Eraserhead

What can you say about Eraserhead? It's like a long, vivid and strange dream. It has long periods of almost nothing, yet you can't not look at the nothing. It's a very powerful piece.

Henry Spencer is our main man and the film is his story, his very odd story. He visits his girlfriends parents for dinner and shit gets weird. I've known guys break up with a girl because she doesn't like his favourite band, yet Henry sticks with her after a her parents serve up a chicken for dinner that although it appears dead and cooked, starts to move and then emits black liquid from its chest. Maybe not a dumping offense?
Her mother is insane and switches her mood more often a traffic light changes colour. Her dad meanwhile, acts like nothing is wrong as his wife is going mental 5ft away from him. Things go from bad to worse for Henry as his girlfriends mum tries to kiss him. Mary (the girlfriend) has just given birth prematurely and her mother informs Henry he will marry Mary, with little say in the matter.

The baby rears its ugly head. That is the most literal use of that term, ever. This is the baby Daphne and Celeste were singing about. Henry does a pretty shit job of looking after it and it gets ill. Then a girl with big cheeks sings a song and Henry's head comes off and turns into the babies head.
The babies guts fall out and Henry stabs it with scissors. The baby mutates and grows even more bizzare than before. We end with Henry being embraced by the singing girl and everything ends.

I've missed out a lot of scenes as i don't see the point of ruining everything for people that have never seen it. If you have a night free, turn off the light and watch Eraserhead. The first time i saw it, i stared at the TV screen a good few minutes after the film had finished, just in a trance over what the hell i just watched. The whole film is one long, strange, metaphorical ride. I don't think you can see it without being entranced. Love it or hate it, you'll be sucked in.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Greetings, my friend. As it's almost Halloween, i thought i'd do a quick review of one of my favourite films of all time, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Plan 9 is well known as one of the worst movies ever made, and with good reason, it's awful. The acting is terrible, props fall over in the background, the dialogue is painful to hear and is sadly the last film of the legend, Bela Lugosi. Lugosi died before Plan 9 was even thought of, but Ed Wood had footage of Bela, doing very little may i add, that he added in to Plan 9 to have a star. None of the scenes with Lugosi in make sense as they are just shoved in for no real reason and don't connect the rest of the plot. Further scenes were shot with a stand in for Bela. The stand in was not an actor and was much taller than Lugosi, adding more ridiculousness to matters.

Scenes change from day to night, as they were shot at different times in the day or some outdoors and some in a studio, yet are supposed to be one continuous scene. Actors stumble and the shot is left in, 'tombstones' fall over and are obviously fake and of course, we have Criswell.

Criswell is amazing. Really amazing. Behold, his words of wisdom....

"Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space?"

None of that makes a shit of sense. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives? No shit!  With that said, it's so incredible. I want it to be my wedding vows.

So this Halloween, if you want the ultimate in chessy horror, choose Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Insidious

I know this is a recent film, but i wanted to write about it anyway, so shut up.
It was released in theaters on April 1st, 2011. It was made by the same guys who did Saw and Paranormal Activity. I thought the first Saw movie was pretty decent, the rest of the Saw films are awful. I hate Paranormal Activity, terrible film. So the two combined made a film that started off decent and then turned terrible.


Everything starts off ok. Despite the biggest cliche in horror of a family moving to a new house, the build up is pretty creepy. One of the kids, Dalton, falls in to a coma after falling off a ladder. It is suggested he fell due to seeing a demon, i think he fell because he realised his name would get the shit kicked out of him at school.

Some months later, Dalton is taken home, still in a coma. He has his bedroom set up with all the necessary equipment and his parents stand around his room in a melancholy fashion. Shit starts going down. The mother starts to see figures and people in the house. These are the best scenes in the film and really are unnerving. Then they decide to explain the whole story of why the demons are stalking coma boy and ruins the movie.

All the mystery and spooky aspects of the film are taken out of it because every last detail is explained and it becomes incredibly predictable because of it. I could see what was going to happen about 30 or 40 minutes from the end. On top of that, it was a complete rip off of Poltergeist. The only good moment of the second half of the film is an old woman having an orgasm in a gas mask. Something like that anyway. It was unintentionally hilarious.

In summary, the first half was not too bad with some pretty creepy moments, the second half went so far downhill that the first half needed binoculars to see it.

Oh, and i know it's been said before, but....

Insidious demon looks like Darth Maul from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

The Evil Dead

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. He really stepped up his game though when he created Bruce Campbell.
For anybody who has never heard of Bruce Campbell, it is my job to inform you that up to this point, your life has been a complete waste of time. Bruce Campbell has a chin that can be seen from all points of the globe at all times. Bruce Campbell has balls that can crush buildings. Bruce Campbell is king, baby. He is also the actor who plays Ash in the Evil Dead movies.

The Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film, written and directed by Sam Raimi. Raimi now is better known for making the Spiderman films, but once upon a time, Raimi was a horror god.
The Evil Dead is a story of five young students who go to an isolated cabin in the woods. They find a tape and play it, this tape being played brings about evil spirits. I bet that wasn't in the tourist brochure.

The film was banned in a few countries and attracted a lot of controversy and became one of the better known "video nasties" in the UK during the 80's. For you none UK folk, Mary Whitehouse decided that because she wasn't getting laid, that nobody else should have any fun either and went on a public cruciade against violent films and rock music. But now she's dead and we have uncut Evil Dead on dvd. We won.

Anyway, The Evil Dead is just an unmatched, awesome mix of gore, horror and comedy. Dark, black comedy. Trees come to life and rape people. We get pencils stuck in ankles. Bitches get chopped up with axes and the decapitated limbs flail about on the floor. Linda, the girlfriend of Ash, reveals what a psycho bitch she is, but i suppose it was Better that Ash found that out before they got married or something. You know what Ash does with annoying girlfriends? He beheads them with a shovel. Oh yeah.

The Evil Dead is a cult classic and with good reason, it's awesome. It's really in your face with the gore and violence but the underlying humour stops it from being too gruesome and makes the whole thing thoroughly entertaining. Although if you are not a horror fan and get scared easily, you might regret thinking "oooo. Sam Raimi. He did Spiderman didn't he? I love those family friendly action hollywood blockbusters. This should be fun" 

It's campy, it's funny, it's grotesque. It's the Evil Dead and i love it.

Suspiria

Suspiria is a 1977 film by Dario Argento. It follows the story of an American ballet student named Suzy who attends a German dance school. She later discovers that the school is ran by witches.
We kick things off with Suzy arriving in Germany and catching a taxi at the airport. Right off the bat we see some really great lighting and colour. Suzy sits in the back seat, with the rain outside and a use of red and purple lighting, we get a fantastic look with the rain bouncing off the back window.
She arrives at the school but isn't allowed in. She does get to meet another student named Pat. Pat isn't in the best mood and runs out the door while shouting and screaming. I have to say that the acting here was a bit bad. She looked like she was running in a Penelope Pitstop cartoon.

Pat goes to a friends house and is attacked while in the bathroom. A hand crashes through the window after a good build up (it did succeed in making me jump) and pulls Pats face against the glass. Pat isn't having a good day but to make it worse, she then gets stabbed, has a noose wrapped round her and hanged after crashing through a large stained-glass ceiling. Her friend tries to help and she gets killed by the falling glass. The whole scene was well shot and again the lighting and colour looks brilliant, the stained-glass ceiling especially so. The blood too is a powerful shade of red.

Now they are out of the way, Suzy goes back to the school the next day and is allowed in this time. She meets teachers and students and strikes upon a conversation about the dead student from the night before. She overhears a conversation about Pat's murder and sticks her nose in about how she saw a student running away last night.
Suzy meets some other girls in the locker room. This scene is so full of sexual tension that if anymore was stuffed in to it, it would explode all over the room and leave a big sticky mess like an overly horny 14 year old boy watching this film. Infact, shorty after, Suzy meets a boy and there is supposed to be sexual tension between them but it's nowhere near as strong as with the other girls. You would have been mistaken for thinking you were watching some 70's soft porn if you hadn't been otherwise informed.

The next day Suzy meets the cook and an odd looking child. Nothing is said, just stares exchanged. Suzy then later collapses during a lesson, she wakes up in a dorm bed and is injected against her will. The doctor also tells her to drink a glass of wine a day for her blood. I want this guy as my GP.

As the girls all prepare for dinner, maggots drop from the ceiling. Maggots in hair and mouths. Maggots everywhere. The maggots look very realistic and the scene does have a very slimy and creepy feel to it. Everybody has to sleep in the practice hall while the maggots are cleaned up. We get some great lighting here. The staff sleep in another section from the students, cut off by what looks like hospital changing curtains. Shadows of the teachers are cast upon the curtains in a very stylistic, creeping manner.

I've come this far and i've mentioned the lights and colours a few times but i haven't talked about the music. The music is outstanding. The film would be a 6 or 7 out of 10, but the music takes it to a 9 or 10. It's beautifully spooky and hypnotic. It pushes you into a world of uncertainty and harsh tranquility. It may be the best soundtrack to any horror movie.

Daniel, the blind pianist is ordered to leave by Miss Tanner. His guide dog attacked the odd boy and Tanner is not pleased. On his way home we see some more fantastic light work as moving shadows cross the city walls around him. His dog turns on him and rips his throat out, leaving a stream of blood behind.

As the film comes to its climax, Suzy finds the witches hideout and finds them planning to kill her. Distraught, she finds her way in to another room and mistakenly awakens the head witch.
Sarah, the friend from earlier, what happened to her i hear you cry! Well she's dead. She fell in to a room of razor wire and had her throat slit. Do not fear, she is back, as undead Sarah. Before Sarah gets a chance to Kill Suzy, Suzy kills the head witch. This starts a chain reaction and the building begins to collapse. Suzy runs and escapes the school, leaving the witches to perish.

That is Suspiria. It's striking, eerie, suspenseful and bold. It leaves you with an indescribable aftertaste because you aren't sure how what seems like a slow build up managed to beat you so mercilessly. The music is perfect and the colour and lighting are like nothing else. A few moments of bad acting knock a point off, but besides that, it's a masterpiece.

The Shining

I've been thinking of writing about The Shining for a while now and seemed to put it off, the reason being that no amount of words can do justice to just how good The Shining is. It's a film you just have to see to fully understand how incredible it is. It's no secret that Stanley Kubrick is a brilliant director and The Shining is no exception to this but the true reason why to me, this film is so outstanding is Jack Nicholson.

Jack Nicholson is one of my very favourite actors. You could sell me on any film by telling me that he is in it. The Shining very well may be his greatest moment. His performance in this film is cemented in history, so much so infact that to a lot of people "Heeeere's Johnny!" is a quote from The Shining and poor old Johnny Carson doesn't get a look in. Fun Fact: The line was improvised by Nicholson.

The outline of the plot for those who have not seen it (if you haven't, you've never lived) is Jack takes a job as a caretaker for a hotel that closes over winter as so much snow blocks off access to the hotel. He and his family move in to the empty hotel for the winter. The hotel has a history of murders and the previous caretaker went insane and killed his family, which for some reason doesn't bother Jack at all. Danny, the young son, has a form of ESP called The Shining.
Jack wants to write a novel which doesn't go very well, mainly due to him going mad i suppose.
As time goes on Jack becomes increasingly irate and his wife becomes increasingly scared, wanting to take her son out of the hotel.
We also have a chef called Dick who too has The Shining, he able to talk to Danny through this and can feel he is in danger. This also doesn't end very well, but i won't spoil it.

The Shining has many iconic scenes including an elevator that opens to unleash a sea of blood, the twins in the hallway who one moment are alive and the next dead and soaked in blood and Danny on his cycle. These scenes and many more are iconic for a reason, they're so powerful. The music that accompanies the film is perfect, it creates an unsettling atmosphere from the very start of the film. Nothing has even happened and the music takes you to a place of fear, hanging over the viewer like a pendulum that can't be seen, yet you know it's there.
The use of children, while a cliche, works very well. The twin girls in matching clothing, always silent but always lingering leave a lasting impression from the moment you first see them with no explanation of who they are and without them doing anything.

The film also makes use of some great camera work. Danny rides about the hotel on his cycle and the camera follows him from behind, turning every corner with him. Is the camera something following him or is the camera what Danny can see ahead of him, the viewer waiting for the something to be stood waiting around every corner that we turn with Danny. I also enjoy the sound created by the cycle. No music is heard, just the sound of the bike and as he rides across wooden flooring, a loud bassy sound is heard, almost like a roar of a demon. As he runs over carpet it stops. He changes the two surfaces often creating a distinct and eerie noise.

Another of my favourite camera angles is Jack pressing the top of his head against a door with the camera under him. We get to see his face. Bright red with sweat running down it and his hair in a mess. He looks genuinely crazed.

I really can't begin to express how good The Shining is. Every twist and every scare is superb. The build of terror from the second it starts up to the second it ends is a ride of horror and delight. It should be a film everyone has to see before they die. If you have never seen it, i won't spoil it, but take some time out to see one of the best films of all time. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

After the 30's golden age, my favourite era of horror is the 70's. The 1970's revolutionised horror. It took horror away from vampires and mythical creatures and towards real life nightmares. Serial killers, maniacs with knifes and an unhinged mind. One of the very best of these is leather face from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The title alone is superb. As a child i saw the name and my mind ran wild with thoughts of the horror that would be contained within that film. Made in 1974, nothing before it had really been so full on with terror. Tobe Hooper said he based it on real life serial killer Ed Gein. Gein would wear masks and create furniture out of human skin. With the birth of TV in every home and the news, people for the first time on a mass scale learnt of people like Gein and brought the terror of reality in to the public.

Hooper at the time was unknown and the film was independent, made with a low budget. This helped create the true feeling of reality. The film takes you in and gives you a feeling that this isn't a hollywood film with big stars that you know isn't real. None of the actors were known and the camera work at times makes it feel like a snuff film of sorts. Even without over the top blood (something i feel ruins modern day horror) it still shows horrific violence. My personal favorite scene is when we first see leatherface. Kirk wanders in to a house trying to find gas, from nowhere leatherface emurges and bludgeons him in the head. Instead of falling down dead with no movement, we see a real life like death. Kirk spasms on the floor with blood on his head. It really looks brutal. Leatherface quickly takes kirk in to his abattoir in panic. A simple man who doesn't understand where this man has come from. We also get a butcher hook impaling and a chainsaw to the chest throughout the ride of this movie.

The irony surrounding the film is the controversy it raised due to the violence within it. No doubt it was shocking for the time and not many films had such an all out rage to it. The irony is that the movie was Hoopers response to the violence of the real world, everything on the news such as riots and the Vietnam War. Hooper wanted to comment on the "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" being fed to the american public. The film was banned in many countries for its portrayal of pretend violence but no attempt has ever been made to ban the evening news.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a great film. It's the perfect balance between violence and suspense. It leaves you with an empty feeling of darkness. Even the girl that gets away is soaked in blood and she cannot forget the horror she saw and was subjected to and will take it with her for the rest of her life.

Freaks

Freaks is a 1932 film by one of my favourite directors, Tod Browning. It provoked much controversy and was banned in the UK for 30 years. Todays audience accustomed to films such as Hostel or Saw, won't be too shocked by it, but in 1932 it was emphatically shocking.

The story is of a circus crew, many of which are sideshow style freaks. A woman by the name of Cleopatra discovers that a midget called Hans has a fortune and decides to marry him. She is also having an affair with a man named Hercules, who is not a 'freak'. The other freaks discover her affair and the fact she has no interest in Hans besides his money and they seek their revenge.

The movie uses people with real deformities as its cast. This was the reason it was so shocking, not that the public saw it as exploitative but because they were disgusted with the sights on the screen. Infact a complaint Browning recieved stated: "To put such creatures in a picture and before the public is unthinkable."  Yet the message of the film is that while all these 'freaks' are good people and honorable, the two 'normal' people are the real monsters, laughing at them and treating them with contempt.

Many of the original scenes were cut due to test audience reactions and a whole new scene was shot to give the film a happier ending. It also killed off the career of Tod Browning as it was so hated and shunned. It has since gathered a cult following although the original cut scenes are thought to be lost and are not available on DVD and video.

I would recommend Freaks for fans of the obscure and dark, macabre imagery. Nothing too graphic takes place and if you're a younger, gore fan, you might find it boring, but i love it. It's unique and the message of the film is an important one.

Frankenstein

In 1931 James Whale saw Boris Karloff by chance, loved his face and asked him to play a monster. History was born.
I don't really know what to say about Frankenstein, it's such a magnificent piece of cinema that my words or anybody else's words couldn't do justice to it. The film is a loose adaptation of the novel as rather a lot is changed. Names are altered (Victor is now Henry and Henry is now Victor), Karloff is mute but in the book he learns to speak, Frankenstein doesn't have Fritz to help him in the book and the creation of the monster isn't fully described in the book but it hints at potions or even black magic yet the film uses science. None of these things take anything away from the film as it stands alone as a great work.

The monster is created and breaks free, not knowing who he really is and what waits for him in the world. He is thrown in to a place he didn't asked to be placed in and everybody hates him for no reason other than his appearance and his confusion with the world around him. We see the monster from his perspective and how he is treated for only being himself. James Whale directed the film and was an open gay man in a time when people were not openly gay. I have a feeling that much of the films message of not treating somebody with anger and hate simply because you do not understand them and they don't understand you, stems from Whale's sexuality and his real life.

Boris Karloff is outstanding and really steals the show. He conveys confusion, joy, anger, pain and many more emotions only with his facial expressions. Scenes such as the monster playing with a young girl show how the monster is only looking for a compassionate person and the innocence of the girl provides this as she isn't afraid of him and the monster isn't afraid of her. This scene provoked much controversy. As the girl and the monster throw flowers in to water and watch them float, soon they run out of flowers, the monster throws the girl in, out of mostly confusion and lack of understanding. He expects her to float, yet she drowns. The scene was cut from cinema screenings as a child drowning was a very raw area to go in to in 1931. It has since been added back in to modern DVD releases.

Dwight Frye is also in the film, he plays Fritz, the hunchback assistant of Frankenstein. I mentioned my love of Frye in the Dracula blog and he agains gives a great performance. Sadistic, crazy and ever loyal, Frye is the icing on the cake of such a tremendous film.

I can't recommend Frankenstein enough. It was the innovator of the mad scientist horror movie. If you haven't seen it and watch it now, you can see where everything came from, it almost invents everything of the genre. It's a classic and a film you must see before you die.

White Zombie

White Zombie is not only the name of one of the best bands of all time, but it is also the title of a 1932 movie starring Bela Lugosi. White Zombie is the first ever full length zombie film and it's a damn good one. It doesn't have head shots or eyes being pulled out, but the hypnotic and haunting Lugosi is brilliant and the film is set in Haiti, surrounded by voodoo and witch doctors.

Bela plays a character called Murder Legendre. You can't get more blatant than naming a character Murder. Also we have a young couple named Madeleine and Neil, they are to be married but Monsieur Beaumont has a thing for Madeleine. Beaumont convinces the couple to come to Haiti to marry, his alterior motive is to steal the young girl away.

Beaumont goes to Bela for help in a great scene. He goes to see Lugosi in his sugar mill, all the workers in the mill are zombies and do a great job of looking very creepy, slowing operating machinery with dead expressions. Much like real factory workers i suppose.
Bela gives Beaumont a potion which will create a zombie out of the young love interest. Reluctantly, he takes it.

As the couple marry, Bela stands about outside carving a candle in to some type of voodoo doll. It should be pointed out that Lugosi has the most awesome facial hair ever in this film. He looks like Dick Dastardly but even more evil. He even rocks a unibrow and makes it look cool.

So at the wedding reception, the bride dies from her drinking the potion and rather unstandably, her husband is a bit upset. He goes and gets drunk in a bar that has a very german expressionist feel to it and he can see his dead wife. She may be a ghost, a zombie, or he's pissed.
Much of the acting is a little cheesy, the only one who isn't is Lugosi, which is funny considering that Lugosi, as much as i love him, could be very cheesy at times.

Another criticism of the film that i have to make is that it can be very slow in places. It moves like a hungover snail. Moments such as close ups of Lugosi's eyes, although Bela does the creepy stare very well, they seem to linger on these shots far too long.

Neil goes to his wifes tomb and to the surprise of nobody but him, she is gone. He seeks help from Dr. Bruner and informs him about Lugosi and his zombie making ways. Together they go to Murder's cliffside castle to rescue Madeleine.
She sits in the castle with Beaumont, unresponsive to his gifts and affection. Beaumont realizes that she isn't who she was and we get a really good line, "I thought that beauty alone would satisfy. But the soul is gone. I can't bear those empty, staring eyes."
Bela enters and gives Beaumont some wine. Not just any wine, but some voodoo wine, turning poor old Beaumont in to a zombie too. Neil shows up but Bela is on to him and sends zombie Madeleine to kill him.

Dr. Bruner knocks out Lugosi and this breaks his control over his zombies and they all fall off a cliff!
Lugosi awakes and Beaumont struggles with him, they both fall off the cliff and die. The good news is that Madeleine is no longer a zombie and everybody except all the people that died, live happily ever after.

If you can ignore some of the over the top acting from the supporting cast, White Zombie is a good film. It's setting and lighting combined with a great performance from Bela Lugosi make for a cult classic. Considering it was an independent film too, makes it even more impressive. So if you like a good b-movie, check it out.

Carrie

If you've got a taste for terror, take Carrie to the prom.
Carrie is a 1976 film based on a novel by Stephen King. Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie, an outcast teen with a bible basher for a mother and a group of bitchy teenage girls out to make her life hell. Little do they know that Carrie possess telekinetic powers and for lack of a better term, she will fuck their shit up.


I really like Carrie, it reminds me of being a young teenager and seeing it for the first time. As an adult, the cliches of the outcast who gets her revenge stand out a bit, but when i first saw it at 12 or 13 years old, it was really powerful. As a school outcast myself, i would have loved to go 'Carrie' on everybody.
As i said before, it wouldn't be hard to work out it was a novel by King if you weren't told before as Kings stereotypes are all there. He has a running theme of outcasts who get revenge, psychic powers and is set in Maine as are almost all of Kings novels.

The film throws us right in to things and sets up Carries character with a scene in the school gym showers. Carrie gets her first period in the shower and is distraught as she doesn't know what is happeneing. The other girls ridicule her for this and further traumatise Carrie. She gets home to a less than warm welcome as her mother locks her in a closet for her sin.

Sue, one of the popular girls at school convinces athlete jock type Tommy to take Carrie to the prom as she feels sorry for her. The news leaks and the school is flooded with gossip. Carries mother is obviously not very impressed and rants and raves about sinning and has a great line with "first comes the blood and then comes the boys."

Against the wishes of her mother, Carries goes to the prom with Tommy. Things start looking up for Carrie, Tommy treats her well, the other girls seem to begin to like her due to her association with Tommy and the couple are even crowned king and queen of the prom.
While everything appears to be going well for a change, one of the bitchy girls, Chris, has concocted a plan with a bucket of pigs blood, planning to drop it on Carrie, with help from John Travolta of all people.


As the happy couple take the stage to recieve the high honour of prom royalty, the blood is dumped on Carrie and Tommy is KO'd by the bucket. In a now iconic shot, Carrie stands on stage, soaked in blood. Carrie is pissed and uses her powers to lock all the doors, sets off a fire hose and brings down the lights and rafters, killing people. The headmaster is electrocuted and this starts a fire. Carrie leaves, soaked in pigs blood as the school burns down.

Carrie returns home to her mother, who lovingly stabs Carrie as she believes she is possessed by the devil. Carrie kills her mum by using her telekinesis to throw kitchen knives at her. Carrie then sends the house down, killing herself too.

Carrie is a great little film. To a modern audience it would seem a bit of a cliche but it's still very good. The acting is good, the camera work is good and the effects are good. Outside of it's slightly cliche story i can't fault it. Sissy Spacek in her finest hour. 

Dracula (1931)

In 1897, Bram Stoker finished and published Dracula. 34 years later, Bela Lugosi played Dracula in Tod Brownings film version of the book.
Dracula was on stage and screen before this. In 1921 Károly Lajthay wrote and directed a film titled Dracula's Death. It is the very first known film based on the story of Dracula, although it doesn't actually follow the same story as Stokers book. The film is now lost.
1922 saw the release of Nosferatu. Nosferatu is a truly great film. The lighting and the odd scenery, typical of German expressionism, gives the film a unique macabre atmosphere. Ironically, unlike Dracula's Death, it follows the story of the book but doesn't use the name Dracula or any of the other character names in the book. This was because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel.
Dracula next appeared on stage in 1924, played by Raymond Huntley. In 1927 the play went to Broadway. John L. Balderston revised the script for the American audience and Bela Lugosi was cast as Dracula.

Soon it was 1931 and Universal released Dracula, with Lugosi in the role of the Count.
This, along with Frankenstein, was the birth of the golden era of horror. Tod Browning was director after much success with silent films such as London After Midnight. Dracula was made during the infant stages of sound cinema and it shows as there is no music in the film besides the opening credits when an excerpt from Swan Lake is played. A piece by Wagner is used later during a scene in a theatre.
I can't speak for anybody else, but everytime i hear the piece from Swan Lake, i think of Dracula.
It should also be mentioned that a silent version was made as some theatres had not yet been wired for sound at the time.

Lugosi is brilliant in the role of Dracula. His stare and his voice has become a thing of legend and has become the stereotype of Dracula even to younger generations that may never have seen the film.
The dialogue in the film is fantastic and tied in with the voice of Lugosi makes for some amazing moments.
Lugosi provides some very quotable lines such as "To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious" along with great lines from even the lesser characters, "They're all crazy. They're all crazy except you and me. Sometimes I have my doubts about you." and of course the stunning Dwight Frye as Renfield. He has such good lines and delivers them so well, he almost steals the spot light from Lugosi.

Frye manages to play humble gentleman and completely insane, so convincingly you would be forgiven for thinking he went mad during filming.  His performance is both funny and disturbing in equal measure. He submissively obeys Dracula's every command, even while locked up in a sanatorium, feeding on spiders. One of the highlights of Frye's performance is his laugh. It's so manic and demented, it's wonderful.
Edward Van Sloan is also very good in the role of Van Helsing. The characters quick wit bounces off of and works well with Renfields ravings.
Frye would go on to play Fritz in Frankenstein, later that year.


This film is a classic for a reason. The haunting sets, the dark settings, the stunning performance from both Lugosi and Frye and of course the creation of the seductive vampire. Stoker had described Dracula as anything but suave or sexy. This version of the character was created in the stage production but was established and perfected in this film. Legosi was perfect for that style of Dracula, with his accent and dark mysterious foreign aura.

To me, this film IS Dracula. Anybody who has never seen it, really should. Put aside the cheap looking bats on strings and forget CGI, watch the acting, the settings, the dialogue. It is a masterpiece.

The House by the Cemetery

The House by the Cemetery is a 1981 horror movie by Lucio Fulci.
I am a big fan of campy "so bad, it's good" films, but this is just bad. The basic plot is a couple and their son named Bob (who calls a kid Bob?) move in to a house and the house has a killer/monster in the basement.
The film is filled with plot holes and parts that just don't make any sense. It has no suspense at all and frustrated me with its idiotic characters.

The movie begins with a couple being murdered in the house for no reason and it never comes up again. Some months later, the family move to the house. Norman's (the father) now deceased colleague lived there, but he had to move out when he murdered his mistress and then killed himself. Norman has the unenviable task of finding out what drove his old work mate to commit such actions, why living in the house will help, i do not know. The house was once owned by the Freudstein family, i like to think that they were a family of psychiatrists by day and mad scientists by night. Well Bob begins to see and speak with Mae Freudstein, a young girl around the same age as Bob, the only problem is that Mae is dead and Bob seems to be speaking to a ghost. Dr. Freudstein is the monster in the basement. I'm not sure what he is supposed to be, a zombie of some sort....maybe.

So nothing happens for a while, they move in and a woman appears from nowhere and introduces herself as the babysitter. The family just accept this with no questions, not even a CRB check.
In the basement a really cheap looking bat attacks Norman and his wife Lucy by sitting on the head of Lucy and resting on the hand of Noman, this makes them go crazy, screaming and shouting. Norman runs up the basement stairs and in to the kitchen, he runs past his son who asks what is wrong? He has just been stood at the top of the stairs, he could clearly hear his parents screaming and shouting, yet he seemed shocked to see his dad run past him.

So all of this scares them and they want to move out. While at the hospital, a woman from the estate agents arrives at the house with news. Nobody is home, so she just walks in to the house and has a look round. She walks over a tombstone on the floor and it breaks. That is one cheap tombstone to completely split open because a person walked over it. Her legs gets stuck in the gap and in walks zombie Freudstein to kill her with a fire poker.

The next day, the baby sitter is cleaning up all the blood from the floor. Lucy walks in and speaks with her about a whole load of nothing and then leaves, not before a very odd close up camera shot of each actors eyes. I don't know why.
Lucy never asks why the floor is covered in blood. Totally normal apparently.

Norman informs Lucy that he found out that Freudstein was a surgeon. He then tells her that he will be traveling back to New York for more research on Dr. Freudstein, leaving his wife and child in the creepy house they all desperately wanted to leave 5 minutes ago.

Anne, the baby sitter, goes in to the basement to look for Bob, big surprise, Bob isn't in the basement. In the creepy dark basement, Anne slowly walks down the stairs, repeatedly asking the odd looking figure lurking in the dark if he is Bob. I would assume, even with the bad lighting, you could see that a zombie the size of a grown man, was not a small child. So Anne gets her head cut off for her trouble. My main problem with this scene was that the film had kind of established that Anne was somehow working with the zombie Freudstein as she was trying to cover up the blood he had left and she repeatedly gave evil stares to people with the help of close up shots of her eyes. No, she just gets killed for no real reason and all the previous build was pointless.
My other issue with this scene is the kid. He is an awful actor, really awful. He also looks like a mutilated cod. Anne is almost knocking down the basement door, screaming for help, what does little Bob do? He walks as slow as possible, taking time to get his toy gun. You could argue that he was just being a kid and turning it in to a game, but she was screaming for her life, i think even a kid could tell she was genuinely in danger. 
Adding to the bad acting and his weird face is the fact the his voice was dubbed by an adult, not a child. So his voice is extra awful, as it's an adult trying to sound like a child.

Bob finally gets to Anne but it's too late and he is mentally scarred when he is witness to her head falling down the stairs. His mother comes home and Bob informs her of his afternoon fun. She doesn't believe him and decides to take him in to the basement to prove it didn't happen, Bob then shouts "Anne, mom says you aren't really dead?! Is that true!??!". You just saw her head roll down the stairs, either your baby sitter has a very twisted sense of humour or yes, she's dead.

Anyway, i really want to wrap this up because my head is hurting thinking about this film for so long.
Bob gets locked in the basement and zombie guy starts to walk towards him. He starts pounding on the door and screaming for his mother. She, just like Bob, walks as slow as she can, to the basement door. I would safely bet on the fact, that if most mothers heard their son screaming for help, they would run faster then they had ever ran before.
She can't open the door because she's an idiot. The father arrives and he can't open it either because he too, is an idiot. They eventually all end up in the basement. Norman stabs zombie Freudstein and a ton of spaghetti spews out, although i think it's supposed to be maggots. Norman decides to stand and watch, doing nothing, and then he gets his throat torn out. Again, idiot.
Lucy spots a crack in the ceiling and takes Bob up a conveniently placed staircase. It is revealed that the crack is infact the crack in the floor tombstone made earlier in the film. Lucy tried to push the stone up, or apart, i'm not sure. She fails and is killed. Then little ghost girl shows up and pulls the stone back, lifting Bob through the gap. A grown woman couldn't push it apart, but a little girl could?! I know she's a ghost, but she isn't the ghost of Hercules. Also, before the girl rescues Bob, he manages to get his whole head through the crack, yet the woman earlier couldn't pull her leg out.

Bob then walks off with ghost girl and becomes a ghost or some shit.

As i said before, i love cheap and cheesy horror, but this is just bad. Nothing makes any sense, the acting is below average and the characters are complete idiots.

I'm aware that Lucio Fulci has a cult fan base and that some people enjoy the crappiness of his work. I even hear that some of his other films are actually rather good. I'm sure at some point in the future, when i have recieved counselling, i will check out his other films, but this, well i thought it was terrible.

Halloween

I'm going to write a little review about the 1978 classic, Halloween.
Halloween, i think, is one of the very best horror films of all time. I would go as far to say it's one of the best films of all time, regardless of genre. The movie is the blue print of the slasher film and many directors owe a lot to Halloween, mainly because they stole all the ideas from it. Many of the cheesy and all out awful slasher films from the 80's and 90's just ripped off scenes, ideas and ways of filming from Halloween, doing it badly too. So you could say, as great as Halloween is, it is also the parent of many terrible slasher movies.

Halloween is the story of Michael Myers and his unrelenting desire to kill his sister, Laurie, although Laurie isn't aware of this and has infact been adopted and named Laurie Strode. Myers was sent to a psychiatric hospital at age 6 after killing his other, older sister. Fifteen years later, he escapes and "comes home" as the tagline of the film reads.

The film sets many standards for horror and creates many incredibly original aspects that would later be copied so much that they became a horror/slasher cliche. One of these is the use of the camera looking in to windows etc as if from the eyes of Myers. This created a feeling of suspense and intensity, the audience knows the character is being watched but the character themselves is totally unaware, giving a fresh and even creepier dimension to the stalking monster. My personal favourite moment of the subtle mind games used early in the film is when Laurie glances out of her window and spots Myers stood in her garden amongst her clothes on the washing line. It dawns on her that she saw a figure and looks out of the window again, but Myers is gone.

Another thing that sets Halloween apart from the other, later slasher films is instead of using blood and gore as shock tactics, it uses a Hitchcock style of suspense and pacing to grip the viewer and leave you on the edge of your seat.  Modern horror has a tendency to create a cast of dislikeable people that the audience don't care about and even enjoy seeing them die. Halloween has likeable characters including Laurie and the children she is babysitting, you want them to survive and creates a tense atmosphere. Myers methodically stalks Laurie at perfect pace, you sympathise with her and feel her fear, urging her to escape.

One of the most memorable parts of the film is the score. The music to Halloween has become a thing of legend all by itself and is associated with horror as a whole just as much as with the film itself. It's such a simple piece of music but it creates a feeling of terror that few pieces can replicate.

A testament to just how good Halloween is, is that it was an independent film made on a low budget of just $320,000, yet it made $47.3 million at the US box office alone. It is one of the most successful independent films of all time. Infact the trademark mask of Michael Myers is a mask of Captain Kirk from Star Trek, it was purchased for $1.98, the eye holes were cut wider and the face was painted white. That cheap mask has become the face of a horror icon and ironically has made thousands of dollars in fancy dress shop replicas. The whole movie was filmed in 21 days.

The cast too, is brilliant. Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent as Laurie. She plays the character so well that she became known as a scream queen. She somehow manages to mix wholesome with bad ass without over doing either to any extreme. Laurie is likeable and sympathetic while still managing to fight back and knock Myers down and injure him. Donald Pleasence also plays a vital part as Dr Loomis. Loomis is a psychiatrist at the hospital which Myers is sent to and Myers becomes his main patient.
When Myers escapes and goes looking for Laurie, Dr Loomis is the only person that can help as only he knows and understands Michaels psyche. "I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply evil."

Halloween ends on a cliff hanger. Dr Loomis shoots Michael, forcing him to fall from a window balcony. Loomis looks over and Myers is gone, bringing the film to a close. Halloween 2 follows where the first film ended on the same night and is almost as good as the first film. I won't go in to it as it is a separate film, but i recommend that too.

To summarize, Halloween is one of the very best films that horror has to offer and i would suggest that anybody who has never seen it or only seen remakes or the later, not so good sequels, go out and find a copy, you will not be dissapointed. It is a masterpiece of the highest horror order.

Bela Lugosi

I'm going to start this off by talking about my all time favourite horror actor and icon, Bela Lugosi.
Lugosi was a Hungarian actor who had his first notable roles on stage in the National Theater of Hungary, in Budapest. Later he appeared in Hungarian and German films before moving to America in 1920 and became an official U.S. citizen in 1931.

Bela made his name and legacy as Count Dracula in 1931, directed by Tod Browning. Previously, Lugosi had starred in a Broadway production of Dracula with much success, despite this he wasn't the first choice for Brownings film. Carl Laemmle, Jr was the head of production at Universal and had bought the rights to Dracula. Laemmle, Jr set his heart on Lon Chaney playing the role of Dracula, although this never came to be. Laemmle was not interested in Lugosi at all and spoke with several other actors in consideration of the role. Eventually Lugosi got the part.

Many, including myself, consider Bela as the definitive Dracula. His black hair and hypnotic eyes brought a sinister feel to the role. Lugosi did not look like a monster, instead he appeared suave and seductive, a gentleman that would lure beautiful women to their death.

Lugosi would go on to appear in many great horror films such as White Zombie, Mark of the Vampire and The Black Cat. White Zombie is personal favorite of mine.

In my mind, Bela Lugosi is the ultimate horror icon. He carries everything that embodies classic horror. The look, the voice and the presence. His films were a part of the horror eruption and to this day inspire and influence horror films and tales.

Sadly, Lugosi's career didn't end on a high and he appeared in many flop films towards the end of his life, most famous of which is Plan 9 From Outer Space. Plan 9 is a film by Ed Wood in which aliens come to earth to warn humans about the creation of doomsday weapon. To get the attention of the human race, the aliens resurrect the dead. It's as silly as it sounds. Ed Wood left a legacy of being one of the worst directors ever. Lugosi died during the making of Plan 9. Ed Wood, in his great wisdom used the little footage he had shot of Bela, including using day light footage of Lugosi in a night time scene.
As enjoyable as Plan 9 is for fans of camp cult movies, it is sad that Bela Lugosi's last film was such an awful one.

Bela Lugosi will forever be to me, the epitome of horror, darkness and the night. Every time i think of horror, i think of Bela and every time i think of Bela, i smile.

Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956. He was buried in full Dracula costume.

"There are far worse things awaiting man than death"

I bid you welcome

As an opinionated person with a love of all things horror, it was only natural and inevitable that i would begin to write a blog on the genre. Ever since i was a child and saw my mothers hammer horror films on VHS, i've loved horror films. Everything from Tod Browning to Tobe Hooper enthralls me in ways that nothing else can come close to. I suppose, when asked, it's hard to pin point why exactly i love horror films. As a person, i'm very calm and polite and have no desire to kill somebody with a chainsaw or to drink anybodies blood, but everything from the dark and haunting atmosphere of films like Nosferatu to all out blood drenchers like The Evil Dead captivate me for reasons unknown.

In this blog i will be doing reviews of movies and pieces on certain actors and directors. Most of the films will be relatively old (30's - 80's) simply because they are my favourites.  I don't expect this to become the most followed blog on the entire internet,nor am a master of written english, but hopefully i can turn a few people on to classic horror films they may not have heard of.