Watching The Creeping Terror is an October tradition here at the Shattered Lens. How could anyone resist a film about a killer carpet, especially one that features a random dance party?
And enjoy the film!
Tag Archives: Horrorthon
Artwork of the Day: Mistress of Mount Fair (by Lou Marchetti)
by Lou Marchetti
Music Video of the Day: Come To Daddy by Aphex Twin (1997, dir by Chris Cunningham)
If this video doesn’t give you nightmares, nothing will.
When the video starts, it seems like it’s a simple lesson in dog ownership. If you’re going to walk your dog, don’t lead him around a post-apocalyptic hellsite and don’t allow him to urinate on an old TV. Because, if you do, the TV will apparently come to life and start yelling at you.
But then the kids show up and …. oh my God. I mean, children are creepy to begin with but when they all show up with an adult’s face — AGCK!
Anyway, stay away from those deserted warehouses, people. They may be aesthetically pleasing but something bad always seem to happen to people who wander too close.
Enjoy!
Horror on TV: Degrassi: The Next Generation 9.17 “Innocent When You Dream” (dir by Eleanore Lindo)
The world of Degrassi is like our own but not quite.
For instance, on Degrassi, Kid Rock was named Kid Eldrick. When Darcy started posting racy pictures of herself, she posted them not on MySpace but instead on MyRoom. A few seasons later, when Alli created the infamous I Hate Holly J group, she did so not on Facebook but instead on Facerange. Oddly enough, I think Degrassi‘s Twitter was called Twitter as well, which just proves that Twitter is the one social media network that you can’t escape.
Finally, in the world of Degrassi, students did not read Twilight and then fantasize about being a vampire’s lover. Instead, they read a series of YA books called …. Fortnight. Of course, this was before Fortnite itself became a thing but still, it’s always somewhat amusing to hear Degrassi students talk about how romantic they find Fortnight to be.
In tonight’s episode of Degrassi, it turns out that Clare Edwards (Aislinn Paul) is not only obsessed with Fortnight but she’s also having dreams about her classmate, Declan (Landon Liboiron). It kind of makes sense because Declan is totally a vampire name. The first problem is that Declan is dating the seemingly-evil-but-not-really-that-bad Holly J (Charlotte Arnold). The second problem is that Clare might be turning into a vampire herself.
In this episode’s subplot, Sav (Raymond Ablack) directs a music video and Degrassi‘s house band, Studz, performs House Arrest for the thousandth time. Even though Spinner (Shane Kippel) graduated several seasons ago, he’s still Studz’s drummer. It’s all so Sav can try to win back Anya (Samantha Munro), which was a storyline that just went on and on.
This episode first aired on May 7th, 2010.
The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: The Ghastly Ones (dir by Andy Milligan)
A young couple — both of whom are dressed in clothes that appear to come from the 1890s — enjoys a romantic and sunny excursion to an isolated island. Unfortunately, their day is ruined when they’re discovered by a buck-toothed hunchback named Colin (played by Hal Borske). Death and dismemberment follows.
Somewhere in New York, three sisters are informed that their father has died but that neither they nor their husbands can receive a cent of their inheritance until they fulfill one very specific requirement. According to their father’s impossibly elderly attorney (played by Neil Flanagan, who is made up to look like an old witch from a community theater production of MacBeth), the sisters and their husbands must spend three nights in their father’s mansion. Of course, the sisters agree.
Upon arriving at the mansion, they discover that the mansion is being looked after by two maids and a hunchbacked, buck-toothed handyman named …. COLIN! Within a few minutes of meeting everyone, Colin eats a live rabbit while everyone watches. Later the remains of the rabbit shows up in one of the sister’s bed, along with a note that reads, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit!”
Speaking for myself, I would probably leave as soon as I saw the handyman eating a live rabbit. I mean, none of the sisters appear to be struggling financially but then again, greed is a powerful force. Instead, everyone settles in for their three-night stay, which leads to 1968-style sex scenes and a lot of footage of people sitting around and talking about nothing. For a low-budget grindhouse film, this is an extremely talky movie.
Anyway, eventually people start dying. Someone gets pitchforked. Another person is found hanging by his ankles. There’s a rather bloody disembowelment and someone else loses their head. Bloody X’es are left on doorways. Who is doing the killing? Hmmm …. well, Colin is the obvious suspect since we already saw him kill two people for absolutely no reason. But, it turns out that Colin has a little help. That’s right! The Ghastly Ones comes with a twist ending that you’ll see from miles away.
So, what exactly is The Ghastly Ones? It’s an extremely low-budget film, full of unlikable people dying in various grotesque ways. It’s an oddly moralistic film, with everyone dying because their greed prevents them from doing the sensible thing and leaving the house. It’s also apparently a period piece, with everyone dressed like they belong in the 1890s even though you can clearly hear the sound of cars in the background of a few scenes.
In short, this is another Andy Milligan film! Filmed on Staten Island and featuring a largely amateur cast (though one of the husbands is played by Richard Romanus, who went on to appear in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and has since had a respectable career as a character actor), The Ghastly Ones is just as bad and weirdly hypnotic as you would expect any Andy Milligan film to be. Milligan even makes a cameo of sorts in the film. Listen closely and you can occasionally hear him off-camera, feeding the actors their lines and, at one point, telling one of the sisters to “roll over.”
It’s a terrible movie and yet, it’s also strangely fascinating. I think that’s because Milligan’s ineptness was matched only by his anger and that anger (along with a lot of pressimism) courses through the entire film. Every frame of the film drips with Milligan’s sincere disdain for the greedy and selfish characters who appear throughout the movie and, as you watch, it becomes obvious that Milligan had more sympathy for Colin than for any of his victims. (Of course, two of Colin’s victims were just two innocent people in love who were trying to have a nice picnic so perhaps it’s for the best not to dwell too much on what that might mean.) Milligan directs this story with an intensity that doesn’t quite make up for the lack of talent involved but, at the very least, it does keep things vaguely interesting. “Who are the Ghastly Ones?” Andy Milligan seems to be asking. “We all are.”
By the way, between this and Guru, The Mad Monk, I have now watched two Andy Milligan films in one week. Pray for me.
When Bronson Met Perkins: Someone Behind The Door (1971, directed by Nicolas Gessner)
Dr. Laurence Jeffries (Anthony Perkins) is an American-born neurosurgeon living in the UK. One night, as Dr. Jeffries is preparing to head home, he meets a confused and frightened man who is identified in the credits as being The Stranger and who is played by Charles Bronson. The Stranger has no memory of who he is or how he came to be where he is. Dr. Jeffries takes the Stranger back to his house. Dr. Jeffries says that he often takes patients back home for overnight observation but it turns out that he has more than treatment on his mind. Dr. Jeffries knows that his wife, Frances (Jill Ireland, who was Bronson’s offscreen wife), has been cheating on him with her French lover. What if Dr. Jeffries can convince the Stranger that Frances is married to and cheating on him? Could The Stranger, who may have already attacked another woman on the beach, be manipulated into murdering Frances’s lover?
Before Death Wish made Charles Bronson a box office force in the United States, he was a huge star in Europe. Someone Behind The Door is one of many films that Bronson made in France before he returned to America. It’s always interesting to see Bronson’s European films because European directors were willing to cast him as something other than just a vengeance-driven vigliante. In Someone Behind The Door, Bronson actually gets to play someone who isn’t in control of his fate and who doesn’t always have the perfect tough guy quip on the end of his tongue and Bronson gives a surprisingly good performance. He brings The Stranger’s inarticulate fear and eventual rage to life. Indulging in his usual nervous mannerisms, Anthony Perkins matches him every step of the way.
Someone Behind The Door largely takes place in just one location and it’s really too stage-bound to be successful. Still, fans of Perkins and Bronson should find the pairing of the two to be interesting. The pair play off each other surprisingly well, with Perkins nervy energy bouncing off of Bronson’s physicality. It’s too bad that this was the only time that these two actors appeared opposite each other.
Horror Scenes that I Love: Checking Out The Boat in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2
The scene below comes from the 1979 Lucio Fulci masterpiece, Zombi 2.
In this scene, a mysterious boat is floating towards New York City. Two cops are sent to check the boat out and, as they eventually discover, the boat isn’t quite as deserted as they thought it was.
Now, there’s a few reasons why this scene is important. Number one, Zombi 2 is an Italian film that was designed to pass for an American film. (Technically, it was sold as being a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in much of Europe.) In order to maintain the illusion, Italian filmmakers would often spend a day or two shooting on location in a recognizable American city. More often than not, that city would turn out to be New York.
Number two, since Zombi 2 was promoted as being a bit of a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, one could argue that this scene shows how the whole zombie apocalypse began in the United States. It wasn’t radiation from space or Hell running out of room. No, instead, it was juts a boat floating from an island in the Caribbean all the way to New York.
This scene is also memorable because of the “boat zombie,” who is one of the best-known of the movie zombies. Even people who have never heard of Lucio Fulci will probably recognize the boat zombie. He’s an icon of the undead!
Finally, this scene sets up one of the greatest closing shots in the history of zombie cinema. New York beware!
Paperback Review: The Vampire Curse by Daoma Winston
Yesterday, Erin shared the cover. Today, I’m reviewing the book! That’s what teamwork is all about!
This 1971 novel is all about an 18 year-old named Teena Halliday. Needless to say, anyone with a name like Teena Halliday is going to be young, beautiful, and innocent. Teena was perfectly happy living in a Mediterranean villa with her mom but then her mom had to go off and get remarried. With her mom heading off to South America on a whirlwind honeymoon, Teena is being sent to Massachusetts, where she’ll stay with the Rentlows, some distant relatives that she has yet to actually meet. Teena is hoping that, once she’s in Boston, she’ll get the chance to spend some time with her father. However, when Teena arrives, her father is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, Teena is met by the mysterious but handsome Rory, who takes her to Rentlow Retreat. Teena meets the Rentlows and discovers that they’re a bit more eccentric than she was expecting. Neither Uncle Charlie nor Aunt June seem to be happy to see her and Teena’s cousin Estrella obviously views Teena as being competition for Rory’s attention. In fact, the only person who seems to be the least bit welcoming is Jeremy Rentlow.
Jeremy is a world-renowned sculptor, despite the fact that everyone and everything that poses for him seems to end up dead. The family seems to always be nervous around Jeremy. Could it have something to do with those rumors that Jeremy might be a vampire? Teena isn’t quite sure what to make of Jeremy, especially when he starts to tell her that she’s the most beautiful woman that he’s ever seen and that she simply must pose for him. Teena is hesitant but what else is she going to do? I mean, she has to do something to pass the time, especially considering that her dog Scuffy dies of a mysterious “wasting” disease shortly after Teena arrives at Rentlow Retreat.
Of course, soon, Teena is not only starting to feel a bit anemic herself but Jeremy suddenly announces that they’re going to be married and Teena is not to leave the estate! Is Jeremy a vampire or is he a human with serious and dangerous control issues? Is Teena being drained of blood or is she feeling weak because of the stress of the situation in which she’s found herself? You can probably guess the answer to both of those questions.
Just like Air Force One Is Haunted, The Vampire Curse is one of the books that I found while searching through my aunt’s old paperback collection. It was a fun and (at 196 pages) quick read. It’s very much a gothic romance first and a vampire story second but there’s an undeniable charm to the efficiency with which author Daoma Winston told the story. Everything you could want from a gothic romance is here: breathless, first person storytelling, an old house, an eccentric family, a dark secret, passionate kisses and, of course, a hedge maze. There’s always a hedge maze.
The Vampire Curse was an enjoyable read. I’m a bit stunned that Lifetime has never adapted the book into a film. If they can turn everything credited to V.C. Andrews into a “film event,” surely they can find some time for The Vampire Curse.
International Horror Film Review: Alien 2: On Earth (dir by Ciro Ippolito)
Don’t get too excited about that title. Yes, I know that it says Alien 2: On Earth, which would suggest that this is a sequel to the classic sci-fi horror film that we all know and love but …. well, we’ll get to it in a moment.
First, let’s talk about the movie….
HEY, EARTH! YOU’RE GETTING INVADED AGAIN!
This time, it’s not flying saucers. It’s not pod people. It’s not the monsters from Cloverfield or A Quiet Place or Battle Los Angeles or Skyline or any of those films. Instead, this time, you’re getting invaded by little blue rocks. These rocks may look pretty but, if you hold them long enough, something will spring out of them and cause your face to explode. Sometimes, the creature inside the rock will even hug onto your face for a while. I guess maybe you could call it a face hugger, assuming that you had enough money to settle the copyright suit that would follow….
Famed cave explorer Thelma Joyce (Belinda Mayne) has been having horrific visions, largely due to the fact that she’s psychic whenever it’s convenient for the plot. Could her visions have something to do with a spacecraft that has recently returned to Earth with all of its inhabitants missing? (The implication is that the spacecraft was captained by a man named Dallas and had a warrant officer named Ripley, though that’s never specifically stated.)
Oh, why worry about all that ominous outer space stuff? After all, Thelma and her husband Roy (Mark Bodin) have already got a full weekend planned out. They’re going to get together with a group of friends and explore a cave! It sounds like fun. Of course, on the way to the cave, one of their friends finds a blue rock and decides to take it with him. Hmmm….there’s no way that could backfire.
Once everyone’s in the cave, Thelma tells Roy that she has a feeling that something awful is about to happen. Roy laughs off her concerns. I mean, is Thelma supposed to be a psychic or something? Oh, wait a minute….
Can you guess what happens? If you think that Roy, Thelma, and their friends end up getting trapped in the cave with an alien that’s looking to dissolve all of their faces, you might be as much of a psychic as Thelma. Needless to say, everyone picked the wrong weekend to go underground.
This Italian production from 1980 is, in many ways, a typical low-budget exploitation film. There’s a lot of gore (including a pretty nifty beheading) and the film ends on a properly (and somewhat humorously) dark note but it takes forever for the movie to actually get going. Fans of Italian horror will be happy to see Michele Soavi show up as one of the cave explorers and, if nothing else, the film does feature an effective sequence involving a survivor running down the streets of an eerily deserted city.
That said, this film is best-remembered as an example of just how shameless that Italian film industry could be when it came to ripping off more successful films. Alien 2 had nothing to do with the original Alien but, because Ridley Scott’s film was a huge hit, the film was marketed as being a direct sequel. Because the word “alien” existed long before any of the movies using it as a title were ever released, 20th Century Fox’s efforts to sue producer/director Ciro Ippolito for copyright infringement were just as unsuccessful as Ippolito’s later attempt to sue the makers of The Descent for, in Ippolito’s opinion, ripping off his story of cave explorers getting ripped apart by a strange creature.
So, no, this is not technically a part of the Alien franchise …. unless you want it to be. That’s the fun thing about watching an unofficial sequel like this. You can decide for yourself whether or not to accept it.
Finally, keep watching the skies and don’t pick up any blue rocks! To quote the film’s final title card, “YOU MAY BE NEXT!”
4 Shots From 4 Films: Dawn of the Dead, The Grapes of Death, Halloween, Martin
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!
4 Shots From 4 1978 Horror Films:
Dawn of the Dead (1978, dir by George Romero)
The Grapes of Death (1978, dir by Jean Rollin)
Halloween (1977, dir by John Carpenter)
Martin (1978, dir by George Romero)
