Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 11: The Blackcoat's Daughter

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 11: The Blackcoat's Daughter

The independent studio A24 is all the rage right now, and with good reason. From bizarre indie films like Swiss Army Man to classy Oscar winners like Moonlight, they've made one hell of a reputation in their 5 years of making movies. Their horror films in particular are fantastic, with The Witch and Hereditary being two of my all-time favorites of the past decade. So naturally when I heard about another horror movie of theirs that I hadn't seen yet, I had to check it out.

I almost feel guilty reviewing this film without seeing it twice, because I spent most of its runtime being confused. Characters talk low, the lighting is dark, a couple characters look very similar to each other, and it's plot is already purposefully mysterious - which are all ingredients for a big meal of me not knowing what's going on. I watched the film on my TV from my plugged-in laptop, which can often make the image look darker, so I'll call this my bad and not the movie's.

So with confusion aside, there's plenty I liked about this film. The acting is great, and I love that it's darkly atmospheric and deliberately paced. The cinematography is gorgeous, with several images sure to stick in my mind for quite a while. It hardly ever scares, instead it creeps (which isn't done nearly often enough these days), and it does a very good job of it.

I won't talk much more about it, as I really do need to see it again with more subtitles and screen brightness, but if you're looking for a new atmospheric horror movie, this is a good choice as long as you really pay attention.

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 10: Asylum

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 10: Asylum

The anthology format is perfect for horror. From Black Sabbath to Creepshow to any Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, they're always fun because the great stories never overstay their welcome and neither do the bad ones. Asylum is another one of these anthology horror films, and while it's certainly not one of the greats, it's perfectly acceptable.

The main story that frames the film is about a man who comes to a spooky asylum to apply for the position of psychiatrist. He's told by the owner that he can have the job if he listens to the scary backstories of four different patients. Written by Robert Bloch (the author of "Psycho"), the four stories are fairly unique and all have fun little twists at the end.

While it's got four fun little stories, the film as a whole is not that great. It's by no means a gore film, or even that violent, but there's a sort of gross, mean-spirited quality to the whole thing, perhaps caused by its fear of the mentally ill, which doesn't exactly hold up today (with good reason). It also feels like it's trying to be a classic Hammer horror film (going as far as to hire Peter Cushing), but it doesn't have that striking technicolor look or that feeling of excitement that something like Horror of Dracula possesses. The only moment in the film I felt truly exciting was when it opened with Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain" (which I, like most people, know from Fantasia). The central problem, however, is that it's not that memorable, with none of the characters really standing out.

Overall, if you're looking for something obscure and underrated this is good for an acceptable evening of scares (it's even on Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror Films list), but if you're looking for a really good horror movie to watch, there's much better ones to check out first.

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 9: A Bucket of Blood

Jacob’s 31 Days of Halloween - Day 9: A Bucket of Blood

This is my first Roger Corman directorial experience, and while I was prepared for something strange, I still don’t think I was quite ready for A Bucket of Blood.

The main thing that threw me off is that the movie is essentially just a parody of beatnick culture (a thing that was pretty specifically happening in 1959). It’s about a young busboy who works in a club for beat poets and artists. He’s treated in a somewhat inferior way, until he accidentally (and what a shocking accident it is) makes what he decides is an art piece and finds his way into their inner circle.

I won’t dare spoil what happens in this film because the surprise twists and turns were, for the most part, what kept me engaged in the story. The acting is as over the top as the dialogue (which is very), and the characters aren’t exactly three-dimensional. The cinematography is surprisingly decent though, with some fun visual ways of revealing the more shocking moments and pretty black and white images, despite the relatively low production value.

It’s fun, bizarre, shocking, dark, and only an hour long, so I think it’s definitely worth checking out. 

Light spoiler/trigger warning: 

If you really love cats, one is killed in the first 10 minutes. It’s very clearly fake, but still. It’s the only animal that gets hurt in the film.

Also, what a weird name for a movie that has almost nothing to do with a bucket of blood.

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 8: The Monster Squad

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 8: The Monster Squad

After the monster hits of The Goonies in 1985 and Stand By Me in 1986, 1987 needed it's own kind of monster hit starring a gang of kids. The answer is somehow simultaneously satirical, silly, sickening, stupid, and simply sublime.

I never even heard about this movie until a few years ago, and part of me feels like I really missed out by not seeing this when I was ten years old, but that's largely because this is a film that could really only exist in the 80's. They essentially took what made The Goonies and Stand By Me popular, boiled them down to their most basic elements, and then blew up those elements as big as they could. The result is a group of stock kid characters (the leader that they always refer to as "the leader", his best friend with no discerning personality, a fat kid who's name is literally "Fat Kid" until practically his last line in the movie, an annoying little sister, and a cool kid who smokes cigarettes and shoots guns), near-constant swearing, horrifically inattentive parents, shockingly realistic violence, and some unfortunately pervy behavior (a girl who constantly changes in front of her window is blackmailed with nude photos of herself that Frankenstein's monster accidentally took, it's a little uncomfortable).

While this does have all of the insanity that an 80's kids movie with all of the classic Universal monsters could possibly contain, it's got plenty of problems. For one, none of the kids can act. The Goonies and Stand By Me had exceptionally talented kid actors who almost all sustained careers well into their adulthoods. This is not the case with Monster Squad, with the only actor I even recognized being Tom Noonan (Frankenstein's monster). None of these kids had star quality, comedic chops, or any kind of acting chops. It doesn't help that the dialogue is pretty terrible, with the jokes typically only being funny due to the irony of hearing them in 2018, and anything resembling drama being far too over the top to take seriously. What's truly bizarre about the writing is that sometimes it's so lazy it feels like brilliant satire (calling the fat kid "Fat Kid" and giving the leader a shirt that says "Stephen King Rules" feels like a huge wink to anyone familiar with the popular tropes of that time), but I'm still going to call it lazy.

What does hold up genuinely is the production value, which from the moment the movie starts is staggeringly impressive, especially considering what I thought it would look like. The sets are great, the costumes are solid, and the practical effects are impressive even to this day (because the brilliant Stan Winston was behind them). The movie becomes all the more special because of all of the effort that was clearly put into it from a practical and visual standpoint.

There's a solid chance you'll hate Monster Squad. It's cheesy, messy, and at multiple points genuinely uncomfortable. But there's also a solid chance you'll love it, because of the production value and maybe even because of the reasons I listed that you'd hate it. If you go into it knowing it's completely insane, there's a solid chance you'll have the time of your life. I suggest taking that chance.

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 7: Psycho

Psycho

I have seen Psycho many, many times over the years. I watched it again today, and as always I had a wonderful time. It's tense, exciting, funny, fascinating, and occasionally terrifying. I recommend this film to anyone and everyone, even people who don't like horror. There are only a handful of truly scary moments, and one of them is arguably the most famous scene in film history. The vast majority of the film is an engaging, twisting plot that goes from money to something very, very different. I would go as far as to say if you're only ever going to see one horror movie in your life, it should be this one (my personal favorite horror film is The Shining, but that's far too scary for anyone who doesn't like being scared).

I haven't done this on this blog before, but I'm going to leave two YouTube links here. (So hopefully this works.)

One is the original theatrical trailer for Psycho, which is Alfred Hitchcock himself giving you, the audience, a personal tour of the set of Psycho. It's the most bizarre trailer that's ever been made, like nothing ever done before or since.

The other link is from my favorite YouTube channel, Red Letter Media, talking about the history and the details of Psycho, because I think they detail it much better through their conversation than I could here on this blog. They also talk about Psycho II, which I have never seen but am now very curious because of their description of it.

Hithcock's Psycho Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTJQfFQ40lI

Red Letter Media Re-View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adGebPmRjxg

Please see Psycho. You won't regret it.

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 6: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 6: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Another low-budget cult classic that I've never seen before, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is notorious for being at least partly responsible for the NC-17 rating due to its disturbing nature. While not anymore violent than a typical slasher film or creepier than a typical exploitation film, there's a purposefully off-putting tone to the whole film that's made possible by its slow nature.

Spoilers.

I came into this film ready to watch Michael Rooker kill a bunch of people in darkly humorous and creative ways, and boy did I have the wrong mindset. There are only two on-screen deaths, with the rest of the murders only having their aftermath shown, and Henry's not even the most despicable character in the movie.

The large majority of the film is about Henry's roommate Otis' sister, Becky, coming down to visit them in their Chicago home. There's tons of footage of the three of them talking in their dark, dingy kitchen, purely for the purpose of character development. Otis is on probation but sells drugs from the gas station he works in and spends the rest of his time being generally creepy- including heavily flirting with his own sister. He's somehow more terrifying than Henry, who is a serial killer, mostly because creeps like Otis are far more common in the world than pathological murderers like Henry. Eventually Henry introduces Otis to the joys of killing people, which ultimately ends with Otis assaulting Becky, forcing Henry and Becky to kill him and dispose of his body. Then, after all of this, Henry kills Becky because he just can't help it. These are the main story beats of the film, with the rest being filled in by footage of Henry driving around Chicago and the main characters' many kitchen conversations.

The deliberate pacing of the film thoroughly surprised me, especially considering the film is under 90 minutes, and it may mean I have to watch it again at some point because I had wildly different expectations for what it ended up being. However, I do like the grimy, gross tone that writer/director John McNaughton was able to achieve with the film's tiny budget, almost entirely through implications as opposed to actual action. There's some great shots of Henry's dead victims, along with the sound of him murdering them, but the only truly violent onscreen moments are Otis shooting a helpful stranger and Henry killing Otis and dismembering his body.

If you're into serial killer films, this is a definite must, not just for its huge influence on later serial killer films, but for its realistic approach to showing what a serial killer is like when they aren't serial killing people. If you're just looking for a good scary movie to celebrate the Halloween season, this might be a little slower than what you want.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Documentaries don't often find their way to the theatrical spotlight - they have a much safer home on TV and internet streaming services. So when Won't You Be My Neighbor? made the box office top 10 on its first weekend and became the highest-grossing biographical (not nature, concert, or political) documentary of all time, it was clear that the world must be feeling nostalgic for someone as kind and understanding as Fred Rogers.

The film essentially functions as a summary of the broadcasting history of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, from its start as a low-budget public access TV show to its booming success as a low-budget public access TV show.

I was fascinated by all the coverage of this subject because I didn't personally grow up Rogers' show (I was more of a cartoon kid myself). So seeing all of the "dangerous" subject matter for children that he would cover in such a sweet, gentle way was absolutely mind-blowing for me to see for the first time. In the first week of his show he covered the Vietnam war, and went on to teach kids about any subject from divorce to how it's okay to feel sad or angry to death itself, all with a calm smile on his face. I can't help but feel like I missed out on watching something truly wonderful, which makes me all the happier that I watched this documentary.

Director Morgan Neville had previously won an Oscar for 20 Feet from Stardom (which I still haven't seen), and it's pretty safe to say he's a shoe-in for another one this year. That being said, while this is excellent coverage of the show and everyone who worked on it (from the fascinating actors to the hilariously mischievous crew to Rogers' own family), I'm not sure that we get enough of a glimpse into the man himself. Everyone interviewed says that the Rogers on the show is the same Rogers in real life, but I can't help but feel like he could've been explored further as a subject. Of course it's tough when the subject of the documentary is already dead, but I wanted to see more Fred Rogers. What was his relationship with his family like? His relationship with his wife seems great, but his sons seem somewhat distant. They said he would vent some of his anger and sadness through his piano playing, why not talk more about that? Perhaps it's to preserve the mystery and the public image that he kept so well by simply being who he is, and my asking to learn more about his personal life might be over the line. After all, this is purely a personal complaint. Neville clearly had a focused story that he wanted to tell and he accomplished that goal magnificently.

Anyone even moderately familiar with Mr. Rogers, whether it be through his show or through the many parodies of him (some he liked some he very didn't), should absolutely check this doc out. Just be ready for some serious feelings.