Celebrating my 50th with 50 Favorites ~ Part 4

We're getting down to the nitty gritty now.  Good stuff ahead.....

 20. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

I'm what I'd consider to be a connoisseur of vampire films.  I've seen a ton...disliked some, liked most, and truly loved only a handful.  This film falls into the latter category.  From Jim Jarmusch comes the story of Adam and Eve - no, not that Adam and Eve....right?
Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) are two vampires who have been married for centuries though at the moment are living apart on different continents. Eve decides to make the trip from Tangier to Detroit to pay a visit to her hubby after a phone call from him tips her off to his despair.  Adam is a very melancholy vampire, disillusioned with his life to the point that he even is contemplating suicide. If it weren't for his music he'd end it, and in fact has a wooden bullet for that very task. Eve arrives and together they try to make some sense of their never-ending existence and to find reasons to go on.  Everything about this movie is just steeped in a thick veil of moody atmosphere. When they cruise around derelict Detroit it touches a nerve, as it seems they are as old and forgotten as the rows of dilapidated, abandoned house that line the streets. Eve tries to convince Adam that life is still worthwhile, but extenuating circumstances in the form of Eve's sister coming for a visit throw a wrench in their happily ever after.   Just a brilliant, amazing film.

19. Half Light (2006) 

This is probably a movie that most people have never even heard of and is a relatively PG-13 type of film. It stars Demi Moore as Rachel, a best-selling American author of thrillers that gets caught up in a mystery of her own,  It's not giving a lot away to say that her young son dies at the beginning, as that's the set up for the story.  Grief-stricken, she flees from her home in London to an isolated Scottish cottage on the beach, where she intends to finish her latest novel by her deadline. But soon, she begins to experience typical 'ghostly' behavior and assumes her son is trying to make contact. Meanwhile, she meets the attractive lighthouse keeper who lives just across a short stretch of water who helps her face her fears.  But is there something supernatural at work? Why does everyone in town act so strangely? And what really happened to the previous lighthouse keeper?  While there is nothing truly fantastic about this film, the story is decent enough, there are some genuinely creepy moments, and of course Demi is attractive as hell, especially with her long dark hair blowing in the Scottish sea breeze. But it's the location and the music that just suck me in.  Sweeping ocean vistas, the perfect little cottage at the sea's edge, the quaint yet quirky village nearby, wild horses running next to the ocean, and the simply gorgeous score accompanying all of this, making it a film I come back to again and again.

18. Don't Look Now (1973)

It's too bad that when most people think of Don't Look Now, they think of the controversy of whether the two leads, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, actually had sex during their graphic love scene...because behind all the speculation lies a truly satisfying film.  John and Laura Baxter have just lost their daughter in a drowning accident and flee to Venice to try and get their minds off their tragedy.  John accepts a commission to work on an ancient church there, and the two settle in.  One day, Laura meets a couple of sisters at dinner, one of whom claims to be a psychic and says she is in contact with their daughter.  John doesn't believe this at all, but goes along with it to make Laura happy.  Then John starts seeing a young person in a red cloak all around town, just like the one his daughter wore. So the question becomes is his daughter haunting them or is he having visions?  Or a little of both?  And where do the sisters fit in?  The Venetian scenery is a gorgeous back drop to the thrills and chills this movie provides.  John and Laura are very much in love, and the scenes of them together getting ready to go out for dinner are among some of the finest love scenes put to celluloid.

17.  The Evil Dead (1981)

Bruce Campbell is not just my hero, he's the world's hero, as we find out in this first movie in the series.  Ash, his girlfriend Linda, sister Cheryl, and friends Scotty and Shelly travel to a proverbial cabin in the woods for a nice getaway weekend.  Once at the cabin, it becomes quickly evident that something isn't quite right.  Touring the cabin's basement, they find recordings that when spoken aloud, summon demons - which is exactly what happens.  Only these demons inhabit the living. One by one, Ash's group succumb to the "deadites", until Ash is the only one left.  A very simple premise but oh so very effective.  What's great about this little low-budget charmer is the GORE.  The blood and guts and massive spewage is completely over the top - and you're going to love every second of it. This is the basis for the wildly popular Starz television series, Ash vs. Evil Dead - and I'd certainly check out at least this movie before digging in to that.  Though the series is ended, I find it so hard to believe that our beloved Ash is gone forever.  In fact, I'm holding out hope.....

16.  Angel Heart (1987)

Voodoo holds in inexplicable fascination for me, and there are just not enough films about it!  It feels like a sub-genre of its own, but maybe people are just deeming it religious horror, I don't know. Angel Heart, in my humble opinion, is one of the best examples of voodoo in the genre. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a gumshoe in Harlem who gets a call from a lawyer on behalf of an eccentric man looking to collect a long overdue debt.  Mr Cyphre (Robert De Niro) can't seem to locate crooner Johnny Favorite and employs Harry to track him down.  This leads Harry down a very precarious road, a journey of discoveries he may have been better off leaving alone.  The mood of this film is so dark and gritty, with so much impending doom, backed by a soundtrack by Trevor Jones that reeks of dread itself, with its sultry, melancholy lead sax that should be illegal it's so good. And yes, there is blood and chickens and dancing and chanting and curses and tarot readings and murder and magic and of course THAT extremely unsettling and immoral sex scene that nearly gave the film an X-rating.  In other words, it's a must-see.

15. Psycho II (1983)

Oh Norman, you sexy thing, you!  Anyone that knows me knows I have a huge crush on mama's boy Norman Bates.  With the exception of Jaws, there is no film I love more than Psycho.  It's a perfect, perfect film, and you'll see it on this list soon. But Psycho II is a terrific film in its own right. Made 22 years after the original 1960 film, we see Norman finally being released from the mental institution he was remanded to years ago. Considered "cured", his caseworker drops him off at the old homestead, where the motel has been used as a sleazy stop-over slash drug den these last several years. The house itself is exactly the same, and Norman immediately feels uneasy and soon starts finding notes from Mother. He is set up as a cook's helper at a local diner, where he meets Mary (Meg Tilly) and soon offers her a room at the motel when she has man trouble.  That's when things get even more wonky.  Is Norman losing his mind again? Is Mother really dead and buried? Is someone else haunting the Bates house? In most cases, sequels leave a lot to be desired, but in Psycho II's case, it's a truly understated yet formidable return to form.  It's no Hitchcock film, but Anthony Perkins slides easily back into the embodiment of Norman Bates, with all his nervous tics and mannerisms still spot on.  And so we're left to ponder whether Mother is trying to terrorize her son once again or if Norman just thinks she is.  Or....has it been Norman all along?

14. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

While others prefer Day or Dawn, I am firmly in the Night camp when it comes to Romero's Dead movies. It's the first one I saw, and has been my favorite for as long as I can recall, way back to watching it on Chilly Billy's Chiller Theater.  After all, I'm a Pittsburgh girl.  Well, northeast of the Burgh but somewhere between there and Evans City, where this film was shot. In case you've been living under a rock, Barbara and brother Johnny are visiting their father's grave at the cemetery when things run amok and the dead start walking.  Johnny is killed and Barbara finds cover at a house nearby where she meets our hero, Ben (and later a few others holed up in the basement). The remainder of the film is them attempting to find out just what is going on and how to deal with the zombies that are gathering outside the house quicker than a bunch of teen girls at a Justin Bieber concert.  Besides Ben being the first black hero in a horror film, it's really the living dead in their slow-moving madness and their voracious appetite that make this movie such a ground-breaking film. Though filmed in black and white, it takes nothing away from them chomping on viscera like mindless.....zombies.

13. Dead of Night (1945)

I love most anthology films, and you've seen a few here on this list already, but THIS British 1945 shocker is my favorite.  Walter keeps having a recurring nightmare and so the good wifey recommends he spend some time relaxing away from home.  He goes to a friend's weekend house and upon arrival feels a dreadful sense of deja vu, and all the other guests have been in his dream that he keeps having.  And each guest has their own story to tell.  A race car driver is haunted by the driver of a fatal bus crash, a haunted mirror, a Christmas ghost, a golf outing with a supernatural touch, and the most affecting and creepy story - a ventriloquist's dummy comes to life. There's something so fun about having not one but multiple stories to give you the chills.  And this one is a stellar production, the best anthology I've seen - including all my Amicus favorites.  The black and white makes it all the more terrifying. I dare you to sleep after watching that one with the dummy.   I double dog dare you.

12.  The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Many of you may already know that parts of The Silence of the Lambs were filmed in my hometown, quite an experience and such a great feeling, considering the film won five Academy Awards.  Leads Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster who won Best Actor and Actress respectively, embody the roles of Dr Hannibal Lecter and FBI trainee Clarice Starling.  As Starling is given the assignment to meet with Lecter at the prison where he lives, the interactions between them are just impeccable, the bantering back and forth - quid pro quo, as Lecter says - will help Clarice in the FBI's search for the most vile serial killer, Buffalo Bill.  Say what you will, but this film is a horror film.  When someone is removing the skin from their victim in order to make a dress out of it, that's HORROR, people.  So it's good to know the Academy does recognize horror....it's happened a few times before, with Jaws, The Exorcist and Misery...but it's rare.  But for under your skin (pun intended) cinematic terror, The Silence of the Lambs fits the bill. 

11. City of the Living Dead (aka The Gates of Hell, 1980)

I'm a pretty big Fulci fan, and it's hard to choose from his films for this list, but this is the one I knew I couldn't leave off.  I've seen it so many times yet it always entertains.  A priest hangs himself and starts a chain reaction of evil predicted by the ancient book of Enoch.  Reporter Peter (Christopher George) saves Mary (Catriona MacColl) from suffocating to death in a coffin in which she was buried after collapsing at a seance.  Together, they investigate the evil taking over their town, trying to find a way to close the "door" to the Gates of Hell, which was opened by the priest's suicide.  As in usual Fulci fashion, there is loads of gore including a woman vomiting up her own entrails and a man killed by having a drill run through his head.  Every time the priest appears, he makes his victim's eyes bleed in ghastly fashion, then they die and become one of his undead army.  Once again, Fabio Frizzi provides the soundtrack to this gore-fest as we're treated to sublime 80's horror at its best.

Halloween Festival Of Lists: October 4: FOUR Films That Are Close To Home

The gloomy, mundane regions of western Pennsylvania wouldn't exactly be the first place you would think of when considering filming a horror movie.  Wait, maybe that's precisely where a horror film should be made. 
I've lived in this area my entire life, and while nothing exciting truly happens here, I can say it is home to at least four films in the genre, two of which are fairly exceptional - one of those even a multiple Academy Award winner.

1) Night of the Living Dead 
Back in 1968, a few months after the monumental event that was my birth, a movie came out that was so startling, so ground-breaking that it defined an entire sub-genre.  Writer/director George Romero was a Pittsburgh local who needed to keep within the restraints of a tight budget for his zombie project, so he ended up filming in nearby Butler county (about 35 miles from me).  The Evans City Cemetery was his choice for the main action, and it still looks pretty much the same to this day.
Romero cast friends as 'zombie extras' and used a house that was north of the city and scheduled for demolition as the main location. 
Apparently, when the film premiered in Pittsburgh in October of '68, there was no national ratings system in place so anyone and everyone, including small children, were allowed to witness the splendor that was Night of the Living Dead.  Shocked is about the only word that could be used after seeing the film.  I'm just honored to know that this movie - so dear to my heart - was filmed so close by.  It is of note that Romero also filmed The Crazies (1973) in the same general location. In fact, many of Romero's movies are filmed in the greater Pittsburgh region.  He used the Monroeville Mall (one of my foremost shopping destinations) for his NOTLD sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978), and shot Martin (also 1978) in nearby Braddock, Pa.

2) The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
This bizarre psychological thriller was filmed very close by to my small town. In fact, I can vividly recall many friends discussing their various run-ins with Richard Gere and Laura Linney.  In fact, one of my co-workers rounded a corner on one of her daily walks and slammed straight into Gere.  He was gracious, she was dumb-struck.
The bridge on which Gere stands in this photo collapses in the film, but thanks to some CGI, it is still standing today and in fact isn't silver as the film suggests, it's that ugly shade of green they paint all those old bridges.  Standing in for a town in West Virginia that is plagued by sightings of a supernatural winged monster; Kittanning, Pa. is the epitome of a town lost in the past.  Though it tries to be modern it just can't escape its poor coal mining roots, and this actually benefits it greatly by putting it in the perfect place for movie locations that need a bit of nostalgic charm. 

3) My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)
This movie was filmed about 8 miles from my home, strangely enough in the same small town that was used in The Mothman Prophecies.
The reason this location is popular can only be because it stands in so wonderfully for a depressed mining town.  Matter of fact, it kind of is a depressed mining town.  The mine that was used during filming is a little farther down the road and is actually used as an educational site (Tour-Ed Mine) where people can tour an authentic coal mine and experience what it is like to work beneath the earth.  No, I've never toured it - seeing the film was good enough for me.  I think I'd be a little too claustrophobic for that adventure.  The bridge in the background here is the same bridge that 'collapsed' in Mothman.  My hubby crosses this bridge everyday to go to work.  The market in which Harry Warden chases the two girls is one of the local ones nearby.  I had to go see this one at the theater (despite my dislike of all things 3D) because I had to check out all the locations.  Yep, even though I see them all the time.  I'm silly like that.

4) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
I remember well the feeling of elation back in 1990 when I heard the news that they were making a thriller right here in my hometown. But when I found out it was The Silence of the Lambs, I was overly psyched.  Because that's not just a thriller - that's horror, people! I'd read the book and was familiar with the subject matter. Woot!
Winner of the top five Oscars in 1991 including Best Picture, I'm proud to tell anyone who will listen that all the scenes in the funeral home, Clarice's childhood memories, and various other scenes were filmed right down the street a few blocks from me.   Some of my friends were extras, and I can name most of the people in the funeral home scenes.  One of the cops in the photo above is a local who ended up having to travel to Pittsburgh with the actors because he was so prominently featured in the scenes that they needed him there as well.  The scenes of Lecter caged up were filmed in the 'Burgh, as were the autopsy scenes, the scenes of Lecter's home at the state hospital, among others.  Hell, I even knew the barking dog in the back of the pickup from the scene where young Clarice greets her father after work.  And you can bet I sat in the theater until the credits rolled so I could see the name of my tiny town.  The boastful grin on my face was obnoxious.

31 days, 31 faves: The Silence of the Lambs

So how does one write about an Academy Award winning horror film? Very carefully.
Seriously though, it hasn't happened a whole lot over the years. There have been films nominated, including Psycho (four noms, zero wins), and most notably The Exorcist (nominated for ten, won two - sound and adapted screenplay). But it's no secret that horror is mostly overlooked when Oscar time comes rolling around. I don't know if Marty Scorsese can change that with Shutter Island (I'm thinking no), we'll see.

In any event, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is an absolutely, no-doubt-about-it fantastic film.
Based on the novel by Thomas Harris and directed by Jonathan Demme (Best Director Oscar), it tells the story of Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster, Best Actress Oscar), a fledgling FBI agent on the cusp of graduation who has been chosen by her superior, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) for a special assignment.

Seems he'd like her to interview a serial killer, Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter in order to gain insight and possible information about a current case - another serial killer named Buffalo Bill who skins his victims.
Lecter was a renowned psychiatrist who had a penchant for eating his victims. But he's a brilliant mind, and any help or information he may be able to give them will be greatly appreciated.

It's likely Crawford chose Starling due to her fresh good looks, the fact that she's a female, and because Lecter simply flies right through all their standardized testing. They need someone to just plain talk to him. Ask him questions. Feel him out, so to speak.

Upon arriving at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Starling seems quite nervous, and she should be. The prison is where they house some of the worst the world has to offer, and she gets a first hand look at these pillars of society when she visits. She first meets Dr. Chilton (Anthony Heald), a cheeky and thoroughly obnoxious director at the prison. He's a pervy asshole who thinks he's the right kind of guy to show Starling a good time. Like I said, swarmy.

Able to avoid his advances she proceeds to be taken to Lecter's cell. Barney, the night guard, has set out a chair for her to use in front of Lecter's cell. You know something is going to go down when you see that singular chair, just waiting.

When we first see Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, Best Actor), he stands in front of his cell in his bland prison confinement clothing, staring Starling down. He becomes quite upset when he finds out Starling hasn't even graduated, exclaiming, "Jack Crawford sent a trainee to me?"

He gives her a chance though, and after convincing her to hand over the case file and answering a few questions, he proceeds to rip her apart, shattering any sense of self worth she had and making her feel cheaper and less important than the battered shoes on her feet. She scurries away but Lecter calls her back for one tidbit about the Buffalo Bill case.

Giving her an anagram which she takes no time in figuring out, Starling is off to a storage facility where she finds a severed head tucked away in amongst the junk in a private garage. Rushing back to Lecter, he does give her a piece of information, stating that Buffalo Bill was connected to that head (not in the traditional sense). Lecter swears he will help with the case and further her career if she can finagle some way for him to get out from under Chilton's roof.

The Buffalo Bill case takes on greater importance after Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), the daughter of a U.S. senator, is kidnapped.

At this point, the audience gets to see the workings of a serial killer as we are allowed into the home and the life of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).
He's one sick puppy, and works very much in the way of Ted Bundy, procuring his victims by pretending to be handicapped and asking for help moving something heavy into his van. We're privy to his life - and his lifestyle - which is more than a little nutso.

As Catherine Martin screams continually from the bowels of a dry well, Buffalo Bill dances around his spacious (never-ending if I do say so myself) basement - singing songs, making clothes out of skin, applying more makeup than the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and giving some love to his little white poodle, Precious. We also find out he's making an entire shell of a person out of skin. And that Bill wants to be a girl. He tucks his bits and pieces away and stares at the mirror, claiming that of course, he'd do the nasty with himself. If he were a boy, that is. There's a whole lot going on in that head of his - but nothing good.

Meanwhile, Starling has begun a precarious game of quid pro quo with the demented doctor. He's agreed to give her choice pieces of information and insight into the Buffalo Bill case in exchange for stories about her childhood.

Starling was warned at the start not to let Lecter get inside her head, but she shrugs it off, determined to advance her career. What she gets instead is a madman asking questions about such tender things as the death of her father and how she ended up living with her relatives on a sheep and horse farm. Lecter in turn explains that Buffalo Bill is changing, evolving into what he truly wants to be, like how a pupa turns into a butterfly. He tells her she is so close to the way she's going to catch him. But he won't elaborate further. It's a game to him, and he's going to stretch it out as long as he can.

When a fake deal thought up by Crawford that promises Lecter a prison transfer away from Chilton is uncovered, Chilton makes one of his own. Lecter is transferred to Tennessee, where Catherine Martin's mother meets with him on the tarmac. Lecter is vague at first, but eventually comes up with a name for the agents and they race off to begin a manhunt for Buffalo Bill.

When Starling sneaks in to visit Lecter in his confinement cell in the middle of a large empty museum room, he confronts Starling with the fake deal mistake, but then agrees to do a bit more Q & A with her. In his incredibly frightening manner, he is able to get her to tell him her darkest secrets and fears. In particular about how she discovers exactly what happens to the lambs in the spring on a farm. It's a source of obvious pain for Starling, and Lecter revels in her honesty. Just as the police shoo her away, Lecter hands her back the case file through the cell bars, stroking her finger once as she grabs it. A chilling moment.

While agents attempt to find Buffalo Bill, Lecter is about to have dinner in his cell - lamb, cooked rare of course. He voices that he is ready when they are, and he assumes the position - he has to be locked to the bars while the officers come in.

Once inside, Lecter, using a piece of a pen he stole from Chilton previously, opens the cuffs and escapes, but not after he pummels one of the guards and guts the other - hanging him from the cell to look like a butterfly.

Starling, on the other hand, has been studying the case file that now has notations in the margins from Lecter. Making sense of some of it, she determines that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim personally. She calls Crawford to tell him, but they already have Lecter's info and are on their way to his supposed location as well.

Starling agrees to go to the first victim's hometown to gather more evidence. Instead, Crawford's men are led to the wrong place and Starling comes face to face with Buffalo Bill himself and begins an unpredictable showdown in the killer's lair.

Where has Lecter gone, you ask? The Caribbean. Where he's planning to have an old friend for dinner. Classic.

The Silence of the Lambs won the Best Picture Oscar for a reason - it's just that damned good.
I know I've said probably a hundred times that part of the film was literally filmed in my hometown, so every time I watch it and see some of the places they used I feel all nostalgic and tingly inside.
But the real reason I love the film is that it is sheer perfection. The acting is just insanely good, in particular by Hopkins, and this film will be forever remembered for his chilling portrayal of Hannibal the Cannibal.