31 days of Horror: Day Thirty One: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

Directed by F.W.Murnau

A few weeks ago I was at a party, and someone started talking about the original silent Nosferatu. I had to admit that I had never actually watched it, even though the Herzog remake is one of my favourite films. I decided that this Halloween I would change that, and so tonight I sat down, ate candy, drank whiskey, and watched the Masters Of Cinema restored version of the 1922 silent classic. This version has blue and yellow tints which was how the film was originally projected, as opposed to black and white as most of the versions released on VHS, or DVD have been, as well as the orchestral score written for the film by Hans Erdmann.

Nosferatu was an unofficial movie version of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, and was almost sued out of existence by the Stoker estate. All copies of the film were ordered to be burned, though lucky for us some prints survived. I'll assume anyone reading this has a passing familiarity with the story of Dracula, and won't bother to retread the plot. Most of the major elements are present. What makes this such an incredible film though is the powerful imagery Murnau creates. The photography is beautiful and eerie. That and the otherworldly performance of Max Schreck as the Vampire, Count Orlock. Schreck is unbelievable. Not only is his make up terrifying, but he fills every scene he's in with an almost cosmic menace. His vampire is almost Lovecraftian.

The other thing I'll mention is the score. I don't know how the film works with different music, though there are dozens of alternate soundtracks, but the restored Hans Erdmann score is masterful. It delivers just the right atmosphere of menace. 

This is one classic that lives up to the hype. If you haven't seen it, by all means do.

31 days of Horror: Day Thirty: The Outing

The Outing (The Lamp) (1987)

Directed by Tom Daley

I decided to watch The Lamp AKA The Outing because it looked like a shitty 80's Horror flick. Which in fact was what it was. What surprised me though were the pretty good production values, decent acting (among the leads anyway), and awesome special effects. This is definitely a cheap ass  movie, but director Tom Daley made the best of what he had. The result is an entertaining piece of schlock.

See there's this lamp, and it has an evil genie living in it. At the beginning of the movie these redneck robbers break into the house of an old woman who's very rich. They break all her stuff while looking for money, and even hit her in the head with an axe. When they break a hole in the wall of her bedroom, they find the lamp, and unwittingly unleash the genie who murders the hell out of them. 

Next thing you know the lamp is taken to a museum where the museum people figure out that the lamp is over 5000 years old. The museum director's daughter puts on the magic bracelet that comes with the lamp and is slightly possessed. She convinces the other 25 year olds that she goes to high school with that they should spend the night in the museum. What she doesn't know is that her ex boyfriend  who's a complete scumbag overhears the plan, so he and his scumbag friend also sneak in for the night. If you've ever seen a horror movie you know what comes next.

This film plays it by the numbers, but does it with a certain flair. Like I mentioned the effects look great. Way better than you expect them to. I particularly like the reanimated corpse that looks like Iron Maiden's Eddy. if you turn your brain off then this movie is a pretty good time, and deserves to be better known than it is.

31 days of Horror: Day Twenty Nine: Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés

Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés (2005)

Directed by Robin Aubert

Flavien Juste is a reporter for a failing Quebec tabloid. The movie begins with Flavien conducting an interview with a farmer who's been abducted by a UFO. His next assignment is to travel to an isolated town that has a history of disappearances. He and his friend, and photographer, Armand are booked into a creepy hotel run by a pair of twin sisters. Armand goes outside to take some pictures, and immediately disappears. What's more after Flavien goes looking for him, he returns to the hotel to find it run by some dude who claims the twin sisters are long dead, and that the two reporters have never been there before. Sure enough when Flavien goes back to his room, his stuff is gone.  Leaving town seems like a good idea, but first the car breaks down, and then it goes missing as well. So Flavien is stuck, and the locals range from aggressively unhelpful, to aggressively violent. There's also the ghost of a dead bride who keeps making appearances.

This is beautifully stylish, and somewhat confusing film. There are at least three sets of twins running around, and the local toughs are straight out of the 50's. Things are explained, but your best bet is to give in to weirdness. The film maintains an otherworldly Twilight Zone like quality. The works of David Lynch are another point of reference, especially Twin Peaks. This requires a little patience on the part of the viewer, but we're rewarded with some striking visuals, and an intriguing mystery.

31 days of Horror: Day Twenty Eight: La casa con la scala nel buio

La casa con la scala nel buio (A Blade In The Dark) (1983)

Directed by Lamberto Bava

By the early 80's the Giallo was a dying breed. It was quickly being supplanted by American style Slashers that were cheaper to make, easier to write, and made more money. I won't spend too much time lamenting the fall of the Giallo. They had a good run starting in the early 60's with Mario Bava's genre making efforts, and continueing through the 70's when Dario Argento made string of solid Thrillers films leading up to his first Masterpiece, Profondo Rosso (1975). In the wake of Argento's success there was a virtual avalanche of titles, with Lucio Fulci, Umberto  Lenzi, and Sergio Martino, among others producing a body of work thats still being rediscovered today.

Lamberto Bava will never be spoken of as being in the top tier Italian Horror directors though Demons (1985) is a certifiable classic. At best he's described as hit or miss. It doesn’t help that he's never far from his father Mario's shadow. For his first couple of movies, Lamberto decided to have a go at the genre his dad created, even if it was falling by the wayside. In 1980 he put out Macabre, and 1983 he put out the film I watched tonight, A Blade In The Dark. This is a movie that manages to be mind numbingly dumb. and yet still thoroughly entertaining.

Bruno is a young composer hired to score a new Horror Film, and put up in an isolated Villa to get his work done. We're told the villa is isolated anyway, but you'd never guess from how often people drop in. Mostly they just walk right in. Sometimes they hide in closets. And with alarming frequency they are brutally murdered. Who could the killer be? And what does any of this have to do with Linda, the former tenant of the villa. Bava sets up the basic mystery, and then throws a good half dozen red herrings at the audience. When the movie finally answers the questions that it has asked, you may want to punch yourself in the face. Or you could just laugh, and have another beer. Which ever works best for you.

What the film doesn’t deliver in tightly plotted mystery, it more than makes up for in awkward brutality. the murders are vicious, and if you don't want to see someone have a bag pulled over their head, and then have their face repeatedly bashed off a counter top, you should definitely steer well clear of this nasty little movie. If however, dumb violence is one of the things you like in your Horror flicks. well, here it is.