Samhain Project #9 "The Raven"

 

          This is actually a compelling film.  Grisly though it may be, it's not going to scare many.  It's 1849 Baltimore and someone is murdering people using the macabre methods from local legend, but destitute writer Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack).  Poe is given great condescending dialogue that you like, not because of the put down involved, but the cleverness.  Turns out he's in love with a local ingenue whose father hates his guts (another flawless Brendan Gleeson performance), and having just returned from France, Poe finds his fortunes already shitty, and they're about to get worse. 

      When the local inspector general (played in a solid turn here by Luke Evans) turns to Poe because the murders are linked to his writings,  (Pit and the Pendulum to Cask of Amontillado) the plot then goes from comic romantic melodrama to serial killer thriller.  Cusack's take on Poe is pretty solid, though I'm sure he wasn't like the portrayal in real life.  Who can know?  The direction from James McTiegue (V for Vendetta) is fluid, he gets good performances from all involved,  and this period piece looks great. 

     The flick fits the Halloween mode because (Like Stonehearst Asylum), it's steeped in Edgar Allan Poe, quite possibly the originator of the organized horror story, and works as a crime thriller for those who don't do straight terror.  In this sense, it is vaguely reminiscent of the Hughes Brothers From Hell.

Take a look at it, as I feel it's underrated.  It didn't get much heat upon release, and was a critical and box office failure, evidenced that much like Stonehearst, I found it at Dollar Tree. 

Samhain Project #8 : Alone

     

  Alone is a remake of a Swedish film written and directed by Mattias Olsson, (here the scriptwork is still handled by him) about a woman wonderfully played by an actress I've not had the pleasure of seeing before named Jules Willcox, who is packing up a U-Haul and taking off from something.  On the way, she encounters a pyschopath who plays mind games before abducting her.  The film takes a great tension building path getting you to the crux of our heroine's distress.  It's pretty hard to guess the direction this will take initially, and the obvious clear stress Willcox is under before her antagonist goes to work is nicely, and delicately handled.  She's an impressive performer.

     Willcox' character is smarter than your average bear. She's not in any mood for these types of male on female violence shenanigans. I'll let you savor the ingenuity of her character, her guts, toughness, and smarts.   Our nutjob antagonist is played by Marc Menchaca, who many will recognize as one of Ruth's stupid, confused uncles on the Netflix stunner Ozark.  He's terrific on Ozark, and that role is nothing like the individual he plays here. There's a sociopathic emptiness behind his eyes, which belong to a face that carries with it the utter definition of benign.  But isn't that what they say about all serial killers and victimizers?

     Alone is directed by John Hyams.  Some would consider him a journeyman director in a sense, but a closer look reveals great success in the direct-to-dvd action arena, and is given credit for breathing new life into the Universal Soldier franchise, to the point where they've gotten critical praise and were regarded among the straight to home video best of their year.   Hyams is a second generation filmmaker, whose father I've written about before here.    Peter Hyams never really made any huge box office smashes, but his films were successful enough to warrant 40 years of regular work on high budget fare like Capricorn One, Outland, Running Scared, The Relic, etc.  His son is also a very good filmmaker himself, and after doing mostly action, he shows a flare for suspense and tension that bodes well for future films.

      This is a good Halloween choice, as tension, scares and suspense are here in great quantity.  It is a distant cousin to Don Coscarelli's short film Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, starring Ethan Embry, and based on Joe Lansdale's short story.  That one goes more for straight horror, and I also highly recommend it. 

     Check out Alone, but maybe don't watch it that way.

      

      

Samhain Project #7 : "Infections"

 

     Eli Roth probably isn't a good film director.  I have yet to see a film of his I've regarded as high quality.  Also, anyone that's read his musings should be aware that his love for horror films often goes deep into the arena of the little bit too far.  His obsession with Cannibal Holocaust, To Be Twenty (with its original ending) and others of their ilk is what I'm talking about.  I myself don't like to tread those waters. Call me a lightweight. Whatever.  I have my reasons; mostly that I don't find actually filmed animal murders, or sexual assault to be entertaining on any level.

     However, as a student of film, and the horror genre in general, there are few that could be considered his peer.  He knows his shits.  His little AMC series, History of Horror is now into its third season, and there has to be a reason for that.  I love how his talking heads range in diversity from Joe Dante to Joe Hill.  Films I don't expect mentioning are often featured.   Its a good series, and I often find myself wanting the episode to go on longer. 

    The most recent installment is about infections. From diseases, to parasites, to hysteria.   In the era of Covid, this is a pretty topical episode. The films discussed at length are Steven Soderbergh's terrifying Contagion, (which is fucking prophetic on more than one level) David Cronenberg's seminal Shivers, Richard Stanley's masterful Color out of Space, among others.  How in the hell Barry Levinson's The Bay got left out is a serious question that needs addressing, however.  All in all though, Roth and his brothers in the macabre do a nice job explaining why movies dealing with viruses or infections work more often than not, and do more than just gross people out.  

     It's because in actuality, the subject matter could literally potentially happen. And you're not just watching the film in this case, you're required to deal with it.

Samhain Project #6 : Stonehearst Asylum

 

     This was a blu ray I found at The Dollar Tree.  Odd.  With its cast, production values, Edgar Allan Poe source material,  and director, Brad Anderson (Session 9), I thought that it had the pedigree to be a gothic creep-inducer.  The players here are Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley, David Thewlis, and if that isn't enough, toss in a sprinkling of two of my faves, Brendan Gleeson and THE Michael Caine (Remember The Hand?). 

     It kinda suffers from The VVitch syndrome; great performances, terrific scenery and aura, but it's not scary.  It's like a Merchant-Ivory gothic horror melodrama, and that ain't a bad thing necessarily, but it was marketed as a horror film, man.  When you see what Brad Anderson did with the infamous Danvers Asylum in Session 9, I couldn't wait to see where this went. (sigh)  I can't not recommend it, because it's got its heart in the right place, and everyone is giving it a hundred percent, but I was disappointed in the end result; which, really and truly is not the film's fault.   Not at all.

     It's like blaming My Sharona or More Than a Feeling because the damn radio stations couldn't stop playing them.

     The plot is this: a doctor visits an insane asylum as the eve of 1899 comes to an end. He's to receive clinical training as an alienist, or asylum doctor.  (Where did that term go, and thank god it went).  All is not as it seems, as our hero, (Mr. Sturgess) finds that the lunatics are literally running the asylum, but was it being run properly before this patient-led coup took place?  Again, a film in my October movie exploration that offers more questions than answers in the long run, and honestly, there probably aren't any right ones. 

     Worth a watch?  Sure.  In November.

   

The Samhain Project #5: Creepshow Season 2: "Night of the Living Late Show"

 

     Horror Express is a little-thought about early 70's joint starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing dealing with a hideous monster who gets loose on a train, and raises some hot rails to hell (Had to squeeze in a Blue Oyster Cult reference, sorry, folks).  It's a joyously odd choice for this vignette episode of Greg Nicotero's cable show.  Shamefully underused almost-star Justin Long (Dodgeball, Tusk, Drag Me to Hell) wonderfully plays an electronics inventor that creates a virtual reality tanning bed that allows you to actually be in a film of your choice, which in this case is the affore mentioned Horror Express.

     So money would seem like a great reason to create something like this, but Long seems more interested in having erotic interludes with Silvia Tortosa, the seductive countess from the film, than anything else.   Of course, Long's wife has no patience for those shenanigans and has an answer that consists of tin-snips and George A. Romero. The morality tale concept that Creepshow is known for, as a direct descendent of EC Comics glorious four color horror comic books definitely presents itself here. The original 1982 Creepshow film was written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero as a direct salute to EC,  and at least to me, is a classic of horror filmdom, and Nicotero is doing his best to continue it on, albeit in the television medium. 

     Dana Gould is a writer with 20 years plus of stand up experience and a wonderful taste for horror.  He wrote this episode,  and with obvious great love and affection for the grisly medium.  As the creator of the hilarious John C. McGinley vehicle Stan Against Evil, which ran 3 seasons on IFC, he's no stranger to penning comic horror.  He's a strong comedic actor as well, as he also played a goofball cemetery caretaker on Stan, and has a great "disagreement" with James Duval in the anthology suite Tales of Halloween that is both disgusting and hilarious, and probably the highlight of the film.  

     This particular episode was directed by Romero protege Greg Nicotero himself, one of the founding fathers of the KNB effects group, and helmer of some of the best episodes of The Walking Dead.  Nicotero has become deeply entrenched in the current status of the horror genre, growing beyond just practical special effects, and every time I see his name on something, it pricks up my ears, because I know it's going to be at the very least, interesting.  And here, the mash-up of the horror anthology, technology's temptations, sprinkled with a somewhat obscure cult horror film starring two kings of the genre just feels like something people will be watching on many Halloweens, for years to come.

The Library

 In the summer of 1983,  I officially fell in love with the Public Library.   We had moved into a small house off off the alley behind a strip mall that had a liquor store, a drug store, and my barber.  Also adjacent to the corner of my yard (where my buddy Jon and I practiced head first slides) was a doorway that led to a downstairs establishment that sold accessories for train sets.  That place must have been the bomb for those into that hobby, as it was stacked.   Across the street from that alley and our house was another strip mall that was anchored by a Sentry grocery store. Next door to that was my home away from home. 

The Washington Branch of the Kenosha Public Library opened in November of 1977.  It would be six years before I discovered it.  

And practically moved in. 

It was here that I discovered that there was something called the Encyclopedia of Rock.  That a novel was written that picked up the storyline after Star Wars called Han Solo at Galaxy's End.   An aside here, one time I was early to pick a kid up from his job, which was fairly adjacent to a Half Price Books.  Having to use the restroom, I braved an intense thunderstorm to run inside and get some relief. On the way out of the lavatory, I glanced to my immediate right, and there sticking out of the clearance section was a copy of Han Solo at Galaxy's End, twinkling at me with a God's power lens flare.  What a find.

The Library was where I found Michael Medved's Golden Turkey Awards, which gave me a different way of looking at films, even some I had been fond of. Where I checked out the Urban Cowboy soundtrack so I could listen to "All Night Long" by Joe Walsh, The Clash's Combat Rock, and Steve Martin's Let's Get Small.  Speaking of Mr. Martin, Washington was where I checked out his oddball collection of musings, Cruel Shoes, and couldn't decide whether it was hilarious or disturbing.  This was where I purchased used books removed from the library's shelves, as that helped bolster my own collection. 

There was a large, high quality television there, where you could select from a monthly list of films to watch (with headphones on, of course) and I must have watched Jaws there 5 times. The librarians were strict about the rules, so if you started a film, you needed to finish it.   At one point, my sister had to come and get me in the middle of Steven Spielberg's masterpiece because there was a family event that was unbeknownst to me.  I lost my movie privileges for a month thanks to that shit.  The librarians were NOT happy.

They were never happy, or perhaps I would remember them as individuals, which sadly I do not.  That's unfortunate, because it would have added significantly to this piece. 

A pretty awesome periodicals section existed there, which proved awesome for school research. It also happened to have the only magazine I know of that had my childhood hero, Green Bay Packer's quarterback Lynn Dickey, on the cover. It was the fall of 1983's edition of Football Digest.  I often gave thought to sneaking out the door with that, but I knew it was wrong, and that kind of behavior didn't fit into the code I lived by.  

It was a place I snuck to on more than one occasion to duck bullies.  For some reason, my neighborhood was like the fucking Fire Swamp from The Princess Bride, but instead of Rodents of Unusual Size, it had, well.... Rodents of Unusual Size.  They may not have been large individuals, but they congregated in groups of congealed asshole that travelled in pre-pubescent attitude and odor.  On several separate occasions I had dashed into Washington Library to avoid abuse at the hands of the cults of Charlie, Franco, Scott, and Tim whatever the fuck his name was.  

These future Ted Cruz robots who thought they were David Lee Roth, seemed to enjoy being up in my shit for the horrendous acts of, oh say, bumping into them when the bus lurched, bumping into them at the bowling alley, bumping into them in the hall at school, or merely existing in their line of sight. For further on this, check out my piece, Bullies and the Revenge Fantasy right here on this blog-type thing.  Suburban America shouldn't be the kind of place you need to have your head on a swivel, but I guess Kenosha will be Kenosha.  As it ever was, and still is.  A combination of fear and Cheng Chao-an pacifism (until the medallion is torn off) made me not react more often than not, and that was smart, as I was always outnumbered.

I wonder how those guys are doing today.  Is the barren, empty void that was behind their eyes as they issued threats for no plausible reason of worth, called me names, regurgitated offenses I never committed, shoving me after sticking their noses in my face, still there today?  I often wonder.

Actually, no, I don't.  Not even a little.  Fuck them.

One of my personal favorite characters of television, Seth Bullock, once said in a particularly heated exchange with George Hearst on Deadwood: "Can't shut up!  Every bully I ever met can't shut his fuckin' mouth... except when he's afraid."   

I only experimented once to test the validity of that statement, but the end result is of a dark and scary place that I don't want to revisit. Sometimes victory is a spoilage, not a spoil for the victor.

Despite all that, the library WAS basically a truly happy place, a place of mostly calm, education, knowledge, entertainment, music, film, humor, protection from the storm, and in combination with life legends cited here, I'm grateful to it's gifts and inspirations.  

Many of my pieces end with expressions of gratefulness.  Just letting you know that I'm aware of that.  As I reminisce, I'm often reminded; reminded of reasons I'm still here, as imperfect as I may be.

Samhain Project #4: The Norliss Tapes

 

     In the 1970's made for TV movies were a key element of home viewing, and it's shocking the quality of some of the horror projects.  Dan Curtis is a guy behind many of them. If you look at Curtis' resume, he didn't finish his career in the macabre, but it sure started there.  Curtis' was behind the legendary Night Stalker movie and series, Dark Shadows, and of course the infamous Trilogy of Terror.

     The Norliss Tapes was a pilot film for a series that was intended to be The X- Files before it existed.  It surrounds investigative journalist and writer David Norliss who is looking to write a book debunking the supernatural.  Well, it doesn't take Stephen Hawking to know where that will end up leading. Norliss disappears and his publisher comes upon a series of audio cassettes narrated by Norliss himself.  A story is built from the narration involving Angie Dickinson's zombie husband, witchcraft, and Claude Akins, because it wouldn't be the 70's and TV without him. 

     It's dated of course, but you can see where a hell of a series would have formed from the adventures of Norliss' tapes, and how those who remembered the film had trepidatious memories of being freaked out.  Does it hold up? Probably not all the way, but it has some genuinely creepy moments, and Roy Thinnes is rock solid as the skeptical but curious Norliss.  

     There's enough aura and tone generated here to make this a worthy Halloween watch.

     If you can find it.  You can't have my long out of print Anchor Bay DVD copy, so don't even.