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.