Watched: 10/21/2022
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: third?
Director: John Carpenter
We PodCasted this one a while back.
Still, very much enjoyed this one with other folks.
Here you go.
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Friday, October 21, 2022
Friday Watch Party: The Fog (1980)
I keep telling people "The Fog is, like, a perfect movie for Halloween." So I'm going to make you watch it before Halloween.
Featuring a sort of perfect trinity of female leads in Adrienne Barbeau (in her first role!), Jamie Lee Curtis showing up for Carpenter because of course she did, and Janet Leigh(!) - that's a good reason to watch any movie. But it also features the great Hal Holbrook and unlikely hero Tom Atkins.
Produced by Debra Hill, directed by John Carpenter and co-written by both - this thing just fires on all cylinders.
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| "I'm Stevie Wayne, and you're listening to 'Sounds to Get Ghost Murdered By'" |
And the movie is creepy AF. A lovely ghost/ revenge story!
Day: Friday 10/21/2022
Time: 8:30 Central
Service: Amazon
Cost: $4
link active 10 minutes before showtime
PodCast 217: "Twilight" (2008) - a Halloween PodCast w/ JAL and Ryan
Format: Amazon
Viewing: Second
Decade: 2000's
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Well, even sparkle vampires are still still technically draculas, and that means they fit in however loosely with Halloween. JAL and I take a bite out of the crazy hit sensation that spawned a whole industry and changed bookstores and movies. I genuinely think this one is gonna surprise you.
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Decode - Paramore
Leave Out All the Rest - Linkin Park
Halloween 2022
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Halloween Hammer Horror Watch: Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1972) - in a movie theater!
Watched: 10/19/2022
Format: Austin Film Society
Viewing: First
Director: Roy Ward Baker
The last movie I saw in a theater was March 5th, 2020. Simon and I went to see Shane, because when they show Shane, you go see it. But then COVID and the complete re-writing of movie distribution on the fly happened, and my sense of cinema FOMO ceased to exist.
So... what could draw me back to the cinema after 2.5 years away? Well, the promise of gender-bending adaptation of a classic horror tale, murder, mayhem and some mild nudity, of course. And- part of Hammer's 1970's output of throwing madness at the wall to see what sticks.
Take a look at the poster above and ponder - the actual actors from this movie are not seen here. The seeming murder? Not part of the movie. At times, Hammer would create a poster first, and then a movie. This is pure pulpy hucksterism at it's finest, and I think more stuff needs to be made this way. "I dunno, we pre-sold something called 'Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde' and promised sex changes and blood. It writes itself! Go make it!" AND THEY DID.
Y'all, maybe it's the thrill of leaving the house to see a film on the big screen. Maybe I'm easily swayed by five seconds of boobs, but I found this movie an absolute delight.
Look, you can apply your film criticism hat and do the thing where you face facts and say "this movie may not have intentionally been saying things, but society...!" and that's legit-ish. You can also say "look, they very quickly made a movie that was about a kooky concept and the main reason it's not horrendously offensive is that no one read the book it's based on and made Hyde what he was in the book as a woman." And I think both ways of viewing the movie have value.
We all know the story of Jekyll and Hyde - a scientist looking to quite literally use chemistry to separate the "good" side of one's character from the "evil" side. Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1972) sees a well-intentioned Jekyll who is, instead, seeking to prolong life and believes that something in the female physiology will assist with this chemical reaction. After an early success with a @#$%ing housefly, where he believes he mistook a female fly for a male fly, he leaps 1000 steps ahead and experiments on himself, transforming from the passably handsome Ralph Bates into Martine Beswick. Might as well become a knock-out, I guess.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jekyll's neighbors, the Spencers, because man is this where the film feels knowingly perverse. A mother and her son and daughter move in upstairs (and invention of the film) and let us say that their downstairs neighbor is split in his interest between the brother and sister. It may not be horror, but it is *interesting* and there's a killer scene that really tells us how Jekyll is unravelling, and it very much illustrates the dynamics of what's occurring with Jekyll/ Hyde.
The movie is a bit unusual in appearance for a Hammer Horror. I assume it was filmed on rented sets to get the right claustrophobic feeling of London of the 1880's. and the seemingly perpetually darkened streets. And it's packed with extras, bit parts and multi-room, multi-level sets.
Also - amazing plot twist - the Dr. Jekyll here is also Jack the Ripper. The famed precision of the murders is now part of Henry Jekyll's need to collect, like, thyroids or something. It's actually an interesting bit of change - and really, that's what I liked about the movie is that it isn't just a game of telephone or a movie that tries to improve on something that works just fine. They're just kind of going bananas to do as much as possible (the publication of the novel predates the murders by only 2 years, so it basically kinda works).
Oh, the film school papers that could be written about this film as misogynistic swill. One can only imagine how the very notion of the film would be enough to pre-write a 1000 opening paragraphs in need of supporting evidence.
Is it "horror" to *become* a woman? The movie doesn't exactly comment upon that notion or make it seem bad - just different. Jekyll doesn't seem as upset that he's becoming a woman from time-to-time as he is that someone is taking over his brain and body. He's a scientist, and the fact that he's a woman is a weird but not infuriating side-effect. The character of Jekyll could potentially, in today's terms, be considered asexual, and the biggest difference is that Sister Hyde is... not.
But but but... I mean, Hyde's "evil" side is (duhn duhn duuuuuhn) a woman! Curiously, the movie either on purpose or by accident doesn't really make that distinction. Jekyll already runs around paying off morticians for access to the dead bodies of young women (a common practice til the early 20th Century), and he has no problem looking the other way when he asks some thugs to provide him with dead girls. Arguably, all "Sister Hyde" does is look great and try to continue existing - before the murder, I guess. But that's just to cover for the fact that s/he can't go out looking for women anymore as Dr. Jekyll. The pure evil of Hyde in the novel is not present here despite the promise bestowed by the copy on the posters.
Even the permission Jekyll seeks from an unknowing young woman regarding his trolley car problem of needing to murder young ladies FOR SCIENCE is phrased in the kindest possible framing. She doesn't know what she's telling Jekyll to go do.
The title is probably a fairly good indicator of how seriously the creators seemed to take their own film. It's fun, bloody, weird and a bit sexy. I might have put it off had it not been a Halloween showing at Austin Film Society, and I'm glad I did get to see it.
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Halloween Watch: A Comedy of Terrors (1963)
Watched: 10/17/2022
Format: Amazon Prime
Viewing: First
Director: Jacques Tourneur
After The Omen, Jamie requested something lighter for Halloween viewing. When I read her the description and cast of A Comedy of Terrors (1963), we had our winner - and this was before I knew it was a Richard Matheson script and directed by the great Jacques Tourneur.
This movie feels distinctly like veteran Hollywood players dicking around in a comedic thriller/ horror film, and you're just sort of watching it happen. The sense of comedy is *distinctly* of the 1960's variety (seemingly appealing to young adults who grew up on 1940's and 50's cartoons and earlier live-action screwball shorts like Three Stooges, I think), while also appealing to the faux literary pretentions of horror from its Poe-borrowing roots, and quoting of Shakespeare to get some credibility. And, of course, well-endowed women around older men - the Hammer formula, but it's also just movies, I guess.*
The cast includes: Vincent Price as a ne'er-do-well mortician, Peter Lorre as his blackmailed assistant, Boris Karloff as Price's senile father-in-law, Basil Rathbone as Price's landlord, lovely Joyce Jameson as Price's would-be-opera-star wife, and Joe E. Brown in a small role as a cemetery keeper. Also credited: Rhubarb the cat (who is in it throughout and plays absolutely no role) and Beverly Hills - who is some classic 1960's eye candy (think about how Bond uses women as props).
Was the movie funny? Occasionally. Shockingly, Rathbone kind of steals the show even as Price and Lorre had me at a low simmer of giggles all throughout. Comedy is a weird beast in that it can age like old bread as readily as it ages like fine wine. Some of it works great ten years later, some of it feels awkward and weird. A lot of it you can see was fresh in the moment, but 60 years later, it's not quite as great. Or funny.
But I did enjoy the film, especially the second half.
The plot is essentially that Price is an undertaker, a business that seems like it would do well no matter the economy, but he's clearly not the popular one in town, and rent is due, so he has to start making funerals happen - fast. Comedy ensues.
This was, weirdly, roughly the plot of goof-around video JAL, a ragtag group of pals and I made Freshman year at UT. So we were onto something, I guess (I played "the dude" and it's the worst part of the film, so you'll never see it. Justin plays an FBI agent looking into the murders, and he's brilliant.).
Anyway, if you're looking to see some classic horror stars have a grand time - maybe more than the one you're having watching the film - it's worth a view. I thought it was all right and genuinely hilarious in several places. It absolutely did the job for a Mid-October Halloween watch. It's very AIP, but that's not a bug, it's a feature.
Frankly, I think Price's work a few years later in England fulfills the promise of what he's doing here even better. But why not check this out?
*I'd argue 50's - 70's horror did this in a particular way so you weren't necessarily seeing the women as romantic interests for the leads, even if they were married it seemed companionate, but they were there nonetheless.
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Halloween Watch: The Omen (1976)
Format: HBOmax
Viewing: First
Director: Richard Donner
Mostly, I watched this at long last because I'm tired of SimonUK assuming I've seen this movie, and then being surprised I haven't seen it. So here we are. ARE YOU HAPPY, SIMON?
It's not that I thought the movie would be bad, but once I heard the premise, I basically figured I could guess what the movie would be, and I don't think I was too far off. Of course I didn't know specifics, but lots of creepy stares from a kid and people dying badly around him as the parents try to figure it out... check and check.
But- here's the thing. It's just really well done. I mean, say what you will, but kudos to Richard Donner for crafting a movie that has you cheering for a five year old kid to get it. That's storytelling, kids.
Living at the intersection of two horror genres, (a) the evil child genre and (b) Satanic Panic fodder, The Omen (1976) manages to package the two nicely, pulling in name actors who are past their heyday but can still deliver the goods. I mean, it's a bit odd to cast a 60 year old Gregory Peck to play the husband to a 40-year-old Lee Remick as the parents of a 5 year old (in 1976. Now... meh). Fortunately, both are terrific, unravelling on separate timelines as they deal with the reality of what's happening to them. And, man, Remick can do more with a look than most actors can with all their tools and tricks.
The film also stars a young David Warner, and it was great to see him doing his thing in the wake of his passing.
I'm glad I saw it, even if the past 46 years have seen so much in the way of imitation, it may not feel terrifically fresh at this point on a first viewing. But it also never veers away from the point that there's a 5-year-old bringing about the end of the world, and no magic doo-dad is going to miraculously fix the kid. And the *scope* of the story was so much bigger and better realized than I was guessing.
Saturday, October 15, 2022
PodCast 216: "Cat People" (1942) and (1982) - a Halloween PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Format: Amazon
Viewing: Third/ First
Decade: 1940's/ 1980's
Director: Jacques Tourneur / Paul Scharader
SimonUK and Ryan cover both the 1942 and 1982 versions of a story sure to instill cat scratch fever. Our curiosity doesn't kill us as we check out two films, each a classic in its own way, as relevant meow as they were then! Join us as we compare and contrast, and ponder workplace safety around werebeasts!
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Main Title From Cat People - Constantin Bakaleinikoff conducted Roy Webb's score
Cat People (Putting Out Fire) - David Bowie & Georgio Moroder
Halloween 2022 Playlist
All Halloween and Horror
Watch Party Watch: The Black Cat (1934)
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Watched: 10/14/2022
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: third?
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
The Black Cat (1934) imho is a Universal Horror A-Lister that rides the Halloween movie bench because of the lack of "monsters" within the film. But it speaks much more to where some great horror would come from over the years than, say, Frankenstein, which is it's own genre. You can feel the echoes of this film in many a future Corman and Hammer movies about deranged dudes with a beef and essentially borrowing from the general world view of Edgar Allen Poe.
Starring both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, with amazing set design, cinematography, and performances from our leads - both vying for who is the more watchable weirdo - it's a really fun, thrilling watch. It's also a glimpse into what was possible in a Pre-Code horror/ thriller world with content I'm not sure would have been in a movie by 1941. But then you look at RKO horror, and, man, who knows? But it's a movie with mostly uncomfortable thoughts more than anything on screen.
Karloff's character is clearly way past sociopathic, having sold out his own people during WWI and returned to Austria - having woo'd and won Lugosi's wife (who believed Bela dead). Bela has finally left prison after being captured during the war and wants revenge - and his daughter if she's there. A dopey American couple gets mixed up in it all, and unfortunately for them, the woman is the quite fetching Jacqueline Wells (better known as Julie Bishop). And because everyone here is a psycho, she becomes the MacGuffin.
Look, this movie has Bauhaus architecture, Satanic cults, hypnosis drugs that go nowhere, and an unfounded and unexplained fear of kitties. And cat murder that goes uncommented upon. It's absolutely wild. And not just for Karloff's extremely comfortable-looking wardrobe of dressing gowns and silky robes.
The runtime is like 70 minutes, so it moves along at a rocket clip, so it never gets boring and I highly recommend seeing it if you've never checked it out. If nothing else, it's a lot of weird, spooky fun.
Monday, October 10, 2022
Watch Party Watch: An American Werewolf in London (1981)
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| just a reminder that nothing in horror goes harder than Rick Baker's AAWWIL wolf |
Watched: 10/07/2022
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: ha ha ha ha
Director: John Landis
On Friday we watched An American Werewolf in London (1981) as an Amazon Watch Party. Fun was had!
Here at the Signal Watch, though, we've covered this endlessly. No reason to write it up.
Here's me and Si talking about it in 2019.
Here's 2015
Here's 2012
Here's 2016
Here's Jenny Agutter:
Sunday, October 9, 2022
PodCast 215: "Lair of the White Worm" (1988) - a Halloween PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Format: Amazon
Viewing: Second
Decade: 1980's
Director: Ken Russell
It seems somehow inevitable that SimonUK and Ryan would cover this 80's horror cult favorite. And what's not to like? We slither our way into more Halloween spookiness with a discussion of caves, England, worms, wyrms, a young Hugh Grant and the relative value of a Dynasty star on your cast
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
D'Ampton Worm Song - The Tossers
Halloween 2022
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Vampire Watch: The Lost Boys (1987)
Watched: 10/05/2022
Format: Amazon
Viewing: Unknown
Director: Joel Schumacher
My first takeaway from this is that The Lost Boys (1987) is Rated-R but also clearly a kids movie. It's also not clear *why* it's rated R. There's no nudity, the language is now fine on cable, and it's not even that gross or violent. I saw it in the theater which would have been right around when I also saw RoboCop several states away in the theater, so it wasn't just a local thing. Twelve year-olds, maybe exceptionally tall ones like myself, were just wandering into whatever we wanted to see and the theaters wanted our ticket and Spree money.
But, yeah, I hadn't watched it since high school or early college, and it sure seems aimed at kids when you see it now. The leads (Corey Haim, Jason Patric) are supposed to be in high school, I guess (a whole other question, because this is from the era when high schoolers were shown to be sexually active and drink and smoke pot as a matter-of-course), and Haim seems cast years older than the part is written. What 16 year old needs to be told "it's bathtime!" or goes to sleep in their parent's room? - a quick Wikipedia check confirms that the younger characters were supposed to be 8 years old, originally.
Which makes sense. 1986 was a pivotal year for comics - see the Dark Knight Returns stuff scattered in the Frog Bros.' comic shop. But mainstream America hadn't yet picked up on the shifting content in comics and wouldn't for years. Trust me, I was there. So the characters were intended to be *kids* interested in *kid stuff*.
Look, that's an interesting movie and one I would have maybe watched, but 1987 also saw The Monster Squad tank. And this is the one people remember more than 1987's Near Dark, which I personally prefer as a horror movie. The Lost Boys is an adventure comedy with horror elements - and that's great!
Due to a recent reference to the film in Hulu's Reservation Dogs season finale, I think Jamie became curious and mentioned she'd never seen the film, so I did want to fix that as soon as possible. And, I'll be honest, it's a lot better than I remembered. I didn't remember *not* liking it, but it's genuinely funnier and better considered than I think I was giving it credit for as "a thing I liked when I was 12". It's got great conflicting vibes that play off each other incredibly well, and it doesn't have delusions of grandeur - it's just really good at doing what it's doing.
The cast is made up of stars and talent. I mean, it's a weirdly well populated movie and managed to catch a whole lot of people on their way up between Coreys, Patric Sutherland, Gertz - and workhorses like Weist and Hermann who got to do something fun. And even Alex Winters - who has maybe three lines would be hugely famous within a year or so.
(late edit: I forgot to mention - this movie debuts sparkly vampires! After Alex Winter The Vampire is killed, he sprays blood all over the Frog Bros. In the sunlight, his blood is clearly full of glitter! SPARKLY!!!!)
I don't want to oversell the film, but it was fun! There's some commentary baked in there about the double-edged sword of the joys and folly of eternal youth that gets overshadowed by "whoops, I'm a vampire" and the complete rejection of the possibilities. They don't really do much to support the idea that Star and Michael even really know each other, and Star is never more than "girl" in the movie. The timeline feels like it's 96 hours, tops. Corey Haim's wardrobe feels like it was selected by a crazy person.
But I enjoyed catching it again for nostalgia reasons, but also to reconsider the movie 35 years later.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Dracula Watch: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Format: BluRay
Viewing: First
Director: Alan Gibson
Well, this is the final Dracula movie starring Christopher Lee as the good count, it's 1973 happening out there, and the soundtrack has a wah peddle. I won't say I didn't enjoy this movie. I did! It's got Cushing still leaning into it, Lee is much more engaged than in Dracula AD 1972, and how can you go wrong when you include Joanna Lumley?
This movie follows what happens when Dracula gets himself a cult going, and managed to plan ahead. His plan may make no sense, but it is very, very dramatic. Some key scenes seem to take place off-camera, and you will not like the guy who they cast as "our hero". He has a terrible haircut and is rude to Joanna Lumley while also clearly supposed to have a romantic spark with her that no one is buying. She's clearly way, way out of his league.
Anyway, a mysterious cult seems to have recruited some deeply important people with the promise of power. They kill a chicken and everything. But it's secretly Dracula planning to use a super-bubonic plague that will wipe out humanity. As the authorities bring in Van Helsing to sort things out, he sorts out that Dracula survived their last encounter and is now working to create a plague so all of humanity will die, and he will then be able to die, himself. This idea gets no further consideration as some kinda wild stuff.
There's a basement full 'o brides, a gang wearing matching sweater vests of evil, a woman wildly othered and exoticized for being Asian, snipers, excellent use of a net, and Dracula getting caught in a shrubbery.
Joanna Lumley plays Jessica Van Helsing, seen in the prior year's Dracula AD 1972 as portrayed by Stephanie Beacham. And her wardrobe is 70's fabu. No notes. She looks terrific.
The movie plays it pretty straight, and nobody is an idiot just to serve the story. I'm not sure how unleashing a plague requiring physical contact that becomes obvious one has said plague is particularly frightening when you realize no one would touch those people and just walk away from the threat. Literally Lee's scheme in Captain America: Death Too Soon is 10000x more effective.
There's some kinda interesting direction here that shows we've moved well on from the TV-like set-ups on the first Dracula. Even if the title sequence just yells "make it cheap!". It's funny what some camera angles and not pumping a studio full of flat lighting can do. But, man, you can also feel that this is not the world's most expensive movie when Dracula's office looks absolutely borrowed for the day.
Yes, Dracula has an office.
Anyhoo. Go watch! It's the last Dracula Lee/ Cushing team up.
Monday, October 3, 2022
PodCast 213: "Jekyll And Hyde" (1990) - a Halloween PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Format: Amazon
Viewing: First
Decade: 1990
Director: David Wickes
SimonUK and Ryan make a change for the spooky and ponder a transformation to covering classic story adaptations with top tier talent. We dive into Robert Louis Stevenson's tale, told as a period piece and changed about a bit to include Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd. Join us as we talk a 1990 adaptation!
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Jekyll & Hyde - Jim Burgett
Halloween 2022
Horror and Halloween
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Vampire Watch: The Velvet Vampire (1971)
Format: Criterion Channel
Viewing: First
Director: Stephanie Rothman
You can't go wrong when your Dracula has a dune buggy.
I'm making light, but The Velvet Vampire (1971) was better than you'd figure with some stunning visuals and occasional actual sexiness, while being hampered by the budget and issues usually plaguing anything bearing the New World Pictures marquee from pre-1982.
A lovely woman (Celeste Yarnall) who is absolutely and clearly our titular vampire stops for some death along the way to an art gallery show where she meets two dim-witted hip post-Summer of Love 1970's types. The woman, Susan (Sherry E. DeBoer) rightly perceives Diane as a threat, but her husband, Lee (Michael Blodgett) sees a good looking dame who seems game and goes about telling his wife she has hang-ups and she should trust him.* She absolutely should not.
The pair drive out to the desert where there's evil foreboding stuff and their car breaks down. Fortunately, Diane appears driving a yellow dune buggy in full sunlight.
At dinner (steak tar-tar, of course), Lee and Diane are basically announcing their intention to bang while Susan objects. And then a bunch of vampirey stuff happens.
If you showed up for partial nudity, you're in luck. This is New World Pictures circa 1970 and they deliver on the spectacle you're hoping for. If you showed up for Oscar-worthy performances, you may find yourself wanting. But director Stephanie Rothman (the first woman inducted into the DGA, apparently?) does not screw around when she has an opportunity to do something cool. And so we get some fascinating dream sequences and other bits that do a lot with some trick visuals, a fan and red negligee against the backdrop of the desert.
There's also a few other sequences that don't look like it was a crew fighting a losing battle with white walls and lighting, including a shot of Diane in a grave and two versions of voyeurism that appear in the movie.
I can't say I loved the ending of the movie, but it's... fine. I guess. I would have ended it a full ten minutes earlier, but it's not my movie. I'm just not sure how scary "vampire on a Greyhound" is. But mostly I feel like it's a shame it appears Rothman never quite escaped doing exploitation films before hanging it up. For example, I believe her take on the male hero of this film has to be satire in a way. He's a being completely navigated by his dick who constantly gaslights his younger, vulnerable wife - even telling her it's no big deal when she witnesses him having sex with Diane. The entire stance seems set up to get him murdered in the final reel.
Susan's vulnerability and guilelessness is, frankly, unappealing and you can't blame either she or Lee for falling for the vampire's charms (there's definitely overt vampire lesbianism that never quite sticks the landing). But it also makes Susan hard to follow as a character as the dramatic irony piles up around her. And it all feels very intentional.
I didn't love this movie, but as a curiosity, I'd recommend it. It's not paced as glacially as some European films of the era, and you can feel okay about rooting against the leads. I just wish the movie had left off much earlier and not decided a chase sequence was needed.
*this, friends, is a red flag in your personal life as well as in vampire movies
Monster Watch: Q - The WInged Serpent (1982)
Format: Criterion Channel
Viewing: First
Director: Michael Cohen
I'd tried to watch Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) a number of times, going back as far as high school, but the lack of monster to minute ratio was daunting. But with October upon us, and Criterion offering up a bevy of 1980's and vampire-based horror films (it *may* be your best bet, value-wise, this Halloween, after Shudder) I took a look at the list decided now was the time.
What a weird @#$%ing movie.
The entire look and feel of the movie is firmly in 1970's film-making. By 1982, we're two years past Empire Strikes Back, and two years away from 1984, which is pretty much where you can lock in Gen X's idea of modern movie-going, and this movie looks and feels like it should be 1974. The effects are a reminder of how dodgy stop action could be if work wasn't coming out of ILM. The characters are stock 1970's characters - a world weary cop in a grungy NYC police precinct and a ne'er-do-well living outside the confines of square life who also has an artistic side and troubles with his woman. New York is filmed as an unglamorous city in decline. Every conversation turns into a stylized argument straight out of 1970's acting school.
About half-way through the movie, I began to believe I'd misunderstood what the movie was, really. For a hot minute, I thought the monster of the film was going to be inconsequential and we were really getting a character study of a cop delving into stuff beyond him on one side and, really, the way government and power work in a crisis through the lens of the Michael Moriarty story as a crook and hustler tries to exploit his knowledge during a crisis. But, nope, it's a big, goofy monster movie with some deeply 1970's vibes and an ending that feels hopelessly tacked on for the kiddies who showed up for a monster and cop movie.
My understanding is that Moriarty's role (which now feels like he reached into the future and channeled Bill Burr) is what people grab onto and why the film has such a high reviewer rating. And they're not wrong. He's great. Candy Clark is in one of those thankless but terrific "gotta support my man" parts from the 1970's that seems far closer to gender dynamics of the 1950's than the 1990s. David Carradine is a solid actor, but I'm sure if he knew what Moriarty was up to, he wouldn't have gone for "Crusty Hero Cop #8974".
Most weird is that the film, about a Mayan diety, features no Latinos as near as I can tell. In NYC. Nor does it ever really explain how people were volunteering to be human sacrifices or why. The chief murder-priest isn't played by anyone with a Central American heritage - he's from Bombay. And I'm not sure if he's supposed to be from India or he's supposed to pass for Hispanic? I know Hollywood has a fraught relationship with Latinos but this is just wild.
There's a great movie buried in here, and so it's a good and entertaining movie, but one that feels like it has studio notes all over it to the detriment of the film.
I'm glad I finally saw it. I might watch it again. But - for me - the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts.
Monday, September 26, 2022
PodCast 212: "The Hunger" (1983) - a Halloween PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Format: Bluray
Viewing: Unknown
Decade: 1980's
Director: Tony Scott
Simon and Ryan bite into a legit 1980's cult classic that's big on mood, tone and lighting and shows rather than tells at every opportunity. If sexy vampires are your thing, we've got a cast that fits the bill, while also selling lifestyle porn and a great score. Join us for a movie that really makes it clear why you need a basement incinerator and an attic with plenty of storage space.
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Trio in E Flat, Op. 100 - Franz Schubert
Flower Duet/ Lakme - Delibes
Halloween 2022 & all Halloween/ Horror Films
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Absolute Last Hallow-Scream Watch: The Leopard Man (1943)
Watched: 10/30/2021
Format: TCM Noir Alley
Viewing: First
Decade: 1940's
Director: Jacques Tourneur
A very short film that manages to pack in what seems the plot and thrills of something much longer, The Leopard Man (1943) just uses a title that makes it sound like a sequel to The Cat People but delivers and entirely different thrill (or maybe not?).
I *loved* this movie. Great characters. Misdirection. A few scenes with genuine terror. Beautifully shot and imagined. This is the Val Lewton/ Jacques Tourneau you hear about in classic film circles. For me - an unexpected ending that's terrifically framed. I have no notes!
My understanding is that this is not just based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, but really sticks to the source material, even what's seen in specific characters' POVs. I need to read some Woolrich.
I also was surprised to hear discussion of genocide of indigenous people by colonizing forces even mentioned, let alone treated as a tragedy.
SPOILERS
Elvira Halloween Watch: Messiah of Evil (1973)
Watched: 10/31/2021
Format: Elvira Special on Shudder
Viewing: First
Decade: 1970's
Director: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz
A while back, JAL suggested we watch this film together, and I was "ok" and then things occurred and that didn't happen. But as we were prepping to get together for a film, I noticed that this was the fourth entry in Elvira's 4 film 40th Anniversary celebration on Shudder. I asked Justin, and he said "oh, yes. Watch with Elvira." And so I did.
Elvira seemed quite taken/ amused by the movie. So that's a good sign in my book. She broke into the film several times, not least because she was excited Elisha Cook Jr. was in the movie, and so say we all. Anyway, if you've got Shudder, check out Messiah of Evil (1973) as part of her 4-film cycle.
This movie very much wants to be a horror film in a certain classic sense of horror - of creeping dread and mystery slowly overtaking our heroes as they succumb to madness, violence of others, etc... Letters are read from people not in the story who are gone missing. People wander languidly in a dream-like state. Our narrator starts off confined to an insane asylum, warning us of doom before telling her tale. It's that kind of film.
It's not *that* bad. The pacing is a mess, as are a lot of low-budget horror films from this era that think they're building tension but they're... killing time. But it has two legit actors pop up as guest stars (Royal Dano being the other), and had two - frankly- really good, creepy murder sequences that feel like an electric jolt in this otherwise plodding movie.
I don't think this movie is dumb, but it just feels like it's not quite sure what to do about its limitations. And all of the actors seem like they're on Quaaludes. So when you add zombie cultists into the mix... and I have every reason to believe all of this was intentional.
The pair behind the movie, Huyck and Katz, went on to do work on good movies, including American Graffiti. And bad movies (Howard the Duck). It's one of the folks in famous-people film circles who didn't quite become famous themselves.
Anyway - check it out sometime! And we can figure out why the main guy refuses to ever be seen without a vest on.
Monday, November 1, 2021
Halloween Musical Watch: Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Format: Hulu
Viewing: Unknown
Decade: 1970's
Director: Jim Sharman
There must be plenty of academia written on The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). And yet, I find it a bit difficult to discuss.
I was fifteen, just moved back to Spring, TX and in the burbs when my mom - not sure what else to do with friendless 'ol me on the weekends - did what she did for a few months when we first got there, and took me to the local video emporium.* I'd rent 3 or 4 movies and that's what I'd do when my parents turned in and the insomnia that has defined my entire life kicked in. And among the tapes - I picked up the 15th Anniversary edition of Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I had heard of Rocky Horror when I was maybe 13, but had no real concept. When I was 14 and still in Austin, some friends suggested we all go to a midnight screening. Austin was, for reasons that make sense if you knew it at the time, one of the first cities outside of New York or LA to have a regular midnight screening of the movie. I think it was at its semi-permanent location of Northcross Mall by that time. And my mom greenlit me going - until about 72 hours before it was time to go, and I don't know what he teacher friends told her, but suddenly I was not going.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Halloween Watch Party: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: Unknown
Decade: 1950's
Director: Jack Arnold
My goal for the Hallow-Scream Watch Parties was to watch some of the classic monster films with folks who hadn't seen them. And: mission accomplished.
I think Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) is a fantastic movie. I've also seen it, like, 15 times, so I don't mind talking over it, giving it some light ribbing, and generally making it fun for people who might not otherwise watch the film.
Anyway - I think it was more or less a success this year, so I'll look into it next year, too. We didn't watch some classics like The Invisible Man, which absolutely demand a viewing. And maybe Hammer? I mean, people need to see Cushing and Lee fighting on a table.
But Creatch is a good one to end on. It's really good, but feels a lot more like modern film. Or, at least for those of us born 20 years after it came out, we have some perspective on what this was pointing to. Especially as many of us are more than familiar with B-film. And, man, it's such a pretty and well-designed film.
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