Last week, I highlighted some of the worst Halloween movies that the SciFi channel had to offer. Last year, in a post cleverly titled Spooooky!, I tried to highlight some horror movies that I feel the people need to see. Not the classics, but ones that have, for some unknown reason, been missed by far too many. I would now like to do the same thing again in honor of Halloween '07 (the holiday, not the Zombie remake).
Let me start by saying that cable has been very disappointing this year. Last year, you couldn't check the guide in October without seeing a range of kickass titles. Sadly, they seem to be few and far between this time around. But I'm still hopeful, as there is still a week until All Hallows Eve.
OK, so here are a few horror pictures that I'm into that you may have overlooked. Please submit your own lists, and perhaps we can all find a bit of terror before the end of the month.
Damien: Omen 2 and Omen 3: The Final Conflict
All right, let's get something straight. The original Omen is, in my opinion, one of the finest horror films out there. Greg Peck, the insane music, the dogs, Mrs. Baylock (who, by the way, was totally hot when she was young), all of it. I have told many people to see it, and if you still haven't, please make it happen this year. Now, the Omens 2 and 3 are not even in the same ballpark as the original. However, they're way more Grieco.
Damien: The Omen 2 finds the Antichrist hitting puberty. He has all kinds of bullshit at military school to deal with, and then he finds out that he is the Beast and that the armies of the world will gather at Megiddo in his name to bring seven years of pestilence or whatever on us all. It's hard being a teen. The movie has some nice deaths (bird-inflicted is my favorite) and a few creepy moments. You also find out the truth about Damien's animal mom, and "Hollywood" from Mannequin makes an early film appearance.
Omen 3: The Final Conflict introduces us to a smooth talking ladies' man of an Antichrist played by Sam Neill. Men wanna be him and chicks wanna be with him (in the Satanic biblical sense). The highlight of this piece is the group of renegade monks who have come into possession of the daggers that can extinguish Damien both in spirit and body. They're a ragtag group of do-gooders out to save the world. Neill also has some Iago-esque soliloquies delivered to a life-sized reversed crucifix that always seem to start off with “Nazarene, you...” It's kind of awesome. However, the fact that Damien has dedicated his anti-life to learning the Bible and his place in it, and then he totally bricks on the return of Christ is pretty weak. Still worth checking out, though. (note: if you still use a video store, there is a chance these movies will not be together, as some stores use Damian and Final Conflict when alphabetizing.)
Something Wicked This Way Comes
A while back, the lovely Sherpa and I rented Watcher in the Woods, and I was very sad to see that it was totally ridiculous and not scary at all, as it freaking terrified me as a child. However, unlike Watcher, I believe Something Wicked This Way Comes totally holds up. Full disclosure: I watched this in Chicago, and the cough syrup fairy had recently sprinkled her magic dust over me, so that may have something to do with it. But Jonathan Pryce is still freaky, the music is creepy, and the idea of the book that inspired the film clearly inspired King to write like seven of his 4,000 books.
Night at the Opera
The Queen and Blind Guardian albums of the same name are also awesome. However, I will briefly focus on this Argento picture. It has one of the craziest scenes I have ever seen. It involves pins and eyelids and is not for the faint of heart. If CTC would be so kind to elaborate on this film, I believe he could convince most of you to see it. CTC, the ball is in your court.
So that's what I got. Please feel free to comment and add to the list.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Spooooky! ('07)
Posted by # 5 at 4:00 PM
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Dario Argento Opera (as my DVD reads) is Papa Argento's take on Phantom of the Opera, but without all the singing or Lon Chaney buffoonery. If memory serves it follows an investigation regarding a death in an opera company, which results in the nubile ingenue taking the stage for the first time. Classic Argento gore mixed with suspense, and of course those delicious Goblin jams. The twist is that instead of a disfigured maestro livings in the bowels of the opera house being the villain, we come to find out it is someone quite unexpected... of course, bowels are also involved in that discovery, as well.
Another Argento gem is Inferno. It has been argued that this is the sequel to Suspiria in its respect of demonic antagonists, but this is less a sequel and more of an elaboration or "if I had it to do over again" minus the grandeur of Suspiria and with more underexposed shots than you can shake a Tobe Hooper at.
Along those lines, I'll reference John Russo's Midnight (which I mentioned in the Halloween post). In my opinion, this is the film upon which much of House of a 1,000 Corpses and the Chainsaw remakes are based on. It was the first low-budget horror to capitalize on the "there is nobody to trust in this small town... not even the cops" that those hacks who remade Chainsaw were able to use (with much thanks to R. Lee Ermey).
I am loathe to admit that only lately, have I become a Grieco regular, so I am unaware of last year's mentions, so I will throw some other lesser known pictures out there that I feel deserve a mention.
The Burning - a little film that marked the debut of two brothers named Weinstein, featuring a young coiffed Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter in a non-speaking role. While nobody will find the crazed killer seeks revenge at a summer camp plot particularly original, who can resist a (pre-Freddy Krueger) full-body burn victim killer who uses gardening shears. Best scene: about 7 kids killed... while on a paddle boat... in the middle of a lake... in broad daylight. Most memorable line: These rubbers aren't lubricated. You know I can only use lubricated rubbers!
Stir Of Echoes - While less of a horror movie and more of a supernatural murder-mystery, this is a movie that was lost under the "Shyamalamading-dong is god" circle-jerk of the early 21st Century. Kevin Bacon serving up a side of crazy, like nobody's business, with the added bonus of more thick Chicago dialects than a room full of Ditka's.
Return to Horror High - What list would be complete without a perfect little campy "horror" flick to round out the day. We're making a movie about a murder spree at a high school and people are getting killed... or is it part of the movie... or is it real... or is the effects crew really crazy and half-killing people and half-fake killing people. Either way it's a fun ride in which the killer gives us the blueprint for the future scream killer (dark robe and a white faceless mask). It was only the genius of Craven who would brand his killer's visage by giving us something to Munch on. Also, included are a young George Clooney playing a security guard...and he gets killed, so that's good.
CTC-Well played. Sorry about the title mix up. While Metal gods Blind Guardian and pre-Metal gods Queen do have discs titled A Night at the Opera, Argento's piece is known as "Opera" and "Terror at the Opera." Awesome list. I've only seen Return to Horror High, so I must get caught up.
P.S. Click on the Spooooky!link to see last year's list.
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