At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)

For this year’s Shocktober (Foreign Frights), I wanted to cover as many different films from as many different parts of the world as possible. Though somehow I kept coming back to Germany, Italy and Japan. Hmm, is there a coincidence these are the countries that make up the Axis of Evil? Of course I’m only kidding. I’d put Sweden up there too, as one of the top international horror producers. I mean, they produced Dolph Lundgren and he tried to kill Rocky. That’s pretty evil in my book. One region whose evilness is often overlooked is South America. There are plenty of great foreign horror films from Central America, but somehow the blood seems to dry up the further you go south. I’m not sure why, especially when you consider they gave the world Jose Mojica Marins.

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Eyes Without a Face (1960)

The other day I was reading a comment thread on Reddit about some movie, and while this is not a course of action I would recommend to anyone, I somehow did find myself thinking deeply about a comment some jerk left. He brought up Citizen Kane and argued that modern audiences would not enjoy or even respond to the film because its technical achievements and narrative devices have become rote in the last seventy or so years. My initial reaction was “fuck you,” but I’ve been thinking about that in terms of trying to review older cinema. My dilemma is that I’m not sure if I should factor the impact a movie had into my musings. It’s not like I can put myself into the head space of audiences back then, or even anyone who isn’t exactly me right now. It’s something I like to call the “John Carter of Mars” effect. And it’s relevant when talking about Eyes Without a Face because its influence is so obvious.
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Les Diaboliques (1955)

I don’t know what it says about the state of horror movies abroad during the ’30s and ’40s that there wasn’t a single one worth writing about in between the 24-year gap between our last entry and 1955’s Les Diaboliques (though I’m sure there were a few movies made during this period that have already been reviewed in a previous year’s Shocktober).  But I’m just gonna go out on a limb (since my non-horror expertise can’t speak for itself) and say that the late ’50s/early ’60s saw a bit of a resurgence in the horror genre due to the Hammer Studios and William Castles of the world, as well the massive popularity of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.  Les Diaboliques, helmed by the director Henry-Georges Clouzot, who was often referred to as “The French Hitchcock”, certainly helped established this reputation, but Cluzout also supposedly was able to make the film because he snatched up the rights to the book it was based off of mere hours before Hitch was able to.  And then in some weird series of inspiration, the film was so effective in it’s own Hitchcock-ian inclinations that it helped influence Robert Block, the author of Psycho, who claimed that Les Diaboliques was his favorite film of all time.  It sort of reminds me of how Brian Wilson was trying to outdo Rubber Soul when he wrote Pet Sounds, which in turn inspired The Beatles to record Sgt. Pepper.  But, you know, with more murder. Continue reading →

Drácula

Imagine if right after they finished a new Fast and Furious, a crew employed by the same studio reused all the same sets and props and remade the entire movie in Spanish. Believe it or not, there was a time when this technique was common practice in Hollywood. In 1931, Laurel and Hardy made the film Pardon Us in five different languages. Therefore, Laurel and Hardy are the greatest actors of all time. You might be surprised to learn how many films received the multiple-language version or ‘MLV’ treatment. Famous artists from Buster Keaton to Alfred Hitchcock to John “F**k it, Genghis Khan is going to talk like a cowboy” Wayne did MLV’s. Though if there is one MLV in particular worth noting, it’s the Universal Pictures 1931 Spanish-language version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Notable because many claim it to be better than the original. Let’s find out why my children of the night. Or should I say, “Vamos a pro que mis hijos de la noche.”

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Häxan (1922)

Hey, I get to write about something good for Shocktober this year! Yeah!

The first thing you need to know about Häxan is that there are apparently dozens of different cuts of this movie. I watched the 106 minute version Criterion made available on Hulu, which is I guess different from the 87 minute version you can buy from Criterion (NSFW: for some reason the screenshot Criterion used is a picture of a butt) or the 1968, William S. Burroughs-narrated version you can watch on YouTube. This is probably the case with any movie that has survived nearly 100 years, but I wanted to be absolutely clear that there’s a chance that those of you who’ve seen this may have seen more or less than I did, or the same stuff in a different context.
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The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Hey there, Shocktoberphiles!  Yes, I have once again agreed to help John out this Shocktober by reviewing a few classic horror movies, though last year established quite clearly that I am not the most horror-minded film fan, as the two films I got the most excited about reviewing were Eraserhead and Young Frankenstein.  And it appears that I’ll probably end up taking that same route this year, as this first film I’m reviewing isn’t really quite a horror movie, though I can see why John chose it as part of this year’s Shocktober itinerary, since it has some supernaturally ghoulish elements to it.  However, calling this a horror movie feels a bit like calling The Seventh Seal a horror movie (more on that later).  But you know what?  I don’t really care, since it’s doubtful that I would’ve gotten around to seeing this movie any time soon if it wasn’t for Shocktober, and The Phantom Carriage is a pretty amazing achievement in silent European cinema no matter how you slice it. Continue reading →