In the month of October I saw 27 new films, plus re-watched 2
films, plus rewatched a season of a TV show.
After watching a whole bunch of
Oscar Best Picture nominees
in September – enough to get me within range of being able to finish them off
in October – I didn’t watch a single one this month. I actually noticed on the 20th that I had
only seen a total of two films so far in October. I took a look and just didn’t have any desire
to dive back into the Oscar nominees again.
I don’t know why.
Instead I saw that the movie this month for Steve’s
Selection also happened to be on the
101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die list put out by the same people who do the 1001 Movies books. I knew that among the six genre lists Horror was
one I had more left to see for than, say, Action or Sci-Fi. I’ve always felt watching horror movies in
the month of October was a cliché and I’d avoided it in the past, but I decided
to get off my high horse and get with the masses this year.
I figured I’d get some of the gorefests out of the way, sort
of an “eating my broccoli” approach (except I doubt any of these movies were
good for me.) Once I did that I decided
why not watch the earlier entries on the list, ones from back before they were
putting gore in movies. That then led to
me just trying to knock off as many as I could, usually in sittings of several
at a time. One of the advantages of
doing these is that they were almost always less than 90 minutes long.
The result of this work is that while I started the month
with 27 entries to see I’ve now got only four films left to finish off the 101
Horror Movies list – better than Action (12), Cult (18), Gangster (28), Sci-Fi
(16), and War (26). I may watch three of
those four and then just wait for the last one to come to me someday from
Netflix (The Bad Seed). Even then I
won’t be done with horror movies, though, since there are several others on the
Cult list.
As I sit here and write this I do feel a lot more energy and
interest in working on the 101 genre lists, and not much interest at all in the
35 remaining Oscar Best Picture nominees.
On the other hand, having a goal of completing the Oscar films by the
end of the year would be good because I’ve set them aside before and it took me
the better part of two years to pick them up again.
One thing that will help is I will have a reduced work
schedule in November so that will leave a lot more time to watch movies, if I
want to.
Here are the 27 films I saw in October. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted.
Oscar (0):
101 Genre (24): The Orphanage (2007), The
Brood (1979), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), The
Beyond (1981), The Golem
(1920), White Zombie (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House (1932), The Tingler (1959), Drunken Angel (1948), Carnival of Souls (1962),
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Devil Rides Out (1968), Valerie and Her
Week of Wonders (1970), The
Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), Blacula (1972), The Last House on the Left
(1972), Deathdream aka Dead of Night (1974), Deep Red (1975), The Howling (1981), Re-Animator (1985), Hellraiser
(1987), Ju-on: The Grudge
(2002)
Other (3): Black
Dog (1998), Inside Out
(2015), Tomorrowland
(2015)
Re-Watches (2): Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015),
Back to the Future Part II
(1989) – you should all know why.
Black Dog (1998)
– I happened to run across this while skimming channels. I missed the beginning, but with this kind of
film it took maybe 45 seconds to figure out what was going on. There are some decent crash scenes, but the
villain is just silly. 2 stars
The Brood (1979)
– Way too much psychobabble, way too little suspense. Not one of Cronenberg’s better efforts. 2 stars
Cannibal Holocaust
(1980) – Much like Snakes on a Plane or Hobo with a Shotgun you don’t need
to wonder what to expect from a film titled Cannibal Holocaust. I watched this just to check it off from a
movie list to complete. 1 star
Friday the 13th
(1980) – For a long time this was probably the most famous film that I had
never seen. I’m not sure what that might
be now. This had the typical set of
too-dumb-to-live teenagers. Nice reveal
on the killer, but not enough to save the movie. 2 stars
The Beyond (1981)
– Is it a demonic possession film? Yes. Is it a haunted house film? Yes. Is it
a satanic film? Yes. Is it an animal terror film? Yes. Is it a creepy crawly
film? Yes. Is it a zombie film? Yes. Is it a gorefest? Yes. Is it a really bad movie? Yes. 1.5 stars
The Golem (1920) –
It's a little tough to know how to interpret this film. Was it made by Jewish
people and all the fantastic powers given to the Jewish rabbi were hyperbole
and artistic license or was it made by non-Jews and it's
incredibly anti-Semitic? In this
film we see a rabbi practicing black magic, summoning a demon, creating illusions
that can kill, etc. The golem is an old Jewish legend, of course - a man
fashioned out of clay to protect the Jews, but that can also bring great ruin
on them. What little I know of the legend had nothing to do with demons and the
dark arts, though - it was not evil because of its origins; it was simply
stupid and literal so if you set it to doing a chore it would keep doing it
even if it knocked down the entire house.
Regardless, this film is engaging and the breaks between the five
chapters are well placed to keep the viewer wanting more. 3 stars
White Zombie (1932) –
This clocks in at not much more than an hour, but even at that length it was
kind of slow and boring. Other than lots of piercing stares by Bela Lugosi
there's not much in this movie that makes an impact. In fact, the most lasting
thing about it is probably that it gave Rob Zombie the name of his
first band. Oh, and you've got to
love the main setting being a huge stone castle high on a rocky
cliff....in Haiti. 2 stars
Island of Lost Souls
(1932) – This movie is really dark in tone. Combine that with several
things either overt, or heavily suggested, and there is no way this film gets
made a year later when the Production Code finally gets enforced
full time. Laughton is very fey in
the role of Dr. Moreau. I'm not exactly sure what he was going for, except
maybe that was the way "decadent" was communicated out to audiences
at the time. And any fan of Devo
should see this movie. "Are we not men?!" 3 stars
The Old Dark House
(1932) – This was interesting. It takes a very basic concept - a group of
travelers seeking shelter from a storm in a large old house with a strange
family living in it - and does a lot with it. This movie had to have been the
direct inspiration for the opening of Rocky Horror Picture Show. It might also
be the first horror film to use the crazy, dangerous family concept. I'm far
from an expert on the genre, but off the top of my head I can't think of any
earlier ones. And this is the
second 1932 horror film in a row with Charles Laughton in it that I saw. In this film he's just part of the ensemble -
one of the travelers. It was also interesting seeing Gloria Stuart (old Rose in
Titanic) in one of her very first roles. She's 21 or 22 and spends much of the
movie in a slinky dress and looks great. Boris Karloff yet again wears some
intense makeup while playing the
mute butler-who's-way-too-scary-to-be-a-butler. Director James Whale throws in some
weirdness and humor - such as having a scene where an elderly man is very
obviously being played by a woman.
3 stars
The Tingler (1959)
– I'm sorry, but this is a completely ridiculous concept, even for a B movie
from 1959. And this film somehow not only made it onto the 101 Horror Movies
You Must See Before You Die list, but also the They Shoot Pictures Don't They
list for three straight years. Is it a crime against humanity? No, it's just
not very good (and not "so bad it's good", either.) 2 stars
Drunken Angel (1948)
– This is an earlier Kurosawa film set in (then) present day post-WWII Japan.
I immediately recognized Takashi Shimura as the title character - a (probably
unlicensed) doctor living in a slum and who has a serious drinking problem. His
main patient is a young Yakuza leader who has tuberculosis. I remember thinking
at one point, "isn't Toshiro Mifune supposed to be in this
somewhere?" It wasn't until after the film was over that I found out
Mifune WAS the Yakuza patient. He's quite young and in makeup to make him look
like death warmed over. The story
in the film is uneven. It starts out focused on the doctor and establishes his
drinking problem, his caustic personality, and his hopeless fight to keep the
people in this neighborhood from the many diseases running rampant there.
(Hell, they all live around a literal cesspool.) While we mainly see the doctor there are
scenes of the Yakuza man interspersed among them. However, after around an hour
the film switches focus over to the Yakuza and the doctor becomes a background
character. Both his vices and his crusade are forgotten about. Then for about
20-30 minutes the doctor disappears entirely and we only see the Yakuza. We
don't see the doctor again until the end of the film. I read afterwards that Kurosawa intentionally
did this because he liked what Mifune was bringing to the Yakuza role and so
shot a lot of footage there that was never originally intended. Unfortunately,
this leaves us with an unfocused film.
It's still Kurosawa, though, so that means it's still well
worth seeing. 3 stars
Carnival of Souls
(1962) – On what is obviously not much of a budget the filmmakers crafted
an effectively creepy movie. It relies on the simple things such as big empty
spaces and key scenes with a loss of human contact. I wonder if this movie got
in trouble when it came out for showing that organ music in a big empty church
can be very creepy. 3 stars
Inside Out (2015)
– I was a fan of the TV show Herman's Head back about 20-25 years ago. I
finally got to revisit it when I watched Inside Out. It's the exact same
concept. Just because the movie rips off an earlier concept does not make it
bad, though - far from it. Hell, The Incredibles is a rip off of the Fantastic
Four and it's hugely entertaining. So is Inside Out. This is Pixar fully returning to form for the
first time since Toy Story 3. I would place Inside Out in the top five movies
Pixar has done, which is saying something.
Just a side note: I didn't read IMDB's message boards for the film
(because I assumed they'd be insane), but I'd bet a lot of money that some
people there are having conniptions over the fact that Anger is male, Joy is a
tall, slim, attractive female who doesn't like to think, and Sadness is a
short, fat, dumpy, female who wears glasses and is smart. 4.5 stars
The Curse of
Frankenstein (1957) – I'm guessing that the enduring appeal of this film is
based more on the fact that it's the first onscreen pairing of longtime Hammer
horror stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee than it is the movie itself.
Don't get me wrong: there's nothing particularly dislikable with it. It just
doesn't really add anything to the Frankenstein story, other than color
photography. All in all I felt it was just okay. 2.5 stars
The Devil Rides Out
(1968) – This movie certainly doesn't waste any time getting to the
"there's evil about and we've got to stop it!" plot line. And it
pretty much stays full bore the entire film, too. They pack about 3 hours of
plot into not much more than half that time. That's accomplished by having
Christopher Lee constantly spew exposition explaining everything we need to
know about the dark arts and how to stop them. He's practically a running
narrator for the film. In fact, I was figuring he'd turn out to be one of the
evil people, considering he knew so much about what they were doing, but after
a while I realized it was just a way to get across what the audience needed
to know. There are some good
production values for this Hammer horror film, including several classic 1920's
British roadsters that are put to the test during a couple of well-shot
chase scenes.
Ultimately, the movie wasn't bad, but it also didn't do much
for me. 2.5 stars
Valerie and Her Week
of Wonders (1970) – This reminded me of something Jodorowsky might have
done, except there were no naked little boys running around. Instead there is a
teenage girl who never wears underwear and is occasionally naked, along with a
whole lot of sexual and religious iconography mixed together. 1 star
Tomorrowland (2015)
– I feel that this movie unjustly got a bad rap when it didn’t do well at the
box office last spring. I wrote a longer
than usual review on Letterboxd – about the length of one I would usually post
here – so I’ve decided to not try to condense that down for this post, but
instead I will do a separate post reviewing Tomorrowland here in a few days. 4 stars
The Abominable Dr.
Phibes (1971) – Interesting early 1970s horror movie, although it's more
campy than scary. It's actually an early version of Se7en. The Saw movies
lifted some key elements from it as well.
3 stars
Blacula (1972) –
I went into this film with a smirk on my face and a chuckle already forming. I
mean, c'mon - "Blacula"? How can anyone take that title seriously?
Then the film started and William Marshall appeared right away. He was a victim
of Dracula, cursed to become a vampire himself. He brought a great deal of
dignity and presence to this role. So much so that it almost saves the movie. I
read afterwards that he had played Frederick Douglass in another production and
I could immediately see him in that role.
The rest of the movie is a little goofy, but there is some good music
from The Hues Corporation (although not their biggest hit Don't Rock
the Boat.) 2.5 stars
The Last House on the
Left (1972) – This appears to have been Wes Craven's take on A Clockwork
Orange (or further out, The Virgin Spring), at least in part (not enough to get
sued, though). It also appears that Haneke had this for inspiration for his
film Funny Games. Neither the brutality
with the psychos nor the stupidity with the Sheriff and Deputy (hey, it's that
guy from The Karate Kid) did anything for me. Frankly, I'd be worried about
anyone who had the brutality scenes work for them. 2 stars
Deathdream aka Dead
of Night (1974) – Boy, Vietnam
screwed people up more than we thought.
There were long stretches where the returning soldier just sat in a
chair as if he had PTSD. I'm guessing this was intended to increase tension
wondering when he was going to do something, but after a while it
got boring. 2 stars
Deep Red (1975) –
This is really more a murder mystery than it is a horror movie. Yes, the deaths
are slightly more graphic than the norm for the time, but they wouldn't even
get a blink from TV show viewers now, let alone people in a
movie theater. I thought I had the
killer figured out because of a pointless scene early in the movie that would
only be not pointless if the person in it was the killer, but I was wrong. I
guess Argento just wanted to shoot that scene for no apparent reason. 3 stars
The Howling (1981)
– Like An American Werewolf in London
this film has some impressive (for the time) practical effects in regards to
the werewolf transformations. Unfortunately, I couldn't take the one in this
film as seriously because Dee Wallace Stone just stands there for minutes
apparently admiring the great practical effects work instead of getting the
hell out of there. It's a film that is still worth checking
out, though. 3 stars
Re-Animator (1985)
– Let me just say right off the top: not the strangest sex scene I've ever
watched in a movie, but definitely in the top 5. Cartoonish levels of gore, bad acting, really
stupid characters, but also a decent amount of bizarre, goofy fun. 2.5 stars
Hellraiser (1987)
– "Hey babe. I'm back from the dead and have sort of reanimated myself by
using my brother's blood. Hows about you go out and bring back a whole bunch of
other men so you can kill them and I can get more blood to become more human so
we can go back to having mass quantities of sex again? Don't worry about how to
get rid if their remains, all the clothing you'll ruin from their blood, or the
stench they'll leave behind. No one will notice." "No problem honey. Be
right back." "Oh, and
hey, have you seen my hot niece anywhere?" "Why do you ask?" "No reason." 1 star
Ju-on: The Grudge
(2002) – I saw the remake first, so that took some of the edge off of this
when I watched it just now. It still made the hair on my arms stand up in
places, though. I did have kind of a problem with the very loud score that
played when there was no dialogue. It was pretty obtrusive. Maybe I just got a
copy with a bad sound mix on it. 3
stars
Note: this is a revised and expanded version of the comments
I left on Letterboxd after seeing this film a few weeks ago.
