Everyone Needs Somebody To Love

Casting George Wendt as a friendly neighborhood serial killer was an easy choice, yet he fits into the role surprisingly well in Masters of Horror: Family. This movie to a slight degree feeds into the notion that you never quite know your neighbors as well as you think you do, although the classic paranoid notion of fearing people you know as well as people you don't know is old as suburbia itself. The similar houses, the mailboxes that never change, driveways all looking alike. That freaky conformity in a way enables a man such as Wendt's charming man with a dark secret to hide in plan site amongst the sane and normal people of an urban setting.

How this movie plays out I cannot reveal, yet its ending is perhaps more fascinating and worthy of discussion than the rest of the movie itself. Luckily this only lasted an hour, as the material would be stretched thin in a longer movie, although the level of victims would have been much higher. I could foresee a 90 minute picture where Wendt not only gathers his regular "family," but then proceeds to kill numerous others to give himself an entire clan. Maybe that would be amusing, yet I'm glad that Masters of Horror enabled John Landis to keep it short and sweet. 80

Ancient Stories In An Ancient Land

Ghost stories are as old as time itself, endlessly being spun by different peoples and handed down throughout the ages. Kwaidan (1964) is a collection of such tales, sporting gorgeous cinematography and being relatively creepy throughout. The reason why all of this is eerie is that in some twisted way the ghosts are using people, making them into puppets. Fate and destiny take hold in ways that neither us nor those involved can remotely understand. The intelligent do not believe in ghosts and the supernatural, yet it is the simple minded that realize the true dangers the spirit world and the great beyond can possess, however even they are not well equipped to deal with the perils before them.

Which story is the best is irrelevant, although some are better than others. However a common thread through all of them seems to be treating the dead with respect, and being rather careful in people approach the spiritual. You cannot kill a ghost, as too many in these stories find out, and really there are very few ways to deal with a supernatural entity that has no flesh to attack, no soul to damn. In the end though what truly separates Kwaidan from other ghost story movies that there are no fine lines between reality and fantasy. The ghosts are accepted as real, and are presented as such, a fascinating aspect that I have perhaps only found in a handful of other ghost movies. We are always being haunted, it seems. 92

Piece By Piece

Carefully the masked killer stalks his prey, waiting to strike in a sudden burst of ferocity. The kill is not the end of his plan of terror, for he then proceeds to mutilate the corpse with a sharp knife, cutting into the flesh. Who he is remains unknown, and the police are baffled. What I've described is common among most giallos, yet Torso (1973) is absolutely brutal and goes beyond the pale at times. It is a psycho-sexual film, driven by strong impulses and completely unflinching in its display of raw, unnerving violence. None of the film is particularly campy, and despite a few lame attempts at humor the film is mostly about a strange murderer lurking in the shadows. Nothing is supernatural here, and Torso actually obscures the mystery by turning all of its male characters save for maybe one into creepy perverts, most who could be the killer. There is even a mostly even ratio of male to woman deaths, which is different from many other slasher/giallos.

What's further examined here is certain rules being established, ones that many proceeding slashers would observe. Vehicular sex is followed by death, a woman who gets high wanders off and is brutally slain in what is the most creepiest part of the movie, and someone opens a door when they and the audience know they shouldn't, which leads to really bad things happening to say the least. Torso is well constructed, almost way too neatly made for a giallo film, and its far more intelligent and suspenseful than most American slasher movies. Especially concerning the last 25 minutes, which is the equivalent of walking a type wire without a safety net.

So controversial that it was actually butchered by the censors, I was happy to find a copy of this movie that was uncensored (yet dubbed) in my local public library. According to IMDB.com there was supposed to be a different ending, and I would have liked to have seen that ending, but I'm perfectly fine with having been able to view the movie in the first place. This of course is going to be just another giallo in an endless long list of giallos, because no one could make slasher movies quite like the Italians. 93

Insects Buzzing Around Your Mind

When viewing horror movies, we often forget that monsters can be very real. In the case of Bug (2006) there is more than one creature, inhabiting real actual people. William Friedkin, the film's director, skillfully uses post September 11 paranoia and filters that through the lives of broken and tragic people. A love triangle of sorts exists, only two of the participants drive out the third person, an abusive ex-boyfriend who despite being told to leave numerous times refuses to give up someone who he still loves despite being cruel to them. Yet the most dangerous human monster is a man convinced that he is being spied upon, even bugged and tagged, by the government. His departure from reality is unfortunately projected onto a battered and broken woman, who still morns a loved one and who might just be as crazy as he is.

This film plays out as a tragedy, slowly building up to a fevered and disturbing pitch which then explodes rather horrifyingly. Despite the efforts of others to the contrary, these two people choose to fence themselves off from everyone and anything, going inward into both each other and a world that blends fact and fiction. Whether or not these events are really happening never becomes clear, and in some regards that makes some of the film's actual blunt effects on the viewer exist on rather shaky ground, although perhaps that is the point. The changing of the main environment, a roach motel in the middle of Oklahoma, from ugly brown to shinny blue clearly showcases the shift in the characters' mindsets, and perhaps gives a clue as to what is really going on.

Existing among some of the best claustrophobic based horror and thriller movies, Bug is a rather creepy and unnerving horror movie that reflects our most basic fears. Loss changes people, often for the worse, and the monster within takes advantage of these fears and warps them into something nasty and terrifying. Sometimes being wary of actual real life dangers is more important than watching out for imaginary ones, as some argue that paranoia is a heightened state of awareness. Maybe though is such a thing as being too aware, being fearful of non-existent threats. Fear is the most powerful drug in existence. 90

In the 1950s They Can Hear You Scream

Tightly paced and rather to the point, It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) was clearly one of the influences on the 1979 classic Alien. Some aspects of this movie were definitively used in Ridley Scott's movie, particularly a scene where someone goes into an air duct to hunt down an alien creature. The idea of a killer stowaway on a ship flying through outer space isn't new, however back in the 1950s it was particularly original. The poor captain accused of murder has to spend a third of the movie convincing the crew that rescued him that he is innocent of killing his crew, and this is finally borne out by the ugly and strangely hostile monster that proceeds to start taking out people in rapid fashion.

Due to being smartly made and also quite entertaining, this is one of the best of the 1950s sci-fi/horror hybrids. The horror genre was forced to go underground, and films such as this one were the norm until Hammer Studios revived the classic style of horror, giving it a more modern twist and featuring more violence and gore. It! The Terror From Beyond Space actually does feature a few shocking moments, and has the astronauts being forced to use all means at their disposal to try and best a creature not of this world, born of the desolate planet known as Mars. Furthermore, this film started the now famous trend of space based horror movies where random planets harbor terrible and harmful secrets. Unfortunately for those who venture outside of Earth, on the big screen our universe is more scary than wonderful. 86

Lost Films Always Lead To Screaming. Lots of Screaming

Over the years there have been horror movies covering "Lost films," films so terrifying and nasty that they have been banned. This of course stemming from the fact that so many horror movies have been actually banned in other countries, and that too many have been censored by the MPAA. So naturally horror filmmakers have decided that the search for something that has been reportedly buried is the basis for a quality horror film, and they've been right.

With The Hills Run Red, you have a very likable group of people going into the deep woods to find a movie titled, well, The Hills Run Red, which was in fact a gory and completely disturbing horror movie. This journey into the heart of darkness results in them becoming part of the movie, so to speak, and is rather unflinching. Really this is not a Jason in Friday the 13th style slasher film, or one of the more fun and campy 80s slashers. This is brutal, mostly unrelenting once they encounter the killer, style of serial killer movie. Babyface is actually a pretty creepy villain, and the main hero of the movie, a young man named Tyler, fails too late to realize that his quest is one gigantic mistake.

Without reveling too much, let's just say that he gets his wish. Chilling, to be sure, but the payoff wouldn't have been as satisfying had the rest of the film been so straightforward, refusing to pull any punches. The hills run red with blood, are full of screams, and contain endless terrors. 84

Forever. FOR-EV-ER.

See, the tricky thing about vampires is that they promise you eternal life but at a truly heavy price. In the case of The Hunger, the vampire Miriam turns women and men into creatures of the night and then gets rid of them when they start to age and she's finished with them. She is more of a succubus than a vampire, although there are no hard and fast rules with these creatures (which is despite Twilight sucking that franchise can have sparkly lame vampires) and therefore David Bowie's John is able to venture out into the daytime to seek help when he starts to fall apart. Much of this movie is rather tragic, showcasing the sad consequences of having a lengthy existence while people that you love die or fade away slowly. Even though she is a vile creature, you almost feel pity for Miriam and also for John, despite a scene where they murder two people for their blood. 

Tony Scott frames this movie in lush, haunted tones, with none of the more frantic quick camerawork that he so relied on heavily in his later movies. In fact this really doesn't have the feel of a Tony Scott movie, which was a surprise. I was completely drawn in by the rest of the story, which features a young Susan Sarandon being sucked into this darker underworld, captivated by Miriam even though she is quite dangerous. When vampires are concerned there is no ability to trust them, even though she falls under Miriam's spell and considers becoming another one of her slaves. There is even a famous sex scene that is rather tender, and another example of how the vampire genre deals with sexuality and humanity all too well.  

After this movie, Tony Scott went out and become more of a commercial director with a fairly unique and obvious style of his own. While I enjoy some of his other movies I think this film is the best out of the ones I've seen from him. Scott actually made a good, eerie horror movie, and its a shame that he never made another one, one that could have featured more of his actual style. I think he could have given us a good, crazy zombie or ghost movie actually, but we'll never know. 91 

Rock 'n' Roll, Baby

Aimlessly wandering the New York City streets during the year 1979, he selects his victims at random, slaughtering with them a ferocity unmatched by many. His weapon of choice: a cordless power drill that he jams into his victims, causing a spray of blood to fly as he baptizes himself in the gore and horror of his actions. He is The Driller Killer and he has decided to create new art out of human suffering, crafting new masterpieces of carriage unseen before and worthy of serial killers such as The Son of Sam and The Night Stalker. This is a gritty and ugly vision of New York, less stylish than the similarly bleak urban landscape of Taxi Driver, fueled by rock and roll, desperate people, and one man who goes over the edge and into the realm of insanity. No matter what, there is no escape from this nightmare, yet the film's anti-hero never comes to an actualization of why he's doing this or what goal he hopes to accomplish. There is only blood and more blood, death and dying, the eye of the buffalo through which he peers through and envisions the tragic fact that many of his victims were already walking ghouls before he penetrated them graphically with cold steel. Hope for humanity does not exist, only a world haunted by a person capable of stabbing through your flesh at will. Now it it is dark. 81

Many Tales of Terror

One of the earliest known anthologies, Dead Of Night (1945) slowly builds up to a fevered pitch, containing many great short tales that range from humorous to incredibly creepy. Naturally they are linked together by both coincidence and the circumstances that bring a group of people together in a room. This is usually the basis for most horror anthologies, and a twist normally happens at the end. Unlike some of the other ones I've viewed this collection's finale was something I failed to guess, which made it all the more surprising. Yet the strongest and most terrifying piece ended up being the one with the dummy, although that can be attributed to dummies having that particular look of evil on their wooden faces. The idea of a non-living entity controlling a person is usually a nightmare that many people have, and that device has been used for many horror movies, most famously Magic starring Anthony Hopkins.

What I loved the most about Dead of Night though was the little things it did so particular well, bits that cause the film to be highly memorable. The first tale uses the seemingly innocent appearance of a hearse driven by carriage to be death channeling the driver, telling a man that "There is room for one more inside." Or a girl running into a ghost unknowingly, caring for a restless spirit. Wonders and mysteries abound in a world full of dreams and nightmares, an endless land that knows no boundaries. Horror movies merely cross that threshold, inviting the viewer along for the ride. Most of us always say yes. 95

This Old House

Made in 1944, The Uninvited set up many cliches for the haunted house subgenre of horror films. From the slow yet careful build up that leaves hints of ghosts being present, to an eerie seance that aids the characters in uncovering the mysteries of the house they've bought, this movie became the standard by which other supernatural movies were judged. Some comedy and even a love story are also thrown into the mix, although they are largely cast aside when the spirits of the dead pop up and make a visit. There is very little special effects involved, too, which is a nice touch, which gives the movie an additional touch of eerie atmosphere. The movie also lacks jump scares, something that ghost movies have abused way too much over the years, although in this case a jump scare would have heavily frightened the movie's audience seeing it was the 1940s. In fact, this is a film that would have been at home in the Val Lewton collection.

Despite some dull moments, The Uninvited is a carefully made treat of a ghost movie. While there isn't much more to discuss, the horror genre would not have so many great and scary supernatural driven movies over the decades. Apparently there was an attempt at a sequel, but I have little interest in viewing it. Some movies are best left to stand alone. 90