Halloween Horror Month 2021

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Dr. Feelgood

Spent this past rainy and bleak weekend, watching every Vincent Price film in my collection and I really enjoyed it. I managed also to boost my numbers up a bit .

You should check out the original version as well if you get a chance:



"No age is without its ruthless men who in their search for power, leave dark stains upon the pages of history."

Although best remembered today, if at all, for Son of Frankenstein, director Rowland V. Lee was responsible for a nice line in swashbucklers in the 30s and showed he could handle darker bigger budget fare with aplomb with 1939's Tower of London, a determinedly non-Shakespearean but highly entertaining account of the rise of Richard III and the fall of the Plantagenets. It's not quite top notch but it's not far from it, Lee managing to draw slightly more diverse performances from his leads than their usual default screen personas.

Filmed at a time when Universal still had enough of their Hunchback of Notre Dame backlot left to give the film an impressive sense of scale (ironically scheduling conflicts with this film meant that Basil Rathbone had to drop out of playing Frollo in the Charles Laughton version of Hunchback), it's surprisingly lavish, Lee's dynamic and visually striking direction putting every cent and more besides up on the screen. It also benefits from a witty script that may not aspire to Shakespeare but has a firm grip on the practicalities of power in the Middle Ages ("Marry your enemies and behead your friends!") and enough of the blood-soaked cruelty of the era to satisfy the Universal horror fans ("There's a way of tearing the truth from a man's soul") thanks to the presence of a bald and limping Boris Karloff as Crookback's favorite torturer, Dragfoot Mord. There's even a striking battle in the pouring rain (naturally shot in crippling heat) that may well have made an impression on Orson Welles when he heard those Chimes at Midnight.

Rathbone, looking like Mr Spock (

[Show spoiler]

), is quite magnificent here, relishing fencing with sword and words alike, whispering to avoid waking the sleeping boy king during court business and even managing to deliver one of the screen's few genuinely convincing drunk scenes in his drinking match with Clarence over that fateful vat of Malmsey wine. Ian Hunter makes a convincingly robust King Edward and Vincent Price (who would play Richard Crookback himself in the 1962 remake) a weaselly Clarence. Naturally the good guys can't compete: led by John Sutton, sounding alarmingly like Peter Cook, they're a typically bland lot, and it's only really some weak casting on the side of the angels and a rushed ending that doesn't give Richard and Mord good enough exits after such a grand buildup that let it down. But for 90 minutes you'll probably be having so much wicked fun with this near-forgotten near-classic that you'll forgive the less than grand finale.

[Guy87]

Originally Posted by Dr. Feelgood

Spent this past rainy and bleak weekend, watching every Vincent Price film in my collection and I really enjoyed it. I managed also to boost my numbers up a bit .

#2,#3,#4,#5,#6,#7


#8,#9


#10


#11

We did all of these last year, it was an absolute joy!

[Dr. Feelgood]

I wasn't aware of the original version. Really appreciate the suggestion, I'll definitely check it out!

Originally Posted by Aclea

You should check out the original version as well if you get a chance:

[Show spoiler]"No age is without its ruthless men who in their search for power, leave dark stains upon the pages of history."

Although best remembered today, if at all, for Son of Frankenstein, director Rowland V. Lee was responsible for a nice line in swashbucklers in the 30s and showed he could handle darker bigger budget fare with aplomb with 1939's Tower of London, a determinedly non-Shakespearean but highly entertaining account of the rise of Richard III and the fall of the Plantagenets. It's not quite top notch but it's not far from it, Lee managing to draw slightly more diverse performances from his leads than their usual default screen personas.

Filmed at a time when Universal still had enough of their Hunchback of Notre Dame backlot left to give the film an impressive sense of scale (ironically scheduling conflicts with this film meant that Basil Rathbone had to drop out of playing Frollo in the Charles Laughton version of Hunchback), it's surprisingly lavish, Lee's dynamic and visually striking direction putting every cent and more besides up on the screen. It also benefits from a witty script that may not aspire to Shakespeare but has a firm grip on the practicalities of power in the Middle Ages ("Marry your enemies and behead your friends!") and enough of the blood-soaked cruelty of the era to satisfy the Universal horror fans ("There's a way of tearing the truth from a man's soul") thanks to the presence of a bald and limping Boris Karloff as Crookback's favorite torturer, Dragfoot Mord. There's even a striking battle in the pouring rain (naturally shot in crippling heat) that may well have made an impression on Orson Welles when he heard those Chimes at Midnight.

Rathbone, looking like Mr Spock (

[Show spoiler]

), is quite magnificent here, relishing fencing with sword and words alike, whispering to avoid waking the sleeping boy king during court business and even managing to deliver one of the screen's few genuinely convincing drunk scenes in his drinking match with Clarence over that fateful vat of Malmsey wine. Ian Hunter makes a convincingly robust King Edward and Vincent Price (who would play Richard Crookback himself in the 1962 remake) a weaselly Clarence. Naturally the good guys can't compete: led by John Sutton, sounding alarmingly like Peter Cook, they're a typically bland lot, and it's only really some weak casting on the side of the angels and a rushed ending that doesn't give Richard and Mord good enough exits after such a grand buildup that let it down. But for 90 minutes you'll probably be having so much wicked fun with this near-forgotten near-classic that you'll forgive the less than grand finale.

[Guy87]

Should I import in Fright Night Part II?

[saltysam]

Day 11:
There's Someone Inside Your House

[Aclea]

15 & 16: A couple of Faustian pacts...



“The true Hell is here on Earth. Poverty, loneliness, evil men…”

Rene Clair’s lavish adaptation of the Faust myth, La Beaute du Diable plays it as black comedy rather than tragedy and finds in Michel Simon, one of French cinema’s sacred monsters, the perfect casting for one of literature’s profane ones. Looking like a dapper 19th Century version of Alec Guinness in The Fall of the Roman Empire with added rabbit’s teeth (something he plays on near the end as he delights in popping his head up as if emerging from a warren with demonic glee), it’s not a subtle performance, but it’s a perfectly judged one, at first capturing the ageing Faust’s frailty of body and mind and suddenly reinvigorated once Mephistopheles takes his form, as determined to steal every scene as his second-rate demon is to steal souls, whether he’s reduced to helpless laughter at the dancing Devil in a ballet or gleefully discussing the disastrous consequences for mankind of each new invention or discovery Faust comes up with. Not that he has everything his own way, with Faust proving reluctant to commit body and soul. At first he tries to tempt him to sign by making him miserable until a diabolical stroke of inspiration from his boss shows him the better way is to give him comfort, luxury and love and then take it away from him. But every contract has its loophole…

Despite the devils getting all the best lines, Simon gets surprisingly strong competition from his co-star in what is often the blander role. As the rejuvenated Faust/Henri, Gerard Philipe is particularly impressive, capturing Simon’s old man’s body language until he gets used to his new, younger body and subsequently both intoxicated and abhorred by the changes his deal wreaks on his personality. It helps that, while the film is still very much a period piece, his Faust is very much a post-atomic age figure, reputedly based on nuclear scientist-turned-ban the bomb campaigner Fréderic Joliot-Curie, a claim given more than a little credibility by Faust’s vision of a future where his desire to save the world will lead to its destruction. But for all the nightmare visions of a future where scientific progressed is unrestrained by any considerations of conscience or consequence there’s a lightness of touch to the film that prevents it from becoming a hectoring lecture, Clair wrapping the dark magic in playful visuals and black comedy as he deftly unfolds and reworks the narrative and timescale as his protagonists’ perspectives change.

As the 49-minute documentary on Cohen Media’s beautifully restored Bluray reveals, it was not a happy production: Clair and Philipe were both shy and thoughtful, Philipe’s shyness manifesting itself as try to overassert himself to hide his discomfort, while Simon’s impulsiveness and determination to provoke his co-workers and hit on most of the women in the film was a complete anathema to both of them. Yet the tension clearly worked in the film’s favour, mirroring the moral tug of war between Faust and Mephistopheles rather than pulling the film apart. As lavishly staged French fantasies for adults go, it forms the missing part of an unholy trinity alongside Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete and Carné’s Les Visiteurs du Soir. Talking of which...



“Could you be the cause of all these troubles?”
“What do you expect? No-one loves me. I amuse myself as best I can.”

Overshadowed outside France by both that other Medieval romantic fantasy and its director’s Les Enfants du Paradis but revered in its homeland as one of the great films of the war years, Marcel Carne’s Les Visiteurs du Soir has been particularly hard for non-French speakers to see for years: not released on video and unseen on UK TV for three decades, it’s only with Criterion’s largely unheralded DVD and Blu-ray release that many will have got the chance to finally see his tale of demons and marvels. While it doesn’t cast as magic or as poetic an ethereal spell as Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete, it’s still an impressive fable whose added resonance for a Nazi-occupied population is easy to see even if Carne and co-writer Jacques Prevert always insisted that no anti-Nazi subtext was intended, the Medieval setting simply the easiest way to get around the German censors.

The plot is simple: two minstrels arrive at a castle, whose occupants are celebrating the betrothal of the Baron’s daughter initially unaware that the two visitors (Arletty and Alain Cuny) have been sent by the Devil to sow discord by loving and destroying them and leaving the Devil to pick up the tab. Not that they don’t have plenty of raw material to work with: despite the jollity of the banquets and the lack of work for the executioner, the castle is almost underpinned by sadness. The Baron (Fernand Ledoux) is still mourning his lost wife, the servant girl all too aware that her plainness ensures the page she loves won’t even look at her and the groom (Marcel Herrand) is more interested in songs of hunting and killing than of love, confused by his bride-to-be Marie Dea’s kindness towards unfortunates and dismissing her dreams because “Dreams are dangerous and useless. I never dream myself.” For all the elegance and fairytale settings, it’s a cruel world where love is a weapon to make people tear themselves apart: “It isn’t worth a single tear. It’s nothing but a story invented to amuse the Devil.” It’s a game the envoys have played so many times they’re working from the same script, telling each new victim “As soon as I saw you, I knew why I’d travelled so far. I thanked Heaven for leading me to you.”

Yet the envoys aren’t ethereal symbolic figures but have their own tortured dysfunctional relationship of recriminations and mockery, revisiting their failed and false romance on their victims. Arletty enjoys her work, particularly if it means leading men to their death or to the very place she has come from, but Cluny is increasingly tortured by the deal he has made with the Devil, even more so when he genuinely falls in love with the bride-to-be. From then on the film becomes a battle for hearts and souls as Jules Barry’s Devil enters the fray, appearing everywhere at once to mislead, corrupt or gently scold the mere mortals. It’s easy to see why so many saw him as Hitler incarnate, making empty promises and offering those who collaborate with him every comfort but never able to still the pure hearts that defy him. He’s a cheerful soul, certain of his eventual victory and uncomprehending of the notion of resistance, but thanks to Jacques Prevert’s dialogue he doesn’t get all the best lines – most of those, surprisingly, go to the lovers, true or false.



It’s a surprisingly lavish production for a French wartime film, Trauner’s design and Roger Hubert’s photography giving it a deceptively simple and attractive look for a film filled with betrayal, hopeless longing and torment. It generally favors simpler special effects than you might expect from a period fable, but at their best, such as when the envoys stop time to steal a tryst with the groom and bride-to-be, they’re quietly effective. At times the film threatens to lose its grip and some of the dungeon scenes with a distressed Cluny stray perilously close to bad acting, but the spell is never broken and its easy to see why the film found such a special place in French cinema with its own brand of dark magic and cruel love. Oh, and look out for a young Simone Signoret and Alain Resnais as extras in the banquet scene.

Aside from the customary booklet there’s also a 37-minute talking heads documentary with friends of Carne and Prevert and film historians that provides much information and anecdotes about the film’s tortuous development – Carne had been having trouble finding a project that would pass the German censors after getting out of his contract with the German-backed Continental Films while Jacques Prevert and composer Joseph Kosma had been collaborating on an unrealised version of Puss in Boots – and its difficult production, which was complicated by wartime shortages (fabric for the costumes was almost impossible to find while the food in the banquet scenes had to be sprayed with toxic chemicals to stop the starving extras eating it), Vichy bureaucracy (because it was shot in both Occupied and Unoccupied France), anti-Semitic laws (both Kosma and production designer Alexander Trauner had to use fronts because it was illegal for Jews to work in French films) and scheduling (Jules Berry was making three films at the same time, shooting one in the morning, one in the afternoon and another in the evening and couldn’t remember his lines), and surprisingly rapturous reception from both right and leftwing critics.

It even covers the problems of exhibiting films in wartime – newsreels were shown with the lights on and a gendarme in attendance to stop the audience booing the Nazis, while only a limited number of tickets were sold to ensure that the nearest air raid shelters didn’t get filled up, making its hugely successful run – it was the biggest French hit of the war years – all the more remarkable. The documentary is not particularly strikingly made, but it tells the stories in a pleasingly straightforward fashion and puts the film in its historical perspective even if the transfer is obviously taken from a video master. The film’s original French trailer (which includes an extended version of the Devil’s arrival) fares worse in the picture quality stakes, looking like it was mastered from a juddery dialup internet download, but the transfer on the film itself is a beautiful restoration job with clear, sharp detail, plenty of depth and no obvious signs of digital tinkering.

[zallzed]

#20 - Lifeforce
#21 - Blood on Satan’s Claw



TV
Masters of Horror - Pick Me Up / Haeckel’s Tale / Imprint


So far

[Show spoiler] 31 Days of Hallloween

1 Dracula Prince of Darkness 1/2
2 Resident Evil
3 The Wolfman 1/2
4 Resident Evil Apocalypse 1/2
5 Wishmaster
6 Resident Evil extinction 1/2
7 Resident Evil Afterlife 1/2
8 The Cave
9 Quatermass and the Pit
10 Bats 1/2
11 To the Devil a Daughter
12 Dawn of the Dead (2004) 1/2
13 Scars of Dracula 1/2
14 VVitch
15 Sator 1/2
16 Evil Dead (2013) 1/2
17 Creep
18 The Changling 1/2
19 A Quite Place
20 Lifeforce
21 Blood on Satan’s Claw

[CelestialAgent]

Might be on a bit of a break as I work through the French language commentary and making of on the Korean release of The Wailing. And try and fit in BFI LFF short films, and new cinema releases.

[Spiderwalk]

Originally Posted by Dr. Feelgood

Spent this past rainy and bleak weekend, watching every Vincent Price film in my collection and I really enjoyed it. I managed also to boost my numbers up a bit .

I've just finished a rewatch of the Corman Poe films. Terrific stuff!

[OceanBlue]

Summary (so far):

#1 - Horrors of the Black Museum (Network DVD release)
#2 - first episode of horror anthology series Chillers (aka Mistress of Suspense), "The Cat Brought It In" (Mill Creek DVD re-release).

Watched this past weekend:

#3 - The Bogey Man (also spelt as The Boogey Man), UK Blu-ray release
#4 - Graduation Day (UK Blu-ray release).

[Arrowheadrevisited]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

#4 - Graduation Day (UK Blu-ray release).

Watched this last year and still can't get that endless song out of my head


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mCK5Gh36sEo

[Aclea]

17 & 18: another unpopular opinion ahoy...



“He had the Devil in him, so we cut it out.”

Despite its cult reputation, Piers Haggard’s rural folk horror entry The Blood on Satan’s Claw aka Satan’s Skin is more of a disjointed mess with some good ideas that are never really developed rather than an initially overlooked classic. It’s the kind of film you’ll either find a triumph of atmosphere and dread over narrative or a bit of a mediocre misfire that’s all over the place. A kind of flipside companion piece to Witchfinder General, while it does acknowledge the at times irrational hysteria surrounding witchcraft in its small country village (yes, they do do the “If she drowns, she’s not a witch” bit), in this case the threat is real and needs ‘undreamed of measures’ that turn out to be considerably less than shocking to root out courtesy of Patrick Wymark’s initially sceptical judge. The cause of the trouble is a deformed skull that’s unearthed during ploughing and promptly disappears, and it’s not long before the young squire’s intended goes mad, his aunt goes missing and local children are turning up dead with bits cut from their flesh.

Inspired by a real life child murderer as well as the Manson family, it’s probably the idea that the children are the ones killing and raping each other, playing increasingly perverted games and accusing the local vicar of impropriety as much as its historical setting that’s given it much of its reputation over the years. But while the central idea isn’t bad – a Satanic creature rebuilding itself through the flesh of those its corpse infects and morally corrupts – and there are some interesting twists, the characters and plot are never really developed, which perhaps isn’t that surprising considering the film was originally conceived as three separate stories before being combined and relocated to the early 18th Century so co-producers Tigon could ride on the coattails of their success with Witchfinder General. Along with plot strands that go nowhere and characters who just get forgotten about there’s also some very choppy filmmaking, as if they ran out of money before several scenes could be shot, which is entirely possible from the way an obvious exterior close-up of Linda Hayden from the funeral scene turns up in the interior Sunday School scene with Anthony Ainley (the film’s credits even misspell James Hayer’s name as Hoyter). Even the talented Marc Wilkinson’s score tends to reflect the rather clunky nature of much of the film, alternating a Maurice Jarre-like folk melody with crashingly obvious bits of Mickey Mousing cacophony for the more horrific moments. But perhaps, considering the plotline, a few scars should be expected in a film like this…

This is the third time I've seen this over the years trying to see what others do in it and came away empty. I don't think there's any point in a fourth.



With an impressive pedigree including director John Schlesinger, cinematographer Robby Müller and Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, The Believers offers an object lesson in why horror films are often best left to more visceral downmarket filmmakers. Pitting Martin Sheen’s police psychologist against a child murdering conspiracy that’s a black magic offshoot of the Santeria religion it’s the kind of film made with taste and deliberate pacing that dilutes the shocks – not least the reason for Jimmy Smits’ insane cop’s suicide – and takes forever to get down to the plot. The film’s a quarter of the way through before the murders are introduced and it’s nearly an hour before Robert Loggia’s frustrated cop on the case utters his first four-letter word. When it does get going it’s strangely undernourished despite its generous near-two hour running time. The Santeria religion is never really explored or offered as a real alternative force opposing the killers while the cult itself seems the pretty standard issue sacrificing your first born to the devil (or rather old gods) you always find in these kind of films.

There are vague hints of Rosemary’s Baby with the family friends who may have an ulterior motive, but ironically it’s motive where the film falls horribly flat. For a film that revolves around a cult who sacrifice their own children for Earthly power, it never gives us the slightest reason to suspect that Sheen might be tempted: he’s never drawn to the religion, there’s no real frustration with the problems of being a single parent and he’s perfectly satisfied with his lot in life with no great unfulfilled ambitions, so we know when the knife is put in his hand he won’t be tempted for a second. Helen Shaver’s along for little more reason than to prove the hero’s not gay, provide some gratuitous nudity and develop the zit from Hell after she and Sheen fall foul of the cult’s crazy-eyed priest while Richard Masur turns up fairly briefly as a decent and ultimately heroic lawyer (there’s a first) with a penchant for magic tricks but the closest to a star in this show is the unshowily excellent cinematography from Müller, which at least is well represented on Twilight Time’s strong Blu-ray transfer. Underwhelming.

Along with an isolated score and the customary booklet, the only extra is a spoiler-filled trailer, which makes the film look a lot more exciting than it actually is.

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #11

The architects behind Friday the 13th parts 1-3 come together with Fright Night scriptwriter Fred Dekker for 1986 goofy creature feature "House".

This tells the story of a vietnam vet turned writer, who's in the middle of a divorce after losing his son mysteriously at his aunt's house. After his aunt takes her own life he moves in to the house itself and has to face all of his personal demons as literal ones.

That synopsis would make for a great straightforward spooky haunted house movie, but instead this film is intent to go barmy with it, throwing constant demon puppets and costumes at the main character, leaving the film landing somewhere between "The 'Burbs" and "Evil Dead 2" but not quite as funny as either (well...maybe The 'Burbs).

Not a bad watch, but not a necessary one either.

[Decky]

Originally Posted by Decky

1st October - Bride Of Chucky
2nd October - Elvira Mistress Of The Dark and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
3rd October - Son Of Frankenstein

4th - Freddy Vs Jason
5th - Rod Zombie's Halloween 2
6th - House Of Frankenstein
7th - Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
8th - Psycho Goreman
9th - John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars
10th - John Carpenter's Village Of The Damned
11th - The Guest

[Peachfuzz]

Managed this last night...


Love watching Savalas chewing the set.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Peachfuzz

Managed this last night...


Love watching Savalas chewing the set.

It's no accident that blacklisted writer Bernard Gordon, who led the protests against Elia Kazan's honorary Oscar, named his character Captain Kazan.

[Guy87]

Originally Posted by Peachfuzz

Managed this last night...


Love watching Savalas chewing the set.

I felt the opposite on first watch.

Savalas introduction so late in the game almost stopped the film dead in it's tracks (lol) for me.

Seemed a bit smoother on my second go round though (great film either way).

[zallzed]

#22 - Death Line AKA Raw Meat
#23 -Terror Train

TV
Wolf Creek Season 1



Progress

[Show spoiler] 31 Days of Hallloween

1 Dracula Prince of Darkness 1/2
2 Resident Evil
3 The Wolfman 1/2
4 Resident Evil Apocalypse 1/2
5 Wishmaster
6 Resident Evil extinction 1/2
7 Resident Evil Afterlife 1/2
8 The Cave
9 Quatermass and the Pit
10 Bats 1/2
11 To the Devil a Daughter
12 Dawn of the Dead (2004) 1/2
13 Scars of Dracula 1/2
14 VVitch
15 Sator 1/2
16 Evil Dead (2013) 1/2
17 Creep
18 The Changling 1/2
19 A Quite Place
20 Lifeforce 1/2
21 Blood on Satan’s Claw
22 Death Line
23 Terror Train

[saltysam]

Day 12:
Phantasm

[Cinematt]

I've decided to try to manage 31 Japanese Horror films this month, not least to get a bit more up to date with my own collection! I was on holiday for the first week though so I'm playing catch up, but happily a lot of the older Japanese films are pretty short as they played in double features a lot so I'm getting through a few.

#1-4: When Horror Came to Shochiku

The standout from these is Goke: Bodysnatcher From Hell, which is absolutely fantastic B-movie stuff. There's a Japanese BD of that but it's not English friendly, I'd absolutely love for someone to release it, I liked this so much I'm tempted to buy the Japanese release and side-load subtitles.

#5 Wolf Guy

Much less werewolf-y than I was expecting but I really enjoyed its manic energy.

#6 The Ghost of Yotsuya (steaming on Criterion Channel)

This is a decent ghost story with some really great imagery from the director of Jigoku. It's not as good as that, but it clearly has his fingerprints on it.

#7-9 The Bloodthirsty Trilogy

These were pretty fun, I was surprised how heavily these were influenced by Hammer movies on their look and feel, but it worked really well.

#10 The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch

This started off quite slight and with its child leads almost felt like a film aimed at children but it gets progressively darker and definitely doesn't end up a kids film.

I've noticed that in almost every one of these a very unconvincing mannequin is thrown off something, and it has now got to the point that I'm cheering when it happens. Very much hoping this trope can continue all month.