13 Nights of Shocktober: Extraordinary Tales

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Horror Anthology Night

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

Death: “That, my friend, Nevermore.”

Extraordinary Tales 

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 Nights of Shocktober: I Walked With a Zombie

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night  8: Val Lewton Night

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

I Walked With a Zombie

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 Nights of Shocktober: Stoker

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 10: Do Not Disturb the Family: Stoker

Stoker is a film with unlikely credentials. It is the only writing credit for actor Wentworth Miller, of the TV series Prison Break. It is the first English language film from Korean director Park Chan-Wook, famous for his ultra-violent revenge trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance). It borrows the premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 film Shadow of a Doubt: Uncle Charlie, equal parts menacing and alluring, enters and disrupts the idyllic home life of his teenage niece. But Stoker is not a remake of Hitchcock’s movie, it begins with that premise then takes off into a creepy family drama and psychological thriller.  

Matthew Goode plays Uncle Charlie Stoker, Nicole Kidman plays Evelyn Stoker, his brother’s wife, but the subtle star of this film is Mia Wasikowska as his niece, India Stoker. On India's 18th birthday, her father Richard (Dermot Mulroney) dies in a car accident. On the day of the funeral Uncle Charlie, whom India did not know existed, returns from traveling the world and moves in with her and her distant, unstable mother. While India remains cold to her Uncle Charlie, her mother warms up to him nicely, perhaps too nicely. For her 18th birthday she received a key. We wonder with her who it is from and what it unlocks.

India wonders about things teens often ponder over. Are you in control of your nature or has it already been decided for you? The film opens with a narration by India telling us that she hears things other people don’t hear and sees things others don’t see. We hear exposition from characters whispering so that India won’t hear, but she still hears. Her watchful eyes and quiet nature allow her to spy on characters that think they’re hiding their actions, but India already knows what others are trying to hide. They just confirm her suspicions. She slowly warms up to Uncle Charlie as they learn each other’s secrets. We see them play the piano together in a creepy and uncomfortable duet.

Stoker has a distinct, effective sound design. The sound of hair being brushed turns into the rustling of tall, dry grass. The beautiful, bold production design and cinematography makes every scene feel like an uncanny painting. All of this emphasizes India’s heightened senses and gives the film an unreal, dreamlike tone. India’s home is upper class and impeccably kept but its aesthetic seems unlike an actual home. The other teenagers she goes to school with don’t act quite like average teenagers. The trees and the grass and flowers are idyllic like a pastoral dream. There is something disquieting about all of this that adds to the underlying and unspoken menace surrounding the characters

Stoker feels like it is an adaptation of a Gothic novel. It takes place in a seemingly normal environment that feels like a fantasy. This is a film that, like its main character, is quiet and does not directly tell us much. We learn about the characters and plot, like India, from listening and watching. There is a lot that Stoker does not show us forgoing the shock value other films seize upon with misguided eagerness. Stoker shows us static images of seemingly benign things that we know carry heavy implications. When violence finally happens it is striking, but underplayed. This is a film shot and staged with meticulous care and sharp skill. Stoker may be a slow burn thriller, but this character based story builds to a satisfying, but perhaps unsettling, ending.