Climax (2018) [Psychedelic, Experimental]

Director: Gaspar Noé
Writer: Gaspar Noé

Biographical note: I was ill in 2010. Much of that year I was paralyzed. I started this blog because I stopped sleeping and would stay up all night long, watching horror movies. One of those movies was  Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void (original, 2010 post here). Noé provided a handy spoiler in his own movie when a character summarizes existence after death according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead as foreshadowing of what was to come next. Ten years later, in his 2018 film Climax, Noé provides no such road map, leaving the viewer to wander through his psychedelic maze with no directions other than their own. It was an intense trip.

The Whip and the Body (1963) [Horror Romance]

Directed by  Mario Bava (as John M. Old) 

Writing Credits Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra, and Luciano Martino

There is no doubt after watching The Whip and the Body why Mario Bava was considered a master in the use of light, color and shadow! This 55 year old film is beautiful to watch. Replete with exterior shots of sunrises and sunsets through a gray sky and over a turbulent ocean and desolate beach and moody internal shots where the subjects move through a spectrum of color with each step, this film is a treat for the eye.

Viy (1967) [Folk Horror]

Directed by Konstantin Ershov & Georgiy Kropachyov

Writing Credits Konstantin Ershov & Nikolay Gogol (story) (as Nikolai Gogol), Georgiy Kropachyov, Aleksandr Ptushko

Based on a novel by Russian author Nikolai Gogol, Viy explorers the power of faith and belief in mythology through the efforts of a young seminary student struggling to fight a vengeful witch whose path he has inadvertently crossed.

The Theta Girl (2017) [Sci Fi, Action, Horror]

Director: Christopher Bickel

Writer: David Axe

Last Friday evening, a friend sent this text, “Going to see this tonight at a Burlesque Club called Le Chat Noir. Right up your alley.” with the link to the trailer  I knew she was right before it was halfway through and I needed to watch this movie! Luckily, it is streaming on Amazon Prime and The Statesboro Psychotronic Film Society gave it a watch the next day.

Head Count (2018) [teenagers are horrible]

Director: Elle Callahan

Writers: Elle Callahan (story), Michael Nader

Better than average teen, supernatural slasher that sacrifices jump-scares and violent kills for a slowly building sense of unease that catapults into an alright finale. The story is interesting and even though there is no heavy lifting to be done, the young performers are up to the task. 

The Mist (2007) [Biblical Horror]

Directed by Frank Darabont
Writing Credits (WGA)  Frank Darabont (screenplay), Stephen King (novel)

Frank Darabont’s 2007 adaptation of Stephen King’s novella The Mist is a great example of the rare movie that asks, “What if the God of the Old Testament were to re-emerge today?” Shortly after it begins, a terrible calamity befalls a small New England town and a group of local citizens and “summer people” find themselves struggling for survival inside the supermarket that is trapped inside an other worldly mist.

Heavy Rotation Album Cover Challenge #1 The London Symphony Orchestra Performs Tommy (1972)

English Chamber Choir / London Symphony Orchestra perform Tommy (1972)

Genre     Stage & Screen, Classical, Pop/Rock

“The album challenge is simple enough to post an album cover per day for 10 days, challenging a friend per day to take the challenge & not to unfriend me for it. HAHAHAHAHAHA. As promised, today's challenge is extended to fellow Methodist alum, Michael Williams. Thank you for offering to take the torch and run with it for the 10 day 10 album marathon!“

Vengeance of the Zombies (1973) [Paul Naschy]

Vengeance of the Zombies (1973) [Paul Naschy]

La rebelión de las muertas (original title)
Director: León Klimovsky (as Leon Klimovsky)
Writers: Paul Naschy (screenplay) (as Jacinto Molina), Paul Naschy (story) (as Jacinto Molina)

León Klimovsky's Vengeance of the Zombies draws from many sources.  It presents a jaw dropping mashup of Hindu mysticism, Satanism, and Voodoo, plus references to the  Kali Death cult thuggees and a nod to the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. This willingness to clump all sorts of horror sources together in one movie was a trademark of Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter Paul Naschy (who provided the screenplay). A truly admirable quality from Naschy's large body of work, as uneven or downright weird as it could get, was his love of the genre. He truly was a Glenn Danzig before there was a Glenn Danzig.

Psychomania (1973) [Adventure Horror]

Psychomania (1973) [Adventure Horror]

Director: Don Sharp
Writers: Arnaud d'Usseau, Julian Zimet (as Julian Halevy)

The other day as I was riding my bike around the lake, a line of spectral riders approached in the fog and I tried to remember the name of a movie about undead, Satan worshipping bikers terrorizing a small town. The Wild One, but from Hell. It was on a DVD from Netflix, years before they started streaming.

The Island of Lost Souls (1932) [Horror, Sci-Fi]

The Island of Lost Souls (1932) [Horror, Sci-Fi]

Directed           Erle C. Kenton

Screenplay      Waldemar Young and Philip Wylie,  H.G. Wells (novel)

This nearly 100 year old film is primitive yet effective. As is often the case with older films that lack the visual sophistication of modern movies, the screenplay is everything. The most important elements are related through dialogue, not in action. The story is mesmerizing, beginning with shipwrecked man adrift at sea and ending the revolt of pack of wild human-animal hybrids as the extract horrifying revenge on their creator.