31 Days of Halloween - Day 31

There are some movies that work best when you going into them knowing little about what's coming. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) is one such film. So, all I'm going to say is it's mundane, and it's about vampires, and it's extremely funny and easily the best film I've watched this countdown. Go see it.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31 - Movie 1

The tv miniseries of Stephen King's Salem's Lot (1979) is more soap opera than horror, but still holds up pretty well despite a few dated fashion choices. The Glick boys hovering outside of the window, filmed in reverse to give it an even eerier quality, are still a chilling site, and Nosferatu inspired Mr. Barlow is one hell of a vampire, even given his short screen time.  The performances are good, particularly David Soul, Lance Kerwin, James Mason and Bonnie Bedelia, and you genuinely do care about the welfare of the people in the film. It was nice to revisit Salem's Lot after a long time away.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31

As a child I tuned in religiously to The Creature Double Feature on WLVI, channel 56 out of Boston, and each week I'd also draw the monsters featured in the various movies shown. In a lack of judgement/foresight, my high school self tossed out the entire thick stack of drawings. One managed to slip through the cracks and it is the only one of those weekly drawings to survive. Seen below is Reptilicus in all his glory. 

Based on the drawing style I'm guessing this came from late second grade, possibly third grade. It's not too bad, not terribly off model even though everything seems to be occurring on the same plane. I'm not entirely certain if the curved lines behind Reptilicus and the building hiding him are supposed to be rebar, or Reptilicus' wings. 

After all of these years, I thought I'd tackle Reptilicus again in my current medium of cut paper. I would have loved to have recreated the scene entirely, but time was against me. I think I still like the drawing above better. 

Reptilicus (1961) Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 30

The zombie apocalypse strikes, with a few twists. I won't spoil them other to say one involve fuel, and the other involves experimentation. While neither is necessarily any more plausible than the dead coming back to life, I was happy to roll with them. In the context of Wormwood: Road of the Dead (2014).  There were a few things I liked about this Australian film. First off, unlike most zombie movies that start after thee zombie apocalypse is well under way, this one includes day one of the outbreak. Granted we are seeing it on a small, low budget scale, but we are seeing it. We also know the cause, and which people are affected by the contagion, or not, and why. Second, people actually dress appropriately with full protective body armor. Third, most of the decisions being made are smart, and are being made for the good of the group as opposed to the good of the individual. This movie was a lot of fun, and refreshing addition to this colossal sub-genre.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 30 - Movie 1

Until today, I have never seen Hocus Pocus (1993), the movie about a trio of Salem witches resurrected in modern who need human children to prolong their longevity. Starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker as the witches, this film is apparently beloved to many based on my tumblr feed, so along with a recommendation from a friend of mine, and my daughter, I figured this year I'd give it a shot.

As a Disney movie, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it to the same degree as say, Blackbeard's Ghost (1968), if I were at a similar age watching Hocus Pocus as I was the Peter Ustinov spectral pirate movie. It's cute, visually interesting and doesn't follow it's own logic, but that doesn't matter much. My biggest peeve, which I'm sure is the favorite part of most people, is I am not a fan of that over the top acting style chosen by the lead actresses to portray their characters. I've never seen any of the Harry Potter movies either, but I've seen enough to see that many of the actors playing the teachers (Emma Thompson, in particular) use this method of "acting." Also, of the three witches, Bette Midler is the only one who really has anything to do.

Was this a bad movie? Not necessarily. I think I'm just not the right age to have appreciated it as others do.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 30

Peter Cushing as Arthur Grimsdyke in Tales From the Crypt (1972). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29 - Movie 2

A rocketship returning to Earth from Venus crash-lands in the Mediterranean. It's precious cargo, an alien life form, is set free and grows to tremendous proportions. Terrified, it is hounded and hunted until it is finally cornered atop the Coliseum.

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) is a giant monster on the loose movie from Charles Scanner, Nathan Juran and Ray Harryhausen, the same team that would bring us The 7th Voyage of Sinbad a year later. Unlike most other giant monster movies of the 50s, 20 Million Miles to Earth hearkens back to movies such as King Kong and Mighty Joe Young, by giving us a sympathetic creature who only acts out because it is frightened or under attack itself. Harryhausen's stop-motion animated Ymir gives a wonderfully nuanced performance, and the plaintive sounds it is given only add to the creature's distress.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29 - Movie 1

The Angry Red Planet (1959) tells the tale of a group of astronauts who reach Mars then come face to face with its dangerous flora and fauna. While much of the film involves less than exciting speculative rocket operation scenes, once they reach Mars, creative cinematography and some bizarre looking creatures give the illusion of a much larger budget than what was actually available. There's also some well edited use of stock footage used at the beginning of the film. This film is imaginative and fun.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29

Lon Chaney as the Ape Man in A Blind Bargain (1922). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie 2

When a Jeanette (Susanne Loret) is facially disfigured in a car accident, Dr. Levin (Alberto Lupo) becomes determined to restore her beauty. Using knowledge he's learned from studying the victims of radiation from Hiroshima, he's able to restore her features, and becomes romantically obsessed with her. A feeling not reciprocated. The restoration of her features turns out to be temporary, and Dr. Levin turns himself into a remorseless monster in order to protect his true identity when killing women for the glands he needs to repair Jeanette's face.

Seddok: l'erede di satana / Atom Age Vampire (1960) seems like it wants to be Eyes Without a Face but plays out more like The Brain that Wouldn't Die. Alberto Lupo is disturbingly sleazy as the doctor, which is more effective when partnered with Jeanette being his prisoner, tolerating his advances -- to a point, so that she can have her face back, but clearly repulsed by him. As a c-list movie it's somewhat entertaining, but nothing you can't live without.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie 1

The corpse of a vampire is brought to a hospital where it is brought back to life and escapes seeking new victims. El ataúd del vampire / The Vampire's Coffin (1958) is a sequel to El vampiro / The Vampire (1957), though everything you need to know about the first movie is covered here, and even if it weren't the movie is so straight forward that knowing it's a sequel is really unnecessary. The movie starts out with some nice moody atmosphere, but once it reaches the hospital, antiseptic sets and lighting take over and we are presented with characters walking back and forth between rooms looking for the vampire, and taking breaks for romantic asides, or to try and inform the authorities, who refuse to believe a vampire is on the loose. There's something about the structure that suggests it's, at least partially, meant to be a comedy, but the laughs aren't there, and the movie as a whole becomes little more than a not very entertaining diversion.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28

Carroll Borland as Luna in Mark of the Vampire (1935)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 2

When Frank Carvath's (Art Hindle) young daughter, Candy (Cindy Hinds) returns from visiting her institutionalized mother (Samantha Eggar), she is covered with bruises, bite marks and scratches. Frank forbids Candy from seeing her mother again, but her psychiatrist, Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed) promises to make trouble if he does. Frank begins to investigate Raglan's institute and his "psychoplasmics" method of treatment. As he does so, people attached to him and Candy start being murdered by strange mutant children, which have some kind of connection to Raglan, and to Frank's wife.


David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979) is one of his finest films. Written amidst a tempestuous divorce from his own wife, Cronenberg's film exemplifies the difficulties and estrangement of a couple whose marriage has collapsed in animosity as well as the psychic scarring that such a collapse places on the children of the couple involved. Filled with disturbing imagery and interactions, and some truly brutal murders. The newly released Criterion edition also reinstates a notorious scene cut from the original release of the film.






 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 1

Ig Parish (Daniel Radcliffe) is believed by almost everyone to have murdered his longterm girlfriend, Merrin (Juno Temple). After committing a sacrilegious act in anger over her death, he wakes up the next morning sprouting a pair of horns. The horns also come with the powers of making everyone he encounters feel compelled to tell him their darkest, most private secrets, and allow Ig to be very persuasive. Initially, this makes him feel even more cut off from his community, but he soon sees it as an advantageous tool in finding out the truth about who killed Merrin.

Horns (2013) is a well done, faithful, truncated, adaptation of Joe Hill's novel, and while it can't get as far inside of Ig's head as the novel, Daniel Radcliffe delivers a performance that truly convey's Ig's inner landscape. Everyone in the movie is really good, but Radcliffe really commands the movie.  Ig really remains the only character we can latch onto, since everyone else's revealed inner landscapes are so horrible, but that's okay, because that same thing is isolating Ig from them, too. The movie as a whole is compelling to watch with some really lovely visuals.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27

Koji Furuhata as Frankenstein in Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 2

After having sex with her boyfriend, Jay (Maika Monroe) learns that she is now the recipient of a sexually transmitted bogeyman, which will, at a slow walking pace, follow her wherever she goes until it catches and kills her, or she passes it along to someone else.

It Follows (2014) is a very effective film with a nicely realized and original idea. The film takes its time in getting to its premise, introducing us to its cast of characters and their interrelationships, so that the stakes involved go beyond simply setting up a bunch of generic teens to be killed off one by one. The characters also try out a number of well thought out possible solutions on how to destroy the following entity who is only visible to the person it's after. The matter of fact presentation of the entity also heightens the tension with its slow walking persistent approach. It Follows is one of the better movies I've watched this month.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 1

When a bunch of friends go exploring an old mine they are trapped by a cave in. As the days stretch beyond a week, they realize that something must be done to deal with their hunger. Not ready to kill anyone, they decide to eat only the part of someone. Drawing the short straw, one poor guy has his arm cut off -- just as a rescue party arrives.

The rest of the movie is set five years later when the other members of the group are each attacked and winding up with one of their own arms hacked off. Certain it's their amputee friend out to settle a score, they mostly wander around discussing it and doing nothing else to save themselves, as the killer brings their numbers down one by one.

I mistakenly confused The Severed Arm (1973) with a not dissimilarly titled film that I actually enjoyed. This movie was a real trial to sit through. Shot with the most uninteresting compositions imaginable, with a bland cast, bad script, terrible score, and nothing else to draw the viewer in, The Severed Arm's entire strength lies in the premise of cutting off the arm of one of the cave-in victims just before the rescue party arrives.

This is the only movie so far were I checked the time remaining to see how much longer it was and was horrified to see that I'd barely passed the 35 minute mark of its 90 minute running time. So far this is easily the worst movie I've subjected myself to this Countdown. It would take something of excessively poor quality to dethrone it in the time remaining.



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31 Days of Halloween - Day 26

Conrad Veidt as Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie 2

After his father disappears, Jonathan Davis (Ingo Heise) travels to the area of Germany where his father was stationed during World War II, here he uncovers the disturbing tale of the consequences of a meteorite landing decades ago. 

Die Farbe/The Color Out of Space (2010) is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's tale "The Color Out of Space." Shot in black and white, the film delivers and sustains an eerie ambience throughout, accentuated by an evocative score by Tilman Seege and some really marvelous sound design by Marc Veizhans. The filmmakers strike a nice balance between holding back and showing that enhances the otherworldly nature of the story. They are to be given credit too for defying their small budget and making something that suggests greater resources. This is easily one of the films I've enjoyed the most this month, and I highly recommend it. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie 1

Four young people (I wasn't sure whether they were meant to be teens, or twenty-somethings) with the lowest IQs imaginable find themselves stranded at sea, when fortune brings them along side a luxury yacht, which turns out to be a recently abandoned marine biological lab conducting experiments of mutated deep sea fish. It turns out some of these fish don't need water to live, or get around, and that they mix with people with interesting results.

Plankton/Creatures of the Abyss (1994) is terrible. First off, I was shocked to discover this movie was made in the mid 90s instead of the mid 80s. The dubbed dialogue combined with the awful performances makes for something hypnotic to watch. I really couldn't stop. The Lovecraftian plot is unfolded in the clumsiest, least interesting manner possible. the whole movie is incompetently made. The less attention I give it the better. If you're looking for a really bad movie that is strangely watchable, then get your friends over and start drinking.