Orrin Grey's Blog: Shovel Murders & Monologues, page 65
November 7, 2010
Scarcity
I've been sick. Starting basically immediately after Halloween (not quite, but close enough) and going through today. Still going strong, too, though I'm a bit better today than I have been. Here's to hoping this clears out enough that I can go to work tomorrow.
I've been taking the weekend off from pretty much everything ever in the hopes that adequate rest will succeed where other methods have failed. I watched a couple of movies, and I've been playing Dr. Mario in the hopes of combating my illness with sympathetic magic. So far the results have been less than stellar. Other than that I've been watching movies and sleeping and not doing much else. Excitement!
I'll post more once I'm alive again.
I've been taking the weekend off from pretty much everything ever in the hopes that adequate rest will succeed where other methods have failed. I watched a couple of movies, and I've been playing Dr. Mario in the hopes of combating my illness with sympathetic magic. So far the results have been less than stellar. Other than that I've been watching movies and sleeping and not doing much else. Excitement!
I'll post more once I'm alive again.
November 2, 2010
Announcements!
First, I'm very pleased to announce that my story "Black Hill" will be appearing in the forthcoming Historical Lovecraft anthology from Innsmouth Free Press, alongside stories by folks like Jesse Bullington and Molly Tanzer, among others. I'm looking forward to it, and I have a feeling it's going to be one hell of an anthology. More on it as the release approaches.
In other news, I've been invited by Mark Deniz from Beyond Fiction to be a part of the team for their Monster Awareness Month in February. I previously contributed pieces for Vampire Awareness Month and a couple for Ghost Appreciation Month, but this will be the first time that I'll actually be a member of the team. I'll still be contributing pieces, but I'll also be on the lookout for other contributors and good ideas of what we can do to celebrate monsters all month long.
It's obviously still a ways off, but I'm very excited about it. There's pretty much nothing I love more than monsters, and getting to watch movies about them, read about them, and talk about them for a whole month sounds like heaven. February is usually a pretty crappy month, too, so this should boost it up quite a bit.
I'll be posting more about Monster Awareness Month as the date draws nearer, but if anyone has any ideas for it, or is interested in contributing, don't hesitate to let me know.
In other news, I've been invited by Mark Deniz from Beyond Fiction to be a part of the team for their Monster Awareness Month in February. I previously contributed pieces for Vampire Awareness Month and a couple for Ghost Appreciation Month, but this will be the first time that I'll actually be a member of the team. I'll still be contributing pieces, but I'll also be on the lookout for other contributors and good ideas of what we can do to celebrate monsters all month long.
It's obviously still a ways off, but I'm very excited about it. There's pretty much nothing I love more than monsters, and getting to watch movies about them, read about them, and talk about them for a whole month sounds like heaven. February is usually a pretty crappy month, too, so this should boost it up quite a bit.
I'll be posting more about Monster Awareness Month as the date draws nearer, but if anyone has any ideas for it, or is interested in contributing, don't hesitate to let me know.
October 29, 2010
Vincent Price Day Addendum
Last night Jay, Grace, and I all went out to see RiffTrax live tackle House on Haunted Hill. This was actually the second time I've seen them do it, albeit the first time live. It was a lot of fun. At the theatre we met up with a couple of people Grace knows, and went out with them to IHOP afterward, as is customary in such situations. I think the best line during the entire evening actually came from one of our party (who isn't online, I don't think, or I'd link her) who asked, at one point, if Pritchard had "murder Tourette's," a phrase that is guaranteed to enter my personal lexicon.
I'm not just here to rub your faces in What I Did Last Night, though. I've actually got a present. The other night while Selena and I were live-Tweeting The Tomb of Ligeia for Vincent Price Day, my good friend Reyna was following along, and she drew up some quickie sketches inspired by the movie. I've included my favorite (apparently not visible in all browsers), but you can find them here, here and here. Enjoy!
[image error]
I'm not just here to rub your faces in What I Did Last Night, though. I've actually got a present. The other night while Selena and I were live-Tweeting The Tomb of Ligeia for Vincent Price Day, my good friend Reyna was following along, and she drew up some quickie sketches inspired by the movie. I've included my favorite (apparently not visible in all browsers), but you can find them here, here and here. Enjoy!
[image error]
Vincet Price Day Addendum
Last night Jay, Grace, and I all went out to see RiffTrax live tackle House on Haunted Hill. This was actually the second time I've seen them do it, albeit the first time live. It was a lot of fun. At the theatre we met up with a couple of people Grace knows, and went out with them to IHOP afterward, as is customary in such situations. I think the best line during the entire evening actually came from one of our party (who isn't online, I don't think, or I'd link her) who asked, at one point, if Pritchard had "murder Tourette's," a phrase that is guaranteed to enter my personal lexicon.
I'm not just here to rub your faces in What I Did Last Night, though. I've actually got a present. The other night while Selena and I were live-Tweeting The Tomb of Ligeia for Vincent Price Day, my good friend Reyna was following along, and she drew up some quickie sketches inspired by the movie. I've included my favorite, but you can find the other two here and here. Enjoy!
[image error]
I'm not just here to rub your faces in What I Did Last Night, though. I've actually got a present. The other night while Selena and I were live-Tweeting The Tomb of Ligeia for Vincent Price Day, my good friend Reyna was following along, and she drew up some quickie sketches inspired by the movie. I've included my favorite, but you can find the other two here and here. Enjoy!
[image error]
October 27, 2010
74* of my Favorite Horror Movies
Yesterday Paul Tremblay and then Jesse Bullington both put out lists of their 74 Favorite Horror Movies. Being a good camp follower, I decided to try my own hand at a similar list.
When I set out to make it I realized really quickly that Hammer movies were going to be a problem. On the one hand, they were going to just dominate the list. And on the other hand, I wasn't really sure which ones to include. See, Hammer movies are basically unfailingly good, in a way that I've never found with any other equally large sub-set of cinema. And, what's more, they all feel very similar to me. I don't really even think of them as individual movies, exactly, but as sort of one huge tapestry of related films with the same actors, settings, monsters, etc. Pulling them apart seems disingenuous, especially when they're just going to then occupy something like half my list. So instead I made a list without including any Hammer movies, and then gave all of them an honorary spot. So this is actually 73 movies, plus every Hammer movie ever made.
I also stretched the boundaries of what constitutes "horror," probably, including some stuff that I'm not even sure I would put under that banner. But I'll let you judge for yourselves whether they should be included or not.
This is about as far from an objective list as it's possible to get, and equally far from being ranked in any particular order. Basically, these are the first movies I thought of, and I'm sure I left out all sorts of great ones. (I noticed several I left out upon reading back over, but I didn't let myself go back and make changes.) They comprise a pretty solid combo of things that I love right now and things that had a big impact on me at some earlier point in my evolution. (And sometimes both.) Anyway, here's the list. It was fun to make, hopefully it'll be fun to read.
The Thing - If these were in some kind of order by preference, this would be #1. Maybe the best horror movie ever made, for my money. Quiet and over-the-top all at once. Perfect monsters, perfect pacing, perfect music, perfect setting. Just perfect.
The Old Dark House (1932) - My favorite of the old Universal movies, even though it's not as famous and doesn't contain a single monster.
Tremors - The perfect homage to the big monster movies of the '50s. Imminently quotable, and the graboids are some of the best monsters ever.
Brotherhood of the Wolf - Is it a horror movie? A martial arts movie? A costume drama? I don't know, or care, it hits more of my obsessions than I can readily count.
The Changeling (1980) - I just discovered this one recently, but it's rapidly become one of my favorite ghost movies. Great creepiness and a great lead.
The Haunting (1963) - Another of my favorite ghost movies. A masterpiece of suggestion. To see how to completely ruin a movie, watch this one followed by the terrible 1999 remake.
Aliens - For most folks Alien is the holy grail, but I saw this one first and it's still my favorite.
I Sell the Dead - Glenn McQuaid's great supernatural Resurrection Man comedy is one of my favorite movies of the last decade, hands down.
Evil Dead 2 - As Jesse said in his list, this one strikes the perfect blend of silliness between the first one and the third.
Return of the Living Dead - This and Evil Dead 2 were my favorite gory zombie-ish horror movies in high school. They're both still great, and both as quotable as movies come. I always swore that if I ever started a punk band I was going to call it Send More Paramedics, but it seems that somebody beat me to it.
King Kong (1933) - The original and still the best. King Kong never really struck me as much of a horror movie, but whatever kind of movie it is, it's one of the best ever made.
Matango - Mushroom people. Do I need to say any more than that?
The Devil's Backbone - Guillermo del Toro is my favorite director, and so you can bet that he's going to be on this list a few times. This is probably my favorite of his movies. I love the setting, and the mixture of Gothic and boy's adventure tropes.
Cronos - Not as polished as del Toro's later films, this one's still a charmer, with immortal alchemists and bugs trapped in wind-up vampire machines.
Pan's Labyrinth - The most famous of del Toro's Spanish language films, and definitely the most aesthetically achieved. Great monsters in the service of a great story.
The Orphanage - A perfect Gothic ghost story.
Jacob's Ladder - I re-watched this one recently and it doesn't hold up quite as well, but the vibrating head monsters are amazing and are still one of the scariest things I've ever seen on film.
House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Probably my favorite William Castle movie, and a great film to watch for Halloween. Vincent Price is at his best, and the creaky, over-the-top spookiness of it is hard to beat.
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - The only movie on this list where the original and the remake both found a slot. Geoffrey Rush (doing his best Vincent Price) and Famke Janssen both own this movie. Bonus points for a cameo by Jeffrey Combs and for Jacob's Ladder-style vibrating head monsters. "I'm Stephen Goddamn Price!"
Monster Squad - One of the most formative movies of my childhood. A bunch of foul-mouthed, monster-obsessed kids run up against the Universal monsters (as redesigned by Stan Winston). Why I loved this is probably self-explanatory.
The Lost Boys - Another one from my youth, probably equally obvious. Likely responsible for no small part of my obsession with Keifer Sutherland.
Trick 'r Treat (2007) - In spite of some missteps, one of the all-time great anthology horror films, and also maybe the most perfect movie about Halloween. Sam deserves to join the pantheon of horror movie greats.
Nightbreed - By no means Barker's best, still my favorite for, again, probably obvious reasons. For every place where it falls flat, there's always something else I love twice as much.
Lake Placid - Of all the stretches I undertake on this list, calling this a horror movie may be the stretchiest. That said, great giant killer animal fun watching wonderful actors do wonderful stuff. The movie that made me an Oliver Platt fan.
Deep Rising - While I was able to put Lake Placid on this list, Stephen Sommers' 1999 remake of The Mummy apparently just wasn't horror enough for me. So instead, here's Sommers' earlier monster effort, with lots of tentacles and added Treat Williams.
Jaws - And while we're talking about aquatic beasties, it wouldn't do not to mention the best of them. Jaws is a superb movie, and Quint is still one of the best characters in screen history.
Land of the Dead - Heresy, I know, but Land of the Dead is my favorite of Romero's zombie movies. It's just such a joy to see him doing what he does best, and effortlessly updating the genre that everyone else had been busily pounding into the ground.
The Mist - A movie that just keeps getting better with time. Not only a great monster film, but a huge improvement on the source material. Frank Darabont is amazing. (Plus, there's nods to Hellboy in there, which endears it to me somewhat.)
Bubba Ho-Tep - The best movie about Elvis and JFK protecting their rest home from a mummy that you're ever likely to see!
The Frighteners - The movie that introduced me to Peter Jackson, and to Jeffrey Combs. Full of excess, but also full of murderous ghosts, crazy FBI agents, decaying towns, and old insane asylums.
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat - I'm probably going to get in trouble for this one, but I found Sundown about as perfectly charming as a movie can be.
The Ring (2002) - Worlds better than the Japanese original, for my money.
Scream - While I may regret what it has wrought as much as anyone, the original Scream was a solid piece of work that caught me at just the right time of my horror-movie-fan life.
Creature from the Black Lagoon - Is it the best of the Universal monster movies? No. But the Creature is my favorite, and the suit is still one of the best monster effects in movie history.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - I've seen whole movies that weren't as good as individual frames of this one.
The Last Man on Earth - Vincent Price stars in the best of all film versions of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
The Body Snatcher (1945) - Resurrection Men again, this time in a more serious milieu and without so much of the supernatural. A brilliant, restrained movie and probably my favorite of the Val Lewton horror flicks.
I Walked with a Zombie - The movie that gives The Body Snatcher it's run for favorite Val Lewton film. Quiet, restrained, and with a great theme song!
Mad Love (1935) - Stylish as hell. Peter Lorre does what he does best.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) - Underappreciated. Great sets. My favorite Bela Lugosi movie? Could be.
20 Million Miles to Earth - I'm a sucker for giant, sympathetic monsters (see King Kong above), and Ymir is probably my favorite Ray Harryhausen creation.
Event Horizon - This is one I haven't revisited for awhile, but when I first saw it it left a big impression on me. Cosmic horror in the depths of space, and one of the coolest spaceships ever designed. Sam Neil being crazy. "Where we're going, you don't need eyes to see."
Puppet Master - Another one I've not gone back to in years. Holding an honorary position to represent all of the terrible Full Moon Home Video movies that I watched as a kid, with all their diminutive, stop-motion monsters. Has a special place because it's about an alchemist who makes killer puppets to fight Nazis (if I remember correctly).
Gremlins 2 - Joe Dante deconstructs his own movie and successfully kills a franchise. A beautiful, over-the-top batch of craziness full of awesome puppets and gloppy monsters.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - A wonderful paranoia movie, with one of the all-time great film endings.
Candyman - Usually gets overshadowed by Hellraiser, but for my money this one captures the numinosity of Barker's work better than any other film adaptation.
Audition - One of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I rented it blind, which is the best way to see it.
The Haunted Palace - Vincent Price in the first-ever film adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. 'Nuff said.
Comedy of Terrors - Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, in a slapstick farce about an undertaker who takes it into his own hands to increase his business.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Official representative of the Vincent Price school of themed murder movies. Aesthetically fascinating, and the dynamic between Phibes and Vulnavia is worth the price of admission alone. Even if those weren't the case, the unicorn impaling would guarantee it a place on this list.
The Pit and the Pendulum - I'd be remiss not to choose one of the Price/Corman Poe adaptations. Pit and the Pendulum may or may not be the best of those, but it holds a special place in my heart, maybe because it was the first one I saw.
Tower of London - One more Vincent Price movie, and then I'll stop. Classy black-and-white cinematography, and Price playing maybe his most put-upon character ever.
An American Werewolf in London - "Beware the moon."
Werewolf of London - Werewolf adventure botanists!
The Descent - It would've been better if the cave monsters had been Hollow Earth people who worshipped ancient Lovecraftian gods, but I'll take what I can get.
Pitch Black - Vin Diesel in his best role fighting hammer-headed alien monsters in space.
The Exorcist - A classic. I got to see this one in its theatrical re-release at midnight on Halloween. Good times.
The Fly - One of the best--and grossest--tragic love stories ever filmed.
Final Destination 2 - The only reason to watch the Final Destination movies is to the see the Rube Goldberg-esque way in which the characters get killed. And all the best kills are in this installment, which opens with a truly incredible car crash sequence.
Dracula (1979) - Frank Langhella and Sir Laurence Olivier class up my favorite screen version of Dracula.
Dracula (1931) (Spanish Version) - My second favorite version of Dracula. Definitely worth watching alongside the English-language version with Bela Lugosi. This one lacks the iconic performances from that one, but it's clearer, sexier, and narratively more satisfying.
Son of Frankenstein - Unpopularly, this is probably my favorite of the Frankenstein sequels. If nothing else, you can't beat that cast.
House of Frankenstein - I had to have one of the Universal monster rally movies in here, and this one takes the cake thanks to Boris Karloff's Dr. Niemann and the circus that's carrying around Dracula's skeleton.
The Eye (2002) - Genuinely creepy and with an ending that completely blows up what has been, up 'til then, a very small, personal movie.
Cemetery Man - A screwed-up favorite from my days of loving wonky zombie-fighting black-comedies. Rupert Everett is the perfect Dylan Dog, even when he's not actually being Dylan Dog. Probably responsible for my obsession with monster fighting cemetery caretakers.
Bride of Re-Animator - Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West is just inspired. This is the one I saw first, so it's the one that sticks in my head.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Dawn is the only one of Romero's zombie opuses that I've not yet seen (I know, I know), but I was surprised by how much I liked Zack Snyder's remake.
House of Wax (2005) - Speaking of surprising remakes of classics that I've never seen, House of Wax may bear little or no resemblance to the Vincent Price original, and it's certainly the only killer redneck movie you're going to find on this list, but I liked it because of the cringe-inducing quality of the violence, and because the protagonists went out there and protagged.
Ginger Snaps - One of the great werewolf movies, in spite of some special effects limitations.
Creepshow - I love anthology films, and those EC comics-style transitions would've won me over even if the rest of the movie were garbage. (It's not.)
Nosferatu (1922) - Imagine if this had been what all our cinematic vampire mythology was based on?
Hellraiser - Just because I said I liked Candyman better, doesn't mean that Hellraiser isn't still great.
From Dusk 'Til Dawn - Problems aplenty, but there's also some great moments and some great music and it's fun to see a young George Clooney killing gloppy vampires. One of the sequels has Ambrose Bierce as a protagonist.
Hammer Horror films - Just all of them.
When I set out to make it I realized really quickly that Hammer movies were going to be a problem. On the one hand, they were going to just dominate the list. And on the other hand, I wasn't really sure which ones to include. See, Hammer movies are basically unfailingly good, in a way that I've never found with any other equally large sub-set of cinema. And, what's more, they all feel very similar to me. I don't really even think of them as individual movies, exactly, but as sort of one huge tapestry of related films with the same actors, settings, monsters, etc. Pulling them apart seems disingenuous, especially when they're just going to then occupy something like half my list. So instead I made a list without including any Hammer movies, and then gave all of them an honorary spot. So this is actually 73 movies, plus every Hammer movie ever made.
I also stretched the boundaries of what constitutes "horror," probably, including some stuff that I'm not even sure I would put under that banner. But I'll let you judge for yourselves whether they should be included or not.
This is about as far from an objective list as it's possible to get, and equally far from being ranked in any particular order. Basically, these are the first movies I thought of, and I'm sure I left out all sorts of great ones. (I noticed several I left out upon reading back over, but I didn't let myself go back and make changes.) They comprise a pretty solid combo of things that I love right now and things that had a big impact on me at some earlier point in my evolution. (And sometimes both.) Anyway, here's the list. It was fun to make, hopefully it'll be fun to read.
The Thing - If these were in some kind of order by preference, this would be #1. Maybe the best horror movie ever made, for my money. Quiet and over-the-top all at once. Perfect monsters, perfect pacing, perfect music, perfect setting. Just perfect.
The Old Dark House (1932) - My favorite of the old Universal movies, even though it's not as famous and doesn't contain a single monster.
Tremors - The perfect homage to the big monster movies of the '50s. Imminently quotable, and the graboids are some of the best monsters ever.
Brotherhood of the Wolf - Is it a horror movie? A martial arts movie? A costume drama? I don't know, or care, it hits more of my obsessions than I can readily count.
The Changeling (1980) - I just discovered this one recently, but it's rapidly become one of my favorite ghost movies. Great creepiness and a great lead.
The Haunting (1963) - Another of my favorite ghost movies. A masterpiece of suggestion. To see how to completely ruin a movie, watch this one followed by the terrible 1999 remake.
Aliens - For most folks Alien is the holy grail, but I saw this one first and it's still my favorite.
I Sell the Dead - Glenn McQuaid's great supernatural Resurrection Man comedy is one of my favorite movies of the last decade, hands down.
Evil Dead 2 - As Jesse said in his list, this one strikes the perfect blend of silliness between the first one and the third.
Return of the Living Dead - This and Evil Dead 2 were my favorite gory zombie-ish horror movies in high school. They're both still great, and both as quotable as movies come. I always swore that if I ever started a punk band I was going to call it Send More Paramedics, but it seems that somebody beat me to it.
King Kong (1933) - The original and still the best. King Kong never really struck me as much of a horror movie, but whatever kind of movie it is, it's one of the best ever made.
Matango - Mushroom people. Do I need to say any more than that?
The Devil's Backbone - Guillermo del Toro is my favorite director, and so you can bet that he's going to be on this list a few times. This is probably my favorite of his movies. I love the setting, and the mixture of Gothic and boy's adventure tropes.
Cronos - Not as polished as del Toro's later films, this one's still a charmer, with immortal alchemists and bugs trapped in wind-up vampire machines.
Pan's Labyrinth - The most famous of del Toro's Spanish language films, and definitely the most aesthetically achieved. Great monsters in the service of a great story.
The Orphanage - A perfect Gothic ghost story.
Jacob's Ladder - I re-watched this one recently and it doesn't hold up quite as well, but the vibrating head monsters are amazing and are still one of the scariest things I've ever seen on film.
House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Probably my favorite William Castle movie, and a great film to watch for Halloween. Vincent Price is at his best, and the creaky, over-the-top spookiness of it is hard to beat.
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - The only movie on this list where the original and the remake both found a slot. Geoffrey Rush (doing his best Vincent Price) and Famke Janssen both own this movie. Bonus points for a cameo by Jeffrey Combs and for Jacob's Ladder-style vibrating head monsters. "I'm Stephen Goddamn Price!"
Monster Squad - One of the most formative movies of my childhood. A bunch of foul-mouthed, monster-obsessed kids run up against the Universal monsters (as redesigned by Stan Winston). Why I loved this is probably self-explanatory.
The Lost Boys - Another one from my youth, probably equally obvious. Likely responsible for no small part of my obsession with Keifer Sutherland.
Trick 'r Treat (2007) - In spite of some missteps, one of the all-time great anthology horror films, and also maybe the most perfect movie about Halloween. Sam deserves to join the pantheon of horror movie greats.
Nightbreed - By no means Barker's best, still my favorite for, again, probably obvious reasons. For every place where it falls flat, there's always something else I love twice as much.
Lake Placid - Of all the stretches I undertake on this list, calling this a horror movie may be the stretchiest. That said, great giant killer animal fun watching wonderful actors do wonderful stuff. The movie that made me an Oliver Platt fan.
Deep Rising - While I was able to put Lake Placid on this list, Stephen Sommers' 1999 remake of The Mummy apparently just wasn't horror enough for me. So instead, here's Sommers' earlier monster effort, with lots of tentacles and added Treat Williams.
Jaws - And while we're talking about aquatic beasties, it wouldn't do not to mention the best of them. Jaws is a superb movie, and Quint is still one of the best characters in screen history.
Land of the Dead - Heresy, I know, but Land of the Dead is my favorite of Romero's zombie movies. It's just such a joy to see him doing what he does best, and effortlessly updating the genre that everyone else had been busily pounding into the ground.
The Mist - A movie that just keeps getting better with time. Not only a great monster film, but a huge improvement on the source material. Frank Darabont is amazing. (Plus, there's nods to Hellboy in there, which endears it to me somewhat.)
Bubba Ho-Tep - The best movie about Elvis and JFK protecting their rest home from a mummy that you're ever likely to see!
The Frighteners - The movie that introduced me to Peter Jackson, and to Jeffrey Combs. Full of excess, but also full of murderous ghosts, crazy FBI agents, decaying towns, and old insane asylums.
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat - I'm probably going to get in trouble for this one, but I found Sundown about as perfectly charming as a movie can be.
The Ring (2002) - Worlds better than the Japanese original, for my money.
Scream - While I may regret what it has wrought as much as anyone, the original Scream was a solid piece of work that caught me at just the right time of my horror-movie-fan life.
Creature from the Black Lagoon - Is it the best of the Universal monster movies? No. But the Creature is my favorite, and the suit is still one of the best monster effects in movie history.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - I've seen whole movies that weren't as good as individual frames of this one.
The Last Man on Earth - Vincent Price stars in the best of all film versions of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
The Body Snatcher (1945) - Resurrection Men again, this time in a more serious milieu and without so much of the supernatural. A brilliant, restrained movie and probably my favorite of the Val Lewton horror flicks.
I Walked with a Zombie - The movie that gives The Body Snatcher it's run for favorite Val Lewton film. Quiet, restrained, and with a great theme song!
Mad Love (1935) - Stylish as hell. Peter Lorre does what he does best.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) - Underappreciated. Great sets. My favorite Bela Lugosi movie? Could be.
20 Million Miles to Earth - I'm a sucker for giant, sympathetic monsters (see King Kong above), and Ymir is probably my favorite Ray Harryhausen creation.
Event Horizon - This is one I haven't revisited for awhile, but when I first saw it it left a big impression on me. Cosmic horror in the depths of space, and one of the coolest spaceships ever designed. Sam Neil being crazy. "Where we're going, you don't need eyes to see."
Puppet Master - Another one I've not gone back to in years. Holding an honorary position to represent all of the terrible Full Moon Home Video movies that I watched as a kid, with all their diminutive, stop-motion monsters. Has a special place because it's about an alchemist who makes killer puppets to fight Nazis (if I remember correctly).
Gremlins 2 - Joe Dante deconstructs his own movie and successfully kills a franchise. A beautiful, over-the-top batch of craziness full of awesome puppets and gloppy monsters.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - A wonderful paranoia movie, with one of the all-time great film endings.
Candyman - Usually gets overshadowed by Hellraiser, but for my money this one captures the numinosity of Barker's work better than any other film adaptation.
Audition - One of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I rented it blind, which is the best way to see it.
The Haunted Palace - Vincent Price in the first-ever film adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. 'Nuff said.
Comedy of Terrors - Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, in a slapstick farce about an undertaker who takes it into his own hands to increase his business.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Official representative of the Vincent Price school of themed murder movies. Aesthetically fascinating, and the dynamic between Phibes and Vulnavia is worth the price of admission alone. Even if those weren't the case, the unicorn impaling would guarantee it a place on this list.
The Pit and the Pendulum - I'd be remiss not to choose one of the Price/Corman Poe adaptations. Pit and the Pendulum may or may not be the best of those, but it holds a special place in my heart, maybe because it was the first one I saw.
Tower of London - One more Vincent Price movie, and then I'll stop. Classy black-and-white cinematography, and Price playing maybe his most put-upon character ever.
An American Werewolf in London - "Beware the moon."
Werewolf of London - Werewolf adventure botanists!
The Descent - It would've been better if the cave monsters had been Hollow Earth people who worshipped ancient Lovecraftian gods, but I'll take what I can get.
Pitch Black - Vin Diesel in his best role fighting hammer-headed alien monsters in space.
The Exorcist - A classic. I got to see this one in its theatrical re-release at midnight on Halloween. Good times.
The Fly - One of the best--and grossest--tragic love stories ever filmed.
Final Destination 2 - The only reason to watch the Final Destination movies is to the see the Rube Goldberg-esque way in which the characters get killed. And all the best kills are in this installment, which opens with a truly incredible car crash sequence.
Dracula (1979) - Frank Langhella and Sir Laurence Olivier class up my favorite screen version of Dracula.
Dracula (1931) (Spanish Version) - My second favorite version of Dracula. Definitely worth watching alongside the English-language version with Bela Lugosi. This one lacks the iconic performances from that one, but it's clearer, sexier, and narratively more satisfying.
Son of Frankenstein - Unpopularly, this is probably my favorite of the Frankenstein sequels. If nothing else, you can't beat that cast.
House of Frankenstein - I had to have one of the Universal monster rally movies in here, and this one takes the cake thanks to Boris Karloff's Dr. Niemann and the circus that's carrying around Dracula's skeleton.
The Eye (2002) - Genuinely creepy and with an ending that completely blows up what has been, up 'til then, a very small, personal movie.
Cemetery Man - A screwed-up favorite from my days of loving wonky zombie-fighting black-comedies. Rupert Everett is the perfect Dylan Dog, even when he's not actually being Dylan Dog. Probably responsible for my obsession with monster fighting cemetery caretakers.
Bride of Re-Animator - Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West is just inspired. This is the one I saw first, so it's the one that sticks in my head.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Dawn is the only one of Romero's zombie opuses that I've not yet seen (I know, I know), but I was surprised by how much I liked Zack Snyder's remake.
House of Wax (2005) - Speaking of surprising remakes of classics that I've never seen, House of Wax may bear little or no resemblance to the Vincent Price original, and it's certainly the only killer redneck movie you're going to find on this list, but I liked it because of the cringe-inducing quality of the violence, and because the protagonists went out there and protagged.
Ginger Snaps - One of the great werewolf movies, in spite of some special effects limitations.
Creepshow - I love anthology films, and those EC comics-style transitions would've won me over even if the rest of the movie were garbage. (It's not.)
Nosferatu (1922) - Imagine if this had been what all our cinematic vampire mythology was based on?
Hellraiser - Just because I said I liked Candyman better, doesn't mean that Hellraiser isn't still great.
From Dusk 'Til Dawn - Problems aplenty, but there's also some great moments and some great music and it's fun to see a young George Clooney killing gloppy vampires. One of the sequels has Ambrose Bierce as a protagonist.
Hammer Horror films - Just all of them.
October 26, 2010
The Day After Vincent Price Day
As promised, S.J. Chambers and I live-Tweeted a Vincent Price movie last night in celebration of Vincent Price Day. Unfortunately, due to the perfidies of Netflix, we were unable to do The Haunted Palace as we had planned. (Apparently when you try to watch The Haunted Palace on Watch Instantly, what you get instead is something called The Demi-Paradise starring Sir Laurence Olivier.) So, in haste, another movie was chosen, and we ended up watching The Tomb of Ligeia instead.
Below is a transcript of our Twitter conversation. I've rearranged it so that it reads in descending order, and edited the order of comments so that responses to questions or statements are grouped together a little better than they were due to the vagaries of Twitter. Otherwise, this is more or less exactly how the conversation went. My roommate Jay was also present, and shouted things over my shoulder, some of which made it into the Twitter commentary.
Selena_Jo
Sweet...heavy coffins.
Selena_Jo
Nice...straight up quote from the story and not five minutes in. Get 'em, Vincent.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Who wrote the screenplay, Hawthorne?
orrin
You're going to have to do all the heavy lifting on the Poe elements here, Selena.
orrin
I don't remember this story a bit, basically.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Well, for those who haven't read the story, Ligeia is about a dying woman who comes back from the grave.
Selena_Jo
@orrin What's probably most important here is Ligeia is dark and Rowena is fair and Ligiea is going to come fuck her dye job up.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Best. Summary. Ever.
orrin
Nice paintings behind the titles, though I'm a little behind on saying it since we're now well past them.
orrin
Vincent Price is rocking those shades!
Selena_Jo
Dude...those sun glasses own!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Evidently, Corman has decided to integrate some of The Black Cat in here. Are they making Ligeia into a witch?
orrin
@Selena_Jo I think all of these Corman/Price Poe movies are sort of mish-mashes of stuff.
orrin
I think Rowena has the hots for Vincent Price. Jay agrees.
Selena_Jo
@orrin And he's playing it stone cold...like the tomb.
orrin
Vincent also lives in the best cobwebby museum ever!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Oh snap...he had me at "linen bandages."
orrin
Why do they have a goddess of ill-omened marriages?
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think that's a question for Jane Austen to answer.
orrin
Wow, Rowena is saucy!
orrin
"Why do I always fall for tall, dark men who try to strangle me?"
Selena_Jo
@orrin Stop what?
Selena_Jo
@orrin Is tea in the kitchen a euphemism?
orrin
I think so. Now she's wanting to "offer him something."
Selena_Jo
Ah, the plot twist begins to emerge.....
Selena_Jo
@orrin OMG, Orrin, how did we pick the Twilight of Vincent Price movies?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Yes, it would appear so.
orrin
"Why won't you throw me over this table and have your way with me?"
Selena_Jo
@orrin She isn't "willing" enough, ha ha!
orrin
"I AM A COMPLICATED MAN!"
Selena_Jo
BTW, if anyone is actually tuning in, please feel free to join us. If you've seen the film, we'd love to know your thoughts.
Selena_Jo
Wow, what a catblocker.
Selena_Jo
Ok, so in the story, Ligiea dabbled in alchemy, and pretty much it is alluded that she found and used the philosopher's stone.
orrin
Is the obsession with Egyptian stuff from the story, or just from Poe in general?
orrin
Or did Corman just think it was neat?
Selena_Jo
This is a huge stretch here...but the whole idea of the philosopher's stone actually goes back to Ancient Egypt with Isis and Horus.
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think it's just a flourish mostly....now we get to hear the dl on that dead biyah.
orrin
Wow, Vincent Price, you may want to be LESS frank with your guests.
orrin
"No no, listen to my rambling!"
orrin
Also, you should probably get your servant to dust.
orrin
Y'know, ever.
Selena_Jo
Beware the black cat thief--she'll steal your hat, and then she'll steal your soul.
orrin
Also your glasses! And then take you up to the bell tower.
Selena_Jo
He should fear for his mind.
orrin
His hands are guilty with marble!
orrin
Somehow, telling her she's safe with him doesn't seem super comforting.
Selena_Jo
So...what is his profession exactly besides thrower of cabbage at cats?
orrin
He's a doctor of repairing old Egyptian statues.
orrin
Some second unit people went to Stonehenge, apparently.
Selena_Jo
This may actually be one of the prettiest of the Corman/Price films.
orrin
@Selena_Jo It is gorgeous, isn't it?
Selena_Jo
@orrin Yeah, and the costumes are lovely.
orrin
@Selena_Jo And Vincent Price is still rocking those shades! Man, seriously.
Selena_Jo
Wow, so Vernon really dropped the ball on the wedding-night thing.
Selena_Jo
What do you like most about Vincent Price flicks?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Vincent Price. Which is a lame answer, but still.
orrin
My favorite thing about the Corman ones, besides him, are the great Gothic sets up against the bright Technicolor colors.
Selena_Jo
WOO, MESMER! Now we're talking, Vernon.
Selena_Jo
Don't do it!
orrin
"MY HANDS ARE MELTING!!"
orrin
Seriously, though, hypnotism scene FTW!
Selena_Jo
@orrin This scene pretty much illustrates perfectly why I love Vincent Price. He gets so wrapped up in these roles.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Vincent Price can class up just about anything. Although this one actually doesn't need too much help.
orrin
Way to mesmerize your wife when there's a malicious spirit present.
orrin
OMG creepy dream sequence!
Selena_Jo
OMG creepy Egyptian fresco.
Selena_Jo
Oh man...I've heard stray cats yelp and his, but they've never sounded like a jaguar...or run like one.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Or like a weird shadow puppet of one?
orrin
Creepy recurring dead fox is creepy.
Selena_Jo
OMG creepy Freudian scene...with a dead fox in ones bed...verrry interesting.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Oh, I know where Vernon's been...check his collar for marble dust.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Yeah, I can understand the cat with all the Egyptian motifs...but I'm afraid I don't understand how the fox ties in.
orrin
Seriously, this is off topic, but Vincent Price has the best candlesticks EVER.
orrin
I want bright green and blue candlesticks like that!
orrin
"My hairbrush is filled with Ligeia!"
Selena_Jo
That guy better step off Vernon's kool aid or the jaguar shadow puppet is going to get him!
orrin
We are literary, all talking about candles and shit!
orrin
And speaking of candles, apparently they're good for dripping on your meat.
Selena_Jo
@orrin I'm trying really hard not to find the real story in this adaptation...but I think the wax meat thing will become important later.
orrin
@Selena_Jo If it isn't, you'll have to explain that to me!
orrin
"Have you ever been in a Turkish prison, Kendrick?"
Selena_Jo
Vernon is going to be so pissed.
orrin
Rowena, do not go TOWARD things that make that kind of noise!
orrin
People throw a lot of cats in these old movies.
Selena_Jo
Man, I can't wait for Ligiea to come mess you all up.
orrin
Creepy Egyptian fresco redux!
orrin
Yes! Secret passage time!
Selena_Jo
Ooooo...dripping blood!!!!!
orrin
@Selena_Jo And there's the wax! Good call!
orrin
Thanks for the reveal go to sloppy grave desecrations!
orrin
Wow, that is an amazing secret room!
orrin
Vincent Price classes up everything, even secret chambers!
orrin
"I am Kendrick McExposition!"
orrin
Good plan, Rowena, but it looks like you pulled it off a little TOO well.
Selena_Jo
Let's just throw all the bitches in the pyre and be done with it.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Something else better get thrown on that pyre. Look at that thing!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Ok, so we're sort of getting back into the story, although it seems a little backwards. Ligeia taints Rowena with her blood ...
Selena_Jo
blood which just appears in thin air...Rowena gets really sick...dies..and a transofrmation occurs. LIGIEA.
orrin
"I can't keep my dead wives straight!"
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think that may be the best summation of this film!
orrin
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, or, I CAN'T KEEP MY DEAD WIVES STRAIGHT
Selena_Jo
DUDE THE CAT SCRATCHED HIS EYES OMG
orrin
Dude, you had a whip and a gaffe and the cat still took you down! That is either one hell of a cat, or you need to man up.
orrin
And the inevitable fire!
Selena_Jo
Ah, burning the house down, the deus ex machina of gothic lit.
orrin
The building burning down at the end isn't even a spoiler in these movies. It's like the credits.
Selena_Jo
My husband exclaims "How many times is Vincent Price going to make creepy wax sculptures and burn shit down?"
orrin
Well, he burns shit down in pretty much every one of these.
Selena_Jo
FINis.
orrin
THE END.
orrin
Everyone lived happily ever after. Except the people who died in a fire.
Selena_Jo
Nothing like a little Poe quote to give the movie some cred. Nice.
Selena_Jo
Well, Orrin, did we learn anything from today's Vincent Price Day adventure?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Well, we learned that THE HAUNTED PALACE is apparently some black-and-white movie with Sir Lawrence Olivier in it.
orrin
@Selena_Jo And... not to mesmerize people. I was going to put a qualifier on that, but maybe just not ever would be best.
Selena_Jo
@orrin True. I also learned that in the battle of you vs. feral alchemy cat, you loose.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Seriously.
Selena_Jo
And I think something should be said for not marrying the first bat you meet in the belfry, but ...
orrin
Especially if he's got a dead wife who may or may not be less dead than advertised.
Selena_Jo
Verdad.
orrin
So... I guess in spite of misadventures galore, we made it through a live-Tweeting of THE TOMB OF LIGEIA.
orrin
Happy Vincent Price Day!
Below is a transcript of our Twitter conversation. I've rearranged it so that it reads in descending order, and edited the order of comments so that responses to questions or statements are grouped together a little better than they were due to the vagaries of Twitter. Otherwise, this is more or less exactly how the conversation went. My roommate Jay was also present, and shouted things over my shoulder, some of which made it into the Twitter commentary.
Selena_Jo
Sweet...heavy coffins.
Selena_Jo
Nice...straight up quote from the story and not five minutes in. Get 'em, Vincent.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Who wrote the screenplay, Hawthorne?
orrin
You're going to have to do all the heavy lifting on the Poe elements here, Selena.
orrin
I don't remember this story a bit, basically.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Well, for those who haven't read the story, Ligeia is about a dying woman who comes back from the grave.
Selena_Jo
@orrin What's probably most important here is Ligeia is dark and Rowena is fair and Ligiea is going to come fuck her dye job up.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Best. Summary. Ever.
orrin
Nice paintings behind the titles, though I'm a little behind on saying it since we're now well past them.
orrin
Vincent Price is rocking those shades!
Selena_Jo
Dude...those sun glasses own!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Evidently, Corman has decided to integrate some of The Black Cat in here. Are they making Ligeia into a witch?
orrin
@Selena_Jo I think all of these Corman/Price Poe movies are sort of mish-mashes of stuff.
orrin
I think Rowena has the hots for Vincent Price. Jay agrees.
Selena_Jo
@orrin And he's playing it stone cold...like the tomb.
orrin
Vincent also lives in the best cobwebby museum ever!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Oh snap...he had me at "linen bandages."
orrin
Why do they have a goddess of ill-omened marriages?
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think that's a question for Jane Austen to answer.
orrin
Wow, Rowena is saucy!
orrin
"Why do I always fall for tall, dark men who try to strangle me?"
Selena_Jo
@orrin Stop what?
Selena_Jo
@orrin Is tea in the kitchen a euphemism?
orrin
I think so. Now she's wanting to "offer him something."
Selena_Jo
Ah, the plot twist begins to emerge.....
Selena_Jo
@orrin OMG, Orrin, how did we pick the Twilight of Vincent Price movies?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Yes, it would appear so.
orrin
"Why won't you throw me over this table and have your way with me?"
Selena_Jo
@orrin She isn't "willing" enough, ha ha!
orrin
"I AM A COMPLICATED MAN!"
Selena_Jo
BTW, if anyone is actually tuning in, please feel free to join us. If you've seen the film, we'd love to know your thoughts.
Selena_Jo
Wow, what a catblocker.
Selena_Jo
Ok, so in the story, Ligiea dabbled in alchemy, and pretty much it is alluded that she found and used the philosopher's stone.
orrin
Is the obsession with Egyptian stuff from the story, or just from Poe in general?
orrin
Or did Corman just think it was neat?
Selena_Jo
This is a huge stretch here...but the whole idea of the philosopher's stone actually goes back to Ancient Egypt with Isis and Horus.
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think it's just a flourish mostly....now we get to hear the dl on that dead biyah.
orrin
Wow, Vincent Price, you may want to be LESS frank with your guests.
orrin
"No no, listen to my rambling!"
orrin
Also, you should probably get your servant to dust.
orrin
Y'know, ever.
Selena_Jo
Beware the black cat thief--she'll steal your hat, and then she'll steal your soul.
orrin
Also your glasses! And then take you up to the bell tower.
Selena_Jo
He should fear for his mind.
orrin
His hands are guilty with marble!
orrin
Somehow, telling her she's safe with him doesn't seem super comforting.
Selena_Jo
So...what is his profession exactly besides thrower of cabbage at cats?
orrin
He's a doctor of repairing old Egyptian statues.
orrin
Some second unit people went to Stonehenge, apparently.
Selena_Jo
This may actually be one of the prettiest of the Corman/Price films.
orrin
@Selena_Jo It is gorgeous, isn't it?
Selena_Jo
@orrin Yeah, and the costumes are lovely.
orrin
@Selena_Jo And Vincent Price is still rocking those shades! Man, seriously.
Selena_Jo
Wow, so Vernon really dropped the ball on the wedding-night thing.
Selena_Jo
What do you like most about Vincent Price flicks?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Vincent Price. Which is a lame answer, but still.
orrin
My favorite thing about the Corman ones, besides him, are the great Gothic sets up against the bright Technicolor colors.
Selena_Jo
WOO, MESMER! Now we're talking, Vernon.
Selena_Jo
Don't do it!
orrin
"MY HANDS ARE MELTING!!"
orrin
Seriously, though, hypnotism scene FTW!
Selena_Jo
@orrin This scene pretty much illustrates perfectly why I love Vincent Price. He gets so wrapped up in these roles.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Vincent Price can class up just about anything. Although this one actually doesn't need too much help.
orrin
Way to mesmerize your wife when there's a malicious spirit present.
orrin
OMG creepy dream sequence!
Selena_Jo
OMG creepy Egyptian fresco.
Selena_Jo
Oh man...I've heard stray cats yelp and his, but they've never sounded like a jaguar...or run like one.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Or like a weird shadow puppet of one?
orrin
Creepy recurring dead fox is creepy.
Selena_Jo
OMG creepy Freudian scene...with a dead fox in ones bed...verrry interesting.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Oh, I know where Vernon's been...check his collar for marble dust.
Selena_Jo
@orrin Yeah, I can understand the cat with all the Egyptian motifs...but I'm afraid I don't understand how the fox ties in.
orrin
Seriously, this is off topic, but Vincent Price has the best candlesticks EVER.
orrin
I want bright green and blue candlesticks like that!
orrin
"My hairbrush is filled with Ligeia!"
Selena_Jo
That guy better step off Vernon's kool aid or the jaguar shadow puppet is going to get him!
orrin
We are literary, all talking about candles and shit!
orrin
And speaking of candles, apparently they're good for dripping on your meat.
Selena_Jo
@orrin I'm trying really hard not to find the real story in this adaptation...but I think the wax meat thing will become important later.
orrin
@Selena_Jo If it isn't, you'll have to explain that to me!
orrin
"Have you ever been in a Turkish prison, Kendrick?"
Selena_Jo
Vernon is going to be so pissed.
orrin
Rowena, do not go TOWARD things that make that kind of noise!
orrin
People throw a lot of cats in these old movies.
Selena_Jo
Man, I can't wait for Ligiea to come mess you all up.
orrin
Creepy Egyptian fresco redux!
orrin
Yes! Secret passage time!
Selena_Jo
Ooooo...dripping blood!!!!!
orrin
@Selena_Jo And there's the wax! Good call!
orrin
Thanks for the reveal go to sloppy grave desecrations!
orrin
Wow, that is an amazing secret room!
orrin
Vincent Price classes up everything, even secret chambers!
orrin
"I am Kendrick McExposition!"
orrin
Good plan, Rowena, but it looks like you pulled it off a little TOO well.
Selena_Jo
Let's just throw all the bitches in the pyre and be done with it.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Something else better get thrown on that pyre. Look at that thing!
Selena_Jo
@orrin Ok, so we're sort of getting back into the story, although it seems a little backwards. Ligeia taints Rowena with her blood ...
Selena_Jo
blood which just appears in thin air...Rowena gets really sick...dies..and a transofrmation occurs. LIGIEA.
orrin
"I can't keep my dead wives straight!"
Selena_Jo
@orrin I think that may be the best summation of this film!
orrin
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, or, I CAN'T KEEP MY DEAD WIVES STRAIGHT
Selena_Jo
DUDE THE CAT SCRATCHED HIS EYES OMG
orrin
Dude, you had a whip and a gaffe and the cat still took you down! That is either one hell of a cat, or you need to man up.
orrin
And the inevitable fire!
Selena_Jo
Ah, burning the house down, the deus ex machina of gothic lit.
orrin
The building burning down at the end isn't even a spoiler in these movies. It's like the credits.
Selena_Jo
My husband exclaims "How many times is Vincent Price going to make creepy wax sculptures and burn shit down?"
orrin
Well, he burns shit down in pretty much every one of these.
Selena_Jo
FINis.
orrin
THE END.
orrin
Everyone lived happily ever after. Except the people who died in a fire.
Selena_Jo
Nothing like a little Poe quote to give the movie some cred. Nice.
Selena_Jo
Well, Orrin, did we learn anything from today's Vincent Price Day adventure?
orrin
@Selena_Jo Well, we learned that THE HAUNTED PALACE is apparently some black-and-white movie with Sir Lawrence Olivier in it.
orrin
@Selena_Jo And... not to mesmerize people. I was going to put a qualifier on that, but maybe just not ever would be best.
Selena_Jo
@orrin True. I also learned that in the battle of you vs. feral alchemy cat, you loose.
orrin
@Selena_Jo Seriously.
Selena_Jo
And I think something should be said for not marrying the first bat you meet in the belfry, but ...
orrin
Especially if he's got a dead wife who may or may not be less dead than advertised.
Selena_Jo
Verdad.
orrin
So... I guess in spite of misadventures galore, we made it through a live-Tweeting of THE TOMB OF LIGEIA.
orrin
Happy Vincent Price Day!
October 25, 2010
Vincent Price Day
Today is Vincent Price Day. As such, Selena Chambers and I are going to be live-Tweeting our viewing of The Haunted Palace, starting at around 7pm central time. I've set up a Twitter list for the event, which you can follow here.
If you miss the event, I'll be collecting everything after-the-fact and posting a summation on here, though it may not appear until sometime tomorrow. Hope you'll be able to join us and, if not, at least take the time out to watch something with Vincent Price in it for the occasion. I'd provide a list of suggestions but really, if it's a Vincent Price movie, you can't go far wrong.
If you miss the event, I'll be collecting everything after-the-fact and posting a summation on here, though it may not appear until sometime tomorrow. Hope you'll be able to join us and, if not, at least take the time out to watch something with Vincent Price in it for the occasion. I'd provide a list of suggestions but really, if it's a Vincent Price movie, you can't go far wrong.
Countdown: The Crimson Cult
The first five minutes or so of The Crimson Cult (aka, Curse of the Crimson Altar) feature a justly famous image of a blue-painted Barbara Steele in a crazy headdress presiding over a weird S&M witch's sabbath where a naked woman chained to an altar is whipped and then sacrificed. While I don't know if "good" is exactly the right word to ascribe to this scene, it is certainly striking. Someone needs to have told the makers of The Crimson Cult not to put the best five minutes right at the beginning.
Supposedly based on H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House," I really don't exactly see how. There are dreams, and a witch, and a house. That's about where the similarities stop. (Barbara Steele's witch is named Lavinia, presumably after a character from a different Lovecraft story.) The plot, though, is a pretty standard cult/Satanism plot of the time period.
The Crimson Cult boasts a cast that should've been able to make up for any storyline deficiencies. Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Michael Gough, and the aforementioned blue-painted Barbara Steele. Unfortunately, aside from Steele who gets to wear that rad hat, all of them are given pretty thankless roles, and even when melodramatics are appropriate, all their performances stay pretty low-key. After the first five minutes, an early swingin' party/orgy, and a few later variants on that same opening tableau, there's really not much to recommend The Crimson Cult, which quickly devolves into people walking around in dark houses, having circuitous, go-nowhere conversations, and sleeping.
The trailer shows you most of the good bits, and there's a much more in-depth overview here, complete with screen grabs that'll give a good taste of the trippy sabbath scenes. It really doesn't get any better than that, for whatever that's worth.
October 23, 2010
Ghost Appreciation Month: The Devil's Backbone
As promised, my second contribution to Ghost Appreciation Month is up at Beyond Fiction. This one is more of companion piece to my earlier contribution to Vampire Awareness Month, since this time I'm tackling Guillermo del Toro's second Spanish-language film, The Devil's Backbone.
October 20, 2010
Ghost Appreciation Month: The Frighteners
After participating in Vampire Awareness Month back in July, I was overjoyed to hear that the folks over at Beyond Fiction were putting together a Ghost Appreciation Month as well, and I quickly threw my hat into that there ring.
This time out I'll be contributing my thoughts on two movies, rather than just one. Of course I'll be dropping in to talk about Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone later in the month, but today's piece concerns The Frighteners.
Revisiting The Frighteners I found that I had maybe less to say about it than I might've imagined, but given the building blocks that make it up I don't think it's impact on my young mind should be underestimated.
This time out I'll be contributing my thoughts on two movies, rather than just one. Of course I'll be dropping in to talk about Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone later in the month, but today's piece concerns The Frighteners.
Revisiting The Frighteners I found that I had maybe less to say about it than I might've imagined, but given the building blocks that make it up I don't think it's impact on my young mind should be underestimated.
