In this scene from 1982’s Poltergeist, JoBeth Williams not only falls in what was meant to be the family swimming pool but she also discovers that she’s not alone in that pool.
The skeletons were real. I would have screamed too.
Category Archives: Horror
International Horror Film Review: The Night Digger (dir by Alistair Reid)
The 1971 British film, The Night Digger, revolves around three people.
Maura Prince (Patricia Neal) lives in a dilapidated mansion out of London. She has never married and spends almost all of her time taking care of her blind mother, Edith (Pamela Brown). Edith goes out of her way to make sure that Maura will never have the courage to leave her and find happiness on her own. However, with the mansion falling apart around them, it’s becoming obvious that Maura cannot take care of the entire place on her own. That’s when a mysterious but handsome man named Billy Jarvis (Nichols Clay) rides up on his motorcycle and asks if the women need a handyman.
Billy has a dramatic story about his past, claiming that he lost almost everything that he owned as the result of a fire in a barn, one which also led to the death of his mother. Billy is charming and handsome and he ride a really impressive motorcycle and he looks good in a leather jacket. He represents youth but he’s also the epitome of the rebel without a cause, the sensitive but inarticulate Marlon Brando of The Wild One or the biker played by Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels. Some may look at him and only see a somewhat seedy character on a motorcycle but others look at him and see someone who is running from something and needs someone to take care of him. They see the soul of poet within the body of a drifter, someone who needs to escape from his past and who can also provide a better future. He’s the rebel without a cause, the one that everyone dreams about, even if some of those dreams are dreamt in secret. Though one may have rode a bicycle and the other was knight of the round table, there is much Nicholas Clay’s future performance as Lancelot in John Boorman’s Excalibur to be found in his performance in The Night Digger. Much like a groundkeeper in a D.H. Lawrence novel, he represents the secret and potentially dangerous earthy sensuality of Britain.
As a result, You certainly can not blame Maura for starting to fall in love with him. Nor can you blame Edith for wanting to have an athletic young man around as there have been stories about a madman who stalks the night, killing women. The Traveling Maniac, some have taken to calling him. Complicating the matter, though, is the fact that Billy just happens to be The Traveling Maniac. With Maura falling in love with him, will she discover the truth or will she become his next victim?
The Night Digger took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting much from this film when I watched it last year but it turned out to be rather clever and suspenseful thriller, one that told its story with a good combination of black humor and emotional honesty. Atmospherically directed by Alistair Reid and featuring a trio of excellent lead performances, The Night Digger was compelling compelling thriller, a gothic horror story with a great ending. This is definitely one to keep an eye out for!
10 Shots From 10 Horror Films: 1981 — 1983
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.
Today, we take a look at 1981, 1982, and 1983!
10 Shots From 10 Horror Films: 1981 — 1983
The Funhouse (1981, dir by Tobe Hooper. DP: Andrew Laszlo)
The Beyond (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)
The House By The Cemetery (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)
The Evil Dead (1981, dir by Sam Raimi, DP: Tim Philo)
Creepshow (1982, dir by George Romero, written by Stephen King, DP: Michael Gornick)
Tenebrae (1982, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Luciano Tovoli)
Poltergeist (1982, dir by Tobe Hooper, DP: Matthew F. Leonetti)
The Dead Zone (1983, dir by David Cronenberg, DP: Mark Irwin)
Christine (1983, dir. John Carpenter, DP: Donald M. Morgan)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (dir by Tommy Lee Wallace, DP: Dean Cundey)
Horror Film Review: I Walked With A Zombie (dir by Jacques Tourneur)
The 1943 horror film I Walked With A Zombie tells a zombie story that would probably seem strange to modern zombie fans. There’s no cannibalism. There’s no feasting on brains. There’s no talk about how the only way to stop a zombie is to shoot them in the head. In fact, the zombies in I Walked With A Zombie may be referred to as being the “living dead” but they’re not actually dead. Instead, if anything, they’ve been cursed. Maybe they’re possessed. Maybe they’ve been brainwashed. Maybe they’re lobotomized. Who can say for sure?
Instead of being the type of zombies that were made famous by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the zombies in I Walked With A Zombie hew closer to the zombies of Haitian legend. These zombies suffer from a sort of mental paralysis. Unable to think for themselves, they wander about in a sort of permanent limbo, trapped between life and death and under control of the voodoo priests who transformed them.
This moody and, at time, rather dream-like film deals with Besty Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse who has been hired by Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who owns a sugar plantation on a Caribbean island. Paul’s wife, Jessica (Christine Gordon) has apparently been taken ill and, as a result, is behaving strangely. Often, she wanders about with a glazed look in her eyes, almost as if she’s trapped in a sort of dream-state. Paul believes that it’s the result of the severe fever that Jessica previously suffered with. The locals, meanwhile, gossip that, right before Jessica was taken ill, she was having an affair with Paul’s alcoholic half-brother, Wesley (James Ellison). Betsy’s attempts to care for Jessica and understand her condition will lead to Betsy exploring not only the island’s voodoo culture but also …. walking with a zombie!
I Walked With A Zombie is a deliberately paced film, one that focuses more on creating and maintaining an ominous mood than on going for the type of jump scares that we’ve come to expect from most horror movies. I Walked With A Zombie is all about atmosphere and ambiguity. Indeed, it’s never determined for certain whether or not Jessica’s condition is due to a voodoo curse or if perhaps it really is just due to her earlier fever. It’s left to the audience to decide.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton (the same time team behind the original Cat People), I Walked With A Zombie is an effective and well-acted film, one that also features some gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and an interesting subtext about colonialism. (Upon arriving on the island, Betsy discovers that the Holland family made their fortune through the slave trade and that they still have the figurehead of an old slave ship displayed in their courtyard.) It may not be frightening by today’s standards but it is still a thought-provoking film and one that should be seen by anyone who is a serious zombie fan.
Horror On The Lens: Monstroid: It Came From The Lake (dir by Kenneth Hartford)
Today, we have a little indie film from 1980. This film was released under several names, including Monster. However, I prefer the title under which it has been included in several Mill Creek box sets: Monstroid: It Came From The Lake!
Monstroid tells the story of what happens when a monster emerges from a lake and starts killing people in Columbia. Superstitious villagers blame a local woman whom they believe to be a witch. Even though the town priest (and no horror fan should be surprised to discover that the priest is played by John Carradine) claims that he can exorcise the evil spirits that have possessed her, the villagers would rather burn her at the stake. Meanwhile, the local Big Evil Corporation has sent in Travis (James Mitchum) to take care of the monster!
And what a monster! Listen, there’s a lot of negative things that I could say about this low-budget film but the monster is simply adorable and must be seen by anyone who appreciates the rubber monsters that populated horror films in the days before CGI.
Plus, how can you resist a film that features not only Robert Mitchum’s son but John Carradine as well?
Enjoy Monstroid: It Came From The Lake!
Artwork of the Day: The RV
by Erin Nicole
For as long as I’ve lived across the alley, the house has been deserted and this RV has sat in the backyard.
Music Video of the Day: Numb by Pet Shop Boys (2006, directed by Julian Gibbs and Chris Sayer)
According to the band, the music video for Numb was meant to be an homage to Russian constructivist cinema and the video does have the look of the old propaganda films that were put into production during the early days of the Soviet Union. The video also begins with what appears to be the sinking of the Titanic before moving onto all of the other tragedies that occurred around the same time. It may not be a “Halloween song” but the video does have a horror aesthetic.
Numb, itself, is a song that was often played whenever the UK was dealing with a tragedy, like being eliminated from the World Cup.
Enjoy!
Horror On TV: Circle of Fear 1.14 “Death’s Head” (dir by James Nielson)
Circle of Fear!?
What happened to Ghost Story!?
Fear not, they’re the same show. Apparently, Ghost Story was struggling in the ratings so William Castle changed up both the show’s format and the title. Ghost Story became Circle of Fear and, sadly, Sebastian Cabot was dumped as the show’s host.
The first episode of the new Circle of Fear era featured Janet Leigh as the wife of a man who loves insects. Unfortunately for him, Leigh hates insects. This, along with an adulterous affair, can only lead to murder and that, of course, can only lead to the moths coming for revenge.
That may sounds silly but let me tell you, I totally agree with Janet Leigh when it comes to moths. If you want to see me run out of a room, just point out that there’s a moth flying around. Agck!
This episode originally aired on January 5th, 1973.
The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Planet of the Dinosaurs (dir by James Shea)
This 1977 film begins with a bunch of goofy-looking astronauts crash-landing on a desert planet. After their spaceship slowly sinks into a lake, the astronauts try to set up camp so that they can wait to be rescued. Unfortunately for them, there’s some dinosaurs living on the planet and the astronauts soon find themselves being stalked by prehistoric predators!
Now, it’s true that I said that this was unfortunate for the astronauts. However, it’s very fortunate for us the viewers because the dinosaurs are a hundred times more adorable than the astronauts. Indeed, the astronauts tend to be out-of-shape and the men have made some truly unfortunate hair decisions. The female astronauts, meanwhile, all seems as if they should be posing in front of a car at an auto show. Everyone delivers their lines with a good deal of forced drama, destroying the myth of the calm and cool astronaut. Sorry, Tom Wolfe, but there’s no right stuff to be found amongst this crew. Again, we are fortunate that this is one of those low-budget sci-fi films that made use of model dinosaurs and stop motion animation. There’s something just undeniably fun about watching a bunch of hammy, unknown actors pretend to be terrified of what appears to be a child’s toy. (The most menacing of the dinosaurs is a dead ringer for the dinosaur from the Toy Story films.) Planet of the Dinosaurs is a deeply silly movie but, if you’re a fan of dinosaurs and old timey special effects, you’ll find a lot to enjoy. Just don’t make the mistake of taking anything about it seriously. Of course, the fact that the majority of the astronauts look like they should be dancing under a disco ball instead of exploring space will probably ensure that you stop taking the film seriously long before even the first dinosaur shows up.
In fact, my only real complaint about this film is that there simply aren’t enough dinosaurs. Yes, there’s a T-Rex. And yes, there’s that one-horned dinosaur that looks like a really dangerous armadillo. There’s a few other dinosaurs as well but, to be honest, I feel like a Planet of the Dinosaurs should just be crawling with them. Instead, it appears that there were only six or seven dinosaurs on this planet. I guess it’s possible that there could have been more dinosaurs on the other side of the planet but still, the planet seemed to be pretty sparsely populated. Maybe the other dinosaurs were hibernating.
Now, you might be wondering how all these dinosaurs showed up on the planet. Early on, one of the astronauts establishes that the planet is on the same “evolutionary track” as Earth, it’s just several years behind. So, apparently, there are dinosaurs on every Earth-like planet. I guess that’s fine but I was hoping for a Planet of the Apes-style reveal, with the Statue of Liberty or some other monument suddenly showing up. A planet where dinosaurs evolved from men? That would have made the movie a true classic!
Even without the Statue of Liberty, Planet of the Dinosaurs is fun. Silly, but fun.
A Blast From The Past: The Vanishing Lady (dir by Georges Méliès)
In this short film from 1896, Georges Méliès shows off not one magic trick but actually four. He makes a woman disappear. He makes a skeleton appear. Then he makes the skeleton disappear and then he brings the vanishing lady back. Today, of course, we all know how these tricks were done but just imagine how audiences in 1896, many of whom were still amazed that movies could exist at all, would have reacted to this short film. This film provides a look into a simpler and more innocent time. Watching this film, I found myself wishing that I could feel the wonder at a movie that someone in 1896 would have. Sadly, audiences are far more jaded today.
Personally, I liked that both Méliès and the Vanishing Lady stepped back onstage to take a little bow. Even in those early days of cinema, they understood the importance of connecting with the audience.
Through the Shattered Lens 