Week One

Welcome to Shocktoberfest 2022, the only horror movie festival curated by me! This is a list of movies I watched to prepare for Halloween, plus a thought or two. Week One is pretty long.  I wish I could watch ten horror movies a week, but work and a non horror movie loving wife need attention. But my wife was traveling and work canceled (because of Hurricane Ian), so I could dig into my Watchlist. 

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (2021) First time watch! Surreal German film about a couple seeking to reconnect while exploring an old castle. Or is it? Director/writer Kevin Kopacka and co-writer Lili Villányi beguile viewers with their strange tale. This unusual ghost story has an unexpected, psychedelic twist and turns everything upside down. It is available to rent on Amazon. 9 out of 10.

Read The Banshee's review of Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes here

Hatching (2022) First time watch! A rare treat from Finland. Writer and director Hanna Bergholm presents a fresh take on toxic and dysfunctional family relationships. Awkward 12-year-old Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) bonds with a monstrous creature she hatches from an egg and experiences the pangs of motherhood. Available from Hulu. 9 out of 10.

Heartland of Darkness (1992) First time watch! I saw this as a screener from Visual Vengeance, a movie/television studio devoted to finding forgotten films and giving them a new audience. Heartland, long considered lost, is a low budget, shot on 16 millimeter film about the devil worshiping, baby sacrificing, folks who live in America’s Heartland. This movie earns an extra point for featuring Linnea Quigley as the sexiest high school teacher since Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher video. Visual Vengeance’s Blu-ray will be available in November. 5 out of 10.

The Frenchman’s Garden (1978) First time watch! A Paul Naschy triple threat - writer (co written with Antonio Fos), director and lead actor. Although shot with great visual flare, the true story of mass-murder Andrés Aldije Monmejis is a slow and tepid drama. Naschy’s script ignores the killings and concentrates on Monmejis’ domestic life as he juggles a wife, a jealous mistress, and pregnant lover.  Mondo Macabro’s Blu-ray has an interview with Naschy and, of course, its notorious trailer reel.  6 out of 10

The Acid Eaters (1967) Other than Pat Barrington’s dancing, this film doesn’t have much to offer.  The story is simple. Released from their 9 to 5 jobs, a group of men and women ride their motorcycles into the country in search of the pyramid of LSD.  A series of bizarre adventures follow and the ladies spend a lot of time out of their clothes. TRIVIA: Punk rock pioneers the Ramones named their album of garage band covers from the sixties The Acid Eaters. 3 out of 10.

X (2022) Ti West’s homage to seventies era Grindhouse keeps getting better every time I watch it. Read my review here.  9 out of 10.

PussyCake (2022) First time watch! South America has been releasing plenty of fantastic horror films in the last several years. Thanks to streaming services, movies like Terrified  (2017), and The Last Matinee (2020) are attracting fans in the US. Argentinian director Pablo Parés sci-fi horror gore-fest about a girls rock band fighting interdimensional slug monsters is an icky mess that you won’t be able to look away from.  The slugs turn people into foam spewing zombies who propagate by vomiting into their victim’s mouths.  This is a very fluid-friendly movie.  If you thought Psycho Goreman needed more dripping entrails, this one’s for you. While not rigorous horror, director Parés and writers Maxi Ferzzola Hernán Moyano made an action-packed, fun movie with great practical effects. Available from Amazon and Google. 7 out of 10.

Read The Banshee's review of PussyCake here

Sissy (2022) First time watch! Another female-centric, fun movie.  This movie has a lot of heart and Aisha Dee as the title character does a superb job engaging the audience. A clever revenge story that takes a sudden turn, Sissy also deals with the lasting effects of bullying. Adult Sissy must face her childhood bully when she reunites with her old best friend. Streaming on Shudder. Seven out of 10. Sissy is currently streaming on Shudder – don’t hesitate to take advantage of our promo for two weeks free!

My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022) First time watch!  This filmed version of the popular Grady Hendrix novel is another testament of high school Hell. Life can be especially difficult when a demon possesses your best bud. A great movie for younger folks and people who don’t like gory stories.  Rented from Amazon. 7 out of 10.     

Blood and Roses (1960) Roger Vadim’s early adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla is a seldom seen masterpiece.  Considered the Holy Grail among vintage Blu-ray studios like Vinegar Syndrome and Mondo Macabro, Blood and Roses is unavailable for a reissue because of extensive copyright issues. The movie is only available as pixelated YouTube videos or poor VHS to DVD-R transfers. Vadim’s use of colored lights and ancient ruins set a standard for the ethereal films of directors to come like Jean Rollin.  DVD-R from DVDLady. 10 out of 10.

What are you planning on watching this month?

Social Media Post - Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) or Father Doesn't Always Know Best.

 Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) or
Father Doesn't Always Know Best. 

In the fifth installment of Hammer Films’ Dracula series, director Peter Sasdy and screenwriter Anthony Hinds (as John Elder) visit the theme of corruption from the older, patriarchal generation in conflict with the youth, themes Sasdy would revisit in his script for Twins of Evil, his final Karnstein trilogy story. Count Dracula himself undergoes an unusual change as he becomes an anti-hero, removing three of society's hypocritical leaders. To do this, he sets their children against the fathers in a revenge orgy of spilled familial blood and terror.

Social Media Post - Twins of Evil (1971)

Twins of Evil (1971)

Twins of Evil (1971) is Tudor Gates' third and final screenplay of the Karnstein Trilogy for Hammer Films. Taking place long before Lust for a Vampire and The Vampire Lovers, Twins of Evil offers an origin story of the haunted, Satan worshiping Karnsteins. Instead of concentrating on supernatural creatures seeking to destroy families and corrupt their children, Twins of Evil points a finger at the men who use those stories for their own advantage. Unlike the earlier films, the lesbian vampires are practically nonexistent. Lacking the bared breasts and passionate kisses of the earlier films, the audience witnesses scene after scene of conscienceless destruction caused by the two men in the center of the story

Social Media Post - Lust for a Vampire (1970)

 LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)

In 1970, Hammer Films released The Vampire Lovers, the first film about the sadistic and Satanic Karnstein family. The three movies, known as The Karnstein Trilogy, have become infamous for titillating scenes of nudity and their through-the-male-lens depiction of lesbianism. The films are based on the novella Carmilla by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. Polish actor Ingrid Pitt was the first to wear the shroud of Carmilla Karnstein, who destroyed families with her ravenous desire for budding flesh. In Lust For A Vampire (directed by Jimmy Sangster from Tudor Gates’ script), blonde, Danish Yutte Stensgaard takes up the Karnstein, blood-stained funerary garments and heads off to school.

Social Media Post -  The Vampire Lovers (1970)

 England’s Hammer Films became the new home of gothic horror in the late 1950s when they began remaking the classic Universal monsters movies.  Beautifully shot in vibrant technicolor with elaborate sets and period costumes, the studio included many beautiful, scantily dressed women displaying prominent decolletage straining the seams of their diaphanous nightgowns.

Social Media Post: Horror Movie Trivia

Horror Movie Trivia Time! 

Did you know that Universal Studios did not give Boris Karloff credit for playing Frankenstein's Monster?  A question mark stands in the place of his name in the opening credits.

It wasn't until the final credits rolled at the film's December 4, 1931 premier that the audience learned the name of the actor whose sympathetic portrayal of the monster had touched them?

Karloff himself was not even invited to the premier!

 

Social Media Post - Revenge (Coralie Fargeat 2017)

 Social Media Post - Revenge 

SPOILER ALERT!

 The on-screen depiction of acts of violence against women, especially rape, and the victim’s response (especially if it resembles revenge) have always provoked powerful responses from the viewing public and critics. One troubling aspect, according to Carol Clover in her 1992 book, “Men, Women, and Chain Saws,” is the male audience’s sadistic and voyeuristic reaction to the suffering of the victim and her turn to avenging hero. She describes how theater audiences, of mostly adolescent males, undergo a curious identification switch during the film - first they watch and cheer at the attack on the victim, depicted in unflinching, graphic displays. Then they “reverse their sympathies to cheer the survivor on as she assaults the killer” (Carol Clover - Men, Women, and Chainsaws, p23).

Social Media Post: WIWLN Goes to Paris

"Stop! This is the Kingdom of the Dead"

Where does horror reside? One answer is in the abject. The abject is a place where we are exposed to transgressive objects - things that should not be or fewest things that should not be seen. Crossing into the abject is to abandon the known, familiar and welcoming for the unknown, unfamiliar and unwelcoming. As horror fans, we are often dedicated to exploring the abject from the safety of our friendly places.

 

Our own bodies are often the first exposure to this frightful realm. Knowledge of the whole unseen world under our skin can be both fascinating and frightening. The first sight (or taste!) of blood, seeing the exposed organs of a carcass or the pictures in my mother’s anatomy textbooks and the first time touching a corpse are cemented in my mind. These days, encountering a skeleton outside its meat envelope is no longer disconcerting, but being amongst the six million skeletons residing in the Paris Catacombs was a somber reminder of what awaits us all.

 

Dr. Pretorius toasts a freshly harvested skeleton's new life in The Bride of Frankenstein.

The Killer Victim - Social Media Post

 The Killer Victim

Two of the most common motives in revenge films are the Lex Talionis Adjudication and Survival Mode. Lex talionis is Old Testament, eye for an eye justice. An act of righteous retribution, delivered by the victims, balances the scales. In Survival Mode, the priorities are different. The victim must turn the tables on the killer to stay alive. 

Social Media Post: Horror Rises from the Tomb

Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)

Spanish horror cinema from the 1970s is full of mind bending craziness. Screenwriter and director Jacinto Molina Alvarez, better known as Paul Naschy, holds an especially enduring place within that lunacy. His 1973 Horror Rises from the Tomb, (El espanto surge de la tumba) is an excellent example of his love of classic horror cinema and his “everything but the kitchen sink,” over-the-top storytelling. His script explores the eternal nature of evil and the power of good to overcome it. There are ancient warlocks and witches, multi-generational curses, bloody hearts being ripped out of living bodies, and plenty of other audacious delights.