30's Boris Karloff Part Two

THE GHOUL
(1933)
Dir - T. Hayes Hunter
Overall: MEH

Lost for decades and then only circulating in an edited version that was missing eight minutes of footage, in the early 80s the full negative was found of The Ghoul, Boris Karloff's sole film released in 1933.  It is very sad then that the movie in fact is rather poor.  An excellent opening scene sets up the events to follow in an incredibly moody way, but the film becomes loaded with mishandled issues after that.  The scenery looks fantastic when you can actually see it, but the cinematography by Günther Krampf, (1926's The Student of Prague), is annoyingly rather dark.  Too many characters and too many conveniences murk up the plot which gets more and more messy as it goes on.  Karloff is all but wasted, only appearing in perhaps ten to fifteen minutes and in his place, failed attempts at comic relief are made as a bunch of people we hardly care about just paddle around arguing, getting scared at nothing, and looking for an ancient Egyptian artifact whose only supernatural value seems to be in providing the film with plot holes.  The Ghoul is largely boring by the end of it and the climax is just as lame as the bulk of its scenes.

THE BLACK ROOM
(1935)
Dir - Roy William Neill
Overall: GOOD

One of Boris Karloff's best, most dynamic performances was in 1935's historical melodrama The Black Room.  At this early, be-it post-Frankenstein part of his career, Karloff was still primarily given limited speaking roles so to see him in something he could sink his thespian claws into is quite a treat.  The Black Room features the ole "good twin/evil twin" setup and as both, Karloff really gets to shine, adjusting his body language as well as his entire persona to fit each.  Other common motifs as angry villagers, a young, pretty maiden forced into a marriage against her will, and as the title would suggest, a Gothic dungeon all play such horror and historical drama elements as well as can be expected off of each other.  Director Roy William Neill, (Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman), and cinematographer Allen G. Siegler stage everything genuinely macabre like, even if all of the appalling moments are sparse and primarily happen off-screen.  Predictable plot aside, any Karloff fan would be unwise to skip it.

TOWER OF LONDON
(1939)
Dir - Rowland V. Lee
Overall: GOOD

Released the same year as Son of Frankenstein, (and featuring the same director as well as Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone), Universal's Tower of London was their 1939 cinematic interpretation of the infamous legend of King Richard III.  Karloff here has a much smaller though still striking part as the limping, executioner Mord; a sort of brutish, right hand torture man for Rathbone's Duke turned King Richard.  Being released passed the production code enforcement, the film shies away from showing any actual torture or really anything gruesome at all, cutting away or simply implying the nasty deeds at play instead.  Tower of London is mostly just a straight-ahead, medieval melodrama then with a familiar, dramatized historical context.  The battle scenes are decent though and Rathbone excels as the methodically evil Richard III.  As a plus, Vincent Price in only his third feature film briefly appears as the Duke of Clarence, coincidental as he would play Richard III himself twenty-three years later under Roger Corman in their unofficial remake.  He does get drunk on Coca-Cola in this version though.

30's Boris Karloff Part One

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU
(1932)
Dir - Charles Brabin/Charles Vidor
Overall: MEH

A very strangely flawed and dated work, MGM's adaptation of Sax Rohmer's novel of the same name The Mask of Fu Manchu is unmistakably both offensive and ridiculous.  Casting Caucasian actors in yellow-face was certainly the style at the time, (and even still three decades later, Christopher Lee would portray the title villain in no less than five such films), but the movie goes to greater lengths to characterize everyone not Asian as unflatteringly as possible.  Fu Manchu's master plan is to "kill the white man and take his women", his daughter, (Myrna Loy, also in yellow-face), practically climaxes as she watches a dashing, hunky white guy get tortured, Manchu has a bunch of loincloth-clad, non-speaking African slaves that act as muscle, and any other Asian people present are depicted as either doped-up in a morphine den, getting drunk in a brothel, or blindly following Manchu in his racially-driven quest.  Meanwhile the movie is brimful of plot holes to the point of silliness and many of Manchu's would-be inventive torture devices ultimately end up getting easily thwarted.  It is a curious view if not a very proud effort for those who made it.

THE WALKING DEAD
(1936)
Dir - Michael Curtiz
Overall: MEH

Highly prolific, Hungarian born Michael Curtiz, (Casablanca, Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy), made The Walking Dead for Warner Bros. based off of a script that was heavily revised before shooting.  This was in part due to the issues that Boris Karloff had with it, notably its similarities to Frankenstein.  While it is still easy to connect the lines between this and Karloff's star-making Frankenstein in the final version, (he plays a character who is brought back to life in a doctor's laboratory and has stunted movement and speech afterwards), the story is quite different.  It is also nowhere near as strong, kind of vaguely toying with the concept of a supernatural, higher entity that appears to be in play, seeking out justice for Karloff's wrongly convicted protagonist.  Being a part crime drama as well and only just over an hour long, the film does not really spend enough time exploring its themes, rather stumbling to its conclusion with most of the avenues left uncharted.  Karloff is a bit wasted as well, though he does as admirable of a job with what he has as can be expected.

THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG
(1939)
Dir - Nick Grinde
Overall: GOOD

The first of four mad doctor themed films that Columbia made with Boris Karloff, (the first three of which were directed by Nick Grinde), The Man They Could Not Hang is done and over with in a mere sixty-four minutes which suits the trim, filler-less plot just as well.  While the entire cast is as forgettable as they come, Karloff is all you need as the doomed, once kind and respected turned revenge-seeking Dr. Savaard who goes through a complete 180 arc as convincingly as he does quickly.  There is a reason actors like he were able to consistently transcend any material they were given as Karloff's refusal to unnecessarily ham it up keeps any would-be lack of plausibility at bay.  It also makes the dire nature of the situation come through where we not only feel for him, but his victims as well.   The script for TMTCNH is wound pretty tight, up until the ending at least which is regrettably rushed and a little anticlimactic.  This was followed by the similarly titled The Man with Nine Lives, Before I Hang, and The Devil's Commandments within the following two years, further typecasting Karloff as Hollywood's go-to horror movie doctor.

30's American Horror Part Two

KONGO
(1932)
Dir - William J. Cowen/Errol Taggart
Overall: MEH

This remake to Tod Browning's West of Zanzibar, (which starred Lon Chaney), is sadistic enough that it would not have been possible a mere two years later once the Motion Picture Production Code came into force.  Calling it one of the earliest possible precursors to torture porn is not something it deserves, but Kongo does have a steady stream of brutality that makes it stand out for an early talkie.  Walter Huston reprises his role as "Deadlegs" Flint which he also portrayed in the original Broadway play from 1926 and his is one of the most despicable and vile characters any film from the era ever had.  Most of Kongo's running time is watching him endlessly torment everyone around him and the lengths and fervor with which he enjoys it is certainly unsettling.  Underneath all of the disturbing qualities though, the plot is not that strong and it is far-fetched for a number of reasons how not only a cripple manages to control such a vast terrain where nobody just kills him already.  Yet his very long-winded scheme in general is the kind of melodrama that is only really seen in the movies.  Still, it is an interesting and almost thoroughly bleak film for its day.

WEREWOLF OF LONDON
(1935)
Dir - Stuart Walker
Overall: MEH

A tad dull and hampered a bit by bland direction and performances as well as an odd, overabundance of screen time given to squawking, older ladies for comedic relief was Universal's first stab at lycanthropy in cinema form, Werewolf of London.  Similar to 1932's The Mummy, Werewolf was not based off of any pre-existing material and was an original screenplay with no less than six names attached to it.  While this does not make the story the least bit sloppy or unfocused as one would possibly guess, it does in fact follow a rather predictable path, at least for modern audiences.  We know Henry Hull is doomed from the get-go, we know how the full moon mythology works, we know no one in Scotland Yard is going to believe a werewolf is gallivanting around slaughtering people, etc.  Yet the element of a rare, Tibetan plant that only blooms under moonlight, no silver bullet references, (those would come later), and a more consciously-aware wolfman are nice additions to the mythos.  The fact that Hull's makeup is less elaborate is actually a solid move from a plot perspective and in the end, it is rather a plus that Universal ended up with two versions of the make-up after 1945's The Wolfman, even though this one clearly features the less iconic of them.

THE CAT AND THE CANARY
(1939)
Dir - Elliott Nugent
Overall: GOOD

Another remake of an earlier, silent property of the same name, The Cat and the Canary forgoes the German Expressionism seriousness of the original version by being a deliberate comedy.  Bob Hope getting top billing says all there needs to be said as far as the different direction taken and he is typically Bob Hopey, playing a wimpish scardey cat who cannot stop wisecracking to save his life.  Outside of a handful of off-the-mark examples, the humor connects and at a brisk seventy-four minutes, Elliott Nugent, (1949 The Great Gatsby), keeps it a lot of fun to see a bunch of would-be doomed relatives trying to survive a night in a absurdly creepy, New Orleans mansion.  Charlie Chaplin's favorite leading lady Paulette Goddard makes an excellent scream queen, filling the role of "she saw something creepy so she must be suffering from hysteria" motif that hundreds of old horror movies liberally used.  Though it is not as fun or spooky as similar, later entries like The House on Haunted Hill per example, it is a solid and funny whodunit nonetheless.

30's American Horror Part One

SVENGALI
(1931)
Dir - Archie Mayo
Overall: GOOD

Warner Bros. contributed one of their own entries into the early talkie, supernatural horror boom with their adaptation of George du Maurier's novel Trilby, here titled Svengali.  The story had been brought to the screen four times previously, but the John Barrymore-stared version here has become the most enduring.  Like several early films in the sound era, Svengali utilizes very little incidental music and a few long, silent scenes take their time to play out, appropriately building up a sort of menace.  As far as anything truly horrifying going on, there really is not that much present here.  Barrymore's title character is more eccentric and pitiful than truly dangerous and he starts out playing him more as a quirky buffoon, making his inevitable downfall rather sad and touching.  His creepy, glossed over eyes represent a good, starling image for this era in horror cinema as well.  The cinematography by Barney McGill is rather strong and there are some German Expressionism inspired sets used near the beginning, where people's Paris flats seem to be carved out of brightly lit, underground caves.

MAD LOVE
(1935)
Dir - Karl Freund
Overall: GOOD

German cinematographer extraordinaire Karl Freund, (The Mummy), ended his directional career after only seven previous movies in three years with the Hands of Orlac remake Mad Love.  Also serving as Peter Lorre's American debut, the film is a vast improvement over the German, silent original and it is a bona fide triumph for Lorre.  As the of course mad, brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol, Lorre is prefect and exudes his usual combination of equally diabolical and pathetic qualities.  His character was non-existent from the previous film version and centering the movie around him, (and ergo giving Lorre the ideal setting to shine), proves an excellent move.  Colin Clive is rather pushed aside though and the story toys with the concept of madness a little too lazily one could argue, but it is briskly told and again, puts Lorre in the driver seat where he belongs.  Mad Love did poor business when originally released and Pauline Kael of course shit on it as well as humorously claimed that Orson Welles stole much of its qualities for Citizen Kane, but it is still a strong contender for one of Hollywood's better, early horror talkies.

THE DEVIL-DOLL
(1936)
Dir - Tod Browning
Overall: GOOD

Tod Browning's penultimate film and direct follow up to The Mark of the Vampire, The Devil-Doll is a typically bizarre work from the director who generally leaned towards the abnormal.  Lionel Barrymore spends the majority of his screen time cross-dressing as an old lady and the concept of him using shrunken, doll-sized versions of human slaves to get revenge on his enemies is as unusual of a premise as 1930s cinema ever had and certainly one that Browning would gravitate towards.  The fact that Barrymore's protagonist is essentially murdering people in a calculated, diabolical manner and that he is completely played as the film's tragic hero who entirely deserves our sympathies with no grey area attached once again shows Browning's preference for rooting for the person that you are morally confused about rooting for.  Special effects wise, The Devil-Doll holds up to the previous year's The Bride of Frankenstein which used a similar technique with its little people interacting with giant-to-them household objects.  Surprisingly, the whole film never succumbs to being laughable as Browning plays all of its rather fantastic elements perfectly straight.

Foreign Silent Horror Part Five

THE HAUNTED CASTLE
(1921)
Dir - F.W. Murnau
Overall: MEH

This pre-Nosferatu outing from F.W. Murnau was based off a novel by German writer Rudolph Stratz and unfortunately, it is rather forgettable if still adequately made.  The American title The Haunted Castle is altogether misleading and there is only the faintest traces of anything that could be classified as horror, even by a stretch.  One of the inconsequential characters has a nightmare where a large, creepy hand reaches towards him and that is about it.  A chamber drama in five acts, it is a murder mystery with very little tension and pretty straightforward direction from Murnau, though the sets look nice and the cinematography is pretty decent, with some solid, central framing here or there.  It is pretty slow going though and you are not likely to get very invested in what is going on, especially if you were duped into excepted a ghost or two to show up.

WARNING SHADOWS
(1923)
Dir - Arthur Robison
Overall: GOOD

Lesser known German director Arthur Robison's Warning Shadows, (Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination), is an interesting outing in German Expressionism.  Sans an introduction to all of the players at the beginning, the film features no intertitles and it is impressive how easy the story is to follow, at least for the most part.  The story is full of excessive jealously and false pretenses on the part of the filmmakers and it is staged rather creatively, making splendid use of the "shadows" in the title.  The Expressionism angle comes heavily into play in this regard, where we are constantly shown silhouetted distortions against the walls that ultimately get the better of the characters.  The movie has a borderline supernatural element that is more implied than readily apparent and this mostly comes down to the style which Robison and Nosferatu cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner help convey.  As a bonus, a few of the cast members where also in Nosferatu as well.

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE
(1926)
Dir - Henrik Galeen
Overall: GOOD

The superior silent version of The Student of Prague was the 1926 remake by Henrick Galeen to Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener's adaptation from thirteen years prior.  Coincidentally, Galeen's first film was 1916's The Golem which he collaborated with Wegener on as well.  Whereas the first Prague was hampered considerably by a lack of intertitles which made the story far too difficult to keep up with, there is no such detriment present here and the added element of Conrad Veidt providing one of his best performances in the dual lead certainly helps it triumph.  Though only mildly Expressionistic, (there is a brief scene near a cemetery whose tombstones are crudely abstracted enough to qualify), the story of Veidt's doomed student Balduin is sufficiently told.  As his own evil doppelgänger, Veidt is eerily still as he silently haunts his "real" half, coming off all the more menacing in the process.  Veidt's decent into madness at the hands of his double is excellent and Galeen keeps things moving uncommonly brisk for a silent movie in general.

Foreign Silent Horror Part Four

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE
(1913)
Dir - Stellan Rye/Paul Wegener
Overall: MEH

A significant work that proceeded the German Expressionism movement in cinema and is regarded today as the first independent movie ever made, Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener's The Student of Prague does not hold up very well as a viewing experience today aside from some still commendable technical aspects.  The double exposure technique used to convey the main protagonist's wicked doppelgänger is incredibly convincing as both characters that are played by the same actor, (Wegener himself), come off absolutely seamlessly on screen.  The story is a conglomerate, taking aspects of Edgar Allan Poe's William Wilson, Alfred de Musset's The December Night, and the German legend of Faust, but the problem is that so very few intertitles are used that the story is exasperatingly difficult to follow.  Multiple scenes play out in a row with no onscreen text given whatsoever and being a silent movie after all, it grows very frustrating to keep anything straight.  This seems like something that could have easily been avoided, but it is a big enough problem to make the movie both boring and largely incomprehensible.

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE
(1921)
Dir - Victor Sjöström
Overall: GOOD

One of the most praised of all Swedish silent films, actor/director Victor Sjöström's adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel (Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!), The Phantom Carriage was a technically advanced work for its time that has had a lasting influence.  This was the forth of Lagerlöf's stories that Sjöström had brought to the screen and it would remain the most paramount, with the work of Ingmar Bergman alone, (who cast Sjöström in Wild Strawberries no less), noticeably impacted by it.  The film's utilization of double exposure was a major plot component and was painstakingly achieved through hand-cranked cameras, no small feat for the time.  This effect is very appropriately eerie as we witness Death's doomed carriage driver collect his souls in various settings, most fittingly in a gloomy graveyard.  The non-linear script was also ambitious, being told mostly in flashbacks as we witness the extents of David Holm's , (Sjöström himself), wicked ways.  Though it does not necessarily play out as a horror movie and is in fact more of a cautionary, religiously-themed fable akin to A Christmas Carol, much of the imagery would forever be cemented in the horror genre and it remains a striking work in any capacity.

FAUST
(1926)
Dir - F. W. Murnau
Overall: GREAT

F.W. Murnau's pristine interpretation of Faust is one of the filmmaker's most cherished works and for good reason.  Emerging four years after the paramount Nosferatu, Faust was the last movie he would make before moving to America and immediately following it up with Sunrise, arguably the most critically praised silent film ever made.  This was also the most expensive ever produced at the time by the German company UFA and the budget certainly shows.  Visually it is as breathtaking and expressionistic as any silent film, with a slew of then state of the art effects utilized to bring the legendary tale to life.  Murnau actually shot and put together a number of different versions, (five so far recognized), with differences between scenes ranging from camera angles, costumes, text references for the American version, the ending, and entire scenes missing and included, depending.  Pacing wise, it remains captivating throughout its entirety and all of the melodramatic horror and beauty ramps up to an elaborate finale just as it should.  The film's lasting influence is as noteworthy as the fabled story itself and few finer fantasy movies have really yet to been made.

Foreign Silent Horror Part Three

UNHEIMLICHE GESCHICHTEN
(1919)
Dir - Richard Oswald
Overall: GOOD

Though it has virtually no traces of surrealistic, German Expressionist imagery, Richard Oswald's Unheimliche Geschichten, (Uncanny Stories), still stands as an excellent, very early anthology horror outing.  For historical purposes, it contains probably the earliest film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat", which would become a hallmark story in the genre.  The other four stories are from Robert Louis Stevenson, screenwriter Robert Liebmann, prolific author Anselm Heine, and Oswald himself who pens the only truly lackluster one "The Spectre" at the end.  Conrad Veidt, (who almost seemingly showed up in every silent horror movie ever made in Germany), is one of a three person cast who appear as different characters in each story.  As the Devil, his co-star Reinhold Schünzel even dons a very Lugosi-esque look with a cape and prominent, jet-black, widows peak hairstyle to point out yet another small ingredient that future horror films would adapt.  The pacing is kept brisk with a fair enough amount of time given to each tale and the macabre mood is more playful than anything.

HÄXAN
(1922)
Dir - Benjamin Christensen
Overall: GOOD

The largely influential Häxan was a bold experiment by filmmaker Benjamin Christensen at the time of its making.  Showcasing nearly unheard of graphic imagery such as nudity, torture, and blasphemy while presented as a documentary that in part compares the modern treatment of hysteria to medieval superstitions, it was anything but a typical crowdpleaser.  Christensen in fact thoroughly researched his subject matter, basing most of its content off of The Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century writing on what was wildly believed to depict the "reality" of witchcraft.  Different cuts of Häxan have circulated around, but the fuller one-hundred and four minute one is a bit of a cumbersome viewing experience.  Broken up into chapters, a handful of them do in fact benefit from a tighter edit, but the best elements involving fictionalized recreations of witch's Sabbaths and demons conducting their mischief are still fantastic.  Not only that, but many of its segments that explore more primitive beliefs are legitimately educational and interesting.  Also, the movie is actually quite intentionally funny at various times.  It is still positively bizarre nearly a hundred years later, with few or any cinematic works quite like it.  Though certainly not the best silent genre movie, its uniqueness is laudable and it still packs in some pleasant, ghastly shocks for the steadfast horror fan.

MACISTE IN HELL
(1925)
Dir - Guido Brignone
Overall: GOOD

The Italian cinema mainstay Maciste had what has go to be a record twenty-seven films made in the silent era, all of which starred the hulking Bartolomeo Pagano.  This is not even taking into account the character's 1960s revival which produced another twenty-five films.  Beat that Jason Voorhees!  One of the last in the initial silent run was Maciste all'inferno, (Maciste in Hell), which would not even be the final trek to the netherworld the musclebound, Italian Hercules would make.  The movie is cartoonishly silly, but this is hardly a detriment.  The bulk of its running time does indeed take place, (as the title would suggest), in Hell and it is assuredly entertaining to watch hundreds of horned, pitchfork-wielding, pointy-tailed, filthy demons attack each other as bursts of flame erupt everywhere around them.  There is even a giant, fire breathing dragon that acts as "Hell's airplane", some stop motion animation, and Lucifer himself shown munching on dammed souls in the lake of fire.  Played out as a simple fairytale, it is technically rather impressive for the day despite its elementary plot.  Visually for sure, it qualifies as a triumph of sorts.

Foreign Silent Horror Part Two

GENUINE
(1920)
Dir - Robert Weine
Overall: MEH

Made and released the same year as his own seminal The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Robert Weine's Genuine boasts a slew of noticeably similarities.  Fitting entirely into the German Expressionism movement, the set design is superb and along with the twisted, abstract, and artificial scenery, even many of the characters seem like distortions with ludicrous facial hair and costumes.  This story is also presented as a dream, though it is either preposterous or weakly conveyed as far as coherence goes.  Two versions of the film exist; a brisk, forty-five minute restoration that was put out in 2014 and the original, one-hundred and twenty-eight minute one which is of poorer quality but at least complete.  Whichever one you view, it is a strange, crudely simple story that has not aged all too well, becoming thoroughly underwhelming.  More future horror elements are introduced such as the angry mob and the bewitching heroine, though the movie's alternate title of Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire is completely inappropriate and misleading as there is not a single blood-sucking undead element present.

WAXWORKS
(1924)
Dir - Paul Leni/Leo Birinsky
Overall: MEH

Though it is visually rather commendable, Paul Leni's Waxworks is too poorly structured and paced to really stand as a classic of its era.  Assisted by Leo Birinski who handled the direction of all of the actors, the German Expresionistic look of the film was left to Leni who would go on to make The Cat and the Canary in the U.S. as his follow-up to this one.  The sets are right out of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; largely exaggerated and fantastical, appearing as if they are children's drawings come to life.  Set up as an anthology film with only the most minute traces of anything horror-related in it, Waxworks lingers too long on its first two segments, each of which are over thirty-minutes longer than its last which seems randomly tagged on at the very end.  On paper, the premise surrounding a poet who is brought in to write backstories to lifelike wax figures seems like it would wield some possible sinister results, but the tales just kind of present themselves straightly before the author just falls asleep for a few minutes at the end.  The story revolving around Ivan the Terrible, (Conrad Veidt), is the strongest comparatively, but it is still lacking in any real real suspense and seems both sluggish and rushed all at the same time, as does the bulk of the film.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
(1928)
Dir - Jean Epstein
Overall: GOOD

French surrealist Jean Epstein, (in collaboration with none other than Luis Buñuel who co-wrote the script), made a full-length adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher the same year that James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber made a short version on the other side of the Atlantic.  Emerging near the tale-end of the silent film era, Usher in several ways represents a peak of the medium before sound would forever change it.  With no shortage of near innovative techniques at its disposal such as slow motion, mobile camera movement, and double exposure, these techniques as well as filming them in elaborate, Expresionism like sets gives Poe's Gothic, gloom laden story as ideal a presentation as possible.  The beginning appears to have directly influenced Universal's Dracula too, with its superstitious villagers refusing to transport an unsuspecting foreigner to its local, cursed abode.  What actually happens in Usher is hardly as important as how immersed the viewer becomes in all of the dreadful mood that the stylistic elements convey, just as they are meant to.  Sans Roger Corman and Vincent Price's adaptation just over three decades later, there arguably is not a finer version overall than this.

Foreign Silent Horror Part One

L'INFERNO
(1911)
Dir - Francesco Bertolini/Adolfo Padovan/Giuseppe De Liguoro
Overall: GOOD

Understandably a little slow moving overall which is often common with silent cinema, the historically important L'Inferno is still a wildly impressive work.  Naturally based off Dante's Diving Comedy, it was filmed over the course of three years by as many different directors and it became the first full-length Italian movie ever released.  Pulling in more than two million at the American box office, it is regarded as possibly the first blockbuster as well, at least for an imported film.  L'Inferno plays as a cinematic interpretation of Gustave Doré's iconic engravings and the way in which they come to life is remarkable.  Utilizing visual tricks with black screens, overlays, and forced projection, all of the levels of hell are depicted faithfully to the source material.  The beasts, demons, and giants both on land and in the air just barely come off as dated, a gargantuan Lucifer himself appropriately representing the films most showstopping moment.  It is really just a visual tour de force for the times, but a strong enough one to still be required viewing beyond its mere archival significance.

THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD
(1920)
Dir - Paul Wegener/Carl Boese
Overall: GOOD

Impossible not to compare to its close contemporary The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem: How He Came Into the World is another premier example of German Expressionism.  Architect Hans Poelzig's set design and Karl Freund and Guido Seeber's cinematography is textbook of the movement, creating elaborate, exaggerated, and menacing visuals that go a long way in establishing the ideal, macabre mood.  Wonderfully striking moments involving the summoning of an ancient demon in particular are as legendary as anything in Caligari or Nosferatu and The Golem as a whole stands closely toe-to-toe with these other iconic, early German horror works.  As far as specific influence is concerned, the parallels between this and James Whale's Frankenstein eleven years later are futile to ignore.  Wegener's slow moving, intimidating, and powerful title character, (who he also plays), is a direct link to Karloff's Monster and there are further, similar elements such as both being created from a "master" and each one engaging in playful interactions with children.  Pacing wise, The Golem takes a bit too long to get going and has some dated melodrama that drags it down later on, but these are the only reasonable errors one can find with it.

THE HANDS OF ORLAC
(1924)
Dir - Robert Weine
Overall: MEH

Re-made twice more in the following decades, (most notably as Mad Love with Peter Lorre and Colin Clive), Robert Weine's The Hands of Orlac suffers far too immeasurably from a plodding pace.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari pair of Weine and actor Conrad Veidt once again team up, but the Expressionism emphasis is largely toned down and the movie plays out in a more conventional, contemporary setting.  That said, visually the film does accomplish some still impressive moments such as a nightmare scene where a giant arm extends downward from the ceiling, as well as others where dead space is utilized in rooms to make them appear far larger and barren.  The performances are stylized in a manner typical of the era, but nearly every scene plays out at an excruciating sluggish trot.  Because the story is so simple and ultimately a little silly, it does not help how laborious of an ordeal it is.  Orlac remains noteworthy though for its body part possession/limb surgery motifs that would become forever common in the horror genre and as a footnote in German Expressionism, be it a less imperative one.

The Haunting

THE HAUNTING
(1963)
Dir - Robert Wise
Overall: ALMOST THE BEST

Another Halloween season means another truly remarkable horror film to go into deeper analysis on.  Working from the top down from my own initial 100 Favorite Horror Films list I did in 2012, I went into much detail about why The Shining is the greatest of all horror film's last year and this time it is Robert Wise's seminal The Haunting from 1963.  It is easily the finest black and white haunted house movie ever made and arguable to others besides me, the finest black and white horror film period.

Looking at The Haunting as an early 60s, British horror vehicle no different on a surface level than many others, it is in fact easy to claim it as the pinnacle of the medium.  If you consider that a mere five years later George A. Romero would unintentionally revolutionize the horror movie with Night of the Living Dead, The Haunting appears to be even more of a crowning achievement for its era.  Yet I for one would like to persuade that this is just as extraordinary of a movie now as ever.  There are so many meticulously crafted elements to its success that showcase a care and craftsmanship that any film made at anytime could not only take notes from, but also wholeheartedly admire.

What Night of the Living Dead had in grasping zombie hands, The Haunting had in holding them.

The Haunting is based of course of Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House.  American filmmaker Robert Wise caught wind of the book from a Time magazine review around the time that he was doing post-production on West Side Story.  Wise contacted his previous and continued collaborator Nelson Gidding to work on the script and by the time West Side Story was wrapped up, said script was finished.  This though was after both Wise and Gidding visited Jackson in person to discuss the novel and its intended adaptation and Gidding put together a full, detailed story treatment before spending no less than six months on the finished script.  So already from the film's infancy, there was very much a level of dedication in play to making it work.

Initially, Gidding wanted to interpret the novel as a woman's, (lead protagonist Eleanore Vance), descent into a nervous breakdown, having imagined all of the experiences in the story as she was actually suffering in a mental institution.  Of course taking this angle to a horror plot was nothing new and nothing that would not be done a liberal amount of times later.  Yet after the screenwriter and director's meetings with Jackson, the author confirmed that the story very much was about the supernatural and throwing such an "all in her head" twist on it may not be the most honorable route.  In the end, Jackson's feelings about her own material would indeed appear more reasonable, but one of the most successful things about the finished film is how it still toys with this mental instability angle to a beautiful, captivating degree.

Horror movies set in insane asylums; as tried and true of a motif as any, going all the way back to 1920s Germany.

For nearly the entire film or at least once Eleanore is introduced to us, we are deliberately mislead as to what may or may not be actually going on.  Eleanore, (played by Julie Harris who "conveniently" one could say was suffering from depression in real life at the time), is a full-blown eccentric; a disturbed, lonely woman who spent by her own accord, "her entire adult life" caring for her "invalid mother".  Yet even as a child, there was something very special and very off about her.  In the book, Eleanore's backstory is naturally more fleshed out, but in the film, we are wonderfully given just a verbal snippet of her childhood episode where a sporadic shower of rocks fell on her house for three days with no explanation still.  This scene is staged excellently as Eleanore is clearly upset by Dr. Markway casually bringing it up in an early meeting, both denying and deflecting it in a tantrum-like manner, as she frequently does throughout the film.

What this means is that it definitely was a dark secret that she never wished to talk about and most likely has done everything in her power to deny even happened at all as she desperately continues to fantasize about being a normal person with a normal apartment with two stone lions sitting atop her mantelpiece.  Eleanor's obsessive narration of her own life and extreme defending of her idiosyncrasies says so much about why Hill House "wants her".  In her damaged mine, the house most definitely would favor her over any of the other occupants because something is at last "really, really happening" to her.  On the other angle, if the house really IS alive in a supernatural fashion, of course it would want the most emotionally wounded and viable person it could find to join it and walk amongst its walls.

Dancing with "nobody", she is a quirky one that Nell.

This is a brilliant move for any psychological horror overall; to constantly place the viewer in a seat where they are never crystal clear as to what's fabricated and what's real in the story they are presented with.  What Wise and cinematographer Davis Boulton and set designer Elliot Scott then contribute to this agenda is of the utmost importance as well.

The exteriors to Hill House are Ettington Park, (now a luxury hotel), in Ettington, Warwickshire, a sprawling mansion so creepy and ideal looking that even lead actors Julie Harris and Claire Bloom were hesitant to step foot in it in real life.  Everything else in the film was shot on a set at MGM British Studios that was consciously built in a Rococo style, with ceilings constructed to help make the movie more claustrophobic in nature.  To further emphasis this, the interiors were heavily lit without dark, stereotypical corners and an imperfect, 30 mm lens was used that literally stretched the finished frame in a distorted manner.  Other tricks are applied such as infrared film for establishing shots, unconventional pans and tracking shots, (when Eleanore runs into a mirror that the camera is fixated on and when she nearly falls backwards off a veranda as the camera dives towards her, per example), and sped up and reversed shots such as the ascension to the top of the library's bookcase.  Characters routinely get lost in the movie trying to navigate the enormous mansion's passageways and Wise also filmed actors leaving rooms from one side of the frame only to emerge from the same one, when the opposite technique is usually the standard case.  Shown from the inside, it is difficult to gauge what time of day or night it is and in one of the library scenes, both day and moonlight appear to be shining in at different angles.

Mind the falling camera...and your vertigo.

While the sense that the house is sentient and controlling or manipulated things could not be better expressed, it is nearly miraculous how very, very little The Haunting technically shows us.  We hear sounds, we see a few doorknobs move, and in the film's standout scene, a wooden door bends inward like a piece of foam.  Yet we see no ghosts anywhere.  Statures are continually shown clearly in frame and even lingered upon at particular times, every exterior shot of the house makes it look like the windows are watching us watch them, and the way every room is loudly decorated do everything they can to make us feel anything but at home in the place.  The characters are rarely comfortable and even when they are, they seem to be putting on a face as to not let the house know what they are really thinking.

This brings us to Theodore, one of the small cast of characters yet a hugely important one.  As Eleanore seems delusional and dancing around in her head, Theo is presented to us as a psychic and at various times she seems to be reading and messing with Eleanore's cracked psyche.  She easily preys on her emotions, (sometimes playfully and sometimes not), be it Eleanor'es guilt surrounding her mother's death, her fabricated story of her own apartment which Theo appears to be just humoring her to listen to in the first place, her growing infatuation with Dr. Markway, and even Markway's own increasing concern for Eleanor's well-being which Theo sees as a threat to herself, being an unspoken lesbian character.  All of these feelings are playing off of each other and again, whether the house itself is eating them up to achieve its diabolical goal or Eleanore is making them all happen the way she likely made those rocks fall from the sky on her dysfunctional home as a child, the viewer is left to wonder and be equally on-edge.

That "Seriously?" face you make when the doors randomly turn into rubber.

Speaking of on-edge, The Haunting's sound design is another of its perfect ingredients.  The music was done by English composer Humphrey Searle and the way that it is almost deafening at times is on the long list of ways the film makes us feel distressed.  Eleanore's narrations are virtually always accompanied by a variation of the same piece of somber, nervous violin music as if to say that just as she cannot help speaking to herself in her own voice, the distressing music cannot help to be there with it so we know that this is a constant, uncomfortable strain in her life.  It does far more than just establish that "something scary is going on".

Wise uses the music so consistently that it becomes another living and breathing element to Hill House, making the movie's occasional, completely silent segments that much more frightening.  The music often stops when Eleanore is actually asleep, yet again this is a brilliant move to subliminally tell us that everything could actually be revolving around her active imagination.  Like any good horror movie moment though, deafening silence is far more terrifying than anything else and all of the film's scariest scenes are played to no dramatic music.  This is incredibly important because we truly see what the house and/or Eleanore's supernatural abilities are trying to do; when the noise stops, the evil forces can really hone in and find what they are looking for.  Eleanore frequently says and thinks that the house is trying to locate her and just wants to bring her home, so as Mrs. Dudley humorously says like a broken record, "in the night...in the dark" is when the search really begins and all of the suffocating doom around everyone really attunes itself.  While assuredly creeping us out in the process.

"Creeps us the fuck out" to be more specific.

So again, WISEly, (yuck, yuck), Robert Wise and his whole creative team never let on explicitly what is indeed happening in The Haunting and the film is infinitely more amazing for doing so.  I have lost count long ago how many times I have watched this movie and never once have I viewed it where I do not began to question more things.  For a film over five-decades old that was made near the tail-end of horror's golden age, it is beyond impressive how much it perfected everything the film medium was capable of at the time and still continues to impress.  So many innovations for both better and worse have come from the genre since this movie was unleashed to the public and plenty of exceptional movies in it continue to be made.  Yet The Haunting stands as an absolute peak, doing everything a spooky haunted mansion movie can possible do and more.  I will hold it in this regrade presumably for the rest of my days and during all of the inevitable further viewings I partake of, it will unlock more and more doors and remain the masterpiece it always was.

Now, who wants to plan a fun vacation?

2018 Horror Part One

A QUIET PLACE
Dir - John Krasinski
Overall: WOOF

The Office's John Krasinski took on A Quiet Place, working on a spec script before re-doing some of it and ultimately getting his wife Emily Blunt on board.  Yet with everyone's powers combined, it is an absolute failure.  The premise basically sets up all the pieces for this to be Boo Scares - The Movie.  So in utilizing arguably the very, very most despised cliche in all of horror cinema as its main selling point, (big) strike one.  As the story continues on its way though, crater-sized plot holes begin sprouting up though.  Anyone who can watch this movie without constantly being taken out of it by asking very logical questions like "wait, what?", "wait, why?", "wait, isn't...?:, "wait, I thought...?", and so on and so on is too busy either texting on their phone or eating popcorn.  Then to top all of this off is cringe-worthy ending, completely lazy, generic-as-can-be cartoon monsters, and maybe the worst sound design in all of motion picture history.  It was clearly meant to be relentless in its construction, but all of that tension-building is simply wasted by, well, every single other thing about it.

UNSANE
Dir - Steven Soderbergh
Overall: GOOD

A filmmaker as prolific as Steven Soderbergh has more than dabbled with some thrillers in his career, but Unsane comes the closest so far to being a bona fide horror movie, be it one without any supernatural elements anywhere.  It mostly achieves its objective to be rather heart-racing.  From a psychological standpoint, Soderbergh and screenwriters Johnathan Bernstein and James Greer take awhile letting on what is actually happening.  Though keeping us in the dark for the first act does not wield any amazing twists or anything later on, it does create the necessary mood to make us ultimately sympathize fully with the plight of Claire Foy's Sawyer Valentini.  Foy is rather top-notch here, (the occasional British accent slip notwithstanding), being as helpless, logical, unhinged, and fierce as she needs to be.  The script is a bit too forced at times though, with some monologues and character exchanges coming off rather overtly screenplayey.  The only real problem with Unsane is in some of the details to the situation that are a bit too unrealistic to buy into.  Without getting into spoilers, how those that are fucking up Sawyer's week are managing to get away with it is stretched thin enough to notice some plot holes.  Still, for Soderbergh to indulge himself a bit by essentially shooting a B movie on an iPhone 7 Plus, he gets away with it as the student film look and presentation is more interesting than not.

HEREDITARY
Dir - Ari Aster
Overall: GREAT

It certainly says something positive that several landmark horror movies readily come to mind when viewing Hereditary, another astounding debut, this time from New York filmmaker Ari Aster.  Masterfully constructed and anything but a pandering throwback, cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski deserves a standing ovation for his contribution to the film's suffocatingly menacing mood.  There are layers to this movie that require several viewings to expose and the deliberate misdirection that Aster utilizes make it as suspenseful as possible while keeping its mystery thoroughly satisfying.  A film this dramatically powerful would be a disaster if not for top-notch performances which it has across the board.  Far more than she even did in her star making turn in The Sixth Sense, Toni Collette is superb as an emotionally destroyed, mentally damaged mother, yet Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, and Milly Shapiro each rounding out the family are also pitch-perfect in their respected roles.  To give the film a few strikes for a single boo scare or a rather standard, contemporary horror soundtrack is probably fair, but so, so much is done exactly right that its status as an instant masterpiece is equally just.

2017 Horror Part Five

ALIEN: COVENANT
Dir - Ridley Scott
Overall: MEH

While certain aspects have improved with Ridley Scott's second Alien franchise boost Alien: Covenant compared to Promethius, oddly others have declined.  Overall the film is better and far more compelling, with several well-rounded characters that are written solid enough to actually care for.  Primarily though, it is the arc of David 8 and the always exceptional Michael Fassbender's dual role as both he and Walter One, a rather "good brother/bad brother" paradox that works quite well in this context, (even if the film's "twist" regarding him is so readily apparent that it could even be argued that it was not meant to be a "twist" at all).  Naturally, it is Fassbender's performance that is mostly to praise and this is another prime example of how he could easily be considered one of the very best actors working this century.  As far as the stumbles, Covenant still adheres to the same set up where a crew of space marines check out a planet and encounter/get infected with the alien virus bug thing and at this point it is a bit impossible to really garnish any suspense whatsoever out of it.  The CGI is embarrassing looking and an obvious step down from Prometheus, which is quite odd in the first place coming from such a major-budgeted movie such as this.  Also, there is a lack of H.R. Giger design influence for this one, which was always nearly the very best part of any Alien movie.  Still, Fassbender kills it so it is probably not worth missing just for that alone.

THE EVIL WITHIN
Dir - Andrew Getty
Overall: WOOF

Despite featuring the always wonderful Michael Berryman in as creepy a role as ever, The Evil Within is a trainwreck of a film with an odd backstory.  Oil heir, businessman, and eccentric recluse Andrew Getty decided to write, fund, and film The Evil Within, (at first called The Storyteller), mostly in his own mansion, on and off for upwards of fifteen years.  Cast members dropped out along the way and at the time of Getty's death, the movie was still unfinished and editor/producer Michael Luceri stepped in to finally wrap it all up.  The result is the strange work of an amateur filmmaker that simultaneously shows flashes of both a large budget AND a limited one.  Numerous location sets that were most likely on Getty's own property look peculiarly designed, (including one outdoor restaurant that the characters visit upwards of six times).  The stop-motion special effects though are often very elaborate and could perhaps distract one from how poorly written, acted, and structured the movie is.  The numerous flaws end up "winning" this battle in the end though.  Before the ending very much spirals into ridiculous oblivion, the movie is borderline agonizing to sit through.  Whether Frederick Koehler is endlessly monologuing in a "normal" voice or a stuttering one as a slow person who asks "why?" after every sentence his split personality says, the dialog is terrible all the way through.  The story both drags and appears rushed, coming off as barely coherent in the end.

GHOST STORIES
Dir - Andy Nyman/Jeremy Dyson
Overall: GOOD

Though it essentially amounts to an Amicus anthology horror throwback, Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson's film adaptation of their own stage play Ghost Stories has enough rewarding elements going for it.  Each of its supernatural-laced stories are tweaked ever so slightly to differentiate themselves from each other.  The first involving a night watchmen is the most straight-forward, while the second involving a high-strung teenager out for drive is the funniest, and the final wherein Martin Freeman finally shows up is the most bizarre.  Nyman and Dyson still regrettably structure most of their scares around the spooky music + things get quiet = tension releasing noise/visual, but there are a couple of interesting and well done moments that step out of this cliche, moments that should not go upraised.  The final act of Ghost Stories is effectively unexpected, but it also gets kind of messy and generic from a plot twist standpoint.  Still, both the familiarity and handful of exciting adjustments to the genre ultimately make a fun experience as opposed to a pointless, (or worse yet), insulting one.  It is a very rare example of a retro-styled, modern day horror film that rides the line of both being a deliberate homage while at the same time steering the genre just a tidbit into some new ground.

2016 Horror Part Seven

PREVENGE
Dir - Alice Lowe
Overall: MEH

Tones clash rather wildly in Alice Lowe's directorial debut Prevenge, a film whose pun title itself gives away its premise.  As a comedy, the movie is fine not only in being funny just on paper, but in a number of pretty amusing scenes, the best of which involves a visit to Game of Throne's Gemma Whelan's flat, (other GOT alumni and The Witch actress Kate Dickie also makes an appearance).  The problem with Prevenge is a frequent one though.  Lowe, (who also wrote and stars in the lead whilst real life pregnant during filming), dips her toes into serious drama involving her severely grieving title character, but this conflicts with the comedy quite a bit.  It is another case of trying to be a dramatic character study while having as many laugh out loud, borderline slapstick moments as possible.  All the while, it gets bloody and nasty a fair amount of the time, fully deserving of its horror genre tag.  One cannot argue that the movie is not enjoyable though.  It moves at a brisk pace and even though the combination of its elements are contradictory to a fault, they are pleasing enough on their own.

RAW
Dir - Julia Ducournau
Overall: GOOD

In the last two decades, France has been responsible for a large number of repugnant, bottom-barrel horror films in the form of the New French Extremity movement and on a surface level, Raw appears to fit into this deplorable sub-genre.  Thankfully though, that is only how it appears as Raw very thankfully removes itself from something purely disturbing and torturous to watch for the ridiculous sake of it.  Writer/director Julia Ducournau has certainly crafted something uncomfortable with plenty to flinch away from yes, but there are some intelligent themes being explored that can almost be looked upon as being profound.  Vegetarianism, peer pressure, and sexual awakening are some of the things transmuted here and Ducournau wisely keeps most of the information somewhat vague and ultimately rather unimportant.  This is because at its core, Raw is mostly an exploration of its subject matter far more than being just a straightforward narrative.  The cast is particularly strong as well and many would probably agree that Garance Marillier, (a teenager at the time of shooting), is the most exceptional as Justine with Ella Rumpf trailing close behind as her just-as-wacky sister Alexia.  If more films with gross-out visual elements went to the lengths that this one does to actually make their distressing nature meaningful, then the whole of French horror cinema could certainly benefit.

THE BELKO EXPERIMENT
Dir - Greg McLean
Overall: MEH

Ruined in part due to the trailer showing virtually every last detail that happens, The Belko Experiment does not really offer much in the way of suspense once you know what it is about.  Written by James Gunn early on in his career but shelved for a number of years, Wolf Creek and Rogue director Greg McLean ultimately took it on and the result is pretty straight-forward and textbook.  Gunn's script sprinkles humor pretty leisurely around, (naturally), but the balance between disturbing subject matter and what the audience is meant to chuckle at to ease the tension is kind of hit or miss, depending.  Performance-wise, everyone is pretty on point and everything is probably dealt with as reasonably as possible given the character's hopelessly dire circumstances.  That said, all of the characters are underwritten, some jarringly so.  A movie as tense as this is really building up to a satisfying climax though and that is definitely not what we get.  Not to spoil it further, but the final line in the movie is more embarrassing than cool and the point of everything is left frustratingly barren.  It is a formulaic conclusion and rather one-note for the near hour and a half proceeding it. 

2015 Horror Part Seven

NINA FOREVER
Dir - Ben Blaine/Chris Blaine
Overall: MEH

Partially Kickstarted, writer/director/editor brothers Ben and Chris Blaine's Nina Forever is more interesting in premise than it is in having any kind of coherent payoff.  The film tackles the concept of moving on from grief and a previous relationship and the hangups that come from such a thing for both parties.  It essentially goes literal in how sometimes old lovers simply will not stay gone.  What it all ends up meaning to the characters involved is left frustratingly incomplete though.  It is very difficult to grasp what it is we are exactly supposed to get out of Nina Forever, even naturally taking into account that different audiences will theorize different things.  Though some could argue that the movie's ambiguity makes the film more intellectual, it does come off a little too underwritten and the characters are perhaps too eccentric to really relate to.  If that is even the point.  The comedic moments work less than they should and the film is really at its best when exploring the grieving process of the title character's parents compared to the main arc.  It is an impressive effort though and one that could easily prove more rewarding on future viewings.

DEATHGASM
Dir - Jason Lei Howden
Overall: WOOF

One can at least recognize visual effects artist-turned director Jason Lei Howden's Deathgasm as being deserving of a particular audience who likes their horror really, really moronic.  Equal parts Teenage Metalhead Cliches - The Movie and self-aware, slapstick gorefest, Deathgasm revels in its stupidity, poking fun at itself while pummeling you with bodily fluid jokes, gallons of blood, and more dull horror/teenage comedy tropes than you can wave a dildo at.  Equipped with one of the dumbest scripts ever written, the movie's attempts at being funny and clever are so juvenile and generic that it is more obnoxiously eyebrow-rolling than entertaining.  The movie is insulting beyond your standard, cynical nitpicking though.  A big, loud, gross splatter-ride like this is deliberately one-note, but Deathgasm is just too goddamn imbecilic to get into.  Again, the whole "metal + horror = badass" scenario is incredibly irksome and when characters describe their love of metal as being because nobody likes them in school and they fantasize about being Manowar clad barbarians who can moisten women with their ax- slinging abilities, you can only shudder at the laziness of it all.

BONE TOMAHAWK
Dir - S. Craig Zahler
Overall: GREAT

A quite excellent debut from director/novelist S. Craig Zahler, (who works from his own script), Bone Tomahawk is a brutal, near-perfect realist Western.  There are a slew of recognizable faces, (Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson, David Arquette, Sig Haig, and even Sean Young and James Tolkan in cameos), and the performances are rather superb.  Russell and Fox particularly are fantastic and they are helped immeasurably by Zahler's incredibly good, naturalistic dialog.  Every character in the film behaves especially rational and in a lesser filmmaker's hands, it almost would have came off as comedic how logical and polite everyone routinely is.  There are elements of comedy to be sure and that is really the only area where Tomahawk falters a bit.  Some of the jokes seem very out of place considering the incredibly dire and hopeless, (let alone highly disturbing), situations these people are in.  To give Zahler credit, perhaps playing every frame of the movie in the utmost seriousness would have made for too depressing of an ordeal, but everything else is so expertly done that this is a small complaint if anything.  It barely registers as a horror movie nor does it need to and even some of its more cliche "scary" sound design gets an explanation from the script, yet another thing Zahler displays the expertise for caring about.