31 Days of Halloween - Day 14 - Movie 1

When a series of murders take place at a remote hotel, the bellboy (Lou Costello) becomes the prime suspect, but the hotel detective (Bud Abbott) and a police detective (James Flavin) try to determine the identity of the real killer amongst a pool of suspects.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) is something of an old dark house mystery set in a hotel, and with a bunch of shenanigans from the comedy duo. The solution to the mystery is unnecessarily convoluted, but is really not terribly important when the real concerns of this movie is to supply laughs, of which there are many. Karloff is great as one of the key suspects who tries to hypnotize Costello into killing himself. It makes you wish that Karloff had participated in more comedies.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14

Igor (Marty Feldman) in Young Frankenstein (1974). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 - Movie 2

When a family movies into a new house and finds itself assaulted by unexplained phenomena, they turn to Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga) for help. The paranormal investigators determine that their house is possessed by an inhuman spirit and set about doing what ever it takes to rid the house of it's unwelcome occupant and save the family.

This is probably James Wan's best realized movie. I admit to not being drawn to much of his work, but this was right up my alley. Based on a real case investigated by real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film shows some restraint, relying more on a general sense of dread and foreboding, which makes the scares when they come more effective. You are invested in the people in this film, and their predicament.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 - Movie 1

A family (Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Lee Montgomery, and Bette Davis) move into a run down mansion for the summer. As the summer progresses, not only does the house start to look restored beyond what a bit of elbow grease and furniture can accomplish, but the family members begin to act peculiar, until Oliver Reed begins to sense that the cause is the house and that they should leave right away. The house, however, has other plans.


Burnt Offerings (1976) is a standout malevolent objects movie. It's a slow burn film that never gets tiresome as it gradually ratchets up the tension and mystery happening to the characters on screen. More concerned with the psychological toll on the family than jolts, the film only really features one special effects moment, letting the atmosphere and performances do the rest.

FYI, the house is the same one that served as the mortuary in Phantasm (1979).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13

A morlock from The Time Machine (1960). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12 - Movie 2

A blind veteran (Nick Damici) moves into a gated retirement community and on his first night there his next door neighbor, and his seeing eye dog are both viciously killed. He does a little digging and figures out that someone in his community is a werewolf, and begins planning to confront that person on the next full moon.

Late Phases (2014) was a real breath of fresh air in the werewolf subgenre. It has a good cast, well done characters, and even the basic premise of having the hero someone who can't see what's threatening him, really work to keep this movie intriguing. The werewolves are also really cool looking practical effects creatures and not cgi. This one gets a strong recommendation from me.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12 - Movie 1

See this photo up above? Good. Now you have absolutely no reason to watch The Bat People (1974), an atrociously slow film about a man who turns into a werebat while on a desert honeymoon with his wife. There's a lot of repetition from badly acted seizures, police cars stuck in the sand, uninteresting murders, suspicious behavior, concern from the wet blanket wife, and no view of the werebat (by Stanley Winston) until the very end. You may notice that the movie is called The Bat People, but seems like it should more honestly be called The Bat Person. Surprisingly, it's a barely honest title, as one of the other characters is clearly going to be transforming into a bat at the end of the movie. Only once the behavior change in this person become obvious, does the movie almost get interesting, which is sad since there's only about five minutes left before the end.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12

Wioslea, who buys Luke Skywalker's landspeeder in Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 - Movie 2

People are mysteriously dying near a new military base, their brains and spines sucks out of them. Of course the locals suspect the military, but the base commander searches for another cause. He discovers a local scientist whose experiments with telekinesis have given form to invisible brain creatures, their power increased by the base's nuclear power plant.

I was surprised to discover that I had not covered Fiend Without a Face (1958) in a previous countdown. This movie is a gem. The creatures, invisible for most of the movie are made threatening by the sounds that accompany their presence just before their violent attacks. The attacks themselves are pretty potent, too, especially the one that fails to kill a local constable who returns a gibbering idiot in the film's most unsettling moment. Once the brain creatures finally can be seen in their stop motion glory, they are not in any way a let down. The creatures look like brain's with snail-like stalks and nerve tendrils who scoot around using their spines, and launch themselves through the air onto their victims like the face huggers from Alien (1979). They launch a massive attack against the humans leading to a grisly climax.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 - Movie 1

Dr. Blakely (David Gale) uses his Psychiatric Research Institute and a cable self-help show to help a giant brain take over the minds of viewers with the goal of taking over the entire planet. Only a smart high school trouble maker seems to be immune to the Brain's hypnotic control, and he and his girlfriend set out to kill the brain and free the populace.

The Brain (1988) is one of those weird films which is not very good for many reasons, yet remains compellingly watchable. It's goofy, with long boring stretches interrupted by repetitive action, such as characters chasing each other down and up the same staircase three times in a row. It tries to be satirical in it's notion of controlling the masses through television, but isn'y clever enough, or subtle enough to make that satire rise beyond the obvious. It's not the right kind of so bad it's entertainingly bad either. It's just one of a number of rubber monster movies from the 1980s that's serviceable, without being more than that, but features a pretty great looking monster.

31 Days 0f Halloween - Day 11

Barbara Steele in Black Sunday (1960). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 - Movie 2

While a theater group rehearses late into the night, they discover themselves locked inside the theater with an escaped maniac who hunts them down one by one while wearing an owl mask. Not the most original premise, but this bare bones plot serves Stage Fright (1987) pretty well. Part giallo, part 80s slasher flick, logic has less of a place here than the striking visuals.

The characters are pretty much disposable, which is how they are treated, and are given very broad defining characteristics; the lecherous investor, the cruel director, the bitchy gay guy, the ingenue, etc. Some are given slightly more defining characteristics which don't do anything to aid the plot, or make them more relatable. While the silent killer in the owl mask is a spooky visual, he doesn't really exude any real menace. His best moment, and one of the best in the film, comes when the killer, mistaken for the actor he replaces, kills one of the other characters on stage while everyone looks on, unaware that they are witnessing a real murder. That scene seems to be the one true moment in the film in which the witnesses go from being unknowing participants, to shocked and horrified, caring, and ultimately self interested, all in the span of a few minutes.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 - Movie 1

In a story that probably anyone in a creative field can relate to, Vincent Price plays the creator of elaborate magic tricks, who hopes to break out as a stage magician with his newest creation. Sadly, his debut is halted by his employer who reminds Price that anything he creates belongs to him, whether it was created on his own time, or not. His boss also stole his wife previously. Price, understandably gets upset and does away with his boss. Then, in an intricate scheme to insure that suspicion never falls on him, Price's character keeps finding himself cornered and has to escalate the body count as well as his cover story, which is threatened by a detective and a mystery writer.

The Mad Magician (1954) is a pretty compelling film. It moves along briskly. The inventive magic tricks on display, and the villain's maneuvering to stay ahead of the law maintain interest, and there are even a few moments of genuine suspense. Price also gets to stretch his range a bit as his character impersonates other characters throughout.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10

A sleestak from Land of the Lost (1974-1977). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Movie 2

A group of grad students studying climate change effects on Beluga whales, hitches a ride aboard an arctic crab boat. The boat hauls aboard a frozen extraterrestrial creature able to shape shift and infect the crew members, replicating them in the process. This leads to a lot of paranoia during the intense hunt for the creature, complicated by the presence of a Russian spy whose objective was to obtain this organism all along.


If Harbinger Down (2015) sounds like a combination of Alien and The Thing on a boat, it should. The film is the brain child of special effects men Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., who worked on all of the Alien films, except the first one, and who were disappointed to learn that much of the practical creature effects they created for The Thing (2011) wound up being replaced by digital effects.

After sharing their effects reel from The Thing online, they were encouraged to create their own practical effects oriented film, and with kickstarter funding and additional money, Harbinger Down was the result.

The film clearly doesn't have anywhere near the same budget as either franchise it pays homage to (with a number of references), but looks more expensive than it is. It also takes itself seriously enough that the viewer can, too. The script is decent, and so are the characters and cast. Harbinger Down doesn't break any new ground, but demonstrates a genuine fondness for the era of practical transformation and creature effects, from the days where inventive make-up artists wowed audiences and made anything seem possible, before any computer could even come close.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Movie 1

When biological samples are taken from Antarctica and to be transported to America, an unknown life form comes to life aboard the plane just before it's about to land at an island Naval base in order to refuel. The sailors stationed on the island begin disappearing. Some are found with terrible burns, others are not found at all. The nature of the killer is unknown, but is determined to be a specimen that came in on the plane. As the hunt for the mysterious organism continues, so does the body count.

The Navy vs the Night Monsters (1966) is actually a much better movie than I would have guessed. While the vast amount of humor undermines what could have been a pretty intense situation, it succeeds in giving the cast of characters distinctive personalities so that as they are picked off one by one they aren't merely cannon fodder. Yes, some of the dialogue is cringeworthy, and some situations defy credibility, but you get the sense that there was an earnest effort to make something that rose above similar fare at the time.




 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9

Xenomorph from It Came From Outer Space (1953)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8 - Movie 2

A journalist investigates a series of murders. Women who have been kidnapped are being found dead, drained of blood. The trail leads him to a scientist who is using the blood to help a duchess retain her youth and beauty.

I Vampiri (The Vampires) (1957) goes all out to imbue its scenario with gothic atmosphere. An old castle filled with secret passages, candles, and skeletons; a veiled figure who wanders its halls, giving commands; a mad scientist's laboratory. Contrasted with a modern European backdrop, this makes for a dynamic contrast as the world of the mysterious intersects with one of the normal.

Gianna Maria Canale as Giselle du Grand is a cold beauty, and almost otherworldly lending her role a strange credibility. The entire film is mesmerizing to watch, and is one of the better films I've watched this season.







 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8 - Movie 1

Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie are Miriam and John Blaylock, husband and wife vampires who have been together for centuries, but not forever as John finds himself rapidly aging. In desperation he turns to a researcher working to reverse Progeria, but instead of saving himself, he may have instead doomed himself to be replaced as Miriam's immortal companion.


I didn't like The Hunger (1983) when I first saw it on the big screen way back when. I liked John's arc, but found Tony Scott's direction to be more concerned with flash and visual style and less with story. My memories of the film consisted mostly of crumbling corpses, white pigeons, and diaphanous curtains blowing in the wind. Seeing it again for the first time since the mid 80s, those elements are here in plentitude, and some of my earlier assessments remain true, but the style, dated as it is serves the story more than it impairs it, lending it a modern gothic flair which turns this story of doomed romance into more of a fairy tale than an outright tragedy. There's also a great satire on the interminable waiting required in sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office.  If only the characters had a bit more depth to them, it would be possibly be one of the classic vampire movies instead of just a very good one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8

The Crimson Ghost (1946). Cut paper.