October Horror - Wrapping November...In December

Yeah, so I'm obviously a procrastinator. I tend to put things off. Things like posting about stuff I saw awhile ago. I should probably do something about that. Just not right now though...

For the moment, here's a few random films I saw in November as part of the laundry list of Horror films I wanted to get to in October. The list was so large, they'll be a big part of my diet throughout the next year.

• The Last Man On Earth (Sydney Salkow - 1964) - Though I had heard about the upcoming blockbuster "I Am Legend", I had no idea that it's essentially the same story as this (gauging from the trailer I just saw of it). My guess is that it won't have the simplicity and eerieness of this film nor show the real loneliness the main character goes through. I can only hope they don't jigger with the ending too much.
  

• Hearts Of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola - 1991) - You bet this is a horror movie...Eleanor Coppola's documentary footage of behind the scenes conversations and goings on during her husband's filming of "Apocalypse Now" is an incredible document of the human capacity for delusion and the dangers of exceeding that limit.
  

• Asylum (Roy Ward Baker - 197) - Yet another anthology of horror tales, but the wrapper story this time around has a greater role - a psychiatrist applying for a job as head of the asylum must interview 4 patients, hear their stories and decide which is the mad doctor that preceded him in the position. The wrapper and all 4 stories are quite silly, but they are all told with style and fun - and lots of inanimate objects coming to life (severed body parts, mannequins, little robots).
  

I just wanted to say that Britt Ekland was really attractive in this movie.

• Theatre Of Death (Samuel Gallu - 1966) - Not a great movie by any stretch, but it's got Christopher Lee being Christopher Lee, very colourful sets and terrific use of the camera in framing shots. Lee plays the role of a megalomaniac theatre director who specializes in horror productions and may have something to do with the spate of murders being committed. It doesn't quite build the tension and mystery throughout, but still delivers some good scenes. And Lee has those eyes...
  

• Tombs Of The Blind Dead (Amando de Ossorio - 1971) - This one really surprised me...It suffers from some poor acting, dubbing (another case of the sound likely not being recorded during filming - so even its original language of Spanish doesn't quite match up with the moving lips) and a slow moving awkward story, but damn if those blind dead priest guys aren't eerie as all get out. And where else would you get to see blind dead priest guys riding horses in slow motion (and get realy creeped out by it)?
  

• Reincarnation (Takashi Shimizu - 2005) - The director of the Ju-On series of films takes a break to focus on another kind of vengeful ghost (the film was part of last year's "8 Films To Die For" series as well as volume 3 in the Japanese J-Horror Theater series). During the filming of a horror movie based on a mass murder incident that took place 30 years previous, a young woman sees flashbacks to the hotel that was the scene of the crime. As the movie production moves everyone to that actual hotel, the flashbacks get worse and she feels she may be the reincarnation of one of the victims. The story is a bit jumbled, but its fractured timeline is actually quite effective in disorienting the viewer until the end. Shimizu really knows how to build uneasy feelings with the surroundings he chooses, the sound field and those damn ghosts. I really enjoyed this one...
  
  Warning - Creepy doll alert!
  

Maybe I'll post something on Christmas movies sometime in April...