October movie watches

 It's been a busy October and I'm realizing that I have not shared anything to my blog in a while. At a friend's suggestion, I'm cross-posting some of my letterboxd reviews of some of my favorite new watches as well as rewatches from this month. I watched in total, 42 feature length films and 5 short films, some on my own, some in streams I hosted or in streams hosted by others. Everything I watched this month was horror or a thriller dealing with horror themes.

 

Here's a couple of my favorite new watches from this month. It's not all of them, but these felt like the reviews most worth sharing.

 

Eyes of Fire (1983)

A lovely dark fairy tale set in pre-revolutionary war colonial America. An arrogant preacher has seduced a married woman and when the townsfolk try to have him hanged for it, he and his followers set out into the woods to start a new settlement- which they are wholly unprepared for. Also to be fair, hanging a guy for witchcraft and devilry because he's sleeping with someone else's wife is extreme and I can't blame his followers for wanting to leave the town. The harshness of frontier life and the ever-present worries of people kept in a paranoid state of spiritual warfare by their religious leaders really doesn't lead to healthy living (doesn't that explain so much about what America is today?)

In the preacher's care is a young woman who- presumably disabled and mute after a tragic event in her childhood- actually possesses supernatural abilities that are waiting to manifest fully.

The journey into the wild is harder than anticipated, and as the settlers move towards French territory they run afoul of the Shawnee. The husband of the astray wife has meanwhile found out that his wife and daughter have left and catches up with them in time to save them. However, the group ends up in cursed valley that the Shawnee are afraid to enter. The husband, unable to make his wife return with him, stays in order to protect his family anyway.

The settlers start to make a life at the site of an abandoned dwelling of previous French settlers, ignoring all the signs around them that something is amiss as strange things start to occur. What ensues is a supernatural battle between Leah, the witch in the care of the preacher, and a dark witch that lives in the woods. 

This is the kind of story where the interesting setting, backstory and characters work great with a slow build-up of horror. I love how this feels so much like an old European fairy-tale. Lovely visuals, some fantastic effects (especially the witch in the woods!), and filmed beautifully. The gorgeous forest setting is used to the film's advantage and all the supernatural elements are intimately tied to earthy primordial feeling visuals.

What's interesting too is that the settlers are Irish and the priest who's led them into the woods is English and the picture of colonial arrogance. It's funny too how he presents himself as all love and peace with the intent to make Christians of the "noble" but "savage" Natives (his words, not mine)- then later curses and falsely accuses them for every supernatural thing that afflicts his settlement later on. Very well-written nuanced stuff.

Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968)

A super fun Japanese period piece with intrigue, murder, and supernatural vengeance against men who abuse their power. Even though it's a heightened fantastical tale, I think the story of greedy developers threatening to make people homeless will definitely resonate with modern viewers. I really enjoyed this and this was a wonderful way to kick off October.

This film has a slow build but feels nicely paced and the ghostly payoff is great. I'm super charmed by the costumes, effects and puppetry used to create the Yokai. There's even a playful bit of animation in a scene where an umbrella monster appears from an ink brush drawing and it's super cute.

I would 100% hang out with the Yokai if they'd have me.

 

The Light on the Hill (2016)

I went into this expecting horror (it has a lot of horror elements and is filmed with the language of horror) but it's actually a very compelling mystery/thriller. I love the tense stylistic choices and the editing. If you're squeamish, this definitely has some grody morgue and autopsy imagery too that really lends to the horror feeling.

When a shepherd dies mysteriously of unknown causes, a coroner uncovers a secret that could make him and his friend rich- but what unfolds because of this discovery has horrifying consequences for them and the small Peruvian village they're working in. There's also a policeman with a troubled history and a bad temper, a pair of gangsters out for the widow's land, and something dangerous in the hills.

It's a very artfully crafted story about desperation, isolation, greed, and the things desperate men will do to change the circumstances of their lives. What I really liked was the way the film really gets into the characters and their motivations. They feel well-rounded and realistic. The pacing was also excellent, really immersing the viewer in the environment and the lives of the characters.

The Light on the Hill also has a great brooding soundtrack that made me think a little of Tangerine Dream's score for Thief and for Sorcerer- fitting as the tone of this film really matches with those as well.

 Someone's Watching Me! (1978)

Shows that TV movies can be surprisingly good- though it's less surprising knowing it's John Carpenter at the helm of this one.

Someone's Watching Me! is a tense thriller with Lauren Hutton as Leigh Michaels, a funny and extremely likeable protagonist who talks to herself, constantly cracks jokes, and is generally just an odd duck. When she moves into a new apartment, she starts getting creepy calls and presents in the mail from someone who seems to be following her every move. 

There's definite hints of De Palma in this, though Carpenter definitely is someone who's always been fixated on television and viewing as a theme. Here there's telescopes, tvs, recording equipment, and the main character even works as a live TV director.

In some ways this film feels progressive for what it tries with its story. Is has a competent female character who acts realistically but isn't a fainting damsel, a lesbian character* who is a valued friend and open about who she is, and a boyfriend who doesn't try to gaslight the female lead about her situation. The film also is quite anti-cop and depicts the police as bumbling and brutal in turn.

Good tension, good camerawork, and it keeps you engaged even if you can guess where the story might be going. The stalker situation delivers on a lot of creepiness and a sense of dread that builds steadily throughout the film. 

*the only downer about the lesbian character is *spoiler* the stalker kills her in an attempt to get to Leigh. It's annoyingly common, but at least her death isn't in some way tied to her identity or viewed as a moral judgment in the story. She's just being a good friend and is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lost Soul aka Forbidden Room (1977)

A young painter goes to live with his aunt and uncle in their estate in Venice so that he can study art in the city. However, the mansion holds a strange secret that the young man can't help but be curious about. It's revealed that his uncle's mentally ill brother is locked in a room upstairs, and as the nephew digs deeper, there's the mysterious death of a child involved. However, all is not what it seems and he suspects that his aunt and uncle might not be telling the truth.

This was really surprising and dark in a specific way that I really appreciated. Inspired in part by Nabokov's Lolita and quite harrowing in a variety of ways. I was reminded of the film Secret Ceremony and the strange familial dynamics at play there too.

I also appreciated how well the film communicates in little ways and in big ways all the things that are amiss in the aunt and uncle's house- particularly in how the uncle treats his wife and the air of oppression in the house. Women, he says, are more akin to vegetables than men, in one of his long and bizarre monologues to his nephew. In true gothic fashion, the deteriorating state of the mansion with its cobwebbed and abandoned rooms also adds to the haunted feeling of the film and reflects the moral decay of its characters.

I will say, the film is not without its humor and absurdity in among the darker notes. Little moments of brevity feel well-placed and alleviating.

Great performances from Catherine Deneuve and Vittorio Gassman who extremely sell all the bizarre as well as the everyday elements of their characters.

Deadstream (2022) 

This was a pleasant surprise! I was expecting to go "ugh" at an attempt to be current, but this perfectly encapsulates the flavor of a really annoying streamer and parodies it perfectly. Whenever I hear about one of these guys getting "canceled" it's usually me hearing about them for the first time, and it feels exactly like the main character could be any one of those types of guys. If you told me Shawn was real and I hadn't seen the movie, I'd believe it.

I loved the integration of the different camera feeds, the stream chat (and how hysterically pitch perfect both the inane and unhinged comments are), the chat emotes, and the way that technology blends into the story.

The film starts off eerie and atmospheric and then descends fully into a more comedic approach. The Evil Dead/Army of Darkness comparisons are apt, but this has enough legs to stand on its own. I think the acting really sells it- the character is completely absurd and that keeps you in the headspace of the story. Maybe the switch from genuinely creepy to totally gonzo makes things a little uneven, but I honestly don't mind.

I love the practical effects too. They don't look "realistic" but I don't think they need to be for something like this. They're colorful, goopy, and have a lot of distinctive character that makes the ghosts super fun to watch. The haunted house itself looked great too and really helped set the tone.

The Funhouse (1981)

Fun, eerie and colorful, The Funhouse is a very cynical and nihilistic film about the seedy underbelly of a carnival. Underneath the candy-coated exterior and the colorful lights is a world of desperation, alcoholism and dark secrets. Like TCM, the fucked up characters feel somewhat understandable (if not forgivable) for who they are and the things they justify to survive.

Four likeable and goofy teens witness something they shouldn't have while trespassing in the funhouse after closing hours. I liked the way we spend the opening part of the film just following them through the carnival, seeing them have fun, smoke weed, and misbehave in a very relatable but not nasty way. You do feel bad for them when things go awry. The setup I think is a little more fun than the latter part of the film, but you do feel like something is at stake because the protagonists are just knucklehead kids who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. 

While the second half of the film has some issues and the scares and pacing felt a bit by-the-numbers, I did overall enjoy it and really loved both the carnival setting and the interior of the funhouse itself. I love this kind of dark ride anyway and have a lot of fond memories of them, so this just scratches an itch for me too.

The House of the Laughing Windows (1976)

Stunning, atmospheric and twisted. Sets the tone right away as the opening credits roll across footage of a man being stabbed and tortured to death as an eerie voice rants about death and color.

I love the rural setting and the kind of unease fostered in a small village with some very dark and nasty secrets that no one wants to see uncovered. There's a sense of decay in the entire environment, where even inhabited houses are rotting and seem abandoned. Everything just seems a little off. 

Painting is a central part of the story, so of course I'm going to be interested. There's a continuing relationship between art, creation and death in the film.

The main character is in this small village to restore a fresco of Saint Sebastian (whose pose and agony mirror that of the man in the opening credits), but as he learns more about the troubled, deranged artist who painted it, he becomes embroiled in a terrible mystery. 

Beautifully tense and eerie. I love the way that this film uses light and darkness to construct a haunted mood. I always enjoy when imagery or scenarios feel supernatural or hallucinated, regardless of whether or not they actually are.

Feels fitting that this was in the same time period as Don't Torture a Duckling, which preceded this film. Both deeply cynical films in different ways about rural settings in Italy.

Ferat Vampire (1982)

An interesting and stylish Czechoslovak film about a vampiric car and a doctor trying to prevent a girl he loves from being consumed by it. I wonder if the lower ratings for this film are due to people expecting something more over-the-top or cheesy- instead it is absurd, but its style is restrained and subdued, its atmosphere eerie. It's a parody but the tone is quite grim and uneasy in a way I really enjoyed. There's also some really great night shots and framing that add to a sense of dread.

There's also one very wild and grisly scene that gets a lot of Videodrome comparisons for being early to the idea of explicit biomechanical horror- though I should note that artwork and literature were exploring these concepts way before either film. On the note of art, the opening credits play on top of stills of some very interesting paintings of cars, races, tarps that all have an uncanny sort of quality to them. Particularly the paintings with the hoods of cars with food spread out on them stood out to me.

It's of course easy to read the message about capitalism and consumerism in this story which plays with the mythology of vampires to talk about the consumer industry of vehicles- safety of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians be damned. It's funny that the Dr. Van Helsing type character that the main character meets even states that the technology of a blood fueled machine would be perfectly safe for public transit, say a bus, but one person fueling a car is far too great a risk. Hysterical.

What I find quite clever about the story though is the way they play with atmosphere and an ambiguity that lends to a sense of greater mystery. The cars run on blood, that much we suspect to be true, but how? Is there a supernatural element to it all? Do the dead drivers return themselves to drink the blood of the living? This sense of mystery is furthered by the sinister and very vampiric appearance of Madame Ferat, always dressed in severe and stylish clothes with her cadre of almost fashy looking attendants in their red and black uniforms. Madame Ferat has a very sensual and lesbian-coded manner to her, especially regarding her blonde assistant.

Definitely a film I would recommend if you're at all interested in foreign horror or different takes on the vampire mythology.

Martin (1977)

I'm filling in the gaps of my George A. Romero knowledge, I'd meant to see this much sooner but for whatever reason hadn't. 

With Romero, a lot of his other films are overshadowed by the phenomenal Dead films, but there is a lot more diversity to Romero both as a film maker and a story-teller. Martin is a wonderfully surreal, dark, cynical and oddly sensual film that blends the gothic against a backdrop of urban decay. It hits home because I've known these kinds of Pennsylvania towns, where industry dries up and the place becomes desolate and despairing. In a lot of ways it's a perfect setting for a vampire story.

Far from an average slasher or an average vampire story, Martin is surreal character portrait of a rapist and serial killer who believes (though we're not sure how fully) that he must drink women's blood. The film itself is wonderfully ambiguous about the whole premise, with Martin's ultra religious and domineering uncle believing in a familial curse that's made Martin a vampire.

John Amplas really sells the whole character of Martin and makes the disturbing character strangely likeable. Very different than I expected to feel about the titular character.

This film is also beautifully shot and takes advantage of architecture and interiors to create a brooding gothic atmosphere.

 

Here's a couple favorite rewatches from this month:

Frankenstein (1931)

As a child I was obsessed with the Universal monsters and was watching them frequently. I actually hadn't revisited Frankenstein for decades so it was amazing to get to reassess it as an adult with more appreciation for film and history. It means so much more to me knowing this film in *1931* was made by an openly gay director and starred a (unfortunately closeted and rather tragic) queer actor as Frankenstein. By its story already it is quite queer- a horror born of life created outside of the "natural" order of man and woman, a doctor who's so fixated with creating this new man that he must hide it from his bride-to-be, and the monster himself as a figure othered and despised for simply being.

Just so stunning, it's amazing to think about just how striking all the imagery of this film is. Its elaborate sets, costumes, makeup, and of course its stark and purposeful lighting come together to create an atmosphere that can be both haunting and enchanting. I also loved the little touches of humor in the story with its characters.

While this film of course changes a lot of things from the book, including reducing the monster more to a child-like state, they absolutely nail the pathos. The creature is so mournful and sympathetic, a frightened being who did not ask to be born or treated so cruelly. The windmill scene still remains as harrowing and tragic to me as it was when I was little.

Roadgames (1981) 

 

This was a fantastic revisit. A truck driver with a pet dingo notices a suspicious character along the route he's traveling. As the news breaks on the radio about body parts being found, he starts to suspect he might be on the killer's trail. When he picks up a young hitch hiker, the two of them become entangled in the case.

Beautifully shot, wonderful lighting, and some absolutely fantastic tension. The dialogue between the characters makes moments that should be dull feel enriching and entertaining. Good, funny banter. Stacy Keach is a lot of fun as the oddball trucker, and a young Jamie Lee Curtis is equally fun as the plucky young hitch hiker. Boswell the dingo is also a very good boy.

Roadgames also delivers on genuine scares and a tense eerie atmosphere. It's not too often that a film genuinely gets me on edge but this one definitely gets to me.

I'll also note that there's a side-plot about a meat industry strike and a definite political undertow to the whole affair. There's also a scene in a road-side diner that has murals depicting aboriginal people being massacred by settlers. The police, of course, are all useless and bastards. The overall tone of the film definitely strikes me as a particularly cynical portrait of Australia.

Also, rest assured, the truck absolutely gets into some action and shenanigans, both on the road with other kooky characters, and in some tense scenes in pursuit of the killer.

The Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985)

One of my favorites. I really think Mora is underappreciated both in his ability to make highly entertaining camp as well as his ability to make a good looking film. The Howling II is silly, it knows it's silly, and it's a lot of fun for it- delivering both fun practical effects, goofy scenes and a lot of genuinely cool atmosphere and imagery. The soundtrack is great too, one of my favorites as well.

Sybil Danning, of course, is so beautiful as Stirba. The heroes are so milquetoast aside from Christopher Lee, and we know this movie is more about Stirba and her werewolf minions than it is about Jenny and Ben. Side note- having Reb Brown play a guy named Ben White? That had to be an intentional gag right??

I fully appreciate the way this film leans into the eroticism of werewolves- with a bisexual half-transformed werewolf threesome as well as a full orgy of Stirba's werewolf worshippers.

I also think this film has some really fabulous use of locations as well as terrific set decor- the club with the massive werewolf mural, the interiors of Stirba's "castle," Stefan's home with all its specimens, Egyptian revival and art deco oddities. I also loved the festival scenes with the neat wooden puppets, costumes and masks. 

It's a shame there's some budget limitations for the effects, many of the werewolves are either partially transformed or more guys in fuzzy suits with the occasional puppet face close-up, but I still respect how fully the story commits to the concept of a werewolf cult led by a powerful sorceress. There's some entertaining gore and also a weird little demon puppet. The Howling II is a delight.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Really fun and weird, with good portions of goofiness and unsettling moods and imagery.

Unfairly maligned, though I've been seeing a lot more love for Season of the Witch in recent times. My hot take is that I like this better than first Halloween or anything following- though it's been a really long time since I saw the first. No shade to Carpenter (who I adore). I will say this was in part written by him and has the characteristic things he's interested in- tvs, ways of viewing, the ills of commercialism and capitalism. Fits right in with They Live. The goofy shit about Stonehenge and the Irish feels more like Nigel Kneale's hand.

It's a shame Halloween never became an anthology series like it was intended. I'd much rather have a bunch of stand-alone stories revolving around the holiday than just more films about the same guy with a knife. I'd like to hop over to Universe B and see what movies the people in the other timeline are getting lol.

I forgot how gruesome some parts of this are too. Just some gnarly choices and I love how on point the story is about the way that advertisers target kids. I love the way it tackles the factory town setting as well- super unsettling- as is the factory itself. As an aside, really fun to see how the latex masks are made, it's just pleasing to see all that stuff on display.

This film is also, frankly, gorgeous to look at. Inspired lighting choices, great cinematography.

Altered States (1980)

Really spectacular and fun, with some of my favorite visual trip sequences in film. Ken Russell's sense for the extravagant always is exciting. I really enjoyed revisiting this with friends, some of whom were new watchers, and getting to feel like it was a first watch just by proxy. Fantastic effects. It's neat to be able to draw a line from the visual language of 2001 and Kenneth Anger's films to this and then draw a line from Altered States to the later films influenced in turn.

It's funny that William Hurt's character really is such a bastard and so self obsessed with his quest for knowledge that it nearly destroys him, and in the end that's what tells him that the most important things in his life were the people he pushed aside to get there. The story is both existentially terrifying and oddly sweet.

I also have to think about the amount of white people that go to do ayahuasca and completely fuck up their lives because they're not grounded by the same cultural and community understanding as the people whose rituals they're plundering.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I don't know that I could possibly add anything new about Night of the Living Dead, it's phenomenal. A film that remains socially relevant and important to this day.

My first time watching ever, I was with friends and I was a kid- maybe 11 or 12. This movie scared the hell out of me, though I tried to put on a brave face for my friends. I was not expecting this kind of gruesomeness or tone from a black and white picture. I grew up on Hammer and Universal horror and lots of cheesy drive-in flicks, and while those can be quite affecting, they don't reach this same level of intensity.

As a child/teen, I really used to find Barbra annoying, but I absolutely get her deal as an adult. It's a realistic portrait of shock from a person who's had an extremely traumatic experience. Ben is already acclimated and doesn't really have the time to help her process it, but he's protective of her all the same.

What I appreciate is the way this film pulls no punches- it's scary because it's merciless, anyone can die and it's still shocking. Even nowadays we still have this feeling that certain characters just don't die in a story, but Night of the Living Dead goes there in a way that neither feels cheap nor tasteless. The elements of the human conflict are perfect and really elevate the story beyond the unsettling horror. Amazing casting. 

It's amazing what this film achieves on a small budget, and the way that the world of this story is fleshed out in real time as the characters learn about it- from each other, from the radio, and from the tv. The details remain haunting and have stuck with me all this time- especially Ben recounting his story to Barbra.

The film looks gorgeous and it's lovely to see it restored. A perfect rewatch for Halloween.

Splinter (2008)

Holds up well as a solid creature feature with a uniquely yucky monster inspired by fungus/slime mold. I hadn't seen it in ages and had a lot of fun watching with friends. What I also dig is that this film involves a hostage situation that evolves into a siege when kidnappers and hostages end up trapped in a gas station with the infectious monster lurking outside. Makes for an interesting dynamic. Not all of the plot choices work for me, but the end result is still tense and creepy.

Shea Wigham definitely sells his role as the kidnapper Dennis, and he's got a very compelling presence. He's definitely the guy with the best acting chops in the film and his character feels the best developed.

I appreciate too that most of the effects were practical and on screen enough to get the point across. There's a nice balance of silly/gross that actually makes the whole thing pretty uncanny. Yes, a severed hand moving on its own is absurd and borders on funny, but it's also decently creepy. 

The shaky cam detracts a little, but it's kind of what I expect in 00s horror and it's not nearly as egregious as some other films I've seen. Overall it's enjoyable

 The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)

I've seen The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue quite a few times now, and each time it impresses me with how grim, genuinely scary, and cynical it is. The eco-horror message as well as its portrayal of police as brutish power abusers stay extremely relevant in the current day.

I really love this film's take on the idea of the living dead and how utterly eerie they are. The makeup, the way the actors move, how they're costumed, and accompanying sound design choices really make them distinct and unsettling. Nicely filmed and has a good sense of atmosphere.

I will say, the main character is hilariously unlikable, but he's sort of an "I'm an asshole because I'm right" type and well, he is quite right in putting together the pieces while the police flounder.

House (1977)

An absolute delight- dreamy, gorgeous, unafraid to make bold style choices. It's the kind of movie that you have to rewatch because there's something new to appreciate every time- whether it's a visual gag, a style choice, a beautiful visual- there's so many layers of stuff to enjoy. Joyfully embraces artifice and all the parts of "movie magic" that make a film feel genuinely magical.

Dancing skeletons, pianos that come to life, rooms flooding with blood, and a healthy heap of folklore. Also, Blanche really is a lovely cat.

This time around I was really struck both by the humor and by the odd tone of tenderness to the whole thing. It's a ghost story relating to the trauma of WWII and the atomic bomb, and even though you're watching the characters being picked off one by one, there's a feeling that what's happening in the haunted house isn't entirely bad, or at least it's something you can sympathize with. As a friend put it, the story sides with the house and the ghosts.

Sole Survivor (1983)

I'm so glad to see this film getting more love now that it's streaming on Shudder. I've been singing its praises for a while now as a genuinely scary, haunting and suspenseful film. Well filmed and with an oppressive atmosphere, Sole Survivor is grim little gem that goes to show that you don't need a massive budget to make an unsettling and good looking film. Some genuinely creepy visuals too!

I know people like to bring up Final Destination as a movie that was likely influenced by some of the concept, but I think It Follows probably owes quite a bit to Sole Survivor as well.

 

 As a bonus, here's a couple films that were stinkers but which I extremely enjoyed:

Hell's Highway (2002)

Low budget trash at its absolute finest. I know "so bad it's good" has somewhat lost its meaning but this film is gloriously that.

Bizarre dialogue delivery, blown out audio recording, highly silly gore and violence, and some utterly bonkers plot points- the ending had me hooting and hollering. Also features a genuinely cool monster sequence and some completely outrageous cheap "miniature effects" (read: toy trucks and buildings). Usually movies of this caliber tend to have really uneven pacing but this movie actually kept things moving and was very entertaining. I think they understood the assignment perfectly.

Also, features a score by Jay Woelfel (director of the delightful low budget film Beyond Dream's Door).

Tragic Ceremony (1974)

Without a doubt one of the most nonsensical, unhinged films I've seen in a while. Baffling ending that's very stupid too. So of course I absolutely love it.

It definitely has at times a good mood and atmosphere, and some unintentionally hysterical editing and sound design choices. Without a doubt the cult murder scene is the big highlight of the film, total chaos and fun. This film overall is a glorious mess.

Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)

This is definitely one of D'Amato's more competent films and it's still an absolute chaotic mess story-wise, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it. A mishmash of Carmilla, Frankenstein, and a generous helping of Edgar Allen Poe; Death Smiles on a Murderer is a beautiful gothic romp with some dizzying twists and turns. It's a gorgeous looking film and very entertaining. Of course I love the bisexual angle of the film too.

It's very helpful that the letterboxd summary has the description of the Inca amulet plot because that is one of the details we only get at the end and it's extremely "sure, why not" following everything else in the movie. Greta's amnesia, her getting in the middle of a marriage and hooking up with both the husband and wife, Klaus Kinski's otherwise unexplained resurrection experiments, and a bit of Cask of Amontillado/The Black Cat/Masque of the Red Death for good measure. Maybe a dash of Macbeth too.

I think my favorite scene is when an otherwise docile, sleepy and adorable Siamese cat tears a man's face to shreds thanks to some puppetry and a bit of editing magic. There's quite a few scenes of that sweet kitty dozing on set too, delightful.