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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 22, 2020 23:32:00 GMT -5
These are longtime favorites of mine. Glad to see love for The Uninvited and The Changeling in particular. Discovered the former by chance via TCM and can watch it anytime for different reasons. The superb black-and-white photography; the brooding atmosphere of the cliffs that alternates with the coziness of the village; the psycho-sexual subtext* (straight out of Rebecca and the Brontës); the cairn terrier (I never miss a movie with one, and there are many); the acting by a great cast; and the music, especially "Stella by Starlight," which was written for the movie, but appears in many others. All of this enjoyment is made quite poignant by the real-life tragedy that Gail Russell (Stella)'s life became. * A letter from the Legion of Decency criticized The Uninvited because "large audiences of questionable type attended this film at unusual hours drawn by certain erotic and esoteric elements." As for Peter Medak's The Changeling, it's a well crafted, no-nonsense story, with fine acting by George C. Scott and Melvyn Douglas and some of the scariest moments I've ever experienced in a movie. One involves a ball, the other a noise (reminds me of The Haunting, now that I think of it). The opening is absolutely shattering, and was quite different for its time. Now we see its like even on television shows, but it still packs a punch. The latter provoked my most frightened reaction in a movie theatre. I won't ruin anything for those who have not seen it, but just let me say that some very clever ushers (remember those days) knew exactly when a certain moment was going to occur and enhanced the fright by pounding on the fire doors from outside the theatre. Holy Schick Razor Blades, did I jump!
The Uninvited was one of the first Hollywood films to take the subject of ghosts in at least a halfway serious light. Most earlier films were either all-out spook comedies or mystery plots with plausible explanations for ghosts and hauntings. The ghosts in The Uninvited were serious, and they weren't just the butler or some burglar in a bedsheet. Although I still chuckle slightly any time I hear Ray Milland doing his best Cary Grant impersonation throughout the film. Still, the soundtrack and the cinematography make it a gem of a film, and Donald Crisp delivers a solid performance as he almost always does.
However, the ghosts in earlier films weren't nearly as serious as the entities in The Haunting. Although Robert Wise played up the psycho-thriller angle heavier than presented in the original Shirley Jackson novel, it is still a very effective haunted house film, and has been on my personal all-time desert island film list for many, many years. I have seen this film at least 30-40 times, so much so that I can quote most of the dialog scenes (having a copy of the shooting script has made that easy). And yes, I have scared many a friend over the years who had never seen it before... the spiral staircase scene being a most effective "jump & grab" scream moment. On my wall of autographed pictures, I happen to have an autographed b&w still of Julie Harris looking over the edge of the staircase, with that psychologically distressed look of her character, Eleanor Lance. My wife and I never get tired of this film because the cinematography, lighting, camera angles and soundtrack are just so damn incredible-- it's truly a black & white feast for the eyes, much like its predecessor films produced by Val Lewton. Wise was an understudy of Lewton and Jacques Tourneur, who directed Lewton's Cat People. The use of lighting, shadow, and camera angles by Wise is evident in the sequel, Curse of the Cat People, which was directed by Wise himself. If you watch Curse of the Cat People and The Haunting back to back, you can see a clear link drawn in the cinematic directorial style of each film, there are distinct similarities in the experimentation of the young Wise in Curse vis-a-vis the more mature, experienced Wise in The Haunting, where he often enhanced the stark contrast by using infrared film for many shots.
I don' suppose you could tell that I have a real passion for this film, hmm? I've done a great deal of research on it over the years.
And wow, I expended so much hot air on The Haunting that I've barely left room for The Changeling! I love this film as well... and yes, the ever-returning wet rubber ball is the biggest single creep-out for me, along with the post-seance solo tape playback scene. Great performances throughout by George C. Scott, and his wife (at the time), Trish Van Devere. And you can't discount the performance of the great Melvyn Douglas, even at his advanced age, in one of his last film roles.
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 23, 2020 8:24:23 GMT -5
And tonight, for a Friday night-- I think it's time for Lon Chaney Jr.'s final film-- a real drive-in movie classic-- Spider Baby! (aka "The Maddest Story Ever Told)  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 23, 2020 18:28:08 GMT -5
Last night I went with a double feature of Mr. Boogedy and Ernest Scared Supid which were both childhood favorites of mine. While neither contained anything approaching a real scare for an adult it was easy to see why they were so creepy as a child: their scores were great! The music in both would build to exquisite levels of intensity right before the "scares" really heightening the stories.
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Post by Warmonger on Oct 23, 2020 19:03:12 GMT -5
A lot of the Hammer movies on Amazon Prime.
Watching ‘Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell’ tonight.
Noticed they also have Captain Kronos. Probably haven’t seen it in nearly 40 years.
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Post by brutalis on Oct 24, 2020 15:43:24 GMT -5
My viewing this week was all from recorded Svengoolie showings. Watched 2 movies back to back after work and over dinner before bed.the mood just right with sundown while sliding into twilight before the night truly settles in.
Monday 10/19 Black Friday. Black Cat.
Tuesday 10/20 Night Monster. Frozen Ghost.
Wednesday 10/21 13 Ghosts. Curse of the Undead.
Thursday 10/22 Munster Go Home. Sugar Hill.
Friday 10/23 Abbott & Costello meet Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde. Abbott & Costello meet the Mummy.
Today Saturday 10/24 I watched Transylvania 6-5000. Jeckyll and Hyde-Together Again. I will end my Saturday night with Svengoolie on MeTv showing Mighty Joe Young.
Sunday 10/25 I will finish off season 1 of Lucifer while ironing my work clothes😁
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 25, 2020 10:24:23 GMT -5
So for Saturday, 10/24, I took a slight detour from the classic horror fare-- however, this film is still within the realm of the Halloween-flavored fare. The wife had come home from a long day at work, and needed something a little more lighthearted in nature. So I went to the vault and pulled this little gem: Matinee-- directed by Joe Dante and starring John Goodman. Goodman plays one of his best-ever roles as Lawrence Woolsey, a fantastic character send-up of the the great William Castle, the king of ballyhoo cinema. The film is back-dropped in Key West, Florida during the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The Movie within the movie (and the real co-star of the film) is a great gimmicky shlock-fest, "Mant!" If you've never seen this film, I highly recommend it-- a great little fun movie from 1993 that is suitable for the whole family. I saw this in the theatre when it came out with some fellow B-movie fanatic friends, and we had a great time seeing it on the big screen, and wishing all the time that we could see "Mant!" as a standalone feature film.
Here's the original trailer clip:
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 25, 2020 11:01:01 GMT -5
Went with the Universal classic Dracula on Friday which is a perennial favorite of mine. Lugosi may not exude terror but he's plenty suave and the mood that Browning brings to the whole picture is great. And for last night's viewing I went with: The Mill a Calder's End (2015, Spirit Cabinet)  It's just a short film but it's seriously one of my favorite horror films. Kevin McTurk is an old hat when it comes special effects, make up and modeling having worked with Stan Winston Studios on films like Jurassic Park, Congo and the first two Hellboy films and with Weta on King Kong and the Narnia movies so he has a serious pedigree when it comes to crafting convincing creatures and Mill at Calder's End is no different. The horifying beast known as the Bramblegor is a thrill for every second he is on the screen:  And the effects on the spectral aperation are probably my favorite depiction of a ghost ever seen on film. If you haven't seen this film yet this is the one you need to pick up pronto. |
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 25, 2020 11:46:26 GMT -5
Today I've got a marathon run of Ray Bradbury Theater playing all day in the background. This show was made for HBO and USA Network back in the 1980's, and while production and scripting are uneven at times, there are several episodes that faithfully render Bradbury's tales pretty closely. Bradbury is one of my top 3 favorite authors of all time, so even budget-funded Bradbury is better than no Bradbury at all. However, an HD edition of this will probably never be released due to its lack of popularity, and the fact that it would require a major investment to restore the series to HD quality. I'll just have to be happy with the soft direct-from-video-tape quality of the DVDs. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 26, 2020 9:06:10 GMT -5
For Last night's viewing I went with one of the most inventive takes on a vampire film I've ever seen... Cronos (1993, October Films) 
This was Guillermo del Toro's first feature film and it's absolutely amazing from start to finish. Because of its low budget it lacks some of del Toro's signature highly stylized look but it still has his usual intertwining of horror, drama and fantasy which always give his films a real sense of heart no matter their subject matter. What makes it inventive as a vampire movie though? Instead of your typical western vampire film where a handsome or horrifying creature turns its victims with a bite to the neck del Toro mixes in eastern mythology with vampirism caused by an insect granting immortality at the cost of a thirst for blood. On top of that, instead of being a monster it's an old man who loves his family and wants to do right by them. There's horror, but heart as well and the struggle between those two creates an delicious sense of tension.
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 26, 2020 21:48:57 GMT -5
Tonight, it was back to the creepy stuff. I have a fairly rare DVD copy of The Woman in Black from 1989. This is NOT the same film as the 2012 big budget release. Instead, this is the original version from British television, closely based on the original novel by Susan Hill. This version is much more creepy and moody, and less about flashy special effects. Also, the 2012 version was "Hollywood-ized" to make it more like every other lame Hollywood ghost flick.
Highly recommended, IF you can find a copy! They pop up on Ebay from time to time, but having been out of print for over 10 years, a US-region DVD can get pretty pricey. However, if you're in the UK, it has been released on Blu-Ray and is still in print but is obviously a Region B disc and won't play on North American players.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 27, 2020 19:16:52 GMT -5
Tonight, it was back to the creepy stuff. I have a fairly rare DVD copy of The Woman in Black from 1989. This is NOT the same film as the 2012 big budget release. Instead, this is the original version from British television, closely based on the original novel by Susan Hill. This version is much more creepy and moody, and less about flashy special effects. Also, the 2012 version was "Hollywood-ized" to make it more like every other lame Hollywood ghost flick.
Highly recommended, IF you can find a copy! They pop up on Ebay from time to time, but having been out of print for over 10 years, a US-region DVD can get pretty pricey. However, if you're in the UK, it has been released on Blu-Ray and is still in print but is obviously a Region B disc and won't play on North American players.
I never knew this existed! I'm a big fan of the novel and actually thought the recent-ish version by Hammer was really good, definitely one of my favorite ghost movies. |
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 27, 2020 23:05:27 GMT -5
The seasonal movie for this evening was another one of my favorite psychological horror flicks-- The Innocents starring Deborah Kerr from 1961-- another great film with over-the-top cinematography in glorious black and white! Is it a ghost story? Is it a psycho-drama? NO!
It's both!
Not everybody's piece of cake, I know, but I like to call it "cerebral gothic horror".
And the original 1961 trailer:
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 27, 2020 23:22:16 GMT -5
Tonight, it was back to the creepy stuff. I have a fairly rare DVD copy of The Woman in Black from 1989. This is NOT the same film as the 2012 big budget release. Instead, this is the original version from British television, closely based on the original novel by Susan Hill. This version is much more creepy and moody, and less about flashy special effects. Also, the 2012 version was "Hollywood-ized" to make it more like every other lame Hollywood ghost flick.
Highly recommended, IF you can find a copy! They pop up on Ebay from time to time, but having been out of print for over 10 years, a US-region DVD can get pretty pricey. However, if you're in the UK, it has been released on Blu-Ray and is still in print but is obviously a Region B disc and won't play on North American players.
I never knew this existed! I'm a big fan of the novel and actually thought the recent-ish version by Hammer was really good, definitely one of my favorite ghost movies. are you stateside, across the pond or elsewhere? |
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 27, 2020 23:40:02 GMT -5
For Last night's viewing I went with one of the most inventive takes on a vampire film I've ever seen... Cronos (1993, October Films)
This was Guillermo del Toro's first feature film and it's absolutely amazing from start to finish. Because of its low budget it lacks some of del Toro's signature highly stylized look but it still has his usual intertwining of horror, drama and fantasy which always give his films a real sense of heart no matter their subject matter. What makes it inventive as a vampire movie though? Instead of your typical western vampire film where a handsome or horrifying creature turns its victims with a bite to the neck del Toro mixes in eastern mythology with vampirism caused by an insect granting immortality at the cost of a thirst for blood. On top of that, instead of being a monster it's an old man who loves his family and wants to do right by them. There's horror, but heart as well and the struggle between those two creates an delicious sense of tension.
Cronos is a really engaging film. With me it generated a genuine feeling of sympathy for the protagonist... not something I expected the first time I saw it back in the mid '90's.
del Toro had a great run of films over the last 20 years, including Hellboy and Pacific Rim, but I think his Spanish language films are much more effective in bringing his vision to the screen. In my opinion, Pan's Labyrinth is the crown jewel of his career. The Devil's Backbone is very good too.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 28, 2020 6:57:57 GMT -5
For Last night's viewing I went with one of the most inventive takes on a vampire film I've ever seen... Cronos (1993, October Films)
This was Guillermo del Toro's first feature film and it's absolutely amazing from start to finish. Because of its low budget it lacks some of del Toro's signature highly stylized look but it still has his usual intertwining of horror, drama and fantasy which always give his films a real sense of heart no matter their subject matter. What makes it inventive as a vampire movie though? Instead of your typical western vampire film where a handsome or horrifying creature turns its victims with a bite to the neck del Toro mixes in eastern mythology with vampirism caused by an insect granting immortality at the cost of a thirst for blood. On top of that, instead of being a monster it's an old man who loves his family and wants to do right by them. There's horror, but heart as well and the struggle between those two creates an delicious sense of tension.
Cronos is a really engaging film. With me it generated a genuine feeling of sympathy for the protagonist... not something I expected the first time I saw it back in the mid '90's.
del Toro had a great run of films over the last 20 years, including Hellboy and Pacific Rim, but I think his Spanish language films are much more effective in bringing his vision to the screen. In my opinion, Pan's Labyrinth is the crown jewel of his career. The Devil's Backbone is very good too.
Devil's Backbone is one of my top horror films, the look of that ghost was just amazing and the mood of the whole picture was just perfect. And yeah, I'm state side. |
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