Some Halloween Viewing

Okay, so October isn't over yet. But the Red Sox are in the World Series, and I think I may have wrapped up my movie-watching for this Halloween season. I could always sneak back for a round two if such a thing materializes. For now, though, I wanted to put up a few quick (downright evasive in some cases) remarks on some of the Scary Season viewing I've done over the past few weeks. 

Let's take this in the order I watched them.

1.

I was inspired by The Truth Inside the Lie's October watchthrough of the Halloween franchise to revisit this one, which I hadn't seen since it first came out. I remembered hating it. This time, I did not hate it. I didn't really like it very much, but I had fun with it. For one thing, there's a Not-Dawson's-Creek vibe going on with the four teenage leads (well, one kind-of lead, one Not-Joey-Potter, one Just-Wanna-Get-Laid-Bro! cannon fodder, and one Not-Jen-Lindley-But-It-Is-Jen-Lindley love interest) that amused me throughout. ("This is the class trip... that Michael Meyers... never had... until NOW.")

Really, as 80s slasher films go, H20 is perfectly credible. Alas, it seems to be going for more of a post-Scream kind of sensibility instead of a 80s slasher film one, so that kind of works against it. Does it matter? Not really. There's lots of dumb things like Laurie shooting the gate controls or what not ("MIII-CH-AEEELL!!") and the ending corpse-napping, but I couldn't summon the vitriol for it I once had. I'm getting old.

2.

Summer of '84

(2018)

I had a recent work trip to Normal-Bloomington, IL. This was playing at the theater next to the hotel where my work conference was.

Cute little college town.

I didn't see it in the theater, but I rented it when I got back home. Meh. This review from RogerEbert.com sums it up pretty well. "We’ve seen so much of (this) before. Davey has three friends who hang out in a clubhouse to speculate about girls, about whether Ewoks could defeat Gremlins, and about the local mystery—boys their age have gone missing. One of Davey’s buddies is a tough guy in a leather jacket who talks about sex a lot but does not talk about the domestic abuse in his home. Then there’s one friend with glasses so we know he can look things up on microfilm. And there’s also a fat kid because there is always a fat kid. (...) The script stays on the surface, imitating thrills, not delivering them, with too many fake-outs and an unearned zigzag at the end."

3. and 4.

(1972)

(1973)

Now these two were lots of fun. I'd seen neither before. Dr. Richard Daystrom plays Prince Mamuwalde, who is converted into a vampire by none other than Dracula himself. Resurrected into 1970s Watts, he wreaks a little havoc, chases a woman who may or may not be the reincarnation of his eternal love, and inspires a memorable raid on a warehouse.

Scream, Blacula, Scream - a title which makes little sense given the plot but is pretty damn cool, and which I keep hearing in my head a la Springsteen's "Dream, Baby, Dream" - is for my money better than the first. Both are fun (and no one should be going into these expecting high cinematic art or anything, but I doubt anyone needs to be told that) but the second blends its sensibilities into a more flavorful brew. 

5.

The Exorcist II: The Heretic

(1977)

 
Here's another one I never saw. Hey now! Pretty bonkers and very entertaining. This Bloody Disgusting write-up captures it pretty well. "While the film isn’t a great sequel to The Exorcist, it is a GREAT continuation of the daring career of director John Boorman. In a single decade, from 1972 to 1981, Boorman directed the backwoods terror of Deliverance, the trippy sci-fi of Zardoz, the New Age spirituality of Exorcist II: The Heretic, and the decidedly offbeat King Arthur film Excalibur. His dazzling visual style, insistence on unconventional stories, and narratives about men in spiritual and existential crises makes the second Exorcist film a perfect fit for his filmography."

Quite true. But beyond that it's a great 70s film. Or at least a compelling and watchable and wonderfully weird 70s film, if not great. Not by definition American New Wave, but it sits quite comfortably - if psychedelically - under that umbrella. 

Apparently, William Peter Blatty hated the 2nd Exorcist so much that he was inspired to write Legion, which he brought to the screen himself as:

6.

The Exorcist III
(1990)

Also one I'd never seen before a few weeks ago, and also a very impressive affair. I have to tip my cap to Blatty. I haven't seen his other directorial effort (The Ninth Configuration, also an adaptation of his own novel) but I was impressed enough with this that I will definitely be tracking it down. This has what I'd call an author's pace more than a director's, particularly with all the Brad Dourif scenes - and while we're here, top-notch-Dourif, this - but it works.

This purgatory scene is pretty jarring and unexpected, even without Fabio.

What a wild ending. Definitely glad I watched this. And the 2nd one, too. This October has caused me to completely re-evaluate my estimation of this original trilogy of Exorcist films. (I think they hang together enough to call them a trilogy, even if the 3rd does its best to ignore the 2nd outright.) Compare to the first three of any other horror franchise, and you can see what I mean: this is a remarkable and unique trio of films. 

(Had Rob Zombie been given the chance to remake Season of the Witch after H2, I bet that trilogy would be the only exception to this new Exorcist rule.)

7.

Mandy

(2018)

"Panos Cosmatos deftly weaves in and out of genres to execute a vision that is completely his own. Part fantasy, part science-fiction, and part comedy mixed with a generous helping of horror, Mandy is set in the primal wilderness of 1983. Red Miller (played by Cage) hunts an unhinged religious sect who burned the love of his life to death right in front of his eyes."

That's from this interview with the director, who is the son of Cobra and Tombstone (DVD residuals for which funded Panos' first film) director George P. Cosmatos, who really brings the lysergic pain here in his 2nd feature. I have not seen his first (Beyond the Black Rainbow) but after seeing Mandy, I definitely will be. What a wild ride. My buddy Jim described it as "Holy Mountain meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2." That's probably accurate, although even before I knew the director I felt a Cobra vibe, too. Cosmatos is definitely both cine- and smash-and-trash- literate.

A lot of 21st century horror films get too extreme for my tastes. Mandy hits all those boxes but brings the kind of aesthetics to get a viewer like me over the hump. I was very impressed with this film - just the right mix of details, just the right mix of genres. Nic Cage (and everyone else in the cast and crew) wins the Dog Star Omnibus Award for Halloween 2018.

8.

Little Shop of Horrors

(1986)

Sometimes I must give the impression that if it came out in the 80s, I'll find something to like about it. That is not always the case. Take this one, for example. I remember liking it fine enough back in the day and thought myself clever for unpacking the (perfectly obvious) subtext. But this viewing was painful for me. My apologies to its champions, but I found it kind of dreadful. 

I do still like the dentist tune. Steve Martin - those Father of the Bride paychecks aside - never does wrong. Everyone else, though, sheesh. I never quite got Ellen Greene either - not just here but everywhere I've seen her. It's difficult to describe, but it's a specific type of performance/ character she's doing. It's like she's a woman playing a drag queen - not in a derogatory way. I just can't think of any other way of describing it.

9.

(1954)

A well-deserved classic. I don't know how many times I've seen this over the years, but I think only two or three times have I deliberately set out to watch it. I'm always impressed with the quality of the underwater photography and the general atmosphere.

I apologize for not googling the subject thoroughly, but this time around I was struck with how Queer Theory everything seemed. (Is this still a term? It's likely been changed and "Queer Theory" is now a thoughtcrime term. Who can keep up with our enlightened gatekeepers of the media-academe? I submit to the Will of Landru.) The Creature is a manifestation of the two male leads' desire for one another, which is sublimated a million different ways throughout the movie.

If Camille Paglia hasn't written an essay on this movie she should. (And ditto for Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.)

All that aside, it's a fun movie, too, I'm just saying.

10.

The Omen III: The Final Conflict

(1981)

Often referred to round the Dog Star Bullpen as "The only Omen worth keeping." Which is meant to be amusingly overstated but comes across as unnecessarily harsh to the first two Omens. Really, what it comes down to is: The Omen III was the one I saw as a kid (had to totally sneak it, and it messed me up for weeks). 

Here's some of my notes from this Halloween's rewatch:

- These first couple of murders are quite memorable. (The former US ambassador is supernaturally driven to rig himself a shotgun suicide, and a would-be antichrist-killer is suspended and swung through some tarp or something that immediately catches fire to a chorus of screams.)

- Goldsmith's soundtrack echoes Alexander Nevsky. I swear, that thing is always popping up.

- It's just too bad no one in this We Were Created For One Thing... Priest League has any kind of rifle with a scope.

- "Slay the Nazarene, and you will know the violent raptures of my father's kingdom."

- Another one: "Your son has become an apostle of the antichrist." Oh man! The ultimate doctor's appointment. "Only time will tell, but it looks like your son has a condition we call 'Under the Thrall of Satan.'"

- The murdering babies montage is pretty wild. So many Satanists! But, this all happens in a week? From birth to this, in a week? We see one Mom all dressed up and in church getting the kid baptized. Which admittedly isn't the most unheard of thing in the world, but all in all, it's a bit of a stretch. But hey. 

- The film really stitches together some horrifying sequences and covers a lot of ground. I mean, the second coming of Jesus is a plot ploint. Sodomy, deeply evil beagles, stars aligning, the prophecy of birthmarks (always a wtf), deeply evil rotweilers, steam-ironing baby's faces (off-camera, alas), and way more. Kudos to all involved.

11.

(1980)

Like a lot of people my age, I saw this as a kid and it freaked me out but good. My mind kept working on it to try and figure out the mystery of the images. It was a very scary riddle to solve. In many ways, repeated viewings of Watcher in the Woods in the 1983 - 1984 time range probably taught me more about both ghost story tropes and the vocabulary of cinematic narrative (the stuff we all take for granted but basically learning how to watch a movie: it's a process many don't examine. And hey, that's cool - this isn't a dis or anything. Sheesh.) 

Anyway, after watching it a dozen times in the 80s if not more, I saw it once in the 90s and all I could see were the cliches and the tropes and the rather one-dimensional performances from Lynn-Holly Johnson et al. I think I caught just enough of it somewhere or sometime in the 00s and thought Oh I was just being douchey back in the 90s; this is fine. This time around, I think it's more than fine. From the very start you know what's going on and what's going to happen - or nearly. It's all intentionally very familiar. But it builds upon itself very satisfyingly, there are some genuine scares and memorable imagery:

And even when the big reveals begin to happen, they still manage some shocks and twists that don't feel schlocky. YMMV, but I give this one a solid "A" or "A-." 

And is this the coolest lightning sound on film? Possibly.

12.

In the Mouth of Madness

(1994)

John Carpenter's wild ride from Halloween through Ghosts of Mars * includes two legitimately unsung horror classics: Prince of Darkness and this movie. Horror fans have always loved them, I just mean the world at large. 

* The fertile crescent of this initial run is undoubtedly only through They Live in 1988, but I'm being generous. Besides, Ghosts of Mars is wonderful, awful fun.

On previous rewatches, I had a nitpick here and there. This time, though, everything hung together much better for me. Am I a better viewer now? Have my senses been dulled by the onrush of middle age? Do I just know more about Lovecraft on this rewatch than I ever did? I think it might be that last one. Nevertheless, an impressive achievement. I'll take it over revisiting much the same concept in "Cigarette Burns." 

And finally:

13.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

(1966)

With the kids. Good times as always. That Snoopy vs. Red Baron stuff and subsequent plot development is all just too great. I've got Snoopy vs. the Red Baron for the PS2 (perhaps I should have prefaced this by saying "I've still got a PS2") but haven't been able to tempt my girls just yet. But I think we made some progress towards that with this season's viewing(s) of Great Pumpkin. 

~

Happy Halloween, all!