Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005) Horror Thriller

Do you like Hitchcock? (2005) - Do you like homage? Well if you don't you will probably want to avoid this slightly less than clever tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. Giulio (Elio Germano) lives in a neighborhood similar to that of Jeff Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) in the Hitchcock classic Rear Window (1954). Looking out his window he can see into all the apartments surrounding his building. As people appear to lack shades or refuse to use them little private vignettes of life in the city are on display for Giulio to view. An attractive girl arguing with her mother young couple kissing, people coming and going, watching television or making love all within sight of his room. Now this being a film directed by Dario Argento there is a male gaze that is very female focused. Sasha (Elisabetta Rocchetti) the beautiful girl across the way makes a point to pose in front of the mirror as well as in the window in the near nude. The excited Julio not only peeks but uses binoculars so that the audience can get a close up view of the lovely young woman. Where Hitchcock in Rear Window acknowledges that it is wrong to invade the privacy of others in this film it is used to titillate the main character and the audience and is done in a way making all participants leering creeps.
At the local video store Giulio creeps further on Sasha as she and another attractive women Frederica (Chiara Conti) exchange pleasantry about the Hitchcock film Stranger's on a Train. As the film plays out it centers around Giulio making connection between that film and the meeting of the two young women. When Sasha's mother is murdered in the apartment where she and her daughter live he is sure that the plot of that film is playing out before his eyes. His investigation becomes more important than anything else and he takes risks about finding out if Frederica did in fact kill Sasha's mother.
  Argento obviously loves Hitchcock and he really is trying to worship at his feet with this film. The film is full of references and from Dial M for Murder to Psycho there is a bunch to pick out as homage to the master. It takes a while to play out but Giulio's snooping gets results, learning that Federica had stolen money from her company and is being blackmailed for sex by her boss. Motives seem to abound and he is sure but can't really prove anything. There is a climax and a false climax in this film. Argento trying to be clever turns the classic story a bit on its side by introducing another player to threaten Giulio as he nears figuring out the intrigue. It could wrap up there, killer caught and story over but there is more. The climax is classic Rear Window with his girlfriend Ariana (Christina Brondo) playing the Grace Kelly Role and going across the street to Sasha's apartment while the killer is there. Giulio who has hurt his leg watches helplessly as Jimmy Stewart did in the Hitchcock film.
  All in all I think this film works, it is derivative but tries to add some twist to make the ideas fresh. It is obvious Argento loves the material he references and gives us an entertaining mystery that is not equal to the films it pays tribute to. I think this film is worth a watch. I have recently had a Mandela effect concerning Dario Argento. I have this memory of hearing that he died and being very sad about it. fact is that he is not dead and this can not be a real memory. Whether it came to me in a dream or I am confusingly substituting one person for another in it it is quite unsettling. I would be sad if Dario were to pass away but why I was so sure he had remains a mystery.

Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1977) Horror Demon Dog

Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1977)  A group of Soviet soldiers out looking for treasure blow their way into a tomb in Romania. All the names on the tombs are the family Dracula. These soldiers leave a poor soldier behind to guard the find while they settle in for the night meaning to explore more in the morning. Tremors in the night shake the tomb dislodging caskets from the tombs. In the one the soldier decides to open is something under some sheets that has a large wooden stake through the center of it. Apparently the soldier has never heard stories of vampires and so he does the one thing you should never do. He pulls the stake out to look at it. Unfortunately for him that stake was keeping the vampire dog Zoltan from rising and removing it allows the gray doberman to jump from under his sheets to kill and drink the blood of the stupid soldier.
 Reggie Nalder) say telepathically to the dog. A 'fractional larmia' is the term given to this character basically a Renfield character who will seek out the last remaining Dracula living on earth. In this case Michael who lives in Los Angelas CA. We learn about this because the Major running the operation Maj. Hessel (Arlene Martel) and Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer) have long exposition filled scenes where they explain the plot points. At the end the Inspector is instructed to look up Michael Drake (Michael Pataki) and try to intervene before Smith could turn him into a vampire? Smith and the dog arrive in LA via ship with the dog playing dead (undead) in a shipping container. Since he only becomes active at night, like a vampire Smith can get him past customs by saying the dog is being returned home for burial.

In a dog memory flashback, yes I just said that, we learn that Zoltan was bitten by Dracula in bat form after the dog interrupted the vampires desired feast on a local village lovely. He becomes controlled by Dracula a hound of the living dead. The smart dog then opens the casket of his former master who must have been turned by Dracula and the two leave the tomb to "...find our new Master." as the risen corpse Veidt Smith (
  Michael is a forty something father of two living is a nice a neighborhood, his wife (Jan Shutan), daughter (Libby Chase) and son (John Levin) are getting ready to go on a camping vacation. They decide to bring their two beautiful German Sheppard dogs even though one is still nursing a litter of pups. a big deal was made about Michael bringing his handgun so we can be sure that it will come into play at some point. The ominous music as they pull out followed by a hearse leads to the viewer down the road that things are going to get interesting on this camping trip.
Branco arrives in LA via airplane while they are camping. Very casual in his approach considering Smith and Zoltan took a frigging steam boat.  It must have taken them weeks to sail from Romania to LA. but Branco flies in rents a sweet convertible  and heads out to find the Drake family as if there was no rush at all. He easily could have been there weeks before and prepped Michael about arriving ghoul and vampire dog. It is a slow burn this film. With Smith and the vampire dog looking for an opportunity to get to Michael but along the way having other kills. Zoltan converts some of the dogs to work with him, including the Drakes own shepherds and they start closing in on the Drake family. After a close call where Linda is attacked, Michael and family are ready to go home. Branco finds them as they pack up and explains his connection to the Dracula issue and his family history.  Michael sends his family home while he and Branco stay to confront the pack of dogs. They hold up In the shabbiest of shacks and the night looks dire when the dogs attack. They barely make it through fighting off the dogs with fire. Zoltan though eventually makes his way in, but the sun is rising and it chases him off.
  The climax of this film is Michael against four vampire dogs and even guys arriving with guns can not help him. He must be the one to deal with Zoltan and end the threat. Branco deals with Smith and then arrives just in time to help with the dog pack. Michael though must face off with the titular character but it is a really shitty final confrontation. So disappointing in fact that even the silly see you for the sequel ending can't save this slog of a film. What to take away from this film?  Well some of these actors are great. Maybe not in this role but there is a place in my heart for the work of Jose Ferrer, Both Martel and Shutan appeared on Star Trek, the original series. Still this really is not a very interesting movie. So with really no Dracula and a lame disaster of a plot this is not a recommended film.

Mausoleum (1983) Horror Possession Curse

Mausoleum (1983) What a wonderfully weird little film. This is one of those older films that is not objectively good but that I found entertaining anyway. Don't mistake that to think it is in any way campy fun it is not. It takes itself seriously and executes an uneven strange mix of practical effect and disjointed plot in a way most people will balk at, just not this person. The fact that I can still find old films that I have not seen is amazing to me I have been devouring the horror genre for a good forty plus years. Maybe it is nostalgia for the time period, maybe the ridiculous gratuitous nudity or that really wonderful practical effects, I just enjoyed watching this film.
  It is the story of Susan Walker played as a child in the opening by  Julie Christy Murray in her only film role who at her Mother's funeral runs off and enters the family crypt. Little does she know that there is a curse on the females of her line and by entering the mausoleum she allows herself to be possessed by a demon. glowing green eyes being the main indicator of the possession well that and the bum who happened to be hanging out in the tomb, who after frightening her runs away because she causes his head to burn up from the inside. You think this is a decent opening to the movie and you are going to see this teen  dealing with the possession but no. The film abruptly cuts to Susan as a thirty year old woman now Susan Walker Farrell played by the lovely Bobbie Bresee married to overworked and often traveling Oliver Farrell (Marjoe Gortner). Bresee a former Playboy Bunny made a short career in genre films during the 1980s. She was married to voice and radio actor Brank Bresee who later worked behind the scenes in television and created adult games like Frank Bresee's Pass Out which can still be found today.
  Now why the film waits to tell the story more than a decade after the possession is odd. Maybe the original story written by Katherine Rosenwink was reworked by Robert Madero and Cinematographer Robert Barich to fit the cast they had planned. I don't know this so don't take it as fact. The version of the film I watched was on Amazon Prime with no extras. They explain away the gap in time saying that now that Susan is the same age as her mother at the time of her death that the changes start a happening and the demon comes to the forefront.  This change primarily has three characteristics, glowing green eyes and demon face, a tendency when in the shape of Bobbie Bresee to be scantily clad and an appetite for praying mantis style sex with whatever man happens to be around.
  The protagonist seems to be Susan's long time therapist Dr. Simon Andrews (Norman Burton) who slowly figures out what is going on and executes a plan to save her from the demon before it is too late. These parts drag a bit but we learn of the family history and the curse and how it has killed generations of Walker women. When we get to the long awaited climax it has to do with placing a wreath of leaves on Susan's head which will trap the demon back in the mausoleum. A bit clunky in getting this information to us and an internal struggle for Dr. Andrews to believe this is a solution. Still the anti-climax climax and ending leave the viewer knowing the producers of this film were hoping for a sequel. Directed by Michael Dugan, the film strongly rooted in the male gaze would not even come close to taking the Bechdel-Wallace test never mind passing it. I can't really recommend the film as a work of art but in my viewing enjoyed it for the thing it is.

Revenge (2017) Horror Rape Revenge

Revenge (2017) - The rape revenge genre is a tricky business to get into for a film maker. If the moral presentation is blurred just a little the results are exploitative in such a negative way that it will turn off the critics and audiences. There is a fine line between a dramatic incident to further the plot and cruel voyeurism of a characters plight. There has been a lot written in recent time defending "I Spit on Your Grave"  as a feminist example in the sub genre of rape revenge films. Although there are fine arguments made about it, I still feel the way that the camera lingers on the rape scenes is extremely exploitative. Stark and brutal, pulling no punches, it make the viewer experience the event in a sickening way before the revenge half of the film takes over. I don't feel it is 100% successful in its desire to be feminist in its approach even though it may be trying.
 Writer / Director Carolie Fargeat with cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert and music by Robin Coudert seem to have created a far better narrative in this film. Playing with the roles that the audience is expecting Fargeat teases the audience and then pulls the rug out from them. She works hard to create an impression about who these characters are and then allowing the growth of something new and interesting. Heyvaert makes the desert landscape look beautiful, tight close up for intimacy and wonderful tracking shots that bring the action alive,  add to it the pulsing music by Coudert that enhances the viewing experience and you have a great looking and sounding film. The direction is spot on and the script surprising and well better than most films in this genre.
  Early on we are introduced to two of the four actors that will play this story out. Richard (Kevin Janssens) is a super wealthy married man who has brought his mistress Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) to his desert hunting getaway. Starting his trip a couple day early he will be joined by his hunting pals and Jen will be gone leaving the men to hunt. The introduction of these two is done to show that Jen is a girl happy to be sleeping with this rich guy, the shots of her are Lolita-escque with closeups of her curves and her sucking a lollipop the whole time. He sees her as an object to be desired and she does not deter this, instead she embraces it. She is seductive and flirtatious and in control. It is an interesting game director Fargeat is playing here, presenting something that may lead the viewer to think that Jen is vacuous and not aware of her situation. When Richards hunting friends appear at the house a day early things get more interesting. Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) join the party and Jen is presenting as flirtatious and willing to turn the guys on. It is a leading scene, the viewer is given an impression of the woman almost daring them to think, "she is leading men on",  Stan in particular misreads her flirtation to be something more. The next day Richard is out getting the hunting permits and the toxic masculinity contained in Stan come to the forefront. He decides that he has a claim to Jen since she was seductive the night before and in a really awkward conversation he defines her actions and motive. Disregarding her pleas he rapes her.

  Richard for his part as alpha male can only think to pay her off. Not console her or confront his friend or call the police. Jen is not an equal to him, his approach is to make her go away. She is a toy for him to fuck and discard when he wants. No consequences for Stan, or Dimitri who when he walked in just before the rape walked away knowing what was about to happen because she is not their equal. She is a disposable pretty doll. So when she threatens to tall his wife his action is to hit her and put her in her place, she runs an is cornered by the three on a cliff edge you can guess what happens next.
  When the men go to deal with the body and find it gone, they still in their confidence think a simple hunt and the problem will be solved. This is where things get turned upside down. There is more to Jen than anyone has seen thus far. She is a survivor and manages to save herself from impalement and turns the table on the hunters. It is a rape / revenge movie after all so the sinners must be punished. The film is surprising in its incredible visceral gore effects, each injuries is a bloody mess and each bloody mess effects the character injured. The film oozes with blood in an almost fantastical way. This combine with a soundscape dripping, oozing, and gushing with fluid sounds and the film really is something to experience.
  The middle of the film in particular where Jen in a peyote induced trip is removing and cauterizing her the branch she was impaled on is remarkable. She eventually passes out and wakes transformed, a phoenix rising from the ashes ready to do battle with the men who mistreated her. As the hunting for the men goes wrong we are witness to a really great game of cat and mouse but this mouse has sharp teeth. Each man demise is to be reveled in with long takes and smart editing the pacing is just right. The climax is worth every minute of viewing time and as this genre will do gives us the revenge of the title. Not going too into the details is important as each and every one of you should take the time to watch this film. 

Terror Train (1980) Horror Slasher

Terror Train (1980) - Jamie Lee Curtis was quickly making a name for herself in the horror genre, 1978's Halloween really put her on the path. Coming into this film just two years later she had already appeared in The Fog (1980)  released in February and Prom Night (1980) release in July. She was everywhere and stardom was already in the cards for her. This third film in a year may be the lesser of the three, a classic revenge slasher where we know who the killer is all the way through even if we can't identify him at times.
 Derek McKinnon) three years earlier. Setting him up with the idea he was going to have sex with Alana (Jamie Lee Curtis) they lead the young man up to a frat house bedroom, except the switch is on and Jamie Lee is hiding whispering to Kenny to come kiss her. While Kenny moves to the cadaver prop up in the bed in the darkened room. When he kisses her and flips out while the six schemers bust in laughing, and Jamie feels guilt for her role in it. Kenny becomes unstable leaving school and spending time in a mental institute. So now out he has a plan to get back at this group of mean people.
A group of seniors plan there last college party before the leave pre-med and head off to medical school. It is a costume theme party. Naturally the costumes will work well in hiding the killer and the theme, a steam train excursion puts the group in an isolated location far from outside help. But why is there a killer you ask? Well this particular group of seniors played a very nasty trick on Kenny (

  This film is not so great as far a pacing or creativity in kills, It trudges along with the characters trading places in the train cars enough to hide where the killer is and what costume he is wearing. Early in the film he kills Ed (Howard Busgang) with a sword, but where Ed is a jokester everyone thinks he is kidding. So the killer starts by wearing Ed's Groucho Marx outfit and mask. once on the train it is a bit of a slog. We have a bunch of scenes with David Copperfield being pissy about having to do the performance. His assistant trying to please him is around through the film. When Kenny, now the Groucho killer hooks up with Mitchy (Sandee Currie) we get teased into thinking she is next but No Jackson comes by and suddenly the killer has a higher priority.. The killing starts but it also sputters. The film is ways back and forth when it comes to getting down to killing. Eventually though the six are hunted down one at a time. Jackson (Anthony Sherwood) killed in a bathroom face through a mirror. Mitchy seduces who she thinks is Jackson and is choked out in a sleeping birth. Mo (Timothy Webber) is poisoned and dies next to the prankster Doc (Hart Bochner). He in turn dies thinking the hand on his shoulder is Mitchy trying to console him but instead is beheaded by the killer.

  While the kills are slow and mostly shot off screen, the drama is not and it is all about  Alana and the train Conductor Carne (Ben Johnson) trying to keep everyone left on the train safe. At one point we learn from a yearbook that Kenny was really into magic. The idea that the magician is the killer gets in there heads and they work the crowd trying to isolate him in a locked session of the train. Several attempts are made against Alana as this drama unfolds and she narrowly like the final girl she is just gets away a bit bloodied but alive. When finally cornered and having to confront the killer, we get a twist that I won't reveal here. It is pretty good though and the final battle between Kenny and Alana although short is final.  The acting was fine for the most part, Ben Johnson was great as the conductor. I think the execution of the train and the on the nose writing were the bigger problems.

  My closing thoughts on this film is that it is sort of a not so well executed slasher. I don't hate it but I doubt I will revisit it anytime soon. I just found it too clunky with the on the nose revenge plot and a twist that was not that big, it all just fell flat for me. You can't like everything so I guess this is one of those. Certainly you could be driven as a complete-ist to want to see every slasher ever make and this is probably not the worst of them so have at it if that is you. No recommendation from me.

The Lure (2015) - Musical Horror Myth

The Lure (2015) - Loosely based on the Hans Christain Andersen story "The Little Mermaid" but with wonderful horror moments and songs! That story is where the mermaid falls in love with a human and wants to become a real girl. She trades her beautiful singing voice to get legs to be with her prince. When the prince then is betrothed to another for political reasons the little mermaid is lost, can not return to the sea and can not be with the man she loves. The mermaid's sister trades her hair for a knife that she must use to kill the prince before dawn on his wedding day, breaking the spell and allowing the little mermaid to return to the ocean. In that story like this the plan does not come out as expected. This film is a tale of two mermaid sisters, Golden (Michalina Olszanska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) who join a trio of musicians and try to make a go of it in the human world. Silver falls in love with Mietek (Jakub Gierszal) a curly haired blonde bass player she hears singing on a beach. She and her sister sing in return to get Mietek and Perkusista (Andrzej Konopka), the bands drummer to call them from the ocean. This allows the women to transform into somewhat human form and join the band. The film follows the girls and band as Silver attempts to get Mietek to return her love. This includes Silver attempting to become more human for him and ultimately having to make a decision about the relationship that breaks the heart. Golden has her own path in the world of humans, she is not like her sister and sees humans not as love objects and more as food. Her navigating of the world has its own weirdness and twists that make her story the more interesting of the two.
  One great thing about this film is the world building. In this world the mermaids are just something that exists. So when the girls join the band the club manager ( Zygmunt Malanowicz) is shown the girls transformed so their long fish tails can be seen. He just accepts this and allows them to sing in his club. There is no disbelief, mermaids are there and the magic is mundane in this world. Already the world is one where clubs are for older people where they go to see bands do disco era covers and dance and drink. It is a fantasy and as such anything is possible. That magic includes siren like voices, and apparent pheromones that are toxic when humans withdraw from them. At least that is what I take from the scene where the band members get sick after the mermaids leave for a while.
  Another really winning point is the contrast between the mermaid sisters. Silver is the lighter haired sweet girl looking for love. Not that she gets what she wants, she works hard to try to seduce Meitek. He is pretty clear that he sees her as an animal and can't love her. There is a magic that the girls have that holds influence over the humans around them but it is not quite enough to give Silver the success she wants. That in turn drives her to more drastic measures to become human for Meitek. Golden sees Silver in her obsession and is not thrilled. At first it seems like jealousy, but as the story progresses it seems she sees the tragedy coming for her sister. Golden is in the film to contrast Silver in she recognizes that the mermaids are not meant for the human world. They are predators and although they can play the part for a while in the end their natural impulses must win out. She is experimenting with the human world but she is not part of it. Golden needs to feed and that in turn leads to a very strange interaction with a female cop who suspect her of eating a guy in a car, but then uses the information to have sex with golden in mermaid form. She is the dark half of the mermaid nature and all her warning can not save her sister from heading down the road to ruin. The message must be that being ad remembering what you are is the safe path while trying to become something you are not is dangerous.

  The musical aspect of this film was so strange that it ended up being completely magical. From the opening tune in the club with the groups lead singer Wokalistka Krysia (Kinga Preis) singing "I Feel Love" a Donna Summer song from 1977 to the more traditional singing their feelings and plot this element works. On a personal note I really dislike musicals, I mean I remember being exposed through film as a child to them. Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, I sang in choir doing Jesus Christ Superstar in middle school, and have seen plays as a young adult A Chorus Line and Rent. I don't really enjoy them too much with the possible exception of The Rocky Horror Picture Show but I can tell if the musical elements are working or not. In this film I don't think the music is a classic representation but I think it works within the world of the film. I don't imagine I would ever seek out a soundtrack for The Lure but it was okay in watching it.

  Enchanted by this film as a fantastical piece of art, I recognize it may just be not for everyone so use caution going into this that it does not fit into categories well. There are some really nice horror elements to the film that I wish were longer. The mermaids at feeding could have been more frightening but what is shown works. The exploration of sexuality (bestiality?) was interesting also but again it was limited to a couple scenes and could have been more. Still I come away from this film liking what it did and recommend a viewing to all of you. It is a strange journey but I think one that is rewarding.

My World Dies Screaming (1958) Psychological Horror

My World Dies Screaming (1958) - aka "Terror in the Haunted House".  This is a pulp horror film that used the gimmick of Psychorama to pull in audiences. This subliminal image flashing was thought up in the advertising world and this is the first time it was used in a film.  It is pretty silly single framed cartoon images of a devil, or a googly eyed man etc. that is suppose to subliminally create an emotion in the viewer.
The film is told through the point of view of Sheila Wayne (Cathy O'Donnell) a young woman who after some childhood trauma has lived in Switzerland into what is now her twenties, well there was that two year stint in an insane asylum but after that Europe is where she called home. Having met an American Philip Wayne (Gerald Mohr) and quickly fell in love and married. It opens in a voice over as Sheila tells us about a house in her dreams that terrifies her. She describes it in detail and how she enters and makes her way to the attic, then we see the character for the first time coming out of her telling screaming that this is where she knows she will die. She is in a psychiatrist office and he psycho babbles her about what the dream represents. We learn that her husband Philip is going to take her back to America and that this may be making her dream come back.
Written by Robert C. Dennis and Director Harold Daniels who both worked mostly television do a nice job of create doubt about  Philip Wayne. They make him a suspicious character, about 10 years older than Sheila and a bit domineering. You are led to believe that maybe there is some secret he is hiding. Sheila catches onto inconsistencies in his behavior but he always has some excuse to explain his behavior away. Later we learn just that.
   When they return to the States, Philip takes Sheila to a house in Florida to rest, but unfortunately it is exactly the house in her dreams. She does not want to stay but she is a character with little agency and Philip sort of brow beats her into entering. Then makes the excuse that the car won't start making her stay the night. They are not welcomed by the old caretaker of the house. A simpleton named Jonah (John Qualen)who tries in vain to chase them off. Scary times for Sheila who begins remembering more about the house in her dreams.
  When the house owner hears of the couple staying in his place he arrives to confront them. Philip remarkably knows the owner, Mark Snell (William Ching) and there are major revelation of who Snell, Philip and Sheila really are and what their relationship is. It is a convoluted story of madness, love and murder as well as a bit of inheritance swiping. When all is said and done Sheila's memory comes back to remember one horrible night where the lives of all the main characters were changed.
  This is not a great movie, it rolls from suspenseful mystery to weird family drama on a dime, leaving the viewer to wonder why the quick turn. The need of the characters to explain the plot instead of showing us reflects the low budget nature of this production. Still the acting by Cathy O'Donnell is solid even if the characterization of her as a fragile oppress woman does not hold up in these more feminist times. Mohr plays his part with the proper suspicious overacting so we can't miss the cues to the fact he is hiding something. Ching is stiff and not quite up to par with the other two. Even with all this said I have to say I sort of liked this film, it is a short little story that comes around in the second half to be more than it started out as. Available free on YouTube this may be a waste a bit of time on.

Veronica (2017) Horror Possession Ouija

Veronica (2017) - Director Paco Plaza made a big splash in 2007 with the film [Rec] it really hit big. Its tight quarters and excellent use of the found footage technique made it a favorite in the horror community. He followed it with some would contest an even better sequel [Rec] 2 (2009) which really established him as a creator to watch for. Even though the third in the series [Rec] 3 : Genesis (2012) was accepted with less enthusiasm Plaza was on the radar of many a horror fan. Veronica is the first feature since and I have to say when my daughter sent me a link to the trailer I was excited to see it. Now with the film streaming on Netflix I am more than happy to watch it and write down a few thoughts. It is impossible for me not to spoil movies in some way. In this case Plaza is a really good director and so I want to write about the shot choices he makes. Sometimes this adds way too much story context to the review so be warned SPOILERS may abound.
 Ouija: Origins of Evil (2016) what will the market be for another film based around that game just a year later? Chances are that work on Veronica started well before "Ouija" was released but as is often the case similar subjects in film often pop up around the same time. This sometimes make for unfair comparisons which is something I will avoid here, but can hurt the popularity of the later film. Or if the first film bombs that fact turning viewers off from seeing that subject mater again so soon. There is a flip side that someone wants more also but it's hard not to make comparisons. I promise to speak no more of that other film.
There is a risk this film may be finding an audience that appreciates its subtlety. With the success of
  This is a film with starts with a mystery, a call to the police where the person on the phone is frantic about someone being in her house. We see the police heading to the apartment building while listening to the frightened person on the phone. They arrive and find there way inside, dark halls greet them as they make there way into the apartment flashlights and guns in hand. A cross on the floor is rehung by the detective. They enter a room and all we get is some strange squishy sounds a shot of the horrified faces of the police. It's a decent start that shows us nothing of whats to come but indicates that it won't be nice. I better see what the cops see by the end of the movie or I will be disappointed.
  We cut to three days earlier we see Veronica (Sandra Escacena) getting up to start the morning routine. She is maybe 14. She wakes her three young siblings, Lucia (Bruna González), Irene (Claudia Placer) and Antonito (Iván Chavero) and gets them ready for school. She makes a point to keep them quiet while her mother who works late hours sleeps. Before leaving the house she picks up and resets the crucifix that has come off the wall, letting us all know that this is the apartment the police entered in the opening. Off to school a caring older sister with too much responsibility. Veronica is a 14 year old thrown into a caregiver role after her Father's death. Her Mother now runs the family pub by herself and is stretched to thin to take care of her children besides earning the money needed by the family. It is also a driving force for the plot that brings the scares. She misses her Dad and it motivates her to bring in a Ouija board and to study how to talk to the dead with it. This simple need the girl has escalates into the crisis that is the plot of the film.

  At School the subject matter is the coming eclipse and how the ancient peoples of the world believed they were evil and would often do human sacrifice when one occurred to appease their Gods. A significant setup for Veronica who has her Ouija board so she and her friends, Diana (Carla Campra) and Rosa (Ánglela Fabián) can play at it while everyone in the school is on the roof looking at the eclipse. The three girls head to the basement to talk to her father through it. We cut between the two scenes, the school on the roof watching the eclipse and the girls using the board in the basement. It is just wonderfully creepy when the other two girls need to take their hands off the glass because it grew too hot, while Veronica does not feel the heat of it at all. She is the chosen and it happened at the evil time of the solar eclipse. The girls get scared and supernaturally things happen that let us know spirits are about. It goes sort of wrong with Veronica the focus so much so the other girls are scared. The editing between the roof and the girls is great and with the earlier classroom talk make a really firm connection between the eclipse and the girl's experience. The foreshadowing with the blind nun is well done also, Plaza sets things up by showing us without having to tell us and as viewers we should appreciate that.
  Veronica now has to deal with what she encountered. There is quite a bit of Christian religious symbolism here with crucifixes , nuns and the such that add the the eerie feel of the setup. Plaza has some nice shots from over head or from low looking up at the schools blind nun who one of the kids calls "Sister Death" (who is good for some exposition later on) and we know from the previous scenes that something supernatural did happen to Veronica, so we are ready for the slow revealing of the consequences of what the three girls did. Is this a possession? Strange things start happening and Veronica knows they are. The Ouija board moving from it's hiding place, her incident with the television, the marks on her shoulder all point towards something coming for her. It is when her little brother gets burned by bath water that we see that she is not the only one at risk.
The script does a really good job reminding us that she is a kid herself. Her older friends Diana and Rosa are ostracizing her having been freaked out by the  Ouija session. Still Veronica even though she is younger confronts this. She can make it up by going to a party Diana is throwing. She can get back into this click. Unfortunately the realty that she cares for her siblings is never far from sight.  From dealing with complaints from the lady downstairs to getting the kids clothed and fed each day she is the adult. Instead of support from a peer group she is left to try to figure out her situation on her own. When the things she try don't work she realizes that the threat is really not just for her but for the whole family. An incident leads to a chance to get help from her Mother but that help is not there for her either. She is isolated and will have to deal with this herself.

  It's an interesting thing that all the decisions she makes as the adult in the family seem so right. She loves her siblings and shows it to them throughout the film. It is the decision she made as her 14 year old girl self that has the real negative consequences. Then when she believes that the spirit, the consequence of her actions is real her Mother is incredulous believing she is acting like a child, and expresses she needs her to be the reliable adult. Netflix is selling this film as one of the scariest of all time and that certainly is not fair. Good horror is not necessarily the scariest. In fact the best horror allows the viewer to care about the characters making real for the viewer the horror the characters are experiencing. This film does that we are voyeur of the family and we care about the kids and Veronica as people. So when Veronica has her really disturbing dreams they are not just frightening to her but we are frightened for her.  They second dream coming after the talk with her mother and being the on the cusp of her first period plays well into the real family drama that we are experiencing through her. ( A side note the camera shot of her laying in bed and the getting up is really well done.) She realizes that the children she cares for are at risk and instead of relying on adults she seeks the answers she needs to end the haunting. Again the blind nun is used for exposition and it leads Veronica to the place where she has to fix her mistake in the Ouija ritual, fixing a child's mistake to solve the problem of the spirit following her and allow her to continue to be the adult.
  Can she do it alone and without her school friends who are over the incident and do not want to revisit it. A telling information is shared by Rosa about what Veronica whispered when she was under the influence of the Ouija board. She is spiraling as we head to the climax, with no help from friends or family and the dread that comes with knowing what she whispered, torn by her mother's inability to notice her stress enough to intercede. She ends up alone with her siblings trying to fix her mistake but with her little sisters and brother in the know. The climax has important little details so pay attention.
  Knowing the opening scene we have a general idea how things go. The climax has a mix of setup, the kids and Veronica setting up another session with the Ouija board. Kids don't make good stand ins and this as we say in the horror world is where go horribly wrong. The climax is wonderfully seeded and it is so dread filled for those poor little kids, Veronica included. Some great shots by Plaza as he builds the anticipation of the shit hitting the fan. This one strikes particularly close to home for me because as a child I was in a few terrifying situations and understand the mania a group of children can have at a time of crisis. As the final scenes unfold we are reminded about the connection between the coming of adolescence and mental instability. Like in the film The Witch (2015) we see a young woman hitting puberty and the effects of the events on her life in the most horrifying way. Still The structure is set in the beginning where we know this is seen by the police, but in the moment it is about a spirit not leaving Veronica and we were promised a final shot.  The lead up  to the final scene the one promised in the beginning is some really fine work by the director and cinematographer using mirror projections very effectively.

  I really loved this film. The family characters, the dynamic of the teen and the supernatural were so well meshed that it hit all the rights spots as far as depth of character within a story. You cared for Veronica and her siblings and even though the outcome was not the happiest. Set in 1991 I appreciate the music when Veronica was listening to her head phones, Heroes del silencio, I think. Camera work was exceptional with interesting shots that added to the mood of the film. I am not sure we needed the true story aspect of the film with the police bookends but it was not too intrusive. I hope there is no backlash over being called the "scariest film of the year". What it is is a wonderfully executed horror drama where you can care about the characters. Plaza and cinematographer Pablo Rosso for the great look and movement of this film. It is very good and should be seen by as many people as possible.

  

The Ritual (2017) Horror Myth

The Ritual (2017) - THIS IS QUITE SPOILERY SO DON"T BOTHER UNTIL YOU SEE THIS FINE FILM! This film had a fair amount of Twitter hype, people I follow at least, seem to rate it highly so I must be following the right people. Director David Bruckner has done some notable things in the horror genre, The Signal (2007), V/H/S/ (2012) and Southbound (2015) as well as being the writer of Siren (2016). The films easy availability on Netflix made it was a no-brainer that it would be my first film of the year, in what has been this very neglected blog.
 At its heart it is a very male story about masculinity and the struggle with fear in dangerous situations. It's about how men have to confront those fears and the costs to our ego and relationship when we do or don't. Centered in the relationships of four men we get a good dose of how men interact when there is an incident that changes their lives. On a smaller scale we journey with Luke (Rafe Spall) as he confronts the guilt of not being brave when he possibly needed to be.
  The setup is quick but a real powerhouse scene, the writer (Joe Barton) get's it right out there in the first few pages. That is how you get a script read have an early banging scene. Five friends are talking about a hiking trip to Sweden for their annual men's trip. Before that can happen one of the mates Robert (Paul Reid) dies in a tragic way leaving the other four to carry through with the hike in memorial. It is the kind of setup to give just enough character information to get us into the lives of these men. Also very clever making the scene Luke's dream which allows the viewer to join the hike in progress with enough development to get into the main story.

  None of the men are experienced hikers and so when something goes wrong the decision making goes a bit skewed towards poor. Being someone who has hiked for over thirty years and has lead dozens of groups of backpackers I can tell you I totally anticipated the bad decision making. I was resolved to the fact it was going to happen to drive the plot along. Bad Hiking Decision #1: Dom (Sam Troughton) twists a knee, okay, if he can not walk on it you give food and water to last the number of days it will takes to get help. Then two hike out on the known route, leaving one guy behind to keep the hurt companion company. If the guy can walk some he can continue forward with his companion while the other two travel the established route at a faster pace to get help.What you don't do is go off trail into a forest thinking you are going to save time and get help sooner. What do you think happens in this film? Sure enough they whip out a compass and attempt to more all four people through the forest. That is really the setup then as in all horror films, things go horribly wrong.
 The music changes we get shots of the forest dark and deep and the hikers wishing the trip was over as they make there way through the woods. A bear strung up and gutted in the forest is the first sign that these guys are not alone and that there are things more dangerous afoot. Bad Hiking Decision #2: As the light fades they trudge on making another horrible mistake traveling through the night. Not that you can't navigate in the dark with a compass and map but beginners should really tent up for the night. Finding a cabin in the woods all boarded up and they break in. In exploring the house Hutch (Robert James-Collier) find what looks like an effigy of a straw man with antler hands and hooves. That is ominous to say the least. Luke hears sounds in the forest or is this just his guilt talking to him? Now he could be psychologically damaged from the incident that lead to Roberts death, when he hid behind store shelves instead of taking some kind of action. Director Bruckner does a nice job with the repeated dream sequences where Luke ends up back in the store. They happen through out the film and the way the current forest blends in to the store more and more as the plot progresses was nicely done. They discuss the possible origins of the figure and what other strange beliefs the Swedes might have. Bad Hiking Decision 3: The hiking decision that put them in this situation is questioned, leaving the trail that is. It still possible for the group to start backtracking to the original path but this idea discarded for heading on a course that can not be predicted. The people pushing this ill fated course of action rationalize now how it was the best choice. It is so necessary for the plot but so damn frustrating for me.
  A night in a creepy cabin means that we have another dream for Luke. When he wakes to a light outside the cabin, its blinding but no one else wakes, he opens the door to be back in the liqueur store. As we see he has not worked through those feelings we know at least it is a dream. He wakes to find himself in daylight outside the cabin with cuts on his chest in a circular pattern. Did something run away as he woke. Hutch is screaming with a nightmare inside the cabin. He pissed himself it was so scary. Dom also having a nightmare and Luke wakes him.  Upstairs Phil (Arsher Ali) is by the effigy asleep and praying to it, really out of sorts. This is tight tense and really brings the dread of the story to a whole new level. All four men are really shaken, and when they step outside ready to leave, they see runes carved in the trees around the house and the smart choice at this point would be top go back the way they came and get on the original trail. Bad Hiking Decision 4: This is squashed by the frustrated Dom who sees the path that leads to the cabin and insists they follow it since it must come from somewhere where there are people. Let's just follow some random path that does not even go in the correct direction? Really? Already they should have arrived the village they saw from the original path but because of weather they can blame it for not reaching it yet.
  They begin rationalizes the experience in the cabin as they walked, but you know Hutch really doesn't want to talk about since he pissed himself. Dom says his knee hurts too bad and then sort of quits on them. They are traveling the wrong direction for hours because of his rage decision and now he has had enough. Luke heads up the ridge hoping to see something but is frustrated by the density of the forest. He hears something up there and maybe we see a real like version of the effigy and of course when he gets back to his mates they did not hear or see anything. So some are skeptical of his story. He shows them his circular pattern cuts on his chest and then Don cuts him down as not trustworthy while still railing against their situation. Some of the feelings about his past cowardliness now comes out between them. Rob would be dead if he had stood up, thrown a bottle or something. These feeling pent up and  now the group is falling apart. Hutch can't really back up Luke he prefers they don't confront it. The script here could have given us a bit more earlier on to define the Hutch and Phil characters a bit more distinctly. Maybe it is just that Phil is not particularly well drawn?
  We get some possible dubious history about hiking through these woods. They find a tent with belongings from a family, the credit card in the wallet is from from 1984 as seen on the. Rationalization for Bad Hiking Decision 4: We registered with the lodge. They are going to see that we did not turn up and a rescue party will be sent. Well all well and good but you left not only thee original path but change direction part way from your shortcut and now are wandering a path from the cabin and finding the remains of families that disappeared her decades before.This is the half way point in the film. Hutch, spooked enough decides to give Luke the compass in the morning and send him southwest (the original shortcut route) The night is dark and filled with terrors. Luke awake in his tent hears sounds of heavy breathing and snapping branches and then unzipping and looking out he see the liqueur stop seen that breaks into the creature in the woods. The shift really happens here where it goes from maybe Luke is imagining to being a full blown crisis. Luke wakes from his dream and finds Phil screaming about shadows, Hutch's tent is ripped open and the small amount of blood is all that is left of their friend. All had dreams again and not the three remaining men hear Hutch yell from the midnight dark forest. Bad Hiking Decision 5: They hear the sounds of the creature but go after him anyway. They are worried about getting lost in the dark but it is a crisis and often that leads to impulsive decision making. When morning breaks they have not found the tents or Hutch. Don't wander off into the woods at night.
 They find Hutch in a tree like the bear with his guts ripped open. Luke keeps himself in together enough to get the compass and knife from the body. But these guys are screwed no gear and no shelter. Phil is loosing his mind a bit and they are now all accepting that they are in deep shit. Footprints in the sand by a stream and now there are people to contend with. They choose to go a different way up the hill which is much harder for Don. There is this great visual of the creature moving in the background without them seeing it. Really nicely done. Phil can't get the thought of the thing from his head. It is dire straights and the worse is yet to come. When the creature takes Phil and then there were two. The story is written so much from Luke's point of view you know he will be the last man standing. Dom though got some decent development so you have hope he will also make it.
  Dom and Luke are left and as they flee the creature they come to light from a village. Pursued they rush to a cabin and are met with villagers that knock them unconscious. Dom is sacrificed to the god and since Luke is the on with the circular cut marks on his chest he is not. Luke is left the sole survivor still a captive of the village folk. When one comes to feed him, the one who speaks English explains that they worship it. It is a God born from Loki and wishes all to bow to it. It keeps them in the forest but there is no more pain and no more death, eternal life in return for sacrifices. Your Ritual begins tonight you will kneel before the god she says. So he will be the one to join the group? He is left with this and he attempts his escape, to be brave, overcome his fear. The upstairs room is a roomful of old dried corpses, that are animated enough to make the raspy screaming sounds he has been hearing. He burns the room and goes for the guns he saw then all hell breaks loose.
The villagers kneel to the god but Luke has upset the order of things. Shit gets real as he makes his way out, sees the God and gets scared and runs. He pisses it off by shooting it and flees to the woods. One last delusion of the liqueur store. It knocks him over. He is grabbed by it and then it drops him into a bowed position. When he tries to rise it pushes him back down. He tries again defying the God and slashing it with an ax. He makes another run for it. Into a field outside the woods. It stops at the boundary and he screams at it roaring like it roared at him.The sun comes up as he walks back up a field seeing a road off in the distance.
  I really enjoyed this film even with the absolutely horrible backpacking decisions these characters made. (Have to drive plot I suppose.) Some of the characterization could have been deeper but they all served a purpose. I thought Hutch and Phil sort of were a bit underdeveloped could have been interchangable, while Dom was one toned. In the end it all works since it is Luke's story. I am not sure Luke ever really got brave but I think he made some progress. Now of course there are no more friends left to look down on him for being a coward. I suppose he will think he got past it but three more finds losses to deal with. I don't know if he will make it. His back was truly against the wall in the village. Let's pretend for a second that all four friends are in the village. If Luke got a chance to cut and run do you think he would?  I lean maybe. The film was honest though about how men treat loss and feeling they may have about it towards others. On the Monster movie side I think Bruckner pull it off really well. I enjoyed the early teasing of the monster and I think the design really worked when it was finally shown in full. It is not easy to do this and I think it was done well here. Check this one out on Netflix right now.

Carnival of Souls (1962) Horror Ghost

Carnival of Souls (1962) - Well not much has been happening with this blog. The business of my work is overwhelming the time I have for it. It's a shame because every now and again I have the time to watch a horror film and would like to talk about it. I decided to watch one of my favorite small low budget horror movies for the first entry of the year. I got the Criterian Collectoin Blu-Ray for Christmas so a nice version I was guaranteed. Carnival of Souls was made by Herk Harvey for a mere $33,000 and with the incredibly eerie organ score by Gene Moore the film builds a wonderfully creepy mood. Written by John Clifford this tightly well constructed story stars Candice Hilligoss as Mary a passenger in a car accident who miraculously survives being submerged in a river for three hours it is a meditation of life and death. She lives in a purgatory unannounced to the audience upon first viewing and the surprise ending is just a great turn. Emerging covered in mud she is a miracle but the story only lingers on that. She quickly recovers and heads to Utah where she has been hired as an organist at a church. She finds herself drawn to an old carnival pavilion she passes on the way. After taking a room she begins to have hallucinatory experience and seeing ghoulish faces, ever more drawn to the carnival. When all is said and done the twist occurs and we see that she has been living in a kind of purgatory being ever drawn back to death.
   Since this film is so old and such a cult classic most horror aficionados already know the twist and gist of the film. So I will NOT do a spoiler free review here.  In fact the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray  has a wonderful essay on the film by Keir-La Janisse the author of "House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films" If you buy and read that you can certainly skip my novice retelling of the plot. The essay included in the Blu-ray is excellent and far superior to anything I will do here. Instead lets look at the larger themes in it and how they relate to the plot. It supposes that there is a space between life and death. Mary crawls from a river after the car crashed three hours before with no explanation of how she survived in the fast running muddy river. She also crawls out right at the sight of the crash and not downstream as one would imagine. She is seen by the gathered crowd on the bridge and is touched by the officer putting a coat on her shoulder. This implies she is solid in form and not a ghost. She does not remember how she survived and little time is spent with anyone who can explain it.. She is sort of reborn from the river, she has a second chance at life. The next time we see her she is visiting the sight of the crash looking and reflecting on what has happened. This before starting a new life far away. The audience stays with Mary not hearing from anyone else bout what happened. We don't know if she is seen as a miracle or not. We don't see the grieving families of the other girls in the car crash.
  A small scene where we see her play the organ is interesting in that it sort of establishes her as not particularly religious. When the man (Tom McGinnis) who got her the gig in Utah asks her about it, she says that "It's just a job, that she is not becoming part of the church but instead is just playing music. When he asks if she is going to visit her parents before leaving she tightens up and says not she is just going to "drive straight through". Maybe again enforcing her rebirth into a different life. Does the possibility she is less religious indicate that she could not pass on the afterlife? The organ factory boss says she should put her soul into this new job. Does this also play to that theme? She states emphatically that she is never coming back and has to once again travel over the same bridge before getting to Utah.
  Once in the state she can only get eerie organ music on the radio and then she sees the pavilion, and then the face of a man in the passenger side window. This is a passage from her former life into a new realm. I love that Mary is not the easiest person to get along with. After the awkward conversation with the boss of the organ factory she has an equally off beat interaction with her new landlady in the Utah boarding house. After an awkward silence when seeing the room she is less than polite with her comment that the room is certainly what she expected, instead of saying it was nice like a polite person would do. Then again when the Minister (Art Ellison) at the church asks her if she would like to have a welcoming reception with the congregation, she says "Couldn't we just skip that." She is uncomfortable around people. It could be that she is just an anxious person but it could also be that she is not quite able to connect with the living?
  The strange encounters build while she is trying to settle in as the organist for the church. She and the Minister has another prescient interaction with the minister when he takes her to the abandoned pavilion. There is a barrier fence falling down to keep people out but Mary wants very much to go out into the place.The minister explains it isn't safe, but she ask him  "Could you take me out there." he says no because you know laws about trespassing but she says she would very much like to go out to the place. She keeps seeing that strange man with the white pastie face and is disturbed by it.  Also bothered by the other roomer in the house, a fast talking somewhat aggressive warehouse worker. Her wants to see more of her but she only consents when the strangeness of the town and her weird experiences make her too scared to be alone. Awkward with the living but seemingly drawn to the dead her life gets stranger and stranger.
She gets scared after having audio (or lack of) hallucinations where she can not hear anything except her own voice. She tries to interact with people around her but they do not see or hear her. Mary is beginning to cross over out of this world with each experience being more intense than the one before it. This latest one gets her some help from a local doctor (Stan Levitt) who sees her scared in the park. As they talk through her recent traumas he suggest she is having guilt of being the sole survivor of the car crash. She expresses how she does not need the company of others (the living) and resolves that her seeing the pastie face man is her imagination that she is going to face her fear by going out to the pavilion. She does it and it seems to calm her seeing that it is an abandoned park. Sure a couple thing happen to startle her but the big thing is something the audience sees that Mary doesn't. The pastie faced man laying in a pool of water.
  Where this could be a turning point for the better it really isn't. Mary afraid of the night coming agrees to have a date with the slimy roomer John Lindon (Sidney Berger). From the beginning he has been presented an a sleaze obviously looking to get her dress off. Played a bit over the top he is a lower class guy just looking to get with a woman normally out of his reach. Mary has an awful night, at organ practice at the church she is possessed by (?) the spirit of the dead and plays the strange creepy organ music that we have heard throughout the film.While in this playing trance she sees the abandoned park and the dead rising to dance in the dance hall, around and around at unnatural speed to her playing. Only coming out of it as the pastie faced man come towards he hand reaching for her. Interrupted by the Minister she is fired on the spot for playing blasphemous music. After a horrible date with all hand John where she again sees the pastie faced man Mary chases off John and has a frantic night barricading herself in her room, she decides to leave town.
  Of course she is inevitably going to be drawn back to that pavilion and the pastie faced people that inhabit the place. After another hallucination while waiting in her car for a mechanic she is impelled to go back to the but this time as the sun sets. Daylight has been her refuge and now her fate will be met in the dark. Seeing the dead rise once more to dance in the ballroom. She now is one of them in the dance and as dead as they are. We learn the woman vanished into this air, the doctor and the police wondering out loud what could have happened.
  Back in Kansas they have finally found the car, with surprise all three girls dead inside of it. Closing poor Mary's time in purgatory and ending the film. I love this film even with all its pushy men roles, the lecherous John Lindon in the rooming house, the pushy Minister who wants to save Mary's soul, and the boss at the organ factory, none really recognizes her as a person with her own drives but instead try to influence her into their ideas about what is good for her. She is a complex character played well by Hilligoss. A character that is disconnected to those around her and most probably still in shock from her trauma but one with a mind of her own. As someone who gets tired of religion infiltrating everything in our world it is refreshing to see a film where the main character limits that effect in her thinking. I still marvel that this script was written in just a month and produced for so little money and I am truly glad it exists.