31 Horror movies watched in October 2002
Submitted by jenhowel on Sat, 10/12/2002 - 06:20
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- 1) BLACK SUNDAY (I'd never watched this Mario Bava dir. Barbara Steele starring b/w film before. It wasn't scary. It had that sort of Saturday matinee feel to it. Kind of morbid in a nostalgic Halloween way. Barbara Steele was very cool, however. Very expressive. And the filming was certainly neat. I'd watch it again, particularly if it were on late night TV.)
- 2) TENEBRE (I didn't like Dario Argento's classic "Suspiria" so I wasn't too surprised that I also didn't like this lesser flick of his. It's kind of a thriller where a writer touring Rome finds a killer is killing women inspired by his books. It's pretty predictable, gory in a kind of sick way, and doesn't seem to like women very much. It's also not that scary, especially if you know Argento's penchant for crashing through windows already.)
- 3) RE-ANIMATOR (certainly not frightening, but somewhat amusing, a med student lets a young Frankenstein take up residence in his house. This student's reanimation mixture produces disastrous results.There is one particulary icky scene involving the undead molesting the first man's very attractive girlfriend. EW... I think I may have to watch Bride of Reanimator.)
- 4) CATPEOPLE (Yes, it was the newer 80's? version. I hated the ending. Couldn't they think of something better? There weren't enough cat transformation sequences. There was far too much dead air in this movie. I could imagine a much better film with the same concept. Maybe someone could make it. A cross between Wolf and Interview with the Vampire, maybe.)
- 5) EVIL DEAD 2 (the first part was making me want to shut the movie off. Then as Bruce Campbell starts hamming it up a bit more, sometime after his hand became possessed, I started getting into things more. Still not really my kind of horror movie, but funny enough. A Farewell to Arms. Tee hee.)
- 6) QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (First of all as an adaptation this movie ROTS. The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned both deserve their own lush, expertly acted professionally done, real movie. That said, Queen of the Damned was kind of fun if you ignore the great book it was "based" on. Stuart Townsend was definitely fun to watch and attractive. I love vampires and the mood in this vampire flick was suitably decadent yet gloomy. It's just a pity it's nowhere near as gorgeous, erotic, superb, intricate, etc. as Anne Rice's novel. At least Interview tried.
- 7) ROSEMARY'S BABY - Okay, I was wrong. There's something to this movie. I still think it's overrated, mind you, because everyone has it up on their 10 best, etc. But it was kind of creepy. And Rosemary didn't suck as much as I remembered. Although those little girl dresses really bugged me. Polanski's women usually do though. The lesson this movie taught me is that bad things happen when you're too damn agreeable and don't do what you want.
- 8)AMERICAN PSYCHO - Another re-watch, I was MUCH less impressed by this movie this last viewing, maybe because it's the first time I've seen it since reading the book, which was incredibly creepy and hard, almost impossible, to read. But at the same time more real, more unapologetically horror. So much so, that I'm going to sell my copy. I only paid $5 for it to begin with, so not much of a loss.
- 9)THE EXORCIST III - THIS was a scary, creepy movie. It freaked me out, in some ways more than the original Exorcist. This is mostly because the original Exorcist was so well done. And well done movies sometimes aren't as scary, because they don't seem real or chaotic. Horror and pain are states in which life doesn't seem so well done, neat, well-acted. Think of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A grainy, gritty, low-budget example of why less well done can be more scary.
- 10) TREMORS - I've heard this called a horror movie, and it was in the horror section. It didn't feel like horror though, anymore than "Ghostbusters". It felt like a comedy. It was amusing. Not great. And I feel no need to ever watch it again, especially because Fred Ward should have got the girl; he's just a better guy in this movie.
- 11) ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA - Another movie that didn't feel exactly horror (I'm thinking of writing a meditation on what qualifies a movie to be called horror or the different types of horror movie). This one felt sort of like soft-core porn, what with all the nubile young ladies having sex with their servant. A strange movie in which a vegetarian! Dracula moves to Italy to seek out "wirgins". Worth watching if you're a vampire fan, not much else worthwhile. Well, some nice breasts.
- 12) THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF - Caveat here, I'm not sure this is a "horror" movie either, but I rented it with the best intentions, and am behind. It's ostensibly a movie about a beast that is killing peasants in a province of France (based on an actual legend, apparently) but ends up being more about human beastliness. Not scary, but good action, and I really liked the actor playing the Native American, Mani.
- 13) INCUBUS - The only film ever filmed in Esperanto, featuring William Shatner as a man pure of heart, who draws the notice of a young demon lady, intent on corrupting him. Great cinematography by Conrad Hall, but the ending and the yak, er, Incubus, are pretty funny. A curse associated with the film can be learned about on the DVD.
- 14) GINGER SNAPS - This came recommended, by whom I can't remember, but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Though it was nice to see girls in the driver's seat of a horror story, the connection between lycanthropy and sexual awakening was rather forced. And the younger sister character was endlessly stupidly annoying. I found myself wanting to get my horror script made again, as our story features a girl who can think and act under pressure.
- 15) FRANKENSTEIN - This horror classic left me completely unimpressed. I don't know why I should be surprised, as so many classics do. But I was surprised and disappointed. I found it shoddily done, not one bit scary, and I didn't like any of the characters except maybe the little girl playing with the flowers. Not even the venerable old Boris Karloff impressed me. Oh well.
- 16) HALLOWEEN (6) The Curse of Michael Myers - This really sucked, but that didn't come as much of a suprise. Halloween was better off as a slasher instead of this weird attempt to involve some sort of vague Satanic cult in the mix. At least if it wanted to veer off it should have totally veered off like Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. That was at least interesting.
- 17)HOUSE - An interesting, refreshing if not terribly scary horror movie. Not what I was expecting. In this film a writer, burdened by way too many subplots (aunt hung herself in a haunted house which he inherited from which his boy disappeared, his wife divorced him, and he's haunted by Vietnam) moves back to said house to work on a Vietnam memoir. In the process he discovers his house holds the portals to other dimensions (or something) and sets about finding his son. I liked the ending. I liked the subtle humor. I liked the theme of overcoming your real life fears. Not great, but a good watch.
- 18) HOUSE 2: The Second Story - A very different creature than its predecessor this House plays more like a mix between The Land of the Lost and a zombie cowboy flick. Oh yeah, with a cheesy 80's party and Bill Maher mixed in for good (or bad) measure. Not a bad film, not really a good film either, it might be fun to watch with a big, agreeable group. All things considered, I liked the first one better.
- 19) FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER: This is my favorite Friday the 13th flick, mainly because it features Cory Feldman and Crispin Glover, but also because it has a hospital scene, a family involved, and the traditional kids indulging in sex, drugs and rock and roll This makes this Jason movie complete for me.
- 20) RED DRAGON Very scary. Definitely worth re-making, despite comments to the contrary. I did get a sense that this cast was wasted on the director and script, but the cast was so fucking good it didn't matter.Emily Watson in particular. It was still a worthy thriller. And I have such a weakness for Edward Norton.
Author Comments:
My advice to you is to never try watching 31 horror flicks in October. In fact, I don't think I'm going to finish. This is because I'm already burnt out on sitting around watching horror flicks. If I even come close to watching the rest of them, I think I'm going to just rent the shortest ones I can find. Maybe some older horror movies would fit the bill. Who knows. I do want to still catch "Suspiria" again, however.
Which Cat People did you see? Because if you didn't see the 1942 original, then you're right - there is a much better film with the same concept! :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Jen I think you and I have very similiar tastes in movies.
Exorcist III is one of my favorite horror films! If you can avoid comparing it too much to the original Exorcist, which I think is fairly easy, it's a quality film in its own right. It's almost a shame that it had to have the Exorcist name attached to it. I think that lowers people's appreciation.
Was Exorcist III the one with those massive coroner's loppers (for lack of a better word)? The scene where the figure in white suddenly comes running out of the room with them scared my pants off. If I'm remembering the right movie I saw it quite awhile ago and don't recall it particularly well, but do remember thinking it was quite good and genuinely creepy.
Yeah that's the one. That scene made me jump, too, and it takes a lot to make me jump these days. The guy playing the serial killer was just sooo fucking creepy. Excuse my French.
I plan on getting the book, Legion, whenever I feel like having my pants scared off next.
House! Ha! I think I saw that when it first came out. Haven't thought about it in years. And yet the tag line "ding dong. you're dead." comes to me. And didn't it star The Greatest American Hero? I also vaguely recall a very funny body disposal scene.