Day 271: The Devil's Backbone

This was my first Guillermo Del Toro movie and it has made me a lifelong fan.

The Devil's Backbone is set in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. A new boy arrives and begins seeing the ghost of Santi, a boy who vanished the same day a bomb appeared in the courtyard of the orphanage. Carlos (the newbie) befriends a bully and the two of them begin unraveling the mysteries of the orphanage.

This is a very moody and atmospheric movie. The ghost effects on Santi have become Del Toro go to cliches at this point but in 2001, the shimmery underwater look of the ghost was something original and fresh. There are lots of politics hidden just beneath the surface with the operators of the orphanage trying to stay out of the fray while very much being dedicated to the loyalist party. There are several plot lines floating around in this movie but that just makes it a more rewarding experience.

If you liked Crimson Peak, with the idea that it was a story that featured a ghost and not a story about ghosts, then you should like Devil's Backbone. It is a pretty classy little ghost story I would highly recommend.

Day 270: Aliens (The movie)

Who knows where I first saw this one, probably while working at the video store?

Aliens is the sequel to Alien in which Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is coerced by her old company to assist some space marines in investigating why a colony of people have vanished from the planet where Ripley's crew initially found the alien. When the marines arrive, things almost immediately go bad as the entire colony has been used by the aliens to breed. They find one little girl who has survived despite all the odds but will any of them make it off this planet overrun by the terrifying creatures?

Aliens actually works in the same way Die Hard and Predator work, the potentially huge cast is quickly narrowed down after the initial massacre. We are left with a small group of strong characters who must work together in hopes of getting out alive. Also, like those other two movies, this works as an action movie above all else. There are moments of horror (the alien rising up behind Newt in the sewer, the pinging of the alert that says the aliens are in the room when nothing is moving) but the movie functions as a bleak war movie with sci-fi and horror elements. Very few people seen at the beginning of the movie are seen at the end.

Aliens is one of my favorite films of all time. It is pretty much pure plot and that is fine. There is a running thread of Ripley looking to replace her lost daughter with Newt but that's as heavy as it gets. Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, Lance Henrikssen and Bill Paxton all deliver strong performances that help elevate the material.

I can't recommend this for horror fans but i can recommend it for fans of good movies.

Day 269: Black Sunday

AKA The Mask of Satan. This one is straight out of my Essential Horror book and was seen for free on Fandor (a subset of Amazon Prime).

Black Sunday is about a witch who was put to death with her lover in the 1500s. She has the Mask of Satan nailed into her face and they then try to burn her alive (but a sudden storm prevents it). We then move forward to the 1700s where two doctors traveling to a conference stop at a ruined chapel and find the witch's grave. Thanks to a giant bat, they disturb the grave and even leave some fresh blood on it. This starts a whole thing. The witch resurrects her lover, turns one of the doctors into a vampire and begins a campaign of vengeance against her descendants (who still keep a full portrait of her and her lover in their living room for some reason). Anyway, bad things happen.

The atmosphere of the movie is very classic in that it reminds me of Browning's Dracula. This was Mario Bava's first real movie and it kicked off the Italian horror genre in earnest. The action moves along at a nice clip and the evil seems to stack up pretty high before the good guys get even a chance of turning the tables. Barbara Steele brings her freaky beauty to the dual parts of Asa the Witch and Katia, her own descendant. The hero is kind of dull but there are plenty of colorful characters to offset him.

This is just a solid, meat and potatoes horror film. I like it better than some of the Hammer movies that also tried to catch that Universal classic feel. Prepare for some gruesome effects that I imagine were scandalous for the time.

Day 268: Saw

I am fairly certain this was a rental after all the hype had died down.

Saw is about two men who wake up in a room, chained to the floor with a dead body between them. Consider this the movie that launched a thousand escape rooms as the two men have to figure out how to escape from a series of clues and games. The photographer and the doctor slowly put together why they are there and who did this to them. The man responsible is represented by a little doll on a tricycle and he refers to himself as Jigsaw. Can either man escape the room? What is Jigsaw's grand scheme?

This was the first film by James Wan, who has since gone on to be a huge voice in modern horror. When people think of Saw, they often conflate the original with all the sequels that followed. I don't think that is really fair. The sequels devolved quickly into torture porn where people were  stuck in traps with no way out. The first movie played brutal but fair about the games Jigsaw set up. You can escape if you are willing to sacrifice something. Danny Glover plays the cop that is on Jigsaw's trail and his weariness is perfect for the roll. Cary Elwes as the doctor stuck in the room gives a solid performance well past his most famous years.

Some scenes are brutal and hard to watch but I have fond memories of this film. The sequels have perverted and ruined a decent concept so don't judge by later works. Go back to the original and have a pretty good time if you don't have any spoilers in your mind.

Day 267: Trick R Treat

Trick R Treat is a pretty unique anthology horror movie set on Halloween. It should be available for streaming somewhere.

The interesting thing about this movie is that the four narratives in it overlap and intertwine in fairly unique ways. The Hell themed anthology Southbound tries this same trick but I think they pull it off slightly better here. The first story is about a murderous principal from the local school killing off problem children who come to trick or treat. He has a lot to deal with on this particular Halloween. The second story is about a group of kids going to the local quarry to give a sacrifice to the kids who died during the Halloween school bus massacre, years earlier. The third story centers on a group of girls having a fun night out but one is kind of bummed out. Before her night can turn around she appears to be attacked by a vampire. Fun ensues. The fourth story is about the neighbor of the principal from the first story being terrorized by a little guy named Sam in a homemade costume.

While none of the individual parts are all that amazing, the world they weave together works pretty well. Characters who don't get a comeuppance in one story meet their fate in another. Dangling plots from earlier stories are resolved later and even the future of this little town is hinted at by the end. Michael Dougherty directs the whole thing pretty well (although  I would argue he is a little more comfortable with the comedy parts than the horror). Dylan Baker as the principal, Brian Cox as the old man neighbor and Anna Paquin as Little Red Riding Hood all do a great job.

If you like anthology horror, this is a good modern example. I would recommend this movie for most any horror fan.

Day 266: The Lost Boys

A childhood favorite that I saw on HBO too many times to count, The Lost Boys were cool.

The Lost Boys is about a pair of brothers being raised by a single mom who move to the seaside town of Santa Carla, that is overrun by a gang of teenage vampires. The older brother (Jason Patric) falls in with the charismatic gang leader (Kiefer Sutherland) while Corey Haim, the younger brother, befriends a pair of vampire hunting kids named the Frog Brothers. Haim becomes obsessed with saving his big brother from a life of bloodsucking and decides he needs to find the head vampire in town. Also, our heroes' mom has started dating again. Things do not go smoothly.

This is just 80s glam horror at its best. The Lost Boys (the vampire gang) dress like leather night at the gypsy camp and, of course, they make you think you are eating maggots when you eat Chinese food. The action styling of Joel Schumacher (which would later make Batman and Robin so horrible) is put to good use here with lots of good tension and some practical effects fight scenes between vampires that were quite good for the time.

I don't know if this ages well. I am a fan from my youth so I will always be a little tilted towards it. I remember it being angsty teenage vampire fun.

Day 265: The Houses October Built

This one was definitely on Ain't It Cool's list of best horror and I watched it off Netflix. And here we are, 100 days from Halloween!

As far as found footage movies go, this one is unique enough that I feel a strong liking for it. The premise is that a group of friends are renting a Winnebago a riding all over Texas (I believe) to visit the most extreme haunted houses set up for Halloween. They are recording the whole thing and basically looking for something off the charts scary. When they offend a couple of the workers at one haunted house, their camper gets vandalized and they start noticing some of the same performers popping up at different locations. All of this is in service of finding a private invite only spookhouse that is so scary it changes locations every year. And of course, they find it. Fun ensues.

What I dug about this is they filmed inside several real, functioning haunted attractions for the first half of the movie. You almost get a documentary style look at how the houses are run and what sorts of people they attract. For found footage premises, it has one of the stronger hooks I've seen. Of course, by the end you know you are purely in horror movie land but the first person aspect keeps things as fresh and immediate as a real funhouse.

I'm not saying this is groundbreaking horror or anything but they put some effort into the production and I appreciate it. You could do worse than this one.