A Short Video Summation of an October of Horror

As a final wrap-up of my October horror viewing spree, here's a short compilation of scenes from each movie I watched (2 clips from each film not including the bonus snippets at the end):

October Horror 2011 - Chapter #8

Yeah, I'm surprised October's over too. 32 horror films in the month is my final count - a 33% drop from last year's total. I blame Toronto After Dark for keeping me busy...

The last four for the month:



The Shiver Of The Vampires (1971 - Jean Rollin) - It's quite surprising that it's taken me so long to get around to seeing one of Jean Rollin's art-horror films - you'd think this stuff would've been right up my alley. And indeed, it most certainly is. For whatever reason, I just never thought to dive into his output until one of his titles pretty much randomly came up in my lengthy list of items to investigate. In this case, the horror derives almost strictly from images - not sound, not story, not character and not slow builds of tension. It's all about the visuals. The bright colours mixed with neutral tones, the bits of bright blood red dotting the frame, the creepy statues and artifacts littering the castle, the faces of the undead vampires and the surprising places they can be found. The camera plays its own part occasionally as when it spins around inside a circle of all the characters or becomes the POV of the doomed central character. The nominal story has a newlywed couple visiting the bride's favorite cousins in their castle. Unbeknownst to her, these vampire hunters became the hunted and now must put up with eternity. The main female vampire (who converted the cousins) slowly pulls the bride over to "her side" as the hapless husband can do nothing. Throw in a large portion of nudity, gothic outfits and a psychy soundtrack (a slightly twangy low rent version of Goblin - the great band who did the soundtrack to "Suspiria", "Deep Red" and other Argento films) and you've got yourself a memorable picture.









Two Thousand Maniacs (1964 - Herschell Gordon Lewis) - As a director, Lewis wasn't exactly known for his specific style, storytelling ability or his way with actors. I think even he would say that he wasn't so much a filmmaker as he was a businessman. By pretty much any account, "Two Thousand Maniacs" is a terrible, terrible movie - the acting is atrocious, useless dialogue scenes go on and on and the whole thing looks completely drab. Except for the blood (primarily what Lewis is known for via both this film and "Blood Feast") which was bright and vivid. The idea was to shock with scenes of dismemberments and other such gore-filled activities and in this movie's case, they certainly had a structure that leant itself to such requirements. One hundred years after an entire Southern town has been wiped out by the North during the Civil War, it suddenly reappears and their "centennial" celebration is focused on finding some sacrificial Northerners to kill at their festival. It's a different spin on Brigadoon and as an idea certainly isn't the worst one for a gorefest. The odd thing is that it isn't filled with as much chopped up flesh as you would expect (of course, in 1964 it was rather infamous for a few scenes of severed limbs). It's not that I necessarily wanted or needed to see more gushing blood, but when that's all your movie has going for it, that's all you can hope for.








Doctor X (1932 - Michael Curtiz) - After seeing this two-strip technicolour film, I can't help but wish that someone would revive this old technology and make some new films with it. The green and yellow colour palette in this case worked tremendously well for the tale of a group of scientists who are under suspicion for a recent string of murders. Specifically, any scene in one of the wonderful laboratory sets - rife with flashing lights, liquids flowing in tubes and bizarre electrical contraptions - looked fantastic with that mix of two tones and all the shadows they could find. Doctor X is the head of the school where the scientists do their research and he convinces the police to let him conduct his own investigation with his own experiments to clear his fellow professors' names. The mystery is well handled, there are several good scenes that build up suspense and it's overall quite fun, but sadly it's marred by the comic relief of the newspaper reporter. Every line and every word has to be said with smarm or as a "zinger". It completely takes the steam out of anything built up previously. Overall it's good - averaging between fantastic and annoying.









The Return (2006 - Asif Kapadia) - I don't remember much about the response to the Sarah Michelle Gellar vehicle "The Return" from 5 years ago, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't overly positive. That's a bit of a shame since this was a pretty effective supernatural thriller. Oh sure, the story doesn't really go anywhere overly different than any other "why am I having these visions of someone else's past?" movie, but it does it with (for the most part) striking visuals and a very patient approach. There are several long moments of silence and a mostly tempered soundtrack that helps keep you concerned for Gellar's character as she feels a strong pull to return to her native Texas. There's a car crash in her past, but she is also increasingly disturbed by images intruding on her reality from a place she's never been. It falls into a few of the standard traps, but resists going for too many easy scares by relying on the audience's empathy with the central character. One major issue with the film, though, is its use of the sudden zoom effect - you know the one where for no reason at all the camera seems to lurch forward like there's some auto-correcting zoom feature? It's used enough in the film to be extremely distracting and somewhat infuriating. It makes sense (to a certain extent) when being used in faux-documentaries to ape a cameraman trying to figure out the right shot and framing for something happening in front of them, but it's completely nonsensical to use in a film like this. Sometimes a single bad choice like that can ruin an entire experience, but fortunately there's enough in the rest of this film that allows me to overlook that glaring misstep.

October Horror 2011 - Chapter #7

Here's a sneak peek at the last batch of horror films from my month long bender (which will fall far short of last year's number due to Toronto After Dark switching back to October):



The Deaths Of Ian Stone (2007 - Dario Piana) - Though I haven't seen many of the "8 Films To Die For" series (otherwise known as the "After Dark Horrorfest" which shows its independent films over an eight day span in nationwide theatres), I haven't heard a whole lot of positive response to any of the films even though last year's fest was the fifth one. However, the concept for "The Deaths Of Ian Stone" sounded too good to pass up: the titular character dies every night only to wake up in a completely different life. Promising stuff that could go one of any number of directions. Unfortunately it chose one that abandons its premise early on for life sucking ghostly monsters that can take human form. Worse than that though, its main character is just simply unlikeable. Even worse, he's just boring. As is the set of CGI-heavy effects of people turning into these black death spirit thingies. When he suddenly wakes up in a new life, Ian Stone has no recollection of his previous one so it just changes the situations within which this bland unsympathetic character exists. How exciting is that? Whatever rules the story had are shuffled to the side and it becomes generic in its rush to redeem Stone. If this is representative of the "8 Films to Die For" series, I can see why I haven't seen overwhelming response to it (though you'll see shortly, it isn't completely representative).









The Mask Of Fu Manchu (1932 - Charles Brabin) - Now here's an interesting artifact of the early 30s...Filled with great set design, interesting shot selections and a whole lot more torture than you might expect, the film also engages in some of the worst casual racism that side of "Breakfast At Tiffany's". It's not just the indiscriminate references to "the yellow man" (after all, Fu Manchu throws it right back at them with his hopes to eradicate "the white man"), but the thought that Asians think of nothing else but to rule the world. While the British wish only to find Genghis Khan's old artifacts to preserve them in a museum (even though they break into his old chambers with nary a thought to its preservation), Fu Manchu and his "hordes" want them so that they can convince the rest of Asia to follow them into world domination. When the Brits discover that this is the plan, they double their efforts to get there first. They do, but Fu Manchu has several devious plans up his sleeve to get them back. Possibly the worst moment of all was the patronizing comment from the wealthy English archaeologist to a Chinese waiter congratulating him for not aspiring to anything more than what he was and avoiding the fields of medicine, science and exploration. Perhaps I was reading the film wrong, but aside from some of the great visuals the story didn't have much else to hold it together, so I had to focus on something...









Private Parts (1972 - Paul Bartel) - This randomly selected title was quite the fine little surprise. Directed by Bartel (probably best known for "Eating Raoul"), it focuses on horrors of a more psychological nature - specifically those that arise from one's sexual urges. Young Cheryl is a runaway and ends up at her Aunt Martha's hotel looking to bum room and board for as long as she can. Her combination of naivete and curiosity about using her sex appeal is a concern to Martha (played by the great Lucille Benson - look her up, you'll know her) who will not stand for any of those "painted women" in her hotel. She also likes to frequent funerals in order to see the spirits of the dead rising heavenward. As much as Cheryl tells Martha not to worry, she can't help flirting with handymen until her attention focuses on George the photographer. He's a rather strange bird who has his own ideas about sex (confused as they may be) and one hell of an interesting photo studio. Cheryl works herself into rather dangerous predicaments while Martha attempts to keep her building pure. Battle lines become drawn and the final confrontation gets set. Like many of the horror films from the 70s, though, the curve balls are always ready to be thrown. Not just at the end either - you never quite know where things are headed at any point in the story. Bartel does a great job of pacing things out and keeping you always a bit off centre. If the acting is slightly dodgy at times, it's never overly distracting and doesn't take away from one of the more interesting horrors of the early 70s.









The Abandoned (2006 - Nacho Cerda) - While at the Toronto After Dark festival this year, the title of this film came up a couple of times - mostly due to the fact that one of its writers (Karim Hussain) was quite involved in the anthology "The Theatre Bizarre" that played the fest. By sheer coincidence (or was it...), I happened to stumble across the DVD of it at a charity sale in our office building a few days after hearing about its underrated status. So I snagged it for a couple of bucks and tossed it in the player. It was only then that I discovered that it was another of the "8 Films To Die For" series (though from a different year than the aforementioned "The Deaths Of Ian Stone"). The disillusionment set in, but I decided to press forward. Fortunately, it didn't take long to assuage my nervousness. First, it's a gorgeous looking film whose predominant greens and blues still cover a broad spectrum. Secondly, it is creepy as all get out. It centres around Marie - a 40-ish successful business woman who has returned to Russia to learn more of her roots after being abandoned by her parents as a baby. She travels to the old house of her parents and finds that not only can she not leave, but that her twin brother has also come to the same spot. As they encounter ghostly presences of themselves and piece together what happened years ago, they wonder if they have been summoned back in order to be finished off in the manner they should have been years ago. Even though there are few characters here, it is highly effective in pulling you deeper into Marie's predicament and dreading each new entry into a darkly lit place with a flashlight. After remembering that the "8 Films To Die For" also ran "Reincarnation" (the terrific film by "Ju-On: The Grudge" director Takashi Shimizu) and discovering that "The Broken" (a rather spiffy little thriller by Sean Ellis) was also part of it, I may just be turned around on the idea. But then I think of "The Deaths Of Ian Stone" and I reconsider all over again...

October Horror 2011 - Chapter #6

I've had my eye on Toronto After Dark the last few days (and the next few as well), so the output has been a bit slower. Some good solid movies in this batch...



Pin (1988 - Sandor Stern) - "Pin" is not your ordinary doll/horror movie. Partially because "he" is a medical mannequin (used as a teaching device) instead of a child's toy, but also because the film relies much more heavily on the psychological horror aspects of a young boy's development into an adult than any Chucky style attack. As young kids, Leon and his little sister Ursula are transfixed by Pin when their father uses it as a ventriloquist's dummy and teaches them certain lessons. Ursula realizes Pin is only a dummy at a young age, but Leon continues to think that Pin is an actual living being and part of their family. As he matures and can't count on his parent's support or help in typical growing up matters, he goes to Pin without his father being present (disobeying a strict order) and communicates with him. His father (another dose of Terry O'Quinn - that's two for the month!) decides to remove Pin from the house, but after a car accident leaves Leon and Ursula as orphaned teens, Pin becomes more and more of an influence to Leon's life. It's not filled with jump scares nor will it make you shiver in your seat, but it's something that aims at the horror of a broken individual. It's hampered occasionally by some inadequate acting in several roles (though David Hewlett as the older Leon is quite good), but it worked far better than I expected it would.









Amer (2009 - Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani) - Gobs of style. Style piled on style over style - with style on the side. Cattet and Forzani's tribute to the cinematography and atmosphere of Italian giallos mostly dispenses with dialogue and even, to a certain extent story. It's premise focuses mainly on the sexual awakening of the same woman in three different stages - confusion (child), curiosity (teenager) & desire (adult) - with witches, murder and a variety of other real and surreal occurrences thrown in for good measure. It's quick cutting, very arty and may drive some people for the Tylenol (or the remote), but I loved it. It creates very specific moods for each of the three stages and though there appears to be very little resolution in what occurs, the trip through it all kept me completely engaged because of the tension of truly not knowing where any of the stories were going and how they would present the next images. The colour (particularly in the opening section) is glorious and pretty much every shot is unconventional. Certainly self-conscious, but still quite the beautiful thing to see - in particular if you like rampant usage of close-ups of people's eyes. Unnerving at times and a wonderful example of someone who wants to play and experiment in a given style.









Burnt Offerings (1976 - Dan Curtis) - In between making his two made-for-TV horror anthologies ("Trilogy Of Terror" and the recently viewed "Dead Of Night") director Dan Curtis snuck in this tidy slow-burn feature about a family that moves into an old mansion as caretakers for the summer. Oliver Reed and Karen Black play the parents and neither bring a whole lot of subtlety to their roles - which is perfect for a film like this. The owners of the house ask only that the couple leave a tray of food once a day for their elderly mother who lives in the room upstairs. "The house takes care of itself" they say and this becomes apparent as it slowly seems to rejuvenate as the family slowly falls apart. The father is haunted by memories of his own father's funeral (and a really creepy hearse driver) while Mom becomes strangely devoted to the unseen old lady upstairs as well as her daily house cleaning tasks. Their aunt (played by Bette Davis) is also with them and as her health starts to fail, she drives a further wedge between the couple. Her health woes certainly can't be due to malnutrition, though, since the sicker she gets, the more Davis chews the scenery. Again though, it's essentially in service to the film and its possessed house - the longer they stay, the more of themselves they give away. It doesn't all work, but it provides a perfect resolution and ends up being quite satisfying. And Karen Black always kinda creeps me out in these roles - you just never know how her characters are going to react.









The Ruins (2008 - Carter Smith) - There were moments early on during "The Ruins" where I thought I had made a tragic error - I had heard this was one of the better recent Hollywood horrors, but during the character introductions I felt that I had seen these beautiful young people a hundred times before and therefore thought I knew exactly what I was about to see. Fortunately, I was quite wrong in my cynical assumptions. Instead of simply getting lost inside a set of old ruins while each dull character gets killed off by old supernatural ghosts, the story sets up a more horrific natural threat - the vines that grow on and surround the off the map pyramid-like structure the characters have come to visit after their week of partying in Mexico. It sounds a bit silly (and certainly is at times - particularly those flowers that mimic sounds), but along with the additional issue of being stranded on the ruins in the jungle surrounded by locals who won't let them leave (in order not to allow the plant lifeform to spread elsewhere), it sets up a fine scenario that lets you play "what would I do?" while the characters work through their own options. One of the most terrifying aspects are those locals - not because of any of their specific actions, but it's their inaction that is frightening. Instead of helping or even simply killing these trespassers, they have forced everyone who has come into contact with the plant to remain on the ruins knowing full well that the vines will take care of the problem for them. There's some needless gore in a few sequences, but overall it mostly avoids the obvious and spins out an effective tale of terror.