DailyView: Day 170, Movie 251

Based loosely on the H.P. Lovecraft 1922 serial novelette, “Herbert West- Re-Animator”, Re-Animator is a classic horror/comedy from the mid-1980s that is full of gore and bizarre horror that was directed by Stuart Gordon.

Mad scientists always seems to be mucking around with life and death and it never turns out well.

Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) arrived in New England after a horrific incident in Switzerland. He has an experiment that he is continuing which will attempt to reanimate dead tissue. West recruits Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) into joining his project. Cain’s fiancé Megan (Barbara Crampton) was the daughter of the Dean of the college they were working at and offered some unexpected advantages.

When Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) discovered the results of West’s serum, used to reanimate corpses, he went to blackmail West into giving up his research. Dr. Hill did not quite see what was going to happen as he wound up carrying his own decapitated head.

The movie is wild and shockingly gory. The story itself is simplistic and straight forward. Mad scientists never work out well. However, it is clear that all of the doctors/scientists involved here have motives that are not exactly what is best for the patients. None of the victims come back better than before they died. It turns into a horrible monster movie with zombie-like creature all over the place.

I could see how this could become a fast cult classic. It has that late night crowd feel to it. I’m not sure 100% why, but I was getting a Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe to this.

This is one of the most successful adaptations of any of H.P. Lovecraft’s works. It was followed by several sequels and a rebooted film.

DailyView: Day 169, Movie 250

Todays DailyView is heading all the way back to 1932 for a horror/comedy featuring the iconic Boris Karloff, hot off of his work as Frankenstein’s Monster. In fact, the film ran a disclaimer telling the audience that the actor was indeed Karloff, to avoid any debates. It was an odd disclaimer, but kicked off the film on a strange note.

The movie tells the story of a group of travelers who had to take shelter in an old mansion in the mountains because of a terrific storm. The house was inhabited by the Femm family, though it was not give immediately. The family Femm was hiding some dark secrets, including the strange butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) and his potentially dangerous behaviors.

Soon, the ensemble realized that there was more to be concerned about than just Morgan as the Femm family curse was revealed to the group.

The film had a great deal of tone that created a lot of suspense. The eeriness of the Femm family kept everyone uneasy and uncertain about what they were trying to do.

The cast of the film included such notable actors as Melvyn Douglas, Charles Loughton, Gloria Stuart, Lilian Bond, Brember Wills, Raymond Massey, Eva Moore, Ernest Thesiger, and Elspeth Dudgeon.

The film is fun to watch and has some enjoyable moments. It is definitely a 1930s film. I liked watching this.

DailyView: Day 168, Movie 249

This October, the DailyView has been doing a series of horror/thriller movies in honor of the upcoming Halloween. However, most of the films have been little known horror movies from the Shudder channel. Tonight, I pulled up one of the classic horror movies from one of the most iconic writer/director of the genre, Clive Barker. The film, which spawned nine sequels, is called Hellraiser.

Hellraiser introduced into the world of horror monsters the character of Pinhead (Doug Bradley), although that nomenclature would not come into existence until the sequel.

Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes: “Sexual deviant Frank (Sean Chapman) inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with a box he bought while abroad. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank’s body apart. When Frank’s brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his wife, Julia (Clare Higgins), move into Frank’s old house, they accidentally bring what is left of Frank back to life. Frank then convinces Julia, his one-time lover, to lure men back to the house so he can use their blood to reconstruct himself.“

Although Pinhead would be the breakout character, he does not make too many appearances in Hellraiser. Our main villain is Frank and he is very freaky. When he began to wander around the house preying on the men lured into the trap by Julia, Frank becomes a true monster and is as frightening as any of the Cenobites.

The practical effects of the film are very effective, making it feel even more horrific than it would be with CGI. However, the third act horror-fest is a bit much to take.

I was not impressed with the acting of Hellraiser. Ashley Laurence, who played Larry’s daughter Kirsty, is so over-the-top that you do not buy her fear at all. All her facial expressions and screams did not make me feel fright for her. It nearly elicited laughter.

Certainly, the presence of Frank and the Cenobites are the stand out reasons to watch this movie. I was extremely engaged by these villainous monsters much more than I ever cared about Kristy.

Julia, on the other hand, and Larry were a fascinating pair and did carry their own in Hellraiser. Julia was confused and uncertain about what she was doing, but you could tell that she wanted to keep doing it. She was one of the most rotten characters in the film.

I can see where this movie could go to heights with the Pinhead character and the other Cenobites. Overall, Hellraiser was fine, weak acting, but solid scares and some A+ villains.

DailyView: Day 167, Movie 248

The October horror movie extravaganza continues during the DailyView as I returned to Shudder on Amazon Prime for a dark comedy called Prevenge.

Pregnant woman Ruth (Alice Rowe) has been recently widowed in a climbing accident. Carrying on conversations with her unborn baby which verbally pushes her to keep going, Ruth starts a mission of brutal murders against those people she holds responsible for her husband’s death.

The voice of the “baby” was so very creepy, especially when she was compelling Ruth on to continue her vicious slasher mission. I have not been able to find the actress who voiced the baby, but she was very effective (I saw one review that said the baby sounded like Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter films).

Alice Rowe wrote, directed and starred in Prevege while she was actually pregnant. In fact, she gave birth during the making of the movie and her actual baby daughter was able to play her on screen child.

Rowe does a tremendous job carrying this film. The dark comedy has a very British humor feel to it, and, there may be a time or two where the tone does not match. However, the feeling of creepiness outweighed any potential tone issues.

This was an entertaining film that was very dark and funny, with a character whose mental issues may be too much to overcome. Shudder has definitely a deep catalogue of engaging horror films.

DailyView: Day 166, Movie 247

I am continuing to search through Shudder in this October horror section of the DailyView, and there are just a ton of horror movies that I have never seen. Tonight, I came across a film called The Boy Behind the Door from last year.

Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) were best friends. They would swear to be best friends until the end. Then, the boys are abducted and thrown into the trunk of a car. When they arrive at their destination, Kevin is taken out of the trunk and locked in a room in the isolated house. Bobby is able to get out of the trunk, but he would not leave his friend.

I loved this movie. The two boys did an amazing job in the film. Their friendship is at the very heart of the movie and is so strong that it was the distinct characteristic of these characters.

The debut of filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell, The Boy Behind the Door truly amps up the anxiety and tension of the simple story of an abduction. I found myself yelling at the screen a few times when Bobby or Kevin would do something to survive.

I was so ready to have Kristin Bauer van Straten, one of the kidnappers of the film, get her comeuppance. The film was extremely satisfying in this manner. She brought a lot of menace and viciousness to the role.

The film is well paced and really gets you rooting for these boys to survive their encounter with these evil people. It is a well done horror movie that is totally entertaining.

DailyView: Day 165, Movie 246

I knew what kind of movie this was going to be when Julian McMahon’s head rolled out of his casket and it wasn’t supposed to be funny.

Sandra Bullock was Linda Hanson, a wife and mother of two whose life was uprooted when her husband Jim (Julian McMahon) was killed in a car crash. However, the next day, Linda awoke from her sleep to find Jim alive and well. The film then played with time and showed the events of the week out of order as Linda tried to figure out what exactly had happened.

There are so many silly things going on in this movie that it really undercuts the potentially interesting premise. The way the story is told narratively makes the tragic circumstances almost ridiculous. The melodrama here is cranked up to a huge level.

Sandra Bullock overacts like crazy, and, the end of the movie makes no sense. I can’t discuss it without spoiling, but let’s just say that her memory must make everything good.

She blocked out certain things during the week, but many of them are just not important. Her oldest daughter got hurt, but why does she block that out when it does not have anything to do with Jim’s accident. I can understand why she blocks out Jim’s accident, but looking back, she seems far more crazy than she is shown to be.

Best part about this movie is the cool movie poster.

Just a dumb movie that leaves Netflix on Oct. 31st. Not a day too soon.

DailyView: Day 164, Movie 245

Continuing the run of horror/thriller movies in the DailyView, October edition, I found a film called Session 9, a film that depends on mood and imagery to build the feelings of the audience. At that level, the film does a decent job. However, the film does not reach on too many other levels.

An asbestos abatement crew wins a contract to work on an old, abandoned mental institution that had a frightening past. When things from the past seem to start coming back and affecting the crew, troubles mount and dangers arrive.

This movie just never grabbed me the way it hoped. I was bored by the early part of the movie and the third act felt very forced and threw a twist into the story that did not make much sense.

The cast was decent, led by David Caruso. It also included Josh Lucas, Stephen Gevedon, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III, and Paul Guilfoyle.

Part of the plot included one of the crew playing a tape from a session in the past of a person with multiple personalities, with the dominant, possible alter, “Simon.” While that sounds creepy, one of the problems is that some of the voices on the tape sounded so cartoonish that it negatively affected the mood they were trying to go for in the scene.

I had a lot of problems with the film, from its lack of characterization in many of the characters to the out of nowhere ending. While it does create a certain mood, Session 9 just cannot sustain that across the entire film.

DailyView: Day 163, Movie 244

As I was going through the list of different horror movies of the sixties, I found a mention of a film considered one of the worst ever made. A zombie movie that was a musical. What?

Of course, the ridiculous title was a drawing factor as well.

As I was looking for a version to watch, I saw that MST3K had done this on their program which, after seeing it, makes perfect sense. MST3K would improve this exponentially.

Full fledged ridiculousness, terrible acting, terrible special effects, a rambling story that makes no sense with no character motivation and a bunch of song/dance routines.

Now I do not consider this a musical because no one ever just broke out in song. All of the numbers took place on a stage in front of an audience. This is Spinal Tap is not a musical, but there is music that is a signature piece of the story.

I did not mean to compare this flaming pile to This is Spinal Tap, a true legendary film, but I needed an analogy.

The zombies were not the only ones in this movie that were mixed-up. I was too.

Legitimately, there is no protagonist. There was barely any zombies. However, we did get plenty of songs and dance numbers, so there is that.

I would like to see the RiffTrax guys do this one for Halloween or something like that. It truly is one of the worst films ever done.

Now I’m going to watch Muppets Haunted House. I expect better acting, for sure.