John Rozum's Blog, page 46

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29

Lon Chaney as the Ape Man in A Blind Bargain (1922). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie 2

When a Jeanette (Susanne Loret) is facially disfigured in a car accident, Dr. Levin (Alberto Lupo) becomes determined to restore her beauty. Using knowledge he's learned from studying the victims of radiation from Hiroshima, he's able to restore her features, and becomes romantically obsessed with her. A feeling not reciprocated. The restoration of her features turns out to be temporary, and Dr. Levin turns himself into a remorseless monster in order to protect his true identity when killing women for the glands he needs to repair Jeanette's face.

Seddok: l'erede di satana / Atom Age Vampire (1960) seems like it wants to be Eyes Without a Face but plays out more like The Brain that Wouldn't Die. Alberto Lupo is disturbingly sleazy as the doctor, which is more effective when partnered with Jeanette being his prisoner, tolerating his advances -- to a point, so that she can have her face back, but clearly repulsed by him. As a c-list movie it's somewhat entertaining, but nothing you can't live without.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie 1

The corpse of a vampire is brought to a hospital where it is brought back to life and escapes seeking new victims. El ataúd del vampire / The Vampire's Coffin (1958) is a sequel to El vampiro / The Vampire (1957), though everything you need to know about the first movie is covered here, and even if it weren't the movie is so straight forward that knowing it's a sequel is really unnecessary. The movie starts out with some nice moody atmosphere, but once it reaches the hospital, antiseptic sets and lighting take over and we are presented with characters walking back and forth between rooms looking for the vampire, and taking breaks for romantic asides, or to try and inform the authorities, who refuse to believe a vampire is on the loose. There's something about the structure that suggests it's, at least partially, meant to be a comedy, but the laughs aren't there, and the movie as a whole becomes little more than a not very entertaining diversion.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28

Carroll Borland as Luna in Mark of the Vampire (1935)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 2

When Frank Carvath's (Art Hindle) young daughter, Candy (Cindy Hinds) returns from visiting her institutionalized mother (Samantha Eggar), she is covered with bruises, bite marks and scratches. Frank forbids Candy from seeing her mother again, but her psychiatrist, Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed) promises to make trouble if he does. Frank begins to investigate Raglan's institute and his "psychoplasmics" method of treatment. As he does so, people attached to him and Candy start being murdered by strange mutant children, which have some kind of connection to Raglan, and to Frank's wife.


David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979) is one of his finest films. Written amidst a tempestuous divorce from his own wife, Cronenberg's film exemplifies the difficulties and estrangement of a couple whose marriage has collapsed in animosity as well as the psychic scarring that such a collapse places on the children of the couple involved. Filled with disturbing imagery and interactions, and some truly brutal murders. The newly released Criterion edition also reinstates a notorious scene cut from the original release of the film.






 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 1

Ig Parish (Daniel Radcliffe) is believed by almost everyone to have murdered his longterm girlfriend, Merrin (Juno Temple). After committing a sacrilegious act in anger over her death, he wakes up the next morning sprouting a pair of horns. The horns also come with the powers of making everyone he encounters feel compelled to tell him their darkest, most private secrets, and allow Ig to be very persuasive. Initially, this makes him feel even more cut off from his community, but he soon sees it as an advantageous tool in finding out the truth about who killed Merrin.

Horns (2013) is a well done, faithful, truncated, adaptation of Joe Hill's novel, and while it can't get as far inside of Ig's head as the novel, Daniel Radcliffe delivers a performance that truly convey's Ig's inner landscape. Everyone in the movie is really good, but Radcliffe really commands the movie.  Ig really remains the only character we can latch onto, since everyone else's revealed inner landscapes are so horrible, but that's okay, because that same thing is isolating Ig from them, too. The movie as a whole is compelling to watch with some really lovely visuals.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27

Koji Furuhata as Frankenstein in Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 2

After having sex with her boyfriend, Jay (Maika Monroe) learns that she is now the recipient of a sexually transmitted bogeyman, which will, at a slow walking pace, follow her wherever she goes until it catches and kills her, or she passes it along to someone else.

It Follows (2014) is a very effective film with a nicely realized and original idea. The film takes its time in getting to its premise, introducing us to its cast of characters and their interrelationships, so that the stakes involved go beyond simply setting up a bunch of generic teens to be killed off one by one. The characters also try out a number of well thought out possible solutions on how to destroy the following entity who is only visible to the person it's after. The matter of fact presentation of the entity also heightens the tension with its slow walking persistent approach. It Follows is one of the better movies I've watched this month.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 1

When a bunch of friends go exploring an old mine they are trapped by a cave in. As the days stretch beyond a week, they realize that something must be done to deal with their hunger. Not ready to kill anyone, they decide to eat only the part of someone. Drawing the short straw, one poor guy has his arm cut off -- just as a rescue party arrives.

The rest of the movie is set five years later when the other members of the group are each attacked and winding up with one of their own arms hacked off. Certain it's their amputee friend out to settle a score, they mostly wander around discussing it and doing nothing else to save themselves, as the killer brings their numbers down one by one.

I mistakenly confused The Severed Arm (1973) with a not dissimilarly titled film that I actually enjoyed. This movie was a real trial to sit through. Shot with the most uninteresting compositions imaginable, with a bland cast, bad script, terrible score, and nothing else to draw the viewer in, The Severed Arm's entire strength lies in the premise of cutting off the arm of one of the cave-in victims just before the rescue party arrives.

This is the only movie so far were I checked the time remaining to see how much longer it was and was horrified to see that I'd barely passed the 35 minute mark of its 90 minute running time. So far this is easily the worst movie I've subjected myself to this Countdown. It would take something of excessively poor quality to dethrone it in the time remaining.



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31 Days of Halloween - Day 26

Conrad Veidt as Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Cut paper.