Completed. Victorious. With one day to spare. For the sake of (temporary) posterity, here is the final list of film that I watched. In alphabetical order:
Bluebeard (1944)
The Boogey Man
The Brood
The Crazies (remake)
The Devonsville Terror
Dust Devil
Face
Forbidden World
Freaks
Galaxy of Terror
The Gorgon
Hardware
Horror Rises From The Tomb
Infection
Loreley's Grasp
Ludlow
Maniac (1934)
The Mummy (1959)
Nosferatu (1922)
Piranha
The Reptile
The Roost
The Screaming Skull
Slumber Party Massacre
Slumber Party Massacre 2
Slumber Party Massacre 3
Sympathy
Tokyo Zombie
Two Thousand Maniacs
Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory
X the Unknown
The best movies I watched were Nosferatu, Dust Devil, Horror Rises From the Tomb, and The Brood. The original Nosferatu, as a film, transcends review. It is a film that any horror fan must see, if only to grasp the history of the genre. To say Nosferatu holds up today in terms of creepiness and general atmosphere is to state the obvious (and aren't you glad I did?). Dust Devil was a bit of a surprise. It was an impulse buy years ago, a beautiful DVD package that includes some of Richard Stanley's documentary work as well as the film's soundtrack and an exhaustive essay/production diary of the film. As the closing credits rolled, all I could think was, "What took me so long?" Horror Rises From the Tomb, starring Paul Naschy, was a joy to watch - a beautiful balance of Bava-esque gothic horror in a contemporary setting with a generous dash of Eurotrash. In less than 90 minutes, I decided to track down more of Naschy's work, as well as expand my own knowledge base of the European horrors of the 70s - the Spanish, the Italian, the co-productions, etc. And what can one say about The Brood that hasn't already been said? Director David Cronenberg knows how to make a movie that terrorizes with its subtext (in this case, the destruction of the nuclear family, as well as some very pointed criticisms about pop therapy), while repulsing the viewer with scenes of body horror that drive his points home.
The worst film this month was EASILY The Roost, where a group of douchebags get lost on the way to a friend's wedding and are menaced by bats that either turn their prey into zombies...or psychotics...or something. It was far too easy to let boredom wash over me, and I quickly lost the thread of the film. Director Ti West fostered an apathy in me that was impossible to shake. Unlikeable characters, illogical decisions that opened up plotholes, and inexplicable cuts to some kind of horror host made the movie virtually unwatchable. Congrats, Mr. West, The Roost made me skeptical towards any future projects you may spew forth. Which is saying a LOT, considering...
...that I watched Ulli Lommel's The Boogey Man and The Devonsville Terror. And they were AWFUL. I had heard of Lommel through various horror websites and message boards, and none of the reports were good. The overwhelming view is that Ulli Lommel's films are dismal. But I bought the movies on a value priced DVD a while ago based on the childhood memory of The Boogeyman's VHS box cover and how it always scared me just enough to rent something else. But I really had nothing to fear. The Boogey Man starts off leading the viewer to believe that s/he is watching a rather dumb, bland slasher flick before establishing itself as a ludicrously dumb supernatural killer flick. Lommel takes liberties with the plot that would've been insulting if I wasn't so busy laughing at the stupidity of it all. Plot points, such as the abusive mother wanting to see her kids and the son's violent reaction to a horse-faced neighbor's advances - go nowhere. Characters make decisions that can charitably be called moronic. And the acting? Wooden. Not even a pointless cameo by John Carradine can save this steaming pile of movie, whose high point was the murder of a group of young people for no other reason than to up the body count and film a scene of a (non-graphic) simulated blow job. Which makes the fact that The Devonsville Terror was actually worse even more shocking. This tale of a sexist town's reaction to three single, professional women arriving on the eve of the anniversary of their founders' witch trial was so bad that at one point I had to pause it and just walk away from it for a few minutes. Another pointless cameo, this time by Donald Pleasance, is used to add name value to the movie. The high point of it all was the scene of the most awkward sexual advance ever put to film. It gave me chills...douche chills...as the tears of laughter rolled down my face. Both films were written by Lommel and his star/now ex-wife, Suzanna Love, which answered a lot of questions. Inexplicably, The Boogey Man has a sequel. Safe to say, I'll be avoiding it.
I have a bit of thanks to offer two sources. First, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is a wonderful cable channel that made my life easier by showing some of the more obscure Hammer horror film on each Friday night this month. While The Gorgon, The Reptile, and X the Unknown will never be considered on the same level as their Draculas, Frankensteins, or even The Mummy, each was enjoyable in its own right. The Gorgon re-teamed Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing is a surprisingly tragic horror/love story. The Reptile, while predictable, effectively used a sense of paranoia throughout the film to highlight a tale of a curse and the toll it takes on the main characters and the rural townsfolk. In both films, the monster's reveal was a bit laughable, but both films succeeded overall. And X the Unknown, while very similar in plot to The Quatermass Experiment (aka The Creeping Unknown), shines on its own merits. The acting was good, and the film was surprisingly gory in places.
I also should thank my friend, Greg, whose birthday gifts also contributed to this months' viewings. Face - a Japanese film that was half serial killer procedural and half spooky-girl-with-hair-over-half-her-face flick - was shocking in its few scenes of violence and gore. The killer's weak motivation aside, Face was creepy and sad and surprisingly well done. Infection (another Japanese gem) started off by reminding me a bit of John Carpenter's The Thing, with a more real-world "monster," before morphing into a more psychological horror story. The overriding sense of paranoia throughout the films made what should have been a kind of silly flick into something much more. In fact, I was impressed by how restrained the film was in using atmosphere and palpable tension in place of some obvious gross-outs. Not to say the movie isn't gross in (many) points, but far less than it could've been. And Tokyo Zombie was a laugh riot that fed into my love of living dead flicks. I enjoyed this tale of friendship and loyalty. The truly dark moments - the origins of the living dead, one friend's all-too-early fate (which is no spoiler, believe me), the other friend's mysterious relationship with a pedophile teacher (and the scenes involving the actual teacher) - all served to enhance the humor throughout the rest of the film. In fact, add Tokyo Zombie to my favorites of the month!
Greg also provided me with a collection of 50 public domain horror films. And while one goes into these sets knowing that there's a reason the majority of these films have lapsed into the public domain, there is always one or two diamonds in these particular roughs. For me, Maniac was a highlight - the blatant lift of Poe's The Black Cat and the rampant overacting had me laughing my arse off while the nudity (yes, this 30s film had scenes of nudity) left me a bit shocked and off-kilter. I knew that pre-Hays code films had high violence and nudity, but it was still a shock to actually see it. The Screaming Skull took me back to my childhood Saturdays of watching Creature Double Feature - it was a fair film whose TV teaser (or maybe my memory of the teaser) was better than the actual movie. Bluebeard, however, was awful. An unremarkable flick that actually had nothing to do with the Bluebeard tale, this movie was notable only because it starred a young John Carradine in the role of a puppeteer who kills women.
(To be concluded)
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