John Rozum's Blog, page 47

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie 2

After his father disappears, Jonathan Davis (Ingo Heise) travels to the area of Germany where his father was stationed during World War II, here he uncovers the disturbing tale of the consequences of a meteorite landing decades ago. 
Die Farbe/The Color Out of Space (2010) is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's tale "The Color Out of Space." Shot in black and white, the film delivers and sustains an eerie ambience throughout, accentuated by an evocative score by Tilman Seege and some really marvelous sound design by Marc Veizhans. The filmmakers strike a nice balance between holding back and showing that enhances the otherworldly nature of the story. They are to be given credit too for defying their small budget and making something that suggests greater resources. This is easily one of the films I've enjoyed the most this month, and I highly recommend it. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie 1

Four young people (I wasn't sure whether they were meant to be teens, or twenty-somethings) with the lowest IQs imaginable find themselves stranded at sea, when fortune brings them along side a luxury yacht, which turns out to be a recently abandoned marine biological lab conducting experiments of mutated deep sea fish. It turns out some of these fish don't need water to live, or get around, and that they mix with people with interesting results.

Plankton/Creatures of the Abyss (1994) is terrible. First off, I was shocked to discover this movie was made in the mid 90s instead of the mid 80s. The dubbed dialogue combined with the awful performances makes for something hypnotic to watch. I really couldn't stop. The Lovecraftian plot is unfolded in the clumsiest, least interesting manner possible. the whole movie is incompetently made. The less attention I give it the better. If you're looking for a really bad movie that is strangely watchable, then get your friends over and start drinking.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25

An American Werewolf in London (1981). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24 - Movie 2

Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) takes his family for a camping trip to the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The trip is meant to bring his family, which includes his children and new wife closer together. It's also so that he can scatter the ashes of his father who took him camping there regularly as a boy. The Pine Barrens is also the home of the legendary cryptid, the Jersey Devil. As the camping trip progresses, bad things start to happen. Campers they've encountered go missing, Richard becomes ill and starts behaving erratically, hallucinating and becoming more and more violent. He's determined to protect his family from the monster, little realizing that he's becoming that monster.

The Barrens (2012), thematically is very much like The Shining, as the father's mental condition deteriorates and puts the people he loves the most in jeopardy. It has an interesting script with a lot of tight story development, yet leaving a lot more questions than answers. There are brief flashbacks to Richard's own trauma as a boy in the Pine Barrens that is never fully fleshed out or tied in to the story as a whole, but which still heightens his anguished mental state. It's unusual to find a movie that feels confident about not explaining everything and trusting that it is unnecessary to do so, and in this case it works. The cast is good, especially Peter DaCunha as the Danny, the young son. The family dynamic is well done and realistic, especially the relationship between the teenage daughter (Allie MacDonald) and her stepmother (Mia Kirshner).






 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24 - Movie 1

An anthropologist (Cornel Wilde) and his daughter (Jennifer Salt) following a research lead in the American Southwest, find themselves in conflict with a colony of gargoyles who initially present themselves as just wanting to be left alone in isolation, but may actually have more sinister plans in mind.

Gargoyles (1972), the made for tv movie, is something I haven't seen in a long, long time. It holds up better than I remembered it. The story is pretty compelling, and moves briskly without many dead spots, and the gargoyle suits by Stan Winston and Ellis Burman are pretty impressive, especially given how many of them appear on screen and how small a budget and schedule they must have been working with at the time. Nicely done.









 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24

Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) in An American Werewolf in London (1981). Cut paper.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23 - Movie 2

Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) falls in love with and marries Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) but her fears that she will turn into a panther if the marriage were to be consummated opens a rift between them, and as that rift spreads, Irena's jealousy and emotional state go to a very dark place.


Cat People (1942) is deservedly a classic of understated horror, proving that what is suggested and not shown is often much more effective than what is. Stylish and well acted, this film contains a few set pieces where sound design and shadows do all of the heavy lifting to great effect. Whether Irena is actually able to turn into a panther, or not, doesn't matter. All it takes is for someone to believe it is possible, and half of the work is done for her. This is an excellent film. Not to be missed.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23 - Movie 1

A group of G.I.'s on a last furlough in Asia before coming home, bride their way into attending a secret religious ceremony where they hope to witness a human being transforming into a snake. Their intrusion is discovered and they are cursed to die one by one, no matter where they go. The curse starts acting on them almost immediately, but as their numbers dwindle, the final survivors discover that the new girlfriend of one of them is really a snake-woman bent on destroying them all.

Cult of the Cobra (1955) is one of Universal's more unusual horror movies. There is no iconic monster, and it feels more like fantasy exotica, like The Mole People, than something like The Mummy. The movie's plot is pretty straightforward, but succeeds by working with the camaraderie between the cursed men, as well as romantic successes and rivalries. The film also wisely relies less on the obviously marionette acted cobra, and instead uses an eerie pov effect from the snake's vision to represent it. Faith Domergue's unusual beauty lends her character a convincing otherness lending credibility to her ability to turn into a cobra.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23

Dean Parkin as Col. Glenn Manning in War of the Colossal Beast (1958)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - Movie 2

A doomsday religious cult instructs all of its members that the apocalypse is upon them and that they must save souls by sending them to God by killing people with daggers. When the word is given, late at night, a small group of non cult members finds themselves assaulted aboard a stalled subway train. They flee from the cultists down the tunnels only to confront bigger terrors than zealots with knives.

 End of the Line (2007) is a nice streamlined horror film that might as well be an envisioned documentary about what life will be like in the U.S. if the far right takes control. The film, wisely, does not paint all of the religious nuts as mindless programmed killers without question, though it's the ones who blindly obey who are the most chilling. The film's outlook is pretty bleak, especially as we reach the final minutes which presents us with a really hopeless scenario.