Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 31, 2021 by The Iron Cupcake

I present to you: Bride of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

October Diary: 10 Films from a Month of Watching Horror Cinema by Women Directors

Posted on October 29, 2018 by The Iron Cupcake

All this month, I have paid special attention to horror films directed by women. Inspired by my recent post about Mary Harron’s category-defying satire American Psycho, I thought I would publish some of the notes I took after watching ten particular titles on my October checklist. Ghost stories, vampire romances, slasher pics, period pieces about cannibalism, predatory-mermaid musicals, genre parodies – I tried it all.

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The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) – dir. Amy Holden Jones (notes written: Mon. 10/8/18)

Rita Mae Brown, famed writer of the groundbreaking lesbian-themed novel Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), penned the original screenplay for The Slumber Party Massacre (available for free on YouTube), which was made in collaboration with Amy Holden Jones in her directorial debut. Originally intended to be a satire of slasher films, the finished product ends up coming across more like a regular (serious) horror flick than a parody, but in a brief 77 minutes, Jones and Brown deliver an entertaining thriller with plenty of gore.

The plot is simple and straightforward: serial killer Russ Thorn (Michael Villella) escapes from prison and fixates on a bunch of high schoolers as his next victims. Linda (Brinke Stevens) meets a bloody demise in the locker room after her friends have already left; the rest of the group of girls – Trish (Michelle Michaels), KIm (Debra De Liso), Jackie (Andree Honore) and Diane (Gina Smika Hunter) – become Thorn’s targets when they gather at Trish’s house for a sleepover. Two sisters who live across the street from Trish, Valerie (Robin Stille) and Courtney Bates (Jennifer Meyers), initially try to hold back their interests in crashing the party, but they soon realize that all is not well at Trish’s residence, leading the Bates girls to inspect the property for themselves and get ensnared in Thorn’s web.

Like pretty much every other film in its genre from that time period (or this one, probably), The Slumber Party Massacre is a hotbed of gratuitous T&A. It’s not necessary for the camera to lasciviously linger on images of the female characters in various states of undress, like when they take showers after gym class at school or change into pajamas at Trish’s place (in front of an open window, of course), but then again, it was essentially a requirement for nudity and sexual content to appear to some degree in horror films made in the early 80s. Despite the annoyingly predictable objectification of female bodies, what The Slumber Party Massacre gets right is its character development, some good acting among the young leads (particularly Robin Stille, whose Valerie character turns out to be a real badass; sadly, Stille committed suicide in 1996) and a number of genuine thrills and jump scares. That the misogynistic killer’s weapon of choice is a power drill is an effective piece of phallic symbolism on Rita Mae Brown’s part, and the way in which Thorn’s reign of terror is stopped furthers Brown’s point.

I also appreciate Massacre’s nods to some classic horror from earlier generations. The most obvious homage is to Psycho, given the use of the last name “Bates” for two of the main characters, but there is also a scene in which a character’s murder echoes a similar death in Jacques Tourneur’s The Leopard Man (1943), showing a victim clawing at a door that the people on the other side refuse to open, a decision that concludes with the corpse’s blood oozing under the doorway. Massacre also features solid direction by Amy Holden Jones, excellent cinematography by Stephen L. Posey and a suitably unsettling score by Ralph Jones, so there’s quite a bit to recommend the film for your October schedule.

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Blood Sisters (1987) – dir. Roberta Findlay (notes written: Sun. 10/14/18)

New York-based filmmaker Roberta Findlay could probably do just about any job required in the motion picture industry. For the horror film Blood Sisters (available via YouTube), she worked as director, screenwriter, cinematographer (I’m pretty sure she shot almost all of her films) and co-editor (with Walter E. Sear, who had additional contributions as producer, production manager and score composer). Mind you, I’m not saying that the end result is any good – Blood Sisters is one of the strangest horror flicks I’ve seen recently – but it has its share of fun aspects.

Findlay’s film is both a stereotypical entry in the slasher genre, concerning a deranged killer stalking sorority girls who are spending the night in a notoriously “haunted” former brothel, and also a supernatural thriller since there really are apparitions in the creaky old house. As we can guess from the film’s opening scene, in which a little girl rejects the affections of a boy her age and he immediately runs to the brothel to shoot all of the prostitutes (including his mother) and patrons, the present-day murderer is that same boy as an adult. During the college students’ stay in the ex-brothel, some of the young women see visions of the dead prostitutes and the clients in mirrors; the appearances by these specters seem to be tailored according to sexual orientation since some of the main characters are shown heterosexual couplings, while the one lesbian in the group is presented with the memory of a sexual encounter between a pair of women.

Despite the usual conventions of the horror genre, the sexuality on display in Findlay’s film is pretty tame, which is somewhat surprising (and maybe a little disappointing) since everything she directed between and 1971 and 1985 was hardcore pornography. I wondered if Findlay was motivated to give horror a try because sexploitation filmmaker Doris Wishman did so with A Night to Dismember (1983), but according to a 2017 interview, Findlay claimed never to have seen any of Wishman’s work. (It’s worth noting, however, that Blood Sisters referenced the title of Wishman’s slasher thriller for its own tagline.)

To recap some of the things you can see in Blood Sisters, I’ll quote the headline of one IMDb user’s review: “Possessed nightgown! Strangulation by garter belt! Lesbian hooker ghosts!“ Sure, Findlay’s film is a low-budget exercise in poor taste, and you’re more likely to roll your eyes than cower in fear, but at least there are gems peppered throughout the dialogue. Two favorite lines: one guy says to another, “Eat my shorts, tampon breath!” (reminiscent of a similar retort in another recently viewed horror film, Campfire Stories – “Stop being such a sanitary napkin, dude!” – evidently part of a tradition of insults inspired by feminine hygiene products), and in a later scene, a character wearing a neon-colored item of clothing is asked by a friend, “Alice, can’t you turn that coat off?”

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) – dir. Fran Rubel Kuzui (notes written: Sat. 10/20/18)

Before Sarah Michelle Gellar found superstardom as the title vanquisher of the undead, Kristy Swanson brought the starring role of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to life. As the Valley girl armed with plenty of wooden stakes, gymnastics skills for days and an infinite array of cute neon crop tops and leggings – thank you for your service, early 90s fashion, you were truly inspired – Swanson embodies the heroine of Joss Whedon’s original screenplay and makes her hilarious, badass, sensitive and altogether awesome.

The rest of the cast is stacked with both established actors and newcomers, all of whom do great work: Luke Perry, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens (I guess this was one of his first high-profile projects following his 1991 arrest; he’s unrecognizable and a delight to watch), Rutger Hauer, Hilary Swank (making her big screen debut at age 17), David Arquette, Stephen Root (he steals every scene he’s in as the principal at Buffy’s high school), Natasha Gregson Wagner (she has my favorite line reading of the movie, asking her friends with goofy intensity, “Okay, guys, what do you think about the ozone layer?”), Candy Clark, Slash in a cameo as a prom DJ and, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit part, Ben Affleck as a basketball-playing student. According to my TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a one-star production, but I say it’s a ton of fun and one of the best horror comedies I’ve seen in a long time.

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Embrace of the Vampire (1995) – dir. Anne Goursaud (notes written: Sat. 10/6/18)

Now that it’s October, I plan on diving deep into the wide, seemingly unending selection of horror films that I have not yet seen. Since I am especially eager to become better acquainted with horror projects directed by women, I first took a gander at what was available in decent condition on YouTube and my first (frankly sort of random) choice was the erotic horror thriller Embrace of the Vampire.

Granted, I didn’t bother to Google the film before viewing it, but I knew two things: it starred Alyssa Milano in one of her first “adult” roles and that the director, Anne Goursaud, was best known for her work as an editor on some notable films from the 80s and 90s, including The Outsiders (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986), Ironweed (1987) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Embrace of the Vampire served as Goursaud’s directorial debut and while I can’t say that it exhibits either an original creative aesthetic or good taste, I do want to congratulate her for casting Martin Kemp as the nameless vampire who haunts virginal college student Charlotte (Milano), luring her via sex dreams and in hallucinations she has while sitting in her art history class. I can’t tell you how hard I chuckled when the opening credits rolled and I said to myself, “Martin Kemp? Do I know this much is true or is that not one of the Spandau Ballet guys?” (It was, he was the band’s bassist.) Unintentional as it was from the director’s point of view, I laughed every time Kemp’s moody character showed up.

Kemp is both a terrible actor and not particularly sexy (sorry, but that matters for this genre of film), so to be brutally honest it makes sense that the only reason why Milano’s character would be drawn to him is through forces outside of her control. On the other hand, Charlotte’s boyfriend, Chris (Harold Pruett), is barely a Casanova either, but I will not comment on his looks since I was saddened to read that Harold Pruett died of a drug overdose in 2002, a tragic end for a former child almost-star. Anyway, the three best performances are from Milano, Charlotte Lewis as a bisexual photographer who lives in Charlotte’s dorm and flirts with her, and Jennifer Tilly as another vampire (or at least I think she’s undead; I don’t remember if it’s explicitly stated). Watching all of these weird characters spout inane dialogue and pursue temptations of the flesh – like an embarrassingly lengthy “orgy” (or more accurately, a lot of topless people making out) fueled by Ecstasy – is often hilariously bad.

I assume that most people would only watch Embrace of the Vampire for its perceived sexiness, but it doesn’t deliver on that count. Perhaps excessive nudity is sufficient for some viewers, but I was let down by the dearth of actual sex scenes. I figured that it was a foregone conclusion that Anne Goursaud’s film wouldn’t rate too highly on the horror scale, therefore replacing thrills with tacky romance, but the lack of smut was pretty disappointing. Maybe things could have gone differently if the vampire had been portrayed by, say, Michael Bolton.

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Office Killer (1997) – dir. Cindy Sherman (notes written: Tues. 10/23/18)

Photographer and conceptual artist Cindy Sherman made her sole foray into feature filmmaking with Office Killer, a morbidly funny dark comedy about a put-upon clerk who snaps once her job status has been demoted to part-time. Proofreader and copywriter Dorine Douglas (Carol Kane) is perpetually described as “mousy” and “strange” by her colleagues at Constant Consumer Magazine, owing to her introverted nature, her tendency to jump any time a person touches her, and the fact that she lives at home as a caretaker for her disabled mother (Alice Drummond). After Constant Consumer’s overbearing CEO, Virginia Wingate (Barbara Sukowa), downsizes the staff and subsequently limits Dorine’s office time by making her work partly from home instead, our antiheroine tastes sweet revenge when she is indirectly responsible for the fatal electrocution of one of her other irritating bosses, Gary Michaels (a gloriously coiffed David Thornton), while fixing her computer during after-hours. There is no going back for Dorine after she opts to take the freshly deceased corporate lackey to her house; soon, corpses are accumulating in her basement left and right.

“It is true that to live inside a warm and nurturing environment is everybody’s dream,” Dorine muses in a voiceover, “but as we grow up we also need to experience independence and adventure.“ She takes the initiative to dispatch of all those who have wronged her, and even a few complete innocents to boot. And there are plenty more potential victims to choose from: Kim Poole (Molly Ringwald), an editor who hates Dorine’s guts for stealing one of her articles out from under her; Norah Reed (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Virginia’s second-in-command and one of the few office workers who shows any care for Dorine; and Daniel Birch (Michael Imperioli), who is Norah’s boyfriend and, more crucially, the IT expert who installs a computer in Dorine’s home and teaches her how to use email. With her newfound technological skill, Dorine manipulates the Constant Consumer hierarchy into doing her bidding and keeping her out of trouble with the law.

If the screenplay of Office Killer seems noticeably well-crafted, that is thanks to the talent involved: Cindy Sherman and Elise MacAdam wrote the underlying story, while MacAdam and Tom Kalin (renowned director of the films Swoon and Savage Grace) penned the screenplay and indie auteur Todd Haynes contributed additional dialogue. The performances are uniformly excellent, but above all the film is a showcase for Carol Kane, who is by turns adorable, pitiable and spine-chillingly menacing as Dorine. Too rarely have I seen Kane in leading roles, and certainly never one so deliciously malevolent.

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Ravenous (1999) – dir. Antonia Bird (notes written: Mon. 10/15/18)

(Warning: spoilers in the last paragraph.)

Blending gruesome violence with pitch black humor and period-piece details, Ravenous is surely the only movie you’ll ever see about Mexican-American War veterans who are also cannibals. Set during the rough winter of 1847, the film follows Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce), a military man whose medal for valor in war was actually the result of cowardice – he played dead after being wounded, only getting behind enemy lines because his “corpse” was dragged there by soldiers. Because of the carnage he witnessed on the battlefield, Boyd has lost his taste for meat, but his hunger for flesh will soon return in an unexpected way after he is transferred to a new outpost in California.

Late one night, a Scotsman named F.W. Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) arrives at the camp, practically out of his mind from malnutrition. Colqhoun tells Boyd, Col. Hart (Jeffrey Jones – how I do continuously find myself watching movies with this creep?), Pvt. Toffler (Jeremy Davies) and some of his other rescuers about the terrifying circumstances of his journey across America. The party he had been traveling with lost its way during a snowstorm and they were forced to take shelter in a cave, where the lack of food eventually drove them to eat each other. Colqhoun escaped the situation when he thought he might be next on the menu, and the next day he leads Boyd and his superiors on a trip back to the cave to see if the last two survivors are still there. Unsurprisingly, this little adventure turns out to be a trap; Colqhoun clearly planned from the start to kill everyone. Only Boyd manages to flee his bloodthirsty attacker, although the price he must pay for attempting to hide in the woods will unleash his own similarly uncivilized cravings.

Pearce and Carlyle’s characters are like oil and water – Boyd is an introvert who only speaks when necessary, while Colqhoun is a loquacious gent with a penchant for flamboyant witticisms – and yet they are drawn to one another, each challenging the other in verbal and physical altercations. On the surface, Ravenous is an over-the-top dark comedy about literally carnal appetites, but the film also functions well as a metaphor for homosexuality. Colqhoun represents the embrace of gayness, while Boyd is repressed but constantly fighting the urge to succumb to the same desires. There is especially intense chemistry between the two main characters in a scene where Boyd comes close to licking blood off of a wound on Colquhoun’s hand. Numerous scenes also employ a female/gay male gaze as male characters view other men’s unclothed bodies, often searching for injuries that have penetrated the skin, to say nothing of the moment when Boyd and Colquhoun actually around roll in some hay during a melee in a barn.

Perhaps the subtext is only there for those who look for it, and the ending certainly raises questions about what the true message is if the narrative is indeed symbolic, but there is no question that Antonia Bird’s film is a delicious morsel. On the downside, Ravenous deserves points off for failing the Bechdel test so badly – there is only one female character, a Native American woman named Martha (Sheila Tousey) who exists solely to serve white men in power and to occasionally explain the local lore of her people – but one cannot argue that the film’s exploration of, shall we say, alternative lifestyles is fascinating.

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Dorothy Mills (2008) – dir. Agnès Merlet (notes written: Thurs. 10/18/18)

Despite the claim made on its spooky DVD cover, the Irish psychological horror film Dorothy Mills is closer to Breaking the Waves than to The Exorcist, concerned not so much with demonic possession than with the demons of the past that have loomed large over an insular, fundamentalist community. Like the teenager Linda Blair played in that classic chiller almost half a century ago, the title character in Agnès Merlet’s film (played by Jenn Murray) is a girl not in control of her own mind and body. When a psychiatrist, Jane Morton (Carice Van Houten) is sent to the small island where Dorothy lives in the wake of a violent incident – a couple came home to find their babysitter, Dorothy, attacking their infant – the locals reveal both their hatred of the girl, their opposition to outsiders invading their territory and contradictory opinions on whether Jane should be allowed to investigate and potentially take the teen back with her to the mainland.

I wouldn’t describe Dorothy Mills as horror, but rather as a moving drama that observes how history affects and changes us, particularly with regard to tragedies that we can’t forget. It helps that the acting is solid across the board, particularly from Carice Van Houten as the conflicted psychiatrist, who is battling dark memories of her own, from Gary Lewis as Pastor Ross, whose word is law in this deeply religious region, and from the outstanding Jenn Murray (in her film debut) as the girl at the heart of the conflict. Dorothy is a complex character, to say the least, and Jenn Murray brings so many details to her performance that make watching her absolutely riveting. The cinematography by Giorgos Arvanitis also does a fine job of capturing the moods of the isolated village and its bitter residents.

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Kiss of the Damned (2012) – dir. Xan Cassavetes (notes written: Thurs. 10/11/18)

Xan (Alexandra) Cassavetes, the eldest daughter of legendary auteur John Cassavetes, made her debut as a writer-director with Kiss of the Damned, an elegantly crafted horror film that is currently available to stream via Hulu. While the film initially presents itself as a romance, following the unusual courtship of French vampire Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume) and American screenwriter Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), the latter of whom Djuna bites shortly after meeting, but the story soon turns into a critique of upper-class excess. The rich are often portrayed as vampires in the media, sucking the life out of those less fortunate, but in Damned, the undead characters literally do just that; they are consumers in both the materialistic and literal senses of the word. They also indulge in a particular subsection of capitalism that allows for luxuries like fancy bottles of synthetic blood and parties where the immortals gather, mostly to congratulate themselves on no longer being mere humans.

The main conflict in the film arises from the arrival of Djuna’s sister, Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), who gets her kicks from seducing everyone she meets. This spells trouble for Djuna and Paolo, who already have a lot on their plate since they rent their house from another vampire, successful actress Xenia (Anna Mouglalis), and at one point there is an unexpected visit from Paolo’s agent, Ben (Michael Rapaport, who provides some much-needed humor). The supporting cast also includes Ching Valdes-Aran as Irene, Xenia’s housekeeper; Riley Keough as Ann, a teenage devotee of Xenia’s theatrical career; and Peter Vack as one of Mimi’s victims.

The narrative of Kiss of the Damned is thinly plotted and predictable, following the main characters yet never feeling as though much is happening. Instead, Cassavetes relies on evoking a suitably moody atmosphere to fill in the gaps in the story. Tobias Datum’s cinematography and Steven Hufsteter’s score hark back to artistic horror films of the 1960s and 70s, making the film quite aesthetically pleasing even when the acting and writing are not always satisfying.

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The Voices (2014) – dir. Marjane Satrapi (notes written: Fri. 10/19/18)

Available to stream now via Netflix, The Voices is not for everyone, particularly those viewers who would rather abstain from seeing a comedy about a murderer who keeps women’s severed heads in his fridge. Even so, let it be said that The Voices is not without its charms. Ryan Reynolds does a fine job of bringing complexity, humor and, when necessary, terror to his part as Jerry, a mentally ill factory worker who stumbles into serial-killing and finds himself unable to stop; Reynolds also provides the voices that Jerry hears coming from his pets, a dog named Bosco and a cat (with an uncanny, David Tennant-esque Scottish burr) named Mr. Whiskers, who act as the proverbial angel and devil on Jerry’s shoulders.

As deeply unsettling as the concepts for the film are, it is also a bizarrely enjoyable experience. The tone sometimes shifts wildly from one scene to another, jumping from surreal satire (the film’s opening is reminiscent of Blue Velvet, introducing us to a picturesque small town with a cloying jingle on the soundtrack) to slasher flick to candy-colored musical. The performances by Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick as two of Jerry’s co-workers (and potential love interests), Fiona and Lisa, bring additional spark to the proceedings, while Jacki Weaver plays the pivotal role of Dr. Warren, Jerry’s sympathetic psychiatrist. The creative approaches taken in telling this story arise from the collaboration between director Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis, Chicken with Plums) and screenwriter Michael R. Perry (his background seems to be primarily TV), and while the film has its shaky moments here and there, it is highly entertaining and it continually kept me guessing what would happen next.

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The Lure (2015) – dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska (notes written: Mon. 10/22/18)

Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska’s debut feature The Lure (which I believe is still available to stream through FilmStruck) is surely unlike any other film you’ve seen lately, blending fantasy, horror and romance into a musical set in Warsaw during the 1980s. A pair of mermaid sisters, Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden (Michalina Olszanska), are brought onto dry land by a trio of cabaret performers – singer Krysia (Kinga Preis), her drummer boyfriend (Andrzej Konopka) and a twentysomething bassist (Jakub Gierszal) – who discover that the sisters are capable of transforming their tails into human women’s legs. Silver and Golden are added to the nightclub act, charming customers with backup singing that soon gives the siblings a chance for pop stardom of their own as a duo.

The interior of the club shimmers from the glittery costumes designed by Katarzyna Lewinska (who worked on another great film I saw earlier this year, The Innocents), the cinematography by Jakub Kijowski and the original music written and composed by Marcin Macuk, Barbara Wrońska and Zuzanna Wrońska specifically for the film, modeled on the synthpop and New Wave genres popular in that era. My personal favorite cut from the soundtrack is “I Came to the City,” a poppy ode to materialism sung by Silver, Golden and Krysia during a lavish shopping spree that they embark on while working-class citizens protest outside on the streets of Communist-run Warsaw (“I’m new to the city/I wanted to put my best foot forward/Change what I can change and get their attention/A mention, a nod … the city will tell us what it is we lack!”). Another musical highlight that was not created by the film’s composers, though, is a dazzling cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” sung by Krysia after the film’s opening credits as our introduction to the cabaret environment.

The Lure can be seen as an update of Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Little Mermaid,” but Smoczynska’s version is markedly more adult. Silver and Golden take different approaches in adjusting to the world of two-legged humans and individually realizing their burgeoning erotic yearnings; Golden entices men and women into sexual situations that she uses to turn them into dinner (the sisters have an insatiable hunger for human flesh), while Silver experiences first love when she falls for the band’s cute, shaggy-haired bassist. Informed by her would-be lover that she will always be “a fish” to him as long as she does not have the typical female reproductive organs, Silver elects to sacrifice her aquatic anatomy by agreeing to undergo a dangerous operation that will make her a “real” woman.

There are consequences for Silver’s decision, however, and The Lure serves as a compelling look at the impact that love and lust have on women, as well as the price women sometimes pay when they think more of a man’s happiness than they do their own. Furthermore, the film explores what it means to inhabit a woman’s body, especially in the context of the importance a man places on a woman having a vagina in order to be perceived as whole and normal. Yes, there is blood, violence and death in The Lure, but the true horror is in how men manipulate women when, in the end, family may actually be the strongest bond of all.

Creeptober: Horror for Halloween Month (Evil Dead Edition)

Posted on October 22, 2016 by The Iron Cupcake

For eleven-twelfths of the year, I abstain from horror movies. With few exceptions that I can remember – the only ones coming to mind being when I watched the Frank Langella version of Dracula (1979) late on a hot July night and watching a double bill of Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944) on an August night on TCM – I always wait until October for my horror-genre enjoyment.

2016 has been fun so far: Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), The Return of Doctor X (1939), The Climax (1944), The Strange Door (1951), House of Wax (1953), The City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel, 1960), Incubus (1966), The Exorcist (1973) [which, for the record, I hated], The Sentinel (1977), The Changeling (1980), Venom (1981), The Others (2001) and The Conjuring (2013) have all now been checked off my list. But without a doubt the best decision I could have made this Halloween season was to watch Sam Raimi’s low-budget masterpiece, The Evil Dead (1981), and subsequently to watch the film’s two sequels and the follow-up TV show currently airing on the STARZ network, “Ash vs Evil Dead.”

Billed as “The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror,” The Evil Dead was filmed in 1979 for next to nothing (I think the budget was approximately $350,000), it was first shown in 1981 and it eventually became a cult classic upon its national theatrical release in 1983 and later (massive) popularity on home video. The film made an unlikely star out of Bruce Campbell, who is now an icon of horror/sci-fi/other weird genres, and Sam Raimi has had an interesting track record as a director, including the Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey Maguire (2002-2007) and the Cate Blanchett-starring supernatural thriller that I like quite a bit, The Gift (2000). I think I did the best type of preparation possible for The Evil Dead, which is to say I didn’t read anything about it. I didn’t want to spoil any aspect of the viewing experience. Perhaps it would have been good to know that the film has more gore than any film I have ever seen – enough to warrant an NC-17 rating, although technically the DVD is unrated – but in the end, I didn’t actually mind. When a film is as entertaining as The Evil Dead, extreme blood and guts get a pass.

(The only thing worse than listening to a book on tape: listening to the Book of the Dead on reel-to-reel audio tape.)

It’s easy to see why Bruce Campbell’s character, Ash (or Ashley J. Williams in full), has become such a beloved hero – although perhaps I should say antihero since he sometimes undermines his ability to save the world through sheer dumbness. In this first film, Ash has to kill his sister Cheryl, his girlfriend Linda, and two other friends when they become possessed by evil spirits (roused by passages spoken aloud from the Book of the Dead, aka the Necronomicon) during a weekend stay at a remote cabin. These unlucky friends’ reanimated bodies won’t stop until they take Ash down with them too. As the undead – or Deadites, as they are called in the franchise – stalk Ash through the various rooms in the cabin and in the basement underneath, director Sam Raimi displays maximum creativity as a horror filmmaker. Not bad for a 19-going-on-20-year-old making a feature-length flick in between semesters at Michigan State.

So then we come to Evil Dead II (1987). How do you make a sequel to The Evil Dead? By making a parody, of course! The fearsome cabin in the woods becomes a funhouse where Bruce Campbell – whose chin could kill if it so chose – turns the acting dial for Ash up to 11 and delivers a physical comedy performance worthy of cinema’s greatest clowns. Obviously the scenes where Ash’s hand is possessed, and therefore must be sawed off before it kills its owner, exhibit a ton of skillful stuntsmanship, including the impressive flip that Bruce Campbell does to launch himself headfirst onto the floor.

Evil Dead II also bestows upon us the gift of the iconic scene where Ash, now free of his right hand, first attaches his now-famous chainsaw appendage.

Raimi and Campbell further upped the stakes (ha!) with the third leg (ha ha!) of the trilogy, Army of Darkness (1992). In a madcap tribute to Ray Harryhausen, Ash must fight a legion of angry skeletons in the year 1300 (an evil vortex sent Ash back in time at the end of Evil Dead II). You can imagine how terrified people of that era would have been to see guns, but at least Ash gets to work in his sales pitch from the Michigan retail store where he works, S-Mart. In the second clip, you also witness some of Sam Raimi’s evident affection for the Three Stooges’ brand of humor.

Even though this was not originally supposed to be the ending of Army of Darkness, I love the last scenes in the film. Ridiculous, over-the-top, fun. Hail to the king, indeed.

The TV series “Ash vs Evil Dead” picks up exactly where any fan would expect: Ash, still working as a stockboy (or is it stockman?) in small-town Michigan and wasting away without purpose, must fight another wave of Deadites when he accidentally recites some of the Necronomicon’s demon-summoning text during a drunken rendezvous with a lady friend. Delightful pandemonium ensues.

Let’s end with some bits from late night talk shows and other online goodness. Backtracking to last year, I remember seeing this charmingly oddball interview with Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless on “The Late Show.” Campbell’s impression of Stephen Colbert, not because of the voice or even the look, but because he so totally nailed Colbert’s particular body language.

My favorite YouTube comment on this “Conan” interview clip from last month: “I’ve never heard the word ‘booby’ come from the mouth of a classier man. What a guy.”

Finally, we have Bruce Campbell and his “Ash vs Evil Dead” costar, Lucy Lawless (of “Xena: Warrior Princess” fame), reviewing scenes from some classic and not-so-classic horror movies. Lesson learned: some of the best film criticism can come from those who have firsthand knowledge of working in the genre. Here’s to more time spent with the most evil of the dead and the guys and gals who send them back to hell.

Halloween 2015: Some Images to Thrill and Chill You

Posted on October 31, 2015 by The Iron Cupcake

Here are images from thirty-one films that will set the mood for Halloween tonight, certain to give you a scare and excite you (or, in some cases, bring a grim smile to your face) on this most eerie night of the year. This is a sort of chronicle of horror movies that have been on my radar since last October 31, but they can be recommended for many reasons. If you’ve seen them or watch one for the first time tonight, let me know what you think!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) – Director: John S. Robertson – Cinematographer: Roy F. Overbaugh

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) – Director: Rupert Julian (with Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle and Edward Sedgwick, uncredited) – Cinematographers: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller and Charles Van Enger (all uncredited)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Director: James Whale – Cinematographer: John J. Mescall

Mad Love (1935) – Director: Karl Freund – Cinematographers: Chester A. Lyons and Gregg Toland

Dracula’s Daughter (1936) – Director: Lambert Hillyer – Cinematographer: George Robinson

Son of Frankenstein (1939) – Director: Rowland V. Lee – Cinematographer: George Robinson

Son of Dracula (1943) – Director: Robert Siodmak – Cinematographer: George Robinson

The Uninvited (1944) – Director: Lewis Allen – Cinematographer: Charles Lang

House of Dracula (1945) – Director: Erle C. Kenton – Cinematographer: George Robinson

The Mummy (1959) – Director: Terence Fisher – Cinematographer: Jack Asher

Mr. Sardonicus (1961) – Director: William Castle – Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey

The Premature Burial (1962) – Director: Roger Corman – Cinematographer: Floyd Crosby

Persona (1966) – Director: Ingmar Bergman – Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist

Witchfinder General (1968) – Director: Michael Reeves – Cinematographer: John Coquillon

Count Dracula (1970) – Director: Jesús (“Jess”) Franco – Cinematographers: Manuel Merino and Luciano Trasatti

The Velvet Vampire (1971) – Director: Stephanie Rothman – Cinematography: Daniel Lacambre

God Told Me To (1976) – Director: Larry Cohen – Cinematographer: Paul Glickman

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) – Director: Wes Craven – Cinematographer: Eric Saarinen

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) – Director: Werner Herzog – Cinematographer:Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein

Prophecy (1979) – Director: John Frankenheimer – Cinematographer: Harry Stradling, Jr.

Halloween II (1981) – Director: Rick Rosenthal – Cinematographer: Dean Cundey

Poltergeist (1982) – Director: Tobe Hooper – Cinematographer: Matthew F. Leonetti

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) – Director: Wes Craven – Cinematographer: Jacques Haitkin

Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – Director: Adrian Lyne – Cinematographer: Jeffrey L. Kimball

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) – Director: Neil Jordan – Cinematographer: Philippe Rousselot

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) – Director: Robert Rodriguez – Cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro

Scream (1996) – Director: Wes Craven – Cinematographer: Mark Irwin

Queen of the Damned (2002) – Director: Michael Rymer – Cinematographer: Ian Baker

The Omen (2006) – Director: John Moore – Cinematographer: Jonathan Sela

The Babadook (2014) – Director: Jennifer Kent – Cinematographer: Radek Ladczuk

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) – Directors: Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi – Cinematographers: Richard Bluck and D.J. Stipsen

Indelible Film Images: Witchfinder General

Posted on October 23, 2015 by The Iron Cupcake

Witchfinder General (1968) – dir. Michael Reeves

Starring: Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies, Hilary Heath, Robert Russell, Nicky Henson, Bernard Kay, Paul Ferris, Patrick Wymark, Wilfrid Brambell

Cinematography: John Coquillon

Halloween 2014: Five Films to Check Out

Posted on October 28, 2014 by The Iron Cupcake

To get you into the Halloween spirit, here are five film recommendations filled with enough blood, screams and creepiness to make October 31 all the more atmospheric. Spanning half a century of filmmaking, from an early Hollywood talkie of the 1930s to a lustful semi-classic of the vampire genre made in the 1980s, each of these films will impress you with both style and substance.

Doctor X (1932, dir. Michael Curtiz) – The early use of two-strip Technicolor, photographed by Ray Rennahan, gives an eerie red-and-green glow to the proceedings in this tale of mad scientists and serial killers. Fay Wray, who would soon become immortalized in film history as the heroine in King Kong (1933), plays the daughter of scientific research expert Lionel Atwill, who is convinced he can figure out the identity of “The Moon Killer” stalking New York. The pair are aided by Lee Tracy in one of his typically lively newspaperman roles, providing a romance subplot. Atwill’s fellow doctors are played by Preston Foster, Arthur Edmund Carewe, John Wray and Harry Beresford.

Cat People (1942, dir. Jacques Tourneur) – Produced by the legendary Val Lewton, this classic tale stars Simone Simon as a woman who falls under the spell of a panther in the local zoo. Kent Smith plays Simon’s love interest (later, husband), while Jane Randolph is one of Smith’s coworkers who is also in love with him. Some notable character actors pop up in uncredited roles: Elizabeth Russell as the “Cat Woman” who recognizes a kindred spirit in Simon; Alan Napier as a doctor; Theresa Harris as a café waitress. Nicholas Musuraca’s crisp black-and-white cinematography enhances the tension, especially in a scene in which Jane Randolph fears she is being followed on her walk home and in another scene in which Randolph is alone (or is she?) in a hotel swimming pool. Shadows populate every corner, emphasizing every possibility of a threat.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, dir. Terence Fisher) – Hammer horror is an acquired taste, sometimes too silly to be taken seriously as frightening cinema. But the color photography by Jack Asher, who also worked on such famous films as Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), improves the overall quality and there are some splendid costumes designed by Molly Arbuthnot, not to mention the monster makeup created by Philip Leakey. Christopher Lee doesn’t do much beyond the required menace for playing Frankenstein’s monster (how can he, without dialogue?) but he’s always fun to watch. Peter Cushing is also entertaining as Baron Frankenstein, while Hazel Court looks fetching but is given little to do besides play the damsel in distress. Ultimately the film belongs to Christopher Lee as the lumbering, oozing creature.

Daughters of Darkness (1971, dir. Harry Kümel) – Considered a landmark in vampire cinema, this Belgian film concentrates more on eroticism, art direction/set decoration and costume design than it does on actual horror. There is some gore, but the film’s unsettling mood is what really makes it worth watching. Delphine Seyrig plays the ageless Countess Bathory, styled to look a little like Marlene Dietrich. Similarly, her “secretary” Ilona, played by Andrea Rau, has a haircut reminiscent of Louise Brooks. They work together to seduce young newlyweds in an empty European hotel, making great use of the enormous sets and Seyrig’s elegant gowns. The film’s visual appeal owes thanks to cinematographer Eduard van der Enden and it is supplemented by the sinister score composed by François de Roubaix.

The Hunger (1983, dir. Tony Scott) – The greatest of the five films, this exceptionally stylish and sensual vampire story stars Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as undead lovers who prey upon unsuspecting New Yorkers. Their world is upended by Susan Sarandon as a doctor whose theories on aging are in direct correlation with an affliction happening to Bowie. Now and then some other famous faces appear: Dan Hedaya as a droll detective; the influential gothic rock group Bauhaus performing their song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in the opening credits, which take place in a nightclub; Bessie Love as an elderly woman at Sarandon’s book signing; Willem Dafoe in an early role as a punk on the street. Stephen Goldblatt’s cinematography and Milena Canonero’s costumes make Deneuve look the part of eternal beauty, but it’s the unusual editing by Pamela Power that lends an extra special touch, favoring quick cuts and J-cuts (in which the sound from shot B is heard while you’re still looking at shot A, giving you information from the next scene before you have visually arrived). Dick Smith, known as “The Godfather of Makeup,” contributed his skills to The Hunger as well, allowing for the depiction of decades of physical transformation.

“The Twilight Zone” Top Ten

Posted on October 31, 2013 by The Iron Cupcake

Just in time for the tail end of Halloween, here’s my ranking of the top ten best “Twilight Zone” episodes.

10. “Stopover in a Quiet Town” (1964): This is an episode with twist after twist, ending with a darkly comic final revelation that makes you appreciate the creative minds at work on television in the 1960s.

9. “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (1961): Concluding with one of the famous images from the series, this is one of the classic tales involving people growing more and more suspicious and paranoid of one another after they learn that one among them is an alien. (There’s a similar concept in the 1960 episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.”)

8. “Walking Distance” (1959): Gig Young somehow finds himself back in his hometown during the time of his childhood, meeting himself as a kid and inadvertently causing an injury that affects him at his present age. This is a melancholy episode, observing the tendencies of some people to spend too much time reflecting on (and regretting) the past while ignoring the more positive possibilities of the future.

7. “Where Is Everybody?” (1959): The debut episode of the show starts the series with a bang, forcing both the isolated protagonist (Earl Holliman) and the audience to contemplate the madness of awakening to find yourself totally alone without knowing how or why.

6. “The Masks” (1964): Ida Lupino, who had previously starred in the 1959 episode “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine,” was the first and only woman to direct an episode of “The Twilight Zone” when she helmed this creepy little story. Here we quickly find that a family game is actually a parable about the pitfalls of inner ugliness.

5. “A Stop at Willoughby” (1960): You’ll never forget this story of one man whose paradise would be anyone else’s nightmare.

4. “Deaths-Head Revisited” (1961): Rod Serling, who served in World War II, wrote this episode about a former SS guard returning to Dachau and being haunted by the ghosts of the camp’s former inmates, who hold a trial for him. Oscar Beregi, Jr. and Joseph Schildkraut, as the tormentor and the victim respectively, give unforgettable performances. The narrative is all the more affecting for taking place in the real world rather than in some alternate “Twilight Zone” reality.

3. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (1963): This super-famous episode, written by Richard Matheson and starring William Shatner, has been cited and parodied often in pop culture but is well-regarded for good reason. It’ll probably make you a little nervous the next time you take a plane, that’s for sure.

2. “Nothing in the Dark” (1962): A troubling dilemma for elderly and death-phobic protagonist Gladys Cooper: does she help injured young policeman Robert Redford by letting him into her apartment or does she let him freeze to death outside? One of the show’s most intriguing episodes morphs from fright into a beautiful story about how humanity, courage and companionship can blur the lines between life and death.

1. “The Hitch-Hiker” (1960): For my money, this is the single most terrifying episode of the series. Maybe it’s the claustrophobia of running into the same hitch-hiker over and over, despite the miles that Nan (Inger Stevens) keeps driving; maybe it’s the knowledge of Stevens’ own tragic death just a decade later; whatever the case, I’ll never forget the first time I saw the episode on TV late at night, alone and in the dark. There is no escape for Stevens, no happy ending. It’s classic “Twilight Zone” at its finest, showing exactly why it is still as spooky as ever. I don’t know if it’s actually better than “Nothing in the Dark,” an episode which sets the bar pretty high, but it is certainly more chilling.

Happy Halloween 2013: More Films to Set the Mood

Posted on October 30, 2013 by The Iron Cupcake

Last year I made this post on films that would be great to set an atmospheric, creepy mood around Halloween time. Here we are, a year later and with another set of twenty films to make October another skin-crawling good time.