We're like halfway through October you guys! I, for one, am a bit flummoxed. You know how they say time flies when you're having fun? Well I say time flies when you're having horror.
I don't have a lot of time to share the goods with you this week, so this is gonna be a short and sweet post listing some good stuff going on. So let's hit it!
Chris and Mike, two dudes with attitudes from the undeniably cool All Things Horror, are hosting the second iteration of Shudder Fest on October 26th and 27th. That poster above (and that link) have all the details, but the thing you need to know is that I'm totally heartbroken that I can't be there. If you're in the area, make sure you get your horror lovin' butt there. If not, make sure you keep your eyes on the site for reviews and plenty more goodness.
The Vault of Horror has long been one of the titans of horror blogs, and B-Sol kicked off this October by revealing a list of The Top 25 Horror TV Shows of All-Time, as voted on by several of us folks who love horror. I can even say "us" - because I was one of the voters. Now I'm not gonna tell you what my list looked like yet - never waste a good post topic, right? - but I will tell you that I'm probably the only guy who voted for Poltergeist: The Legacy. And that's probably a good thing. (I'm sorry, there's a weird "I was a '90s teenager" nostalgia thing that propelled me.)
I just recently found the blog of The Nitrate Diva, but it didn't take long to feel at home. Anyone who's spending much of October talking about classic horror - and I'm talkin' 1930s classic horror here! - is awesome by me. There's Fay Wray, there's Freaks, there's a breakdown of vampirism, and there's even a bunch of links to good stuff thanks to her own Horror Blogathon. Dig that stuff, dudes and dudettes.
I'm a sucker for one-a-day horror lists in October, and Chris over at the bloody awesome blog The Conduit Speaks is bringing the goods this month. For example, he's already mentioned C.H.U.D. and Clownhouse. I don't want to tell you I'm in love with his picks, but I'd probably do something crazy like giving them my number and telling them to call me maybe. And you should too.
That's just a small dose of the awesome horror stuff on the web, and I'll be sure to bring y'all more by the end of the month. In the mean time, feel free to leave links in the comments below and tell me what horror goodness you've been enjoying.
And, last but not least, here's the best thing in my October so far - my brand new niece. What has two thumbs and an awesome horror loving uncle who gives her Halloween outfits and Halloween monkeys? That girl!
I could sit here and argue that Dawn of the Dead is one of the least horror movie horror movies out there. We're talking about a movie that runs about 50 minutes longer than the average film of the genre and might not feature a single "jump scare" that would send a teenage girl soaring through the air. But it also has to be the bleakest vision of our world ever filmed. Four people, one mall that represents our old behaviors, and the kind of shambling terrors that modern TV shows wish they could create. With top notch special effects and biting social commentary, it's pretty much a perfect film - that just happens to have zombies in it.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
The opening scenes in Dawn of the Dead are a lot different than what you see in most horror movies. A normal life? A simple life? A false sense of hope? Nope, you won't find any of those things here. Instead, we walk into a chaotic news room where people seem to have written off any hope for society and a run down tenement in which dead bodies and undead bodies are everywhere. Within the first five minutes, we know for a fact that we've walked into a situation where there is no happy ending.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
I'm gonna tell you a secret. I don't really like Day of the Dead. Yes, Romero's third Dead film continues the complete dread that we get in this one, but all the cinematic aspects - from the acting to the direction to the script - feel wrong to me. A lot of people disagree with me, so maybe you want to put that one next to this one. Me, I'd probably say you could watch the 2004 remake alongside it. It loses some of the pathos of the original, but is a fast-paced blast with strong characters and plenty of gore.
What It Means To Me:
Dawn of the Dead has always been one of my favorite films of any genre, because it packs an apocalyptic edge that is unmatched in most of cinema. It's fascinating in its bleakness, but it's also thoroughly entertaining and a bit humorous and there's even that Goblin musical score. Oh! That Goblin musical score. Man, I love that Goblin musical score. So good.
Robert John Burke, who I'd previously discounted as merely a second-string Robocop (due to his work as the title character in the disastrous Robocop 3), takes the lead in Thinner, an odd Stephen King adaptation that initially left me a little flustered as I thought about it. I'm not sure if the movie feels like a Tales from the Crypt episode that is stretched out way too long or if it feels like a deeper, more interesting story that is squeezed into 92 minutes. Since King wrote it, I'm assuming the latter is closer to true, because many of his works have suffered when filmmakers attempted to squeeze them onto the big screen. There's a good reason that the most beloved King films are generally adaptations of his shortest stories - because the man writes deep horror tales like no one else in our lifetime has.
I have not had a chance to read Thinner yet, which probably is part of the reason I'm so willing to give this film a pass and actually find myself interested in applauding this piece of horror from the mid-1990s. I'm still a little tentative - this might be one of those Midnight Movie of the Week picks that I look back on later and say "Really?" - but there's an incredible charm to this bizarre story of curses and revenge and wishes gone wrong.
The story is a kind of Monkey's Paw scenario with a twist. Obese lawyer Billy Halleck (Burke) wants to drop some pounds but doesn't want to change his habits, which include snacking, helping mobsters avoid prison, and mocking the pack of gypsies who are passing through his Maine town. Worse, Billy accidentally runs over an old gypsy woman while driving carelessly due to a favor (insert wink here) from his wife, which leads to an angry old gypsy man cursing him to become (you guessed it) thinner. It doesn't sound like a bad deal at first, but the increasing rate at which Billy loses his girth leads to some health concerns (most notably, imminent death) and he is forced to fight back to save his life.
I opened with Burke's name for a reason, which is the fact that the actor takes over the film's lead role and gives a terrifically entertaining performance. The actor attacks the film with a hammy tone that's kind of comedic (now that it's the future, I couldn't help thinking he sounded a bit like Will Arnett), which helps make the character worth watching when you consider who and what the character is. Viewers who are concerned about the morality of their characters might be put off by Billy, who is, to put it nicely, a gluttonous slob who lies, womanizes, and actually kills someone in a hit and run. Despite all that, the only way the film works is if you sympathize, if only a little bit, with this man. (Because, you know, the gypsies have curses. And curses are WRONG.) Burke's approach to the film doesn't necessarily make us like Billy, but it does make him an interesting man to follow, and the combination of the actor's talents and some impressive special effects regarding his body transformation do enough to keep us feeling a little bit of sympathy for him.
Speaking of morality that's flown out the window, Joe Mantegna gives another pulpy performance in a side role as a gangster, and his presence helps the film immensely in the final act. This is another part of the film that reminds us just how little the film cares about the viewer having positive feelings for the characters, as Billy enlists his gangster friend to take out one of the gypsies and kidnap the daughter of his curser (Kari Wuhrer in an early role) to try and get his curse lifted. Meanwhile, the only thing we really learn about the curser - played by Michael Constantine, who is also made-up wonderfully as a 109 year old man with a ugly visage - is that he likes to cackle and refers to Billy mostly as "White Man From Town." Characterization isn't the film's strongest asset, but each of the characters meets a specific purpose within the film's twisted parable. And the performers are having enough fun with the material that I didn't stop too often to notice the lack of depth.
Directed by horror veteran Tom Holland - the man behind Fright Night and Child's Play - Thinner works for me because it offers a very simple tale of unnatural vengeance with some fantastic special effects mixed in. I have to assume that King's story had a little more to it than this film does, but that doesn't take away from the fun I had watching it. Burke and Mantegna's performances alone make Thinner a horror film worth seeing, and the final product is another entertaining, if not slight, adaptation of the author's work.
Well, The Thing has won about every award FMWL has ever had, so the list certainly wouldn't be complete without it. Why it's ONLY number nine on the list is a much more difficult conversation for me to have with y'all. John Carpenter's film has long been a favorite of mind and I can't find a single friggin' technical flaw with the thing. I think that maybe sometimes it feels too sterile and not as human as some other horror films...but I've also argued at times that that's the point.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
From the first "bum-bum" of the Ennio Morricone musical score, the tension in The Thing is pretty darn high. But I can't deny that the film hits the lightning round of suspense right around the time the men perform their test to see who is "one of them." It's got manly debate, gooey special effects, people tied to a (expletive deleted) couch, and a flame thrower. What more can a scene offer?
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
The Thing is a remake of a very good movie, The Thing From Another World. 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers is also a remake and also a tale of shape-seizing invaders, and it's also a pretty effective chiller. I prefer the 1955 version of the story, but it's a better double feature with the 1951 The Thing. Heck, just watch all four of 'em and thank me later. (And then cap it off with Abel Ferrara's 1993 Body Snatchers for dessert.)
What It Means To Me:
John Carpenter has long been my second favorite director in the history of the world (Alfred Hitchcock can not be challenged, unfortunately), and The Thing has always been among his most profound works to me. I often find myself preferring some of his more lighthearted films, but when pure craftsmanship is the topic then this one just has to be part of the conversation. It's universally loved for a reason, and it's a true must see for anyone interested in horror. The only problem is...so are the next 8 movies I'll list.
I told y'all it was coming, and now it's here. As the main course of From Midnight With Love's October festivities, I offer up an autobiography in four chapters, listing the inspirations that led me to become the dude I am today.
The first of four categories might be a surprise to some, as I discuss how books influenced my path to blogdom. I often crack wise about books, because I'm lazy now that I'm old and mostly watch movies, but it would be a bald-faced lie if I told you all that books aren't important to the growth of anyone. Do you think I could sit here and type these semi-sentences and use words that are probably too big for the point I'm trying to make if I hadn't read a butt-load of books? Of course I couldn't. (Though, to be fair, few of the books I've read use words like "butt-load". That's a different story for a different day.)
Not all of these books are exactly works of art...but they all had a special place in making The Mike happen. And that's why I'm here tonight. So let's do this.
The legend may have grown over the years - I think one version of this story has me wrestling a bear - but one of my very first memories is "learning to read" The Berenstain Bears and The Spooky Old Tree when I was not yet three years old. It was my absolute favorite bed time story, and it was read to me so many times that my parents and I claim that I could pick up the book and re-tell the story to myself while I was still two years old. Again, I'm not sure if this actually happened - I don't believe I've ever been that smart - but I know that the first thing I remember loving to pieces was this horror tale for children.
It's been a long time since I was that little boy who (pretended to) read a book for its horror contents, but I'm relatively sure I can still recite the book word for word. (It starts with "Three little bears. One with a light, one with a rope, and one with a stick.") At my current age, I'm not sure there are many chills - or as the book calls them "shivers" - left for me in The Spooky Old Tree. But I'm pretty sure that this was the first horror story I learned, and that makes it extraordinarily special to me.
Those Orange Back Monster Books from the Library
These books actually have a name - the Crestwood House Monsters Series - but if you ask any monster fan who grew up in the late '70s and early '80s they probably know what you mean when you mention "the orange back books". At least in my neck of the woods, they were kind of a big deal.
As best as I can remember, each book focused on one classic monster and retold the story of their films in a matter of fact way. Even though they were re-telling fictional events, the way they were presented made them feel like they were basically research books for monster nerds. In fact, I did a project on monsters for a school fair when I was in 2nd grade, and these were my main source of information. I'm not saying I was the star of the show - that'd be boasting - but I don't remember anyone else from that 2nd grade fair whose booth was as popular as mine. I don't remember anything else from that 2nd grade fair, actually. But I know that I was awesome, and that (at least according to my mother) I've been a superstar ever since. (My mom never actually said that. But I know she would say it.)
The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Series
As I got a little older, things like The Spooky Old Tree just weren't scary enough for little The Mike. So, I asked for more "scary" stories...and I literally found more scary stories. In this case, I found scary in three books of folk tales compiled by Alvin Schwartz, which retold urban legends and ghost stories that have been passed down through the generations and complemented them with spooky illustrations. I feel like a lot of my respect for horror history came from these books, because this was about the time when I started trying to remember these horror stories so I could re-tell them myself. I understood the idea that these were passed down through time, and that really lit my horror fire.
My relationship with The Amityville Horror is kind of like that line from The Royal Tenenbaums. To paraphrase - "We all know that The Amityville Horror isn't true...but what I'm presupposing is: Maybe it is." I mean, I'd seen the movie, I'd heard how it wasn't real, even though a bunch of money grubbing folks tried to say it was. I was smart enough to know crud when I heard crud.
At the same time, I must admit that the presentation of this tale - at least to a middle school version of The Mike - was quite convincing. I know it's hard to explain, just like that circular Tenenbaums quote that was intended for comedic purposes, but the part of me that knew this was all bollocks also wanted to believe that it wasn't. I sat there and I read the book and I was like "This isn't real...but it could be." I guess I just wanted to keep the horror dream alive, and The Amityville Horror at least gave me a chance to talk about a horror story and say it was a little bit true. (Even though none of the horror parts were.)
The works of Stephen King
There's not a lot I need to say about why Stephen King is important, and I already said most of what I could say about King last October. Yet I'm sure that many other horror fanatics out there can relate to the feeling I had when I first read King's work. It was as if I had graduated from childhood horror fan to adult horror fan. Y'know that feeling you got when you first got to watch R-rated movies or got to drive the car without your parents? It was that feeling, but with horror stories. I was in the horror big leagues.
My first King novel was Insomnia, his over-long tale of geriatric fright that isn't the best representation of his talents. But I was too pumped up by the fact that I was reading Stephen King to care. I kept reading his works throughout my teenage years, and my love for horror only continued to grow. As I learned more about The Shining and The Dead Zone and all these other King tales I'd seen in movies and on TV, I learned that there's a lot that can be done for horror in print that can't be done on screen.
Frankenstein
I thought I loved Frankenstein from the moment I read those orange back books and even more when I saw the Karloff movie. But it wasn't until I went to college that I randomly picked up a copy of the book, mostly because I was buying textbooks and saw it on the shelf for an English course that I wasn't taking and bought it anyway. And while I was sitting in the laundry room waiting for my laundry to get done (What? I'm from a small town, I didn't know if I could trust a tower full of 500 18-21 year olds), I read the whole thing over two nights. (This might be why I didn't have many friends, but that's OK. I'm an introvert anyway.)
Going from littleville to college was a big culture shock for me, but it was this reading of Frankenstein that reminded me of something great about horror. People sometimes give horror a bad name by pointing out examples of the genre that aren't exactly high art, yet Mary Shelley's novel - which makes the monster a more introspective being than even Karloff could - reminded me that horror can tap into scholarly and artistic avenues as well. I planned to grow up and be an intelligent adult, and Frankenstein was a reminder that I didn't need to leave horror behind to do so.
I'm not sure that "intelligent adult" thing has worked out yet, but at least I still love my horror. And next week I'll share another few items that strengthened this love of horror in Volume 2 of this series. So come on back then, and if you have your own favorite horror books from times in your life as a horror fan, please do share them in the comments below. Until then, enjoy another selection from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which presents a scenario that you may recognize from a horror film of the '70s. Until next time!
I feel like I've written this intro a hundred times before. You know the one, it's about how The Blair Witch Project happened and then later Paranormal Activity happened and then the "found footage" horror movie was everywhere. And they just keep coming at us, over and over again.
Today's example is Hollow, in which a creepy tree and an epidemic of suicides tie in to an ancient cult. This sounds like a spoiler, perhaps, but what kind of surprised me about Hollow was how little time was spent on the reasons for this supernatural hotspot. Instead, we spend much of the film watching the characters interact with the old dark country home and deal with their relationships with each other.
The relationship part of the film gets a lot of focus, as the young woman who grew up in the house, Emma (Emily Plumtree) interacts with her fiance Scott (Matt Stokoe). At the same time, Emma's friend James (Sam Stockman) tries to woo a blonde minx (Jessica Ellerby) who's been added to the picture - while also dealing with his feelings for Emma. The film never goes all the way into soap opera drama territory while dealing with this love rectangle, and I thought Hollow did a pretty good job of keeping the relationships moving - even though I was definitely more interested in the old dark countryside part of the story.
And it's easy to see why, because the dark moments as the hand-held camera moves around the estate did a pretty good job of getting under my skin. There are a lot of moments where the camera provides the only light as a character moves around the pitch black estate, and I couldn't help but be a little creeped out at times. Director Michael Axelgaard does a good job of building tension at moments, but the tension isn't always consistent throughout the film.
The inconsistency really hurts the film's pacing, which becomes an issue particularly as the final act rolls around. The film kind of grinds to a halt just before the conclusion, and the last 15 minutes left me just waiting for something to happen. The biggest problem for any found footage horror film, especially at this point in the game, will be viewers that compare them to their predecessors, and this severely hurts Hollow as the characters deal with their predicament. Some fans will probably bemoan the film because they've "seen this before", and I'm not sure I'd disagree with them.
It will take a patient viewer to get something out of Hollow, because the pace is occasionally tedious and the way the plot is presented offers little new to the formula. I still liked Hollow enough to give it a mild recommendation for a viewing, but I can't imagine going back to the film a second time. There are a lot of interesting parts to the film, but it's one of those films that I kind of lost interest in shortly after I'd finished watching it. I'm not sure that there's a lot of lasting value in this one.
Hollow is currently available on most VOD services, and if you're looking for a found footage tale with some chills and a focus on character, you could do worse. For more info, head over the the Tribeca Films site for the film and/or check out the trailer below.
He's known for comedies, but director John Landis shows off his love for monster movies in An American Werewolf in London and creates something special. The film expertly balances between classic werewolf traditions and modern teenage comedy, with a perfectly picked cast leading the way. It's not necessarily a scare fest, but there are some fantastic effects and suspense, and it rates higher on this list because it might be one of the two or three most entertaining horror films out there.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
Literally, the most transformative event the film is probably the physical transformation from American to American Werewolf that happens near the middle of the film. But my favorite moment that sets the tone for the film, at least regarding its horror, is the sequence when the unseen beast tracks a lone businessman through the London subway system. It's a great piece of first person horror that reminds us what the film actually is.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
1981 saw a resurgence of werewolf films, with Joe Dante knocking out the surprisingly dark The Howling and Michael Wadleigh putting together the bizarre Wolfen. The former is the natural companion to American Werewolf, with its tongue slightly in cheek and more great special effects. And the ending, featuring Dee Wallace cementing herself as a horror icon, is one of a kind.
What It Means To Me:
I've always been enamored with An American Werewolf in London, but it took me a long time to really take the film seriously. I really feel like the film has gotten better every time I've seen it, and over time I've come to recognize just how well-put together the film is. Y'know how sometimes you get that feeling about how a movie is fun but not really that good? Well, you can stop having that feeling about An American Werewolf in London. I'm here to tell you that it's bloody brilliant.
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation - in the loosest sense of the word - of Stephen King's novel is one of the most unforgettable horror experiences ever filmed. With a great performance from Jack Nicholson leading the way, Kubrick's film is methodical and patient as it lets the strange events occur in the abandoned Overlook Hotel. Innocent events - like a boy riding around the halls on a trike or a writer pecking away at his typewriter - take on new meaning, and the few big scares that follow pack a mammoth punch.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
There are countless shocking moments in Kubrick's film, but the reveal in Room 237 is probably the most unsettling. Partially because no one wants to see rotted old nudity, but also because the build up to what Jack Torrance sees is handled so beautifully. This is a perfect representation of the control Kubrick had over a film.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
A more linear horror from the same time period with plenty of chills, Peter Medak's The Changeling lets another Oscar winning actor - Patton's George C. Scott - explore a creepy house and deal with surprising reveals. These two films have strong differences in plot, but there's something I can't put my finger on that draws them together for me. If you want to watch another meticulous horror tale, The Changeling should be right up your alley.
What It Means To Me:
I'm not exactly sure how my sister and I got ahold of a copy of The Shining when we were about 11-12 years old. There's a part of me that thinks my parents actually approved of this, but it's also possible that we just got it out of the poorly guarded VHS cabinet and popped it in the VCR. No matter the why, this movie became our first serious on-screen nightmare - an unhinged portrait of evil that provided something more real than the likes of Clownhouse or Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. It makes no sense sometimes - but what nightmare does? The Shining still manages to fascinate me on every view, and its reputation as one of the most beloved horror films out there is well earned.
A breakdown of the parts of From Beyond would reveal the foundation of an old-fashioned haunted house film, but the combination of the right elements place the movie in a different part of the horror universe. You could say that this is the Combs/Crampton/Yuzna/Gordon/Lovecraft The Haunting to go along with their Frankenstein (Re-Animator, naturally), but simplifying either film into such a narrow comparison would be a disservice to the bizarre and manic energy that each film possesses.
In From Beyond, a doctor - who, for lack of a better term, seems "mad" - named Pretorius has created a machine known as "The Resonator" which aims to alter the user's perception of reality. The machine is set to stimulate the pineal gland, a real part of a real brain (not just some mumbo jumbo that the film created) which is involved in sleep cycles and other stuff. Dr. Pretorius believes that stimulation of this gland will basically let him see into other dimensions of reality, but he just wasn't prepared for what would happen next.
Also unprepared is his assistant, played by Re-Animator veteran Jeffery Combs. He again plays the unstable doctor, though his reasons for instability - in this case, seeing creatures from beyond reality and then seeing his coworker decapitated - set him up in a different role here. Enter doctor Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) and police officer Bubba Brownlee (Dawn of the Dead veteran Ken Foree), the former of whom decides to take the now committed Combs back to the house of the resonator and the latter of whom is their unfortunate escort.
Which brings us back to the "haunted house" aspect of the film. Like notable haunted house features (for example, The Legend of Hell House) this one requires a big piece of machinery to bring out the spooks. But the difference between the spooks of Richard Matheson and the spooks of H.P. Lovecraft is a lot of tentacles and plenty of goopy special effects, and From Beyond does not skimp in that regard. Several teams of special effects masters - including future Friday the 13th Part VII director John Carl Buechler - worked on the deranged special effects that are shown off throughout the film. These effects are led by the increasingly deformed visage of the returning Dr. Pretorius, but the most visually interesting part of the film to me (outside of Ms. Crampton, of course) is the shorn and shattered vision of Combs in the second half of the film.
Combs' turn is doubly impressive as his character actually moves through multiple roles in the film. He's a little bit Dwight Frye, a little bit Elisha Cook, Jr. and - eventually - a little bit Robert Englund, yet he nails all aspects of the role. Not to be completely overshadowed, Crampton also gets to play different types throughout the film. Most male horror fans remember her from the mid-film sequence in which she dons some leather and plays sex kitten, but she also gets to play scientist and damsel-in-distress on opposing ends of the film. The character who is bewitched by the macabre intrigue of their setting is a role that males often dominate in horror cinema, but it's Crampton's turn here and her obsession with the case early in the film sets up the twisted world of From Beyond beautifully.
I have to admit, I'm a relative newbie to the works of H.P. Lovecraft in comparison to other horror fans. But From Beyond, with its host of mutations, flying creatures, and phallic imagery, seems to fit perfectly with what I do know about the man's work. Director Stuart Gordon seems to always have a loving interest in the writer's bizarre vision, and From Beyond stands out as an entertaining and inventive adaptation of his work. With plenty of splatter to please the gorehounds and enough psycho-babble to keep the brain working overtime, From Beyond should please anyone who's looking for a bit of fun with a side of psychosexual splatter.
If you're like me, you probably start most things you write with "if you're like me." You also might think everyone else is better at horror writing than you. Which brings us to my favorite part of the month - the part where I get to share some of the cool horror goings on from my favorite sites and folks with all you Midnight Warriors. Here's some cool goodness I've found in October's first days.
One of the most amazingly named blogs in the history of history, Chuck Norris Ate My Baby, is promising to serve up all sorts of goodness in celebration of CHUCKTOBER. I, for one, am prepared for some wicked cool stuff. Your host, Matt-suzaka is serving up several special features, and most interesting to me is his look at video games intersecting with genre cinema. Check it out!
Over at Fascination With Fear, Christine and Marie are running another Festival of Lists, offering up a list of good stuff for each day of the month. No site that I know if is as thorough as this one, so make sure you're keeping up. Today's post features two of horror's most terrible apartments, looking into two bizarre treats from the '70s that make me smile.
Kindertrauma has long been one of my favorite sites to haunt, as Aunt John and Unkle Lancifer prove that horror is truly everywhere. On Sunday, Kindertrauma celebrated their fifth birthday, recounting their first post and how the site was inspired by The Waltons. Yes, The Waltons. You have to read it to believe it - but that's true for most of the awesomeness over at KT. Congrats to the guys over there, and long live Kindertrauma!
Another titan of horror fandom, Final Girl, is bringing back a recurring October theme. They call it Shocktober!, and this year's festival focuses on a different horror film that has been a part of the site's long running Film Club - which I've participated in a few times - each day. Today's focus is on Let the Right One In, but keep checking back at Final Girl for more and more horror hits.
One of the first Midnight Warriors ever was Nicki over at Hey! Look Behind You!, and she's on track for another 31 Days of Halloween marathon. Running alongside her usual collection of horror shorts and Film Wise challenges, I'm sure that the site will have something interesting to say about plenty of horror favorites. For example, her first feature is none other than The Exorcist, and her experience with the film may surprise you.
TL Bugg of The Lightning Bug's Lair has some pretty big things planned for the latter part of October - don't worry, you'll hear more about them here - but today he's got a solid review of one of my favorite recent finds in zombie horror, Exit Humanity. He's also got a take on Grave Encounters 2, which I just reviewed yesterday, that provides a more positive opinion than I did. Dig it!
There are plenty of other great folks and great reads I could mention, but we've got 28 more days to go! Got some good stuff you've found? SHARE IT! WE ALL NEED MORE HORROR! IT'S OCTOBER!! I'M YELLING!!!!!!!
Grave Encounters 2 - the follow up to a film that was one of the biggest surprises of 2011 for me - is one of the most bizarre sequels I've ever come across. Making a sequel to a found footage horror film is never an easy task, and the folks behind Grave Encounters 2 - producers The Vicious Brothers and new director John Poliquin - show their intention to be self-referential throughout this film. They have to believe in the first film - because this film insists that what we saw in Grave Encounters was real.
Of course, that's exactly what Grave Encounters insisted too, but the tone has certainly shifted over the past year. Now we're supposed to believe that the thing which was presented as real was actually a lie, while this thing that's presented as real proves that the thing that was presented as a lie was actually real. It's like we've gone one step further down the proverbial rabbit hole, which seems to be exactly where the filmmakers want us. If you're confused by that, you're not alone. I'm right there with you.
Grave Encounters 2 follows student filmmaker/amateur YouTube critic Alex Wright - who doesn't appear to be related to the former WCW wrestler of the same name - who becomes obsessed with internet rumors that Grave Encounters was a real reality show in which real people were haunted in a real asylum. Thanks to emails from an anonymous source known only as "Death Awaits", Alex and his friends slowly begin to strip away the lies about the film, and soon find themselves inside the same asylum facing some of the same problems.
By presenting this multi-layered look in to found footage horror, Grave Encounters 2 runs in to a few problems. The first thing that really bugged me was the set up, which seemed to drag on for far too long. One of the main reasons that The Vicious Brothers' original film worked for me was that it seemed to seamlessly transition from its brief set up to the haunted asylum showdown that really got under my skin. The sequel seems too focused on building its characters and too interested in providing inside jokes about the production, and it left me wishing for a simpler premise that would get down to the scares. The number of characters involved in the sequel goes up as well and some of them seem like filler characters that serve only as victims for the delayed asylum trip. The first film wasn't a picture of character development, but the sequel seemed to add characters on a whim and drop them even more quickly.
The other problem with Grave Encounters 2's structure is that the tension seems to be broken far too often. To an extent, all found footage films rely on whiny characters wheezing about their predicament, but Grave Encounters 2 seems to completely break from the action at hand far too often. The first film seemed to shake off the supernatural and cross-dimensional twists in the name of tried and true shocks, but this sequel spends too much time wading through explanations and trying to make sense of everything that's going on. Thankfully, the film's not very good at explaining away its mysteries.
Which brings us to an area where Grave Encounters 2 succeeds. The unraveling reality that we found the characters in during the first film only seems deeper and darker here, with the mid-film return of a character from Grave Encounters only adding to the intrigue. One of my favorite parts of the first film was watching the characters realize how weird the environment they were trapped in could be, and the sequel only takes us further down that bizarre path, and sequences like a near escape in the middle of the film really do a great job of showing the shifting reality in the film. These sequences help lead to some of the film's better scares, though they don't come with the same build up as the first film.
When I really break down Grave Encounters 2, I can't help feeling the whole picture is a mixed bag. I liked the first film despite some obvious flaws, mostly because the filmmakers took a complex idea and made it pretty simple and effective. Grave Encounters 2 seems to be pushing too hard in too many directions at times, and I struggled to sift through everything as I watched it. There are a lot of high points in the scare department and some perplexing moments of shock and awe, but too much of the film is spent trying to achieve too many goals. There's a little bit of everything in the horror spectrum here - everything from Scream to "torture porn" to Donnie Darko to the old fashioned haunted house is represented - but I don't think Grave Encounters 2 does any of these things extremely well. I still think it's worth a watch if you were a fan of the first film, but I'd warn you to be prepared for some perplexing changes in the film and some unwelcome confusion. Grave Encounters 2 just doesn't come together as well as the first film did, but I still want to watch it again to try and figure out how all the creepy twists in this universe come together.
If you're interested in seeing the film for yourself, it becomes available through online rental and VOD sources today. Head over to the Tribeca Films website if you want to learn more, or just check out the trailer below.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think I've ever listed Alien among my favorite horror films before today. I get caught up in the genre wars sometimes, and I used to argue exclusively that this film - which is really a slasher movie with an alien instead of a masked dude - was a science fiction film. Now that I'm older and less stupid (I hope), I kind of realize that there's no point to that silly argument. Alien is the kind of movie that makes me want to turn off all the lights and let it surprise me for the the rest of the night. And that's probably a horror movie. Am I rating it too low because I still think it's fringe to the genre? Maybe. But at least it's here.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
There are plenty of famous moments in Alien, led by one of the more famous shocks in the history of movies. But the moment in Alien that most impressed me when I first saw it - since Spaceballs had previously spoiled the big one - involves the motion detector that would be used so well in the sequel and a character traveling through some tunnels in search of the title character. It's a tense sequence with an absolutely perfect ending.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
I'm going to go against the easy pick and discuss a movie that didn't make this list for the same reason Alien missed previous lists....I'm just not ready to count it as a an all-in horror movie yet. And that movie is none less than Steven Spielberg's Jaws. Yeah, I know. But look, Jaws is so good that it doesn't need to be listed as one of my favorite horror movies. The point is that it would play well in an uber-tense double feature with Alien. So who cares if it's on the list? It's awesome!
What It Means To Me:
Alien is one of my favorite movies of any genre, probably ahead of some of the films that will rank higher than it on this list of horror films. I know, I'm a stickler when it comes to genre classification and am being slightly OCD here, but again - the point is that it's fantastic and a must see for anyone. Alien should be a key part of any conversation about shocking cinema, and I couldn't keep myself from talking about it on this list.
If you have questions or suggestions not regarding a specific review, or would like to recommend a movie to The Mike, feel free to email him at frommidnightwithlove(at)gmail(dot)com!
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