Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the one and only Sigourney Weaver. Seen here with Jonesy the Cat, Weaver will always be best-remembered for bringing to life Ellen Ripley and totally revolutionizing both horror and science fiction!
Today’s song of the day comes from Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic score for Alien.
This scene comes from the 1982 film, Pieces. It’s not easy find an appropriate scene to share from Pieces, or at least a scene that I can share without this site getting in trouble. Just about every scene in the movie features either nudity or really bloody violence. It’s probably nothing that would shock our wonderfully jaded readers but still….
But then there’s this scene right here. Now, in order to understand what’s happening here, you should keep in mind that Lynda Day George is playing an undercover cop who also happens to be a tennis pro. She’s been assigned to the local college. Her job is to figure out who is using a chainsaw to kill all of the students. Unfortunately, she sucks at her job so she has to get this kinda nerdy college student to help her out.
Anyway, after a fun-filled morning of playing tennis and not looking for the killer, they’ve just discovered a dead body in the showers. Yes, the killer has struck again and …. well, it was really messy. Speaking as someone who appreciates a clean house and a carefully organized day, I can relate to the reaction below.
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!
4 Shots From 4 Horror Films
West of Zanzibar (1928, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Percy Hilburn)
Dracula (1931, dir by Tod Browning. DP: Karl Freund)
Frankenstein (1931, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
The Invisible Man (1933, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
Photography by Erin Nicole
Happy Horrorthon
Hello and welcome to Day 8 of our annual October Horrorthon. I hope everyone is enjoying the horror content that we’ve offered so far. There’s a lot more to come! I was being somewhat flippant when I originally said that I was hoping for 1,000 October posts this year, but still, October is traditionally the month that brings out the site’s prolific side. One of the more interesting things about the horror genre is that there has always been a demand for it. People have always been in the mood for a good scare. Perhaps it helps them deal with reality. If I can handle seeing something scary on a screen, I can handle seeing it on a street corner as well.
I Blame American Horror Story
That said, I do have to say that I worry horror is becoming too “respectable” for its own good. When I was growing up, horror films got terrible reviews and were hated by parents. Today, they get nominated for Oscars, and horror filmmakers are given glowing write-ups in glossy magazines. That just doesn’t feel right to me. The best horror tended to be subversive, rebellious, and fearfully fun, and I fear that’s something that has been lost in this age of “elevated” horror.
Personally, I blame American Horror Story. Ryan Murphy’s deathless series normalized the idea of horror as something you watch in your living room with your family, as opposed to something you watch with all the lights out and the sound turned down so you don’t get in trouble. I’ve always felt that American Horror Story was essentially a horror show that was made by people who think that they’re better than the genre. We’re meant to be impressed that American Horror Story has a political and cultural subtext, as if that weren’t true of thousands of horror productions released before AHS aired its first episode. We’re supposed to be impressed that Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson are willing to do horror, while ignoring all of the truly talented actors who worked exclusively in the genre before them.
Probably the worst thing that could have happened to the genre was American Horror Story winning that first Emmy for Best Limited Series. True horror doesn’t need awards.
In Praise of Older Movies
With all the controversy surrounding AI, I will say that, speaking for myself, I will always prefer movies with human beings, and I will always prefer practical effects to CGI. I think that’s reflected in the movies that I choose to review. I prefer older movies, and it worries me that those classics are running the risk of being forgotten.
That’s why I’m going to keep reviewing and promoting older films. I’m going to keep watching It’s a Wonderful Life every time it airs, because I know that, as soon as the ratings slip, NBC will use it as an excuse to yank it and replace it with Caroling With Celebs or something similar. And I am going to hold onto my physical media and keep it safe. That doesn’t mean that good films can’t be make use of AI, though I do think that it’s something that will work better for short films than for feature length productions. But my heart will always be with movies starring real people and shot in real locations and I’ll always admire the ingenuity of low-budget filmmakers who managed to make a compelling movie while spending very little money.
In the end, I think the future of AI in the film industry will depend on whether or not the studios feel that they can increase their profits by using it. That’s just the way things work. That said, I also think that there’s something a little bit boring about the inauthentic perfection of Tilly Norwood, and hopefully audiences will agree.
Who Are These People?
I’ve noticed that films are now being advertised with pull quotes taken from Letterboxd and other social media reviews. At the risk of being a snob, that really bothers me. I don’t know who any of these people are. Why should I care what they think about a movie? In the advertising for Backrooms, a Letterboxd user is quoted as saying, “Horror fans are eating good.” What does that even mean? Why should I be impressed that someone couldn’t even come up with something original to say?
Is That It?
That’s it! I hope everyone continues to enjoy Horrorthon and that this October is a great one for you!
Artist Unknown
This ghostly cover is from 1939.
In tonight’s episode of Fear Itself, Bobby (Brandon Routh) and Tracy (Shiri Appleby) are a young couple who move to a gated community and learn that there are consequences to upsetting the HOA. The story is familiar but Mary Harron does a good job of combining satire with chills. Watching how Bobby and Tracy are pressured to conform to the rules of the community, it was hard not to be reminded of the excesses of the COVID era.
(Of course, the truly interesting thing about the COVID era was seeing how many self-styled nonconformists revealed their true selves once they were actually put in a position where taking a stand could have had consequences. They know who they are.)
This episode originally aired on July 24th, 2008. Mary Harron, of course, is best known for directing American Psycho.
1963’s House of the Damned tells the story of an isolated mansion. It’s a place that many people have tried to live in but no one has ever been willing to stick around for too long. There are rumors that the mansion is haunted. In fact, you could even make the claim that the mansion is a house of the damned! Of course, we all know that there’s no such thing as ghosts, right?
Joseph Schiller (Richard Crane), the new owner of the mansion, calls architect Scott Campbell (Rob Foster) and tells him to go up to the house and check the place out. Scott points out that he was planning on celebrating his anniversary with his wife, Nancy (Merry Anders). Joseph say that there is no better way to celebrate an anniversary than to visit a house that might be haunted. Scott and Nancy (who is amazingly understanding) head for the house, where all sorts of strange things happen.
What type of strange things? Keys disappear. There are weird noises. Sometimes, it seems like something or someone might be lurking in the shadows. Could the house be haunted? While Scott and Nancy try to figure out what’s going on, Joseph shows up with his wife, Loy (Erika Peters). When Loy disappears, it becomes obvious that something is happening in the house of the damned!
House of the Damned is a briskly paced and occasionally effective haunted house story. It was directed by Maury Dexter, who was a director who was so fast and so capable of stretching a low budget that, at his best, he gave Roger Corman a run for his money. House of the Damned is only 63 minutes long and the film’s story isn’t particularly complex but Dexter still manages to create a properly ominous atmosphere and he does keep you guessing as to whether or not the house is actually haunted. The house itself was the former estate of infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel. Dexter reportedly spent ten days filming the movie at the Spiegel estate. Hopefully, he was not bothered by Bugsy’s ghost.
None of the characters are particularly well-developed but they are well-cast and the actors are all likable. The best performance comes from Erika Peters, who plays Loy as being slightly self-absorbed but ultimately good-hearted. She also gets to wear a bathing suit that is simply to die for. This film also features a very early performance from the great Richard Kiel, playing “The Giant.” It’s always nice to see Richard Kiel in a movie. Shortly before he passed away in 2014, Kiel visited my Alamo Drafthouse for a showing of The Spy Who Loved Me. Though it was obvious that he wasn’t in great health, he still took time to answer questions and to show off a rather charming smile. When a certain redhead told him that she loved him in a beloved 90s golf comedy, he smiled and said, “I believe that jacket belongs to Mr. Gilmore.”
House of the Damned was a nice surprise. We need more 62-minute films.
Count Christo has been cursed by his enemies and is currently in a coma. Your job is to search his castle and gather together both the clues and the equipment necessary to reverse the spell. If you take too long you might get hit by the curse as well. So, don’t waste any time!
Sometimes, I miss the simple and innocent text-adventure games that used to be a mainstay for personal computers. I’ll get nostalgic for the puzzles and the simple commands of “n, w, e, s.” I miss the familiar pattern of: “Get object,” “Look object,” and “Inventory,” to make sure that you still had the object with you. I’ll fondly remember when you could play and beat a game without having to spend hours sitting in front of a screen.
Then I’ll remember how frustrated I used to get with games like Voodoo Castle. Like many of the early test adventures, Voodoo Castle takes a bare-bones approach to story-telling. Later editions came with simple graphics but, even then, it never really made you feel as if you were actually a part of the story. Searching the castle isn’t a problem. Figuring out how to cast a spell when the game’s parser can only understand two words at a time is the bigger frustration. There’s at least one puzzle where the game itself specifically tells you what to type and for that, I was thankful. Good luck figuring out what to type to cast the spell necessary to awaken Count Christo, though.
Voodoo Castle is available to download from a lot of abandonware sites. There’s also a buggy version on the Internet Archive, which loads slowly and gets hit by errors. The best thing about the version on the Archive is that it opens with an open letter from Scott Adams, the husband of the game’s author, in which he encourages you not to give the game to your friends.
Before anyone panics, this game is no longer for sale and Adventure International no longer exists so you can safely download Voodoo Castle or share it with friends if you wants. I still wish I had seen this message when I was younger. I had no idea I was a pirate. I feel guilty now.
From 1976 to 1978, Marvel published a comic book with an unwieldy name. Each issue of Classic Comics Series Featuring adapted a piece of classic literature. In 1977, the #28 issue featured the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Three stories were adapted: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado.
In doing so, they gave us one of the best covers of the 1970s horror boom.
Credit for that goes to Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, and Danny Crespi.
Inside the comic, readers would find this image of a man not only tied beneath the pendulum but also covered in hundreds of rats.
Credit for that memorable image goes to Rudy Messina.
Fredric Wertham was not available for comment.
Previous Great Moments In Comic Book History:
I actually thought that I reviewed “Backrooms” already, but I had not. However, since it is October, it’s a perfect time to review this …. story. The fanbase is Star Wars-level obsessive and just because I don’t particularly care for something, it doesn’t mean it’s terrible- it usually does, but maybe this time is different. I can’t be correct – all the time…. or can I?
This film started as a 4chan post that went viral and the writer/director Kane Parsons built his life around this 4chan post. Then, he went all found footage on its ass. From the age of sixteen to twenty, his entire life was devoted to this magical world that looks a lot like a cubicle farm without the cubicles. The backrooms is a place where you expect to see sad data entry professionals working in sweatshop conditions. Maybe the backrooms is really just a front for an H1-B scam? Whenever a person enters the backrooms, all the workers are gone; so, maybe they used the backrooms as a means to move around their illegal data entry group and things got out of hand, creating a H1-B multiverse?
The film’s quantum mechanics are very intricate, but the movie itself has a very thin plot like saran wrap thin. Backrooms is 95% lore and the plot exists just to have more scenes wandering around the backrooms. Clark is the vehicle we use to get into the backrooms; he is the protagonist – sort of. He is an abusive alcoholic and failed architect who likely killed his wife. He also runs a furniture store and has employees who hate him, but that’s pretty normal for Clark because Clark is an asshat. In fact, his asshattery is so well-developed that even his therapist thinks he’s a boring jerk.
During one of his self-loathing sessions, Clark goes to his store’s basement and tries to do some electricity maintenance and he falls through a portal in his wall to …. wait for it…the backrooms! They basically look like the same room that he was in, but crappier and there are infinite backroom dimensions and quasi-fake people who you can eat- if you want. Apparently, it is okay to go Dahmer on these freaky people because they are “still lifes” – copies of copies of the earth prime people- I think.
He tells his therapist about the backrooms and she checks them out and nearly dies. I would have avoided this adventure and I would’ve been just fine. Clark, unlike me, becomes obsessed with the backrooms, gets his employees to explore them with him, and all the employees die because of a monster or because Clark eats them. Yes, Clark is a quasi-cannibal or a full-on cannibal or he is long pig curious. Don’t worry, Clark is stopped because he gets eaten by a paper mache version of himself. I always knew that arts and crafts were the devil’s workshop.
You could say that the backrooms are a Clark eat Clark world….
If you want to understand the backrooms, be prepared to have A LOT of homework like D&D dungeon master levels of homework!
