Welcome to another Shocktober! I don’t know that I’m the most fitting person to kick off this year’s monthlong celebration of horror movies, marked by a review a day in this most spookiest of genres. After all, this thing was John’s brainchild nearly a decade ago. We’ve reviewed a lot of horror movies over the years (and by “we”, I mostly been John), and this is evidenced by today’s entry, since it is a movie John already reviewed on this blog several years ago. But as John would admit, it probably wasn’t the most whole-assed review, so I suppose I’ll try to throw my entire ass into this first review of Shuddertober.
To me, the 1960s seem like the definition of a transitional era for film. As the culture at large seemed to be slowly consumed by sex and drugs and violence, these things similarly we’re bubbling just beneath the surface of many landmark films during the first half of the decade. Black Sunday meanwhile, feels like a very transitional film for the horror genre, since it’s filled with the kind of gothic pretenses that were there in a lot of the horror films from the 30s through the 50s. Yet, it also has moments of violence that hint at a more savage breed of horror film that had still yet to arrive. Continue reading →
