“A Quiet Place” is a great horror/suspense picture about the need to keep as quiet as possible in any activity you may be involved in or chance the risk of being mutilated and dismembered by some mysterious creatures straight out of one of your worst nightmares. We don’t find out the origin of the monsters this time out, maybe more on that in “A Quiet Place 2” slated for release later this year. Speech isn’t even advised unless there is some form of audible mask such as a water fall or falling rain. Wow. That is quite a life restriction. The movie’s characters, including stars Emma Stone and John Krasinsky, must rely on sign language most of the movie. There are precious few actual exchanges of dialogue which makes this a very entrenched concept that drew me into the plight these endangered people face. Anyway, a family moves on foot (shoes are ditched. Squeaky rubber?) out of a town devoid of living beings before eventually set up their base of operations on a farm. Requisite security measures are set up amid the off grid existence but never put it past the beasties to figure out where the meal ticket is and how to breach the defenses. Well directed by John Krasinsky who stars along with his real life wife Emily Blunt. I guess no one snores in this family because that form of noise would be a dead give away to the sonically acute creatures. Also not sure how people use the bathroom or prevent the old farm house from creaking too much, etc. Still a gripping, horrifying, at times, monster movie.
Category Archives: horror movie
“Burnt Offerings” (1976) creeps me out
“Burnt Offerings” brings to mind another haunted mansion flick, “The Shining”. BO features a family renting a stately manor and acting as caretakers to the property and the elderly lady supposedly inhabiting an upstairs room. It isn’t long before the heebee-jeebees set in and the wife and husband get unwillingly possessed by some dark forces lingering about the place. The husband has a bad spell and nearly drowns his son in the pool but then returns to some semblance of normality while his wife starts behaving rather oddly. As you can well imagine, no good can come from any of this and you’d be right on. Karen Black and Oliver Reed star as the husband and wife playthings of the sinister house minions. Bette Davis is also on hand and quickly is smacked down with ill health by staying in the nasty house. Nice, eerie music throughout and Dan Curtis of “Dark Shadows” and “The Night Stalker” fame provides direction. One of those movies that will make you start at every home creak when you watch it at night.
HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE (2019)
Michael gets some guitar time in before returning to his favorite vocation. Happy Halloween!
Another Five Choices For A Halloween Marathon Movie Day/Night
When you get right down to it, there are a ton of potential choices for Halloween movie viewing marathons. For the sake of brevity, I am choosing just five selections which will still take you a good day to get through so plan ahead to take the day off from your work or school grind!
- Wolfen (1981) – a cop is assigned to investigate a series of animal attacks. Is there a pack of werewolves on the loose in modern day New York? Some creepy situations and a suspenseful story should keep you entertained throughout. Albert Finney and Gregory Hines are the stars of this one.
- Attack Of The Mushroom People (1963) – OK. This one is really freaky. A group of young folk out on a boat trip have an accident and are stranded on a mysterious island. They take refuge in another landlocked but larger ship. The ship’s journal is examined and a warning is discovered: don’t eat the island’s ample mushroom supply. In order to survive, they’ve got to eat and it’s just easier to grab some of the island’s main staple. That, as you will find out, is a big mistake. Dripping with atmosphere and garish color, this is a must see shocker.
- The Thing (1951) – Science fiction film cornerstone that still maintains its freshness to this day. An alien spaceship is discovered buried in the ice by an American military team stationed in a remote arctic outpost. Although the ship is destroyed, the craft’s only surviving occupant is accidentally reawakened and is in a thoroughly pissed off frame of mind. A last stand ensues as humans battle a formidable alien foe to the death. Essential viewing!
- The Lost Continent (1968) – More whacked out material as a group aboard a doomed ocean freighter become stranded in the Sargasso Sea, a place of strange clogging and rampant seaweed and some cool matte painting shots of a ship graveyard. Yes. There have been others who have also unfortunately succumbed to the deadly area. Attempting to find a way out of the morass, the ship’s inhabitants have a run in with a population of lost in time Spanish conquistadors who rule the region by force. Also thrown into the mix are some oversized creepy crawlies who see anything on two legs as there next meal. This is all great fun.
- Lifeforce (1985) – A huge alien ship is investigated by a team of astronauts from Earth and three seemingly human survivors from the other worldly ship are brought onboard the astronaut’s space shuttle. One by one the human crew succumb to some bizarre malady with only a sole survivor who incinerates the shuttle and takes an escape pod back to Earth. A rescue mission recovers the three aliens from the wrecked shuttle to the detriment of the human population as they come out of a dormant state and seek out our life sustaining energy or lifeforce. A plague ensues on Earth as these energy vampires plunder our planet. Epic destruction and carnage result. Pretty entertaining!
So there are another five fine films that I would personally take a day/night to sit through consecutively for a perfect Halloween viewing experience!
TOP 5 MOVIES FOR MY HALLOWEEN VIEWING
I have given a minute or two of thought to what I would enjoy most viewing on Halloween. I would most definitely need to take the day off of work because this lineup would probably consume a good 10 hours. Sacrifices must be made! Granted this is the first of what may be a series of some of my most adored movies piled together in one marathon viewing. These movies are what came off the top of my head at the time and can definitely be mixed and matched and replaced with other selections. I think that makes sense.
- 5 Million Years To Earth – 1967 – A Hammer Films science fiction entry that postulates that some long ago Martians visited our remote ancestors and planted the seeds of intelligence in our shaggy, far removed, ancient ape-like relatives. Is the recently uncovered spaceship located in the London underground still harboring a Martian presence?
- The Mummy – 1959 – This is a great one to curl up with your favorite snack and beverage and soak up the suspense. Very entertaining and satisfying mummy on the loose tale. Christopher Lee is mainly silent and heavily bandaged as the title character. Peter Cushing is out to stop The Mummy’s diabolical rampage.
- The Fearless Vampire Killers – 1967 – Roman Polanski directed and co-starred in this hugely atmospheric comedy/horror piece about a couple of bumbling monster hunters who try to rescue a damsel who is fortified in a castle full of undead vampires. Great sets!
- Horror Express – 1972 – Another Cushing/Lee vehicle set aboard a trans-Siberian train that transports an ages old ape man found frozen in ice. The recently unearthed specimen seems to not be fully dead and can swap human hosts! A true hoot.
- Invasion – 1966 – A hospital is literally held hostage as an alien presence temporarily makes a stop on Earth and has to recover its lost property before it can again go back to outer space. It’s bad enough being in a hospital, as it is!
Like I said, I will make another list of five more films that it would be Heaven to just spend Halloween day watching back to back. Maybe I’ll defer it until Thanksgiving or Christmas. I’ve got time off then. Check some of these films out and enjoy!
HAMMER HORROR FUN – DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966)
Back when Hammer Films were all the rage and knocking horror fans dead at the box office, “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” marked the return of Christopher Lee to the title roll of the infamous undead vampire king. He had gone away from the role after his turn as the blood sucker in the remarkable “Horror of Dracula” (1958), one of Hammer Films’ first stabs at rebooting the Universal monster cycle from films decades before. Lee appeared in Hammer Films such as “The Gorgon” (1964) and “She” (1965). He just wasn’t interested in playing Dracula. But through whatever form of alchemy and monetary incentive, Lee menaced again in “Dracula: Prince of Darkness”. It had to be money that got him back because this is not the juiciest script that Lee could have gotten. He has no lines of dialogue but sneers and hisses a lot and manhandles his intended victims. This is a fun view, though. Dracula has a life long human servant who makes sure that two couples spend the night in Dracula’s old castle. You see, Dracula is now no more than collected dust from the last time he was destroyed in “The Brides of Dracula” (1960). Lee didn’t appear in that entry. But, anyway, the servant dispatches one of the guests in the bloodiest way possible in order to bathe Dracula’s ashes in the life giving, red stuff. Before long, the King of Vampires is back terrorizing the countryside in his endless quest for fresh blood. Plenty of atmosphere, moody music and heroics from Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Hammer veteran Andrew Kier.
BLACULA – 1972- VAMPIRES RUN AMOK!
African prince is “converted” to blood thirsty, undead vampire by Dracula. The Prince becomes a vampire and progresses through the centuries turning others in to vampires in his passing. Very entertaining vampire flick from the 1970’s that follows Blacula’s modern day wake of death and destruction as he feeds his hunger for blood. Naturally, a lot of the film takes place at night which lends a creepy air and some of the surprise vampire attacks are startling. Some of the action is clumsy and dumb but William Marshall as Blacula lends a sinister, menacing presence. Fantasy movie veteran Elisha Cook Jr. turns up as a hospital attendant. (See “The Night Stalker”, “House on Haunted Hill”). As I have said many times before, they don’t make them like this anymore. This movie has a look that is ALL 1970’s.
Vincent Price’s Dracula (1982) – Good Halloween Fare
A documentary detailing the history of the vampire character Dracula, assembled using various movie clips and the narration of horror icon, Vincent Price. You’ll see clips from the silent “Nosferatu” and other cinematic appearances featuring the ancient blood sucker such as Lugosi in “Mark of the Vampire”, and the 1950’s alternative vampire film, “The Vampire” . “VPD” is a good flick to curl up by the fire to watch as we come upon the Autumn season and move closer to Halloween. Heavy on the garlic fries. Hehe.
THE THAW – 2009 – CREEPY CLIMATE CHANGE CRAWLIES – UPDATED REVIEW
The premise of this queasy little tale is that climate change, aka global warming, has caused the partial thawing of a wooly mammoth up in Northern climes that is infested with an ancient parasite that emerges ready and willing to infest a New Age. The roughly cockroach sized bugs burrow under your skin and lay eggs that basically feed on their host and then emerge ready to find a new home. This movie is definitely not for the squeamish! Yes. I felt my skin crawl on more than one occasion. There are numerous grotesque set pieces throughout this flick.
All in all, an engaging horror film with a cameo from Val Kilmer as the scientist who finds the insects and reiterates the potential horrors lurking unseen that will be unleashed by climate change. Whether that is true or not is of course speculation or inevitability depending on your point of view.
WORLD WAR 3 – (1982)
Although this TV movie was released in 1982, it seems like history rolls around again and the Cold War is a timely topic again. War and aggression in the World. Some things never change.
A strategic United States “listening post” located near the Bering Strait becomes compromised by Russian agents masquerading as U.S. soldiers and suddenly a gateway opens up to an invading force to get onto American soil. Hostilities have been brewing between both countries as a result of a grain embargo that would have otherwise fed starving Russian masses and then some KGB machinations take place which result in assassination and, Voila! A standoff occurs between the two countries’ forces at an oil pipeline station. Only the fate of both nations and maybe the rest of the world hangs in the balance.
Nice turn by David Soul who is best known for his beefcake turn as one of the cops in “Starsky and Hutch”. He is tasked with the impossible role of being the commander of a tattered force of soldiers who are outnumbered by an invading horde. There are the echoes of the American Revolution where guerilla warfare must be resorted to in order to cripple a superior force trying to kill you. Not to be forgotten for his thespian skills is The Rock. Hudson, that is, as the guilt ridden POTUS, appalled at the thought of World War 3 and the ensuing exchange of nuclear arsenals that is inevitable. As you can well imagine, things don’t end well.
THE MIST (2007) – PHANTASMAGORICAL BUMMER
Watching “The Mist” again recently got me to thinking about the original source material, Stephen King’s novella, and the faint memories I had of reading it. I watched the movie and then reread the story. The movie is very faithful to the story. But then there is that ending of the movie….
Once of the single most downer conclusions in popular culture storytelling, I would have to say. Granted, the scenario is imagined in the story but not actually executed. That grim prospect is dutifully carried out in the movie. Oh, it is an awful choice to go down that path. I suppose there is some solace for the rest of the town’s or country’s inhabitants by concluding it this way but there is also a great devastation for a few characters.
Anyway, the story concerns an unexplainable fog or mist descending on a Maine town and the unseen, monstrous “things” which hide in the white cover and attack the unwary. A definite sense of dread hangs over this story and the hard choices which have to be made in order to survive the shadowy beasts and the crumbling humanity which results from the dire circumstances the characters find themselves in. There truly is no easy way out of the situation. Or answers.
I advise you to take the time to read King’s story and to also watch the movie. Decide for yourself if one is preferable over the other. I choose King’s written work. Because the movie just kicks me in the balls.
Are These The Worst Horror Films?
Hello. Back after a long absence of laying around. So as not to strain myself too much, I am sharing a link for an article I found which talks about what the article considers the worst horror movies of all time. I have to agree with a lot of them and then there are the many that I haven’t seen so I can’t really comment on those.
For one, I thought “The Darkness” was not that terrible. I thought it had some good sequences which built up the tension of an unexpected demon settling in to a family’s home. Slightly gave me the creeps. It’s no “The Grudge” but then not every movie can make you shit your pants.
Go look at this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/gallery/50-worst-horror-films-of-all-time/ss-BBHSTlH?ocid=spartanntp
The actual video featured here is a very cool compilation of some of the most terrifying horror films. If that makes any sense. I haven’t done this for awhile.
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – Assorted Debauchery
Gruesome Hammer Films reinterpretation of the classic Universal monster movie vehicle of a mad, maverick doctor and his attempts to bring life to dead bodies. Made in 1957, this horror remake is a graphic, Technicolor chronicle of the despicable practices that Dr. Frankenstein engages in. Portrayed as a kind of sadistic, cold-hearted deviant, Peter Cushing is marvelous as the doctor. Cushing carries on an affair with his housekeeper even while his long suffering fiancé is sleeping upstairs in the castle. Having previously promised the housekeeper marriage, as well, Cushing laughs in her face and says he never had any such intention. When he learns that the housekeeper is pregnant and threatens exposing his behind closed door hobby of reanimating dead things, the good doctor locks the lass in the lab with the hideous creature and lets him rip her to pieces. Christopher Lee is more a less seen as one of the unluckiest characters in movie history. The “creature” never asked for this treatment but endures a horrific, miserably short lived existence. The brute stumbles out of Frankenstein’s estate and out in to the countryside. Killing at least one other unfortunate he has come across, the Creature is put out of its misery with a bullet to the head by Frankenstein’s assistant. If that isn’t enough, Dr. Frankenstein brings the beast back to life and the brain damaged result is converted in to a shambling, semi obedient pet following Frankenstein’s commands. It is a pathetic sight indeed. Frankenstein’s dream of creating the perfect “Superman” does in fact turn into a compete failure. This Hammer Films reboot makes that point quite painfully clear.
Farewell, Tobe Hooper, 2017
Iconic horror film director Tobe Hopper sadly passed away this year. Looking at his work, you see a good handful of classic horror films! Hopper’s masterpiece, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, personified the Hell of being victimized and threatened by a twisted family of cannibalistic freaks somewhere in Texas. There was the thoroughly enjoyable horror TV two-parter, “Salem’s Lot”, an atmospheric, nightmarish look at a town and its populace destroyed by a vampire plague. “Poltergeist” presented the mounting menace of a ghostly presence invading a suburban home and the dislocation and fear that ensues for the family inhabiting the now haunted house. I thought “Lifeforce” was a very entertaining pulp science fiction feature chronicling the awakening of a dormant alien species of vampire on our planet. The outcome? You guessed it. Mass destruction, death, zombie hordes and London in flames.
An entertaining storyteller who let the punches fly, Tobe Hopper produced a very engaging body of work that you must seek out.