Notice I didn’t say “old horror movies.” I don’t want the three or four of you avidly reading this to assume I mean movies from the fifties and beyond. Some of these are great-granpa old, yes, but some are relatively recent and use such new-fangled gadgetry as “color” and “three dimensions” and “sound.”
Back in September or so, I got the idea of moving a bunch of the horror movies in my Netflix queue up to the top, so I could watch them in anticipation of Halloween. Didn’t quite work out – I didn’t have the time, so I didn’t get around to watching them until after the holiday.
Let’s dig in!
Metropolis (****, 1927). This is a silent film, of course, but it’s one of the most visually arresting movies ever made, not to mention highly prescient. In this world, workers toil beneath the surface to make the most wonderful, high-tech futuristic society possible. Then the son of the guy who owns the town (yes, owns) feels sympathy for the workers, who are totally exploited, and there’s a girl who incites them to rise up against their masters, and.. man. It’s just a boatload of fun, really, even without spoken dialog.
Deep Red (***, 1975). Also known as Deep Red Hatchet Murders, this is a gory, stylish horror mystery by Italian auteur Dario Argento. It’s about a psychic who gets hacked to death and the guy who tries to solve it. Big caveat, though; owing to rights issues (I think) there are some stretches in the first half of the movie that are in Italian (with no subtitles), while the rest is in English. Sometimes in the same darn scene.
Ringu (***, 1998). Before The Ring, there was Ringu. Follows the same basic plot as its American successor, except the cute blonde chick is replaced by a cute Asian chick. Here’s an important distinction, though; there are long stretches of silence in scenes, which is monumentally helpful in building suspense. Which you tend to want in horror movies.
Psycho II (**1/2, 1983). You might think that a followup to the 1960 classic would be automatically ridiculuous, but it’s logical and effective. Norman Bates is finally released from the sanitarium and heads back to his hotel to live his life. But the killings return. Is it Norman? Is it the new chick in his life, Meg Tilly. Returning along with Anthony Perkins is Vera Miles, who played the sister of Janet Leigh in the original. Psycho II is pretty good, but the ending feels a little forced and unsatisfying, kind of tacked on.
Demon Seed (***, 1977). Speaking of prescient, this movie is about a computer, in a house, that gains some sentience and rapes the woman of the house. No, I’m serious. First, this is back when there were no PCs. No one had computers, I’m telling you! The computers of the world were ginormously humongous. Anyway, super-smart guy Fritz Weaver is chief of this big computer project, and there are satellite nodes in various other buildings. Weaver’s own house is computer controlled, just as you’d expect the future to be – it opens the doors, makes the food, and so on. Anyway, the central computer is all, “Hey, I wanna know more about humans!” so he takes over the node at Weaver’s house, where Julie Christie, his wife, is the only human. The evil computer knocks her up. The end. It’s scary.
The Pyx (***, 1970). Christopher Plummer is a French-Canadian detective trying to solve the murder of a hooker (Karen Black) who was thrown off a roof. Turns out, quickly enough, that she was involved with a devil-worshipping cult. A lot of it’s told in flashback, and Black is tremendous.
Lady in White (***, 1988). Creepy supernatural thriller has a young boy (Lukas Haas) learning more than he wanted to when he’s trapped in a school’s cloakroom on Halloween night as a prank. Seems a series of child murders hits pretty close to home for the boy; oh, there’s also restless spirits who want the bad person caught.
