Horror Movie Month Week #2
This week we are covering a lot of ground, covering a group of films that span from the 1930s to 2020. All of these films are brought to life by incredible directors from all over the world, and all walks of life. This week shows the wide swath of creative real estate that the horror genre covers. The theme for this week's double feature is "VAMPIRES" featuring The Hunger and Near Dark. If you thought you were getting through this list without a David Bowie vampire film directed by Tony Scott, you were mistaken. Happy spooks! Hit the comments below and let me know what you think of these films. Don't forget to follow all of my social media pages, or else I'll haunt your nightmares just like these films.
Gretel & Hansel (2020)
Directed by Osgood Perkins
Ten years or so ago, I got to see Elvis Perkins on tour, and I was blown away by his songwriting and performance. Little did I know at the time that his father was horror icon Anthony Perkins (of Psycho fame) and his brother Osgood was an up and coming film director in his own right. They're a fascinating family with a pretty mind-blowing lineage of actors, scientists, astronomers, and other American nobility. Their father certainly passed on his creative talents to these two brothers, and that is nowhere more evident than 2020s Gretel & Hansel. This film is a visual feast and is dripping with moody atmosphere. Osgood Perkins has a way of imbuing every scene with dread and mystery. Its well-trodden material, and that Perkins can reimagine it in a way that is more art than typical Hollywood trash is remarkable. I'll be the first to admit that there are pacing problems, particularly in the very beginning and the end. This movie would benefit from an extended cut to let those moments breathe a bit more, but the bulk of the film is fantastic, with wonderful performances from Sophia Lillis and Alice Krige in particular. Ignore IMDB and give this one a watch.
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Directed by Henri Georges Clouzot
A term that has come into prominence in 2020 is "gaslighting," where you lie to someone's face so often that they begin to think they are losing their mind. The lies compound onto each other despite the truth, and all you're left with is madness. Les Diaboliques is a 1955 thriller that Alfred Hitchcock would have made instead of Vertigo were it not for Clouzot acquiring the rights first. It is said that after Hitchcock saw this film, he was even inspired to create Psycho. The film is about a run-down boarding school in the suburbs of Paris, run by a terribly mean Headmaster, and his wife, a teacher, who bankrolls the school. It's discovered early in the film that the Headmaster is having an affair with another teacher at the school. The two women decide to conspire together to kill the Headmaster and run the school themselves. It's only after their plan seemingly goes off without a hitch that things start to get very eerie, and nothing is as it seems. Les Diaboliques may be somewhat dry to a modern palette; it's French, it's in black and white, and there is no music or score to speak of. But this film is a master class of smoldering intrigue and mystery, with one of the all-time greatest twists in cinema. I've seen this one many times, and it is always worth the watch.
Deep Red (1975)
Directed by Dario Argento
Where do I begin with Deep Red? This movie is a delicious feast for the eyes and ears. Dario Argento is a name that I hope is known by anyone even remotely interested in the horror genre, and his mastery is splattered all over this movie. Watching Deep Red, you can see the influence he has had on David Lynch, Panos Cosmatos, and even Kubrick. The color palette Argento uses is so vibrant and luscious to look at; I really can't say enough about how beautiful this film looks. Not to mention the score by Goblin is incredible. It's not a typical horror movie score by any stretch, and certainly not as scary as the work they did with Argento later with Susperia. The score here is more rock-influenced, but almost always builds into an impossibly tense cacophony during every scene it is featured. If you can track down the Arrow release of this film on Blu Ray, I would highly recommend it.
The film begins with a "magician" giving a seminar to an audience in a large auditorium. She claims that she can read the minds of people in the audience, and then begins having a panic attack on stage. She claims there is someone in the audience with murder on their mind, who will kill again. The rest of the film is a tense game of cat and mouse between our main characters investigating the murders, and the strange black-gloved killer who uses children's songs and toys while killing their victims. It should be noted, that the actors on set spoke English, but the entire film is dubbed over in Italian. There is no existing English audio for this film. This is in part due, as far as I understand, to the way Italian filmmakers liked to work at that time. It was a stylistic choice as much as it was practical, as it gave them more control and focus on the individual elements of sound and picture, respectively. It's an odd way to watch a movie, but if you watch anything I've featured this month so far... Watch Deep Red.
The Invisible Man (1933)
Directed by James Whale
The Invisible Man, the first of three planned James Whale films on this list, is an old Hollywood classic. For their time, the special effects are incredible, the characters are fun, and the film is very charming and funny. Is it scary? Not really, but it's a great movie that I'd put in the same Sci-Fi/horror camp like the 50s B-movies it inspired years later. This movie has fun with the invisibility effects though occasionally you can see the strings behind the movements; more often than not, it's hard, as a lamen, to understand how much of these special effects were achieved in the 1930s. If you're looking for true scares though, you have to watch the reboot starring Elizabeth Moss that came out earlier this year. There are plenty of homages to the 1930s film, but it is a genuinely tense and scary retelling of the Invisible Man mythos set through the prism of an abusive relationship. The original film is a wonderful example of what makes the old Universal Monster films so endearing and long-lasting. There are mad scientists, experiments gone wrong, characters with wild delusions of grandeur, murder, mayhem, and madness. I liked this film a lot more than Dracula (1931) and The Mummy (1932), and those films are remembered how this one probably should be. The Invisible Man is nearly 100 years old, but it firmly holds it's place as a horror classic. I have no doubt that this film will be enjoyed for 100 years more.
Videodrome (1983)
Directed by David Cronenberg
"Long live the new flesh!" is David Cronenberg planting his freak flag firmly in your brain forever once you see his masterpiece, Videodrome for the first time. It's a film that explores sadomasochistic fetishes, torture porn, snuff films, waking nightmares, assassinations, and breathing televisions. It's a wildly inventive and creative film using almost entirely practical in-camera effects to achieve the incredibly grotesque imagery cooked up in Cronenberg's brain. Cronenberg, at the time, claimed that he only wrote at night so he could incorporate his dreams and nightmares into his work more effectively. Videodrome does not work without this horrifying dream logic in place. There are several points in the film where it's not clear whether James Woods' character is waking from a nightmare or falling into a deeper, more terrifying one. I found that you could wholly transpose the internet era onto this film, by substituting it for the video-era it depicts. Cronenberg couldn't quite imagine the weird dystopia he was depicting, but he was more or less spot on nonetheless. Videodrome is now; we just call it the internet. Videodrome has erupted out of our subconscious and exists in a semi-permanent state among the minds of every individual on the internet. It's entertainment only on the thinnest topmost layer. Everything underneath is subversive, pornographic, violent, hateful, and downright disgusting. Long live the new flesh.
The Hunger (1983)
Directed by Tony Scott
The double feature this week has an obvious theme: vampires. But it also has a less obvious, secondary theme: James Cameron. The Hunger, directed by Tony Scott (little brother of Ridley Scott who directed Alien, while James Cameron directed it's followup Aliens) is a slightly flawed movie but an entertaining one all the same. The combo of Tony Scott, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie in a vampire movie is about as irresistible to me as cake on a plate. The film is fantastic in its direction, visual style, acting, editing, and it's creature effects are excellent. Where it lacks is in its narrative, which can be a bit obtuse at times. The film is about Bowie and Catherine Deneuve's characters living their upscale lives as classical music teachers by day and undead vampires by night in New York City. Bowie is Deneuve's companion and has been since they met in 17the century France. Deneuve's character promises eternal life to Bowie, but what she fails to mention is that she is not promising eternal youth. The truth is that Bowie's character is doomed to live an eternal waking death, decaying alone in a coffin amongst Deneuve's other lovers upstairs in their townhouse attic. In her attempt to find another lover, Deneuve has a tryst with Susan Sarandon's character, who is a doctor studying sleep and aging. The two of them engage in an affair that leaves Sarandon bit, sick, betrayed, and hungry. The film is fun to watch and is one of the sexist, goth nightmares ever put to film. Putting Bowie in your picture is a surefire way to cult-classic status, and I see no reason why this movie wouldn't be considered such. It is dark, rich, romantic, and erotic. Its everything you'd want from a vampire flick, plus did I mention that David Bowie is in this movie?
Near Dark (1987)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
The 2nd film in our "vampire/slightly related to James Cameron double feature" is Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 blood sucking western Near Dark. Bigelow at the time was married to Cameron, and several James Cameron regulars (Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein, last seen in Cameron's Aliens) show up in this film as supporting characters. Near Dark depicts what it would really be like to live life as a vampire. The media likes to portray vampires as suave, wealthy elites living the highlife for all eternity (Like in The Hunger). In reality, I believe Near Dark hits much closer to the mark. If the only way to sustain your life was to murder and drink blood every single night, you'd be living life on the run, hunted, and living a dirty, vagabond existence. Serial killers are lucky to get away with 10-20 murders over decades. Is your average vampire expected to kill every night for hundreds (even thousands) of years? You'd either have to be a genius criminal (the likes of which has never been seen), or you'd be tracked down and caught as soon as you stopped moving. The characters in Near Dark understand this, and it is not lost on them what a gang of disgusting cretins they are. They are pirates, thieves, rapists, and killers. Far from your idealized version of vampires, be it Bela Legosi's Dracula or whatever Twilight claims a vampire is. Near Dark is entertaining, and highly watchable. Kathryn Bigelow is an extremely underrated director who only recently has rightly emerged from the shadow of her egomaniac ex James Cameron. She's graduated to more mature styles of film making these days, but for me, she never made a better movie than Near Dark.
The Wailing (2016)
Directed by Na Hong-Jin
The Wailing. This movie was hard to pin down, and I found myself questioning and doubting so many aspects of the film as it unfolded. It centers on a horrifying mystery surrounding a Japanese man who recently moved to a rural Korean village. Members of the village keep getting sick and often murder their families and loved ones, and rumors quickly spread that it is this new strangers doing. We follow an oafish police officer tasked with figuring out what exactly is going on in his village, as this sickness creeps closer and closer to his own family. The Wailing begins with an almost even mix of horror and dark comedy. I found myself laughing out loud several times with the film, and then on a dime being completely horrified. This high-wire act is a feature, not a bug, of the picture. I commend the balance director Na Hong-jin can achieve between these two tones. For the first 45 minutes of the film, you'd be forgiven if you thought you were watching Hot Fuzz 2: Korean Police. Slowly but surely, the film becomes less and less humorous and more macabre and terrifying. The mystery deepens, and the twists begin to compound on each other in surprising and satisfying ways. As with any movie centered around a mystery, the less you know going in, the better. I'd suggest going into this one blind, you won't regret it. Highly recommended.
Check in next week, we’ll be covering the next batch of horror movies on our calendar!
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