Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 31

Day 31: The Legend of Hell House

This is the final entry in my 31 Day Halloween Movie Marathon, and I'm pretty glad this is the one I'm landed on.

Released in 1973, this film came out after the slew of haunted house films from the 1960's, which all follow very similar tropes. The Legend of Hell House begins as a deconstruction of haunted house films, with a group of intelligent, professional paranormal investigators being assigned to the notorious Belasco House. They're not scared, quite the opposite, this is their job and they're quietly fascinated by the ghostly happenings in the house.

After a certain point though, they begin to each get more than they bargained for, and it kind of just becomes a haunted house movie. It's nothing against the movie, I like haunted house stories and this one's perfectly serviceable, but I think I was misled by the unconventional characters at the start.

What makes this a great Halloween movie is all of the classic haunted house imagery, which is captured with excellent cinematography.

Pamela Franklin, who gave a brilliant performance as a child in The Innocents, easily gives the best performance of Hell House, going from a consummate professional to possessed by a serial killer to terrified by the house to completely insane all in a relatively short amount of time.

While it's not the deconstructionist movie I was hoping for, it's still a pretty unsettling haunted house film that's perfect for Halloween.

Thanks for reading my dumb stuff! Happy Halloween!

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 30

Day 30: The Frighteners

This is the last film Peter Jackson made before making the Lord of the Rings movies, and it is weird with a beard.

Starring Michael J. Fox as a conman who can see ghosts, he becomes the only guy who can get to the bottom of a mysterious killing spree.

This script is so well-constructed and clever, it's clear that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh spent a lot of time fleshing out this project.

While not all of the humorous dialogue works, the performances often sold it, especially in the case of Jeffrey Combs, who is delightfully over-the-top as always playing an FBI investigator the likes of which I don't think has ever been seen.

One element I simply couldn't get my head around was the occasional visit from R. Lee Ermey who is literally just playing Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket but as a ghost, and he's never particularly important to the story so it makes even less sense as to why he's there and causes him stick out even more.

The score by Danny Elfman is basically every score by Danny Elfman, but it perfectly fits the tone of the movie.

While the sets, make-up, and practical effects are great, the CGI is unfortunately dated and cartoony, which can sometimes be distracting, and a bit surprising considering how far Weta went with digital technology in Lord of the Rings, but the story and characters anchored my investment.

The movie is very fast-paced and has a lot going on at all times, especially since Michael J. Fox is always seeing ghosts so every scene he's in automatically has at least two layers going simultaneously.

It's a crazy movie, but it's a ton of fun, very well thought-out, and a great one to watch for Halloween.

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 29

Day 29: Village of the Damned

There were a couple old horror films that my dad had described to me as a child, such as The Bad Seed and Scanners, and one of them was "about a group of these creepy, possessed kids."

A film that certainly has a place in pop culture, Village of the Damned is a wonderfully demented take on virgin birth. Two months after a bizarre event where the entire village of Midwich collectively passes out, the women of the town all become mysteriously pregnant. The resulting children are advanced beyond their years, are all blonde, and all have an unsettlingly polite way of speaking. Things only get worse from there.

While the film is small in terms of budget and length, it has big ideas and memorable, if not disturbing images and themes.

The performances, particularly from the children, are truly great, though the adults hold their own as well (Barbara Shelley in the court scene and George Sanders in the final scene come to mind).

The camera is moving a lot, which is strange for a lower budget movie like this, but it makes the film a lot more dynamic and interesting to watch.

A surprisingly twisted film for its time, it still holds up today on the creep factor.

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 28

Day 28 - Train to Busan

Released last year, this Korean zombie film is available on Netflix and you should watch it now if you haven't already, because holy wow is this one a ride. 

Putting the running theme of empathy to the hardest test it can be put in: a survival situation, there are few films with both physical and emotional stakes that are taken this high. 

A divorced, inadvertently selfish father takes his daughter to go see her mother in Busan, but a zombie virus has begun and has spread to passengers in the train. 

Keeping the concept and story simple, what's complicated are the emotions that the characters go through. Almost all of the characters are three dimensional and interesting without giving a bunch of explanation as to who they are. 

The only character who I could consider stock is a man who does many despicable, unforgivable things, all in the name of survival. It seems like he's purely put there to emotionally manipulate the audience into hating him, but even he still technically has a justification for his actions so he doesn't quite fall into that trope. 

The visuals are great, with some really unique zombie action (these are the modern, 28 Days Later fast zombies, not the classic slow ones). 

The emotional aspect is played up right to the point of saccharine but it never crosses that line, and there's plenty of action and zombie gore to satisfy the hardcore horror fans. 

This is definitely one I don't want to spoil, but I will say that I was at the edge of my seat the entire time, and by the last third I was floating in mid-air, almost literally glued to the screen. Go watch it.

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 27

Day 27: Horror of Dracula

My first Hammer film, this is one I've been meaning to watch for many years and am so glad I finally did. 

I love the gothic sets and costumes, and putting them all through the filter of gorgeous technicolor brings it all to an even higher visual level. 

With a handful of exceptions, the story is mostly the classic tale of Dracula. Christopher Lee's Dracula is more menacing and violent than Lugosi's more subtle interpretation of the role. There's really not enough of him in the movie, as he only has 13 lines. For me the standout performance of this film is Peter Cushing, who begins as a doctor that is so believable I wouldn't think twice about letting the actor operate on me, and seamlessly becomes an action hero in the finale, sprinting and jumping all over the gorgeous sets. Carol Marsh is also fantastic as Lucy, going from an innocent British girl to an unhinged animal in the blink of an eye. 

There's overt sexuality and violence throughout the film that would certainly be exciting for an audience in the 1950's, and I believe it would still be considered exciting today. 

It definitely earns its place as a horror classic.

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 26

Day 26: Shaun of the Dead

Tonight I went to the Greek Theater in LA for my very first outdoor screening to see my absolute favorite movie of all time: Shaun of the Dead. 

Edgar Wright and Lucy Davis presented the film live, and Simon Pegg did as well by hilarious video. Before the film played, Edgar Wright had us all honor the late George A. Romeo by doing a collective zombie moan, which was a very memorable and special thing. 

This was also my first time seeing Shaun with an audience, which is always a new experience for a favorite movie. Right away I noticed that the audience didn't laugh at the British-specific references, namely the Cornetto name-drop. But when they did laugh they laughed hard, which made it a very fun experience. 

Every time I watch the movie I find something new, and this time I noticed the connection between hog lumps being thrown at Shaun's face in the beginning of the film, then him catching the hog lumps towards the end of the film. 

This is a movie I can watch anywhere at anytime and will consistently react the same way every time. I love this movie both in sickness and health, and it will take death to tear me apart from it. It's my happy place. Here's to watching it a hundred more times. At least.

I'll talk more about this movie later.

(Shout out to Zach, Tawny, Jeff, Krista, Olivia, and Tyson for coming out!)

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 25

Day 25: Only Lovers Left Alive

A movie that is unapologetically its own thing, a staple of any Jim Jarmusch film, this one tells the tale of a hipster vampire couple. 

I remember seeing the trailers for this film and being annoyed at how hipster it looked, and please don't let me be misunderstood, this movie has many hipster elements (one of the vampires owns a visible copy of Infinite Jest, not kidding), but there's something very hypnotic about both the tone and the deliberate pacing of the film that keeps the annoyance at bay, as if the movie itself is a vampire putting the viewer in a trance. 

There's not much in the way of story structure (another staple of Jarmusch's), instead it's more of a look at a week in the lives of this married couple who've been together for over a century. 

What makes it unique in terms of a vampire story is the characters' connection to music, philosophy, literature, etc. in that they've met and witnessed many famous artists. Art is the one thing they feel the "zombies" (their term for us mere mortals) actually did right, a sense of superiority that of course also falls into the hipster category. 

At one point Mia Wasikowska's character actually accuses Adam and Eve (the lead couple) of being hipsters, bringing to light the idea that Jarmusch knew that that's exactly how others would view these characters. This opens up a whole other theory about this entire film being an exploration of making the act of being contrarian an entire lifestyle, literally making these hipster characters an entirely different species from humans, exactly how a true-to-definition hipster would view themselves.

The acting is great, particularly Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, though a special shoutout goes to the late Anton Yelchin, who I didn't even recognize until I remembered seeing his name at the beginning and realized that guy with the beard was him. 

It's a very odd film and certainly not for everyone, but if you're down for a slow-paced, voyeuristic experience that feels more like a hangout than a structured movie with set-ups and pay-offs, then you'll definitely enjoy it.