Next up on the Halloween Horror Bingefest here at EYG is a film that should be really defined as a “thriller” instead of horror, though it certainly shares some characteristics with the genre, Johnny Depp’s psychological thriller Secret Window.

After finding his wife Amy (Maria Bello) in the bed of another man (Timothy Hutton), author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) leaves to his lake house in an attempt to isolate from the pain. As this is happening, a strange man named Shooter (John Turturro) arrived claiming that Rainey had stolen the story called Secret Window.

Shooter immediately began to show signs that he was more than just a disgruntled author wannabe and that things could become dangerous.

As with many of these types of thrillers, there are things that are not what they seem going on around the main characters.

Johnny Depp is solid in this role, but honestly, the development of the plot, as it is, is lacking much of a story. It was pretty clear what was going to happen as the movie progressed and, when it does happen, what little momentum the film had built up was lost.

Very little stood out in this movie, even with Depp’s performance. With what we eventually got as a payoff, there needed to be more of a set up. The film approaches it as the central mystery of the film, but it really just kind of moves along until it flips the switch. What was supposed to be a mind blowing twist really turned into a meh moment.

Having said that, the film is not terrible and I have seen considerably more offensive films. This one was basically just there. It is not the worst film to have on when passing time. However, I would not go searching it out.

MEH

Next up on the annual EYG Halloween Horror Bingefest is the M. Night Shyamalan movie, Signs, starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.

Honestly, when I first saw this movie, I disliked it tremendously. For me, this, along with The Village, was when Shyamalan started his downward spiral after two films that I truly loved (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable). However, I have heard many people defend the film and so I thought it might be deserving of a rewatch. Perhaps I would feel differently about it now than I did back in the early 2000s.

And I did.

I have to say that I found this considerably more engaging and emotional than the first viewing. I was much more connected to it than I was then and I even found myself tearing up a bit.

At first, I had to get past Mel Gibson being on screen. After the hateful things that Gibson has said, he is a presence in the film that threatens to overpower everything else. After the beginning of the film, I was able to put those feelings aside and immerse myself in the story.

I found the relationship between Gibson and the two children, played by Abigail Breslin and Rory Culkin, was at the very center of the success of this movie. There was so much pain from these characters from the past events that seeing them struggle with them in the face of the invasion was powerful and very realistic. It grounded the story in emotion in a way that we could relate instead of in a situation that we have not had experience with in our lifetimes.

I was also surprised with how many moments of humor found its way into a movie that was intended to be so intense and suspenseful. Most of the laughs were from small moments or minor details and they worked among the tragic circumstances.

My guess was that, when I saw this the first time, I may not have appreciated the slow pace of the film. Now, much older, I enjoy a good, slow burn, particularly when it develops character, and this is absolutely what happens in Signs. Some of the dialogue here is just excellent and on point. These tendencies may not have appealed to me as much in 2002.

I am still not 100% fond of the ending of the film as it feels a tad contrived, but the emotional moment between Gibson and Culkin at the end was worth putting up with the rest of the final confrontation. The idea that these aliens had a weakness to SPOILERS water and they come to a planet where 75% of the planet is covered with water is a bit silly END OF SPOILER as you would think that if they could travel here in UFOs that they had the ability to understand what the planet is like. Still, I think that is a little nitpicky since the movie is really more about the relationship between Gibson and his family and dealing with his own loss of faith instead of being about an alien invasion.

My opinion has changed on Signs, showing how film can be subjective once again. I brought a different mindset into this viewing than I did 18 years ago and that can lead to a difference in perception. I wonder how many years it will take for me to change my perception of Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender?

This one is one of my favorite horror movies of all time so it is awesome to include it in this year’s EYG Halloween Horror Bingefest.

The Cabin in the Woods from director Drew Goddard and producer/co-writer Joss Whedon is an amazingly creative and thoroughly entertaining horror film that not only brings thrills and scares, but also deconstructs the tropes and genre-specific moments that all horror movies revel within. It is as clever of a film as you are going to see, and it is just as horrifying and gory as any other film of its ilk.

Five young people head to a family member’s cabin in the woods for a weekend of fun and frivolity, but they, instead, find death and fear. Yes, this sounds like a typical plotline from many horror movies, but this is anythign but typical.

In fact, we discover early in the movie that the entire situation is being manipulated by a group of puppeteers as a sacrifice to some mysterious force. This was not the only sacrifice going down, as we see other examples from around the world (all playing into genre specific horror). These puppeteers are shown to be the reason why characters in horror movies make such a series of inane choices or stupid decisions. Gas, technology and other manipulations lead these subjects into their bad decisions.

Our two main puppeteers (Richard Jenkins & Bradley Whitford) are jovial and confident in their jobs and we see them as if they were in an office working at any normal 9 to 5 job. There was not much normal about this though.

The five kids are made to fit by the puppeteers into five generalized archetypes that you normally see in horror films: the virgin, Dana (Kristen Connolly), the fool Marty (Fran Kranz), the jock Curt (Thor himself Chris Hemsworth), the scholar Holden (Jesse Williams) and the whore Jules (Anna Hutchison). Then we see the five of them slowly killed by the monster that they had unleashed.

There is such a clever twist to this story, one that you have seen for so many different times that The Cabin in the Woods becomes so fresh and funny that you are never sure what is going to happen next. You root for these five young adults despite the fact that it seems that they are destined to be finished off.

There is also an epic cameo at the end of the film, which I will not spoil, but which feels perfectly cast.

This was one of my absolutely favorite movies from 2012 (behind, if I remember correctly only The Avengers). The Cabin in the Woods is such a classic of the genre, and yet seems to exceed it as well. It takes the best bits of the horror genre and of the comedy genre and mix them up into a beautiful amalgam of weirdness. It actually sat on the shelf for years before its eventual release, which is a shame. It truly was worth the wait.

Next up on the Halloween Horror Bingfest is a classic 1980s film called Fright Night.

I had seen this as a younger man, but I did not remember that The Princess Bride’s Prince Humperdinck himself, Chris Sarandon, starred as Jerry Dandrige, the main villainous vampire. The only thing I really remembered from the first time was Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent, TV’s “vampire hunter”.

Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) moved in next door to Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), who immediately spotted the vampire next door biting one of his victims. No one believed Charley, but that did not prevent him from trying to stop him. With help from the vampire hunter Peter Vincent, Charley had to put his life on the line to try and save his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) from a fate worse than death.

Fright Night is a cult classic with a healthy dose of camp to it. Yet it does not take the camp factor to a level that is annoying and provides us with a very good time in battling vampires.

Roddy McDowall is great in this movie. He gives one of his greatest performances in any film anywhere. You believe everything in connection to this character, an actor who seems to be washed up, and who really never thought that vampires could be real. McDowall ties everything in the script together into the narrative.

Chris Sarandon is great too. he plays the perfect, slimy villain, here two years before he would don the crown of Prince Humperdinck. The smirk and the knowing façade made him a wonderful foil for the all-American type of Charley.

Fright Night has a distinct B-movie feel to it, and it plays that up throughout the film. Peter Vincent was a host of the old late night TV monster movie shows, this one appropriately titled Fright Night. This provides a back drop for the movie and lets us into the idea of what kind of horror movie this is.

Fright Night is a lot of fun and cheesy.

The 2020 EYG Horror/Halloween Bingefest this year continued today with one of the classic haunted house movies of all time. Poltergeist inspired several sequels and filled the minds of the audience with tension and fright.

The Freeling family seemed to be the perfect family, living a wonderful life. However, strange events begin happening in the house. At first, it seemed like harmless fun, but it quickly degenerated into a life and death struggle.

One particularly stormy night lead to several horrifying situations and the abduction of young girl Carole Anne (Heather O’Rourke) from her bedroom. This led Steven (Craig T. Nelson), her father, and Diane (JoBeth Williams), her mother, to struggle to save their entire family.

I have to say, this film unnerved me quite a bit. I had an eerie feel when it ended and it stuck with with for a bit. That is a sign of an effective horror film.

The performances of Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams were fantastic. I really bought them as a happy couple, who loved their life and their family above all else. The strength of the pairing of Nelson and Williams elevated the material dramatically.

Although she was not on screen as much as the other members of the cast, Zelda Rubinstein (who I was originally introduced to on Picket Fences) was utterly brilliant as the psychic Tangina. Her arrival in the movie truly kickstarted the film into another level of intensity. Her voice and her diminutive frame demanded your attention in every scene she appeared in and she dominated the screen.

The special effects really hold up too. For 1982, these were extra special and these effects deserved the praise that was heaped upon them.

Directed by Tobe Hooper, the screenplay was written by, among others, Steven Spielberg, though rumors circulated that Spielberg’s touch on the film was more all-encompassing than just writer. In fact, the vision of Spielberg permeated much of the creative decisions which became Poltergeist.

There are several deft touches of humor in the film as well, something that you would not think would be effective. However, each moment of humor seemed to fit extremely well and helped make you believe this was a real family and real people going through these unreal events. It came across very well.

Jerry Goldsmith’s score was amazing. His music elevated the tension in each scene, highlighting the beauty in each moment.

Poltergeist is a true Halloween must.

The other day during the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Singles Tournament match between William “The Beast” Bibbiani and the Barbarian, one of the questions in round two was centered around the movie It’s Alive. It was a movie that I had never heard of before, but host Mark Ellis said a couple of times that It’s Alive was a “great movie” and Bibbiani added that the director Larry Cohen was a “genius” and “underappreciated in his time.”

Since it is almost October and the annual Halloween/Horror Binge-a-thon was coming up, I decided that I would start off the month a tad early and watch the movie that two awesome people recommended.

In It’s Alive, the pregnant Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell) wakes up in bed and tells her husband Frank Davis (John Ryan) that it was time to have the baby. These two were clearly veterans of this because they were remarkably calm and downright nonchalant about this. They slowly got dressed, woke up their son Chris (Daniel Holzman), dropped Chris off with friend Charley (William Wellman Jr.) before strolling peacefully to the hospital.

That would be the final moments of peacefulness the couple would encounter. Almost as soon as Lenore arrived in the delivery room, she began saying things like “this feels different” and the “something was wrong” but no one seemed to be concerned with her proclamations.

The doctors surely would regret that oversight. As soon as the oversized mutant baby was born, it became violent and viciously murdered the room full of doctors and nurses, escaping from the hospital.

The movie wisely kept the viewing of the mutant child to a minimum, with only quick flashes and darkened shots. The imagery of the child could have easily flatlined this production with its look had the creators not used the horror genre tope of the unknown being more frightening.

As it is, this movie is clearly a B-movie that has developed a cult status, but there are several prominent aspects of It’s Alive that make it a worthwhile watch. The whole idea of “Frankenstein/Doctor Frankenstein” debate that Frank has with himself in the film is fascinating. There was also a family dynamic that was included that spoke to loving a family member despite its appearance or its behavior. It took Frank a while to discover that, but he does eventually.

The film speculates that the baby’s mutation came from birth control pills that Lenore had been taking for years and an argument could be made that the movie’s hidden message is about abortion.

I found this to be fun, silly and an exciting monster movie. I might not go as far as Mark Ellis did, but I am glad it started off the Halloween Horror Binge for 2020 (which actually, come to think of it, is an oxymoron).