It's time we talk about October, the best month of the year. It often brings joy and beautiful fall weather to us, but it also yields a lot of events for many creators. This October was no different; between school and work, we had a lot on our plates! However we were able to leave space for our favorite challenge of all…
We did
Unsung Horrors’ annual charity challenge Horror Gives Back! In case you aren’t aware, Unsung Horrors is a podcast covering horror films with under 1000 logs on Letterboxd. They truly have opened our eyes to lots of fun and interesting films, and offer incredible insights to the genre as a whole. Erica and Lance are amazing hosts, and they played a major part in us meeting each other!
As for the challenge, the goal is to donate $1 (or any amount) per horror film you watch in October to a Best Friends Animal Society fundraiser, or to a local charity of your choosing. There are prompts given for each day to give you some ideas, however it isn’t mandatory to stick to them. We are dorks and decided to follow them almost verbatim. This led to some choices, like me watching Hostel (2005) for the first time and hating it.
Like my Junesploitation article, I won’t be covering all of my picks, however I had a very good month, so I will be discussing more than I usually do. Think of it as a “greatest hits” album except it’s me ranting about topics you may or may not already know. Also, I am aware I have some very well known/mainstream picks. Give me grace. I like to yap.
Without further ado…
Island of Lost Souls (1932): Boy, was I NOT prepared for this. While I love showing depravity on screen as much as the next guy, something about simply implying it in an old film makes it so much scarier and disgusting. Following Edward Parker (hah!) shipwrecked on Dr. Moreau’s island, this film doesn’t need to do much outside of simply showing the results of the doctor’s “experiments”. I know many revel in this film for being one of the first to imply bestiality in any form, particularly in the character of Lola, however I found myself drawn to the moral questions of the other experiments. Bela Lugosi in full makeup screaming “Are we not men?!” is going to stick with me for a while. This is haunting and rightly deserves its reputation as one of the darkest films of its era.
The Black Cat (1934): Lugosi may be my favorite of the stars of the Universal Horror era, however seeing him play a man who was tortured by Boris Karloff was rather odd to me, especially after having watched
The Raven (1935) last year for this very challenge. You know how I was talking about subtlety just a minute ago?
The Black Cat simultaneously lets your mind wander but has no problem showing you parts of a satanic ritual and Boris Karloff strung up, ready to be sliced apart by Lugosi. I will admit I didn’t immediately catch onto why so many people revel in this as truly terrifying, but once I realized the hellish portrayal of clean modernity built upon recent horrors, and the omen it foretold for our world, I was sucked in. This film lives and breathes death, and I love it for that.
The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962): I had to watch at least one
braindead B-movie this month, and this filled that gap perfectly. This is cheapo early sleaze that really doesn’t care if you think it’s totally nonsensical, and it never tries to act like it knows what it’s doing. It’s not nearly as laughable as something like
Robot Monster (1953), and may not even be game to be riffed by a horror host in the future, but there is just something special about a woman sticking her head up through a desk and commanding a mostly unseen monster in a closet to kill someone. Sure, it has the dreaded parts of terrible dialogue that is drawn out for entirely too long, however there is an irresistible charm to these movies that keeps me coming back for more.
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973): Put your pitchforks down, this is the best Jess Franco film. And yes, I like it over
Count Dracula (1970) and
Vampyros Lesbos (1971). Whenever I say I want surrealism, this is what I want. One of my friends dubs most of Franco’s filmography as a “celluloid delusion”, and this perfectly encapsulates this. Outlandish yet reserved characters, a beautiful score to compliment the drifting visuals, and a haze of gothicness that entranced me from the very beginning. I need Howard Vernon playing the piano for his niece all day every day, even if it means seeing his ass from time to time. Eerily comforting and can put you to sleep in no time, it kept me engaged in it’s hellish beauty. Perhaps this may be his most rewatchable work of his I have seen so far; only time will tell.
Messiah of Evil (1974): This was originally my gothic pick, however after a truly magical date at my local drive-in, I decided to place it into my free space. I went in nearly blind, except with the knowledge that it took place at a seaside town and somehow involved a cult. What I did not expect was the surrealism and bare bones storytelling told at a slow pace, especially coming from a film made by the
husband and wife duo that penned multiple George Lucas projects. Not being able to fully piece together this film was my favorite part; by the time this came on I had just sat through
Terrifier (2016) and my slasher pick, and I was very sleepy knowing I had to work the next morning. Through my haze and in the back of a small pickup truck, I was able to piece together a story of isolation, consumerism, religion, and fear that takes place within a small coastal town, ultimately ending in never really being able to find the truth. Perhaps this is “gothic” in its own special way; much of the scenery follows a familiar feeling that can only be described as liminal and eerie. While not my highest rated film, this may just have been my favorite watch of the month based on experience alone.
Halloween (1978): I told you there were mainstream picks! Even I think it’s shocking I had never seen this or any of its sequels, but that’s what I get for being a mildly sheltered child. I’m sure all of you know what
Halloween is and would probably kill me if I went into points that have been rehashed over and over again throughout the years, however during my watch my date and I noticed that the day and night shots look completely different; the day is cloudy but generally filled with warmer tones, while the night is often accentuated by harsh lighting. It adds to an unfamiliarity to what should be a welcoming place: the modern suburb. Furthermore, besides a couple of notable scenes i
nvolving Michael Myers staring at Laurie, the daylight scenes are rather forgettable compared to the nighttime, even if some of those night scenes aren’t particularly suspenseful (i.e. Kyle Richards watching television). Knowing the isolationism of
The Thing (1982) and the criticism of mass marketing by
They Live (1988), I refuse to believe this wasn’t an intentional move by John Carpenter. I don’t think I will ever be able to see any modern slasher the same now that I can finally say I’ve watched this, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
The Shining (1980): This broke me. Sorry, I know this is one of the best films of all time, and it more than deserves its reputation as a masterpiece, but this literally left me shattered when I turned off my television. The reason I watched this is more or less the reason for my mental discontent, as Shelley Duvall’s passing this year was the catalyst for me to incorporate this into my month. Her portrayal of questionable parenting while being a victim of domestic abuse is so incredibly realistic that it triggered a very primal part of me. On top of that, there’s the droning synth score, the too perfect shots that all look like they could be straight out of an art museum, and Jack Nicholson being an absolutely terrifying human being. I know a good bit of Duvall’s performance was influenced by Stanley Kubrick being incredibly abusive to her on set; unfortunately that most likely played a large part in why I got so upset. That being said, I look forward to rewatches of this where I don’t have class immediately after and am a bit more well prepared to dissect the complexities of the Torrance family.
: Sometimes I intentionally seek out pristine releases of cult films out of respect; I feel bad if I don’t watch the primo version of a film that I know the distributors fought hard for to restore. But sometimes, there’s a need to see something on a disgusting film reel, or in my case with
Nightmare, a VHS rip with burned in Danish subtitles. This film serves as the ultimate birth control and is filled with the best grindhouse goodies you can ask for. Within the first five minutes, you have a man waking up to see a dismembered body at the foot of his bed, before it is revealed he is having a schizophrenic episode in a mental asylum. Balancing the dirtiness of 1980’s NYC and the decidedly uncomfortable suburbs, I couldn’t always tell what was real and what was fake, which I was surprised by.
Maniac (1980) is somewhat comparable with its themes of trauma, its setting, and its overall grossness, but even then you can distinguish what’s going on. Here you can’t, and it makes it so much more appealing.
The Trap (1985): A late giallo(?)/erotic thriller, this thing was hard to watch. The mental games these women play against Tony Musante tied to a bed was one of the strangest things I have seen in some time. Mother
and daughter falling for an unfaithful man they hold captive is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, especially set against a Morricone score. Fulci worked on the script, and
one of the posters for this basically mirrors
The Psychic (1977); I do wonder what he would have done if he had directed this. Definitely not a “good” film, but it was memorable enough to make me write about it here.
Ebola Syndrome (1996): Yes, this is
that movie. It is horrifying in pretty much every single way imaginable and is completely unapologetic. I’m not terribly shocked this is made by the same man that brought the world
The Untold Story (1993), and while I think that film is slightly better, this is no slouch in the shock factor or fun moments. Every single aspect of the plot and our main character Kai (played by Anthony Wong, who fucking nails it as a depraved fugitive/superspreader) is completely absurd and it is truly beautiful to watch. Keep a trash can nearby; there is a guarantee you will be shocked and sickened to your core, and for that reason I cannot recommend it enough.
Strangeland (1998): Y’all know Dee Snider wrote, produced, and starred in his own Freddy Krueger rip-off, and cast Robert Englund to burn him in an act of revenge for killing children? This one is weird as all get out and is soaked in “your uncle is trying to get with the times and failing miserably”. I’m not here to act like this is good in any way; there’s uncomfortable needle stuff, bad depictions of the Internet, and just an overall strange view into kink and alternative culture. That being said,
Strangeland seems to know what it’s doing entirely, and it never really backs down from trying to weird you out. Snider does a decent job as a tattooed and pierced sadist who lures teens into his home for his own games, and while it does feel a bit try-hard, I respect it. Plus needle stuff is how to get under my skin. Now I feel weird that I own this on DVD.
Parker S.
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