'Ring'

A horror film about a ghoul that scares people to death. The victims aren't eaten or beaten. They see what they see and their heart stops with fear.

Now that's a horror film.

'Black Sunday'

Black Sunday refers to a number of things: The death of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, the day the Denver International Airport Automated Guideway Transit System failed, the opening of Disneyland, the day the Colony Shale Oil Project was dissolved, the 1984 Super Bowl, a pair of fires in Australia and a day at Bondi Beach in Australia when a giant wave hit and killed five bathers.

 

In this instance, however, we refer to the 1960 Italian horror film, which was also titled Revenge of the Vampire and The Mask of Satan depending on which country you saw it in.

For a long time, it was heavily censored or banned altogether for its graphic blood and violence. Just shows how numb I am to it all because I just thought I was watching a pretty ordinary horror film of the time.

Except this movie is way creeper and an awesome addition to the “vampire in film” narrative. 

The film is apparently based on Nic Gogol’s story Viy as is the Russian film Vij so it makes me want to read it because neither movie is very much like the other.

'Viy'

It only took 50 years, but Viy was Russia's first horror film. Congratulations.

Written by Nikolai Gogol, an adaptation of this 1967 film was set to be released recently, the 200th birthday celebration for ol' Nik. Oddly enough, I can't

Will admit, for their first time, the Russians did it right. Viy is an extremely creepy and skin-crawling horror film.

So, why didn't the Soviet Russians make horror films?

They saw film as a means of education and revolution, first and foremost. By the time Stalin got in power in the late-1920s, Western films were rarely seen and any films imitating that of Western art were looked down upon if not directly censored.

Generally, horror films are about the unknown, the supernatural and the irrational -- all opposite values of communism.

Once the Thaw started and Russian cinema got new life, filmmakers and filmgoers sought art that connected to their own lives. Any deviation tended to side with the allegories of science fiction. Also, the Russians didn't identify with the alienation of horror films as until 1968 it was a period of relative hope.

Horror films really never caught up in Russia until the 1980s.

'The Haunting'

If you ask a dozen people who the best film directors of all time are, I would bet Robert Wise probably doesn't come up. Maybe once.

Fact is, Wise won Best Director and Best Picture Academy Awards for The Sound of Music and West Side Story. Furthermore, his filmography expands to sci-fi (the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and Star Trek), horror (The Haunting, Audrey Rose) to the random thriller-drama.

Still, he's often criticized for not being an "auteur" like Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock. That to me is like saying Hank Aaron wasn't a very good defensive outfielder. Maybe the criticism sticks, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that he was very good.

What's more, Wise started out as an editor and was nominated for another Academy Award in the category for Citizen Kane (he did not win). His editing work can be seen on Dance, Girl, Dance, The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat and The Magnificent Ambersons. It's hard to find anyone in film with all of those movies under his sleeve.

'Cat People' & 'The Seventh Victim'

Cat People was the unofficial prequel to The Seventh Victim made just two years before. A prequel only in that it was produced by the same guy and both co-starred Tom Conway as Dr. Louis Judd.

The odd thing is that it is intimated that Dr. Judd is killed by the cat woman in Cat People. Then he shows back up in The Seventh Victim, up to his ambiguously old tricks where you can't quite figure out of if he's a good guy or not. I tend to think not.

I find these films very interesting because them much like The Masque of Red Death deal with some very dark themes including Satanism. Maybe these evils seemed all too real in what we would consider a pretty straight-laced society. In the 1940s, a real evil existed in the Soviet Union and Germany. They had to seem other worldly and extreme much like the characters and demons existing in these films.

Simone Simon starred as the cat lady in Cat People. She was established in France and at the age of 24 she was signed to a contract by an American production company. Each attempt failed in the United States. Cat People is her biggest hit in the States. She made one film past 1956. She's 94 and hasn't done a film since 1973. Fallen totally off the radar.

It is notable that Simon had an affair with George Gershwin and Dusko Popov. Gershwin we know. Popov we don't. The relationship with Popov got the attention of the FBI as he was a double agent for the Germans and the British, apparently he was more of a teammate for the British than he was for the Germans.

Anyway, Popov had another acquaintance: Ian Fleming, who would allegedly use Popov, a ladies man, was the inspiration for James Bond.

Fun facts.

'Les Diaboliques'

Diabolique is the most fascinating story I've had the pleasure of watching in a film.

So good, that Alfred Hitchcock lost out in the bidding for the script, apparently just hours too late. It served as an inspiration for Psycho and it goes down, without a doubt, as one of the greatest thriller-horror films of all time.

That's quite the testimony.

Diabolique is set at a boys boarding school in the French countryside. It is run by Michel, who is married to Christina, the school's owner and a teacher. However, Michel openly flaunts an affair with the young Nicole (who we suspect is abusive to her), who has a good relationship with Christina in a kind of anti-Michel anti-fan club.

The pair conspire to kill Michel. They lure him outside the school, sedate him, drown him and put his body in a wicker chest and at the bottom of the school's swimming pool with the idea that it'll float to the top and look like an accident.

It doesn't and the pool is drained to find no body.

During a school photo, Michel is seen in the back of the shot. At another moment, a boy breaks a window with a slingshot that he claims he received from Michel. One dark evening, Christina is spooked by sounds in the school corridors. When she comes back to her room she finds ...

I can't spoil the movie. Why? Because it was one of the first (if not the first) films in history to issue an anti-spoiler alert at the end of the movie. Trust me, it's worth it.

'The Blair Witch Project'

Nothing rocked the socks off us kids more than The Blair Witch Project. Everyone now would like to pretend it wasn't creepy as shit or that it was terribly overrated.

Instead, it was a miracle in filmmaking, guerrilla in nature and a marvel in marketing.

First, the marketing. Before the film even came out, the studio unveiled a multi-pronged multi-media marketing campaign, probably one of the most extensive that almost primarily utilized the Internet to create a deafening buzz about their film. There was a website along with fake news stories and reports concerning the disappearance of three university filmmakers in the Maryland woods while making a documentary about a witch legend.

The rumors that it was a hoax was a mere whisper, a passing breeze.

The film came and it rocked us to the core. The pace was frightening. The minimal build-up dashes directly into this unforgiving, desperate situation involving these three people, almost strangers tied together in this shocking turn of events.

The "cast" were given directions in milk cartons and each individual were given direction in their attitudes and behaviors. They were harrassed at night and deprived of food and sleep. If they looked like shit, it's because they no doubt felt like it. If they look terrified, it's probably because they were a little.

It ended as every horror film -- everyone dying.

Those who deem it overrated are too chicken to admit it was pretty scary, and to deny that it wasn't a brilliant move in marketing and creating a film is insane.

'Halloween'

Halloween was a film that I thought I might have once seen as a child, but I couldn't honestly tell you enough about that memory to be 100 percent for sure.

Chances are, I had never seen it up until this year. I remember watching slasher and horror movies growing up, especially when I was really young. I remember our local channel 11 used to not be a network station in Dallas-Fort Worth. Basically, they had syndicated sitcoms and movies. They'd play the same movies over and over like Batteries Not Included, Short Circuit, The Three Amigos, Spaceballs and horror films like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.

I watched these films as a young child. Like six or seven years old. Nowadays, I wouldn't let my kid anywhere near movies like these.

Even today, you don't see horror films shown on TV. Probably because they're a lot more hardcore and bloody. And the language has been taken up a notch.

You probably wonder why horror films are still made. Question back to you: When's the last time you went to the theaters to see a horror film? Depending on how old you are, possible 20 years. Horror films are for the young and dumb. Nothing wrong with them, but you're not targetting the mid-aged intellectual with these films.

Anyway, they're still made because they are incredibly cheap to make: Typically very short, never starring anyone of substance, no special effects, no promotion.

Halloween alone cost $320,000 and it made $47 million on its initial release. This doesn't include VHS and DVD sales and all the ancillary cash that rolls in over time. With profits like that, why wouldn't you keep making them?

'The Shining'

No other film that I've reviewed here has had so many talking points as much as The Shining.

First, it's one of the few films in the 1,001 list that were trashed when they first came out and only after time where they reconsidered and labeled really good. Even Stephen King, the author of the book, didn't like the original complaining about Stanley Kubrick's "thinking" instead of "feeling." Which is kind of bullshit. If you want some shitty director doing a page-by-page reproduction of the book, then fine. Hire one.

But if you want someone that will give the story a different direction and perspective, then you get Kubrick to do it.

And, frankly, I think King goofs up a lot of great stories himself. Who says that the book is always better just because it came first? Man-eating topiaries? Seriously?

Anyway, fine detail that I missed in the film that was in the book was that Jack Torrance was kind of possessed by the demon(s) of the Overlook Hotel and in a brief moment of clarity brought along by Danny, Jack allows Wendy, his son and Dick to escape.

That detail is altered by another change of character from the book to the film. That is Jack's temperment. In the book, he's a good guy with an occassional bad temper, who desperately loves his son. What we don't know in the film is that Jack was fired from the teaching job because he beat the snot out of a kid. Thus he needs the hotel job.

It's that love for his son and eventually beat the hotel as he allows the boiler to overheat, another plot mechanism missing from the film.

Frankly, there's a lot missing, but nothing that takes away from the film. On their own, each holds up really well.

Then there's the different discussion points about the film. The difference between the two Gradys. Jack's history with the hotel and him being included in the picture.

Then there's Kubrick's issues. His apparent obsession with the Holocaust and the symbolism of the Native Americans. There's tons of other social issues that you can argue about regarding The Shining.

Or you can take it as simply the best horror film ever.

'Suspiria'

What is it about witches that makes them so much more horrifying than other supernatural beings in film?

I think it's because unlike vampires, Frankenstein, ghosts and whatnot, a witch chooses a certain path and that route has everything to do with conjuring Satan. Those others don't have a choice. Frankenstein was made. Vampires are victims of other vampires. Ghosts just want some sort of end to their existence.

Witches, on the other hand, have a yen for evil and the dark side of spirituality. So they get together and start dealing with the devil, quite literally.

Suspiria, I've got to admit threw me for a loop. I didn't know where everything was going until our heroine did and when it happen it scared the bejesus out of me. Much in the same vein of the jokers in Rosemary's Baby, the thought that witches are just ominiously lurking about looking for an unsuspected person to improve their cause triples the oddness of the witch. Witches also do creepy things like brainwash, snip people's hair, brew concoctions and harrass filmmakers like in The Blair Witch Project, which was creepy too.

According to the co-writer on the film, it was inspired by the experiences of her grandmother. We are thus led to believe that her grandmother was taught by a coven of witches at a dance school in Munich. I guess.

'The Black Cat'

I love the Wikipedia page for The Black Cat. It has general information and also a summarization of the film's plot.

It goes into detail of the train ride, the accident and all of the tension and bickering between Bela Legosi's and Boris Karloff's characters.

Then, as almost an afterthought, whoever wrote this plot mentions that Karloff's character is going to sacrifice the girl in a Satanic ritual. No big deal. Just a sub-plot of human sacrifice.

Speaking of, I heard one of the Tea Party candidates, just before the recent elections, opined on the very real problem of human sacrifice in the United States. She was not elected. I don't know why.

The Black Cat is a very dark film in case the inclusion of Karloff or Legosi wasn't clue enough. It's very much in the same vein of Edgar Allen Poe, who is credited in the film; however, the film itself bears nothing in resemblance with Poe's short story of the same name.

Karloff's Poelzig was created with the famed occultist Aleister Crowley in mind. And nothing's creepier than Mr. Crowley.

'The Wolf Man'

Coincidentally, I received The Wolf Man, the 1941 horror classic, via Netflix on Oct. 30 -- the day before Halloween.

Considering its 70 years old and it was Halloween, I watched it with my four-year-old daughter. Of all parently things I've learned, determining what is appropriate for my child to watch or listen to has been one of the hardest.

I grew up in the 1980s watching horror films throughout that were 100 times more horrific and graphic than The Wolf Man. Then again, I lived a childhood scared to death of the dark, of monsters, of going to sleep (thanks to Wes Craven) and had vivid and awful nightmares.

Fortunately, my kid's pretty sharp. She said that she would probably have bad dreams with the wolf man in them, although I reasoned with her that the wolf man was, in fact, extremely silly and no harm to anyone.

I don't think anything in black and white can really strike fear in my kid's heart.

'The Sixth Sense'

I first saw this film in college during one of those "movie nights" in the math building. I'd never seen it nor did I really know any kind of spoiler in regards to the twist.

Frankly, it freaked me out. Scared me shitless. Not knowing what to expect, the unexpected took me by total surprise. It still kind of freaks me out. I know I'm supposed to say that I knew Bruce Willis was dead the entire time and that it doesn't scare me now, but it does.

There's something about the woman who cut her wrists and the boy that accidentally blew his brains out that always gets me. The way they walk past, almost a blur. Like they're shadows.

This is just one of four horror films all time to get an Oscar nod. It is a really good film. Frankly, M. Night Shyamalan hasn't done a decent movie since, but I think he still gets opportunities because of The Sixth Sense. They're waiting for him to lure the filmgoers back with that twist. Hasn't happened since.

'Scream'

I saw Scream in the theaters way back in 1996 as a teenager. I thought it was pretty scary. I guess. It was very entertaining and, watching it today, it stands up pretty well. There is the archaic use of the cell phone. But it was 1996. What were they supposed to do?

It was a gigantic success. It garnered more than $173 million in the box office. At the time, I didn't remember many horror-slasher films before. Afterward, these films crawled out of the woodwork and, today, you can't go three weeks without there being a new one released. Again, maybe they were always being released, but at the time, it seemed that Scream re-launched this genre and 14 years later it still thrives.

The most fascinating aspect of the film (in fact, much of the dialogue revolves around this theme) is its reliance on referencing past horror-slasher films.

In the opening scene, Drew Barrymore's character is quizzed on her knowledge of slasher classes like Friday the 13th and Halloween. One of the characters -- the comic relief, Randy -- works at a video store (an essential profession in pre-DVD 1996) and has a encyclopedic knowledge of horror films and the "rules" of surviving a slasher film.

This is the same as an action film using Die Hard as a reference to surviving and beating the bad guy. Or a comedy using the jokes from Airplane! All of this doesn't make sense, but it makes perfect sense for the horror-slasher genre because it's simple and because it's the only film genre in which the viewer thinks they could do a "better job" than the actual characters.

Nobody watches Die Hard and thinks they could beat the bad guy better. They watch it to live an unreal scenario with a fake person. Nobody thinks they could figure out Diane Keaton in Annie Hall better than Woody Allen. Nor does anyone think they're actually funnier than Judd Apatow or Don Rickles.

It's relatively minor, but important part of Scream and something nobody else could pull off.

Interesting production note: Apparently one of the executive producers did not like the mask. So he was going to have the crew try out other masks. Frankly, that's a creepy ass mask and I couldn't imagine them using any other one.

'The Wicker Man'

To me, what makes The Wicker Man extraordinarily creepy is that the film is based upon something that is very real. That actually existed.

I don't know if there are witches, vampires, zombies, demons or people with supernatural powers or whatever.

But The Wicker Man deals nothing with that. It's an isolated island in the north of Scotland, who still practices Celtic paganism. Something that existed or still exists.

Why do other oddball, rarely-practiced religions freak us out? How is paganism any more weird than Christianity or Islam? It's not. But we don't see it every day. Plus, religion is a frontrunner's game. We all assume that if you're going to join a team, you join someone in or around first place.

When other's don't -- when they join the Kansas City Royals of religions -- it strikes us as odd considering religions, we think, are chosen. They do not choose us. So why choose something less popular?

That's the source of the creepiness of The Wicker Man. It's nothing supernatural, scary or grotesque. It's just weird and foreign. Those two tenants give us the heeby-jeebies more than anything else in the world. Good horror and suspence do that to you.

It has made me read more about Celtic pagansim than ever before. It's a fascinating advancement in religion and belief. All of us humans waiting around for some answer to fall down from the sky.

Thankfully, it co-stars the gorgeous -- and naked! -- Britt Ekland.

'An American Werewolf In London'

I was initially surprised to see this film on the 1,001 list because I just assumed it was about as dumb as you can get.

Don't get me wrong, this film is dumb. Yet, I watched it straight through and didn't come out thinking I'd wasted an hour and a half of my time. It was entertaining. The acting is about as bad as you get post 1970.

The writing is whatever. The plot is about as shakey as you can get, even for a film about werewolves.

I mean, the most unbelievable aspect of the entire film is that jackwagon David sleeping with the nurse, which is ridiculous. No way someone that hot with a career as a nurse (sworn to care for and ease discomfort of her patients) is going to sleep with the dorkiest and personality-deprived American like David. Just isn't happening. He'd have a better shot at becoming a werewolf.

In this film, he did both.

The film impressed/surprised on two fronts. The sex scene and the scene in the adult film house were shocking. I couldn't believe how graphic they got.

Secondly, the make-up jobs on the dead friend, Jack, the other werewolf victims and even the stormtroopers in David's dream are really, really good. The gore in this film was surprising because I thought they would play it safe. Instead, this is a very edgy film with sex and violence. I love both.

'Vampyr'

Doesn't it look cooler whenever people spell it "vampyr?" I think so. It looks so ancient and real. As if misspelling the name makes vampires real.

Several odd notes about this film:

For one, the cinematographer allegedly half-exposed a can of film. Apparently, Theodor Dreyer loved the effect. Thus, the film has a very white, overexposed look to it.

Also, star Julian West helped finance the film and got a producer's credit. West would live another 49 years but never officially have anything to do with the film industry again.

Following Vampyr in 1932, it'd be another decade before Dreyer would direct another film due mostly to funding issues.

'Audition'

Truly one of the more grisly films I've ever seen. Makes your skin crawl.

I'm not alone. In screenings in Ireland, filmgoers apparently were passing out. Feminists have complained that the film backs up every female stereotype known to man.

Of course, you could take that criticism and turn it around and make the film itself a criticism of those same stereotypes. Art, it's fantastic!

The creepiest aspect of Audition is that this poor man is being physically and emotionally tortured, but that we don't know why he's being tortured like he is. Was it because he was attempting to meet a wife under false pretenses? If so, wouldn't that mean that just about every person with a penis should have his feet lopped off with a wire?

There's other forces afoot. Bad things happening to good people even if its unfair is understandable if there's some sort of reason. Because there is no reason, it scares you even more. Randomness ain't cool.

'I Walked With A Zombie'

Interestingly, this film was developed from the title. Has this every happened? How hard would that be.

If you started with There Will Be Blood, how do you write a story about an oil tycoon? I guess it's a matter of an earlier age when you didn't necessarily make titles cute or thought provoking. You named a movie after the book or whatever the movie is about.

These days we have to be cute or edgy. Like Maid in Manhattan. It's about a maid.

Ironically, I Walked With A Zombie isn't about zombies in the traditional sense and since this was probably the first ever zombie movie, it's also ironic that the "traditional" connotation of a zombie is not based on the original, pop culture reference.

The "zombie" in the film is actually a catatonic woman, who may or may not be dead (and thus, may or may not be a zombie ... as zombies are dead) or may or may not be being voodooed by the local African slaves.

I actually don't know if this is every really cleared up. I mean, the story gets really convoluted as things take place and the writing is so bad that by the end, you really don't know what happened. Other than the non-zombie dying. Now she can be a real zombie.

'Candyman'

I wonder what our fascination is with the horror or slasher film?

Generally, we avoid otherwordly ne'er-do-wells with machetes, hooks, chainsaws and razors for fingers.

This is especially true if they are incapable of really dying, exist in our dreams or are bitter about dying in the first place.

Living is pretty cool, too.

So, why is it that we keep watching these films? They've existed since the media began (Les Vampires, Nosferatu). To a less-gory degree, Edgar Allen Poe were writing such stories in the mid-1800s.

Still, we keep coming back for more.

I think we like the adrenaline that runs through our bodies as we see other people running for their lives and the sheer orgasmic horror as we try to escape the clutches of a merciless sociopathic murderer for them.

Also, there's always some kind of bit. If it's the Saw guy, he sets up some kind of game or psychological test.

Maybe it's stumbling along in a hockey mask or the skin of someone else. Using a chainsaw or some sort of weapon. Maybe it's their wardrobe or having hundreds of pins sticking out of your head.

Either way, we'll never see another film about a real mass murderer outside of Silence of the Lambs and it ceases to be just weird, a game or even a movie. A Jeffrey Dahmer or John Gacy biopic would never, ever work. People want their horror to be utterly ridiculous.