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dean_martin
10-29-2009, 01:54 PM
We haven't had a good, thorough Halloween recommendations thread this year so I'll give my thoughts on some scary/horror movies I've watched recently.

For some reason, I wanted to check out some classic haunted house films. I intended to watch both The Innocents and The Haunting (1963), but I've only made it through The Innocents so far.

The Innocents (1961) is about a woman who undertakes a governness position for the uncle of two truly creepy kids whose parents died. She's taking the place of the former governness who died. As the story unfolds, we learn that the former governness had an affair with one of the hired hands at the uncle's country estate. (The uncle lives in the city and is too busy philandering to be bothered with kids.) The hired hand was a drunken brute who was killed. Strange happenings make the governness believe that the ghosts of the two lovers have come back to possess the two children - brother and sister. The classic style of acting (over-the-top emoting and a little stilted), is not my cup of tea and I found various noises in the soundtrack to be irritating at times, but there are some very memorable scenes that are actually chilling. And, again I can't say enough about the acting jobs pulled off by the kids. The film is based on The Turn of the Screw, the Henry James novella, but Truman Capote helped with the script adaptation. IMO, this one works better as a slightly creepy and disturbing film for a dark, stormy Sunday afternoon rather than as a late-night, turn-out-all-the-lights terror fest.

I intend to watch The Haunting (1963) before the weekend is over. I'm really interested in seeing a young Russ Tamblyn who played Dr. Jacoby in Twin Peaks.

Next up - Black Sabbath (1963). This Mario Bava film which relates three stories (think Trilogy of Terror - but I can only remember the story with the voodoo doll) has all the Bava characteristics: dank castle ruins, eerie but colorful lighting, mist and fog, slick camera work, etc. Boris Karloff is the host as well as the father in the last story. I actually enjoyed this one more than the critically acclaimed Black Sunday, Bava's earlier B&W horror masterpiece. It's obvious that Karloff as host is having the time of his life. He simply revels in his ghoulishness. The Les Baxter soundtrack is excellent. If you caught onto the space age bachelor pad/erotica music revival of the 90s you'll recognize his work. Anyhow, we have three stories. The first is Drop of Water based on a story by Chekov. A medium drops dead during a seance which we don't see. The story picks up with a nurse who is called to the dead lady's home to prepare the body for the funeral and burial. The medium's face is terribly distorted from fear as she was scared to death by the spirits she summoned in her final seance. The nurse notices a nice ring with a big rock on the medium's finger and takes it. Well, you can imagine what happens in a horror movie when you steal from the dead.

The second story is "The Telephone". Man, I could not take my eyes off Michele Mercier in the main role. Those Italians know how to find the babes for the big screen. The beautiful Mercier comes home one evening from a night out and begins receiving strange phone calls. It's eventually revealed that the caller is a former lover who was involved in some questionable activities, but he was killed bacause Michele's character ratted on him. Now, he's back for revenge. Interestingly, the young lady calls her dead lover's prior girl friend to make amends and asks her to come over. I loved this soap opera element which leads to some lesbian undertones. Can't beat that! Of course it's still a horror tale so things take a turn for the worse for these young lovelies.

The last story is The Wurdulak which is essentially a vampire tale. Karloff is the father of a cursed family. Here, the camera work becomes the star. The scenery/imagery represents some of the best from the early Italian horror masters. Mists, fog, castle ruins, and that strange, signature lighting in primary colors. I guess you can call it style over substance, but I'm a big fan of the style which has been repeated by Dario Argento and Bava in his later works.

I'll say a little about The Velvet Vampire - a low-budget, 70s psychedelic horror flick - but there's not much to say. It's worth a view and is closer in style to the EuroTrash horror of the late 60s and early 70s, although it's an American film. Think Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos and you'll be in the ballpark. I can't remember the director's name but she's female which made me curious. I have to give it props for trying to be imaginative - the vampire lives in the desert and drives a dune buggy; the dream sequences are surreal. I can understand if someone thinks this flick has no redeeming social value whatsoever, but I found it interesting. I would like to revisit it if I can find a pristine print. The print I have looks like it was probably a bootleg recorded from foreign television. Otherwise, a single viewing suffices.

3LB
10-29-2009, 06:01 PM
I've brought these up before, but Fright Night with Roddy McDowell - teenage boy observes frightnening things going on with the new neighbor, suspects he's a vampire, and calls upon an old B-movie vampire hunter and current TV creature feature host Peter Vincent (an amalgam of the names Peter Cushing and Vincent Price). Good special effects that still hold up and a genuinely spooky story.

An American Werewolf In London is my all-time fave werewolf movie. Smart unconventional storyline and one famous transformation scene. Special effects are particularly good given they're animatronic and not CGI.

Hammer studios made a ton of clones from Universal's horror entries, but whereas those movies are unintentionally humorous, Hammer Studios were edgier. Sure, they're a tad dated as well, but they still look good.


The Horror of Dracula - Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee and The Count; need I say more. Speaking of Peter Cushing, he stars in a sort of sequel, The Brides Of Dracula, only instead of Lee we get David Peel. I agree with critics of the day who believe the name Dracula should have been dropped and just made a different vampire movie, but its still a good yarn with some great scenes, including the only time I've seen a cure for a vamp bite, and an ingenius final confrontation. peter Cushing also starred in a string of Frankenstein movies, which are hit and miss, but these versions focus on Cushing's mad scientist persona, which equal parts genius and maniac. This Baron Von Frankenstein is not a diluted, well meaning doctor but a complete narcasist.
The first three or four seasons of The X-Files are fun to watch. This series was very creepy before it turned into a plodding weekly UFO conspiracy/gov't cover-up show. But for four years, this was the best show on TV and I'd still go so far to say it was the best TV show of the '90s.

dean_martin
10-29-2009, 07:41 PM
yeah 3, I grew up on Hammer horror. Great stuff!

Fright Night - That was a good movie. Roddy McDowell does an excellent job with the Van Helsing-type role sans the confidence of a real vampire killer. Wasn't his character the host of a tv horror movie show? Those were the days. I saw most of the Hammer films on a similar late night show on a local station hosted by a car dealer. Back to Fright Night. Close to the end, Amanda Bearse has a couple of hot scenes in that 80s way. Then she goes onto become a regular on Married with Children. She's a good comedic actress.

RGA
10-29-2009, 07:56 PM
I used to have a List of of movies and one 13 for Halloween - so here are my favorite 13 Horror films - or movies that could fit with the horror genre. Not in any order

1. Dawn of the Dead (1979)
The pinnacle of the zombie movie - smart on a number of levels, somewhat scary but not in a big jump factor way.

2. The Thing
Take a bunch of guys at an Antarctica research station in total seclusion when a dog enters their camp. Kurt Russel leads a pretty good cast with scares piles of gore. Great theme music.

3. The Exorcist
Arguably the scariest film of all time. Disturbing and very well acted.

4. An American Werewolf in London
Scary, funny, well acted - what more do you want.

5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 microscopic Space aliens come to earth and interact with the plant life. People behaving strangely - Donald Sutherland stars in the best of the Body Snatcher movies. One of the great endings in cinema history.

6. Halloween
The slasher movie to start and, to be blunt, end all slasher movies. Doesn't hold up as well today but it still has much to offer - and without blood and gore.

7. Sean of the Dead
More Zombies but this one pays homage to the greats while still being fresh.

8. Alien/Aliens
I am picking both - the first was a slasher film in space but an alien instead of a killer. The second one had the special effects, storytelling, and equal frights. Forget the sequels that followed.

9. The Shining
Jack is a little creepy at the best of times but this one is a visual stunner and a great dive into madness.

10. Scream
Scream did a number of inventive things for the time it was released and deserves more credit than it gets.

11. A Nightmare on Elm Street.

It started the careers of a few namely Johnny Depp and Freddy Kruger became an icon of sorts. It may not be quite good enough to be deemed a great horror flick but it gets props for originality and was frightening enough to spawn several inferior sequels.

12. The Terminator
an unstoppable killing machine is out for blood in a high adrenaline action film with edge of your seat moments. It's usually not classified as a horror - it could also be viewed as a romance - the Terminator is an underrated film and is scarier than most horror films

13. Poltergeist
You have to have a ghost story on the list and it's my favorite - still holds up well.

Honorable mentions:
Scarecrows 1988 (under the radar but quite frightening even with goofy dialog at times
Tremors - don''t piss off earth worms or their mommy is going to get you.
Nosferatu - creepy
Jaws - scary and perhaps the best actual film on this list. But I never find it quite to fit in the horror genre - it's a shark - stay out of the water and you won't get chomped.
Land of the Dead - some uneven acting but great zombie effects and another interesting take on thrid world first world politics by Romero.
Night of the Living Dead - The first of its kind and for that alone it has a place.
Fright Night - plain fun from start to end. Funny Scary re-watchable
Return of the Living Dead - Zombies with humor - send more paramedics. Brains - more brains....hmm deliciously disgusting
Young Frankenstein - not the least bit scary but the best Frankenstein movie and deserves a spot.
The Omen - nasty little brat.
The Fog (1980) If only they had fleshed this out more - ran out of steam but still has its moments.
Psycho/The Birds - both classics and both could have been on the list but ...
Arachnophobia - The best spiders movie and will have you scratching

Smokey
10-30-2009, 07:32 PM
Good list guys and probably the best of horror movies.

And couple more.

Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948): This is probably the A&C funniest movie with Bela Lugosi reprising his role as the dracula. Also starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein.
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Abbott-And-Costello-Photograph-C10103908.jpeg

Ghost Story (1981): Four elderly men who gather once a week to thrill each other with tales of terror find one of their scariest stories coming to life. Featuring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and John Houseman.
http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/9307194068060.jpg

audio amateur
10-31-2009, 05:07 AM
I saw Cloverfield quite recently. Not horror but suspenseful scary.

dean_martin
10-31-2009, 02:15 PM
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) - watched it last night. I like this one. This is a creepy late-nighter.

I have a few left in the Halloween dvd stack:

Dead & Buried (1981) - from the creators of Alien. In the coastal town of Potters Bluff, tourists and transients are warmly welcomed by the locals then brutally murdered. These slain strangers reappear as normal townfolk.

Long Weekend (1978) - from Australia. A couple sets out on a camping trip to revive their marriage, but nature goes wild.

The House with Laughing Windows (1976) - Italian. A young artist goes to a church in a remote village to restore decaying paintings. He learns that the original artist used models for the horrific subject matter as a chain of murders begins in the town.

Lemora, a Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973) - a Richard Blackburn low-budget gem that I won't even attempt to describe.