As we all know, I'm a little nerdy for the lesser known horror film and this gigantic 50 disc box set that is "Horror Classics: Anniversary Edition" has been burning a hole in my DVD collection for awhile now. Having bought it 2 years ago, I really could never make time to sit down to at least watch a few of the movies I haven't seen in this set (hint, the movies I have seen is the number between 9 and 11).
It seems pretty perfect that I write about classic horror on this fixer upper of a blog and I needed to organize out how I will consume myself with these horror films. So for one time and one time only, I, B, the certified 30s-50s horror nerd, will become a TCM-like programmer. 1982's holiday special "A Disney Halloween Treat" and "Hocus Pocus" will be watched sometime during the gaps below,
**Most of the movies are clickable for a trailer/tease**
**Most of the movies are also on YouTube in their entirety**
It's that time of year again! It's that time of bags and bags of caramel apple milky ways, peanuts with candy corn, and every casserole made from my online recipe book. But most importantly, it is the time for all the classic horror movies that AMC and ABC Family just won't touch! Turner Classic Movies does not entirely knock it out of the park (How many times can a girl watch "The Devil Doll" or "The Dead of Night" without wanting to recreate a few classic murder movie scenes?), but a whole night devoted to Val Lewton! Halloween Disney things! Homicidal! Mark of the Vampire! The Haunting! The list only goes so far,
I do understand that Turner Classic can only acquire so many movies considering copyright, but maybe it's time to break out some Universal or, be still my heart, anything creepy lingering in the Warner Archives now forgotten. A night of German expressionism maybe? I find myself very excited for Val Lewton night (which will summon every ounce of my TCM Halloween marathon watching skills acquired in the past 5 years...), a little known British production of "Fall of the House of Usher", and the Spencer Tracy version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" which I have not seen yet! This will prove to be a very productive October.
Yeah, so it's kind of snowing a little earlier than usual, so what? When I was a young 'un I had to wear my fairy godmother Halloween costume over a snowsuit, so things always can be worse. While I was hoping for that "Oh my God it's December and it's special Christmas snow" when I saw snow this year, you know, I think I can live.
Just don't play Christmas music in my direction. I will bite Bing Crosby, damn it!
And those Corona Christmas commercials need to die slowly and painfully.
Jamie Cullum: The Master of Covers
"Shakes it Off"
Jamie Cullum always nails every cover he does whether it's making a shoe-shuffling version of "Singin' in the Rain" to a magically epic "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" or my personal favorite "High and Dry". Essentially, this man cannot suck and I love every bit of that moppish hair and boyish grin of his. Especially with that grin of his is singing Taylor Swift. There's nothing more that I can other say other than watch this, you will not regret it.
Emmy the Great is Making Some Changes and Still is Clever and Ravishing
Speaking of people who simply cannot suck. The Great and Majestic Emma Lee Moss has new music thanks to her recent move to Los Angeles. The move seems almost reported on in her current single, "Swimming Pool" (which features Tom Fleming of Wild Beasts) "I want your sunshine, your tan lines, your blue swimming pool." What was once her quirky and smart anti-folk courtesy of the London scene is now, while still clever, dreamy electropop but then it's only the first single. January cannot come soon enough to hear more of this new sound!
You can read more and enjoy a playlist courtesy of Moss here.
The Prince of Darkness and his Brood are Back!
There was ham-throwing, dogs pooping, Ozzy screaming for Sharon, Kelly pouting, Jack moans lustfully that "the McRib is back" and getting shit for it. Madness is going to ensue on VH1 as of ... well, I hope very soon. While not as crazy as the original show and barely a season The Osbournes will highlight what rock's first reality TV stars have been up to lately, although that might be barely a stretch for people who are obsessed with them. (Kelly having been on "Fashion Police" and recently as a voice-over actress on the Disney show "7D", Sharon doing her thing on "The Talk" and "America's Got Channel" and Jack's documentary career on National Geographic and ITV.) Naturally, I am obsessed with Kelly Osbourne so I, of all people, would know these things.
But what brought this on? "Ozzy's decided he wants to do another few episodes, about eight, of The Osbournes.... He's said for the three years we did it he was drunk the whole time and he'd like to be sober," said Sharon. Knowing that Kelly wasn't in the greatest state of mind either and now finally finding herself, hell, why not bring them back? Maybe 8 episodes will evolve into more. And who doesn't want to see Jack's adorable little girl, Pearl, being held by her legendary grandfather? I DO!
And now, a scene where Ozzy yells at the dog.
< br/>
So Daniel Radcliffe Did Something Amazing on Jimmy Fallon...
.
..So amazing that it explains itself!
Lake Street Dive Takes a Trip to the
"Love Shack"
As a Halloween video to their fans, Lake Street Dive dressed up in nutty costumes and grooved out to the B52's guilty pleasure. What results is just plain goofiness complete with a little swim.
Horror Icons Help Out Animated Poe Adaptation
Guilermo del Toro, Christopher Lee. Bela Lugosi. Roger Corman. Those names alone alongside Edgar Allan Poe in one sentence would be enough to induce heart palpitations for the literary nerd. But Raul Garcia, master animator on such Disney classic as "Aladdin," "Pocahontas" and "The Lion King" has found a way to animate the immortal macabre tales in an episodic series using different animation styles, much in the spirit of Michel Ocelot. "The Masque of the Red Death" is influenced by Egon Schiele, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by mid 19th century photography etc etc.
After all of the petitions and begging the BBC to not cancel this amazing series, "Ripper Street" will be gracing computer screens everywhere sometime tonight and I cannot be more excited! In this new season, we should expect some pretty amazing things like Molly from Sherlock (Louise Brealey), Rose finally in a good place, new ventures for Long Susan (Myanna Buring), and hopefully more of Jackson's "lack of propriety." Bring it. I'm so excited, I'm doing a happy dance.
On the inside.
Because I'm sleepy.
Master-Cellist Unwoman Welcomes Us to The Muppet Show
This woman can do anything. Covers of Tori Amos, The White Stripes, Ladytron, 4 Non Blondes, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper. Girl can do everything and anything. So how about "The Muppet Show" theme? Sure! Why not?
Soon it will be perfect scary movie weather. So if you're a classics dork like I am, I think it's a reasonable time to plan your comfort food/casserole/take out menu, buy Halloween candy early and Tivo the following if not on the night of!
* = movies I have seen already
October 4:
CST 7:00 Carnival of Souls (1962)
8:30 Night of the Living Dead
10:15 Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)*
12:30 am Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
2:00 am Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)*
3:45 am The Wasp Woman (1959)
October 11:
CST 7:00 Horror of Dracula (1958)*
8:30 Isle of the Dead (1945)*
10:00 Dead of Night (1945)*
12:00 am The Haunting (1963)*
2:00 am The House of Seven Corpses (1974)
3:30 am Horror Castle (1963)
October 18:
CST 7:00 Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)
8:45 The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
10:15 The Seventh Victim (1943)*
11:30 Curse of the Demon (1958)*
1:15 am I Walked with a Zombie (1943)*
2:30 am The Leopard Man (1943)*
3:45 am The Window (1949)
October 19: CST 7:00 Freaks (1932)*
8:15 Mark of the Vampire (1935)
9:30 The Devil Doll (1936)*
11:00 Miracles for Sale (1939)
12:15 am London After Midnight (1927)
1:15 am Incubus (1965)
Thursday, October 24: [Star of the Month: Vincent Price]
CST 7:00 House of Wax (1953)*
8:45 The Mad Magician (1954)
10:00 House of Usher (1960)*
11:30 Diary of a Madman (1963)
1:15 am The Tingler (1959)*
2:45 am House on Haunted Hill (1959)*
4:15 am The Bat (1959)
5:45 am Tower of London (1962)*
7:15 am The Raven (1963)
October 25:
CST 7:00 A Bucket of Blood (1959)*
8:15 Dementia 13 (1963)
9:45 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)*
12:15 am Sisters (1973)
2:00 am Spider Baby (1964)
3:30 am Village of the Damned (1961)
October 26: CST 7:00 Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
8:30 The Mummy (1932)*
10:00 Cat People (1942)*
11:30 White Zombie (1932)
1:00 am Psychomania (1973)
2:30 am The Witches (1966)
October 31:
CST 5:00 am The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)*
6:30 am The Mummy (1959)*
8:00 am Horror Castle (1963)
9:30 The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)
11:15 Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965)*
12:45 The Devil's Bride (1968)*
2:45 Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969)*
4:30 Horror Express (1972)
7:00 The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)*
8:30 The Haunted Palace (1963)*
10:15 The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
12:00 am The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
1:45 am Twice Told Tales (1963)
4:00 am The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
Sometimes it's best just to be honest. Hi, I'm B and I'm a classic horror movie addict. Torture porn, slasher movies and most modern "paranormal" movies do absolutely nothing for me. Give me a good black and white movie that relies mostly on music, shadow placement, cinematography and ambiance and I'll be a happy girl. Or a movie that shows off the talents of Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price and I'll be a happy girl with raging lady wood.
Oh who am I kidding? You want titles....
The Haunting (1963)
Depending on the day I consider this adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House my number one scary movie of all time.
Whether you want to call this the atypical "haunted house movie" or the mission of director Robert Wise and screenwriter Nelson Gidding to be more about "a woman having a nervous breakdown;" 1963's "The Haunting" has a strange power about it, whether it is coming from the subjective and unreliability of Julie Harris's Eleanor Lance or the amazing cinematography against Ettington Park Hotel that makes "Hill House" so terrifying.
"The Haunting"'s creepiness relies mostly from thumps and thuds, slow camera movements and overacting from the cast, at least reviewed from most modern viewers. But the wallpaper scene will make you change your mind instantly; if you haven't seen it, take my word for it. The movie itself is a tribute to Robert Wise's first boss and producer of another on this list "Curse of the Cat People," Val Lewton. RKO's Man in the Shadows would have approved.
Cat People (1942)
Cat People started Val Lewton's gift of keeping it cheap and minimalist yet scary at the same time with the horrible titles RKO handed him. Lewton loved a challenge, especially with the title of "Cat People."
The premise itself is genius: A Serbian woman's fear of turning into a cat-like creature of her heritage escalates when she meets and marries the man of her dreams but is terrified to go to bed with him with the possibility of turning into a cat-like creature when aroused. Whether she is or isn't is entirely based on the viewer. Once the perfect man's female co-worker, Jane Randolph's Alice Moore, starts spending more time with him, jealousy overtakes the impeccable beauty that is Simone Simon and all catty hell breaks lose.
But that's the magic of a Lewton film; you don't know what is real and what isn't. Everyone loves to cite the "chase" scene as one of the greatest scary movie scenes which I wno't pause to disagree with but the scariest portion of the movie is after the chase where bloodied paw prints slowly change into bloodied high heels on the sidewalk. It's all about subtlety. And much like Hitchcock and his blondes, Lewton knows how to choose the most beautiful, elegant and intense women for his characters. Simone Simon is all innocence and Elizabeth Russell the woman Simon would have been "if" she gave into her ancestors' pagan sins she is terrified of. In short, brilliant.
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Considered to be more of a companion piece in more modern times, RKO simply wanted to cash in on the box office steal that was the original movie. And once more, Lewton undermined them with a beautiful atmospheric Gothic fairytale with all the fairy tale elements that makes a good atmospheric Gothic fairy tale. A slightly creepy little girl who just wants to be loved by her father, a frightening older woman who hates her daughter, a ghostly friend (Simone Simon as Irena once more) that still has an attachment to her ex-husband and her ex-husband's child. All while against the backdrop of Tarrytown and its famous Headless Horseman legend.
While there is no awesome creepy scene other than the ending, if you like fairy tales and those movies that are all about coming of age, or for Oliver Reed's character, how to "grow back down." But in the general range of things; it's damned creepy that it would be his ex-wife's ghost that would make friends with his daughter, almost as if they were alike in someways. I think someday I might write a book that links the two movies together.
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Another Lewton classic that brings two legends together and that doesn't count the incomparable perfection that is Henry Daniell. This may be a long shot, but you may remember his face in many diverse roles in Camille, Holiday, Philadelphia Story, and The Great Dictator. But of course, the two legends I speak of is Lugosi and Karloff, heartbreakingly together in only one scene. But this is Karloff's movie in the role of a grave-digger who brings illegal cadavers to the medical teacher and Doctor MacFarlane with a torturous secret only Karloff's Gray knows.
The last five minutes will keep your attention to your TV/computer screen, I can guarantee that. Even if you're multi-tasking, you will stop for this as Daniell's demons finally catch up with him, literally.
Easter Egg: in the credits, Carlos Keith helped assist in the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story. Mr. Keith is no one else but Mr. Man in the Shadows Lewton himself!
The Black Cat (1934)
If there is a movie that makes me writhe over how amazing the acting of Karloff and Lugosi, The Black Cat is just perfection even after realizing
how choppy the plot truly is. While excited to be more elaborately shot as a Satanist's wet dream, it could not get past '30s censors.
Edgar Ulmer Jr. did not rely on shadows or any other horror movie tricks to make The Black Cat scary other than the subplot of Karloff being a leader of a Satanic cult; but what he (and Lugosi) does brilliantly is to show how far a man can be stretched until he turns into a bad guy. That's right, Lugosi plays possibly the nicest person until he enters Karloff's Poelzig's home and starts to unravel learning the fate of his estranged wife and daughter never losing his cool until the outsiders to the two men's rivalry become prisoners in the white futuristic home. Perhaps that is the genius of Ulmer, working against his expressionistic background in creating a futuristic setting.
If Ulmer and screenwriter Peter Ruric had been able to keep more of the original screenplay complete with Lugosi's character's fear of cats expanded on, soul transference, Lugosi and Karloff vying for the outsider woman and more Satanism references -- I wonder if the movie still would be as amazing as it is really showcasing Bela and what makes him so wonderfully underrated as a serious actor.
The Uninvited (1944)
There's haunted house movies like "The Haunting" complete with a mind game attached to it and then there are straight forward haunted house movies like Paramount Pictures's "The Uninvited." I can only guess this paved the way for more ghostly apparition special effects in the movies later on in the '40s, as it was originally intended to be slightly Lewtonian. Luckily, the effects in the movie are much more simple.
Brother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, along with their dog, fall in love with Windward House on the coast of England. Eventually they discover the house is haunted by a young woman's mother, but as the movie progresses, Gail Russell's Stella's parentage seems to be a bigger mystery than the hauntings themselves.
And like all good barely discovered scary movies, this one will definitely make you dance in your seat over how this movie never became more popular. "The Uninvited" will be released October 22 this year under Criterion complete with restoration and a small handful of special features. Hey Iowa City Public Library....
The Innocents (1961)
Another "dance in your seat" little known film that literally made my eyes bug out of my skull Halloween 2011 despite never having read Henry James's Turn of the Screw. And you don't quite have to to watch 1961's film adaptation and Martin Stephens's portrayal of the young Miles to blow you away.
Deborah Kerr plays a Governess and care-taker to a man's niece and nephew after the previous governess kills herself the year before. But the previous governess is not completely gone and neither is her abusive lover and the house's valet, Peter Quint. The two ghostly apparitions sometimes inhabit the young children in a peverse and incestuous undertone.
But it is Kerr's Miss Giddens's belief that she can fix the supernatural events from simply making the children admit they are being possessed but the plan backfires. It concludes with an amazing back and forth with Martin Stephens's Miles unwilling to admit Quint has been possessing him swearing and speaking like a man twice his age. If the ambiance doesn't give you chills, this scene without a doubt will and perhaps the results of Miss Giddens kissing the 13 year old boy on the lips.
House of Usher (1960)
You simply cannot be a classical movie lover without liking one or three Vincent Price movies. Even Laura almost got on this list if it wasn't more film noir/suspense. But the House of Usher is a practically perfect scary movie.
I will not bore anyone with the premise, since we all had to read this in school at some point (voluntarily or involuntarily is irrelevant...) but the aesthetics really do border on not having to do much and just leaving the camera on Vincent Price and seeing what his awesome self is going to do next.
The dream sequence! Oh Great Goddess above, the haunted dream sequence is absolutely genius; at least before the technique wore itself out with the shift of silent movie film tints in perfect 1960s cinemascope colors. This movie is just perfect from beginning to end, the aesthetics are perfect, the acting is perfect, Vincent Price is perfect. The practically perfect scary movie.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
While House of Usher is practically perfect; Pit and the Pendulum is the quintessential Vincent Price movie. Sure, people like to think he is "hammy" and over the top, but one particular scene in "Pit..." represents why he is the God of the '60s Scary Movie but also sorely underrated in his serious acting.
Francis Barnard receives word in England that his sister has died; he goes to Spain and meets his distraught brother-in-law and his sister (Luana Anders) and tries to solve the reason why she died. But things aren't what they appear, including that the distraught Price has reverted into Daddy problems and goes crazy when he finds his wife is still alive and in love with the Doctor.
The scene where he is struck by shock and terror shows Price's genius as an actor where he literally makes a shift from being "normal" to a version of his manaical father complete with his wonderland of torture devices inherited from the Spanish Inquisition. Maybe I have watched the scene too but you can see a click in Price's face as the camera is close to his face seeing his wife hovering over him. That's acting you can't call that hammy.
From that point on, Price does jump back into the ham-acting mistaking John Kerr's Barnard for his father's brother Bartolome who his father did kill back in the day as well as Price's mother. This is when he pins Barnard into the Pendulum contraption and all becomes the formula to a good scary movie. But Price is the back bone to an otherwise filmsy story and abrupt ending.
The Old Dark House (1932)
As you can tell, my favorite scary movies are ones about situations and people complete with ambiance. And James Whale's (yes, that James Whale Ian McKellen played in '98's "Gods and Monsters") "The Old Dark House" seemingly teeters between dark comedy and a legitimate scary movie. But I suppose the scary movie part comes from the incomparable Boris Karloff as the Kemm's butler Morgan who ironically never speaks a word.
A group of people must take refuge in an old dark castle when caught in a rainstorm driving through Wales. The family that lives there, the Kemms, are very strange and odd complete with a creepy old man confined to a bed, a mute butler, a pyromaniac but strangely hysterical brother, their host who is convinced he is on the run from the police and a religious zealot sister. The premise is enough to notice that this is a very British-like dark comedy that has unfortunately fallen into obscurity. That is upsetting, because anytime Karloff plays a mute, there are amazing creepy results.
4c15hzw~~60_35.JPG)
.jpg)
