"Whoever wears it becomes a demon, and an instrument of evil!"

Demons (1985)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Stars: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento
Plot: A large group of people become trapped in a movie theater as demons prey on them.

This film is produced, presented, and partially written by Dario Argento. Therefore, I consider this to be a Dario Argento film (which is a good thing). Argento is more widely known for his witchy film Suspiria (1977), and more recently for The Mother of Tears (2007). He also did an episode in the first season of Masters of Horror entitled "Jenifer." I'm saying all of this because, if you like horror--and Italian things--then you should check out Dario Argento's films. I would start with either this one (more of a fun movie) or Suspiria (more serious).

Anyway. This basically being an Argento film, it is pretty good. A group of people go to a theater for a free horror movie showing. The movie they see features a mask that turns one of the kids in the movie into a demon. What the moviegoers are unaware of is that the demons in the movie are real; the same mask was on display in the theater lobby. As the movie plays, a woman who tried on the mask earlier and had been scratched by it becomes possessed and starts infecting the others through biting and scratching (kind of like a zombie). Of course panic and chaos ensue as the people try to escape the theater, which has been locked up by the movie attendants. It was a setup!

This clip is about seven minutes long and shows the part when the woman, Rosemary, becomes possessed. There's some ooze and puss involved so you might not want to be eating anything while watching this.

This is the second Italian horror movie I've talked about (the first was Cemetery Man). Do you think these movies sound better or worse than American horror movies?

"Chill out, hun. It's your party, you ain't goin' anywhere."

Night of the Demons (1988)
Director: Kevin Tenney
Stars: Cathy Podewell, Alvin Alexis, Hal Havins, Amelia Kinkade
Plot: Angela throws a small Halloween party at Hull House. Judy and her other friends try to make it out alive.

No one is entirely sure what's wrong with Hull House. All they know is that it was built on "unclean land," surrounded by an underground stream, and those who used to live there were brutally killed. In other words, it's a perfect place to party on Halloween, right? Angela thought so. Everything is fine until they try to do a séance, afterwards they spend the rest of the movie fighting for their lives.

This is a great Halloween movie. Night of the Demons is campy, funny, weird, and it was made in the 80's. It's one of those movies you'd want to watch with a bunch of friends while eating pizza and drinking, you know? It has a The Evil Dead (1981) feel to it, though not quite as exciting. There's also a dance scene to Bauhaus' "Stigmata Martyr," which is a little odd but I suppose it represents the demon's possession.

I almost forgot to mention that this movie was remade in 2009. As far as remakes go, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Edward Furlong (Terminator 2, American History X) plays a small role and, while it was nice to him in something other than Syfy movies like Arachnoquake, I would still rather watch the first Night of the Demons.

Random post that has nothing to do with movies.

So, last Saturday, Travis and I were having lunch at a restaurant and heard this song in the background. "Funhouse," by P!nk. Apparently this song came out years ago, but I don't really keep up with things that are new and popular--at least, not with this kind of music. Travis looked at me and asked, "Did she just say something about evil clowns?" I replied, "Um. I don't know. I heard 'evil,' but I why would she singing about evil clowns?" We both sat there, motionless, listening intently to the rest of the song. Once it ended and Third Eye Blind's Semi-Charmed Life came on, we both looked at each other and pretty much said the same thing: "What...why...what..?"

As it turns out, I have had this song stuck in my head for the past four days. When you think about it, it's a good song to listen to around Halloween with the whole funhouse/evil clowns idea. This would probably explain why I had a nightmare about an evil clown doll last night. I hate dolls. And clowns.

The video is kind of disappointing; the clowns aren't really evil, they just look like they could be. They should've attacked her or something, don't you think? I mean, the song really doesn't need to be longer than two minutes anyway.

"You will have to stay here. The misfortune is yours, not ours."

The Old Dark House (1932)
Director: James Whale
Stars: Boris Karloff, Melvin Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond
Plot: Five strangers find themselves stranded with the Femm family in their large house filled with family secrets.

The Old Dark House tells the classic story of strangers having car trouble in an unfortunate area during a bad storm, given no choice but to find refuge with a strange family. This is a short, creepy movie starring Boris Karloff (you know who that is, right? Good.). Karloff plays Morgan, the mute butler who has become apart of the Femm family. The Femms, Rebecca and Horace, make it clear as soon as the strangers enter the house that there is something odd about their family. Horace is on edge, and Rebecca makes little effort to be welcoming and friendly. As the storm rages on and Morgan gets his drink on, the unwelcome guests realize that there is more to this family than meets the eye.

This movie is just over an hour long and I was able to watch it on YouTube, so you should look it up if you're interested. If it were any longer I'd think it was a little boring, but the movie wastes no time in getting into the eerie Femm family story. The ending is a little disappointing, but the movie itself was too short for me to feel like it wasn't worth a watch. If you've seen Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, you'll notice a clip from the beginning of The Old Dark House, and it's clear that Zombie was inspired by not only The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), but this movie as well.

I couldn't find a trailer, but here's a clip featuring Rebecca Femm (the older one) and Margaret Waverton (one of the guests):

Do old ladies talking about "fleshly love" creep you out, too?

"Dying isn't the end, it's a beginning."

Spookies (1986)
Directors: Brendan Faulkner, Genie Joseph, Thomas Duran
Stars: Felix Ward, MAria Pechukas, Dan Scott, Nick Gionta, Joan Ellen Delaney
Plot: A group of people decide to party in an old, seemingly abandoned mansion. They end up in the middle of a sorcerer's "game" to take their youth so that he and his reluctant wife could live forever.

You know how some horror movies are so bad that they're good? This is not one of those movies. It's just bad. There's too much going on in the story and way too many creatures, which I assume are the "spookies." The spookies include:

-A dapper cat-man who looked like Nightcrawler from X-Men
-A goblin child
-An Asian spider woman
-An exploding grim reaper
-Normal zombies
-Gasy zombies whose weakness was wine
-A demon girl
-Witchy woman
-Snake demons
-An octopus demon thing with electric tentacles

 I think that was it. While some of these things were mildly exciting, it took them way too long to attack the people. I might have liked the movie better if the focus was just on these people being attacked, but wait! There's more.

Why are the party people being attacked? The spookies kill some of them to create zombie children for a sorcerer and his "wife," while others just get the life sucked out of them so that the sorcerer can live forever. I assume the young lady dressed in a bridal gown is the sorcerer's wife, since she's dressed as a bride and states that they have one child together, and the sorcerer constantly speaks of how he's in love with her and has stayed by her side for 70 years waiting for her to come back to life. However, she didn't seem too happy when she awoke from her deathly slumber.

Overall, there was too much happening in this movie and some parts of the story were confusing. This was my first time watching Spookies and probably the last time. Here's the trailer:

"We all end up here sooner or later."

Cemetery Man, or Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
Director: Michele Soavi
Stars: Rupert Everett, Francois Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi
Plot: Francesco Dellamorte is the caretaker at a cemetery in Buffalora, Italy. Saving the town from zombies is just one of the perks of his job.

Based off of the Dylan Dog series of graphic novels by Tiziano Sclavia, Cemetery Man is a zombie movie that is more humorous and artsy than scary. Seven days after the dead are buried in the Buffalora Cemetery, they come back as zombies, or "returners," and Dellamorte has to shoot them in the head before they can attack the townspeople and cause him to lose his job.

There is also a romantic element in this movie. Dellamorte is lonely and lusts after a beautiful woman; his assistant Gnaghi is described as, "On his I. D. card it reads, 'Distinctive physical marks: All'" and ends up falling in love with a zombie head. It's kind of like the zombie movie The Return of the Living Dead meets Hitchcock's Vertigo. If this seems like a strange comparison, maybe you should watch Cemetery Man for yourself to see what I mean (I'm trying not to do spoilers here..). Though I suppose I should warn you that there is some intense nudity in this movie. Also, it does get a little darker towards the end.

This short clip captures the comedic The Return of the Living Dead feel that is in the majority of this movie, complete with some festive Italian music in the background.

"Look, I know the supernatural isn't something that's supposed to happen, but it does happen."

The Haunting (1963)
Director: Robert Wise
Stars: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn
Plot: Four participants of a paranormal study find themselves unwelcome at the notoriously haunted Hill House.One woman, Eleanor, feels as if she belongs there with the others. However, the ghostly head of the house has other plans for her.

This is one of my favorite horror movies. It freaked me out when I was little and still affects me today. In 1999 a blockbuster remake for this movie came out starring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, featuring cheap scares and a big, angry, CGI shadow figure. The original, based off of Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House (1959), is more low-key and creepy. This movie continues to impress me because it can still hold its own as a scary movie today. Let me explain!

I'm sure we all remember the hype that came with Paranormal Activity. I too was excited for it; however, once I saw it, I was extremely disappointed. It was boring. My brother and I get into arguments over Paranormal Activity all the time: he argues that it's scary because of all the little things they focus on. That's fine, I have no problems with strange things happening on a small scale. The Haunting has scares like that throughout the movie that I am thoroughly creeped out by. My problem with the little things in Paranormal Activity is that they don't end. After an hour of the girl standing over her boyfriend at night, keys being thrown to the floor, and ceiling lights swinging, I was waiting for SOMETHING to happen. By the time something exciting did happen - what was it, the last ten minutes of the movie? - I didn't care anymore. About an hour after Paranormal Activity ended, I channel flipped into The Haunting. It was after watching this movie, not PA, that I procrastinated going up the dark staircase to bed.

The difference between these two movies is that The Haunting has something that every good horror movie should have - suspense. In Paranormal Activity, those little things would just...happen. Nothing lead up to the keys being thrown or the Ouija board setting itself on fire. These events would happen without anyone witnessing them, we don't get to react off of the actors' reactions. In The Haunting, there is a buildup of suspense for every eerie thing that happens. The technology and special effects that we have today were not available in 1963 and suspense was heavily relied upon. Instead of a door suddenly opening...

Suspense is a magical thing. I think that this is a great addition to any horror movie collection because of the suspense. Plus, the band White Zombie features a quote from this movie in the song "Super-Charger Heaven." So, what do you think? Would you give The Haunting a shot? If you've already seen it, did I do it justice?