Category Archives: movies

Influential 80s movies (13 Days of Halloween)

John Landis wrote and directed American Werewolf in London, which wowed audiences with it’s amazing effects (Oscar win for Rick Baker), humor, gore, sex, and more gore. It’s pretty dated now and the effects don’t stand the test of time, but the movie is still funny, goofy fun. The soundtrack remains amusing, it’s chock full of songs that make reference to the moon – “Moondance”, “Bad Moon Rising,” multiple versions of “Blue Moon.”

Next up was 90210. I had to know if Naomi ended up doing time after getting caught with Adrianna’s stash. Plus, I needed the dish about Silver and Dixon’s date last week. And what about Teacher Ryan pining away for Guidance Counselor Kelly while Youngish Allegedly-Hip Principal Dipshit figures out what to do about his own problem. Namely that he never knew he had a love-child from his teen romance with Adrianna’s mom 18 years ago. She so kept the baby. Except then she gave the baby up. Plus, even if an episode is boring, you can always count on Jessica Walter showing up and having an excellent Lucille Bluth moment because that’s who she’s basically playing.

Then it was time for A Nightmare on Elm Street, which I realized I’d never seen before. It was kind of boring and very 1984. At first that seemed appropriate because I’m finishing the cuff of a purple sweater dress I just made that’s a wee bit 80s, but then it started to make me sleepy so I put it (the movie, not the dress) on the backburner and watched James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein instead. I have a truly fab Bride wig and costume, maybe I’ll wear it Friday while I hide in the basement from Trick-or-Treaters and conclude the film fest.

Cat People (13 days of Halloween)

Not the 1982 remake featuring Nastassja Kinski, the 1942 Val Lewton classic featuring the fabulous Simone Simon and all those gorgeous great cats depressingly contained in small cages with cement floors. (Guess which one is one the Library of Congress United States National Film Registry? Not the 1982 remake featuring Nastassja Kinski).

It’s amusing to listen to film geeks bickering about whether this one is technically Film Noir or Horror, I don’t see why it can’t be both. Regardless, it’s got great sound design – the swimming pool scene! – and it’s still lots of fun.

Son of Frankenstein (13 days of Halloween)

Thanks to AMC’s Fear Fest ’08, Overlord has been collecting Frankenstein movies for me. I know Frankenstein is really a monster for all seasons so I ought to stick to the ghost stories for my 13 Days of Halloween film fest, but since I recently read Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s excellent book Frankenstein: a Cultural History I feel I should watch some extra Frankenstein this year.

After I watch Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), House of Dracula (1945), House of Frankenstein (1944), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and, of course, Young Frankenstein (1974) I may not think so anymore.

Tonight is Rowland Lee’s Son of Frankenstein, the 1939 Classic that asked the immortal question, “What if Dr. Frankenstein had a son named Wolf Frankenstein and what if he was as batshit insane as his father?”

This is the film that introduces the viewer to the character of Ygor (played by Bela Lugosi) and introduces the police inspector (Lionel Atwill) with a wooden arm – details Mel Brooks would later have great fun with in Young Frankenstein. Starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi, this is actually the 3rd outing in Universals Frankenstein’s monster franchise, Bride of Frankenstein being the immediately sequel to Frankenstein. Since the Frankenstein movie mythology begins it’s decent into nuttiness with this picture it’s probably better not to include the first two in discussions with the rest. In Son of Frankenstein, we also get a precocious curly-headed child who pops in now and again to attempt to humanize his father, Dr. Wolf Frankenstein. Or annoy the viewer. Maybe both. (Why the hell does that kid have a Colonel Sanders drawl?)

…sorry, got distracted, Ygor just showed Wolf Frankenstein the Monster and Wolf shrieked like a girl, “It’s alive!” which made me jump….

While I’m getting my thoughts back on the rails I should make a confession: I’ve actually taken a few days off to rest my eyes and recover from a migraine, so the last few Halloween posts were drafts I already had ready that I had my blog auto-post. I think some wacky things have been happening and a few posts have auto-disappeared in the process so if things seem weirder than usual around here it’s not you, it’s me. Really.

I’m slowly resuming my television watching by sticking with older black and white movies with nice steady camera work so as not to become nauseated and have to shelve the project again. So, that brings us back to Son of Frankenstein. The first two films, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, were directed by James Whale and have a sense of gravitas and pathos. From Son of Frankenstein on the films engage in a race to the middle of the Saturday morning Creature Feature pack.

Next up I planned to scare myself witless watching (the original) The Haunting, after which I could awake all night listening to my house creak and those fucking banana leaves slap against my windows. I wised up in the nick of time and put on the loopy William Castle classic, House on Haunted Hill. As a bonus, I remember enough of the movie that I can pretty much listen to the movie while resting my eyes and just peek in on it periodically to catch the best shock effects. The 1999 remake lacks the goofy charm of the original and, most importantly, Vincent Price. Also, Elisha Cook, who was in Rosemary’s Baby and pretty much everything else ever made.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (13 days of halloween)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was the first “horror” movie I ever saw and it scared me witless when I was 5 years old. I’ve seen it many time since, but each time I’m struck by how great the animated opening credit sequence is. Husband and I also enjoy the very high-waisted men’s pants – I think their belts are nearly under their arms.

My favorite part of the movie, now that I’m old enough to notice such things, is that there’s a huge spooky Medieval castle where the evil scientists and Dracula collude to restore Frankenstein’s monster and no one thinks the castle is the slightest bit strange. The castle is in the United States, a place not known for forbidding castles. This time when we watched the movie I noticed that they’re supposed to be in Florida. No one really thought much about the architecture of Florida in the 1940s, or looked for realism from Abbott and Costello.

The Frankensteinia blog has a number of interesting posts related to the film. I tried to find the opening sequence online, and I’m sure someone has it posted somewhere, but my head hurts too much for much surfing.

The Omen (13 Days of Halloween)

The Omen is a nice follow-up to Rosemary’s Baby. In The Omen, Gregory Peck and Lee Remick give birth to the antichrist and teach the world that Evil has a predilection of choral music.

Jerry Goldsmith won his only Oscar for his work on The Omen, but he had – oh, wait for it…wait for it – a hell of a career. John Williams does what he does, and he does it well, and it’s not hard to identify the “Williams sound.” Goldsmith, on the other hand, created radically different compositions for different projects and experimented widely with instrumentation, so much so that even devoted fans don’t recognize his work by any specific sound or recurring motifs. There’s an impressive fansite at Jerry Goldsmith Online that highlight’s Goldsmith’s extensive career.