31 (or so) Days of Terror: Shadow of the Vampire

We've looked at a lot of different Horror films this month. We've looked at old stuff, new stuff, weird stuff. We've seen movies about Satanists, Demons, and even Zombie Chickens. So where better to end the month then with a Horror Movie about a Horror Movie? In particular, this 2000 film about our old friend F.W. Murnau and the making of his immortal classic Nosferatu.

The year is 1921. German filmmaker F.W. Murnau has begun production on his next masterpiece, an unlicensed adaptation of Dracula. Everything seems to be in order except for their vampire, the mysterious Max Schreck. Nobody one else has met Schreck and he won't even be on set until they arrive in Czechoslovakia for location shooting. Murnau has assured his crew that Schreck is simply a dedicated method actor, who's subsumed himself into the role of a vampire. But when the production arrives and members of the crew start turning up dead, they have to ask. Could their bizarre lead possibly be an actual vampire?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Beyond the Black Rainbow

Science Fiction and Horror have always made good bedfellows. With Science Fiction's focus on speculation of possibilities, it pairs very nicely with Horror's need to prey on our fears. After all, fear is predicated on the unknown and what's more unknown then the future? Combined with humanity's natural aversion to change, science and technology provide fertile material to terrify audiences. Such is the idea behind the 2010 Canadian film Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Elena has lived all her life in the Arboria Institute, trapped as a test subject for her psychic powers. Kept nearly catatonic most of the time, the only human interaction she knows are the daily interrogations by her therapist Dr. Barry Nyle. But when a computer error provides an opportunity for escape, Elena seizes it and the chance at life outside the Institute. But to get there she'll have to make it through the byzantine labyrinth, full of hallucinatory visions and bizarre patients that threaten to stop her at every turn. Which is nothing compared to Dr. Nyle, who has been self-medicating and devolved into a psychotic madman. His drug-addled mind draws him inexorably toward Elena, and he'll stop at nothing to catch her.

Meet Marvel's new guys

In the unlikely event you haven't heard, Marvel Studios announced their post-Age of Ultron lineup all the way to 2019. Phase Three looks to be pretty exciting, with what will likely be (for now at least) the last hurrahs for many of the original Avengers. But that also means that Marvel is digging further into their back catalogue for more obscure characters to build new series around. And while mainstream audiences may have had some idea who Iron Man or Captain America were, these new guys are almost complete unknowns. So let's go through Marvel's release slate film by film and see if my vast knowledge of Marvel arcana can't enlighten you as to what to expect.

31 (or so ) Day of Terror: The Serpent and The Rainbow

I hate zombies. I don't mean I'm afraid of zombies, I'm not. I hate zombies. They are the most played out, overexposed, and non-menacing creatures since vampires. I hate all the dumb cliches zombie movies have propagated. I hate how they all just rip off George Romero & Resident Evil. I hate how popular zombie shit has become. And I really fucking hate all the idiotic zombie apocalypse theorizing that's resulted from this stupid craze as though it could ever fucking happen. I. Hate. Zombies.

Which is exactly what drew me to The Serpent and The Rainbow. I was attracted to the notion of a zombie movie that ignored all the super-virus and ravenous horde bullshit and tried to bring them back to their Haitian Voodoo roots. Maybe because that kind of story with that kind of zombie hadn't been used in so long, it would feel fresh and new again. And Wes Craven's 1988 film succeeds on that front, revealing itself as a flawed but fascinating work of religious horror.

The story follows Bill Pullman as Dennis Alan, an anthropologist sent to Haiti by a large pharmaceutical company. He's been sent to investigate reports of a zombie powder, a drug that supposedly can kill a person and then revive them from the dead, and see if he can't bring a sample back to the States. But almost as soon as he lands in Haiti, his search involves him in local Voodoo rituals and the power struggles between powerful Voodoo priests. Not helping matters are the visions he's been suffering lately, horrible nightmares of being buried alive and revived as a zombie slave. Will Alan be able to escape before his search costs him his life? Or worse, his soul?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Today's review is something of an experiment. Instead of this month's usual fare of high to lowbrow horror, I'm looking at a documentary on the subject. Specifically Machete Maidens Unleashed!, a look at the b-movie scene in the Philippines from the 50s through the 70s. Following WW2, The Philippines was one of the few countries whose film production capability was still in functioning order. And the cost of making movies over there was so low that soon the low-budget independent schlock studios from America flooded in, recruiting local talent to churn out hundreds of b-movies to fill drive-ins back in the States. This film is a chronicle of that over-looked time and place in the history of American cinema.

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Poultrygeist

While it could be argued that Horror films are more effective without it, Gore is inseparable from the genre at this point. Limbs ripped off, guts spilled out, blood gushing from orifices; in the tradition of the Grand Guignol people can't get enough. Gore adds a dimension of visceral violence that makes horrible elements all the more horrifying. Or the gore can be taken to such a degree that it becomes comical as in today's feature from the mavericks at Troma, 2006's Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.

Arbie and Wendy are high-school sweethearts who've made the local Indian Burial Ground their favorite spot. But a year after graduation, Arbie returns to find that the burial ground has been razed to build a new American Chicken Bunker franchise and Wendy, who left for college without Arbie, is outside protesting. And she's become a lesbian! To spite her, Arbie takes a job at the new fast food joint only for strange things to start happening. Mysterious deaths, weird mutations, and talking sandwiches. It turns out that the ghosts of the desecrated Indians have joined forces with the ghosts of the dead chickens to wreak horrible revenge on all American Chicken Bunkers. Will our heroes be able to survive the chicken zombie apocalypse?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: The Ninth Gate

Satanists have been go to villains for Horror since at least the turn of the century. Even as society has become less religious, these weirdos in black robes have continued to haunt our imaginations. Cults are frightening to begin with, given how they're full of fanatics, but combine that with knowingly worship Western Culture's de facto Evil and a clientele of the rich and powerful makes for a potent mix of unsettling things. As such, all manner of devil worshippers have graced the silver screen over the years. And director Roman Polanski is no stranger to Satanists having made the 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby and today's subject, the 1999 thriller The Ninth Gate.

Johnny Depp stars as Dean Corso, an unscrupulous dealer of rare antique books. Corso is hired to authenticate a copy of "The Nine Gates of the Shadow Kingdom", a book supposedly written by Satan himself, by comparing it to the only two other known copies. His investigation does not go smoothly though, as the owners of those other copies start turning up dead and a mysterious blonde college student starts following him. As Corso digs deeper into the book's Satanic secrets, the feeling that he's in over his head just gets stronger and stronger. How far will he go before he winds up dead too?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Faust

Horror has been with film almost since the beginning and many of those early Silents are rightly considered classics to this day. Many of these were the work of German directors who pioneered a dreamlike, expressionist aesthetic. They were the precursors of the Universal and Hammer movies that would define the genre in the decades to follow. And for a perfect example, look no further than Nosferatu director F.W. Murnau's 1926 adaptation of the legend of Faust.

The story should be familiar. During the Renaissance, Germany is swept by the plague. The old doctor Faust, the only doctor for miles, is desperate to help the people dying but his efforts are for naught. With no other options, he summons the demon Mephistopheles who agrees to give Faust all his demonic powers in exchange for his soul. Faust agrees but soon having this nearly limitless power warps his priorities. He begins using the power selfishly, restoring his youth and trying to seduce a beautiful girl. How far will Faust go before his soul is beyond redemption?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Wishmaster

I'm a big proponent of the media using lesser known ghouls and goblins in their works. The usual Vampires, Zombies, and Skeletons get boring after a while so it's nice to shake things up. That was the entire point of these two articles. So imagine my joy when I discovered that not only was there a horror movie about an evil genie, but that it was also an incredibly fun watch. Dear readers, let me introduce you to Wishmaster...

Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund), an eccentric rich guy, has just purchased an incredibly rare ruby from Persia that unbeknownst to him contains an evil genie. The ruby is lost in transit and through a series of misfortunes arrives in the hands of Alexandra Amberson, a gem appraiser. Alexandra accidentally releases the genie (or djinn as the film calls it) who after 900 years of confinement must grant people wishes to regain its strength. But Alexandra has become linked to the djinn and the monster has been turning her friends and family's wishes against them in true Monkey's paw fashion. Eventually the djinn closes in on Alexandra and must grant her three wishes before it can unlock its full power and release the gates of Hell. Will Alexandra be able to outthink this ancient monster or will we all die at the hands of the Wishmaster?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: The Frighteners

There's a thin line between Horror and Comedy. After all, take away the atmosphere and turn on the lights and the situations in most horror movies come across as pretty ridiculous. Out of context and done poorly, Bela Lugosi's Dracula becomes a hilarious figure. That's partly the reason Horror fans have always embraced Comedies that poke fun at their favorite genre's tropes and cliches. One of those fans is Peter Jackson, yes Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson, who made his 1996 dark comedy The Frighteners in that very spirit.

The film stars Michael J Fox as Frank Bannister, a shady psychic who cons people out of money by performing fake exorcisms. There's a twist though, Frank actually can see ghosts and has been using his personal troupe of spooks to drum up business for himself. But when a mysterious cloaked figure begins offing people, Frank becomes the prime suspect. How will Frank clear his name when he's the only one who can see the true criminal?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: The Keep

You know who pretty much nobody would feel bad about seeing die? Nazis. Everybody hates Nazis. So having your protagonists be Nazis is something of an uphill battle because it's hard to sympathize with evil bastards. But under that logic, a horror movie with Nazis makes a certain amount of sense. Nobody cares if the characters in a horror movie get killed, it's what they're there for, and nobody cares if Nazis get killed. 2+2=4. And while seeing Nazis murdered by a monster is certainly an element of Michael Mann's 1983 film The Keep, it's a more thoughtful and thematically rich feature than that grindhouse premise would make it seem.

Here's the setup; during the dying days of WW2, a platoon of German soldiers are sent to a remote Romanian village to fortify an ancient mountain fortress, the titular keep, against the oncoming Russians. The keep has legends surrounding it though and appears built to contain something, not keep people out. It's not too long before the Germans awake the evil sleeping within the keep and their soldiers begin dying. This gets the SS involved, who force elderly Jewish scholar Dr. Cuza (Ian Mckellen) to help them fight the demon of the keep. But Cuza may have other ideas, working to help the demon escape the keep so it can destroy the Nazis once and for all. And what is the story of the mysterious man making his way to the keep, who seems to know all its secrets?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Don't Look Now

Sorry, I've missed a few days in this month of frights. But hey, that's why I called it 31 or so Days. I expected to miss a couple. And speaking of disappointments today's feature is certainly one. British director Nicolas Roeg has a reputation for visual inventiveness and metaphoric narratives. To most people my age his best known work would probably be his 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches just to give you a frame of reference. That was a far more straightforward horror piece than the film I'll be talking about today, Roeg's 1973 psychological thriller Don't Look Now.

It almost feels like I'm cheating by including this film because it lacks many horror characteristics and, at least in my opinion, isn't very scary. For what's it worth, the story concerns an upper-class couple played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. After their daughter accidentally drowns at their English home, Sutherland moves them to Venice where he's restoring a church. Christie meets a blind medium who claims their daughter's spirit is trying to contact them from the other side. She immediately accepts this for the small closure it gives her, but Sutherland refuses to believe any of it. His daughter is dead and buried. But as a series of murders are being committed around Venice, he begins to see a mysterious figure in a red coat at the crime scenes. The same red coat his daughter used to wear...

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Bram Stoker's Dracula

It wouldn't be Halloween without at least one appearance by the Lord of the Vampires. Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel has something of a mixed reputation which is appropriate given how schizophrenic it is. While in some respects it is the most faithful translation of the novel ever put to screen, the film does make some additions to the story which change the themes Stoker intended drastically. Purists were sent into a tizzy by it, but those changes aren't without merit and the end result is almost a deconstruction of Stoker's work.

A quick reminder on the basic story. Johnathan Harker, a real estate agent from London, journeys to Translyvania at the behest of the mysterious Count Dracula. The Count is interested in buying some property in London, but this is simply a ruse to lure the young Harker to his castle. Trapping the poor shmuck there, Dracula goes to England so he can stalk Harker's fiancee Mina and her friend Lucy. But as the attacks increase and vampire expert Van Helsing is called in, Mina finds herself inextricably drawn to the suave Romanian count. Could she be falling in love with the monster?

31 (or so) Days of Terror: Gothic

In honor of Halloween, The Serial Wordsmith presents 31 (or so) reviews of strange and offbeat Horror Films

Yes dear readers, the season of fear is upon us once more! The leaves are changing color, the air is getting colder, and the boundary between worlds grows ever thinner. And, as is the wont of my profession, we turn our attention to all things cinematically terrifying. So where better to begin a month-long look at strange and offbeat horror than with that classic of the canon, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In particular, Director Ken Russell's 1986 film dramatization of the dark and stormy summer that inspired the young Ms. Godwin's famous novel.

The setup of the plot should be familiar to any student of Horror Literature. In the summer of 1816, the English poet Percy Shelley along with his fiance Mary Godwin and her cousin Claire Clairmont go to visit his friend Lord Byron, who's been exiled with his doctor Polidori to Switzerland. Trapped inside by inclement weather, the five amuse themselves by reading ghost stories and drinking. Eventually they challenge one other to create original scary tales and the libertine Byron suggests they conjure an actual ghost for extra inspiration. As the storm rages outside, the five Romantics begin to feel their villa haunted by something as they're plagued by visions and nightmares. But has a monster from beyond the grave actually been raised or have they just imbibed too much drink?