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Halloween Recommendations
It’s that season, the season of my people. Since some folks only watch horror flicks this time of year, I thought I’d provide my services and offer up a charcuterie board of spooky movies for those precious days we have left before All Hallows’ Eve. I assume you already know Beetlejuice and The Bride of Frankenstein. This will be a list of the lesser known, the overlooked, and the unsung. Grab a bag of Takis and let the Caro Syrup flow.
Fiend Without a Face (1958)
This one is slow to start as is any 50s sci-fi feature, but it’s worth it for one of screen’s best menaces: floating brains with eyestalks and spinal tails to strangle their victims. The final sequence, where the characters board themselves inside a house, had Night of the Living Dead beaten to the punch by a decade. The stop motion animation was more eerie and the blood spurt effects more visceral than the rubber-suited creatures of its contemporaries.
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
A giallo not from Argento, Fulci, or Bava. A freaky thriller with mystery, style, high-class nudity, and a very ’70s score courtesy of Bruno Nicolai. The VHS cover made my imagination run wild when I saw it in a movie catalog as a child. Japanese black metal band Sabbat used stills from the film for the cover of their 2011 compilation Bloody Countess. What better endorsement could you ask for?
Deathdream, aka Dead of Night (1974)
Early effort from director Bob Clark (A Christmas Story, Porky’s) about a soldier who returns home after he was declared dead, but he’s not the same as he used to be. Clark and screenwriter Alan Ormsby use this supernatural shocker to comment on those boys who left Vietnam but couldn’t escape the war. Straightforward filmmaking that relies on the strength of its story. The final line will haunt you to your grave.
Deranged (1974)
Another collaboration between Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby, though this time Clark produced (uncredited because he didn’t want to be associated with a movie so dark) and Ormsby wrote and co-directed with Jeff Gillen. While many movie killers have taken inspiration from Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, Deranged sticks close to Gein’s real life. Filmed in a docudrama style, the lack of sensationalism makes it all the more disturbing. Features the blackest of humor. The killer is played by Roberts Blossom, the old man from Home Alone. Maybe Buzz was telling the truth.
Alucarda (1977)
Mexican film about two orphan girls in a convent who become possessed. Goes completely nuts with surreal imagery, sacrilege, world record hysterics, and blood, blood, blood. Instead of habits, the nuns wear bloody bandages. A favorite of Guillermo del Toro.
The Hunger (1983)
Susan Sarandon plays a monkey scientist and David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve play a vampire couple in this Tony Scott film that is thin on plot and fat with style. In a film so brooding, it’s only right it begins with Bauhaus performing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” It devolves into scenes of lesbianism as every vampire story does. Warner Bros. is producing a remake, because of course they are.
Cat’s Eye (1985)
In a rarity for anthology films, this trio of chillers are all hits. Based on short stories by Stephen King, the first tale about James Woods trying to quit smoking is obviously inspired by Steve’s own struggles with cocaine. The second, about a mob boss’s sadistic payback against the man his wife is cheating with, is genuinely scary. Never has a pigeon been so terrifying. The third segment plays like an update of the Zuni doll segment from Trilogy of Terror. The kitty is adorable. And this is PG-13!
Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante (2001)
A shot-on-video zombie flick from Argentina that despite its lack of budget looks like a movie. Lots of creative gore with charming DIY makeup. The tone is tongue-in-cheek and the action slapstick, yet you can’t help but get caught up in the travails of our scrappy heroes. This is the second in a trilogy, but can be watched independently no problem.
Director Shinya Tsukamoto.
Haze (2005)
Director Shinya Tsukamoto is best known for his feature debut Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and since then he hasn’t let up with the shocking, mindbending content. Haze starts with a man waking in a hall barely wide enough for his body. Claustrophobic to the extreme, the movie follows its nightmare logic right to the end and never becomes boring because it’s only 49 minutes long in its extended cut. If you’re hankering for more Tsukamoto, A Snake of June is a monochrome-blue wet nightmare. Hiruko the Goblin stands out among his work as a lighthearted, creature-centric horror film. That’s also his semen in the title sequence of Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer.
Fear(s) of the Dark (2007)
The animated shorts in this French production are uneven even by horror anthology standards—one is just abstract shapes over which a woman narrates her existential angst—but it’s all worth it for the last segment, the story of a man taking refuge in an abandoned house during a blizzard. Told without dialogue and in minimal black and white (no gray), this is perfection of animation and narrative. We won’t judge if you skip right to it.
Dream Home (2010)
Made during the Great Recession, this is a cutting satire of the insane Hong Kong housing market. After being priced out of her dream flat, Cheng goes on a killing spree of everyone who moves into the building. The kills are vicious, making this easily the most brutal movie on the list. It can also be horribly funny. A twisted good time, and I think the first Cat III movie I’ve talked about in a post.
There you go, boys and ghouls. Eleven scary picks to put on while you wait for trick ‘r’ treaters. This is far from a comprehensive list. What are your seasonal favorites? What movies keep you up at night? Let us know below.
Gladys Cunningham (Marina Malfatti) in “The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.”
Shinya Tsukamoto plays an unnamed man in his own “Haze.”
Alucarda (Tina Romero) and Justine (Susana Kamini) make communion with the devil in “Alucarda.”
Peter Murphy of Bauhaus performs at the beginning of “The Hunger.”
Yup. The difference between a good and a bad or at best mediocre horror film lies, I think, in knowing what not to show.
In the 1970s it was Sinister Cinema, aired by KATU in Portland, Oregon.
Important to know when making any type of movie.
One of the local PBS stations used to play horror and sci-fi movies every Friday night when I was a teen. There was no host, but it did introduce me to movies like The Day of the Triffids and Night of the Living Dead.
I saw The Hunger for the first time recently. Yes very stylish. Loved the beautiful house, to say nothing of Catherine Deneuve!
I also picked up Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D simply to build my 3D collection. The story is nothing special but it looks great. I always enjoy watching Rutger Hauer. And the 3D was very good, surprisingly good – luscious in some scenes.
Back when Sinister Cinema was actually on, one of the regular sponsors was the Ron Tonkin car dealerships in Portland. Years later, when I was shopping for a sports car, I test drove an Alfa Romeo GTV6 at Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo (which also handled Ferrari, Lamorghini…) and Ron Tonkin himself went with me! So I finally had a chance to thank him in person. But I wound up getting a Triumph TR8 from European-circle-track-racer Monte Shelton’s dealership also in Portland, which also had Rover, Saab, Bentley, Lotus, Rolls Royce…
You’re the first person I’ve heard talk positively of Dracula 3D. Nothing I’ve seen of it has made me want to watch, and I don’t have a 3D TV so can’t enjoy that aspect of it. Argento’s newest, Dark Glasses, is supposed to be a return to form so I’ll need to catch that one sometime.
And yes, Rutger Hauer never disappoints.
I grew up watching Elvira on KCAL on Saturday afternoons.
I also grow up when I watch Elvira.
Woohoo, it’s free!
I probably haven’t seen Jabberwocky since my parents took me to see it at the drive in when it was first released. I was six and hadn’t read any Lewis Carroll, so most of it was lost on me.
Watt Dabney! The Watt Dabney!
I thought this one might be worth watching;
It Follows would be another.
I wasn’t the hugest The Witch fan, though I loved Eggers two later films (you can read my review of The Northman here). Excited to see what he’ll do with his Nosferatu remake. That movie already got one of the best remakes courtesy of Werner Herzog.
It Follows is another one I’ve been meaning to get around to.
Forgot to post this earlier. I downloaded one more screenshot of TNECOOTG than I needed for the post.
Enjoy:
Periodically I enjoy watching a few movies from the same year to get a flavor for the times. I watched three horror movies from 1971 recently. I can’t say they were good, but they were definitely interesting:
Countess Dracula (UK) – “In 17th-century Hungary, elderly widow Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy (Ingrid Pitt) maintains her misleading youthful appearance by bathing in the blood of virgins regularly supplied to her by faithful servant Captain Dobi (Nigel Green).“
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (USA) – “A recently institutionalized woman (Zohra Lampert) has bizarre experiences after moving into a supposedly haunted country farmhouse and fears she may be losing her sanity once again.“
Twins Of Evil (UK) – “A religious sect led by Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing) hunts all women suspected of witchcraft, killing a number of innocent victims. Young Katy (Kathleen Byron), Gustav’s niece, will involve herself in a devilish cult, and become an instrument of justice in the region.“
Anyone heard of Terrifier, from 2016? Sounds right up Girlie Show’s alley.
Art the Clown!
The big deal is supposed to be the bisection, but Buffy did that first, way back in 2003, and on TV yet!
Wasn’t a fan of Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, but the other two pique my interest.
I have, though I haven’t seen it or its sequel released this year. I’ve heard mixed things, but will probably get around to it some day.
I don’t think clowns are scary.
A ninja gets bisected in the German film Violent S*** III, aka Zombie Doom.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a bit where Genghis Khan is a customer service person at Harrods Dept Store and bisects a fake customer (a rather obvious dummy in fact) with a sword.
I just finished watching The Terror season 1 (season 2 is an unrelated separate story) from AMC. They released it in 2018 and it’s set in one of my favorite periods and subjects for cinema and television – 19th century British naval expeditions. Think Master and Commander only instead of a few things going wrong that can be overcome, everything goes wrong, it’s really, really cold, and there’s a monster. Actually, I should say monsters, as the drip…drip…drip increasingly desperate circumstances (along with another causative factor I won’t give away) reveal the sailors’ characters or lack thereof. It’s available on Amazon Prime for a fee or probably from AMC+ directly (I haven’t checked).
Sounds interesting. The History Buffs YouTube channel did a video on its historical accuracy, though I didn’t watch it in case I decided to see the series:
Okay, that’s The Terror.
What about The Horror?
Thanks! I’ll check it out.