Horror Movie Month Week #1
October is finally here. Each month in between has felt like a year. Especially during the daily horror show of 2020. For this first week, the films we're covering have witches, blood, guts, gore, vampires, nightmares, slashers, and hell hounds. Our double feature theme this week is "Scary Old Men" with Come To Daddy and VFW, respectively. It's been a fun first week, hit the comments below to share your thoughts on which you want to watch most!
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven
A Nightmare On Elm Street is perhaps the perfect way to start this month. It has all the hallmarks of why I like watching horror movies from the 80s. From the infectious synth score to the charming "Hollywood as Midwestern town" setting, and the overabundance of creativity by Wes Craven, this movie is just perfect 80s horror nostalgia. It's almost silly to try and say anything that hasn't already been said about this film, as it is easily just another masterpiece feather in Craven's cap. Craven reinvented horror with this film only to see the rest of Hollywood ape off of his vision for the remainder of the decade. He even returned in the 90s with Scream to reinvent the genre all over again. Unsurprisingly, he is copied by major and minor filmmakers alike to this day. Craven's passing a few years ago was a huge loss for not only fans of horror, but fans of film in general. Freddy Kruger is an easy pick to be on the Mount Rushmore of horror villains. He's maybe the most grotesque and awful of all the 80s horror icons and has a much less sympathetic backstory than Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Freddy still conjures up the same scares almost 40 years later that he did in 1984. A Nightmare On Elm Street is a must watch this year, even if you've seen it ten times as I have.
The Omen (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner
The Omen is a great movie that wasn't appreciated in its time. The film was criticized for being a schlocky B-movie instead of being a religious horror/thriller right up there with The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. Gregory Peck is fantastic as a US Ambassador in London who is tormented by a literal demon child. Peck is taken on a quest across Europe and The Middle East to find out the truth behind the child he adopted as his own when his actual child died during birth. The film is tense and genuinely frightening, with plenty of intrigues and shocking scenes. "It's all for you, Damien," really turns the movie on its head early on. There are moments throughout where you wonder if Peck is going crazy, or if Satan does have his clutches on his adopted child. Richard Donner could have made a real run at horror if it hadn't been for that pesky Superman film a year later. Watch this one as soon as you can. It's a real treat.
Come To Daddy (2019)
Directed by Ant Timpson
The first film we watched as part of this week's Saturday double feature was Ant Timpson's Come To Daddy, a thriller set in a house as mysterious as it is gorgeous. Elijah Wood stars as a dorky Millenial music mogul who receives a letter from his estranged father of 30 years to come to visit him. He treks through wilderness to arrive at an incredible house overlooking a bay, only to be received by a hostile drunken father. Come To Daddy is a movie that is best knowing as little as possible going into it, as there are fantastic twists and turns in the narrative. It has a genuinely scary and strange atmosphere, peppered in between frequent bouts of hilariously dark comedy. After the midpoint of the film, Timpson doesn't take his foot off the gas the rest of the way. Seek this one out, its dark, funny, and one of the strangest and unique films I've seen in a while.
VFW (2020)
Directed by Joe Begos
To say I was excited to finally get to watch VFW would be a huge understatement. One look at the poster, full of classic B-Movie actors armed to the teeth and covered in blood, and I knew this was a must-watch. I was not disappointed. From minute one, the movie wears all of its influences on its sleeve. The opening title sequence is a wonderfully done homage to John Carpenter's films and his score. The technical know-how that Begos shows behind the camera is fantastic. He is someone you can say was born in the wrong era. VFW is campy, but holds that camp up as part of its charm. The older actors in this film are having a blast, and the VFW Hall is a fantastic setting for this Assault On Precinct 13 type of shoot-em-up. There are times where you'll wish Begos had a slightly higher budget to build out the rest of this world more fully, but overall it's a pitch-perfect homage to the legendary John Carpenter films of the 80s. Stephen Lang's resurgence as a horror star as of late has been fantastic to watch, and I can't wait to see what comes next from Begos.
Black Sunday (1960)
Directed by Mario Bava
Mario Bava is mostly known as the creator of the first Giallo films, but about ten years before he championed that genre, he made an early masterpiece with Black Sunday. This movie has everything you want in a Halloween movie. There are witches, vampires, castles, cobwebs, graveyards, crypts, blood, gore, Satanic-panic, and even a mob carrying pitchforks and torches. The movie is about a witch who has a "Devil's Mask" nailed to her face and then burned at-the-stake, but a sudden rainstorm puts out the flames. She is then entombed for 200 years before travelers stumble upon her crypt and accidentally awaken an evil spirit hellbent on rising again. The film has a very classic "Universal Monster Movie" feel, but with more blood and is better than a lot of those movies. This one is hard to find. You can rent it on Amazon Prime, but the quality is severely lacking for my taste. Throw up the Jolly Roger flag to find a proper version of this one, or do yourself a favor and buy the Kino Blu Ray.
Check in next week, we’ll be covering the next batch of horror movies on our calendar!
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