If there’s any country that produces films that make me feel like utter shit, it’s Japan. You always hear about Japan being a “Shame society” where social order is kept by the reinforcement of guilt. If I’ve learned anything from watching Japanese horror films, I’ve learned this is 100% true. I don’t know how many Japanese ghost stories I’ve read or watched where the events of the film are thrust into motion after a horrible accident or regrettable decision is hidden by the film’s central character(s). These people usually learn their lesson by way of paranormal haunting or a supernatural curse. Or in the extreme case of Jigoku, GO TO HELL! *cue your favorite rock song containing the word “Hell”.

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It’s 1958 and a red menace is threatening small town America! No, I’m not talking about the Soviets, I’m talking about the molten meteor from outer space! 1958’s The Blob has a reputation for being a campy joke of a movie, but I think that’s maybe too harsh for a mostly competent film. I’d go as far to say it’s a perfectly fine film, but that may be because it’s structure is one I’m already pretty into: the Star Trek formula.

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Thinking back to the original Criterion month we did back in July, there was one recurring theme that seemed to emerge when sifting through all these classic films that the good folks at Criterion Collection have taken it upon themselves to preserve. And that’s that no matter how old a film is, if it actually is a worthwhile piece of art, whatever it has to say will be timeless. Take for instance, The Night of The Hunter, a film that I originally saw my first year of college, and watching it this week, I was able to watch through the lense of the moment in time we’re living through right now. Continue reading →

It was kind of nice to start this month of ghastly art house terrors and pulpy hilarity with something quaint. That wasn’t my plan and it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from The Uninvited, given its reputation as one of the scariest films ever (at least according to directors Martin Scorsese and Guillermo Del Toro) but in retrospect it wasn’t realistic to expect something truly horrifying from a Hollywood film made in the forties. After all, outside of those two guys, The Uninvited is remembered for being one of the first Hollywood movies to depict a haunting seriously, not necessarily for being one of the scariest.
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What are the odds that I ended up watching back-to-back films with panther women? I blame Criterion, clearly, they have a weird fetish. I just don’t want people to think this is THAT KIND OF BLOG. But don’t let the title fool you, Cat People isn’t a cheap B-flick. Well, it was cheap and it was a B-flick but trust me, Cat People is a classy production. You can thank one Vladimir Leventon for that, known more famously as Val Lewton.

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120 years ago, some nerd wrote a book about a guy trapped on an island of furries. In the ‘70s they made a movie about it with a bunch of hippies. In the ‘90s, they made another movie starring a fat guy with an ice bucket on his head. Before both of those they made the terrifying, disturbing, and bone-rattling—I can keep going—film that is The Island of Lost Souls. Directed by Erle C. Kenton and adapted for the screen by Waldemar Young and noted pulp sci-fi author Phillip Wylie, Island of the Souls is a disturbing exploration of what it means to be human both physically and mentally.

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