Films That Matter
Unwelcome Caller
Ah, Death, sometimes known as the Grim Reaper, has been depicted in so very many unique ways, with the most traditional being of the lineage of Victor Sjöström – who made the silent horror film The Phantom Carriage (1921)... which then inspired his protégée Ingmar Bergman (who watched the feature every year – usually on New Year’s Eve) with making his classic Black Death plague set film The Seventh Seal (1957). Having a laugh at that always winning Reaper, the 2011 horror comedy short The Coldest Caller, written and directed by Joe Tucker, is a four minute humour-filled foray into one such harrowing scenario. Exhuming some fun in a Monty Python-like sketch (specifically Monty Python’s Meaning of Life), when the ominous list-carrying Grim Reaper (Noel Byrne) – your typically towering, hidden gaunt figure dressed in all black, arrives on the cozey doorstep of one Mrs. Evans (Sheila Reid), the punctual old lady almost seems like she has already been waiting for him all day.
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You Better Watch Out…
Better Watch OutDecember 17, 2019If you’ve always thought that the Christmas classic Home Alone was a bit sadistic, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Better Watch Out, co-written and directed by Chris Peckover (the story was conceived by Zach Kahn – who also co-wrote the script), plays like a combination of the above mentioned Chris Columbus directed, John Hughes scribed film, and a twist on the home-invasion horror sub-genre – something along the lines of When a Stranger Calls or The Strangers. A tough sell during the holidays, Better Watch Out really didn’t deliver at the box office, yet, in its three years since its 2016 release, it has slowly built a cult following. Twisty as much as it is twisted, Peckover relishes in this horror-fused Hughes-style world. Set in an upper-middle class home, it could sit on the same cold wintery Chicago street found in the 90s gem.
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A Shot in the Dark
Lights OutOctober 31, 2019I’ve always been a fan of horror films that leave the monstrous villain lingering hidden in the darkness. . . viewers’ minds bringing forth much scarier visions than what would usually come by way of CGI or makeup. A film that faithfully follows this rule (both literally and figuratively) is the 2016 horror flick Lights Out, directed by David F. Sandberg. Based off of the director’s own 2013 short film of the same name
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Out of the Pits
RabidOctober 29, 2019Only David Cronenberg’s second feature film (which he both writes and directs), 1977's Rabid continues his precedence for a very unique form of horror, often referred to as ‘body horror’. . . a study in human beings, their fears, apprehensions, an awkwardness revolving around their own (and others’) bodies. Set in and around one of the most unique cities in North America – Montreal, the genesis event finds a couple, Rose (pornstar Marilyn Chambers) and Hart (Frank Moore), getting in a horrific motorcycle accident in the country. Though Hart is beat up, it is Rose that is truly in rough shape. Stranded in a most unpopulated place, they are fortunate that the exclusive Dr. Keloid Clinic for Plastic Surgery (a sort of touch up resort) is nearby. . . taking the severely injured woman in for immediate surgery.
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Things That Go Bump In the Night
The NurseWhisperOctober 27, 2019A double feature brimming with atmospheric terror, The Nurse and Whisper, both released in 2017 by filmmaker Julian Terry (with each running exactly two minutes), revel in the unknown that lies just beyond our vision and understanding. . . The Nurse finds poor little Emily (Aria Walters) – a young girl, alone in a hospital late one night (waiting for her mother to return). With some sort of eye issue, bandages cover her main sense. . . vision gone, her hearing amplifies, picking up what appears to be the sound of a nurse’s cart being pushed into her room – yet, when she calls out for whoever is there, eerily, no answer comes.
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Slow Mo
EndlessOctober 18, 2019Opening with a quotation from Dr. David Eagleman, “When your death is near, time will seem to slow to a crawl”, writer/director/producer Matt Bloom takes these words to heart, his horror short film Endless (2011) an eight minute hors d’oeuvre shot entirely in slow motion (you don’t see that everyday). Showing every minute detail, what would in reality be a thirty second action scene slows to a crawl, an intense roller coaster ride full of intricate twists as well as dramatic ebbs and flows of mixed emotions. You wouldn’t think that thirty seconds of anything could lead to more ups and downs, but Bloom takes what looks to be a thrilling possible murder scene (like something you would see in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho), and tweaks it in a unique way where things are not what they seem.
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Witchy Woman
Black SundayOctober 14, 2019Watching Mario Bava’s first credited directorial effort, Black Sunday (1960), is like experiencing those magical Universal monster movies from the 1930s and 40s for the first time. . . with a palpable atmosphere and a rich grounding of very specific lore (that would influence future films for decades to come – much like vampire lore, the crucifix still plays a crucial role), this fantastical tale of witchcraft cannot be easily forgotten. Opening with the gruesome genesis scene (a sort of flashback to the seventeenth century) that will carry the movie, a stunning witch has been cornered along with her servile lover Igor Javutich (Arturo Dominici). . . the clerics, along with the pitchfork and fire wielding townsfolk, know of only one way to vanquish the evil foe – to first pierce her face with a mask version of an iron maiden and then burn her at the stake. . . but, soon after accomplishing the first task, a rain like no other scatters the horde (as if the storm itself was summoned by Satan), the priests forced to bury the pair separately with a number of safeguards in place.
