There’s been a murder! Or has there? Edward Paige (Henry Bartell) swears that he saw someone murdered in a nearby apartment but, when the police investigate, they discover that the apartment appears to be totally deserted. Still convinced that he saw something, Edward is sent for a psychiatric evaluation from Dr. Mason (Boris Karloff, playing a sympathetic role for once). Dr. Mason says that Edward’s not making it up. Edward swears that he saw something. But what?
This is a pretty good episode. Think of it as being Rear Window with an extra twist. Boris Karloff hosts as well as co-stars.
This scene from 1974’s Young Frankenstein is not only funny but kinda poignant and sad. I mean, you can tell that the Monster (Peter Boyle) is trying so hard to do a good job and what does it get him? Not only does the audience turn on him but even his creator (Gene Wilder) starts yelling at him.
I mean, considering that the Monster had only been alive for a few days, I think he deserves a lot of credit for handling the performance as well as could be expected! To me, the true monsters in this scene are the theater patrons who apparently brought cabbages and other vegetables with them to the theater. I mean, you don’t pack a salad unless you’re planning on using it.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
For today’s horror on the lens, we present to you the 1959 film, The Giant Gila Monster!
As you can tell from the title, this is another one of those big lizard films, which were so popular back in the 50s and early 60s. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, a lizard grows to giant size and it’s up to a bunch teenagers, law enforcement officers, and small town citizens to put nature back in its place!
The Giant Gila Monster was filmed outside of Dallas and it was produced by Gordon McLendon. Now, admittedly, you might not recognize the name but he was one of the most important figures in the history of DFW. McLendon founded KLIF, which is DFW’s top talk radio station. He also once ran for the Senate, as a conservative Democrat. By most accounts that I’ve read, he was a true Texas character so I guess it makes sense that, along with all of his other accomplishments, he would add film producer to the list.
Anyway, enjoy this movie about a giant lizard! Gila monsters, I should add, are freaking scary enough when they’re normal-sized. That said, the lizard in this film is actually a Mexican beaded lizard and not an actual Gila monster.
As one might expect from the sequel film to Breaking Bad, the shadow of Walter White hangs over very minute of El Camino.
Physically, Bryan Cranston doesn’t have a large role in El Camino. Like many of the characters from Breaking Bad, he appears only in a flashback. Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) spends a good deal of this movie dwelling on the past, perhaps because the only way that he can have a future is by mentally forgiving himself for all the stuff that went on while he was cooking meth with Walter White and, later, for the Nazi bikers who kept him chained up in a cage like an animal. So, it makes sense that we would see a lot of flashbacks, the majority featuring characters who are no longer alive. Cranston’s Walter White only appears towards the end of the film, when Jesse remembers the conversation they had at a diner about what Jesse was going to do with the money that they were making. It’s a bit jarring to see them, largely because Walter still looks like an earnest and frail science teacher while Jesse is still young, loud, and more than a little obnoxious. It’s quite a contrast to what we know will eventually happen to both characters.
For obvious reasons, Walter White isn’t in much of El Camino but his ghost seems to following Jesse through the entire movie. For that matter, so does the ghost of Tod Alquist (Jesse Plemons). It’s not just that a good deal of the movie deals with Jesse trying to figure out where Tod hid all of his money. (Jesse is planning on using the money to hopefully escape New Mexico and start a new life in Alaska.) It’s also that Jesse has been scarred, both physically and mentally, by the Hellish time that he spent as Tod’s …. well, Tod’s pet. Tod treated Jesse like a dog, keeping him on a leash, punishing him for being “bad,” and then offering Jesse pizza as a reward whenever Jesse did something right. To be honest, the flashbacks with Tod take some getting used to, largely because Plemons has obviously aged quite a bit between the finale of Breaking Bad and the shooting of El Camino. But, still, Plemons is absolutely terrifying as the unfailingly polite but definitely sociopathic Tod. At one point, Tod casually brings Jesse over to his apartment so that Jesse can help dispose of the body of his cleaning lady. Tod murdered her because she came across some money that he was hiding in a hollowed-out book. Tod shrugs as he tells the story of her murder, as if his actions are as commonplace as waking up and going to bed.
Throughout Breaking Bad, Jesse spent most of the series being manipulated by evil men. What was ironic, of course, was that Jesse was the only one of those men who must people automatically considered to be a criminal. Everyone thought that Walter was a tragic family man. Tod was largely anonymous and those who did notice him usually assumed he was just an eccentric weirdo. Jesse, on the other hand, was the guy who was continually getting hauled in by the police and harassed by the DEA. He was the one who was viewed as being a danger to society even though he eventually proved himself to be one of the few characters with anything resembling a conscience. In El Camino, Jesse finally gets a chance to determine his own fate. Will he embrace the lucrative but soul-destroying greed of Walter and Tod? Or will he escape and try to make a new life for himself?
El Camino is a visually stunning tour-de-force, anchored by Aaron Paul’s empathetic performance as Jesse. Jesse is no longer as loud as he may have been in Breaking Bad. He’s a man haunted by the past and, watching the film, you know, regardless of whether he makes it to Alaska, the scars will never fully heal. He has the haunted eyes of a man who is never going to be fully okay, regardless of where he ends up. In fact, if we’re going to be realistic, he probably doesn’t have much of a future ahead of him. Those ghosts are always going to follow him and, as Robert Forster’s Ed sagely explains it, much of what has happened is due to Jesse’s own poor decisions.
Still, whatever mistakes he’s made in the past, you can’t help but wish the best for Jesse Pinkman.
Things start out with Robbie Williams playing just another dude who is desperate for attention. He’s so desperate that he even gets naked on the dance floor which, let’s just be honest, is nothing that any of us haven’t seen before. When that doesn’t work, he steps it up a notch.
And good for him!
Seriously, Robbie, do what you have to do. If that means removing your skin and your muscles …. well, you do you. Just try not to bleed all over my shoes.
Peter Wade, Jr. (Ron Hagerthy) is a rather timid man who would rather design planes than fly them. However, his father, Peter Wade, Sr. (Boris Karloff, who also hosted the episode), is a World War I veteran who has gone from being an aviation hero to owning his own aviation company. Peter, Sr. demands that his son become a pilot. And yet, every time that Peter, Jr. is flying, he’s haunted by ghostly face that 1) puts him in a trance and 2) tries to get him to crash his plane! Could it have something to do with a secret from his father’s past?
This episode is effectively creepy, as any show featuring a possessed pilot and a potential aviation disaster should be. As with some of the past episodes of The Veil, the main attraction here is really the chance to see Boris Karloff doing what he did best. Karloff was one of the great actors and it’s always fun to see him get a good character role.
Take Shelter was one of my favorite films of 2011. It was not only the first to introduce me to director Jeff Nichols but it was also the first time that I ever watched Michael Shannon act and thought to myself, “Hmmm….so, yeah, he’s a really good actor.”
The film was usually described as being either a “psychological thriller” or “a character study” but that’s just because critics were trying to justify how good the film was by ignoring the fact that it was totally a horror film. Shannon plays a man who is haunted by disturbing nightmares of the end of the world. The film perfectly integrates the nightmares into the narrative, so that you’re never quite sure when one of them is going to pop up. It’s always raining in the nightmares but sometimes, it’s cloudy while Shannon’s awake as well and you’re just like, “Oh no….”
Anyway, this is one of the nightmares and I remember it totally freaked me out when I saw Take Shelter in the theaters. I was like, “Uhmmm….did anyone else just notice a shadow walk by the window?”
Take Shelter‘s a really good movie so you need to see it if you haven’t already.
If you’re still making out your Halloween movie list, might I suggest that you pick up a copy of Jamie Russell’s Book of the Dead? Because, seriously — what’s a Halloween movie night without a few zombies thrown into the mix?
Book of the Dead is comprehensive study of the history of zombie cinema, starting with a look at how the legend of the zombie first began and then progressing through White Zombie, the dead films of George Romero, the great Italian zombie films of Lucio Fulci, and finally moving all the way to the modern era. Scary zombies, funny zombies, porno zombies, political zombies, underwater zombies, French zombies; they’re all here! It’s a well-written book, one that was clearly written by somebody who not only loves the movies in general but zombie films in specific. Russell seems to be having so much fun writing about these films that it’s impossible not to share his enthusiasm.
Even better, the book contains a comprehensive appendix that lists and reviews basically every zombie film ever made! Seriously, there all here — from the obscure to famous. When I first started to seriously study the history of horror cinema, Book of the Dead was one of the first resources that I purchased and I used to obsessively study that appendix. It’s thanks to this book that I discovered films like I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain. It was thanks to this book that I discovered that there was more to zombie cinema than just corpses eating brains.
This book was originally published in 2005 and, at that time, basically went up to the Resident Evil-era of zombie films. Subsequent editions have been updated with even more zombie films and even more zombie reviews! This is the perfect book for all of your undead needs!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
