Sebastian Bendix's Blog, page 7
October 4, 2016
Day four of thirty-one days of horror!
Back in June we lost a great young actor Anton Yelchin, so it seemed
only fitting to honor him in this year’s list. Yelchin is the lead in
this year’s punk rock thriller GREEN ROOM (a great movie which you
should absolutely see), but he was also the lead in 2011’s FRIGHT NIGHT
remake, a film you probably haven’t seen because it’s a FRIGHT NIGHT
remake. But you were wrong to forsake this highly enjoyable vampire
movie, which stands on its own as a riff on the 1985 original, itself a
supernaturally infused riff on REAR WINDOW. Yelchin is predictably great
as the lead, but Colin Farrell is also outstanding as Jerry Dandridge,
the sexy bloodsucker next door. Plus you’ve got Toni Collette as
Yelchin’s (sexy) mom, McLovin’ as the best friend, Dr. Who as a Vegas
stage magician who gets drawn into the madness, and Imogen Poots, whose
last name is Poots. Even if you’re a die-hard fan of the original you
have to admire the clever way the story has been updated, maintaining
the fun spirit of Tom Holland’s 80s classic while still offering
something new. It won’t scare you too much but you’ll have a good time
while also appreciating a talent taken from us too soon.
October 3, 2016
Day three of thirty-one days of horror!
Maybe if this went by its original title, THE SPACE VAMPIRES, viewers
would have had some idea of what a bugnuts movie it is, but then again
probably not. Based closely on a novel (!) which I have actually read,
this is Tobe TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE Hooper’s Canon-financed follow-up
to POLTERGEIST, a movie he allegedly didn’t get to direct. That and
cocaine abuse goes a long way towards explaining why this messterpiece
feels like the unhinged product of a frustrated artist; the
plot is nonsense and characters come out of nowhere, do things for no
real reason and know things they absolutely shouldn’t know. But holding
it all together is an almost entirely nude performance by French model
Mathilda May, who is utterly convincing as a beautiful space being who
you’d gladly allow to feed on your life essence. Featuring a strong cast
of British thespians and a sweaty, lust-crazed Steve Railsback,
LIFEFORCE takes you places you never knew you wanted to go and does it
with a gleefully sleazy yet somehow classy insanity. If you love ALIEN,
you’ll…um… just watch it, OK?
October 2, 2016
10/02/16 – day two of thirty-one days of horror!
I’ve always been a sucker for a good ghost story, so how can you go
wrong with a movie titled GHOST STORY? Coming at the tail end of the
great wave of 70s supernatural horror, this liberal adaptation of Peter
Straub’s best-seller tells the tale of four old men and the sexy specter
that is literally haunting them for their youthful sins. You can’t get a
better crusty foursome than Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas
and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, but the real scene-stealer here
is Alice Krige as the object of their youthful desire and
septuagenarian torment. Director John Irvin imbues the snowy proceedings
with a sense of palpable dread, throwing in some gruesome shocks strong
enough to give even the most hardened viewer a shiver. Also, it stars
Craig (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIORS) Wasson in a
double role! If you enjoy a good spooky chiller about revenge from
beyond the grave, grab your snifter of brandy and gather close around
the fire – or more accurately, your HDTV.
October 1, 2016
10/01/2016 – day one of thirty-one days of horror!
I’m starting off my 3rd annual 31 days of horror with the first monster I
ever truly loved – the Gill Man from Universal’s classic Creature From
the Black Lagoon. The still unmatched
design of the titular Creature has etched itself in our primordial
brains forever, but the movie itself is quite worthy, a riff on the man
vs nature theme that has proven such a sturdy staple for the horror
genre. The scenes of the Gill Man mirroring diving beauty Julie Adams
from the murky depths still have the power to chill, and director Jack
Arnold uses early underwater photography and nascent 3D to its fullest,
frightening effect. If it has been a while since you’ve been dragged to
the Creature’s watery grotto, you owe yourself a trip back to the
Amazonian jungle.I’m starting off my 3rd annual 31 days of horror with
the first monster I ever truly loved – the Gill Man from Universal’s
classic Creature From the Black Lagoon. The still unmatched design of
the titular Creature has etched itself in our primordial brains forever,
but the movie itself is quite worthy, a riff on the man vs nature theme
that has proven such a sturdy staple for the horror genre. The scenes
of the Gill Man mirroring diving beauty Julie Adams from the murky
depths still have the power to chill, and director Jack Arnold uses
early underwater photography and nascent 3D to its fullest, frightening
effect. If it has been a while since you’ve been dragged to the
Creature’s watery grotto, you owe yourself a trip back to the Amazonian
jungle.
October 31, 2015
10/31/15 – day thirty-one of thirty-one days of horror!
The rare collaboration of two artistic visions that really gel, the
George Romero directed, Stephen King penned Creepshow still sits on the
horror anthology throne 33 years after it’s debut. Which of course makes
it the perfect film for every Halloween. The stories are simple but
there’s always a good laugh or a scare to be had, and by making it a
literal homage to the banned EC comics of the 1950’s, Romero, always the
voice of the anti-establishment, managed to give it some rebellious
meaning in the similarly conservative and conformist 1980s. But mostly
it’s just a damn good time. There have been some great anthologies to
follow, including the now perennial Trick ‘r Treat, but you can’t go wrong revisiting the one that really kicked the horror anthology film into the modern era. Happy Halloween!
10/30/15 – day thirty of thirty-one days of horror!
I was going to avoid the controversy of proclaiming my love for this
film, but with the shelving of Neil Blompkamp’s planned sequel to
Aliens, it’s only right to celebrate the movie he hoped to wipe out of
existence, 1992’s Alien 3. Now the original Alien is a masterpiece, and
James Cameron’s Aliens is a great action movie, but David Fincher’s
debut film takes the franchise back to its horror roots, where it
belongs, and does so by mercilessly killing off the characters that humanized
Ripley in the previous film without much ceremony. This is the
stumbling block for those who wrongly think that the story should now be
about side characters and not the tragically heroic journey of Ripley
herself, something this film, especially the assembly cut, does
gloriously. Sure, some of the alien effects (not early cg BTW, that
thing is a rod puppet) are bad, but overall the film has great gritty
atmosphere, the tension and helplessness are palpable, Sigourney Weaver
turns in an amazing, bald-headed performance and Fincher shows what a
powerhouse he is soon to become. Say what you want about the stuff that
followed, but Alien 3, particularly the assembly cut, remains a worthy
entry in the sci fi horror canon.
October 29, 2015
10/29/15 – day twenty-nine of thirty-one days of horror!
Yes, there was a recent version of this starring Harry Potter, and no,
it wasn’t half bad, but if you want the best film version of Susan
Hill’s The Woman In Black, you need to check out the BBC 1989 TV
version. I wasn’t raised a pasty British kid, unfortunately, but if I
had been, this would have scared the living beejezus out of me as I
watched it fearfully behind the couch. With a screenplay by the great
Nigel Kneale, this production possesses a quiet confidence that the well-made
remake lacks, sneaking up on you quietly then pulling the rug out from
under with some genuinely terrifying scares. Beautifully acted and an
all-around classy production, this is a little hard to come by as the
DVD release is way out of print. Thankfully some kind, restless spirit
put it up on Youtube to enjoy, so go spend some time at Eel Marsh house
with that nice lady in the creepy black dress.
October 28, 2015
10/28/15 – day twenty-eight of thirty-one days of horror!
Roadside horror is a staple of the genre, and one of the most obscure
but influential of these type of rural nightmares is 1979’s Tourist
Trap, which offers some Texas Chainsaw-like thrills but with a really
eerie twist. Boasting the talents of Tanya Roberts as well as a
delightfully unsettling turn from Chuck “the Rifleman” Connors, the film
concerns the plight of some wayward youths (as usual) who wander off
the beaten path to a roadside attraction full of creepy mannequins.
I won’t spoil what happens next, but suffice it to say that if you
haven’t seen the movie already, I highly doubt you will see what’s
coming. Directed for maximum creep factor by David Schmoller, who would
later go on to direct notable b-grade movies like Crawlspace,
Puppetmaster and the Arrival, this is the perfect rare gem to drop on
unsuspecting viewers at your yearly Halloween party. A side-trip you
won’t regret taking!
October 27, 2015
10/27/15 – day twenty-seven of thirty-one days of horror!
Today I am honoring the greatest of all horror conventions, the evil (is
there really any other kind?) ventriloquist dummy, so by default I have
to give it to the “best” feature in this pantheon, 1978’s Magic.
There’s a lot to love here aside from “Fats” the dummy; Ann Margaret,
Burgess Meredith and a wonderfully unraveling and youthful Anthony
Hopkins in the ventriloquist role. But I do feel that perhaps the
greatest ventriloquist dummy film of all time is still ahead of us. If, like me, you have a hankerin’ for more dummies, check out Dead of Night from 1945, the two episodes from the original The Twilight Zone
“The Dummy” and “Caesar and Me”, and heck, throw in James Wan’s
enjoyably schlocky Dead Silence while you’re at it. Only a real dummy
lets Halloween pass without reveling in the inherent creepiness of this
transcendent and nearly forgotten art form.
October 26, 2015
10/26/15 – day twenty-six of thirty-one days of horror!
I’ve avoided zombies so far in this year’s list because let’s face it,
thanks to Walking Dead, zombies are now relegated to boring office water
cooler talk, like Seinfeld was in the 90’s. But there are still weird
and wonderful zombie movies out there that have something unique to
offer, and one of the coolest is Spanish horror maestro Amando de
Ossorio’s Tombs of the Blind Dead. See, these aren’t your garden-variety
zombies, these are blind Templar Knight zombies, which is about
1,000 times cooler that anything you’ll see on AMC. Ossorio loves to
show his hooded, blade-wielding revenants (that’s cool-guy speak for
“zombie”) in slow motion riding horses, which alone is creepy enough to
demand a viewing. There are 3 sequels to this film, but the first two
function best as stories, at least as far as 70’s Eurotrash cinema is
concerned. This Halloween, dare to be different and blow your
co-worker’s minds by dropping some mad Blind Dead knowledge into the
convo!
