Wednesday, November 6, 2024

The Omen

I guess in a really weird sort of way, without the son of Satan there would be no Superman.




Richard Donner's feature length directorial debut was a milestone in horror history, not only was it terribly succesful but gained two nominations at the Oscars completing the unholy trinity of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. Now I did not know even half of this movie in comparison to Rosemary's Baby, I of course heard of it and knew some plot points but ultimately had no clue where the movie was going. It's almost framed as a mystery of this wealthy political family who adopts a son who is more than they bargained for, as both religious and unreligious figures try to assist and discern the origins of young Damien. I personally felt the mystery worked and worked well because unlike with Rosemary we don't really know how this all came about, who was in on it, and even what the end goal of such machinations could be. Not knowing sometimes is much scarier. So we essentially follow the father Robert played by Gregory Peck as he pieces all this together and has to come to terms with the fact he may have to kill his son. There's drama to that, it's not heavy handed or preachy but when you get an actor as good as Gregory, who at this period of time was pretty much done with acting all together and still delivers a strong performance as you would expect is something to be admired. Lee Remick I feel had just a bit more that could have been integrated in the story as the mother Kathryn, we get bits of her becoming wary and untrusting of Damien but I feel we could have went farther with it, but performance wise still pretty good and memorable. Same can be said for Harvey Stephens as Damien, not the focal point of the movie as you would be led to believe but for one so young we got a lot out of his performance to where you're not really sure if he's flat out evil or not which I like. Billie Whitelaw is kind of the mirror of that as Mrs. Baylock, where you only get moments but she's such a presence and has this dark look about her that you don't need more than that! It's simple, subtle, and doesn't need expounding upon. Anytime I get to see David Warner in a movie is a happy occasion and lord knows I miss the man and his talents, and I like the progression of starting as a innocuous character but becomes the second protagonist in this story and he just never fails to deliver regardless of part. Also I have to shoutout Patrick Troughton who again isn't present a lot as Father Brennan but commands respect and you know he's on the level about what he knows, of course I'm attached because of Doctor Who but it doesn't take away a fraction of his acting chops. The movie is a bit under 2 hours and it keeps your interest throughout, building on the drama of the characters than the horror of evil which I think elevates it considerably. Any other movie would have this kid blatantly act like a hellspawn and be this overblown conflict of good against evil, but instead we see the effect of the revelation on this family and you do care about them enough. The directing of Richard Donner and the writing of David Seltzer make this film what it is, with no small amount of appreciation for Jerry Goldsmith's score which can be both beautiful and horrific, all those elements craft a finely made intriguing film that I almost feel the least amount of people have seen when stacked against the other three. Everybody has watched The Exorcist, a good chunk of people have viewed Rosemary's Baby, I don't hear too many people discuss The Omen which is a shame because it does stand strong on it's own merits. Does it go for your typical style of horror or devil movies? Not at all! But it isn't trying to be above that either. It just does it in it's own way and I can respect that a great deal. I give it 3.5 stars, 8.5/10! New movie incoming Friday.

Monday, November 4, 2024

Rosemary's Baby

Yeah I'm not letting go of the season quite just yet.




I knew what I was getting into, in fact I'd be surprised to find anyone who doesn't know the gist or especially the ending of Rosemary's Baby. It doesn't help we've had over 50 years of cultural osmosis to aid in that little factoid, so do I just spoil the damn thing? I'm angry enough to do it, not because the quality of the picture is bad or any technical details or whatever, but because the events, the AUDACITY on display here would make anyone lose it. I won't lie to you for a second the opening titles made me vastly more interested to watch this than any other reason a person could throw at me, and why the hell does nobody talk about horror gimmick maestro William Castle being the producer on this film?? This is the guy who gave us House On Haunted Hill, The Tingler, and The Night Walker but nobody will put respect on his name for helping get this movie made. Unacceptable! Frankly I'd rather bring that up than the director, I don't really torch people to the ground on this show but yeah not so fucking much with this guy and the laundry list of offenses he's garnered. I wash my hands of this madness. But what really gets on my metaphorical tits with this film is just the sheer blatant abuse poor Rosemary goes through after just moving into a new apartment and wanting to start a family in New Yawk Cit-ay. It starts off innocently enough but that spiral hit for me fast after Rosemary and her husband Guy get to know the neighbors, but of course me knowing the scheme I was ready to start swinging on anyone, in particular her husband. Maybe it's telling in a good sort of way that I do not come into contact with gaslighting asshats regularly, so hearing this sack of shit almost non-stop gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss it up was...infuriating to say the least. In fact I kept waiting for something, anything for Rosemary to take some initiative on and do shit for herself. An empowering film this is not, and when she tries to it's too little too late but I was begging her to murder people in this movie before end credits. Hand over my heart they would have had to redefine the word "manslaughter" after I was done with that prick after the impregnation sequence, basically him chalking up drugging and taking advantage of a young woman as "Yeah it was weird with you being unconscious, but hey I at least trimmed my nails LOL" and even, and EVEN STILL when the other shoe drops and huzzah the Antichrist will walk the earth these sum' bitches are still lying straight to her goddamn face!! What the fuck 1960s??? I'm sure it was done that way to enforce the sheer unwinnable feeling, that dread and paranoia, no semblance of safety in sight kind of mood that pervades the film but at a certain point whether you're a mama or a papa if that's your kid coming into question, you're gonna slice a bitch. That is just it. Honestly if at least the husband or that satanist woman who looks like everybody's diabeetus filled aunt got turned into a human pincushion I wouldn't be this upset! But it's only getting louder and I'm tasting iron on my tongue, and you're saying Dude relax it's a movie to which I reply with, I shan't. And you know me, I don't come at this from some uber feminist ragebait horseshit, I'm a reasonable guy but I've experienced a lot of unreasonable things. It really took me by storm, obviously as you can tell but let's at least talk about the good things here cause it really isn't all bad. Mia babe, holy shit you got snubbed at the Oscars cause man oh man did she act it to 11! So sweet, so hopelessly näive, didn't deserve anything that happened to her at all. Which is funny because I hear despite the stalwart dedication of the translation from page to screen, Rosemary has some backbone in the book. John Cassavetes I have no clue how he played this bastard of a husband so well, but it's really a testament to his acting that you just can't stand the guy for a second, so kudos there! The elderly couple down the hall the Castevets again played super well by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, doing such a range from charming yet slightly annoying busybodies to devout Satan worshippers, proper good acting in my estimation! All the on location shooting in New York makes it feel that more real and the apartment building itself has a lot of character and quirks, plus you get a little timecapsule edge to just being on the streets of quite possibly the most famous city in the world. I like the pacing as well, it's a bit over 2 hours and amps up just right as we progress, some would call it boring because in truth nothing all that much happens until the end that we can definitively say is real but I would argue otherwise. Because of the tone and mood presented you kinda are not sitting comfortably, you know something's up but not fully what. I was kinda surprised how trippy the movie got with it's dream sequences adding another layer of strangeness to it all, and to be fair it's directed competently. I did notice a strong lack of score or soundtrack, save for the credits I swear it's all diegetic which enhances the overbearing mood of it all. So on a technical level and even a story level it's a mighty good film but my God it irked me something fierce. Do I recommend it? Yeah if for no other reason than to say you saw it, but it's solid regardless! I give it 3 stars, 8/10! And who the hell says Halloween is over? So check in tomorrow for another devil movie.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Mummy's Curse

Happy Halloween ghouls and ghoulettes!



More of a whimper than a bang for the end. Universal was running out of steam for horror films by the mid 40s and nothing really says it louder than the fact both Ghost and Curse came out in 1944 putting an end to The Mummy until Hammer studios got their hands on it. A titanic shift has occured here in both time and space, so apparently 25 years have passed since Ghost which if my math is mathing puts this in the late 1960s but the bigger kicker is the setting has shifted from Massachusets to friggin' Louisiana! That's kind of a wide berth to put it lightly, we got french speaking residents, multiple mentions of swamps and bayous, it's Louisiana. Admittedly the Universal Monster movies like a lot of series back then outside of film serials didn't hold continuity in a great light but even I was surprised how much was in sync picture to picture so this blindisded me a notch. But hey a change is welcome to not get stale, though it's very much business as usual. Priests of Arcam are searching for Kharis in the swamp to take him back to Egypt, the reincarnated princess is being stalked by Kharis, and the whole movie gets wrapped up in the last 5 minutes in true Universal fashion. Is it bad? No I wouldn't go that far, but I do feel if it truly ended with Ghost we would have a pretty damn good trilogy here. There really isn't much in terms of protagonist here, there's a bevy of characters who don't have much part to play so we just focus on the princess Ananka which sounds great! At long last we finally get to meet this girl who's been the goal since 1940 but since she's reincarnated she just takes the shape of a amnesiac with only hints of her past, which is a shame. Even Kharis doesn't have much to do if anything becoming the mindless killing machine we were warned about from the start, strangling any soul who's at the wrong place and the wrong time. Even the ending is pretty lackluster but it has brief memorable moments and flashes of something good that keeps it from being an utter slog and far from unwatchable. It's the weakest of the bunch but that is the curse of sequels. If I had to do a ranking I'd go:

4. The Mummy's Curse
3. The Mummy's Ghost
2. The Mummy's Hand
1. The Mummy's Tomb
 

2.5 stars for this one, 6.5/10. And it appears the eleventh hour is over now and the clock is striking twelve. This was a grand October here and elsewhere, and I hope it was for you too. Wherever you may be and whatever you do this most wonderous of days, you'll always have a little corner for Halloween right here.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

The Mummy's Ghost

This may have the best ending to any of the Universal Monster movies.




Not a huge leap in quality this time from Tomb to Ghost, but a decent enough entry. Well not much time has passed since the last movie with the Mummy still in Mapleton and a new priest is introduced yet again but this time with a much different agenda, pretty much grab Ananka and get the hell out of Dodge. Yet again a 60 minute runtime to wrap up the plot, with less of a body count and less interesting protagonists in the form of 30 year old looking college students Tom and Amina who got a bit of a romance going, God bless them the writers try to give character where they can but the runtime is the real killer here and not much changes in the next movie I can tell you that. Will however say Ramsay Ames is a stunningly gorgeous woman, easily the best looking lady woman of the series especially when she gets those white streaks in her hair. And congrats to all the women out there who have that too, you're stunners! But anyway, John Carradine is our new priest and I feel that's an actor who never got his flowers despite every movie I've seen him in he does damn good work, the eyework alone in this movie is intense enough to applaud. Of course Lon returns and though he doesn't get much fanfare in his first scene has some standout moments including the above mentioned ending. Do I spoil it? It is a movie that just turned 80 years old but it's not a very well known movie either, and I think it's so good that I dare not ruin it. All I can say is that was ballsy as hell and I love it to death. It makes the whole movie worthwhile and saves it from being mediocre. It doesn't have the atmosphere and direction as the last but has it's shining moments in other areas. So I'll give it 3 stars, 7/10, you really can't lose much over an hour long movie and who the hell wants to watch stuff like Heaven's Gate or Cleopatra or Gone With The Wind when you can watch all the Kharis Mummy movies instead?

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

The Mummy's Tomb

Now this is more traditional fare.




Made 2 years after The Mummy's Hand we jump three decades in plot time with a new priest and Kharis venturing to Massachusets to destroy the bloodline of Steve Banning from the first movie because revenge and curses just go hand in hand, as the town of Mapleton has to contend with a murderous mummy. What surprised me twofold from the movie's start is the time period and the return of Dick Foran and Wallace Ford from the first movie, I figured Hand was pretty much the 1940s but on further investigation could have been anywhere from the start of the 1900s to 1940 cause it sure as hell doesn't look like 1970 in this movie but very much is centered in the 40s, and for a Universal monster movie to have this level of continuity of both plot and characters between films is like Marvel levels today! I think I can easily say this is my favorite of the bunch so far dropping the action comedy shtick and giving us atmosphere and horror while still basically treading the same plot as before with some appreciated variation. The cemetery, the woods, the amount of shadow play on sets, the reused music from The Wolf Man, this makes a superior sequel that pushes my buttons in all the right ways. True our leads aren't as interesting as Steve and Babe, this time being Steve's son John and his fianceè Isobel but with a runtime of one singular hour there isn't a lot of room for character depth but they act it just fine and dandy. Turhan Bey though not as slimy as George Zucco in Hand, has a real good presence and is the standout performance for me. Lon Chaney Jr. who was pretty much the main movie monster star of the decade is on the same level as Tom Tyler neither better or worse, I feel is carried aloft higher through the direction and atmosphere giving Kharis a lot more scare factor and upping the body count gives it a proto-slasher vibe. I do kinda wish the Mummy movies of this decade were longer to give more breathing room and thusly better quality, but who ever said having a fun sized length monster movie was a bad thing? I give it 3.5 stars, 7.5/10!

Monday, October 28, 2024

The Mummy's Hand

It wouldn't be October without the Universal Monsters.




Made in the second run of Universal horror spanning the 1940s, The Mummy's Hand does not follow the Imhotep mummy from 1932 but probably the more iconic Kharis mummy. Set in presumably the 40s we follow archaeologist Steve and his friend Babe who are down on their luck in Egypt but come across an artifact leading to the tomb of the Princess Ananka, however the tomb is protected by priests who use Kharis as their weapon. It's very different in tone to the 1932 Mummy with more an emphasis on action and comedy than horror and romance, yet it doesn't lose it's footing and still delivers the goods. Most people when thinking of a mummy probably envision a decrepit bandaged mummy, with dragging feet who strangles people and it all started here. The story practically blazes through with a whopping runtime of 67 minutes, and it's an entertaining enough plot for me anyway. I like our leads with Steve being more the straight man while Babe is the jokester, I've heard some call it a poor imitation of Abbott & Costello but I don't feel that was the intention and the movie did get some strong laughs out of me from time to time. I almost feel it's a rotten shame fellas with the name Babe have gone out of style, I personally would love a guy friend named Babe! I also like Marta who really is the no nonsense member of the party to keep these guys in line and while not a deep substantial romantic player works that side well enough. Tom Tyler is Kharis for this picture alone before strangling duties were given to Lon Chaney Jr., and while it does take a little while to unearth him there's some creepy shots and memorable moments. The production side of things is good solid fare from Universal at this point with nice sets and costumes, and the music score is nice too. It's not an immortal classic like the golden age horror of the 30s but for us Mummy fans it satisfies and is still a good movie on it's own merits. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and we got three more to go before the end of it all.

Friday, October 25, 2024

Venom The Last Dance

Well indeed it was the last.




It's funny with this series, from the beginning you could argue that it already lost half the fanbase due to the tone and quality of the film, and lost even more with Carnage, and I really hate to say it but the Last was indeed where they lost me. Now did I abjectly hate it start to finish? Not at all! There were a good few moments that made me laugh, I appreciated some badassery near the tail end, and was proud of the filmmakers not being chickenshit and actually ending it all. However! From the start I could tell this wasn't going to be an entirely good experience yet it's hard to really quantify that despite the multitude of factors that didn't click for me. But basically we pick up for like 2 minutes where Carnage left off with Eddie in the MCU before he inexplicably gets warped back to his universe as symbiote hunters start populating the world to hunt Venom with the duo being pushed to the severing point. So let's discuss some positives! I'll admit the movie did get me emotionally invested in the relationship between Eddie and Venom at points cause going in knowing that title you expect it to be a goodbye so a quiet moment or two actually worked nicely. The humor is still kinda hair brained but landed about 50% of the jokes for me so I can't hate it. Seeing a particular Symbiote at the finale wreck shit real good and watch her be a badass was rad man, I'm not that well informed on the comics so I don't know the character's name but she left an impact. And Mrs. Chen our fucking golden girl since day one, our queen that is the brightest center of the universe in a film that's farthest from, short scene but sweet and goofy, 10/10! Now for the negatives. May I direct you to the tactic colloquially known as a fucking bait and switch on the MCU, or at least I'm sure it is despite me still not catching up on Spiderman but even I know that stirred some waves at the end of Carnage and it goes precisely nowhere except for a Thanos joke. Zippidee-doo-dah! This might be the largest criticism levelled against the movie for me but my lord we get sidetracked on tangents with secondary characters, who yeah have a place in the story and come into play at the end but they spent waaaay too much time on them! This is a bit over 100 minutes without credits, they don't have time to be lolligagging but continue to do so anyway. I don't need airtight characters in a story arc that are justified in their existence, I just need decent characters here and there along the story. And to the actor's credits they don't phone this shit in, they're committed enough and don't have awful stories but it's just off. Further exemplified and even magnified by the editing, holy balls this editing. I'd almost say this is an editor's first project cause they cut so sloppily and rapidly including minute details that simply should not be there at all, and how the story progresses and the emotional crux of it is disassembled because of such choices. The potential in the script was there, but focused on in the wrong areas. I hate to go there but it's called Venom, we come to see Venom, and we don't focus the story on Venom. He's just part of a carousel of other characters that get I dare say equal parts screentime or it at least felt like it. Damn near everything should have been on the backs of Eddie and Venom, the driving force that keeps the plot moving, the emotional crucible at the thought of them being seperated forever, and the comedic relief whether too goofy or not is part of the tone for this series. The ending happens so fast it left me severely underwhelemed and asking, that's it? That's how we're doing this? No emotion, no catharsis, no interest but rather disbelief. Admittedly I didn't marathon the trilogy but now I want to for the In Retrospect of this, just to see if I can calculate where they just dropped the ball. Kelly you wrote the last two in this trilogy, you wrote Cruella, yeah you wrote Fifty Shades Of Grey too and I understand a paycheck is a paycheck but shit girl! I'm not mad I'm just wondering what's up? Was there interference, was it just a problematic shoot, did the movie you really wanted people to see just end up on the cutting room floor for one reason or another? I'm just kinda blown away by it all. The faults are plain as day but I still stress I didn't hate it, it's just middle of the road. 1.5 stars, 5/10, I can't fully recommend it but to not end on a drag I got a classic movie series for you next week that follows our tradition of black and white horror fare.