31 Days of Halloween 2018

The House of the Devil (2009) -  Friday afternoon I headed to Salem MA to see the two movies that are the entries for these days. Salem Massachusetts, The Halloween capital of the world has a wonderful Salem Horrorfest most of the month of October. I purchases tickets to see the Original Suspiria on the big screen as well as this film and the podcast to follow it. I am going to use the Susperia film as my entry for the 13th even though I saw them both on the same night, Am I cheating? At the time of it's release it was a delightful surprise from writer director Ti West. The throwback to a period when horror movies built up to an overpowering dread is captured in this well done little film. The story is simple, in the 1980's a young college women, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) has a need to earn some cash quickly. She calls for a sitter job at a house in the country that will solve her financial problems. Things are not quite how she envisioned them when she and her friend Megan arrive to meet the couple, Mr and Mrs Ulman (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) they are strange but not too scary. Instead of sitting for kids she will be minding the house with the old mother upstairs. Now we know she should bail here but the money. She need $300 on Monday for the apartment that will take her out of her dorm room and away from the messy and very inconsiderate room mate. She negotiates a price of $400 making the job more than she can pass up.  Megan (Greta Gerwig) is a smart and good friend.She senses the problem with the couple and is great at pointing out that they lied to Sam. she pleads with her friend to leave the job. Sam though sends her friend home until the end of the job and settles in for a night. What West does so well is create dread for the audience even though the character is unsuspecting of the danger she is in. Megan never arrives home and we see her fate and know from that point on that Sam is in deep trouble. This is only the end of the first act  Samantha is a bit creeped out by the house, it builds and the reveals are well done to keep the tension growing. When she hears a noise upstairs and listens outside a bedroom door, all is quiet for her but the reveal of the interior of the room is terrifying. The stakes for the audience are being raised but the main character is still none the wiser.  When the finale arrives the action is quick and well done. Sam is a fighter and manages fend off attackers at every turn. The ending is unexpected but follows the movie title well. Being a teenager in the 80s I had a real appreciation for the feel of the movie and the slow burn it is. The newer flash and cut method of film making sometimes gets on my nerves but West doesn't do that he brings us along on Samantha's ride without trying to shock us every two seconds. Donahue has to carry the film and does a great job of it. She is a 19 yr old character when she has to be and a fighter when that is needed, not that you can't be both. The McGuffin of the eclipse works well and Samantha realizes its significance when she has to, making for a really great climax. The post climax scene is a bit explanatory and probably was not needed. I got to see this film for the first time on the big screen last night as part of the Faculty of Horror section of the Salem Horror Fest.
Being at the Faculty of Horror Podcast Live was a real treat. I love the podcast, both Andrea Subisatti and Alex West not only do their homework on the film they are covering but they always add ideas that never occur to a hack reviewer like me. They add to my though about film which is the whole point of my writing here. I want to do a bit more than mindlessly watch. I want to force myself to think a bit more deeply about the films I enjoy.  In The House of the Devil there were several ideas that they brought to the conversation so credit these intelligent woman for what follows. Hopefully I can articulate as well as they did in their place. First the idea of the placard at the beginning of the film. The satanic panic and the idea by Walter Benjamin who when writing about how film changed the aura of art. Alex West went into detail concerning his ideas concerning how art is viewed through the lens of changing technologies. He was speaking at the time of film becoming predominant in the 1930's and how generations of people will have new ways to view art and how those new ways also change the art. Connecting these ideas to the nights feature was about the placard at the beginning of the film. Ti West chose to include information firmly placing the film as a film about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. But more than just a setting he is implying through the film that there was something to the fear people of the time had about satanic abusive cults. The story itself is just that, it is not a story about the panic but is a story about a satanic cult. So even though the scare in the eighties was really more about conservative fear of a changing world, this film lends credence to the idea there was actually something to fear. Of course I can't explain quite as well as Alex West did in the podcast, so subscribe to the Faculty of Horror and listen for yourself.
  A less developed theme in the podcast was about Ti West's use of Mother figures in the film. In the beginning we see Samantha trying to rent an apartment. The older woman (Dee Wallace) owner takes the time as a mother to remember her own child renting a first apartment and she connects with that memory when interacting with Sam. Later when Sam in taking the job of babysitting it is revealed that she will be doing so for the Ullman's Mother, then again the leader in the satanic ritual is called Mother and the purpose of the ritual is to impregnate Samantha. All connecting threads in the film, a small theme running through it.
  Overall I found the experience of seeing the film again on the big screen and meeting and listening to the faculty of Horror a really enjoyable night. Salem is a bit of a drive for me but I left work early enough to skip the bulk of rush hour traffic. The town in the month of October is busy with tourist from all over the world who come to explorer the themes the town is famous for.

October 14:
Suspiria (1977) - This is a strange fever dream of a film remarkable for its lighting and soundtrack that is a work of art  in the world of horror films. Written and Directed by the late great Dario Argento with shared writing credit with Daria Nicolodi. It is the story of Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) a dancer arriving at a prestigious German ballet academy at the same time that there is the murder of one of the students. The mystery of what happened to the student and the stranger mystery concerning the school unfold in the short 98 minute run time. Filled with colorful sets and lighting and a thumping score by the band Goblin it is a great film to experience in the theater. At times a bit dated it still holds up as a unique piece of art and a classic of the genre. It will be interesting to see how this film will be re-imagined in the remake coming out later this year.

You're Next (2011) Horror Home Invasion

You're Next (2011) Seen in theaters RIGHT NOW! (2013) after sitting on the studio shelf for a couple years. This film is a home invasion film with a twist and some scary ass masked worn by the attackers. When a wealthy family comes together for an anniversary party for their parents, the house is attacked by men in masked. The evening of celebration become a fight for survival. Then of course there is a twist...
  The question I had going in was why did this sit on the shelf for a couple years? Sure there were a couple of home invasion films made before this one was finished. You're next did well on the festival circuit and probably have made money even if release in 2011. "The Strangers" and the remake of "The Last House on the Left"  the first a random attack with a dark ending and also the use of masks, the latter a random attack, hard core revenge film. The influence of these films getting big press and advertising budgets may have influenced Lionsgate's decision to not release right away. Who knows if it made a difference, it is true that there is a lot of buzz around the film. Director Adam Wingard has done his part in promoting the film as the  release date drew near. He knows the horror community is a group that pays attentions and pay tribute to the film makers, writers and actors who interact with them. So there has been a good deal of interaction and thus some really positive blogs for the film.
 The film itself written by Simon Barrett who did the wonderful and surprising "Dead Birds" gives us a well structured script with some surprises humor along with the horror. You're Next is a solid entry in the home invasion sub-genre with an solid story and a great lead in final girl Erin (Sharni Vinson). Vinson a competent Australian actress really takes command of the role, the new girlfriend of Crispian (AJ Bowen). She is at the party to meet the family and when the shit starts going down she is the one who takes charge. So often in these films the women are reduced to babbling, fearful victims who are stalked and killed without a fight. Here though the film takes a different approach with a women who knows how to defend herself and is not to be taken lightly. It is a refreshing approach that I really appreciated.
  Sometimes though the structuring of scripts can be done too well. For someone like me who has done a lot of skill building in screenwriting the there are some foreshadowing bits that gave the largest twists of the film away. I doubt the average viewer though picked up on it on a conscious level but for me there were a couple things that gave too much away. While the opening was classic horror with a college professor sleeping with one of his students. Her realization as he is poking her that her choice was probably a poor life path, was great. The sound horror tropes of someone is out there is well executed and the demise of the professor is good too. This is important to the later plot so not only does it establish that the killers are scary and brutal but as all good scenes it serves another purpose, to make cover for the home invasion of our main family. Since there are more than one attack it will be a crime wave instead of a targeted attack on just one family.
  The establishment of the dynamics of the main family is done well, a wealthy couple Paul (Rob Moran) and Aubrey (Barbara Crampton) inviting the kids to the country place for a celebration of their 35th anniversary. Now this alone was a bit of a put off, these two actors are way to young to have been married for 35 years. I get that they are playing older but damn they just look too good for the idea to play. It could be that since they married young they are well into their marriage but it seemed a bit of a stretch for me. It could happen mathematically if Crampton had her first child at 18, of course Moran would be younger than that. I found myself just letting go of the idea, suspending disbelief consciously and letting the film not bother me so much. Besides you have great acting with Crampton playing Aubrey the mentally fragile Mother. She is great although her role is short. A veteran  actress who appeared in such films as The Re-Animator, Chopping Mall, From Beyond, and The Sisterhood she is up to the task and looking as beautiful as ever.
  The sons and spouses arrive to fill out the cast, Crispian and Erin, youngest son Felix (Nicholas Tucci) and Zee (Wendy Glenn), Oldest son Drake (Joe Swanberg) and wife Kelly (Margaret Laney) oh and lets not forget daughter Aimee (Amy Seimetz) who has the most comical death scene I have seen in a while. Her boyfriend Tariq (Ti West) fills out the victims who will be hunted by  out three killers Lamb Mask (L.C. Holt), Tiger Mask (Simon Barrett) and Fox Mask (Lane Hughes).
  The film as you expect is the three masked players attacking and killing the family members. An astute viewer will know something is afoul early in the film by listening to the dialog of the cast when the first attack happens in front of everyone at the dinner table. I at that point knew the main twist which was sad because we were only 15 minutes into the film. When a second event happens later and the character that leaves the scene is not followed in the film in any way I had the second part of the twist and was a bit disappointed in myself for not watching the film like normal movie goers.
Even with my personal disappointments there is a lot to like about this film.  The lead Erin is a survivor and takes charge right away. This is the kind of situation she is most prepared for and she masters her surroundings right from the start. So many times in horror films the motivation for the main character is to overcome a flaw in her/his personality to overcome the situation. This new better takes is saying what if the killers didn't know that one of their supposed victims is way more equipped to handle them then they are to handle her? Erin moves immediately into action when the first kill takes place. She looks for weapons assesses the situation and determines the safest place to be. She is up to the task of handling the situation even though it is deadly and extreme. While the others in the group are being picked off she is fighting back.
  I loved that in this film we know more than our lead, while she plays at dealing with the external threat we get to see the threat on the inside that she does not know about. It makes for some great scenes where we know she is in danger but she has no idea.  All the way to the end when our final girl has the confrontation with the last threat she is a powerhouse who through strength and perseverance ends up with the upper hand.
  So I would recommend this film, it is a competent and enjoyable horror film with a strong female lead. Some of the violence is over the top in a good way, the plot although a bit transparent to me will be a pleasure for many with twist and turns that create tension. In the end you may be surprised and should come away with the film with a feeling that you were entertained and the cost was money well spent.

The Innkeepers (2011) Horror Ghost

 The Innkeepers (2011) -Ti West is back to the big screen as writer and director with his first feature since the well received "The House of the Devil (2009)". Like that film The Innkeepers is a bit of a slow burn that relies on the quiet lonely creepiness of being alone in a big empty buildings can cause. It is a good old fashioned ghost story that plays out on the last weekend that a hotel, The Yankee Pedlar Inn, is open for business, and involves the two ghost hunting employees who are manning the desk for the final days.
  Maybe with a nod to "The Shining (1980)" the story is broken into chapters, Chapter One: The Long Weekend is the setup and the introductions of the characters. Chapter Two: Madeline O'Malley is the legend of the ghost, and the beginning of the creepiness that will culminate in Chapter 3: The Final Guest. It is a cautionary tale for ghost hunters everywhere to be careful what you hunt for, you might just find it.
  Claire (Sarah Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are the ghost hunting desk clerks of the story. Luke is has been playing up the strange events he says he has experienced in the hotel and has a lot of equipment for recording events while they work. It is pretty clear early on that he has a thing for Claire that she is totally oblivious to. He seems to be more interested in her than ghost hunting but is doing the later as a way to get closer to the girl he likes. She is fluttering about into the ghost stories and really not noticing him as anything more than a partner in adventure. Always a sad thing when only one person is showing interest in the other but is too chickenshit to say anything. It is a tried and true story device too and here it is used very effectively to set up the characters.
  So the plot, our non couple is working the desk on the final weekend of the hotel's operation. They have their recording gear and are hooping to get proof that the old place has ghost running about. The only guests are a woman (Alison Bartlett) and her young son (Jake Ryan). She has been fighting with her husband and is using the Inn as a way to get some space. The other guest is Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis) a former actress turned psychic medium who is in town for a conference. This particular tie in is a bit cliche and wearisome in ghost movies even though I know what the purpose is. She does add some information to the story that leave you questioning at the end so not a wasted character. McGillis is a fine actress and plays the alcoholic medium with a keen eye not to be too new age-ish but also not too down and out desperate. After we have a solid idea of the players the film settles in to Claire who is taking the first shift at the front desk. She spends her time trying to record ghosts and the jump scares are reasonably effective.  West pays attention not to give too much away too early so we have to wait until chapter two before getting the legend of the Inn.

  The story goes that Madeline O'Malley (ghost played by Brenda Cooney) was stood up on her wedding day. The distraught woman retired to her room at the Yankee Pedlar and hung herself. Fearing bad press the then owners of the Inn hid the body in the cellar but were later discovered. The scandal that followed forced them to close the Inn for many years until it was sold and reopened. Now the legend goes the ghost of the bride in her wedding gown wanders the halls of the inn. After this story is reveal follow Claire out into the alley to the trash bin. A scary little scene we know is a false alarm follows. How do we know it is false. Because we just learned the story so the very next scare has to be a false alarm. That is how horror works. Still I made a note when she locked the outside bulkhead doors to keep the birds out that this action would play a part later on in the film and sure enough it did.
  This may be a good spot to say that one of the problems with this film is it followed a tried and true formula that most horror fanatics have seen many times. Unfortunately it did not hide the formula well enough so a lot of horror fans will be really luke warm about this film. The acting was fine the setup commendable but the execution was too on the nose to the expected horror tropes. Ty West could have thrown some variation in to keep us off balance but he didn't and it really hurt the film. Sure the end was better than most with a nice twist and an unexpected outcome but the road to that point was all places we have been before. Very similar in structure to "The House of the Devil" but since I have seen that this one comes across as more of the same.
  This is not to say that there are not some nice sequences in the film. There is a scene where Claire is in the banquet room listening on her microphone for sounds in the room. She slowly starts to hear static with something under it that become the sound of a woman crying, then  the sound of a piano playing. What is great is the excellent silence when Claire takes off the headphones, and then hearing it again when she puts them back on. It really is the first time she is successful at ghost hunting and it leads very nicely into her first talk of the supernatural with Rease-Jones who explains "There is no real in this world Claire, there are just states of being." and leads into a seance scene where Rease-Jones says "They won't say who they are." Apparently there are several ghosts and they want to live as well as a warning not to go in the basement. It is a very effect way to set up the inevitable even if we have seen it a thousand times before.
  The other thing that is so telegraphed is that Claire has an inhaler and needs it too. So it is a sure thing that her not having it will be a contributing factor in her storyline. I know it sounds like the script bad but it really isn't. West puts all the pieces together in the right order it is just that the writing lacks subtlety. At this point just before the final chapter we can see the conclusion coming and I am one viewer who was happy to continue on with the film. We still have all incomplete story arcs, from the ghost hunting, to the Luke Claire relationship to the creepy old man who arrives at the start of the chapter. 
  This is the chapter where the story really picks up, the old man (George Riddle), the final guest is really easy going even though the room he requests is stripped clean for the close down he is more than willing to take it as is. The actor plays the guy in a wonderfully creepy way and it is good at this point to add a bit more to think about since the paths of the characters are a bit transparent. They are destined to have a real ghost encounter, you know that and so do I. The reactions are great and it really sets up Claire for the final sequence. Now as usual I would not make the same error that she makes. When things get weird you have to shrug and say, this is a horror movie some things are just going to happen no matter how much they shouldn't.
  In the epilogue of the film we learn that everything that was set up was paid off. It is a sad tale but one that I think is very much worth the watch. Not the greatest of ghost films it is instead a second solid entry by Ti West into the genre.
Rating (5.6) 5.0 and up are recommended some just more than others.

The House of the Devil (2009) horror

The House of the Devil (2009) - A wonderfully delightful surprise from writer director Ti West. The throwback to a period when horror movies built up to an overpowering dread is captured in this well done little film. The story is simple, in the 1980's a young college women, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) has a need to earn some cash quickly. She calls for a sitter job at a house in the country that will solve her financial problems. Things are not quite how she envisioned them when she arrives to meet the couple, Mr and Mrs Ulman (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) they are strange but not too scary. Instead of sitting for kids she will be minding the house with the old mother upstairs. She negotiates a good price and sends her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig)home until the end of the job and settles in for a night of studying. Megan never arrives home and Samantha is a bit creeped out by the house, it builds and the reveals are well done to keep the tension growing. When the finale arrives the action is quick and well done. The ending is unexpected but follows the movie title well. Building off the satanic cult themes that were rampant in the eighties Ti West crafts a perfectly fitting story. Being a teenager in the 80s I had a real appreciation for the feel of the movie and the slow burn it is. The newer flash and cut method of film making sometimes gets on my nerves but West doesn't do that he brings us along on Samantha's ride without trying to shock us every two seconds. I was so impressed that I actually watch the movie a second time to make sure I was not creating a fantasy about it. Sure enough it is a solid horror movie that truly pays homage to the era it is set in.

Rating (7.8)
P.S. Check out the amazing Finalgirl review of this film at http://finalgirl.blogspot.com/