Day 68: The Ghoul

Boy oh boy, if any movie could be prescribed as a sleep aid, it is this. I fell asleep watching this on three separate occasions. I finally made it through last night. It might be the heavy thudding soundtrack that repeats forever, putting one in a somnambulistic state. The movie itself isn't bad, actually.

Boris Karloff is a professor of antiquities getting ready to die. He has spent his life savings buying a jewel that will grant him eternal life if Anubis accepts it as an offering, after he is dead. So, Karloff gets the jewel taped to his hand, has a tomb built with an Anubis statue in it and has the key left inside the tomb so he can get out after he is resurrected. Meanwhile, an oddball cast is assembling in the rest of the film. Karloff's two heirs (bickering distant cousins so are also the love interests in the movie), his very Scottish manservant, his weaselly lawyer, a local do-gooder priest and a dangerous member of a religious cult all want the jewel Karloff was buried with for various reasons (mostly money).

Sure enough, Karloff emerges from his tomb on the night of the first full moon after he is buried. After killing the chauffeur of the cult member, he gets into his old house where the rest of the cast is gathered (also included is the female cousin's roommate, a man-hungry goofball). Now, I thought, here is a recipe for a great horror movie. All these distinct characters in this gloomy mansion being offed one by one by Karloff.

Unfortunately, he doesn't kill anyone else. He just lurks and scares people until he gets his jewel back. It isn't until the last ten minutes, set back at his tomb, that things get exciting. All the parties collide and everyone who is dangerous makes their play against the others. The last ten minutes almost make up for the interminable second act of mindlessly moving pieces around the board.

I won't spoil anything but I was kind of surprised by some of the plot developments at the conclusion. This is a fun movie that should probably be watched when wide awake and not after any heavy meals.

 

Day 67: Disturbing Behavior

This is one is a trip in the wayback machine for me. I saw this in college, I think, which has been a minute. Katie Holmes was well before her Tom Cruise drama and James "Cyclops" Marsden was in this, I guess? I mainly remember it because Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger was a single on the soundtrack and was super catchy.

So what is this movie about? I had to read a refresher but it all came back to me anyway, a group of alterna-teens in Washington start getting turned into perfect, wholesome teens by their parents and a mad scientist by the name of Caldicott. James Marsden and Katie Holmes have to outwit and out fight all their classmates and all the adults in the community (with the exception of Good Will Hunting hidden-genius janitor William Sadler). A lot of teens are killed. In fact, I remember this being a pretty dark movie. It was marketed to people just slightly younger than me at the time and I wonder how it holds up in people's minds who saw it in high school. The whole "wanting to fit in by being different" thing still resonates with me as it was my own strategy for the first two years of high school. The other selling point of this was it's director, X-Files alum David Nutter.

Day 66: Darkness

This is a little seen ditty from 2002 that features Anna Paquin and Lena Olin. It was shot in Spain and features mostly Spanish actors. The beginning is kind of rote as it features a family moving into a new home and experiencing strange things. The father starts going mad, the son starts seeing things in the shadows...so far, so Amityville Horror or the Shining. Like both those movies, the protagonist (in this case, Anna Paquin) figures out that the house was used for bizarre and evil rituals. There are a few clever twists on a prophetic ritual that must be completed in order for a dark power to rise in the world.

I remember going to see this one in the theater for some reason and not being terribly impressed by it. I haven't returned to it since but something about it has lingered in my mind for the 15 years it has been since I saw it. I remember Paquin being kind of a non-entity and Lena Olin being as good as ever (whatever happened to her?). I remember it had kind of a bummer ending but then again, outside of the Hayes Code productions, few true horror movies end well for the protagonists.

Day 65: Frankenstein

I promise I am not intentionally stacking all these oldies here, this is totally the luck of the random number generator. This post is about the original Frankenstein movie and maybe the monster, too. I started watching another Karloff movie last night, The Ghoul, which I will review in a few days. I realized just how charismatic his performances are. Even the most staid, stale, dusty beginnings of a horror movie are enlivened by his performance. Frankenstein, of course, made him a big star of horror. His departure from the book version is kind of fascinating because it feels like he thought through what it means to be made of dead men. His movements are jerky and forced, like rigor mortis has set in and won't let go. When he becomes reanimated, we have to assume his blood starts pumping again but all those necrotic tissues wouldn't really bounce back would they?

Also, his vocalizations are all grunts and groans as if playing a deaf made who hadn't heard himself speak in years. He can't make his body or vocal chords do what he wants. Likewise, his abnormal brain is constantly rebelling against what he wants to do. Fun times with kids become drowning parties. Lighting a few matches turns into a full-on freak out. And really, as Monster Squad had it pegged, the monster isn't even a villain. It has no real evil about it, just a childlike simplicity that makes it irrational and uncontrollable. Really the villain here is Dr. Frankenstein, who lives to cause more problems with more golems in the future. But again, and really, the show here is Karloff bringing the monster to life.

Day 64: Haxan

Oddly, this silent era horror movie popped up in my natural rotation for today even though I haven't seen it in years. It certainly fits in with all these other classics I am covering. Haxan is sort of a documentary about Witchcraft but it is mostly known for some horrific visuals of Black Masses and other dalliances with the Devil.

Released in the 1920s out of Scandinavia, the movie's silent origins help it tremendously since only title cards have to be changed. As the movie explores the workings of Witchcraft, it plays up the idea of women cavorting with demons and wrecking havoc on their communities. It has been years since I saw this, mind you but I recall there being an educational slant to it. Like, "these are the mental illnesses most likely confused with witchcraft." Of course, even back in the 1920s, we still didn't know much about female mental illness beyond "hysteria." Again, not a terribly scary movie but the visuals will stick with you for awhile.

Day 63: Vampyr

Still chugging through the 1930s, I finally saw this near-silent classic on New Year's Eve. It is very dreamlike (in fact the subtitle is something like The Dream of Allan Grey) and the first forty minutes or so are very slow and disorienting. A young man in the countryside of Europe stops at an inn where an old man busts into his room with a vague warning about "not letting her die." Before the night is through, Allan (or David, in some translations) is caught up with a household that may be under attack from a local vampire, as well as a kind of rapey old doctor. Allan has a handy book that tells him all about the history of vampires in this small town that almost provides some narrative logic on which a viewer can hang his hat. Mostly, though, it is creepy images (like a one-legged soldier whose shadow moves independently of his body) and unsettling performances that give this movie its power.

The movie, while putting me into a sort of half-awake state myself, also inspired me to jot down some ideas for a short horror movie I would like to make myself. I realized from this how much mileage you can get out of fairly simple things like supposedly locked doors slowly opening in the night, etc. I can't say the pacing of this movie is for everyone and it is definitely more on the artsy side of things. Still, if the imagery and tone of a movie mean a lot to you, check this one out.

Day 62: White Zombie

Continuing to burn through old horror, I finally saw White Zombie, the movie that gave Rob Zombie a band name. Much like the Island of Lost Souls, which came out the same year, it seems to be about white colonialism and the horrors of a workforce upraising. Unlike Moreau's animal men, Bela Lugosi's Murder (that's his damn name) has figured out a way to fake people's deaths and bring them back as obedient zombies.

The plot is really weird. A couple getting married are invited to a rich guy's house in Haiti where they are promised a wedding ceremony and the male is promised a top of the line job. Turns out the rich guy just wants the girl for himself and he turns to Murder (the guy, not the act) at the last possible minute to somehow get the girl. Murder can only do so much and the best he can offer is to fake the girl's death and bring her back as a zombie. This turns out not to fun for anyone involved.

The despondent groom teams up with a local priest to figure out what is going on with all these island zombies. By the end, chaos reigns. Lugosi does a great job cranking it up to eleven here. The supporting cast are all a little flat and boring but it helps to contrast with the evil shenanigans of the zombies. I will say, the sound design in the sugar mill scene was nerve shredding.