Project Horror, Day 18: The Dunwich Horror

There have been many, many screen adaptations of Stephen King's works, but only a handful of good ones - The Shining, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand by Me.  Notice how of the five, only two are horror films?  Try as they might, Hollywood just can't seem to adapt King's horror to the screen very well.

Now take H.P. Lovecraft, the great turn-of-the-20th-century horror writer.  As of this writing, IMDB tells me that there have been nearly 100 adaptations of his work, but I've never heard of most of them, and the ones I've seen have been a mixed bag.  Of course Re-Animator is legendary, and there was a decent episode of "Masters of Horror" based on "Dreams in the Witch-House," but Hollywood has just never tackled his best stuff in a successful way.  Lovecraft is probably best known for his stories of the Cthulhu mythos, tales of races so ancient that the very knowledge of them has been lost to time.  Their evil is so vast and so unspeakable that even to know about them is to have your mind shattered.  The closest a movie has come to capturing that kind of evil is Sex and the City.

Still, hope springs eternal, so when I saw this was available on Netflix I thought I'd give it a try.  It  started out pretty strongly, set the scene, aroused the curiosity...  Unfortunately, that didn't last.  The basic plot: Sandra Dee plays a student who becomes romantically involved with the grandson of an occultist who was killed years before.  He tells her about the Old Ones, a scene which was interesting in how it departed from the original story.  In Lovecraft's stories, they're hideous transdimensional beings of fearsome power.  In this movie, they're wild-eyed people wearing smudgy make-up and raggedy tutu-looking things, kind of like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City.  Once he's shown her the ancient site where fertility rites are practiced, you can pretty much guess what's in store for her.  The one bonus in this?  Seeing a surprisingly buxom Sandra Dee in a dress with a very revealing cut.

My advice if you want Lovecraft on film is to check out In the Mouth of Madness.  It's not actually a Lovecraft story, but it's so clearly based on his stuff that it's a great watch, and it's directed by John Carpenter, so that's all you need to know.  As for The Dunwich Horror, I give it two Shrieking Bradshaw Heads out of five.

Project Horror, Day 17: BubbaHo-Tep

Between the fantastic Let Me In, the pretty solid The House of the Devil, and now this movie, it's been a very good weekend for Project Horror.

BubbaHo-Tep is a movie that the more I tell you about, the sillier it's going to sound, but you just have to take my word for it.  This movie is a blast.  An elderly Elvis lives in a rundown nursing home in east Texas.  He switched places with an impersonator years before to get a taste of freedom, and missed his chance to switch back, and now he spends his days mostly in bed, reflecting on his past glories.  When the residents of the home begin dying, nobody thinks twice about it.  After all, they're old and infirm.  It's for this exact reason that an undead Egyptian mummy is picking them off one by one, subsisting on their souls.  Well, you know that The King isn't going to take that lying down, and he goes into action with the help of another famous resident of the nursing home, JFK.  Oh, you thought he was dead?  That's what they want you to think.  The CIA replaced part of his brain with a sandbag and dyed him black.

I know I already gave you a must-watch recommendation for Let Me In/Let the Right One In, but I'm going to have to give one for BubbaHo-Tep, too.  Guys, Bruce Campbell is seriously one of cinemas most underrated treasures, and I say that without a single trace of irony or sarcasm.  If you cut him, he would bleed pure liquid charisma on you.  His in-character meditations on life took this movie from something merely fun and raised it to a really thoughtful piece of work.  Bonus info about Bruce Campbell - I have always believed that my friend Will looks like him.  Judge for yourself:

On top of Campbell's performance, the score of this movie is fantastic, with lots of slow, twangy guitar, kind of like the music that they played a lot in early episodes of King of the Hill.  One other thing: it's a silly detail, but I absolutely loved that when the mummy speaks, it subtitles him in hieroglyphics that dissolve into English.

You won't regret taking a chance on this movie.  I give it five scarab beetles out of five.

Project Horror, Day 16: The House of the Devil

Tonight begins Project Horror's five days of Occult & Supernatural.  I'm looking forward to this, because of the movies that can still put a chill into me, most of them fall into this category.

My friends Jarrett and Steve recommended this one.  Actually, Jarrett's exact words were, "I watched House of the Devil on Netflix and it was pretty awesome, and it kind of sucked, so take that how you will."  With praise like that, how could I resist?

I'm going to agree with that assessment, actually.  It was a fun movie, but, well... I'll get to that in a minute.  This movie was made just two years ago, but is shot to look like an early '80s horror film - not just the costumes and props, but the actual look of the movie.  It's not some ironic touch like in a Tarantino film, either; it's done in earnest.

The story is that Samantha, a college girl who badly needs money, accepts a babysitting job at a mansion out in the country on the night of a full lunar eclipse.  When she gets there, she finds out that she'll actually be looking after an elderly woman, but needs the money enough that she agrees to stay.  The rest of the movie involves her making strange discoveries in the house, and becoming more frightened.  SPOILER - At the end, she wakes up from being drugged to find herself lashed to a satanic altar as part of a ritual.  I won't give away the ending, but she does escape only for there to be another twist at the end.

As an homage to '80s horror, this was very well done.  It was fun to watch.  My complaint is with the pacing.  The setup worked well, and the end was fine, but it dragged a little in between.  When it reaches the very last scene, you realize that the movie took about an hour and a half to set up what Rosemary's Baby did in one scene that lasted about three minutes.  It's like chartering a bus to take you home from work, but having it go to Mount Rushmore on the way there.  (This analogy does not apply to residents of South Dakota.)

I give it three goat heads out of five.

Project Horror, Day 15: Let the Right One In (Sweden)/Let Me In (USA)

My first double feature of Project Horror!  I got the idea for this one from my friend Tricia, who recommended watching the original Swedish movie Let the Right One In, and then following it with the recent American remake, Let Me In.  I'm going to split this review into two parts, with the original first.

I loved this movie.  Not as a horror movie, not as a vampire movie, but just as a really fantastic story. It's not only the best movie I've watched this month, but one of the best all year.  With half a month left to go in Project Horror, the bar has now been set pretty high!

Let the Right One In is the story of a 12 year old boy named Oskar, who lives in an apartment with his mother.  He's lonely, bullied by other boys at his school, and struggling with his own identity.  When a girl named Eli moves in next door, they begin a tentative friendship which gradually grows more and more important to each of them.  She encourages him to fight back against the bullies, and he finds that she has some similar interests to his.  As their relationship deepens, Oskar learns more about Eli - as she puts it, she's "been 12 for a very long time."

What I loved about this movie was that in spite of the fact that Eli is a vampire, the movie really isn't about that.  It's about the sweetness of the relationship between Oskar and Eli.  There were so many wonderful little touches, as well.  Watch her eyes throughout the movie - although it never calls attention to them, they change based on her moods and needs.  The movie perfectly captures the tone of so many moments.  When Oskar walks home by himself, surrounded by snow drifts, I really felt his loneliness.  When he asked Eli to go steady, I felt just like I did when I was 12 and nursing my first serious crush on A_____ M_____ (name redacted to protect the innocent).  When he was trying to avoid the notice of the bullies, I felt like I did in fifth grade when I was tormented by a horrid little turd named P__ W________ (name redacted because he's probably still a horrid little turd).

I recommend this movie to anybody, even people who don't normally enjoy horror movies.  I give it five Rubik's Cubes out of five.

---

Tonight was Kids Night Out at church, and Courtney is working overnight at the hospital, so I got the chance to go and watch Let Me In on my own.  Didn't have to share my popcorn and Icee with anybody!  Actually, that's not a good thing, because I bought a large popcorn.  That bucket was bigger than my head.  Have you seen my head?  It's fucking huge!  Ooh, also there was a great preview for a movie coming out in November, called Skyline.

I don't have anything to back this up with, but I think that in cases where you experience copies of the same work, whether it's a remake of a movie or a cover of a song, you generally tend to prefer the one that you were exposed to first.  I won't embarrass anybody by naming names, but somebody close to me still maintains that Motley Crue's "Anarchy in the USA" is a better song than the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK," and I'm pretty sure it's because that's the one he heard first.  All of that is to say that I did slightly prefer the original movie, but I really think that it's because I saw it first, because Let Me In was excellent.

There are some slight differences, but nothing that steers the plot from the original.  In fact, most of the dialog is even the same.  Two differences particularly interested me.  One was that although you do see Owen's (the boy in this movie) mother, you never see her face.  She's an impersonal entity in his life, not involved with him.  The other was in Chloe Moretz's portrayal of Abby (the vampire).  Perhaps it was my imagination, but she seemed to play the character with a more "knowing" personality than the actress in the original.

And let's talk about Chloe Moretz for a minute.  She is fantastic.  Watch for her, because she's got real talent.  I'm hoping she has parents and managers who will steer her more along a Julia Stiles path and not along a Lindsay Lohan one.

Let Me In was really enjoyable.  It would have stood well on its own, but was fun as part of my double feature, too.  I give it five Now & Laters out of five.

This brings us to the end of the Foreign Horror block!  Tomorrow begins five days of the Occult & Supernatural.

Project Horror, Day 14: Mondo Cane (Italy)

For day 4 of our Foreign Horror block, I decided to spend another day in Italy and check out Mondo Cane (A Dog's World), at the recommendation of my friends Eric and Steve.  This movie has two things that distinguish it from the others on my list so far.  It's the first (and only) documentary I'm watching this month, and it was nominated for an Academy Award.  The category was Best Original Song, but that's still more Oscar nominations than the rest of the list has had so far!

Of every movie on the list, I probably went into this one the most unspoiled.  With other movies, even if you only get a two word description of the plot you're still finding out something about it.  For instance, zombie Nazis, schizo Koreans, or sleepwalking murderers.  All that I really knew about this one is that it's a "shockumentary" about bizarre and grotesque occurrences.  I think that I was expecting something along the lines of Faces of Death (which I also haven't seen).

That couldn't have been more wrong.  In fact, I really don't understand why on the categories Netflix used for this movie, they included Italian Horror.  This is not a horror film.  There are a few unpleasant scenes, but the movie as a whole is more of a travelogue of oddities.  Maybe at the time that it was made, some of its content was more shocking or titillating, but now it just seems sort of quaint.  I was reminded of something an anthropology professor told our class on the first day of the semester during my sophomore year: "For the business majors in the room, please don't treat the people that we're going to study as though we're taking a trip to the zoo."  This movie was kind of like taking a trip to the zoo.

Since it was Oscar-nominated for its music, I'll mention that the score was really good.  Also, this made me curious enough to look ahead at the rest of my planned movies - only one other went to the Oscars.  The movie I'll be watching as part of a double feature on Day 29 was nominated for Best Costume Design and won for Best Foreign Language Film.  Do with that what you will, internet sleuths!  Bonus points if you can then tell me what the second movie of the double feature will be.

Mondo Cane - decent documentary, not a horror film.  I give it three dogs out of five.

Project Horror, Day 13: Cannibal Holocaust (Italy)

Here is the dilemma I face when reviewing this movie - on one hand, I'm glad that I've finally seen the infamous Cannibal Holocaust and scratched the itch of curiosity.  On the other hand, I don't know if I'm entirely glad that I have finally seen the infamous Cannibal Holocaust.  I added this one to the line-up at the recommendation of my friend Eric, who was careful to describe it as "excellent in its own way."

If you're aware of this movie, it's probably for one of two reasons.  One is that it uses the same "found footage" technique that The Blair Witch Project used, and received some renewed attention around the time of Blair's release.  The other is that this movie contains some of the most extreme violence ever committed to film, including castration, impalement, infanticide, gang rape, cannibalism (obviously), and unsimulated killings of animals.  It really is not messing around.

And here, for the first time during Project Horror, I have to examine my own motives a little bit.  A friend of mine wrote a really great article a year or two ago, in which he wished that he had never seen pornography.  Not for any moral reasons, and not because he had any sort of addiction, but because of the cumulative effects of it on one's mind.  He wrote about being a kid, and sneaking a peek at a Playboy for the first time, and how just a glimpse of that magazine was enough to fuel his fantasies for months.  He compared that to how now, as an adult, with access to virtually anything he wishes to view at any time, it takes far more to get any kind of reaction from him.  The entry-level stuff just doesn't do it anymore.

I haven't really been scared by a horror film in a long time.  I was lucky to have protective parents when I was growing up, and saw very few until I was even in college.  Movies that my friends had seen ten years before were new to me, and scared the crap out of me!  But as I watched more and more of them, I got hip to the horror movie conventions, and they had less and less effect.  Sure, every now and then I'll jump a little when they pull out one of the stock tricks (like a cat screeching out from under the bed), but I don't go to bed afraid to turn the lights out that night.  Part of why I finally decided to see Cannibal Holocaust was to see if it would have that effect.  Although it didn't, it also made me realize that the purpose of horror isn't always to scare, sometimes it's just to jab you on a visceral level.  On that standard, the movie definitely succeeds.

It is told in flashback - a renowned anthropologist ventures into the Amazon rainforest to find a documentary crew who had ventured there and never returned.  He finds their remains and their film canisters, and takes the film back with him.  The crew was notorious for staging events for maximum drama in their previous works, and that's what he finds as he watches their footage.  Upon arriving at a native village, they immediately force the population into a hut and burn it down, planning to edit it to appear that this was done by a rival tribe.  This is just the first of many, many graphic abuses they heap upon the tribespeople until the inevitable revenge occurs.  The subjects being cannibals, I'm sure you can guess which form the revenge takes.

I'm going to agree with my friend, and say that this movie is excellent in its own way.  It succeeds in being really horrifying, and that's just what it set out to do.  I give it four shrunken heads out of five.

Project Horror, Day 12: Visions of Suffering (Russia)

I really do not recommend that you watch this movie.

What?  I've got to write more than that?  OK...

I was intrigued by the cover and the description of this movie, as well as the fact that it was from Russia.  Aside from Battleship Potemkin, I can't really think of any other Russian movies I've seen, and that one's 85 years old!

Inception was such an interesting movie, all about the nature of dreams, and when I saw that this movie was about somebody gradually pulled further into disturbing dreams and unable to escape, I hoped that it may go someplace interesting, too.  It didn't.

I don't want to paint with too broad and culturally insensitive a brush here, but you know when something is popular in the US, and then you see it surface someplace else in the world a couple of years later, only much lamer?  Kind of like how disco is still a legitimate, non-ironic part of the culture in certain parts of the world?  That is what's wrong with this movie.  It's like the director had a birthday, and somebody gave him iMovie, and somebody else gave him DVDs of every music video that played on MTV from 1981 to 1985.

I feel like I'm not giving out too many positive ratings so far in Project Horror.  I want to!  I just haven't chosen that great a line-up, maybe.  Well, here's hoping the remainder gets better.  In the meantime, I have to give this movie one hypodermic out of five.