I continue on my journey through iconic scary movies! Please hold for thrills, chills, and viscera spills. I’m giving myself a medal for that rhyme.
To my dismay, I have not been able to watch a movie EVERY day. However, I will be taking on the challenge of doubling (maybe even tripling) my efforts in the final days of Spooktober.
Since my last post, my viewing itinerary has consisted of zombies, circus performers, and scientists gone mad, among other spooky tropes! Grab some popcorn and an icee… and maybe a pillow to shield your eyes.
BEWARE: SPOILERS LIE AHEAD.
Scary Movies: “Thanks, I Hate it”
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)- This movie stars Michael Roker. As a result, I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch “Guardians of the Galaxy” the same way again. Loosely based on the life of REAL serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, this movie features former prisoner, current psychopath Henry drifting into a town to move in with his friend from prison, Otis. While living with Otis, Henry kills innocents without discrimination, often bringing Otis along for the ride. He also strikes up a relationship with Otis’s gentle, but naive sister, Becky. Murder, violence, and white male rage cannot be stopped in this 83 minute marathon of discomfort.
Clearly, I love true crime as much as the next girl. I binge watched the entire new season of “You” over the course of two days. I guzzle this stuff like water on a hot night. This film was a less romanticized, “maybe I could change him” killer. There was nothing titillating or fun or sexy about any of it.
That was clearly the point, but some parts of the movie were just… TOO uncomfortable for me. Henry and Otis occasionally film their exploits. Seeing them casually watch a video of them murdering someone in a park and then killing an entire family in their home felt REALLY unsettling. There’s also a sexual component for Otis that I won’t go into, but I felt very disturbed. Lastly, for each shot of the victims of Henry, they show the victim’s corpse while simultaneously scoring the shot with the sounds of their violent deaths. It was bone-chilling, to say the least.
Another thing I noticed was that the first scenes of the movie take place in a town that you could place in any “Supernatural” episode. As I thought that to myself, onscreen, Henry left his latest victims and walked to his car. My brain snapped into focus and I thought, “Is that an Impala?!” Sure enough, the car used by Henry in this movie is a 1970 Chevrolet Impala, made only three years after “Baby.” Did the creators of Supernatural look to this movie for inspiration for drifting monster hunters? The Winchesters certainly think themselves as monsters, even though they’re the ones killing the monsters!
In conclusion: I’ll stick with Sam and Dean. Henry and Otis: you’re dead now, so suck it.
The Fly (1986) – Be afraid. Be very afraid. “The Fly” is a gory and gross sci-fi horror with some early signs of top-notch Goldbluming. Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a quirky but genius scientist with plans to create teleportation. He invites an intrigued journalist, Veronica, to bear witness to his invention, and in a moment of hastiness, moves from teleporting a chimp to teleporting himself. However, a fly makes its way into the teleportation chamber, changing Brundle in more than just location.
The movie wastes NO time in getting to the plot. There’s no framework or storytelling in flashbacks; the film dives in with a gathering in which Seth quickly seeks Veronica’s attention. Seth’s teleportation happens relatively early in the film! I like when the film goes right into the story. I also thoroughly appreciated that the first sign of trouble for Seth came when he caught a fly… with his bare hand… with his eyes closed!
From that moment, things escalate in so many ways, but none more significant than with the grotesque makeup. Seth grows more and more gross to look at with each scene, as he becomes more fly than man. The near final result, before he molts into a somewhat more stomachable massive fly, is a disgusting and disturbing monster. The Academy Award for Best Makeup goes well deserved here!
Scary Movies: I want a happier ending
Cat People (1942) – At Hollywood Studios, a restaurant dressed as a drive in movie theatre shows trailers from classic B-Movie horror films. One of the films they advertise is “Cat Women of the Moon.” I was hoping “Cat People” would be more like that. ‘Twas not. Irena Dubrovna, a fashion illustrator, confides in her lover that she believes she descends from the Serbian legend of her childhood. Once provoked by passion, she fears she will turn into a jungle cat. Suspicion, fear, and infidelity culminate in a climactic reveal of animal instincts.
I had a feeling the film would be good when I saw that it was an “RKO Production.” Every time I see “RKO”s title card I get jazzed up; it’s a good sign for some classic old Hollywood fun! The actual movie was a brief but fun ride. It’s interesting to watch this movie having just watched “Gaslight.” In this film, Irena confides her concerns in her marine engineer husband, Oliver. Rather quickly, Oliver tells everything to a therapist AND to his coworker who Irena DEFINITELY DOESN’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT, Alice. Eventually, Oliver decides that he wants to marry Alice, but feels torn between putting his scared wife into an asylum vs. divorcing her outright so he and Alice can be together. What?!
The film ends with Irena transforming into a panther, killing the therapist and then dying outside of the zoo pen where she and Oliver met. I hate this ending. If this movie had been made today, Alice or Oliver (or, if me, preferably both) wouldn’t have made it out of the movie alive. Oliver treated Irena like a cat in the cage, a pet to be punished. She deserved to be free. Justice for the Cat Woman.
Vampyr (1932) – Another silent goodie! While not as dramatic as “Nosferatu” nor as iconic as Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula,” “Vampyr” provides a surreal look at the undead creatures who lust for blood. No, not werewolves nor zombies! Allan Gray stays the night at a quiet country inn, only to be haunted by mysterious strangers. Led to a shadowy castle, Allan finds a family in fear of losing their deathly ill daughter and sister, Leone. Allan, a student of the supernatural, realizes that she has fallen victim to a vampyr… and the culprit hits too close to home.
The surrealism of this movie felt very much like “Andalucian Dog” meets “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.” Parts of it felt hard to follow with all the dream sequences. However, I appreciated that the stage makeup of the actors did not add to the terror. The film had previously been lost and restored. As a result, some cuts were grainy, some were crystal clear, and others were too faded to fully understand. That may have contributed to my confusion! The plot was succinct and paced well. The ending felt like a Grimm storybook, pun intended!
The Unknown (1927) – In my last post, I discussed the movie “Freaks.” “The Unknown” feels like the prequel to that movie. Similar to “Freaks,” “The Unknown” tells another tale of a traveling circus by Tod Browning. Alonzo the Armless, played by Lon Chaney, lusts after sideshow beauty Nanon, played by Joan Crawford. Nanon confides and trusts Alonso most in the world, because his deformity precludes him from possessing her biggest fear: strong arms to paw at her. However, his desire for her isn’t his only secret.
As a fan of the horror genre, and film in general, I know it all relies on a willing suspension of disbelief. Toys don’t talk, but I can still enjoy “Toy Story.” That said, in stories like these, I often question the competence of the protagonist. What did Alonso think would happen if Nanon returned his love? He could keep on living with her, in love, and she would NEVER realize his secret WHOLE LIMBS? Ridiculous.
This movie felt more sad than scary. It made a fascinating watch for me for several reasons, however. Firstly, I knew Joan Crawford as a silent actress turned moderately successful “talky” actress turned box office poison. However, I had never seen her before the age of … thirty something (no one knows what year she was born). She was considered THE beauty of her era in silent films! It’s like seeing the Mona Lisa in person. While watching, I couldn’t help but notice that Zendaya is skinnier than that icon of Hollywood beauty. Secondly, the film premiered in 1927, but the silent film received a new score in 1997. The discongruous score with the dated film made for an interesting juxtaposition.
I can see how the film has cemented itself into iconic silent history, but it had many similar shades to “Phantom of the Opera” (whose film adaptation also featured Lon Chaney)! Love is a beautiful thing, but it turns us into monsters when we’re not careful.
Scary Movies: Zombies
Night of the Living Dead (1968) – I’d seen it once before in a rat, and I’ve seen it now in men. Barbra and her brother Johnny drive out to the cemetery where their father is buried to clean his grave. While there, a man attacks them, leaving Barbra to seek shelter in an abandoned farmhouse with several strangers. Unfortunately, it would appear that the man who attacked walks with many. An army of the living dead shuffles to the house, with only one thing on their minds: eat.
This film has a really overwhelming sense of dread. It’s a truly hopeless feeling. The undead can only die from a shot to the head or fire. While watching this movie I couldn’t help but wish I could hand them a flamethrower. The acting wasn’t stellar (the only real champion there was Duane Jones as Ben), but I think that the story was what mattered more. Knowing that this film is an iconoclast to zombie movies, the horror genre, and really just film as a whole, it’s funny to see the low quality of the production value. However, one could say the same for “The Blair Witch Project” or even “Paranormal Activity!” Sometimes you can make something great, budget be damned!
Another funny thing to consider is how much the characters fall victim to the same horror cliches that have become so essential to the trope. Barbra and Johnny turn off a broadcast on the radio about disturbing occurrences. A strange man saunters towards them in a graveyard, and they don’t immediately run for their lives. Barbra flees the scene after the zombie attacks, but heads to a house and GOES UP THE STAIRS. That’s a rookie mistake! In the end, only Duane makes it out alive, only to be taken out by the police when they can’t tell he’s not a zombie. Considering that this film released shortly after the assassinations of Malcolm X and MLK Jr., combined with the seemingly endless nature of the Vietnam War, the film had a clear message: the war is closer than we think.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) – Zombies, part 2: electric boogaloo! Where once the zombies attacked rural America, they’ve made their way to America’s mini malls. A seeming critique of consumerism, this zombie not-quite sequel shows what a true apocalypse would look like, should the zombies REALLY come for us now. Fran Parker and Stephen Andrews work at a local news studio, and plan to escape the impending zombie attack in the station’s traffic copter. They stop for fuel and take shelter with two police officers in a mall, while periodically checking a department store television for updates on the attack, as the nation heads towards utter chaos and collapse.
I had trouble finding this movie on most streaming platforms, and I think I know why. Granted, this was the seventies, but characters use the “r” word without much thought. In one scene, a villainous “bad cop” excitedly uses the “N” word (with the HARD R) as he gleefully raids a low income housing building that contains residents violating the “turn over your dead” rule. Save for the diet racism, the movie definitely hit me in the 1970s nostalgia bone. The styles, the cinematography, the old technology all blended into a perfect little time capsule horrorshow.
The effects of the movie stood out well. Firstly, the zombies look mostly normal, except their faces are blue and the eyes are dead. If you were to only see them from the neck down, you’d think they weren’t zombies! Secondly, this film has a lot of blood. Like… a LOT of blood. It looked straight up like red cake icing. When I looked it up, it turned out I wasn’t TOO far off, with ingredients listed including corn syrup and food coloring! It doesn’t translate as well on older camera film compared to modern day cameras. As well, I’m sure the recipe has changed plenty in the past forty+ years! All in all, this movie was a bit long but also a bit fun. I wonder if the shot-for-shot remake is any good.
With only a week left in the month, I certainly live on borrowed time with the other scary movies I have left to watch. I worry some of my other goals for the month have taken a backseat as a result! It’s possible that I mentally needed the reprieve. What can I say? Mercury in retrograde hit hard this year! There’s the real scary stuff for you: astrology.