Month of Horror V: the Seed of dsheinem & noiseredux

[fastbilly1]

Down to needing to watch two more episodes of Twilight Zone:
A Stop at Willoughby and The Chaser.

I hope to get them done today, since I cant watch them tomorrow or Friday. I might actually finish this.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Based on Noise's recommendation, my wife and I watched:



The Banshee Chapter (2013). It was a very, very effective horror film based on H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond and the CIA's Project MKUltra. The film perfectly mixed "traditional" and "found" footage to tell a compelling story and build excellent atmosphere. All of the performances were solid, and actor Ted Levine's performance as a "Hunter S. Thompson" character is his most inspired and unhinged since The Silence of the Lambs (which is saying something because he played Buffalo Bill in that film...) Moreover, the film does not rely on "jump" scares. Rather, it earns its scares through excellent direction and sound editing. The film also makes the most of its clearly limited budget, and all of the film's practical effects look believable. That said, the film could have been about 15 minutes longer, and it could have spent a little more time explaining some of the plot points. (My wife and I discussed some of the perceived plot holes last night, and I did not fill them in until I read the Wikipedia summary this morning.) Despite this minor complaint, I thoroughly enjoyed this move - thanks, Noise! - and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good modern horror film. (It is available for streaming on Netflix; so, those of you with the service can watch it instantly.)

SEPTEMBER HALLOWEEN MOVIES:

House -
You're Next -
The Awakening -
Kuroneko -
Prom Night -
The Ghost Goes West -
The Prowler -

OCTOBER HALLOWEEN MOVIES:

Silent House -
The Living Skeleton -
The Woman in Black -
Creepshow -
High Tension -
Cube -
The Whip and the Body -
The Banshee Chapter -

.....

I also finished up my second "horror" game of the season:

It is a spook-tacularly fun little platformer, and I will write about it in the Games Beaten thread.

[J T]

I decided to do something a little bit different with my pumpkin this year.
Meet Jack-O-Rachnid!

[TSTR]

Sick pumpkin dood! Give us a pic when it's lit up too!

[dsheinem]

Watched two of my faves from the 00's with some friends who were new to both:






The former is still my fave Zombie film (mmmmmm....that aesthetic!)

The latter is arguably the best 3D film of the past decade and one of the best remakes/reboots of all time.

Both are a ton of fun.

[noiseredux]

Both great dave.

[Michi]

Peeping Tom



In the movie Scream 4, the killer quizzes his victim, and one of the questions asked has to do with the first slasher film ever made. Peeping Tom was that slasher (beating out Psycho by coming out earlier in the year.) Well, hell. Now I have to watch it.

Mark Lewis is the member of a film crew and who also does some photography on the side. He has aspirations to become a professional filmmaker one day, but he’s got a small problem: He likes to kill women and film the murders of his victims while he stabs them with his tripod. Those are the kind of things that look really bad on a resume.


Doesn’t always look all that great on film either, to be honest.

The film is filled with a variety of lively and oftentimes quirky characters and they do a great job of lightening the mood surrounding the grisly deaths that happen around them. Anna Massey plays Helen, Mark’s first friend and possible love interest. The happy, upbeat girl takes a genuine interest in her upstairs neighbor and his hobbies. Her lovable, though sometimes nosey character relaxes Mark, and you get the feeling that for the first time in his life Mark has actually found someone he truly cares about.

Of course the standout is Karlheinz Bohm, who plays Mark and he does a wonderful job as the killer. There’s a quiet intensity to his eyes, which he uses without restraint to create Mark’s very tortured soul. The only downside is that Bohm is a German actor and does no attempt at a British accent, so believing that he was born and raised in a British household means the viewer has to suspend their disbelief every time he speaks.



Peeping Tom is a film that pretty much ruined the career of director Michael Powell. Known for a series of classic British films including Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom’s subject matter was so controversial at the time and so widely panned (mostly on moral grounds) that he was pretty much blacklisted from Hollywood until the film was reevaluated over a decade later. It’s now widely considered a classic and the Michael Powell Award was established in ’93 for the Best New British Feature. I’d like to hope it was some small consolation to him, but since he’d already been dead for three years we’ll never know.

Today, the controversy seems almost laughable. Other than Marks side job of photographing dirty pictures for the sleazy-old-man market, there isn’t any other sexual content (unless you consider a fully clothed woman dancing around sexual), and most of all the violence happens off screen. The actual murders are left to the viewers’ imagination and what you do see is swift with a minimal amount of blood.



Perhaps the critics’ issues came more from the character of Mark himself. Bohm portrays a disturbing man with contradictory qualities. Mark may be a merciless, murderous outsider, true. But he is also very charismatic and comes across as shy, awkward, lonely and determined. He is, in essence, not only very human, but also very sympathetic and perhaps the empathy they felt for him made them fell very uncomfortable.



Despite what one might thing about the subject matter, the film is visually gorgeous. Shot in Eastmancolor, the film practically vomits a veritable rainbow of rich, luscious goodness. This is the part of the film that most reminds me of the director’s other work, the Red Shoes. The subjects may be polar opposites, but the visuals are stunning non-the-less and contrast beautifully with the darker focus of the film. Hell, they even look good when the film is visually trying to be dark.





Peeping Tom is a beautiful, honest and disturbing film about one troubled mans unstoppable impulses. It deals with themes related to the film industry, as well as more Freudian ideas thanks to Mark’s problematic relationship with his sadistic father. It’s visually striking and, despite its initial lambasting, it handles the sensitive themes it covers with a sense of grace and style. It’s a definite recommendation, especially to those who like their horror to be a little more thought provoking and a little more colorful.

An interesting note: Powell and Hitchcock were good friends for over 40 years. Both Peeping Tom and Psycho were released in the same year and both suffered the same initial moral outrage as Powell’s film did. But when Peeping Tom came out first, Hitchcock learned from Powell’s misfortune. After Peeping Tom debut three months earlier, Hitchcock cancelled all of Psycho’s press screenings, which let audiences see the film before the reviews got out. To say his tactics were successful would be an understatement. Psycho was a hugely popular hit and, eventually, the critics came around. One wonders what would have happened had the positions been reversed.



Tonight's movie is Trick r' Treat. I'm looking forward to it

[J T]

Sick pumpkin dood! Give us a pic when it's lit up too!

[TSTR]

there it is, hells yeah

EDIT:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Y'ALL

[prfsnl_gmr]

Peeping Tom

That is a great, tremendously influential, "film makers" film, and Martin Scorsese is a one its biggest advocates:

I have always felt that Peeping Tom and 8½ say everything that can be said about film-making, about the process of dealing with film, the objectivity and subjectivity of it and the confusion between the two. 8½ captures the glamour and enjoyment of film-making, while Peeping Tom shows the aggression of it, how the camera violates... From studying them you can discover everything about people who make films, or at least people who express themselves through films.

I am glad you appreciated it.

Tonight's movie is Trick r' Treat. I'm looking forward to it

Same here! I can't wait!