October Horror Movie Challenge: Day 2

Today I started off early with The Pit and the Pendulum before class.Although I had been ignoring most Vincent Price movies for years (for no real reason) I decided to give it a go to sync up with the 60s theme suggested for today via DVDTalk. It turned out to be a fairly good movie and I'm glad I watched it.

I may have not been able to appreciate Price much in the past (previous features include The Last Man on Earth and House of Wax) but this time it felt different. He seems to really embody characters. Sure, he might give them a very theatrical edge, but that just seems to be the kind of actor he is. Besides, when he's working off of Poe work like this film it makes sense that everything might be a bit grandiose. Either way, it was a fine movie and managed to be enjoyable.

After my first class I decided to give another movie a go. The selection was The Innocents and also falls into the 60s category. Anyway, something that I didn't mention previously is that movies pre 70s tend to worry me. I get scared that I won't enjoy them because they're too far gone into some form of horror that just doesn't work today. I feel the same about the bunches of famous horror movie monsters in the early years of film. It probably isn't true, but it's a feeling I hold onto and one big reason that older films are avoided.

Anyway, let's talk about The Innocents. I didn't expect to enjoy it but ended up finding it a nice film. More than that, parts of it were quite creepy and still held up to this day. There were no ridiculous monsters and not even boo moments but it managed to be incredibly good at getting you into the world and nervous about what went on. It was a success in my book, and I'm surprised that movies of the current age tend to go for cheap scares over better things like this. I guess they assume the audience wants one thing in particular even though this movie totally holds up despite being made over 50 years ago.

After coming home from school I managed to fit in one more movie. Theater of Blood was the selection, just chosen quickly as to make the best use of my time before bed. It's another film with Vincent Price in the lead and in fact seems to be one of the last movies he really was able to take a starring role in. At least according to IMDB, most of his appearances afterward were simply those on TV shows.

Because of this, it seems that the role is more fitting, as well as sadder. The film focuses on a theater performer who was ridiculed by reviewers as some overacting, pompous fool. I don't know how people took to Price's style of acting as his prime passed but it may have been similar in the 70s. However, unlike Price, the character he plays cannot stand this and seeks to kill each critic one by one in methods penned by Shakespeare.

Theater of Blood is a rather humorous affair. It was strikingly odd at first to see such humor portrayed but if it hadn't I feel that the film would have been much too dark. There were some truly scary things happening, such as a wife waking to her husband's decapitated body in her bed. If there were no laughs to be had otherwise it would have taken on a whole different feeling. Either way, I'd recommend people check it out.

Sisters

Year: 1973
Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose
Genre: Horror: Mystery, Black Comedy

Coming into Sisters I had no idea of what to expect other than, well, sisters. What I ended up seeing was a wholly enjoyably odd feature. However, try and tell me to peg exactly what about it was so good and it might be hard to say.

At the start of the film you see people competing in a simple gameshow. Two of the people featured in the game show decide to come home together and from that slightly unusual introduction things get much weirder. On the next day, the man wakes up to hear the gal from the show arguing with another woman. Although he wants to sneakily leave, the woman then finds him and begs him to stay, so he does. Unfortunately, he ends up being murdered by the creepy other girl. This kicks the whole film off.

What I enjoyed so much about the film was that it was hard to get a clear idea about what was even going on. Was the woman who witnesses the murder making this whole scene up or did it really happen? Are there really two girls or is there only one? Who is the other girl - is she the sister as the title suggests? Is it actually someone else who is pulling the strings? I loved being in a weird sense of reality and never being sure of what was what. Despite this description though, it was a fairly straightforward film. It wasn't all trippy or reality-shifting like some.

Perhaps the most unexpected thing about Sisters is how funny it is. There's no doubt that the desire when making this film was to have a lot of amusing stuff along a seriously messed up mystery. I consider it black comedy since it shouldn't really be as funny as it is that there was what was at one point called a  "racially-charged murder". Despite a lot of things that aren't at all funny about the movie the characters managed to be big jokes sometimes. I really enjoyed the dichotomy.

Sisters is a movie I'd happily recommend. After seeing it I now want to watch a lot more of Brian De Palma's work. Beyond this, I've only seen Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise, and Scarface.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

Year: 1973
Director: Nicolas Gessner
Writer: Laird Koenig
Genre: Drama, Horror

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane was an unexpected film to me. From just the title alone it conjures up images of the typical horror "scary little kid". That's not the case in this film at all and I think that may have played a part in me liking it more. Perhaps that trope has only really come to fruition in the more modern day. I'm not sure, actually, maybe that really found its footing in the 80s with modern spooky, not so much The Bad Seed but more The Brood.

So for this movie we're greeted with a young but very autonomous girl. She's just about 13 (or 14 as she sometimes claims) but acts much older. I found myself completely in awe of the character. She certainly looked the part of a young girl but seeing such maturity coming out of her really threw me for a loop. I enjoyed every moment she spoke.

We all know that something is odd about this girl though because of how she carries out various chores in the city. Nobody ever sees her parents around. It's quite the mystery, although it is solved not too far into the film. Still, seeing her try to hide the truth, as well as seeing how others react to it is a joy. It might be a dark joy, but it was all quite enjoyable.

It's safe to say I quite liked The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. It's not quite horror, and mostly some sort of building drama, but still a cool film. It also seems to have aged relatively well. I could see this movie existing today with little change.

The Baby

Year: 1973
Director: Ted Post
Writer: Abe Polsky
Genre: Horror: Thriller

Here's one of those movies you have to see to believe. The Baby is so aptly named as the film focuses around a baby, simply named "Baby". This isn't your ordinary baby though as our heroine comes to find but a full-grown man instead. Despite looking very mature physically he has about the same mental, verbal, and otherwise capacities of a baby. He is cared for by his mother and sisters an then finally the lead who is a public service worker of some sort. For some reason the mother character reminded me of Joan Crawford and I liked this because I like Joan Crawford. I'm probably the only one to make such a random connection though.

This isn't typical horror with any sort of monsters or demons. It's mostly a thriller attempting to be Hitchcock-esque with the plot and where it leads. Beyond that though it's mostly an odd piece of cinema with a very abrupt twist in the final minutes. I suppose you could gather what the ending would be from the multiple hints dropped throughout, but it seems mostly a cop out to be "weird" or "creepy".

Beyond that though it's a decent film. It kept me hooked despite being very 70s (which often turns me off for some reason). What I find most striking is that the movie Pink Flamingos also featured a grown "baby" character and came out a year before this. However, for that character nothing much was ever explained. It just seemed an interesting point to me when considering how close the films are in years of release.

I wouldn't really suggest this film unless you're into 70's thrillers. Otherwise, you won't be missing much by skipping right over.