Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #3

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #3

Illness came to my house this week and also a certain amount of horror film fatigue set in. Much time was spent tracking down lesser known films and re-watching some neglected films. I also realized that I picked a weird way to list my weekly choices! As a bonus, this week's post has some appropriate music to celebrate the  addition of Electric Wizard to my list of favorite bands.



24) Alien (1979) One of the first R-rated films I ever saw! It was 1979 and I was 14 years old when I convinced my mother to take me to see it at the Sandusky Mall (the place where many of adolescent obsessions were born and fed). This is one of the movies that all horror fans should be acquainted with, even if only to know the names Sigourney Weaver, for playing the ultimate bad ass chick, Ellen Ripley, director Ridley Scott, and the nightmare inducing artist HR Giger for his iconic xenomorph design.

23) The Similars (2015) First Viewing! This bizarre, Mexican film was based on a the short story "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby about a child born with terrifying kinetic powers. I had read the story as a kid and it was made into a Twilight Zone episode and also part of Twilight Zone:  The Movie (1983).

22) The Rape of the Vampire (1968) Nobody could film a young woman in a diaphanous gown, carrying a candelabra through a deserted castle like Jean Rollin. His movies are always beautiful, surreal, and a little incoherent.

21) The Loreley's Grasp (1974) A second Amando de Ossorio film this year! More sexy, silly Euro-Horror from the guy that brought us Tombs of the Blind Dead. Making the most of the sumptuous, Rhine Valley locations and gorgeous cast, Ossorio calls on folk legends to tell the mystical story of the Loreley, a beautiful maiden who periodically emerges from the Rhine to devour seven hearts. Chaos ensures.

20) Gone Girl (2014) This movie is better known as part of the mystery/thriller genre. I have been trying to wrap my head around film scholar Barbara Creed's use of psychoanalysis and feminist theory to understand what makes a horror film. She spends a lot of time talking about The Abject, which produces horror by exposing the viewer to images  which feature the loss of definition between the subject and an object or the self and the other. One thing that causes this sense of horror is when the internal is exposed externally. Like this:

19) Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl (2016) First Viewing! A quite, steady paced film about the transformative effect of desire and seduction on a poor, young girl who goes to care for a wealthy, elderly aunt. I first heard about it at WLW Film Reviews.

18) The Devil's Wedding Night (1973) Another Euro-Horror. I discovered this film when I saw the Electric Wizard video for Wicked Caresses. The image of Rosalba Neri rising naked and bloody from her cauldron has got to be iconic of something. Please enjoy the video while I try hard not to link to the many other horror movie themed songs and videos EW has on YouTube.

17) Luz (2019) First Viewing! An unusual possession story about about a trio of Catholic School girls summoning a demon, told in a unique style - story within a story.  All the action happens years after the summoning in a police interrogation room as one of the subjects relates the experience and the witnesses become the players.

What else have I been watching for Shocktoberfest 2019?