#8 and #9 of 31 Horror Films in 31 Days: Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street and New Nightmare
Two great tastes that (mostly) go great together.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
For my “trick” today, I got to experience catastrophic hard drive failure, and have spent all day trying to restore and back-up files. So uh, yeah. I’m behind on my 31 Days of Horror postings - and there’s no chance of catching up tonight.
It’s cool to just pretend November is still October, right?
Hope everyone is enjoying their day with rad costumes, gory films, and lots of sugary sweets! I’m off to squeeze in a viewing of Carpenter’s classic - and then do some more work before I turn in.
At some point during my daily teenage video store raiding, I made a point to see everything Vincent Price was in, but I somehow didn’t remember seeing The Masque of the Red Death.
And since this Roger Corman-directed film was on the list of “100 Horror Films to See Before You Die” at the Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film exhibit I visited, I decided to give it another look.
And it’s uh. Well, it’s very 1964, that’s for sure. The sets and characters are pretty close the Edgar Allan Poe story it’s based on, but the film ramps up the surreal aspects of the story by adding lots of trippy theatrics, tacky costumes, and lots of paintery-Hammer Horror’esque blood. Oh - and, satan worship. I don’t really remember that part being in Poe’s version.
Vincent Price plays Prince Prospero, a snooty nobleman who treats everyone below him as his slave, and throws giant parties at his castle wherein people have to act like animals, and “amuse” him by humiliating themselves and each other. He also has an alter dedicated to Satan, and is convinced his faithful service to the dark lord will protect him from dying, especially from his greatest fear “The Red Death”.
When the poor folks get this dreaded disease (which apparently causes you to bleed profusely out of every pore until you’re empty), he grabs the hottest chick in their village and brings her back to his castle to replace his super-uptight wife…until a mysterious masked figure shows up at his costume ball and kinda ruins everything.
There’s some great stuff on screen here, and definitely some moments of terror - but it was hard to get past the dated look and feel of the film - and I swear Price wasn’t really giving it his all. Most of his dialog seemed stilted and, frankly, like he was bored. Ultimately I think I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if I’d had a few drinks first.
Still, it was interesting to see. I recommend to die-hards who absolutely need to see every Price or Corman film ever made.
Night of the Demons 1988 Vs. 2009
The 1988 version of Night of the Demons is by no means a masterpiece, but since it was released during my impressionable teenage years, I kind of love it. It’s slow-going and takes forever to get to the gore, but when it does, it’s a mix of terror and WTF moments, involving lipstick being ingested by boob and naughty 80s dancing.
Unfortunately, the remake gets everything wrong. It starts off with a back story shown as if it’s a silent movie. Wait, what? Why? And then spirals into ridiculousness by casting Shannon Elizabeth as Goth Girl Angela and by somehow trying to make us believe that hot-as-hell Monica Keena (don’t even get me started on her “scary” costume) would have ever dated drug dealer/loser Edward Furlong. But I digress…what’s really wrong with this remake is that it’s just plain not scary.
Instead of going for anything that might actually work on some level of terror, they just took the key scenes from the original and tried to “twist” them with tons more sex and stupid special F/X (the infamous lipstick scene had way more impact the first time around), then gave their characters the lamest dialog ever so there’s no chance in hell you want anyone to make it out alive.
The scariest part is actually seeing iconic scream queen Linnea Quigley in her outfit from the original movie, bending over to show her ass to….I guess a bunch of 8-year-old trick or treaters. Wait, what? Why?
That’s actually how I’m going to sum up the 2009 Night of the Demons from now on: Wait, what? WHY? A total disappointment, and a complete waste of time.
31 Horror Movies I Own #7: Poltergeist
“You moved the headstones, but not the graves!”
Another Tobe Hooper masterpiece, Poltergeist is one of those rare horror movies that ages well. Despite its 1982 filming date, it doesn’t really feel that dated (unless you pay attention to the electronics…) and still holds up.
The story of the Freelings and their encounter with the group of ghosts living in their house could come of as campy and comical, especially with the inclusion of Zelda Rubenstein’s squeaky-voiced Tangina. But this thing is so well written and packed with suspense, that it reads as straight-up terror.
The focus of the film is the disappearance of angelic daughter Carol Anne, who joins the poltergeists by way of being sucked into a bedroom closet. Most horror films lose something in one area or another, but Poltergeist has the magic trinity of a strong script, kick-ass special F/X AND good actors.
The build-up of ghostly activity coupled with the breakdown of parents Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diana (a smokin’ hot Jo Beth Williams) is amazing to watch, and this is the movie that both made me afraid of large trees and ensured I would never have any kind of clown doll anywhere near me (look at that thing!), like FOREVER.
If you’ve been avoiding this because you think it might be lame, or if you’ve only seen parts of it, I urge you to get over it and rent away. This movie is so fantastic that I love it a little more every time I watch it—and the ending is perfect.
As far as the sequels go, 2 has its gross-out moments (the possessed tequila worm is pretty icktastic), and Kane is sufficiently creepy, but it’s just not as good as the original. The 3rd is so bad it’s *almost* good, in that “let’s knock back a couple of drinks and laugh our asses off” kind of way…or you know, if you happen to enjoy watching a very young Lara Flynn Boyle scream a lot. I’m just sayin’.
31 Horror Movies I Own: #1, Hellraiser
I suspect that if you weren’t a teen or preteen when Clive Barker’s Hellraiser hit the horror scene, you’d view it now and think “This is fucking dated and cheesy and not scary at all”…and you’d be half-right.
There’s no denying that it’s dated. 1987 was a fine year for outrageous 80s fashion, and the two female leads showcase it hilariously—puffy bomber jackets, giant bangs, dagger-esque star earrings, popped collars, bright yellow eye shadow and all.
And sure, it’s cheesy. The low-budget effects are glaringly obvious (Barker even admits this in his commentary, which by the way, is some of the best commentary ever in the history of EVER), but whatevs. The man basically sold his soul, AKA, the rights to all future Hellraiser movies and characters, for just a million dollars in order to make this thing. So of course it’s not without its flaws.
But it doesn’t matter. What he did with that low budget is pretty astounding. In addition to introducing what used to be one of the best villains of all time, the sadistic nail-headed demon-y Lead Cenobite (who had officially adopted the name “Pinhead” by the time the sequel was released) played with perfection by gravelly-voiced Doug Bradley, the film introduced us to Barker’s strange world of heaven and hell, almost beautiful trance-like gore scenes, skin-pulling chains, “the box” and best of all: Julia.
Julia is simply one of the most perfect and tragic anti-heroines on film. She’s beautiful, lost, and consumed by her over-powering lust for Frank—all of which leads to her doing all sorts of unseemly things—like luring strange men home with the promise of sex and then hitting them over the head with a hammer so her undead/skeletal/dripping with slime lover can eat them and grow skin.
Caught between cruel but sexy (even without skin!) escaped-from-hell Frank and clueless husband Larry, and watched suspiciously by baby-faced, innocent Kirsty (Ashley Lawrence) Julia plays each part just the way she’s supposed to: confused, loving wife; evil stepmom, and cold-blooded murderer. Clare Higgins should have won a damn Oscar for this thing. I’m not even kidding. Watch the first kill and tell me I’m wrong.
The reason this film works is because the story, the monsters, and the actors are all equally strong. If you’ve never seen it, you need to. Put aside your critique of the special F/X and watch…I guarantee you’ll be creeped out on some level, even if you’re not scared (after 8 films and TONS of exposure, I feel like being scared of Pinhead would take a miracle). For me, “The Chatterer” Cenobite is actually more creep-tastic than Pinhead, but Julia still wins the award for most frightening.
As for the sequels, none of them are worth owning—or really even watching, unless you’re just curious. Some have a few interesting ideas and squirm-worthy kills, but they aren’t as cohesive or as well put together as the original Hellraiser. It’s a classic I will always keep in my DVD library. Kudos, Clive.
