31 days of Horror: Day Eight-Tourist trap

Tourist Trap is an early and very effective entry in the cycle of Slasher films that arrived on the coat tails of Halloween.

A group of friends out for a good time go in search of a spare tire, and end up on the property of Mr. Slausen. Slausen owns a wax museum, and soon seems to be covering up for his brother, as young people go missing.

Tourist Trap is the rare example of a derivative movie, that nonetheless, goes off in it's own direction. in this case both Psycho, and The Texas chainsaw Massacre are obvious starting points, but director David Schmoeller adds both a supernatural element, and the natural creepiness of manikins to the mix. The first death scene is practically a "how to" in terms of combining visceral, and atmospheric horror. From there we're left in the capable hands of ethnic Newfoundlander Chuck Connors who shows what a good character actor can do with a generic genre premise.

If solid Slasher fun and killer puppet terror are what you're looking for, Tourist Trap delivers.

31 days of Horror: Day Seven- The Devil's Rain

The Devil's Rain (1975)

It's hard to know were to start with The Devil's Rain. You might come for the goofy Satanists. Maybe the face melting is what really grabs you. Or it could be the combined gesticulating fury of Ernest Borgnine, and William Shatner hamming it the fuck up. Either way, you'll find much to enjoy in this mid seventies fright fest.

The movie begins with a showdown between Shatner, and Borgnine who is the High Priest of a group of Satanists. Shatner has a magic book that Borgnine wants. And what Borgnine wants, Borgnine gets, with the help of his Satanic minions.
Then Shatners brother Tom Skerritt (The guy from Picket Fences) shows up, and wants to fight Borgnine, who gets so mad that he turns into a Goat Man. Later during the climax, there is a lot of bad guy melting that happens, in what was undoubtedly the best bad guy melting scene ever in a movie till it was of course surpassed 6 years later by Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The whole thing is a silly as an episode of Scooby Doo, but a lot more fun. The director Robert Fuest, was no stranger to horror cinema, having directed the scary paranoid thriller And Soon the Darkness, as well as the two Dr. Phibes films. He brings a good mix of spookiness and glee to the film. It doesn't hurt that real life Satanic high priest Anton LaVey is on board as an adviser, revealing the Scooby Doo nature of his own little group.

The final reason to care about The Devil's Rain is because of it's connection to another movie: John Carpenter's 1978 Masterpiece Halloween. Carpenter's killer, Michael Myers mask was a slightly modified William Shatner Halloween mask based on The Devil's Rain. It all adds up to a kooky, spooky, and historically significant good time.

Roger Ebert hated this movie. What a dick smack!

31 days of Horror: Day Six-De dødes tjern (Lake Of The Dead)

De dødes tjern (1958)

Lake Of The Dead is an atmospheric Norwegian murder mystery/ghost story.

A groups of friends head out to the Norwegian wilderness to spend some time at an isolated cabin. The cabin is owned by the brother of one of the women, but he's nowhere to be seen when they arrive. It turns out that there's a legend about the cabin, and a near by lake, involving the ghost of man who killed his sister, and her lover, before taking his own life. People who stay in the cabin are said to become possessed by the evil of the murderer.

When a midnight swim is organised, evidence is discovered that suggests that the missing brother drowned himself in the lake. His diary describes a deteriorating mental state, and a growing obsession with the local legend. Soon there are more deaths, and the group must figure out if they're dealing with the supernatural, or a flesh and blood killer.

This is a slow creepy thriller that makes great use of the haunting Norwegian forest.

31 days of Horror: Day five- Angustia

Angustia (1987)

I have a real soft spot for unhinged European horror cinema. This Spanish exercise in eyeball injury from director Bigas Luna, is a great example, right down to the stilted English dub.

At first it seems that we're watching a movie about a murderous optometrist, and his creepy mother (Played by Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist) who can psychically hear those who slight her son using her magic seashell. But then it turns out that that was only a hypnotic movie being watched by another audience who are being stalked by a murderous dude, obsessed by the hypnotic movie.

The film jumps back and forth between the two realities, sometime showing both at the same time. If you have a taste for eyeball violence, and the absurd, Angustia (Anguish) is sure to satisfy.

31 days of Horror: Day four-The Eclipse

The Eclipse (2009)

This just might be my pick of the month. I really enjoyed this slow, moody, romantic ghost story.

Ciarán Hinds plays a widower in a small Irish town, who meets a visiting novelist, and finds himself mixed up with grief, and attraction. He's also seeing ghosts. This charming little film explores life, and death, love, and loss with a quiet intensity. If you like good acting, and beautiful scenery, mixed in with a creepy atmosphere, and a couple of good scares, this should do the trick.

31 days of Horror: Day three-Blood Of The Vampire

Blood Of The Vampire (1958)

Here's an interesting little movie. An early, and often effective Hammer Rip-off. It's a bit shocking actually just how much this film looks and feels like a Hammer picture. Not that's it's as great as Hammer's early triumphs, but it's easily as good as a mid-level Hammer. And that's not bad at all.

First of all, besides being made to cash in on Hammer's success, the title of the movie is more than a little misleading. I mean you could be forgiven for thinking a movie called Blood Of The Vampire will be about a Vampire, but you'd be wrong. Instead we have a Mad Scientist (Doctor Callistratus) who runs an Asylum For The Criminally Insane, who needs blood transfusions to stay alive. He also has a murderous hunchback for an assistant, and a basement full of scientific equipment, and shackles. Things are looking up when a young doctor is arrested for practising illegal medical procedures (that's right, blood transfusions). The young doctor tries to convince the court that although his patient died, it was not the blood transfusion that killed him, but Callistratus interferes with the case and the doctor is sent to the asylum. All the better to help the Mad doctor with his experiments. Unfortunately for Callistratus, the young man is decidedly of the "Hero" type.

The plot plays out by the numbers, but if you like these old chillers, there a lot of fun to be had.

Oh, and did I mention that it's shot in glorious Eastman Colour?

31 days of Horror: Day two-Sauna

Sauna (2008)

Sauna is a beautifully made though sometimes incoherent Arthouse Horror.
In the late 1500's two brothers are involves in redrawing the border of Finland, and Russia following a long and bitter war. Although the war is over, one of the brothers seems unable to leave the brutality behind him, and awakens a dormant supernatural force.