Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973): 7/10

Blac's back, and with foxy young Pam Grier, to boot.

Love '70s Pam Grier...but I find a lot of those blaxpolitation flicks to be a tiresome sit as I get older. Cool music, a couple of funny lines, but production values usually below a typical episode of Streets of San Francisco.

Sinister (2012): 7.5/10

Spine-tingling creeps from Scott Derrickson, who made the fine Exorcism Of Emily Rose (and went on to make the lousy remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still). Definitely the scary movie to see in theaters this Halloween season (hopefully with a great sound system).

I also like to watch scary movies/thrillers around Halloween. Earlier this week I watched Wait Until Dark, which I had never seen before. Very entertaining. I loved the way the little details of the plot in the first two acts set up the suspense of the third act. It didn’t bother me at all that the movie was clearly made from a stage play. I don’t get to see plays all that often so what’s wrong with a movie that basically recreates the experience? I was horrified to learn (through the DVD extras) that Quentin Tarantino played the Alan Arkin character in a 90’s revival on Broadway.

I also watched The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the 1949 Disney film. Only the Sleepy Hollow story is Halloween themed and it was actually the weaker of the two stories. Bing Crosby does a nice job narrating and singing the story but it’s awfully dull until we finally get to the Headless Horseman. Far better was the Mr. Toad segment.

I got Paranormal Activity 3 from the library tonight and will try and watch sometime this weekend.

John

Thanks John!

I'm going through more of the Universal Monsters set later this evening!

AndyDursin wrote:Thanks John!

I'm going through more of the Universal Monsters set later this evening!

Finally feeling better?

Monterey Jack wrote:

AndyDursin wrote:Thanks John!

I'm going through more of the Universal Monsters set later this evening!

Finally feeling better?

Yeah, FINALLY. Thanks for asking. No new column this week though...had to take a break.

How long were you sick, two weeks? That's rough.

Monterey Jack wrote:How long were you sick, two weeks? That's rough.

Took a good 10 days to really get over it. No fever, just a bad cough/headcold.

Dead Snow (2009): 7.5/10

Zombies and Nazis...like peanut butter and chocolate.

Intruders (2011): 6.5/10

Eh. Some creepy imagery, but once the connection between the two parallel narratives has been established, it all falls apart.

The Mothman Prophecies (2002): 9/10

Here's an underrated gem...a movie with virtually nothing in the way of overt horror that skillfully maintains a fever pitch of suffocating uneasiness throughout, with all of its seemingly nebulous potents of doom climaxing with a bravura setpiece that puts most contrived M. Night Shyamalan screenplays to shame. I'd buy a Blu-Ray relase of this tomorrow.

Been a huge fan of MOTHMAN since I reviewed it when it came out. Criminally underrated film -- suspenseful, also strangely moving -- with excellent performances across the board. Blows most any of the current "horror" films I see today out of the water.

Indeed, it was your rave for the film a decade ago that made me give it a chance when it hit DVD, and its been rotating in and out of my Halloween lineup for a whie now (although this is the first time I've sat down and watched it for a few years). Richard Gere has rarely been better, Laura Linney and especially Will Patton offer able support, and the final bridge setpiece is just sensationally visualized (and done almost entirely with large-scale minature effects, which still to this day beat the pants off of CGI). There are elements that seem tossed it just for the sake of random weirdness (who was appearing on Patton's porch the two nights before Gere showed up in town, and to what purpose?), but the overall effect is just inherently engrossing and draws you in. A shame that director Mark Pellington hasn't done anything of note since...I looked him up on Wikipedia, and he's done like three movies since Mothman, not one I've seen or even heard of.

Paranormal Activity 3 6/10
Better than the second installment but still can't compare to the sense of mounting dread that made the first one so frightening. A plot element added as an explanaation fo what's going on doesn't work at all.

The Woman in Black 3/10
Daniel Radcliffe is fine and the production design is great but there are a ridiculous amount of musical "stingers" that got very annoying. Also has a bad ending.

Sinister 7.5/10
I appreciated the director's approach to telling a story about the horrific nature of evil by emphasizing the selfish and dangerous behavior of the main character. The scenes near the end with the deputy and the wife were crucial to the story and very well acted. I also liked the use of music which was quite deliberate and went beyond mere "scary" music.

John