I'm Not There

    Hey, Kid!  What are you doing? As we all know, the 1980's was a fertile time for horror films.  We had great original movies like An American Werewolf in London as well as a bunch of sequels and remakes.  Freddy and Jason were arguably the "favorite" children of the 1980's and we also got a Psycho sequel for some reason.  Fright Night is an original movie that spawned a sequel and a reboot but the 1985 original is predictable and falls a little flat.  Essentially, a kid named Charley Brewster realizes his neighbor Jerry is a murdering vampire and enlists the help of his friends Edward and Amy and for some reason, a horror host names Peter Vincent. That's it, the whole movie is them battling the vampire with some close calls until he inevitably turns Amy and a big fight ensues where he die s. Looking at this movie now (with 2020 vision, get it?), it just feels plain goofy. This is not necessarily a bad thing, a lot of movies during this time like the Freddy s

  The absence of love is the most abject pain. The scariest part of Nosferatu the Vampyre by far,   was the opening shots of mummified babies and whatever the hell Gollum is.  Interestingly enough, these mummies are very real and located in Guanajuato. Mexico.  A long way from Transylvania, but still strange why a vampire would decide to keep all these dried up and leathery cadavers around after drying them of blood.  To deter intruders for decor?  Freak.  The rest of the film is not so much scary but rather wonderfully composed.  I will posit that the reason the film is not centered on scares is that we already know the story of Nosferatu and Dracula.  By 1979, there had been many iterations of Bram Stoker's  story projected on the screen.  Speaking of Stoker, the copyright to his novel Dracula  had at this point expired and so Werner Herzog could use the names of Dracula, Harker and Lucy without having to worry about any lawsuits, such as Murnau did after releasing the original N

  Smilers never lose and frowners never win. After doing this for eleven years, I'm still learning a lot about film, life and myself.  It's really surprising that it took me this long to remember not to eat while screening these movies.  Last night, this was engrained in me forever after watching The Autopsy of Jane Doe.  The opening scene we get shots of pretty grizzly corpses that made me put away my pizza for a little bit.  It reminded me of that time when I was eating a delicious turkey sandwich and then I saw the opening scene of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I haven't had a Ralph's sandwich since.   In any event, this movie was suggested to me by a Buffalo and it's probably one of the best  horror/thrillers I've screened. I would call this movie "Hitchcockian" in its masterful control of suspense.  We start out with  so many questions, trying to piece together a gruesome crime scene, imagining the scariest and worst scenarios.  Once you have a

  Baby Diaper Not even going to bury the lead on this one, T he Terror of Hallow's Eve  was powerfully disappointing. It had so much potential and it all fell apart in the end.  It's like when your kid plays soccer and during practice, he's fast and scores a couple goals but when the game comes around, he keeps getting off sides and gets hit in the face when he tries to attempt a header.  You know the potential is there but he just keeps blowing it, he or she, whichever is worse.  Anyway, it's not clear if there were production difficulties or the budget ran out but the end result is similar to three different movies frankensteined together to make a thing.  The main reason this is so disappointing is because the movie starts pretty solid.  Cinematically it pulls you in to the story of a kid who is suspiciously good at making monsters and practical effects but misses his father and is bullied.  We also get a cameo from Eric Roberts shortly after the movie's first sc

  You don't want no smoke with the BX. As soon as I heard a movie called Vampires Vs the Bronx was being released I was all in for two reasons.  First, it is reminiscent of kid centric horror movie sub-genre of the 1980's such as The Monster Squad, The Lost Boys and even The Goonies and guess what?  I am there for it.  Secondly, I am Bodega Hive and will support The Kid Mero to keep the brand strong.  Ah ah ah!  This movie ended up being a delightfully entertaining experience that were it not for some profanity, would be fun for the whole family.  If you trust your 4 year old to hear the occasional "F" and "S" words without repeating it in pre-school then you good fam.   The story deals with a lot of businesses in the Bronx being bought out by a company that goes by the name of Murnau Properties.  Now, when I saw this, it took me out of the movie a little because it was too on the nose.  As a reminder from our first screening, (reaction which can be found h

  Lay back and enjoy being inferior. Wow, after eleven years of doing this, I don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortable watching a movie.  It wasn't the typical horror suspense uncomfortable just uncomfortable watching.  As uncomfortable and disturbed by all those people boycotting Netflix because of Cuties except I actually watched the movie.  Other than some instances of suspense and torture, I am having trouble seeing how The Last House on the Left keeps getting classified as a horror film.   I'm imagining all the ruined nights and relationships of all the naive  couples that went to go watch this in the theater in 1972.  I can see it being designated as a thriller, barely, but let's call a spade a spade, this is a snuff film through and through.   In the first five minutes we learn that the protagonist is turning seventeen and then we see shots of her topless in the shower.  Why?  Granted, this is a 1970's version of a seventeen -year old (the actress was

  All men really want is the power you give them.  Typically, when somebody moves into a new house, it is not haunted, even if they are a bad person.   However, C.M. Punk is special and  in  Girl on the third Floor ,  the house must have thought he could handle it.  This movie starts out great and then towards the end, falls flatter than two-day old Pepsi.  (C.M. Punk loves Pepsi and has a tattoo of their logo, wrestling fans know this which is why this joke is so hilarious). This movie is only a year old so I will not give away any big  spoilers so keep reading to see if this is something you would be interested in.  The movie opens up with some stills from objects around the house, giving it a surreal vibe reminiscent of  The Shining.   The protagonist Don Koch (played by Punk) shows up with his cute German Shepherd Cooper.  He just bought this house which needs major interior repairs and we see that his pregnant wife has stayed behind for work since he is currently out of a job.  As

April Fool's! In the interest of transparency, tonight's screening was chosen based solely on the VHS box art I remember seeing at my local video rental place in the 80's/early 90's.  As with a whole lot of 80's horror movies, the box art was what sold the movie to anyone not familiar with the work, especially children who were not supposed to watch such scary movies.  The caveat to that is that the box art frequently had scenes or characters not in the actual movie, it's what made me rent Dead Alive (boy was I disappointed).  In this case, the box art has a woman with her back towards the box holding a knife and her long hair is tied into a noose. Although this scene was not in the movie, I was still able to enjoy this original and entertaining movie, I mean, just look at the picture I posted above, way better than noose hair.   Having never seen or heard anything specific about this movie, I did not know what to expect.  I briefly read the logline and let my b

Hooray for Friday Night   First of all, I have to admit that I feel pretty dumb for not realizing that anthology movies are a pretty regular sub-genre of horror. I knew about the obvious ones like Trick 'r Treat, Tales from the Darkside, Tales of Halloween, Tales From the Hood and The Twilight Zone.  However,   I did not realize until today that there are a lot more horror anthology series and sequels out there. It makes sense with the popularity of horror comic books in the 40's and 50's like EC's Tales From the Crypt which later became a movie and then a show and then a children's animated series and then a children's game show. Start them early!  With that being said, Trilogy of Terror was at best entertaining and at worst boring.  It seems to just be a vehicle for Karen Black to show off her acting skills which she does well.  A+ for that but  it still should have been called Trilogy of Average or T rilogy of Karen Black, am I right?   Whatever, I'm on

  They are playing "skin the fool." Full disclosure, I did not think I was going to enjoy Midsommar as much as I did.  The trailer was vague and with a running tie of 148 minutes I thought, "not right now but someday."   All I knew about this movie was that it dealt with a crying flower girl with a very European group of people that were possibly in some sort of cult.  Lastly, I would see girls dressed up as the characters from Midsommar for Halloween parties and conventions and just thought it was a lazy, last minute, unimaginative  costume to wear. Although this has nothing to with the quality of the movie itself, I just really hate lazy ass "costumes" where people just wear basic clothes and a hat because the're too cool.  I miss the 80's.  I digress, back to this weird movie. Perhaps weird is not the right adjective for this movie, let's go with unique.  This movie is unique which is a concept  I can get behind and appreciate.  It doesn&#

  Trick Or Treat It's pretty hard to watch a horror movie with headphones on in the dark.   When I say hard I really mean scary.  In order to not disturb my roommate, I have to sometimes watch things on my computer using headphones.  Not only am I physically closer to the spooky imagery on the screen, but all the noises are amplified and feel that much closer,  In addition, this record breaking hot temperature has me opening the front door at night,  This accomplishes two things; it lets the cooler air in through the process of convection and also distracts my peripherals with moving shadows, flickering lights and the random person walking by. When I am enjoying horror movies on my television, I wonder what my neighbors think I am watching.  Usually the loudest parts they get to hear are women screaming and making gagging sounds (as they die).  Anyway, tonight I decided to take a shot of Halloween spirit and watched Tales of Halloween. There's not a lot of horror movies that ta

  Blood is life! We're starting this year's Images of Fright Film Festival with one of the earliest if not the first ever feature horror film.  F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922).  Imagine being an audience member in post war Germany and experiencing this film in the few theaters that screened it. It's hard to imagine that now seeing as how the character of Count Orlock and the German expressionist aesthetic of the film (as well as the copyright lawsuit) have now both become iconic. However, looking at the film with a modern eye, it has trouble holding up the tests of time. The biggest drawback of the film is it just feels too long.   The film is separated into five acts (another call back to the stage) and the first two do a good job of setting up the exposition.  Acts 3 and 4 felt like they were dragging on and could have both been shorter.  Add to this that you're not only reading action and dialogue title cards but also the pages of the book or notes the characters

  It occurred to me that we haven't addressed the pandemic on here yet, not that there's any need for it, that thing is unavoidable and everywhere. If I can take a minute to be self-indulgent and in the spirit of recording the disaster that has been 2020, here are some things this virus has ruined for me so far: My Vegas Trip My twentieth consecutive year attending The OC Fair  Spookshow MidSummer Scream Halloween Horror Nights My first free Halloween in almost ten years Spring and Summer Movie going Bars Both of my jobs Now that that's over with, the main reason I decided to wake up this space.  With all these events effectively ruined for the year, there has been talk of cancelling Halloween. That is pure poppycock and if there is one Halloween tradition this thing is not going to ruin is the Images of Fright Film Festival.  We are going on year eleven and if anything, we will have more time for screenings. Although I have already watched a couple horror movies, I have no

Now You See Him... The Invisible Man  remake/reboot is an overall good movie that keeps you entertained and anticipating the next move.  It would probably have been better if Universal correctly re-branded it as what it is; a really really good Hollow Man  reboot.      As with the other monster films Universal has tried to remake/reboot, this is a decent story that has very little to do with the original film, if at all.  As a classic monster movie fan, I went in expecting a new take on the story and hoping to find some Easter eggs that tie it to the original. At the very least an Una O' Connor scream or reference.  I found 1 1/2 things (the character's last name of Griffin and a bandaged up  hospital patient).  Aside from these two things, the film is an original story that can hold its own.  Just like The Mummy , it seems like Universal heard an original idea and  decided to brand it as a reboot/remake of its old well known properties.  Even after Dracula Untold, an

I dropped the ball on the Xmas posts, got caught up with life ya'll.  However, it was good as was New Year even though New Year sucks because it's the end of the fun winter break which brings us to now. Hopefully in 2 weeks there will be either white smoke or black smoke. Get it?