Celebrating My 50th With 50 Favorites - Part 2

Some really great films in this set, folks.

40. Zombi 2 (aka Zombie) (1979)

When Lucio Fulci makes a film, you just have to watch - because he's going to do something bonkers every time.  In Zombi 2, that would be the famous shark vs. zombie underwater scene.  Folks, that is something you are not going to see every day, I guarantee it. And with Fulci, you're bound to see some serious eye gore, and this film is no exception. The story evolves around a woman's search for her missing father which takes her to a mysterious Carribean island that is cursed by voodoo and has a scientist bound and determined to figure out why the island's residents are rising from the dead.  With a riveting score from Fulci fave Fabio Frizzi, Zombi 2 is a rollicking good time.

39. Carnival of Souls (1962)

This fantastic film was way ahead of its time.  Starring Candace Hilligoss as Mary, a young woman who is the sole survivor of a horrific car crash that changes the course of her destiny.  After the accident, Mary drives to Utah, where she has accepted a position as a church organist. On the way, she is stalked by a malicious ghoul who seems to coincide with her passing a large abandoned pavillion.  In her new town, she can't seem to escape the ghoul, who shows up unexpectedly over and over again. She also is having trouble relating to those around her - it seems no one even notices her at times.  With a chilling organ soundtrack and a surreal, mesmerizing atmosphere, Carnival of Souls is a shudder-inducing thrill ride.

38. The Innocents (1960)

Deborah Kerr shines in this wonderfully spooky adaption of Henry James' classic story, The Turn of the Screw.  It's a classic British ghost story with all the twists and turns you'd expect.  Kerr stars as Miss Giddons, a woman tasked with being the governess to two children, Flora and Miles.  At first, all seems fine, but as time goes on, Miss Giddons begins to notice something is a little "off" with the children - they are acting just a little too mature for their own good. This, along with dark hallways, apparitions and hearing strange noises, the house is giving all the signs of a classic haunting..but just who is haunting the house and why is the reason this film stands far and above other ghost stories.  The lullaby that Flora sings over and over again, Oh Willow Waly, is as haunting as the film itself.  The Innocents is not to be missed.

37. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A gritty and fearless film shot on location, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not the gory exploitation film that many make it out to be.  There is very little blood or gore and actually relies on realism and shock to scare the pants off its audience.  Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), her crippled brother Franklin, and a few other friends travel to the family cemetery to check on the plots after hearing of grave robbing going on.  What they run into is the demented Sawyer family with our pal, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen).  I've always loved the audacious way in which the Sawyers are portrayed.  They make me think twice before stopping in any small, podunk town with no stoplights and no claim to fame.  Wait.....I think I already live there....

36. Suspiria (1977)

Dario Argento has a way with color and design in a film that for me, cannot be replicated.  With a new take on this classic coming this year, it's time to be reverent to the original, one of my favorite Argento films.
Susie Bannion (Jessica Harper) is an American studying ballet abroad at a famous German Dance school. She has a rocky start, and doesn't seem to be making friends too quickly.  Worse yet, there appears to be something mysterious going on - rooms they are not allowed to enter, students disappearing, maggots falling from the ceiling, fainting spells she cannot explain...and did someone mention the word "witch"?  Suspiria is an exercise in restrained terror.  And the technicolor production makes it one of the most gorgeous films I've ever seen.  How great that it's scary too!

35. Halloween (1978)

What can be said about Halloween that hasn't already been said?  It's just pure classic John Carpenter, and I love it.  So do millions of other horror fans - and even folks who only watch scary movies at the end of October are familiar with this one, so mentioning the plot seems like a moot point. Michael Myers kills his sister, goes to a mental hospital, then escapes and returns to the scene of the crime to wreak havoc on the town and its unsuspecting teenage residents, including Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).  For a very long time, this was my favorite horror film.  I still love it, but perhaps I just wore it out.  I'm anxious to check out the new 2018 sequel, it looks like loads of fun.  Halloween is impeccably shot, has unparalleled suspense, and is the model for which all films in the slasher genre should be modeled.  It's flat-out perfect.

34. The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

From the house of Amicus, this British anthology film stars horror heavyweights Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, which should be all I need say at this point.  However.., four segments tell the tales of a writer plagued by visions of his character, a murderer who is driving him mad; a waxwork museum holds secrets that two old friends may regret finding out; a governess/teacher feels the father of her student is cold and distant from his child...for good reason; and a washed up actor finds a cape in an antique store that looks perfect for his current vampire role.  All these stories relate due to the house they were all residents of at one time or another....the house that dripped blood!! Mwauh ha ha!!

33. April Fool's Day (1986)

A fun and surprising entry into the never ending 80's slasher genre, April Fool's Day is just a delight! Deborah Foreman plays Muffy, a rich-bitch college student hosting a weekend of fun at her parent's lake house. Her friends are a diverse group of unassuming tricksters that either love or loathe the April Fool's themed party unfolding at the house.  The finale of this one is what separates it from all the other 80's clones.  Amy Steel as Kit is the icing on this cake, as she always elevates a movie no matter what the subject matter. But in truth, casting is good all the way around and you really feel like these people could be your friends.  Which is why you get upset when they start getting picked off one by one.

32. Lake Mungo (2008)

At once unsettling, Lake Mungo is an Australian low-budget film I discovered purely by accident and now am championing to anyone that will listen.  Shot in mockumentary style, we hear the story of Alice Palmer and her family, who are mourning her disappearance and supposed drowning at a family picnic at the lake. As the family grieves and tells their story, it becomes apparent that there is more going on than meets the eye.  Is Alice haunting the family home?  Is she still alive?  I can only say that this movie scared the shit out of me the first time I saw it, and the second time I watched it I saw SO MUCH MORE.  I have been haunted by this one ever since.  It's affecting, creepy and just downright unnerving.  I don't think I need say more.  Just watch it.

31. My Bloody Valentine (1981)

One of my most beloved slasher films, MBV is a joy to behold in all its campiness.  Though it is extremely dated, it's still relatively effective and has the superb setting of an underground mine. Now what could be scarier than that, I ask you?  Years ago, Harry Warden was the sole survivor of a mine explosion due to methane gas levels not being checked because the bosses were at a Valentines party. Harry was stuck underground for weeks, resorting to cannibalism to survive and going insane in the process.  Institutionalized for twenty years, he of course escapes and comes back to take his revenge on the town and their Valentine's day party.  It has some good scares, some decent gore, and horrible acting.  And it's another of the famous "holiday" horrors.  You know you love it, just like I do.

Celebrating SIX Years Of Fear: Six Films That Made Me Stop In My Tracks

Watching a horror film should always evoke some kind of intensity. It's horror's calling card.  It's meant to make you stop and think.  Some films do this in leaps and bounds, far more than others.  These six films I've highlighted made me stop like a deer in headlights.  They are profoundly affecting.  As well as brilliantly effective.  See if you agree....

OLDBOY (2003)

An intense, effective movie like Oldboy just sticks in your head like a bad song. The first time I saw it I was stunned by how twisted and deviant it was.  If you've never seen it, you need to.  The ending will blow you away. Choi Min-Sik, (I Saw The Devil), plays Oh Dae-su, a man who - after missing his daughter's birthday due to a drinking binge - wakes up in a hotel room, alone.  He is then kept prisoner in this room for fifteen years.  FIFTEEN YEARS.  His captor is never seen and after said fifteen years, releases him on a roof top without any indication of why he imprisoned him in the first place.  Herein lies the mystery of the film. As Oh Dae-su tries to put together the pieces and discover the truth, he is taunted by his captor. It is obvious that Oh Dae-su is meant to understand eventually.  Along the way he falls in love with a young woman who helps him try to solve the puzzle and seek revenge.  The thought of losing fifteen years of your life because someone had some kind of vendetta against you is pretty damn sobering. The lengths his captor goes to make Oh Dae-su's life miserable is unheard of.  I've never seen anything like this film before or since. One of a kind and bloody brilliant.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

The first time I saw The Blair Witch Project was in the comfort of my own home.  I never saw it on the big screen as I'm not much for "hype" movies, and couldn't imagine it being everything it was made out to be. And it really isn't.  It's just three people wandering through the woods for 90 minutes. HOWEVER.  There are moments of this film that made my skin crawl.  My husband and I own a cabin in the woods, and all I could think was how similar it looked.  I've never been able to look out into the woods behind the cabin and think of anything but Blair Witch or Evil Dead.  Being lost in the woods is bad enough, but the real kicker here is the film's final moments.  It scared the hell out of me - and my husband too.  Too many people dismiss this movie, saying they "didn't get" the ending. Well those people obviously didn't pay attention earlier when the townsfolk were discussing how child killer Rustin Parr would take two children into the basement and would take make one face the corner and listen while he murdered the other child.  The final moment is Heather coming into the basement and finding Mike standing in the corner.  And then she screams and drops her camera.  Powerfully effective.  I am not easily freaked out, but it took everything I had to go down to the basement after the film was over to put my dog outside.  I thought about that film for weeks afterward.

LAKE MUNGO

Lake Mungo is one of those movies that you sit and think about for long after it's over.  Like The Blair Witch Project  before it,  the found footage style in which the film is presented makes you feel like you are watching a true story.  Especially in this film's case because it is a mockumentary. You could be watching a forensic show about a young girl being missing and it would be no more effective than this tale of fifteen year old Alice going missing at an outing with her family.  Presumed drowned, Alice is mourned by her loved ones and soon the film morphs into supernatural territory when the family begins to experience strange happenings at their home.
Interviews with Alice's family, friends, and a local psychic all help to string together the events of her apparent death, though an explanation is never fully given. You don't need gore, you don't need jump scares, and you don't need a rational explanation to create an effective and unsettling horror film. Just ask anyone associated with Lake Mungo, they'll show you how it's done. The subtlety that surrounds nearly every frame of Lake Mungo is an unnerving freight train barreling down the tracks. It's a quiet film, in fact so quiet that it's deeply disturbing.  I found myself reliving a few key scenes every time I closed my eyes. To me, that's a sign of excellence in horror.  Nearly everyone who has seen this film would agree with that.

SINISTER

I'm not exactly sure what bothered me so much about Sinister. I mean, it's an effective horror film on its own merit, and the acting is above average with Ethan Hawk's presence, but it's nothing earth-shattering, plot-wise. Perhaps it's because I first saw the movie alone at the theater, I don't know.  Maybe it's the thought of living in a house where something terrible happened.  Which is what Hawke's character does, in bringing his family to live in a house where a family was hanged to death in the tree in their backyard.  Ellison (Hawke) doesn't tell his family about the murders, just brings them there to live while he writes a book about the crime.  He finds a box of 8mm films - each with titles like "Pool Party" and "BBQ" - obviously left by the former owners.  In watching them, however, they depict horrific murders instead of family gatherings. What's worse is that Ellison, in studying the films, discovers a ghoul-like demonic face seemingly watching each murder scene.  What he discovers in delving into the mystery is totally unsettling, even more than the creepy murders themselves.  After seeing this movie I couldn't wait to get out of the theater and into the daylight. Which, in turn, didn't make me feel one bit better. Go figure. 

APT PUPIL

Nazi's scare the ever-loving shit out of me.  I've always been morbidly fascinated with the horrific events of the Holocaust and wondered how in the hell the entire world let that kind of atrocity go down. In any event, Hitler and his henchmen were pure and simply evil.  And who knows evil better than Stephen King?  Based on one of his short stories, Apt Pupil takes a teen (Brad Renfro) who develops an unhealthy obsession with the Holocaust and places him in the same town as a man who may or may not be a Nazi war criminal (played to perfection by Ian McKellen).  Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers his elderly neighbor Arthur Denker (McKellen) is almost certainly Kurt Dussander, a high-ranking SS soldier hiding out in sunny California.  Todd ends up blackmailing Denker, trading his freedom for tales of mayhem from the death camps during WWII. The two develop an uneasy friendship, and the stories of ghastly concentration camp  conditions and horrendous human tortures fill their days and nights.  To make matters even more dreadful, Todd buys Arthur a duplicate of an SS uniform and forces him to wear it, which in turn helps Arthur reach deep into his memory, exposing the true horror of his previous life, which then begins to leech into his present.  Deeply disturbing, Apt Pupil made a lasting impression on me, and remains one of the most chilling films I've seen to date.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2012)

Horror films come in all different shapes and sizes. While this film would initially be thought of as a drama, there's no doubt in my mind that this film is an outright horror film.  Tilda Swinton marvelously plays the dejected mother of a seemingly loveless and obviously disturbed child. Flashbacks tell the story that from the moment the child is born, he isn't happy and does everything he can to make his mother equally as miserable.  He cries endlessly, won't play with toys, deliberately poops in his diaper, and gives his mother essentially no reason to love him.  It's unclear if Swinton's character ever wanted children, yet for all her trying to be a good mother, it ends up being no contest to Kevin's inherent psychopathic tendencies.  As a teen he is nothing less than frightening, pretending all is well when his father is around yet always on the verge of something... And that something is reprehensibly evil.  Because we are privy to the mother character constantly flashing back to a scene where she is driving to a tragedy at a high school, it's not hard to imagine what has happened, but it's the getting there that just takes your nerves and twists them until your stomach flops. From the day he was born, this child has irrevocably changed her life forever, and yet in the last scene there is still a mother's love evident.  Swinton was somehow passed over for an Academy Award for this role, but it's a tour-de-force of skill and perfection.  I don't think any film has affected me quite like this one. Terrifying.

31 days, 31 faves: Lake Mungo

I've already mentioned how much I love ghost stories and have certainly had my share highlighted these last few weeks. And today is no different. Most of these films have been older ones - movies I've enjoyed for many years. But I feel it's important to note that there have been a few that I've seen more recently that knocked my socks off.

Lake Mungo is a film that did just that, in 2008. The long of it is that I've already done a review of it, so you can read my thoughts here. The short of it is just this: when sixteen year old Alice Palmer dies while drowning in a local dam, her family starts to experience all kinds of really bizarre supernatural events, until they begin to question if she is actually dead or not.

It is told as a documentary of sorts, with interviews from family and friends filling in (most) of the gaps yet leaving just enough to the imagination to freak you out. Most impressive is the acting - a group of relative unknowns were tapped to play the roles, and they do a fantastic job of making you believe they are just as puzzled as you are regarding the events surrounding Alice's death.


As of late, a lot of films are shown in the "found footage"style. Most of them are more annoying than scary. However, this film is the real deal. For everything that films like Paranormal Activity may have lacked, Lake Mungo gets just right, with eerie camera work and convincing portrayals of people who knew the victim and are trying to understand just what is going on.

Even though sometimes it seems like not a whole lot is going on, there are subtle twists and turns that keep you guessing - just when you think you have everything figured out. While at times it feels like you might be watching 20/20 or 48 Hours, I've certainly never seen anything on a news program that unnerved me as much as this 90 minute mockumentary.

All I can really say is that this film deserves to be seen. It's realistic, haunting, and will leave a memorable impression on you. And that is why it's one of my (new) favorites.



*Addendum: I just learned that Lake Mungo is on Netflix Instant Watch. Now there really is no excuse not to see it for those of you with that DVD service. Go! Now!

Lake Mungo

It wasn't very long ago that I made a statement about most of the After Dark Horrorfest movies being less than stellar. And I still stand by that, excluding the film I am about to discuss.

Lake Mungo is an Australian production (from 2008 but included in this year's Horrorfest) that is a surprisingly effective venture into the exhaustive realm of "found footage" films genre lovers have been bombarded with in the last several years. While you may groan and gripe about yet another Blair Witch rip-off joining the ranks, I'm here to tell you: not so fast.

First of all - and most importantly in my book- there are no truly annoying characters like the BWP shoved down our throat for ninety grueling minutes. Secondly, Lake Mungo is presented in such a way that you feel like you've sat down on a lazy sunday afternoon to catch a story on tv about a supposed true-life haunting. It plays out like completely like a documentary, and you're sold on it hook, line, and sinker from the get-go. The acting is far and away the best I've seen in this type of "mockumentary"film. They are so believeable that you feel they could be your next door neighbors.

It starts out in interview mode, with the family of Alice Palmer discussing the details of the teen's disappearance during a family picnic by a local dam. Apparently, her brother Matt and her were in the water and the next thing Matt knew, she was gone. The requisite search and rescue turned up nothing, and sadly, divers eventually found her body at the bottom of the lake.

Within a few days of her burial, the family begins to endure inexplicable phenomena at the house. They hear things coming from Alice's bedroom, see split-second images that could be her, have nightmares, and experience an all-around sense of unease throughout the house.

Inasmuch as they are in the process of trying to deal with their insurmountable grief at the death of Alice, they now have to deal with these strange little happenings that turn their lives upside down. As I said before, the actors portraying the family members are so "real" that you almost wish you could take a casserole over to their house and send flowers to the funeral home.

Here's where the 'found footage' aspect of the film starts. Matt, being an amateur photographer, sets up a video camera in the house and catches a few glimpses of what certainly seems to be Alice - walking about the house, showing up in mirrors off in the distance, and most disturbingly, standing in the back yard. Added to this we have interviews with friends and extended family regarding the validity of the assumption that Alice is haunting the family residence.
There comes a time when June (mom) begins to believe perhaps Alice isn't dead at all, thinking perhaps her husband had misidentified the body in the morgue. Footage taken by a couple on holiday at the dam where Alice died surfaces, showing what most certainly looks like a shot of Alice looking out from the trees. Blurry, yet distinctive enough that June talks Russell (dad) into having Alice's body exhumed to do a DNA determination.

Also thrown into the mix is Ray Kemeny, a renowned psychic who agrees to see June. Through discussions, hyponotism, and even a seance, Ray tries to help the family solve the mystery of just what is going on in their home. Matt films the seance, and when watching the footage back, they see something they weren't expecting, and it isn't Alice.

I'd really prefer not to give anything else away, because to do so would be a disservice to what the film is attempting to do here. I will say that they find out Alice was leading a double life.
I think I can safely admit that at times, I see a lot of Twin Peaks in this film. Right down to the last name of Palmer, it sometimes feels like an ode to that style of story, with too many similarities to simply disregard. And in my book, anything touching on what Twin Peaks had is a very good thing. (Alas, no dancing midgets or damn fine coffee though, sorry...)


But at its heart, Lake Mungo feels like a ghost story. And I haven't even touched on what actually happened at Lake Mungo. Alice died in a dam near her home, not at the dry lake region of Mungo National Park in Australia. All of what I have mentioned happens prior to even the mere mention of Lake Mungo. You've got to see the film to get the goods.

Some horror fans may feel a bit let down that all they get in the way of gore is some shots of Alice's water-logged corpse. And as for nudity? Well, just a tiny bit - and it's not exactly a clear cut shot. I'm sure these two absences may cause some to huff away in disgust, pining for the blood and guts - but clearly they would be missing the entire point. Suffice it to say if you're the type who needs something like Martyrs or a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to get your horror rocks off, then steer clear of this one. It's purely psychological horror, all the way. There are a few truly unnerving images - ones that still stick with me, actually - but the draw here is the layer upon layer of tension, confusion, and finally- understanding that makes this film unique.

In my opinion, it puts the considerably overrated Paranormal Activity to shame. Whereas Paranormal had a few "Oh my God!" scenes, Lake Mungo revels in its subtlety. The frights sneak up on you here, and don't jump out at you like a cheap thrill. The winding storyline catches you off-balance time and time again, like a Russian nesting doll. Just when you think things have finally been resolved, they unwrap yet another facet of the story.

And make sure if you watch Lake Mungo you stick around for the credits.
That's all I'm saying.