Thursday 15 November 2007

October Horror - The Fun Continues!


Though I tend to pack mostly Horror films into my movie viewing during October, I'll watch 'em any time. And since I built up my "to watch list" much more than I shrunk it last month (thanks Cinebeats!), I thought I would continue to pack 'em in throughout November as well. Here's a couple of note that I've seen this month already:


  • The House With Laughing Windows (Pupi Avanti - 1976) - This easily would have made my Top 31 Flicks That Give Me The Willies if I had seen it in time. Avanti creates tremendous tension and superb visuals during the film and packs it with some pretty unsettling characters. This was so good I immediately moved another of his films ("Zeder") to the top of my zip.ca list. I demand a revote!




  • Tales From The Crypt (Freddie Francis - 1972) - Another fine and entertaining anthology film from Amicus Productions. 5 strangers get sealed into a room and are told stories about their deaths by the keeper of the crypt they were visiting. Each person's story is around 15 minutes, moves at a good clip and gives them a nice gruesome end...Good clean fun! I'd review it further, but Final Girl already did an awesome job. These are screenshots from each of the 5 stories:







  • The Vault Of Horror (Roy Ward Baker - 1973) - For some strange reason, people always compare this film with "Tales From The Crypt". I just don't get it...Sure it's an entertaining anthology film from Amicus Productions with 5 strangers sealed into a room where each person's story about their death is around 15 minutes, moves at a good clip and gives them a nice gruesome end. But the stories of their deaths are from their own dreams - No crypt keeper here. That's like totally different...







  • The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Roger Corman - 1960) - Another of the Roger Corman and Vincent Price collaborations using an Edgar Allen Poe story (this was their first I believe). Beautiful sets, glorious colours, ominous atmosphere and Price doing his typical great job.



  • The Descent (Neil Marshall - 2005) - The creatures were pretty hideous and made for some quality jump scares, but the most frightening aspect of the film is the thought of being trapped in a cave. Even worse, trapped in a narrow passageway in a cave.



  • Madhouse (Jim Clark - 1974) - This was silly fun from the moment someone discovers a woman has been murdered when they touch her shoulders and her head falls off (a sure sign you've got a fun-filled movie on your hands)...It's not as good as some of Vincent Price's other films of the period ("Theatre Of Blood", "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", etc.) mainly because the story wanders all over the place, but it makes great use of some clips of some of his older films.



  • The Whip And The Body (Mario Bava - 1963) - Man, Bava can sure flood the set with great colours. It really helps to create the surreal atmosphere for the ghost story that follows. The acting and dubbing is not so hot here, but it's just a beautiful film to look at.








Some other horror films I'm hoping to see this month:


- More Bava (via box set 1 and 2)!
- Warner's Twisted Terror Collection
- Hammer Horror Series
- Amicus Collection
- Tombs Of The Blind Dead by Amando de Ossorio
- Demons by Lamberto Bava
- The Blood Spattered Bride by Vicente Aranda
- Horror Hotel (aka "The City Of The Dead") by John Llewellyn Moxey
- Cinderella by Man-dae Bong


Well OK...Maybe not ALL of them this month...





4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've only seen two of these, The House of Usher and The Descent. I'm a little shaky on the former's details, but I remember the uber freaky portraits. As for The Descent, I agree with your points, the cave was scarier than the monsters. I like both films quite a bit.

Bob Turnbull said...

Out of the ones you haven't seen, "The House With Laughing Windows" is likely the scariest and most unsettling. The others are mostly fun.

Kimberly Lindbergs said...

I'm glad you got the chance to see House with Laughing Windows and enjoyed it so much! I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy Zeder too. I have trouble deciding which film I like more, but both of these Avati movies are terribly underrated and deserve more praise for giving viewers a bad case of the willies!

Bob Turnbull said...

I have to say that Zeder didn't quite live up to the previous Avati...There were some great moments, but it was far too slow in spots and that just reinforced some of the acting issues and bad dubbing. I also took a dislike to the main male character for some reason, so that didn't help.

But there were enough solid moments to make me still want to see some of Avati's other stuff at some point (I know you mentioned that he hit several genres and styles).