The Eighteenth Painting-- The People It Kills Get Up And Kill!

So... I mentioned in one of my earlier posts the Criterion Collection.  Well, I'm going to take this quick chance to post the horror films that are available from The Criterion Collection... just for shits and giggles...

Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth)
Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey)
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey)
Corridors of Blood (Robert Day)
Cronos (Guillermo del Toro)
Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima)
Equinox (Jack Woods)
Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)
Fiend Without a Face (Arthur Crabtree)
Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey)
The Haunted Strangler (Robert Day)
Haxan (Benjamin Christensen)
House (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa)
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
The Night of The Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
The Silence of The Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
Sisters (Brian de Palma)
Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer)
The Vanishing (Geroge Sluizer)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
White Dog (Samuel Fuller)

I've finally watched the AMC series The Walking Dead, and I must say I'm quite impressed and addicted (it's too bad the first season only has six episodes).  I had already liked the little bit of the comic I had read and the show does a great job with the story.  Thus I am here, watching this show re-interested me in all things zombie and I'll be discussing all things zombie in my newest blog here (that's right, branching out beyond the realms of film).

Trivia Question: Who is known as the Godfather of all Zombies? The answer is George A. Romero.

 
Romero is a Canadian-American film director and probably one of the most important figures in the zombie world. He has an unbelievable record for classic zombie flicks and really set the standard for zombie lore in popular culture.  He started with 1968's Night of the Living Dead, and after that all zombie films changed.  Romero is such a influential figure in horror that there would be no zombies as we know them without him.  Zombies would still be the voodoo, witch doctor controlled minions and not the massive, swarming, undead army that we've come to expect. I'm almost certain that nothing I can say about the man can truly express his contribution to horror and the modern zombie.

Now, what's funny about these forms of horror monsters is the fact that, in our present day, in the year 2011, the monsters are challenging each other.  Zombies and Vampires are in a competition for supremacy in popular media.  Vampires are huge, Twilight, the vampire books, the vampire TV shows, there are vampires all over the place today.  However, zombies are ALSO infiltrating popular media.  The Walking Dead, Left 4 Dead and other zombie games, zombie comics, zombies are also all over the place.  So who wins huuh? which classic horror staple wins this proliferation into popular media? it's really just a matter of personal preference.  For me, it's the zombie apocalypse that wins the day.  Zombies retained their brutality unlike the current portrayals of vampires, who have become shining love story playboys (but if you're into that, more power to you).  Really, the battle between zombies and vampires can't BE won, people like what they like and there will always be brutal and lame depictions of both, so I must say, I'm a fan of monsters, and if you're doing a good job, keep doing it.  There's also one thing EVERYONE agrees with... no one cares about werewolves (poor werewolves).

Back to the zombies!

Chances are you've played video games too... well, if you're a zombie fan you've probably played Left 4 Dead, and probably Dead Rising also.  Now, I thought Left 4 Dead was a good zombie game, it had everything you need in a game like that, and urban setting, a muti-player aspect, a four man team and enough zombies with enough variety to keep you going.  It didn't really have the lonely, direness of others but it DID provide some jumps and the 4 person coop play was excellent.  Now, as for Dead Rising, I always thought that it could have been really good.  It had the loneliness aspect and the psychotic characters that you'd expect to show up in a zombie apocalypse.  It had the mall setting that felt like you just stepped straight into a Romero film.  It had the ability to pick up nearly anything and use it as a weapon in a fairly open ended map.  Sounds fun huuh?  What did it for me though was the 3 day story line time limit and the fact that if you didn't finish the story quests in time you would lose.  It cuts down on the extra story quests and the fun of mowing down zombies.  Overall Left 4 Dead had a more escape the city, Walking Dead, zombie apocalypse feel and Dead Rising had a more Romero, zombie onslaught, stuck in an mall with asylum inmates feel.  Both were cool, but Dead Rising lost too many points in my book.

But there it is, my zombie post, sorry it was short and not too in depth.  I promise you better next time ladies and germs.

Stay classy San Diego!

The Tenth Lecture-- You Monster

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!

To keep with the slightly horror theme of the post before last, I'm going to do this one on good old fashioned movie monsters. Now, you should all know that I have always had a soft spot for monsters and folklore.  I've spent quite a bit of time reading about eastern and western European folklore about werewolves and vampires and what not and I'm not talking about you're, preteen, love story, romance Twilight vampires.  I'm talking rip your throat out and have your blood run down his face vampires (or at least sophisticated ones like Dracula).  ANYWAY... I'm going to give you a bit of monster background and tell you my favorite monster flicks (or at least ones I find entertaining).



First off, let me say that Dracula is pretty much my favorite book ever (even if that's lame).  I think it's a great work of literature, the journal style is great, the book is frightening and the story is interesting.  In my opinion NO ONE can make a Dracula movie that will ever be worth watching because none can compare to the book (yet everyone tries).  However, the most worthwhile Dracula made to date, at least in my opinion, is the 1931 Universal film. Now here is where I get all the notes and letters and messages saying I'm wrong and how there are better Draculas but hear me out.  Maybe I'm sentimental to old film, but I like the film for what it was.  It wasn't Dracula, it wasn't the book, it wasn't necessarily close and I can't watch the film while thinking about the book but I liked it for what it was.  A classic vampire movie from a classic film company in a time when they were making some of the most beloved and enduring horror films ever.

Now time to tell a little bit about the folklore behind it.  Everyone knows what a vampire is, undead ghoul, sucks blood, turns into bats, yadda yadda.  Not all of that is true though...  A vampire is an undead entity or demon that survives on the life force of others and they have been around since the beginning of man, however, the popularity of vampire lore started mainly in western Europe.  Largely in the Balkans and Romania.  The frequency of the myth actually lead to corpses being exhumed and staked in some cases.  Vampires could look like anything the people in the area decided, many could be bloated rotting corpses or completely normal humans but what started the modern vampire was the novella The Vampyre by John Polidori.  This vampire archetype was carried on and expanded on in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, the most well known and beloved vampire story ever (Twilight can fuck off).  In most vampire stories, vampires didn't turn into bats, instead transforming into a wolf or similar animal, also, not all vampires have fangs or lack a reflection or shadow.  Stakes were always a fatal weakness to a vampire, however, what the stake should be made of varies.  Decapitation is fatal and so is fire and drowning.  Garlic and holy symbols are weaknesses and many vampires suffered from arithmomania, which is the obsessive need to count (making the Count from Sesame Street have some connection to real vampire lore).  With Bram Stoker came the ideas that vampires can't cross running water, the sun weakens them and that they can only enter a house is invited, this, however, is not found in traditional lore.

Next is Frankenstein.  There haven't been nearly as many Frankenstein films as Dracula films, but once again, one of the best films is the 1931 Universal film.  Just like the Dracula film, Universal's Frankenstein, does not match the story that it takes it's name from at all (the monster doesn't even talk), but what makes this a good movie is it emotional depth (the perfect example is the scene between the monster and the little girl... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA9opHsLACk, which also happens to show the fact that this movie was pre-code era).  The movie doesn't reach the depth that the novel does, but it's still a great example of early horror, with Boris Karloff's silent portrayal of the Monster being quite jarring at times.



The Wolfman, was another Universal monster film that is a classic of horror cinema.  It wasn't based off of anything except gypsy and voodoo lore and therefore has nothing to compare to, however, the film, made in 1941, doesn't reach the depths that Dracula or Frankenstein did.  The movie was a pretty straight forward monster movie.  I was very excited to hear that a new Wolfman movie was going to be made, so I was in line to see it.  The 2010 remake was a very decent movie until the end (and I won't ruin it, but know that it's ridiculous and ruins the whole movie more or less).



The idea of shapeshifting humans have been in mythology forever, however, the werewolf ideal gained popularity in western Europe, specifically in gothic horror tales.  The werewolf started as a victim of black magic, but as the stories progressed they became part of Satan's army and developed a taste for human flesh.

So there it is, the big three are out of the way... however, there are many more monsters in cinema like zombies and other creatures (I could do a whole post on zombies, and Chris already has).  The other creatures just shown in the Universal monsters series are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of The Opera, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Creature from The Black Lagoon, The Mole People.

 

Gonna finish this up talking about Lon Chaney, Sr. who is also known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces".  Another thing you should know about me is that I'm completely mystified by make up artists and what they can do and the creatures they can create and Lon Chaney was the master of portraying tortured figures and doing monster make up during the silent film era.  Two excellent portrayals were The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Any serious costume designer or make up artist has to pay some respect to Lon Chaney, he started and popularized serious make up artistry, he made the make up part of the character, not just a cover for the character and he made make up an art.



So there it is, monsters, one of my favorite things in film (and one reason I really enjoyed the Hellboy movies, or really most things by Guillermo Del Toro).  Hope you've enjoyed it and if you want any more information about monsters or folklore/mythology, don't be afraid to ask.
See you cats later.

The Eighth Night-- And As A Candle, The Light Goes Out

Warning: This post is about a questionable topic and may not be something you would want to read about... if you DO, don't think oddly of me...

Well, today's post was intended to be on narrative structure, however, I need to ponder that one a bit more I think... so instead, today's post is going to take a more... morbid turn (don't judge me).  While doing some research, I came upon the topic of "snuff" film.  This is a very disturbing and unsettling topic and something I'd generally shy away from but the myth intrigues me and I've been reading a lot about horror from Chris Jones' blog (http://musingsofamoviedouche.blogspot.com/) and thought why not? (I'm not trying to compete though haha).

If you are not aware what the genre of "snuff film" is, it's the visual depiction of a person's actual death with out visual effects for the intent of profit (more or less horrible).  Generally this type of film is a myth (seeing as how it's illegal and morally appalling... but you already know that).  There ARE, however, filmed documentation of murders and executions in existence.  They are NOT sold though and if you can find one anywhere, it somehow just got out without the intention of monetary gain.  At times a documentary film crew will catch an execution or accidental death (great example is the JFK assassination).  There is even a documentary called Executions that include people who have been sentenced to death.  Sometimes a death will be caught by accident, like the suicides of Ricardo Cerna or Bud Dwyer (who killed himself on a news broadcast).  At times, serial killers will tape their murders (it was rumored that The Manson Family was doing this)... however, NONE of these are considered snuff films due to the fact that the act was not performed for the intent of sale.

In this idea though, there have been actual motion picture who have dealt with the subject, such as the 1976 film Snuff, which was actually portrayed as a real snuff film.  It started as an average slasher/splatter film that was taken by a producer and (without permission) was changed to include a new ending that was done to look like an actual murder.  After this film was released, many other films tried to cash in on the myth, like The Brave, 8mm, Snuff-Movie, and Vacancy.

There have been many controversial films made that were close to depicting actual snuff films.  One of these was the Japanese Guinea Pig film series.  The first two films of this series The Devil's Experiment and Flowers of Flesh and Blood were done to appear to be low budget and home recordings of actual snuff films.  They so closely resembled snuff films that the creators got investigated by the FBI and repeatedly taken to court and interrogated.  Another film that is very close to an actual snuff film is the Italian film Cannibal Holocaust.  In the film, six animals were actually slaughtered and it very graphically depicted sexual violence and was thought to have shown actual murders (in fact the director was arrested in charged with making a snuff film almost immediately, he eventually had the charges dropped).

This film myth is so jarring because, while actual film of real murders does exist, it is usually kept locked away, only occasionally being leaked.  The idea that a commercial film could include a real death for money is a bit unsettling... and what's more disturbing or frightening than your murder being taped and sold to everyone?  It's a very disgusting concept and myth that, apparently, makes for good fringe, gore film plots.

Well, now that THAT disturbing topic is over, I can bid you all adieu.  I'm sorry for yet another short post.