October list 2, THE RETURN

Today is a particularly special day. Firstly, it's a Blood Moon in the month of October,

which is just a perfectly timed event. Coincidentally, tonight is the premiere of the fourth season of American Horror Story: Freak Show. So in honor of that, I'm going to start off with the film that this season will be (hopefully) pulling from, Freaks (1932).

Freaks follows the story of a woman looking to seduce a performer in a freak show for his inheritance. Plot wise, it's pretty straight forward, and it doesn't play out as a true horror film until the third act, but what's truly spectacular was the casting. The majority of the main cast weren't A-list actors, but rather actual sideshow performers and giving them proper acting roles, also effectively cutting out the need for elaborate special effects. This acts as a bit of a double edged sword, as it showcases people who don't fit the typical ideal of "normal," however it makes them out to be villains and REAL monsters by the end. Tragically, this film was not well received at the time of its release, and tarnished the reputation of Tod Browning, who directed one of the MOST famous classic horror film, Dracula (1931). What I AM hopeful for is that AHS keeps true to its origins and cast people who suffer from physical deformities and humanize them for mainstream audiences, all the while keeping up with its horror roots.

Speaking of Dracula, perhaps the most grotesque "adaptation" is Nosferatu (1922). 

You've seen images of this terrifying film as stock footage in any documentary about vampires, Dracula or Vlad the Impaler. 

This film IS Dracula, but since the filmmakers didn't have the rights to the characters, had to change the names, locations and omit characters. What came from this however, is a haunting and suspenseful horror film which grips you with overly long, slender fingers. In Film school, you're taught about German Expressionism through The Cabinet of Doctor Calligari (1920) (more about that later) but if you want examples of how this form of cinematography works, this is the film to see. Max Schreck's Graf Orlok exemplifies the horrific nature of what a vampire should be. Hideous and repulsive, he is the physical manifestation of evil. It's a remarkable contrast to Bela Lugosi's Dracula which appears as an upstanding gentleman, but with a dark side which came out almost ten years later. I prefer this version, as much as I love Bela Lugosi's makeup, the way Schreck was done up leaves a very unsettling chill down your spine.

Nosferatu also inspired the film Shadow of the Vampire (2000) starring John Malkovich and, a personal favorite of mine, Willem Dafoe. 

Shadow chronicles the events during the production of Nosferatu wherein Max Schreck (Dafoe) and F.W. Murnau (Malkovich) are going through the trials of making a film which has limited time and resources, and mysteriously keeps losing stagehands and crew members. It's a great Film about filmmaking, and I will always recommend Willem Dafoe films, especially as a seemingly eccentric "method" actor.

As for eccentric actors, I'd like to bring up a less "horror" and more light hearted film that my family LOVES this time of year, Hocus Pocus (1993). Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and (dammit I WILL count him as a billed actor) Doug Jones. This delightful story takes place in Salem, MA and follows a brother and sister who have to deal with Three sister witches who where fabled to have been killed in 1693, but are resurrected and seek their book of shadows (which is the family friendly version of the Necronomicon from Evil Dead). Bette Midler is on point with her characterization of Winifred Sanderson (it stayed with me to the point of thinking Queen Amidala looked like her in Episode 1), 

 

Seriously, I can't be the only one...

and for all the flak she gets now SJP had a profound effect on me as a young boy (you can't see her in a corset and NOT know what I'm talking about). 

It's basically the Three Stooges as witches, and it's glorious. As for Doug Jones, he really is an underrated character actor, bringing undead Billy Butcherson to life to be the bumbling oaf turned sympathetic turncoat at the end. 

If you have yet to see it, please do so. It also has one of my favorite adaptations of "I put a spell on you" in it that I think improves on the original song.

If you want to go back to true horror and monsters, I give you Necronomicon (1993). 

Necronomicon is an anthology horror film in which there are four loosely connected stories in one film. The baseline story is following author H.P. Lovecraft to find inspiration for his stories by hunting down a fabled book called the Necronomicon. As he reads the book, you see tales concerning its contents and creatures which inhabit the realms of his imagination. Ranging from immortality to resurrection through eldrich beings to... well.. THIS:

I will go in to greater depth of Lovecraft's horror at a later date, but if you want a great introduction of his work adapted to film, this is where you should start.

How could I have forgotten this gem? From Dusk Til Dawn (1996) stars George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Cheech Marin and Salma Hayek, and is a beautiful example of an excessive explosion of blood, gore and violence. 

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, the film starts as a buddy criminal film with Clooney and Tarantino as criminals on the run trying to cross the border to Mexico. Little do they know that the strip club that is their dead drop is really a feeding ground for vampires. Well executed, fun, and Salma Hayek doing the snake dance that everyone has seen. 

Dusk has also inspired a spinoff series on Netflix which I plan on seeing at some point.

Dusk was partially inspired by my final recommendation this week, The Lost Boys (1987) directed by everyone's FAVORITE Batman director, Joel Schumacher and stars Corey Feldman and Kiefer Sutherland (yes, Jack Bauer from 24 as a vampire). 

This one is heralded as one of the most iconic vampire films and brought these creature of the night to a grotesque and punkish overtone compared to the previous incarnations of the vampires of before. If you ask me what a vampire looks like, it won't be the Bela Lugosi, but rather either Kiefer Sutherland or Max Schreck in their vampiric makeup.

And so concludes the second week of the October horror list, I hope you manage to watch at least a few of these. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the Lost Boys Soundtrack! Enjoy!