Ulli Lommel’s 1980 slasher film The Boogey Man is a pretty silly movie but I do like this scene. The idea of seeing something in the reflection of a mirror that doesn’t appear to actually be in the room is one of my top nightmare fuels.
Plus, after the storms we had last night and the fact that there’s still debris all over the place and just driving from one location to another is kind of a pain in the ass right now, there’s just something satisfying about watching a mirror get destroyed.
Since I reviewed the film earlier today, I guess it makes sense that today’s horror scene that I love should be the cemetery scene from Hammer’s The Plague of the Zombies!
This is from the original, 1982 version Poltergeist.
It’s just a ghost movie about a mother’s love, suburban conformity, and a guy’s face falling into the sink. For whatever reasons, the ghosts just seemed to take a really intense dislike to this guy.
“The house is clean.”
Not bloody likely.
“You moved the headstone but you left the bodies!? WHY!? WHY!?”
When it comes to Psycho, everyone always talk about the first half of the film, in which Marion Crane steals the money, gets interrogated by the highway patrolman, meets Norman Bates, and eventually takes that fateful shower.
Those are all great scenes that are wonderfully acted and directed. But they’re also the scenes that always get shared whenever anyone shares something about Psycho. So, for today’s scene that I love, I’m sharing a scene from the 2nd half of the film. In this scene, Milton Arborgast (Martin Balsam) attempts to question Norman (Anthony Perkins, of course!) about whether or not Marion came by the motel. Detective Arborgast thinks that Norman is hiding something. Norman thinks that he can out talk the detective.
This scene is a master class in great acting. Balsam and Perkins are like two tennis players, just knocking the ball back and forth without missing a beat. What I love is that both men are pretending as if they’re having a friendly conversation, whereas they both know that they’re not. Of course, when audience saw this movie for the first time (before the famous ending became common knowledge), they probably thought that Norman was trying to protect Arborgast from his mother.
Anyway, here’s the scene. It’s Arborgast vs. Bates, Balsam vs. Perkins, and it’s rather brilliant:
Today, I’m taking a break from sharing horror movie scenes that I can pay tribute to the great actor, Robert Forster.
Forster passed away on Friday, shortly after his final film — El Camino — dropped on Netflix. Forster had a small but pivotal role in the film, reprising the Breaking Bad character of Ed. Ed may look like a vacuum cleaner repairman but he’s actually the guy you want to see if you need to start a new life far away from New Mexico.
Admittedly, Forster doesn’t say a lot in the scene below. Aaron Paul’s the one who does most of the talking but then again, Forster wasn’t an actor who needed a lot of lines to make an impression. Forster excelled at playing down-to-Earth men who may not have said much but who still meant every word that they said. Forster does so much with just his eyes and his taciturn expression here. And when he does speak, the lines are killer.
Obviously, this scene is going to count as a spoiler if you haven’t seen El Camino yet.
Through the Shattered Lens 