The Nesting (1981) Horror Ghosts

The Nesting (1981) - This is the story of a agoraphobic writer Lauren (Robin Groves) drawn to a house to write only to solve the mystery of the house's history and her own as well. Lauren is experiencing agoraphobic anxiety attacks whenever she leaves her house. You have to like her attitude though, she is attacking the problem with her therapist and thinking about getting out of the city where the attacks are more common. So whatever is going on emotionally for her she is seeking solutions and in this case she heads out to a small town Dover Falls and rents a house where she can complete her book. Surprising to her is when she gets to the house it is the same one that is on the cover of her last book. An Octagon shaped place so unique that it couldn't be a coincidence could it? In real life the place is called the Armour-Stiner House and is just a beautiful piece of architecture.  We can glean from her therapy sessions that she has had some kind of trauma in her past. She is reluctant to be romantic with her friend Mark (Christopher Loomis) a wise cracker who is so in the friend-zone he does not stand a chance with Lauren.
 John Carridine) and managed by his grandson Daniel (Michael David Lally) the house has been empty for years so renting it out to Lauren seems reasonable. When she meets Col. LeBrun he takes one look at her and has a stroke. Later we learn this stopped him from saying who she looks like. So we have a haunted house, a woman with a mysterious past and an old man who has his own secrets.

In the cold open we see the house back in the 1930s or some such time and know from that scene that some murders took place there. So this appears at this point to possible be a haunted house movie?  If it were that simple I suppose we would all be very disappointed. This is a house with a history, once a brothel it is owned by Col. Lebrun (
  As haunting kinds of things happen in the house, Lauren who is still fighting her fears is sort of stuck there. Her plan might not have been the best when it comes to a house full of ghosts. I mean its scary when you are standing in front of the mirror admiring your own breasts and a pair of ghostly hands decide to cop a feel. That freaks her out enough to get her therapist Dr Webb (Patrick Farrelly) to rush out to the house. He finds her frantic on the roof of the house, its a story of how she got there but while trying to help her Webb is accidentally killed.
  The dying and the haunting does not stop there, it continues revealing to the audience the nature of the brothel. We see Lauren as part of the brothel workforce? Is that really her, is she losing her mind? All this is answered and more but first a bit of masculine hostility. After being rude to the handyman Frank (Bill Rowley), Lauren invites him to tea to apologize for her behavior. Well Frank being a horrible human makes it clear that if she talked nice to him she must want his cock in her. Lucky for Lauren the ghost intervene before Frank can get too far, frightening him out of the house and eventually to his demise.

  There are holes in this film and on IMDB it is only rated at a 4.8 of 10 still it tries to present a cohesive story. It's not that the film is bad but it weaves a tale that does not always make sense. In all this is a story about how Lauren returns to the house she was born in and this event initiates the ghosts of the former brothel get revenge on the men that slaughtered them. Lauren's arc is overcoming her fears and learning her own personal history. For the Colonel, Frank and Abner (David Tabor) it is about paying for your misdeeds in this case against their wills. The spooky is not spooky enough (One good birds jump scare early on), the crazy closer to being up to par. Especially Abner the murderous louse who chases Lauren in cars in what has to be the strangest car chase I have ever seen, it reason is so small for such a big event. In the end though I did not come away thinking this movie was anything special so I am not going to recommend it.

The Color Out of Space (2019)

The Color Out of Space (2019) My anticipation for this film was strong, a big fan of Director Richard Stanley, Hardware (1990), Dust Devil (1992) (I wrote about that here) and after recently seeing Nicolas Cage in Mandy, I thought he might be great for this film. Stanley is, a unique individual  a spiritual semi shaman who connects the coincidences of life to a higher interconnections of all things. He is an acquired taste as a personality but is a very creative and competent film maker. A family on an isolated farm sees strange happenings after a meteor crashes in their yard. The consequences are apocalyptic for the family changing their lives for ever. What isn't there to like about that? This is part of the sequestered series of movies, as we are all hunkered down trying to not catch the coronavirus. My daughter and I are taking turns picking film we both watch and then talk about to keep our sanity in our isolation. She is alone up in Burlington VT while I and my wife are in Central Massachusetts. My wife does not participate  in horror movies so she is upstairs watching Call the Midwife. The first movie in this series is Mara, you can read on this blog about that. This was my first choice.
  This film was produced by Elijah Woods company SpectreVision which also made a Nicolas cage film Mandy as well as putting money into some wonderful alternative vision of horror like Cooties (2014), Daniel Isn't Real (2019) and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). You have got to hand it to this company really throwing money at project most production companies would not touch. In this case a new adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft short story made by a director Richard Stanley who had not made a feature in twenty years. Then they get Nicolas Cage a mainstream actor to bring his envelope pushing experimentation to it, and throw in 83 year old Tommy Chong in a bit role but his first in a horror movie. He said and I paraphrase, that he always stayed away from doing horror movies because of the chance of the karma might be bad, he did not want to wake these spirits. Filmed in Portugal the lush beauty of the landscape may not be central Massachusetts but it certainly was interesting. It sets the location and gives a place to develop a horrifying story.
  The setup of the family and their world is the focus of the first act. Nathan Gardner (Nicholas Cage) has moved his family back to the family farm after his abusive father's death. He is seeking to do something with the place and is raising alpacas as the animal of the future. His wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) is the breadwinner of the family doing investment advising online from the farm. She has just recovered from a cancer and has yet to fully feel herself in her relationship with her husband. They have three kids, Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) the oldest teen practices Alexandrian Wicca, is using her ceremonies first to seek good health for her Mother and then to get the fuck out of dodge when the shit hits the fan. She is the teen that really wants to get back to civilization and off the farm. You can imagine growing up in the city and then in your late teens your parents pack you up and move you to a farm 12 miles from the nearest town. Her teen brother Benny (Brenden Myer) just wants to stay high, smoking weed with the local squatter Ezra (Tommy Chong) he is just trying to cope. Through both teens we get the picture that alpaca breeding is not the first scheme his Father has gotten involved in and is just trying to get through the ordeal. The last member and youngest is little brother Jack (Julian Hilliard) is adequate for having a child at risk.  We also learn that the family is hanging onto the farm despite the local mayor wanting to get them out of there so a new dam and reservoir can be built flooding the land. Ward (Elliot Knight) a surveyor, is a sort of love interest for Lavinia and outsider who can later intervene for the family. When I noticed that it was his voice that was narrating the story in the opening voice over I suddenly felt like the story might not have a happy ending.
  In the night a meteorite lands in the front yard, coloring the sky and glowing with a pink/purple aura. The event makes the local news but the meteorite itself seems to sink down into the crater it made. The foreshadowing of close ups of people drinking water and looking down the well should give you an idea of what is going on. Then things start to change, as the plants and animals on the farm are slowly transformed and the family members themselves face changes, losing time and not totally thinking clearly. As the farm transforms and some things are made hideous we have to appreciate the people doing the special effects on this film. It's beautiful the way the colors paint the scenes like an expressionist painting. The affects are shown  in small and large ways the transformation of the environment is exceptional. The grotesqueness of the animal transformation contrast that nicely reminding me of scenes in "The Thing". Being a  H.P. Lovecraft story we have the growing dread of the situation and the idea of the monstrous. Lovecraft once said this is his favorite of his story and the Director Richard Stanley seems to handle the look and feel with loving care himself. A story of an old forest in fictional town of Arkham Massachusetts a fictional hill town I can only imagine it as my town in Hudson MA some hundred and fifty years ago. But it probably more likely that Lovecraft was hearing about the making of the Quabbin reservoir which is Boston's water supply about 25 miles to the west of me. It was built between 1930-33 so Lovecraft would have heard of the plans for it in 1927 when he wrote this short story. The original is very similar in plot to the film but dated as you would imagine, there is a great version of the story you can listen to at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JH7nEjwbEY

  The effects become more complex spreading, maybe a better word is infecting is more appropriate. The environment changes and the family is effected at the same time the alpacas are transformed. Reminiscent of The Thing  for some physical effects and The Shining for the family dynamics, the effects are limited, probably for budget reasons but very effective. The color scheme and digital work is exceptional and even though the story stays small and on the farm the special effects of the changing farm is just wonderful. You could argue that this is a Nick Cage film, and he certainly has the chops to play the failing father in crisis, losing his shit he plays crazy really well with the right amount of unpredictability and menace. You could also argue that the protagonist is Lavinia and the film is seen through her eyes. She is connected through rituals she performs to the events in a metaphysical way, its not cause and effect but is is part of the interconnections this film emanates. As things fall apart, or come together the crisis in the family climbs to a level not totally expected.
  If there is a criticism you could have it may be that the film is a bit too tight. It is a localized story on the farm and in the family but maybe could have used a bit more scope. Because of this the voice over in the beginning and end of the film seem contrived to add a larger scope when it should have been shown not told. Not that the voice over isn't beautifully written it is, writers Scarlett Amaris and Stanley have a good script and it is appreciated. The third act where everything really comes apart for the family and Cage and Arthur really carry the film, but the outcome is blunted a bit and the logic of how the threat is overcome is hard to accept. No spoilers here because this is definitely getting a recommendation for you to rent, buy or see it any way you can. Overall this is a wonderful science fiction, horror movie.  As always you can leave a comment or write to me at movies@edhovey.com
  

Candyman (1992) Horror

Candyman (1992) - Stream Queens Podcast (part of the Zombiegrrlz family of podcasts) for the first time is having guests and all are going to be doing this film, this classic piece of horror and I am sure you like I can't wait for the episode. I wanted to repost this 2014 review of the movie as part of my listening participation. I really love this film and will also revisit it with a viewing before listening. Revisiting this film is like reconnecting to that cousin who you have great rapport with but only see at family reunions. It has all the elements that make a classic horror film and creating a horror icon via Tony Todd's portrayal of the titular character. Being hold up at home right now because of the Coronavirus outbreak is certainly giving me more time to view and write about movies and I am going to take advantage of it. I am a bit lucky in that I already work remotely so my work life doesn't change but my social life has been reduced. My darts league is suspended and the breweries I frequent only see me when I want to take beer to go. Needless to say even if the odds of getting the virus is seems to be growing so we all need to take some precautions avoid public spaces for a while. It is not that you are in an at risk age group but other you may come in contact with could be. My example is this, my wife regularly visits her 90 year old Mother helping with cleaning and personal care. If I was to get the virus, my wife might contract it before showing symptoms and then her Mother who is in a high risk group could get the virus all before any symptoms surface. So do the right thing. Rereading this review it looks like I actually did some research as opposed to just blabbing on and on about how it affected me. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment or shoot me an email at movies@edhovey.com with your thought about the film.
 Candyman created the first black horror icon in Tony Todd's growling desire filled portrayal of the titular character. In an interview with director Bernard Rose the Independent newspaper the story is shared of how in pre-production the backers of the film grew uneasy about whether a black "monster"  would be seen as racist. Rose said in that interview 'I had to go and have a whole set of meetings with the NAACP, because the producers were so worried, and what they said to me when they'd read the script was 'Why are we even having this meeting? You know, this is just good fun.' Their argument was 'Why shouldn't a black actor be a ghost? Why shouldn't a black actor play Freddy Krueger or Hannibal Lector? If you're saying that they can't be, it's really perverse. This is a horror movie. . .' ' ' Luckily for us all, the backers fears were relieved and we now have this character in the halls of iconic horror villains.
  There is so much done right in this film, starting with the basic setup. Instead of making a film about an urban legend writer/director Bernard Rose from a short story from Clive Barker creates a story about how urban myths are created and become part of the society they spring to life in. Rose takes the story out of the Liverpool setting of the Barker story and moves it to America. Wanting to appeal to a larger audience but also a setting where some social commentary can take place. In this case the setting is the infamous Chicago housing project Cabrini Green where, in the film murders perpetrated by a gang member have spiraled out in the telling to be the doing the Candyman. The origin story of a the character is he was slave who loves a white woman  and when the wealthy land owner discovered their relationship he cut the arm off the slave and shoved a hook in the stump, covered him in honey, threw him into the bee hives and then burned him to death. That story is later connected to the deaths in the urban prison that was Cabrini Green. Even though the murders in the housing project were not his handiwork but crimes of gangs Candyman was attributed them. That myth is exactly what Helen and her thesis partner Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons) are researching. It is their doorway into the plot and deciding to go to the housing project as part of that research puts them in danger of a physical rather than metaphysical nature.
 Beyond just the story of the myth is the question of whether belief in a myth can bring it to life. William James in the 1890s argued in "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking" lectures that belief in God's existence may actually depend upon our belief in his existence. His ideas seem to be building off St. Thomas Aquinas but I digress. The idea that something can come into existence because of peoples belief in it is a founding block of religious thinking so it is not a stretch to bring this idea into a horror film. Using urban legends an already accepted set of stories as a connector the film allows us to accept the Candyman as a boogeyman. It uses the Bloody Mary urban legend, to summon Candyman by repeatedly calling his name in a mirror to summon him into our world. It uses the bonfire legend where someone is trapped inside the pile of debris when the fire is started, and again from the interview with Rose in the Independent "...And the biggest urban legend of all for me was the idea that there are places in cities where you do not go, because if you go in them something dreadful will happen - not to say that there isn't danger in ghettos and inner city areas, but the exaggerated fear of them is an urban myth.'.
   It is also about the relationship between the Candyman (Tony Todd) and Helen (Virginia Madsen) that goes beyond hunter and hunted. At its heart it is a deranged love story that plays out in a horror setting. Not just a supernatural killer and a victim, Helen needs to summons the Candyman and he needs her to desire her fate as victim. Some later scenes between them are full of sexual energy subtle and not so subtle as the Candyman tries to seduce Helen into being his victim. Structurally this relationship is set up well also. Helen is a grad student who is married to her professor husband, Trevor (Xander Berkeley) so she was a student that he seduced and married. Early in the film we see the obvious signs that Trevor now is having an affair with a new younger student. He will not be coming to save her and when shit hits the fan for Helen. Trevor only sees it as a convenient way of freeing himself of the relationship. The back story of Candyman also has the element of his love for a white women. (Who in the mural looks remarkably like Helen.) So when he attempts his seduction of  Helen she is a woman without the hope of her marriage coming back together. Think about how the dynamic would have changed if she and Trevor were deeply in love with each other. How her acceptance of the Candyman's efforts would be completely resisted instead of the almost acceptance she shows in the scenes.
 The film is stark and menacing in its urban setting with the early danger coming from people and not the Candyman. Set in Chicago at the infamous Cabrini Green housing development  the location is a character in the tale. Cabrini Green  known for the crime, gangs and disrepair became the poster child for how not to provide housing for the poor. It's boarded up towers covered inside and out with graffiti convey the hopeless situation of residents that exposition could never equal.  Challenging for sure to film at the location but worth the effort in effect. Tony Todd talked to Daniel Schweiger, Fangoria, No 117, October 1992 about the shoot. "I tried to come there with no expectations, but I still felt fear. Anybody who didn't belong there was subject to danger. The cops told me to keep my eyes on the rooftops for snipers, and then I ran into a black woman and her two children. They were hustling back from the grocery store before it got dark, and thought the film security people were cops. She asked us when we were going to clean the projects up, which really got to me."
   When the storyline takes a turn where the innocent seem guilty the film really takes off. The body count although not large for a slasher type film is what I would call appropriate to the plot. There is a cool little slight of hand when the Helen wakes covered in blood in the bathroom of Cabrini Green resident Ann-Marie (Venessa Williams). We see the dogs severed head on the floor and then Ann Marie freaking out at the blood covered crib of her child.  At this point she sees Helen and freaks out about her baby. As the police arrive to find Helen holding a knife. I thought at this point that she had killed the baby. It was a clever deception and then when she is at the police station we learn the baby is just missing, completely the viewers relief.
  This is a great story and a wonderful film, of course it is recommended and I am purposely leaving out as many plot points as possible. If you have had your head in the sand on this film like I did take the time and watch it. It is available on Netflix so easily obtained.
Odds and Ends
 - Smoking on screen was a thing in 1992, oh how things have changed in twenty years.
 - Another couple things that set the films time period were the antiquated answering machine at Helen's place. The fact that there were no cell phones and that her camera ran out of film.
 - Roger Ebert loved this movie when it came out. I don't remember him as someone who often said nice things about horror movies but her then may be an exception. His review.
 - The epic soundtrack by Philip Glass alone should make this a classic.
 

Mara (2018) Horror Demon

 Mara (2018) Since my lovely daughter and I are cooped up at our homes during this Coronavirus crisis and all sports are cancelled, our normal riffing conversations are taking a hit. So we decided to take turn picking films to watch when apart and talk about in our calls. This is the first on of that series of films. If you want to play along we are moving onto "The Color of Space" next, so watch, come back to the blog and leave a comment or send us an email at movies@edhovey.com. We would love to here from you. Where to begin with this one?  Well with the public awareness growing about the subject of sleep paralysis there was bound to be a movie, and particularly a horror movie using it as a centerpiece. The Nightmare came out about the subject in 2015 and since then the growing awareness has made stories of everyday people's sleep paralysis a less taboo subject. Mara capitalizes on this by having the creature that comes in the night be a demon who uses sleep paralysis to get it's victims. Written by Jonathan Frank and Director Clive Tonge it is a story heavy on expository dialog to show us a tail about said creature. According to IMDB this film is director Tonge's first feature and Frank also with a shorter resume has a 40 million dollar film(reportedly filming) coming about a giant tsunami hitting Los Angeles. The writing on this film is okay but the nature of the story forces some labored exposition dialog that become a bit of a muddle at times. Not that it was not attempted within in character rants and doctor jargon, it is just that because they are really making up an urban legend that entire story, with its ancient history to modern day implications needs to be relayed to the audience and there was a lot to cover.
  The story centers around Kate Fuller (Olga Kurylenko) a young to the job forensic psychologist brought in to get a small girl, Sophie (Mackenzie Imsand) to talk about a horrific night in which her Father was killed. Her Mother Helena (Rosie Fellner) is being held for the murder but claims that a sleep demon name Mara is actually responsible for the death. Body actor Javier Botet is the demon in question. He is experience having worked as the creature of dozens of features.  Kate makes the mistake of promising Sophie she won't have her Mother committed to an institution but has to break the promise after coming under pressure from the detective McCarthy (Lance E. Nichols) who is running the investigation. Kate has a background where she too lost a parent at an early age and so has a strong desire to fix the mistake she made in the case by conducting her own investigation away from the police.
  This investigation leads to a couple rather lengthy, fill the audience in scenes, one with Dougie (Craig Conway) a victim of sleep paralysis who through a support group is trying to convince the world that the demon exists. He seems angry and a not but we learn because Mara has already targeted him he is forcing himself to sleep only 20 minutes at a time. When Kate interacts with him is fills in a long history of the monster and sets the rules the film going forward. There is a lot in these interactions probably on purpose there is a bunch of babble about the records that mention the creature. It is certainly also a purposeful move to not have all the rules worked out, leaving the question why is the creature going after these people. The second is with the doctor, Ellis (Mitch Eakins) who leads the support group, he is the science counterbalance to Dougie's crazy conspiracy theory. He gives his own description of what sleep paralysis is and how it operates as well as questioning the demon theory from a science point of view.
  As Kate gets more and more involved in the story she starts having sleep paralysis and seeing the demon. But why? Well, that is all about the third act, as Kate closes in on trying to solve the mystery before the creature kills little Sophie we get the promised scares a horror movie should have.  The final act works out the pieces that are missing earlier on in the film. I don't know if I really loved this movie, hell liking it is a stretch for me. It was okay, some things worked and others felt clunky. It also was not my favorite ending but I suppose they felt they needed something more than just saving the day.So I will reserve a recommendation for the film but that probably won't stop my 20 readers from looking at it. 

Darling (2015) Horror Thriller

Darling (2015)  Darling is a thriller with some horror elements about a woman named Darling (Lauren Ashley Carter) who after being traumatized has a breakdown while caring for a socialite's infamous house in NY City. Broken into chapters, Her, Invocation, Thrills, Demon, Inferno, and The Caretaker it is a film drawing on some other famous films set in city apartments most strongly two from Roman Polanski, The Tenant and Repulsion. Shot in black and white it definitely often looks like Repulsion. Where it is a film about a character losing her mind it is going to get a lot of comparisons to that film too. From the beginning we see the tightness in in the character, clothes hair makeup perfectly constructed like she is holding herself together through her appearance. Played beautifully by Carter with just enough facial nuance to let the audience know that Darling is not all she is presenting herself to be. She carries an edginess that enhances the script and manages to emote the chaos that boils behind her characters eyes.
  Chapter 1: Her is an introduction to Darling but also to the house. We see the Madame (Sean Young) of the house telling Darling about its storied history how the last caretaker threw herself off the upper balcony, but not only that but that there is an earlier stories of house being haunted. Darling in her controlled way assures the woman that this is not a problem for her. Much of this chapter is exploring the house after the Madame leaves for the weekend. The house becomes a character as we get some great setup shots of the different rooms. Originally the locations was going to be a working class apartment more like in The Tenant but by chance a renovated former boarding school in Harlem became available so the location was changed. It is a beautiful multi floored place and we see Darling going about checking different rooms. When she settles in her room she finds a rosary in on of the bureau drawers, but also the noises start to startle her as night closes in. I have always like slow builds and even though this film is a tight 78 minutes it does not jump right into the scares. Instead we get little things like the rosary, was it owned by the last caretaker who killed herself? Then there is the room that gets to that balcony which is locked, and Darling's strange dream where she is standing on the balcony. Finally when Darling walks to the store and is really scared by a man (Brian Morvant) returning the rosary she dropped to her we see that although put together on the outside she is really terrified and not totally together on the inside.
Chapter 2: Invocation, Now the definition of the noun invocation is "the action of invoking something or someone for assistance or as an authority." and in this chapter we see that Darling while laying in her bed at night see a Latin phrase scratched into the side of the nightstand. "Abyssus Abyssum Invocat" or "One misstep leads to another" when she reads these words we go to a shot from the POV of where the nightstand is looking back at Darling. What is cool is they use this shot so we can also see the bedroom door behind her as she lays in the bed. It opens by itself until it slams into the all startling Darling. I have always like that kind of camera shot, the use of foreground and background to give an effect, it still is very cool.  We also see that not only is Darling a bit of an insomniac but that she is starting to stare into space a bit. It well done by the actress and director to build slight changes in her behavior as she heads down the road to insanity. Then we see she is also starting to obsess standing in front of the Man's apartment building watching for him to come out. Let's remember that the interaction she had was random and innocent but now she is thinking about him a lot.
Chapter 3: Thrills, Is about getting the Man to pick her up at a bar. Darling stalks and sets him up leading him to talk to her in a bar and then inviting him back to the house. The awkwardness of the conversation is wonderful and Carter really shows her chops in this setup portion portraying Darling fragility with a nuance performance. Leading to the biggest turn of the film I will leave a lot of the detail of this chapter out, but we do learn a bit more about the house. It was not just the last caretaker's death that built the reputation as a haunted house but also as we learn through the conversation of the Man there is a longer history. That same locked room at the top of the house was a place where the former owner of the house tried to conjure the Devil. Adding weight to the location beyond an earlier tragedy. When the chapter gets rolling we see Darling's mental state cross a threshold that she will not be able to come back from. I really liked all the way through the things shown to show the slippage in Darlings thought process. From the beginning each morning the Madam calls to check in with her and with each call Darling is less and less able to engage with her on the phone.
Chapter 4: Demon is about dealing with the consequences of actions taken in chapter three. Darling must sort of become a demon to do what she has to do. She is a changed character at this point and we the audience see the breakdown of her sanity first hand. Chapter 5 : Inferno is about the psychological consequences of her actions and the realization in Darling that she sees her own illness and finally Chapter 6: The Caretaker is where the outside world reenters the story and the full horror of the events are witnessed.
  Overall the film, called a tribute to the other films mentioned above is really quite derivative of those films. It plays so close to the plot of Repulsion that it could sort of be a re-imagining of that film. Director Mickey Keating obviously knows what he is doing behind the camera. Under the age of 30 he already has five features all tight and well drawn that were made on small budgets. He is sort of a director made for independent horror. I am sure it won't be long before he is hitting with a film from a large studio. There are some great filming techniques used in this film like quite cutting and strobe lights, a killer sound design and the starkness of the black and white that all come together to make this an enjoyable film to view. This film deals with the effects of earlier abuse on the antagonist so be warned that this theme is there and important to the story.   I enjoyed it and would recommend that you take a look at it.