Horror of Dracula (rewatch) - The original Hammer Dracula is one of the better Hammer films. It alternates between really well directed scenes with little dialogue and some great visual acting, and tolerable but rather info-dumpy dialogue scenes. Lee is an imposing presence, although I wish he got to talk more, and Cushing is a badass Van Helsing, and really the main character here. This movie is actually missing many of the elements that are usually highlights of other Dracula movies: the coach ride, the sea voyage, and Renfield. The first two were probably not feasible given the constraints of the production; the indoor sets are all good but everything outdoors just looks like the backyard of somebodies summer home in the country. But why no Renfield? Oh well, it's still good, with an ending that must have been shocking in 1958.
Zombi/Zombi 2/Zombie Flesheaters/whatever the #### you want to call this - I saw this in English. I know that Italian movies from this era were shot without sound, so it's not really a dub per se, but is the Italian version better? The voice acting is awful, and the plot is pretty silly, but there are some great scenes, and I love the soundtrack. Really, the best scenes are the ones with the most prominent music.
City of the Living Dead - Also directed by Lucio Fulci, who directed Zombi, and this one leads harder into his strengths. The acting is still bad but this one goes all in on the surrealism and avoids the half-hearted feel of the plottier parts of Zombi. Also, it's the grossest movie I've ever seen. I know that Norville and alot of other people think that The Beyond is even better, and I was going to watch that next, but right after watching this movie I was eating and apple and it just felt like organs in my mouth, so I decided to save The Beyond until next Halloween.
The People Under the Stairs - A Wes Craven movie I hadn't seen before. Ghetto kid battles evil landlords who keep orphans locked in their basement and feed them dead bodies. I had mixed feelings about this one. It has good production values, and I appreciate the fact that it's willing to be organically weird, but for much of it the tone is so strange that I didn't know how to respond to it. The performances from all of the adults are the biggest problem. But it won me over in the end, even if it's not my favorite Crave.
Redeye - Another Craven movie, and really a non-horror thriller. I remember reading Ebert's review and wanting to see it, and 17 years later I finally got around to it. It's a modest, old-fashioned character driven thriller, mostly consisting of two people having conversations, mostly on a plane. I liked it, but the world was too busy watching CGI spectacles to care for a popcorn movie this modest. Also, it does have one big moment of CGI effects and the must have looked horrendously-ass even in 2005. Still, this is was fun.
The Serpent and the Rainbow (rewatch) - Maybe my favorite Wes Craven movie, even if it it's his least personal movie (that I've seen) and kind of goes off the rails in the last act. Great, and presumably authentic, use of Haitian (and Dominican Republic playing Haiti) locations and an unusually strong cast, although Bill Pullman in the lead is weaker than the supporting players.
The Changeling - I had never heard of this until today, when I saw it atop a "Best Horror Movies of the 1980s" list (where it doesn't really deserve to be). This actually feels alot older than 1981, and '80s horror fans who took that recommendation seriously are likely to be disappointed by this movies' grown up, serious, middle-brow respectability. George C. Scott's wife and kid get run over by a truck, so he moves into a mansion that feels like it's the size of a city block and something like 5 stories tall. Well guess what, it's haunted by a ghost who needs him to figure out its back story and set things right. Not great, but if you want a traditional ghost story than it's pretty good.
Are any of the follow horror movies worth watching?
The Omen
The Amityville Horror
The Mothman Prophesies
The Believers
The Conjuring
Annabelle
Vampire in Brooklyn
Shocker
The Skeleton Key
Responses