movies and Halloween in general. Her look has been reproduced and parodied in countless TV Shows, movies, commercials, cartoons. This all the more impressive considering how little screen time she has, only a few minutes, and appears in no other Frankenstein movies. I am always surprised by this; I think that I was mistaken about the last time I watched and she appears more; nope. 

The Bride is played by Elsa Lanchester, who also plays Mary Shelley, and while there is no significance in this, I have always enjoyed the coincidence. She only receives credit as Mary Shelly. The “Monster’s Mate” is credited with a question mark. This is fun marketing but is a disservice to her; at least she is known as the Bride now. She underwent 3 hours of make up and the iconic hairdo which wrapped her hair into the wig and was uncomfortable to say the least. 

The argument over whether “Frankenstein" refers to the monster or the doctor is not new (it refers to Doctor Victor Frankenstein, changed to Henry Frankenstein in these movies for no reason) and is at least as old as this movie. The title itself is the perfect example. Dr. Frankenstein has a fiancé and later wife, Elizabeth, but the title clearly does not refer to her. The credits refer to the creations as the Monster and the Monster’s Mate. Most confusing of all, when the Monster's Mate comes to life, Pretorius calls her “the Bride of Frankenstein” perhaps sparking off this whole what do you call the monster debate. 

There’s some camp value to The Bride of Frankenstein in the frantic energy of Colin Clive as Frankenstein and the over-the-top reactions of Una O’Connor to seeing The Monster. This only adds to the movie’s overall entertainment value, which is still strong 90 years later. It’s hard to convey the influence, both direct and indirect, of The Bride of Frankenstein. Clips of it turn up in everything from Weird Science to About a Boy. Mel Brooks’s brilliant Young Frankenstein parodies and pays homage to The Bride of Frankenstein, it even used some of the same props. “To a new world of gods and monsters!” Pretorius declares as he lifts his glass to toast Frankenstein after their devilish bargain is struck. The Bride of Frankenstein did indeed usher in a new world of horror cinema. 

Bride of Frankenstein is available to stream on Prime Video and will air on TCM on Halloween at 5:30 CT.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Doctor X

by A.J.

Night 11: Classic Horror Night

Out Thrills Them All!

Doctor X

In the early 1930's, to compete with, and cash in on, the success Universal Studios had with Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), Warner Bros. released Doctor X in 1932. It is a very peculiar horror film. Unlike Universal’s monster movies which were based on famous 19th century novels and involved castles and period settings, Doctor X was based on a play and has a contemporary, urban setting. It also has more of a mystery plot than a horror plot. The director is Michael Curtiz, who would become famous for directing classics like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Casablanca (1942). It's interesting to see his name on a horror movie the and skill he brings to a genre picture. The most peculiar element is its look. It is not a black and white film but it is not exactly a color movie either. It was shot on two strip technicolor film which used shades of only two colors: orange and green. The result looks like an eerie colorization of a black and white film or a faded color picture. This look works in the film’s favor giving it an eerie, mysterious atmosphere in every shot.

Doctor Xavier (Lionel Atwell), a renowned pathologist and researcher is assisting police in the investigation of the mysterious cannibalistic “moon killer” murders. Clues point to the killer being someone at Doctor Xavier’s research lab, where everyone is some degree of creepy or suspicious. 

All kinds of different research is done at Doctor Xavier’s lab. There are experiments that involve large machines and also psychological experiments. Doctor X is able to convince the police to let him conduct his own investigation to find the killer. For the sake of the plot, the police commissioner agrees. Complicating things as much as helping the investigation is a reporter played by Lee Tracy. He is basically comic relief but also one of the main characters. Fay Wray plays Doctor X’s daughter, and it’s only appropriate that her first line is a startled scream–she is the original scream queen after all.

The contemporary urban setting is unusual for a horror movie of this era and would be until the late 1960’s with the release of Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby. Warner Bros. was known for its urban gangster movies so it makes sense that their horror movie would have the same setting and aesthetic. The city setting and mystery story give this film an almost Noir-ish feel with green tinged backgrounds and skies substituting for stylistic shadows. There is also more of an edge than you might expect. Since this was a Pre-Code movie it was able to get away with some more gruesome visuals and disturbing subject matter for the time. By far the most memorable and shocking visual is the killer applying a mask of “synthetic flesh” giving them a truly monstrous and scary looking face. 

Doctor X’s experiment to determine the killer’s identity is very reminiscent of a famous scene from John Carpenter’s The Thing. The doctor restrains all of the suspects in a row while they watch a reenactment of the murder so he can gauge their reactions. When the real killer pops up, everyone else is trapped and struggles to get free. 

Fay Wray’s character could be more developed. She ends up being the screaming damsel in distress, but her screen presence makes up for lack of character depth. The reporter character is funny, but not very charming so his romance with Wray feels forced and obligatory. This movie isn’t scary but it is creepy and eerie and entertaining. Like many classic era horror movies it is also pretty short (76 minutes) and it's impressive how much it gets done in that time. If you’ve seen all of the more famous horror classics, I highly recommend Doctor X for an eerie Shocktober night. 

Doctor X airs on TCM on Thursday, October 31st at 5AM CT.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Alien

by A.J.

Night 8: Sci-Fi Night/Creature Feature Night

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

Alien

Supposedly, Alien was pitched as JAWS in space. It’s also been described as the ultimate haunted house movie because it answers the glaring question: why don’t they just leave? Here the answer is clear: they can’t leave because they are in a spaceship, but it is not a ghost or demon lurking around the corner, it is a terrifying alien creature. Alien has spawned numerous sequels, each moving further away from the original and containing less of what made it such a hit with audiences and even critics—it earned two “yes" votes from Siskel and Ebert, who were notoriously hard on the horror genre and Ebert later included it in his Great Movies essays. Alien is an intriguing science fiction picture and effective horror movie thanks to the skill of director Ridley Scott, the entire behind the scenes crew, the amazing cast, and the alien effects. It subtly introduces ideas that incite awe and dreadful wonder, but there is no time to contemplate this because a monster is hunting the crew of average working class people who are not explorers or soldiers or adventurers. Everything about Alien holds up: the suspense, the scares, and even the effects. 

It seems silly and unnecessary to describe the plot of Alien. This is one of those movies that nearly everyone has seen and even if they haven’t, they are familiar with its most famous scenes. The crew of the Nostromo, a commercial starship hauling mineral ore back to earth, is awoken from suspended animation to respond to a signal from a distant planet. They investigate an ancient cyclopean alien spacecraft and one of the crew is attacked by a strange crablike creature from an alien egg. Once on board the alien evolves and begins stalking the crew. 

Alien is one of those movies with a long, storied production history that somehow turned out a classic. The making-of featurettes on the DVD feel endless but they are also endlessly fascinating. Director Ridley Scott insisted that the cast had to be perfect because his primary focus would be the effects and production. Somehow, a perfect cast was assembled: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. The crew of the Nostromo are working class people who all feel familiar. Stanton and Koto complain about their pay and contracts; Ripley (Weaver) is annoyed that her authority is ignored; the captain, Dallas (Skerritt), just wants to get back to Earth to finish the job. Weaver as Ripley is undoubtedly the breakout performance and the character has become iconic.

The most memorable scene is undoubtedly the “chest burster” scene. According to legend the cast’s shocked and horrified reactions are real because they did not know what was going to happen or what the alien would look like. This is only partially true. Weaver and Cartwright had already seen the alien and Skerritt knew because he had been sneaking around the effects department. What the cast did not know is how much fake blood there would be or that it would be spurting everywhere. When a jet of fake blood hit Cartwright she was caught off guard, slipped, fell, and got back up into frame quickly; the look of shock on her face was from her fall. 

The alien creature and spacecraft were designed by the strange and visionary mind of H.R. Giger, who the production staff found so weird that they put his office on the far side of the building (though Scott and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon say they got along fine with Giger, who is not as weird as his work would suggest). In interviews Giger reveals that worms and snakes and tentacles terrify him and he squirms describing the things that make up his own work. Everything about the alien, the spacecraft, and the eggs looks like something from a nightmare; anything familiar looking about the alien only makes it look scarier. The design of the Nostromo by Ron Cobb makes the ship look and feel like a lived-in vehicle, not a flashy adventureship. Having everything about the alien and everything built by humans have two different designers was a stroke of genius because each feels so distinct and also incongruous with the other.

Alien moves slowly but it is well paced whether you’re watching the scenes of the crew members going about their routine or the horror scenes with the alien. Despite gross things like the “facehugger” alien and the “chestburster” scene, and even the alien itself, this movie mainly uses suspense to get at the audience, and uses it well. The scares, even if you know they are coming, still startle and scare and shock, and they’re still there waiting, lurking.