Sebastian Bendix's Blog, page 2
October 22, 2017
10/22/17 – day twenty-two of thirty-one days of horror!
The aughts were a shaky time for mainstream American horror –
things were either torture-porny with your Saws and your Hostels, or they were
Asian ghost movie remakes, or they were found footage – rare was the Hollywood
horror movie that went in an unexpected direction, which is why I have always
appreciated Iain Softley’s 2005 supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key. Kate
Hudson stars as a hospice nurse assigned to help (the great) Gena Rowlands deal
with her dying husband (John Hurt) in their creepy Louisiana plantation home,
only to find herself tangled in a mystery related to the house’s dark past. What
starts off seeming like a voodoo-infused ghost story goes into some genuinely
surprising direction, with the game cast (also featuring Peter Sarsgaard in a
satisfyingly slimy role) and well-realized southern gothic atmosphere really
selling the chills. Thanks to the Sixth Sense all supernatural thrillers
released during this time were required to have a big twist ending, and while
The Skeleton Key definitely falls into that category, the twist here is
actually pretty great and hard to see coming. My wife is a big fan of this
movie and it’s one of her favorite movies to relax with at home – what can I
say, we’re weirdos. This Halloween, the Skeleton Key is your key to Cajun-style
terror!
October 21, 2017
10/21/17 – day twenty-one of thirty-one days of horror!
Every year demands its Dracula, and this year we head to the
arthouse with Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre. A reasonably faithful
adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel – and by proxy a remake of the 1922 silent
classic Nosferatu – Herzog imbues the story with his unique concerns and
preoccupations, the most obvious being his obsession with both the beauty and
cruelty of nature. He also brings along his best fiend and infant terrible Klaus Kinski to take on the Dracula role, and
Kinski does not disappoint. Using the bald, rodent-like “Count Orlock” (here
reinstated as Count Dracula) look from the 20s film as a jumping off point,
Kinski, terrifying in the make-up and icky long fingernails, also gives the
character a sense of haunted loneliness and a stillness that matches the film’s
languid pace. Also great is Isabelle Adjani as Lucy, the object of Dracula’s
obsession, her pallid beauty evoking silent era screen sirens, effortlessly
conveying wide-eyed terror. Herzog proves himself a master of mood, melding images
of beauty and death – as well as an alternately chilling and joyous Popol Vuh
score – into a haunting, impressionistic tone poem. Class up your Halloween
with this impeccably crafted Kinski creepfest.
October 20, 2017
10/20/17 – day twenty of thirty-one days of horror!
Until recently, I had not been initiated to Larry Stewart’s
odd little 1984 gem The Initiated, but now that I have been initiated my life
will never be the same. On the surface The Initiation looks like your standard
sorority house being stalked by a killer fare, and while it does satisfy that
particular genre itch, this movie is way stranger than that, its plot
constantly veering into unpredictable directions and odd story cul-de-sacs. Daphne
Zuninga, one role away from her breakout in Spaceballs, plays a sorority sister
whose strange nightmares are the subject of a highly inappropriate on-campus study
and may connect her to the campus killer, who seems to be targeting her and her
fellow pledges. Thanks to her wealthy father (character great Clu Gulager,
partnered with onscreen wife Vera Miles), the sorority is able to gain access
to a massive department store, where they settle in for a long night of being stalked
and murdered, leading to a shocking double-twist ending that even had my jaded
brain fooled. If you like your sorority houses dripping with blood and have somehow
haven’t been initiated, it’s high time you treated yourself to the Initiation!
October 19, 2017
10/19/17 – day nineteen of thirty-one days of horror!
Thanks to the now late Tobe Hooper’s seminal classic The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, horror is rife with stories about young people running
afoul of creepy, murderous families in remote locations, and one of the most
underseen and underappreciated of this subgenre has to be John Hough’s 1988
American Gothic. Set on a small island of the coast of the Pacific Northwest,
the story concerns a group of young people whose sea plane is forced to land,
leaving them stranded as the unwitting guests of a bizarro nuclear family led
by the Munsters’ Yvonne De Carlo and world-class scenery chewer Rod Steiger. Things
are plenty awkward at first, but quickly devolve into deeply unsettling when
the couples’ “children” surface – full grown, middle-aged adults who act and
dress like grade school kids. This is a horror movie, so I don’t feel that it’s
spoiler territory to say that things do not go particularly well for our
youthful city slickers. Hough does a great job of bringing out the disturbed
psychology of his characters, aided by a game cast that also includes character
actors Michael J Pollard, Janet Wright and William “Porkins” Hootkins, allowing
their gleefully performances to really sell the creep factor. A great
skin-crawling deep cut for those who love hillbilly horror but are looking for
something a little off the beaten path – this Halloween, treat yourself to some
down home horror with American Gothic!
October 18, 2017
10/18/17 – day eighteen of thirty-one days of horror!
I’ve been neglecting the Universal monsters so far this year
– I dunno, maybe I’m mad over that new Mummy movie – so it’s high time I
correct that by revisiting Universal’s greatest monster: The Creature From the
Black Lagoon. Now, I enjoy all 3 Creature movies, but I have to give John
Sherwood’s 1956 The Creature Walks Among Us props for being the strangest of
the lot, which for me carries a lot of weight. It starts with the bonkers plot:
a scientist captures the Gill Man (something that happens in all of the
movies), and this time, rather than put him on display at Sea World as they did
in Revenge of the Creature, decides that he’s going to turn our green-flippered
friend into a normal, air-breathing man, or at least as close as he can get.
The results are bizarre to say the least; the formerly lithe, amphibious creature
becomes a hulking, fish-lipped brute in a pair of pajamas, forced to stay in a
cage at the scientist’s beach-adjacent lab. To make matters worse the
no-longer-gilled man is forced to witness the endless bickering of a couple whose
marriage is on the skids, making you wonder if screenwriter Arthur A. Ross had
just taken an old unsold domestic drama script and clumsily retrofitted it to
make a monster sequel. The whole thing is both heartbreaking and hilarious, and
while not exactly a thrill-ride into terror, I do feel that this is a
must-watch for Creature completists and lovers of franchise oddities. A great
one to have on in the background of your Halloween party for the purpose of
baffling your guests!
October 17, 2017
10/17/17 – day seventeen of thirty-one days of horror!
There were a few body-swapping themed horror movies in the
late 80s/early 90s, but none match the dizzying heights of Jack “A Nightmare on
Elm Street 2” Sholder’s The Hidden. It’s a bugnuts bughunt through Los Angeles
circa 1987, following cop Michael Nouri and the mysterious FBI agent shadowing
him (Kyle MacLachlan, clearly prepping to be Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks)
as they track down a body-hopping alien menace who is wreaking havoc and death
on the city of angels. What makes the Hidden such a, ahem, hidden gem – aside from
Sholder’s skill in taking the action into consistently crazy territory – are the
performances of the alien inhabited actors, most notably character actor
William Boyett, who really sells the idea of an alien wearing some poor worn-out
schlub as a skin suit. More sci-fi action than straight horror, there is
nonetheless some effectively gooey moments of body horror, and enough violence
and mayhem to keep any Halloween genre hound happy. Featuring B-movie all-stars
Clu Gulager, Chris Mulkey, Lin Shaye, Richard Brooks and an awesome soundtrack
of inexpensive to license 80s pop and metal songs that sound like popular 80s
pop and metal songs!
October 16, 2017
10/16/17 – day sixteen of thirty-one days of horror!
Of
the early 80s slasher movies that starred Jamie Lee Curtis, the one that
usually gets overlooked is Roger Spottiswoode’s 1980 whodunnit Terror Train –
and that’s a cryin’ shame because it’s good! Like most slashers of the
time, the story involves a killer
seeking revenge on a group of teens that wronged her (or him) some years
before, but this is different because it’s on a train, see? Jamie does a fine
job, though I wouldn’t say it’s her most memorable role, and the other teens
(really actors in their 20s and 30s but let’s not split hairs) are a cut above
the usual fare, especially Die Hard’s Hart Bochner playing the sort of odious
Lothario he specializes in. The train setting does add to the claustrophobia,
and the killer takes the unusual approach of wearing several different masks
(the teens are throwing a New Year’s Eve costume party on the train, as you do)
so the kills have a nice visual variety to them. Best of all, a young David
Copperfield – playing himself – performs magic tricks for the captive crowd,
and even rates as a suspect. Spottiswoode’s
direction is solid if not mind blowing; he would go on to have a respectable
Hollywood career, directing one of the later Pierce Brosnan Bond films.
Ultimately it’s a highly enjoyable trip into familiar gory territory, so if you
like a good early 80s slasher I say all aboard the Terror Train!
October 15, 2017
10/15/17 – day fifteen of thirty-one days of horror!
It
will probably affect my horror credibility rating to say that I kind of prefer
Tony Randel (British director, not the hilariously fastidious half of the Odd
Couple)’s Hellbound: Hellraiser II to Clive Barker’s original Hellraiser, but
oh well. For one thing, Hellbound is the Hellraiser entry that pulls out all
the stops and actually takes you to hell, plus it gives you a healthier dose of
horror icon Pinhead and his groovy Cenobite pals. It also ups the ante on the
first film’s gore factor, no small feat considering that the original
Hellraiser is shockingly gruesome even by today’s standards. But best of all,
Hellbound: Hellraiser II has got hella imagination, sporting the visual panache
of the best films in the Nightmare on Elm Street series (it seems to take a few
cues from the excellent Nightmare 3, Dream Warriors), especially in the
hallucinatory hell sequences. Last but surely not least, it brings back the
first film’s questionable seductress Julia, here with much better hair, and teams
her with a great new villain, the sadistic Dr. Channard, who even gets to rock
it as a penis-domed Cenobite. Way to go Dr. C! I say if you only have time for
one pass at the Lament Configuration (that’s the Cenobite’s puzzle box, in case
you aren’t a hopeless horror geek) this Halloween, make it Hellbound: Hellraiser
II!
October 14, 2017
10/14/17 – day fourteen of thirty-one days of horror!
This one is a
no-brainer, but c’mon, sooner or later I had to do The Shining. Stanley Kubrick
set out to make the definitive horror film when he took on his adaptation of
Stephen King’s seminal ghost story, and I think it’s fair to say he succeeded. Set
– as you no doubt know already – in an isolated, snowed-in hotel, Kubrick’s
take on the novel is a terrifying and deliberately crafted work, so layered and
mysterious that it has spawned something of a cult around it, as seen in the fascinating
doc Room 237. But aside from the indelible, perfect horror imagery captured by
Kubrick’s lens, what lingers most about The Shining is Jack Nicholson’s
unhinged performance as Jack Torrance, a role that cemented him as an icon and
forever repurposed Ed McMahon’s famous Johnny Carson intro. Equally spectacular
is Shelly Duvall – wearing every moment of a reportedly agonizing shoot on her
wonderfully expressive face – and one-time-only child actor Danny Lloyd as the
couple’s psychic son. And let’s not forget the great Scatman Crothers, bringing
warmth to an expository role that would have seemed thankless in less capable
hands. A masterpiece of any genre and one that should be revisited multiple
times a year, but especially on Halloween, so make sure you book your room at
the lovely Overlook hotel!
October 13, 2017
10/13/17 – day thirteen of thirty-one days of horror!
It’s Friday the 13th, so why am I choosing a
movie that doesn’t feature Jason Voorhees? Because I’m choosing The Burning,
another movie about a disfigured madman who stalks and kills teenage summer
camp counselors! There is a Friday the 13th connection – aside from
seeming like a ripoff (it was actually written and planned before the original
F13 came out) it features the FX work of genre legend Tom Savini, who jumped
ship on Friday the 13th Part 2 to handle gore duties on this – and magnificent
gore work it is! The burned, vengeance-seeking killer – named Cropsey after the
infamous Staten Island legend – inflicts wonderfully vicious deaths upon his
victims, most notably with a pair of razor sharp garden shears. Adding to the
fun is a cast of notables in the counselor roles including a pre-George
Costanza Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens before the Super Mario Bros movie made
him a household name and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Holly Hunter. The most
memorable sequence involves Cropsey going to town on a whole group of hapless
counselors as they try to escape in a raft, a jaw-dropping explosion of
bloody carnage that is shocking even by today’s desensitized standards. What
kind of fevered sicko could have conceived of such gut-churning violence? Why
none other than recently outed sexual predator and all-around real-life monster
Harvey Weinstein! That’s right, the story of The Burning was conceived by
Hollywood’s most loathsome mogul, making it possible for him to form Miramax
and prey on countless women. But don’t let that ruin this nasty little gem –
get yearning for The Burning!
