ok lets all shit our pants to something old: pre-2006 horror film thread

I know there are loads of old horror film threads but I wanted a more obvious one for regular discussion of whatever you have seen recently and for recent reissues of older films.

I'll talk again about some of the older films that I mentioned in the other thread. So I'm going to repeat myself a bit.

NIGHT OF THE DEVILS came out on DVD about a year ago and its by the director of Mill Of Stone Women. Early 70s, somewhere between old Bava and more modern gorey stuff. It's about a mostly abandoned forest town with wurdalak style vampires haunting it. I don't think it's a classic but it clearly deserves to emerge out of neglect/obscurity because before it got reissued it seems there was rarely any mention of it and I think it's a lot better than many other 70s Italian horror films. It has some really great images but on the downside it has two vampires dying a screaming death in a laughably unlikely fashion.

Last summer I watched on YouTube two of the 50s versions of GHOST OF YOTSUYA. The late 50s colour version was easily the better version and probably the most glaringly absent film of all the western DVD releases of classic Japanese horror films (such as Kwaidan, Onibaba, Kuroneko, Blind Beast, 60s version of Jigoku, Horrors Of Malformed Men, Lake Of Dracula, Matango, Hausu and Ugetsu). I'd say this was better than most of them actually. Great soundtrack, great ending scenes.
This really needs a proper release, I've heard that Miike's upcoming Over Your Dead Body is a variation on this story that has been filmed roughly ten times. Maybe that'll help this version come out but I wouldn't bet on it. Do you think emailing DVD labels would be worthwhile?

BOXER'S OMEN was another impressive recent viewing mostly for the sheer weirdness and colourful grotesque elements.

MORGIANA is kind of a basic murder mystery plot but it's made worthwhile by the visual styling, great dresses of the mostly female cast and good setting. I'd like to see more of Juraj Herz's horror films but there seems to be nothing available aside from Cremator.

MUMSY NANNY SONNY AND GIRLY was really funny in a way that might annoy a lot of people; it's kind of unique. I love how in America they called it GIRLY and advertised it like a sexploitation film.

Other things I saw not long ago was SISTERS and NIGHTMARE ALLEY, both very good but probably don't need as much introduction.

Saw BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW on tv last night and I'm glad I didn't buy it, I find most British horror films of that era immensely overrated even though I love those gothic and rural visual styles more than anything. Redeeming features are the settings, the odd soundtrack and the lovely dancing naked girl at the end. I think this is a textbook example of conservative horror.

I sort of felt the same way about Witchfinder General, but eventually warmed up to the thing.

Isn't Witchfinder General more anti-conservative? I've never seen the whole thing.

I think IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS deserves way more chat than it gets. It has some really major flaws but I think it's a lot more ambitious, effective and special in places than it ever gets credit for; probably same for Prince Of Darkness but to a lesser extent. Something that strikes me is how Carpenter has always been very pro-showthemonster but you only get a brief glimpse at what was clearly a bunch of monsters that had loads of work put into them. I've never been able to find out about the DVD extras of the film but I remember as a terrified child seeing on tv the special effects studio proudly showing off the monsters and I wonder if that clip is lost forever.

Not about the conservative angle, just the Britishness of it.

Which Sisters are you talking about? It's not obviously bringing anything to mind right now.

Morgiana/Mumsy Nanny/Nightmare Alley all top films. The latter I love a possibly inordinate amount. The former, yeah, it's all about the styling, I see it as high gothic meets Mucha meets late '60s/early '70s surrealism. But then I may be talking crap. I actually went to a costume party as Viktorie recently, though I'm not sure how well I pulled it off (or indeed if anyone knew who I was supposed to be).

Looked up Boxer's Omen - that has gone straight on my 'to watch' list.

I think this is a textbook example of conservative horror.

Not entirely sure what you mean - horror kind of revolves around attraction/repulsion towards what's on screen, but I don't think Brit rural folk horror is noticeably more repulsed by its pagan practices than it is attracted...

DePalma's Sisters. A much better film than Scarface or Carrie I'd say.

I think the whole "conservative" horror and fantasy thing is not as easy to decide as some might say but it has been used repeatedly as a critique. Like Tolkien's orcs; pagans and vampires in films being defeated by puritans. Kim Newman talks about this a lot in his book NIGHTMARE MOVIES.

I think the conservative depiction of vampires accusation is harder to justify because it seems sensible to kill vampires who are destroying your families and are killing lots of people in the process. A vampires bloodlust overpowering their their empathy is a good enough explanation for me. The actions of those in Blood On Satan's Claw make sense inside the film, but there is a feeling among lots of critics that this comes from a unfair worldview, particularly when old Christian dudes are getting the violent victory at the end (but in BOSC the guy who kills the demon seems secular).

The depictions of pagans in particular. Like when Moorcock said that you can't really trust Tolkien to tell you that all orcs are pure evil.
I like Christopher Lee but I recall him in a recent interview talking about pagans as if they were a real threat in the modern world.

Ever since Clive Barkers era I think it's been frowned upon in some circles to depict humanoid monsters as unquestionably evil. Some people have accused Machen's "Great God Pan" being misogynist but I don't see that myself.

hey just fyi this exists too:

sometimes I like to shit my pants oldschool: 1990-1999 horror film thread

Yeah, but the pagans in The Wicker Man are unquestionably the bad guys, but you still side with them over Edward Woodward every time. They're obviously bad, but they're much much cooler and more interesting. So does that make it a conservative film or not?

xp

I'll never forget how as a child, having "good guys" win against monsters made no sense to me, I was horrified when I saw Dracula clumsily falling through cracking ice into freezing water. I think that was Dracula Prince Of Darkness.
Many years later even though my expectations were lower, I was still horrified by a Dracula who was supposed to be "powerful beyond your wildest imaginings" even more clumsily kills himself by getting tricked into walking into too many thorny bushes. That might have been Dracula AD1972.

I've never been huge on Wicker Man, Woodward doesn't deserve his fate but he is annoying enough that his downfall is funny and satisfying rather than difficult to swallow.

In the Mouth of Madness is really really great. Miles better than Prince of Darkness.

Sisters was one of Herrmann's last great film scores and it drives me crazy that it is only available on CD in a shitty sounding noise-reduced edition. Someday I'll buy the LP and make a rip of it.

I managed to download Michael (Witchfinder General) Reeves' The Sorcerers off the internet this weekend and am v v psyched to watch it.

Disappearing doorways department: I bookmarked a bunch of 70s british ITV horror items on Youtube a few weeks ago (particularly the Beasts series of short films) but when I went back to watch them the dude's account had been shut down.

looooool @ the new DVD of "The Visitor" what an entertainingly bad movie

Damn I maybe should have called this thread "pre-2005" because "post-2005" probably includes everything in 2005? I'm sure it doesn't matter too much which thread includes 2005 films.

I'm a huge fan of Nosferatu and the very beautiful Faust (aside from the prolonged romantic comedy section) but I've never tried another Murnau film despite years of opportunity and more complete versions of his other films which has risen their critical standing.
Any recommendations for Phantom or Haunted Castle?

COFFIN JOE COLLECTION is a bargain even if most of the 9 films are very poor...

AT MIDNIGHT I WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL is okay, it has mainly short bursts of gusto and a freshness of approach about it.

The sequel THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE is the only one I'd actually recommend and if you bought the collection for only this, it would be a fair price. There is some overly long boring scenes but it is totally unique and has lots of energy; a few good hysterical scenes with strange imagery, really crazy intro credits too. Sadly the film still has censored dialogue at the end to make it appear as if Coffin Joe repented for his sins.

These first two films also have a strange philosophy that adds a lot to their appeal; but sometimes I wonder if Marins has it all figured out or if he just makes it up to be whatever sounds cool at any given moment. Coffin Joe is supposed to be crazily sexist but the way his female victims fall in love with him so easily make the film's look sexist as a whole. The director and his character are a fascinating phenomenon sometimes (worth reading about how he was regarded in Brazil) but I don't know why the later films have such an imaginative decline.

Aside from the documentary all the other films are really challeningly dull slogs with brief moments of interest and oddity.
Awakening Of The Beast has funny little four legged monster with a tree sprouting from its back, some weird hallucinatory scenes similar to the second film and people with faces painted on their shaking buttocks. A later film has a man discreetly fingering a woman to help her look like she is crying at a funeral.
After sitting through them all, I understand why so few people bothered writing about the later films.

I'm curious about his newer film Embodiment Of Evil. Marins has a reputation for making risky scenes of women being terrorized by creepy crawlies and some people have said the women in this film look genuinely hysterical in a deeply worrying way. He had to take his wife to the hospital to get an insect out her ear as she was screaming that she thought it was inside her brain.

There needs to be a proper Corman box set of his horror films. I'm reluctant to get a lot of them because a lot of them are underwhelming but they often have just enough going for them for me to crave more and I think they are better than the similar British films of that era.

THE UNDEAD (not seen it but the trailer has a stunning beauty in it)
FALL OF THE HOUSE IF USHER (okay)
MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (should offend dwarves)
PIT AND THE PENDULUM (easily the best of the ones I've seen, good visuals and Barbara Steele)
TOMB OF LIGEIA (a bit dull)
THE TERROR (Karloff and Jack Nicholson, okay)
PREMATURE BURIAL (not seen it)
TALES OF TERROR (not seen it)
THE RAVEN (not seen it)
TOWER OF LONDON (really dull, not to be confused with Karloff film of same name)
HAUNTED PALACE (Lovecraft attempt with some nice visuals and gorgeous lady)

Not sure about comedies like A Bucket Of Blood and Little Shop Of Horrors. I always thought Oblong Box was by Corman but it isn't. Horror Hotel feels like one of them and I'm quite fond of that.

I'm amazed that Corman is still regularly producing films with titles just like he did in the 50s-60s. Anyone seen his newer films?

Don't get people who are rooting against Sgt Howie in TWM. He may be a bit of a prude but how can you not feel for him? Even on a basic level of empathy for a guy who's clearly trying to do good while all around plot against him.

I guess I could feel sorry for him but my excuse is that I saw that clip "Oh God!Oh Jesus Christ!" repeatedly (people link to it regularly on forums and blogs for comic effect) on tv horror film documentaries that had obnoxious spoilers. It is very funny in isolation.
I think those shows spoiled a lot of films and I hope future viewers can experience a lot of these films more freshly than I did. Luckily when I watched Spoorloos/Vanishing, I didn't realise I had previously seen the ending on a clip show until the film finished. That would have ruined it.
Those clip show bastards showed the endings to Suspiria, Nosferatu, Exorcist and Don't Look Now.

It is sad that books aren't more widely discussed but the big benefit is you can read most of the classics without knowing what happens in them.

Tears of Kali (2004, Andreas Marschall)
German flick about a fictional cult whose meditation methods unleash demons, sounds pretty great. Not great by any means, but intriguing and promising. Unusual ideas, ambitious storytelling and an omnibus structure that keeps things moving. Undercut by distinctly lacklustre cinema. A trial run for something better?

Naked Blood (1996, Hisayasu Sato)
Repeat viewing. An alienated young man invents a serum that causes people to experience pain as pleasure, tragedy ensuses. This film seems known only to hardcore gore & transgression buffs, but I think it's an amazing work of art. A justly notorious (though relatively brief) midfilm auto-cannibalism setpiece drastically limits its potential audience, but I strongly recommend Naked Blood to anyone who thinks they might be able to stomach the gore. Surreal, quietly anguished and strangely haunting. A longtime personal favorite that holds up remarkably well.

Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies (2001, Naoyuki Tomomatsu)
Repeat viewing. A mysterious disease causes young women between the ages of 15 and 17 to die and then return to life as mindless, bloodthirsty zombies. This cheerfully schlocky, superficially comical splatter movie uses its basic situation to tell a number of related (and in most cases overlapping) stories, with varying tone & emphasis. Beneath the goofy surface, however, lies a cryptic and rather disturbing commentary on Japanese schoolgirl fetishism. Sui generis and strangely heartfelt.

I've seen a fair amount of talk about Naked Blood On this forum. I'm intrigued, I don't think I've even heard the name before.

damn you aren't kidding that tears of kali SOUNDS great! I have to see that despite yr mixed rev.

tears of kali is definitely worth a watch, and yeah, the concept had me sold from the get-go. the director's follow-up, masks, is much more assured & satisfying, if a good deal less original.

re naked blood: i genuinely love the move, but it's very hard to recommend. the worst moments (of which there are few) are REALLY nasty, like "some things you can't unsee" level unpleasantness. my sense is that the yuk factor unbalances and overshadows the rest of the film, to the point where even i have to admit that a threshold has been crossed. with that substantial caveat in mind, an amazing piece of work.

I never go out of my way to seek or avoid violent sickie films; but I've heard a lot of complaints recently about such things and I rarely hear a coherent argument for what is "too far" or what constitutes a unethical way of depicting a reprehensible act.
There are some things I don't like seeing but I can't think of anything that I thought shouldn't have been shown.

i don't mean that naked blood becomes reprehensible as a result of its gore (well it does, but that doesn't bother me in itself). i mean that the nastier moments alter the film's overall tone substantially, perhaps to its artistic detriment. certainly limits the potential audience, which seems a shame.

... I rarely hear a coherent argument for what is "too far" or what constitutes a unethical way of depicting a reprehensible act.

feel you, but i'm not sure that kind of thing should or even can be broken down all logical-like. we all have our limits, and gut-level emotional responses (DO NOT WANT!) are just as valid as more seemingly-coherent intellectual analyses.

I just went to amazon and bought it there. 20pounds, a little bit too expensive but I'm very intrigued. I'll have to watch this when everyone else is asleep.

A few more things I saw in recent times...

SCHOCK/SHOCK
In the music section of this forum I've praised the soundtrack a lot (Libra includes a few Goblin members). When I watched the trailer for this film I decided to not bother with the film because the soundtrack by itself seemed so much more exciting.
But a few years later I got the chance to see it and it was way better than expected. This might even be one of Bava's very best films. A lot of his classic films stand on the strength of their visuals but this is better than most of them as a whole work. This is Bava adjusting to a new era of Italian horror film and he doesn't look remotely out of touch here.
The story is about a dead father who haunts his wife by possessing the body of his son.
Some really strange moments in this film, but really the soundtrack is still my favourite thing about it.

NOROI
Some people rate this as one of the greatest Japanese horror films ever but it barely made much impression on me. It's made in the form of a documentary, with tv show clips and investigative journalism.

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
Aside from the appealingly smokey dark visuals and settings, this is yet another incredibly dull Bela Lugosi film with all the willingness and poor comic relief you'd expect.

MASK OF FU MANCHU
Sluggish boredom and the expected racism. The lightning massacre at the end was kind of good but I could never recommend the film.

NAKED BLOOD
It is weirdly sedate for a gore film, reminds me in some places of Death Powder. I can see how you might think the goriest parts spoil the sleepily surreal parts. The violence is important to the story, so the gore doesn't feel entirely misplaced; perhaps after being warned it didn't seem too bad to me. The naïve quality of the film was interesting.
Looking at the director's filmography there is so many films that got renamed (the director had a different intended title for them all) to sound like taboo pushing rape fantasies, I wonder if they are all porn films or anything like Naked Blood?
There was an advert on the dvd for a film called Sexy Soccer, which looks like the laziest sexploitation film I've ever seen.

DEATH POWDER
This film makes little attempt at being coherent but it has some good stuff in there. Steamy cyberpunk locations, hallucinatory scenes, a humorous music video, groups of scarred people. The version I saw was only partially subtitled.

CURSE OF KAZUO UMEZU
This is really stiffly animated but it works well enough, the background art has some nice dreamy darkness about it. The first story is pleasingly monstrous, surprisingly scary with a pretty cool twist.
Umezu got a lot of his comics made into live action tv/film but I've never bothered with them apart from this.

LABYRINTH OF DREAMS
This is from Sogo Ishii's quiet phase after his early punk films. An elegant soft black and white ghost story that is only borderline horror, really nice stuff. Ishii's frequent actor Tadanobu Asano stars.

From the animation thread, but I properly linked this video because this thread isn't in threat of being overloaded with videos...

Nina Shorina's "Room Of Laughter" here. One of the best films I saw last year. A prime example of what animation can do for horror. If you have ten minutes to spare...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgZZY9K-WIc

Looking at the director's filmography there is so many films that got renamed (the director had a different intended title for them all) to sound like taboo pushing rape fantasies, I wonder if they are all porn films or anything like Naked Blood?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, April 27, 2014 8:41 AM (Yesterday)

nearly all of hisayasu sato's other films are softcore sex pictures (though he did direct a memorable segment in 2005's rampo noir horror omnibus). i've downloaded a few of his pinku based on the recommendation of others, but have yet to watch any: survey map of a paradise lost, an aria on gazes and love - 0 = infinity. tbh, i don't know whether the somewhat artful titles here are original or replacements intended to help sell the films to more sensitive western audiences, and i don't really trust imdb on this. he's said to be a well respected director within his micro-genre, an experimental punk artist working at the furthest fringes of commercial cinema. i wouldn't know, and i'm not sure i want to further explore a filmography full of titles like lolita vibrator torture and horse woman dog. he did make a gay pink film called muscle, which sounds intriguing, but i haven't found a torrent.

personally, i see naked blood as an interesting and convincingly anguised peice of outsider art. the fact that the director apparently spent the bulk of his career making sleazy, violent, low budget pornography only adds to the nihilist resonance.

and wow, death powder sounds great! thanks for the tip, will watch.

Anyone been seeing these recent BFI disc releases? Stuff like M R James/Ghost Story For Christmas collection, Robin Redbreast, Gaslight, Sleepwalker, Dead Of Night, Supernatural and Schalcken The Painter?

Most of this appears to be old British tv shows, I'm sceptical but I've seen some extremely positive reviews for them. I've seen one or two of the M R James episodes and they were fine. I read Le Fanu's Schalcken The Painter recently and I am curious how they'd pull it off for screen.

A word of warning: the complete Karloff's Thriller is packaged and blurbed like a pure horror show but really only something like 10 episodes of the 67 are horror; it was really a noir/crime/mystery show. Quite a few people said it was better than Twilight Zone and Outer Limits but I never saw much of them.
It was decent but I never sustained enough interest to watch the whole thing. A lot of the acting is a bit sloppy. The highlights for me were a haunted house story with Rip Torn; a Bloch story about a mirror or glasses that let you see monstrous "true" forms of people; best was a Derleth story with Karloff as a weird pale lethargic scientist covered in cobwebs. But none of this was really enough to justify getting the boxed set.

I super dug the three episodes I watched before it was taken off Netflix. Also: tons of fuckin money ass goldsmith scores on those.

The theme tune was great.

100 bloody acres now streaming on us at least netflix

The Watson/Webber version of Fall Of House Of Usher. I'd say it was among the best silent horror films. Only 12 minutes...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPYjrOST-VQ

Any opinions on the 1974 version of Dracula? I guess it's about to be reissued, and Varese Sarabande just issued the soundtrack by Bob Cobert-- I listened to it on spotify today and it's great stuff in the hammer romantic-menace vein (but better recorded than most of the hammer music).

Who was playing that Dracula, it doesn't sound familiar.

Anyone saw Mimic directors cut? Del Toro said he was pleased because he didn't have to disown the film anymore. But I'm still kind of reluctant because unlike Barker's Nighbreed, I never got the sense that it could have been something special if left alone (admittedly based on the opinions of people who saw it before it was butchered). I guess The Keep is another film that people are still hoping for a directors cut.

Just watched my new copy of IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (not a good copy, I think it's Korean, it has way too small a screen size), I hadn't seen it in maybe more than 10 years and it holds up less well than I had imagined.
The light metal music in the intro/outro doesn't set the tone very well. I remembered the film being cheesy with the appearance of the evil writer and the clichéd scary children but I didn't remember the goofy humour at all, with all those wisecracks.
I used to be freaked out by Sam Neill laughing in the cinema but I guess there was nothing wrong with that part, I'm just older. I kept thinking Neill didn't care that much about his performance or maybe he thought this was going to be closer to a horror comedy than it really was. It's unbelievable and funny how he makes a map from the book covers.

What is still quite effective is the disordered reality scenes almost like Jacob's Ladder, a lot of the driving scenes with the tunnels, dark roads and the cyclist; I liked the creatures (especially the main tunnel scene that is very similar to Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness") and the church interior too.

2 taglines: "Lived any good books lately?" and "Reality isn't what it used to be".

I have really strong memories of being very young and even terrified of this films existence, trying to avoid looking at pictures of it. As a young teen finding it pretty scary too.

It isn't great but I don't know why it rarely gets mentioned for quite a long time.

One of my favourite sites heavily recommended an obscurity called Atrapados that sounded really great...
http://www.fright.com/edge/Atrapados.htm

Now he linked to vimeo where the director has uploaded the film...
http://vimeo.com/92413499
I hope I can watch it soon if my internet speed gets fixed.

I'd watch a Keep director's cut out of curiosity, but the film is perfect as is

I think the reason it has never had a DVD release is possibly the difficulty of finally putting together the directors cut. Not sure what is stopping Nightbreed.

THEY LIVE

I got an unexpected amount of pleasure seeing a musclebound hero who is also a convincing, likable everyman (for lack of a better word). Not a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I don't mind Stallone but I could do with more big muscle guys who seem approachable in films. Don't think I've seen a film with The Rock in it but he seems nice.

I'm very familiar with the majority of Carpenter's films but for some reason I had never heard of They Live until a few years ago.

Great funny long fight scene. The thing I liked least is the very forced sounding wise cracks and cheesy lines.

Been looking around for Jean Rollin DVDs and some are prominently labelled for being uncut but I don't think any of his films have been censored for decades have they? He seems way too tame to be censored into the DVD age.

Are the Dr Phibes films worthwhile?

I had passed on The Hunger and Paul Schrader's version of Cat People many times because I never bought the hype, they didn't sound interesting to me. I lump them together as very 80s sexy horror films that were very modern and cool for their time, I guess Near Dark might even fit in there. But I finally watched both this weekend and I'm glad I did.

Cat People feels like a radical new interpretation possibly more based on the source short story than the original film (?), I have to agree with the camp that prefers this to the Lewton film (I think there were better Lewton films), there were so many aspects I don't recall in the older film. Kinski was really sweet in this.

The Hunger was a real surprise. I don't have much experience with Tony Scott but I was never remotely attracted to most of his output that I know of (I have heard he has done lesser known great stuff); so I was amazed that this is one of the most visually impressive and stylish films I've ever seen; really beautiful at times. A lot of old makeup jobs look terrible but the makeup for aging Bowie was very impressive. This is the type of surprise that makes me think that sometimes I should listen to hype when I'm reluctant.

first doctor phibes is fun, not great, but a nice period piece, great production design. second is a wash.

dig both the hunger and shrader's cat people remake, moreso the former. other than that and true romance, though, i've never had much use for tony scott.

This might be kind of silly but Angel Witch's Dr Phibes tune made me think "wow, maybe if that film inspired such great music maybe the film is great too".

Lair of the White Worm is on there too so I might watch that tomorrow night.

Been enjoying Alexandra Heller-Nicholas talking about films a lot
https://linktr.ee/suspirialex

This is a slideshow with some clips based on her book 1000 Women In Horror, which is now a Shudder documentary (can't find any trailers yet but it was at a festival)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nsBMutBYQQ
https://letterboxd.com/film/1000-women-in-horror/

The Mask Of Satan (1989)
Lamberto Bava said he hates remakes and sequels, this takes the scene from his father Mario Bava's Black Sunday/Mask Of Satan with the mask being hammered into the witch and her vengeful rebirth, but aside from that it doesn't take anything else. It's more like Lamberto's own Demons film, but instead of youngsters possessed by demons in a cinema, it's youngsters possessed by a witch in a church in the snowy mountains.

I adore Deborah Caprioglio but have never been able to see anything but Paprika (I seen that 22 years ago). There's an interview with her on the Severin bluray, but it looks like it could have been filmed in the early 00s.

This film has been more or less lost until recently, hardly anyone had seen it. One of the actresses said people laughed at it on the premiere (including some of the actors). The setting is pretty cool, some of the wall art is swiped from Ernst Fuchs, you might enjoy it if you're a fan of the Demons series. But there's lots of things that just don't come off quite right, the special effects don't hit the mark and there's a dog that's supposed to be ferocious but it's clearly a big softy.

I'm glad I've seen it and it's not lost anymore but it could have been so much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1M_0NULWrg

Trailer doesn't show you enough, more screens in here
https://severinfilms.com/en-gb/products/the-mask-of-satan-blu-ray-w-exclusive-slipcover

John Carpenter's Christine is up on HBO Max for some reason. I watched it last night and holy fuck, that movie rules. I saw it 30-plus years ago and hadn't even thought about it since, but it's as good as anything else he did in the '80s. There's maybe one moment that doesn't work, toward the end, but the transformation Keith Gordon goes through as the demonically possessed car's new owner is chilling; he reminds me of the soldier come home in Deathdream. If you've never seen it (or if you think the whole idea is goofy), check it out.

watched under the radar SOV film “in the dark” last night. pretty good imo - some properly creepy bits

I got the Warlock trilogy because someone I like was enthusiastic about the first film.

Julian Sands is the evil warlock, Richard E Grant is the scottish hero chasing him centuries into the future. It feels a tad like Highlander and Terminator 2 put together. The young woman's comic relief is an annoyance. I didn't care for it. I don't miss this kind of film much and I suspect horror films are better now. The poster suggested Grant might have been more fun and energetic but I can't really fault him for not bringing more to a weak script.

The second film is really quite pretty in a lot of scenes, but there's overkill on the closeups. It's like a cheesy kids film with gore. I'm guessing the big fans of the first two films are there for Julian Sands' sex appeal?

The third film has a different star. I watched the trailer, it looked like a late 90s slasher film, I didn't bother any further.

Everything about "Poltergeist" holds up really well. Acting, script, FX, scares.

So I've got the second Daiei Gothic boxed set now and there's a 5 minute documentary about Ikuko Môri, who played the ghost cat woman, one of the best movie monster performances ever, for my money. It's said that this was her last film because she stabbed her boyfriend, this ended her film career but boosted the ticket sales of the film. She had a fondness for snakes and taken this into a lot of her film roles. I'll keep an eye out for her, but she has the same name as a City Pop singer.

There was a lengthy doc on the second Severin folk horror box that deals with ghost cat films and her iirc.

Would love to see that but the price and region I cannot do.

Is Takako Irie also discussed in that doc? She played a ghost cat a few times in black and white films.

I'm wondering if there's enough films for a third Daiei Gothic set?

aren’t there enough ghost cat movies alone for a few more?

There's at least 6 more, all in the 50s, Takako Irie is in some if not all of them. These films need to be carefully curated because quite a lot of them are very samey. If there was a box of Yotsuya/Oiwa films it would be terribly repetitive to watch them in a row.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Daiei_Films

Everything about "Poltergeist" holds up really well. Acting, script, FX, scares.

My rewatch the other year was very rewarding on that front. Also remarkable for being a small film in ways -- there's the family, the researchers, the one business goon who forgot about moving the bodies, bits of neighbors and buddies here and there and that's it. Doesn't need anything more.

Ghost Of Kasane Swamp (1970) - This is maybe the third Kasane Swamp film I've seen, definitely the best of them (there are 7 films overall), a huge stylistic upgrade from the ones I had seen. It reminds me of Cruel Ghost Legend because there's less perfect victims pleading for mercy, it's a world with more crooked people. Makes me wish there had been more films like this afterward but this kind of setting was mostly abandoned.

I think there's probably more variety in the ghost cat films because I don't get the sense that there's as much retellings/remakes. There's a new Dracula film that looks like specifically a remake of Coppola's Dracula, so gothic film fans are getting much more of the same again.

Portrait of Hell deserves a reissue, it's set in an earlier period, based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Hell Screen

is that jigoku or something else again? (it's something else again)

(i watched jigokumon at the weekend, Gate of Hell. not horror, very colourful, plot didn't really go anywhere)

daiei box will have to wait for next weekend. looks lovely again but i'd rather it was less money. hoping for Human-skin Spider in volume 3, for the name alone

That one isn't a horror film, it seems to be about a spider tatoo'd samurai.

Ghost-Cat Wall of Hatred is a title I liked.

we just saw THE OTHERS (2001) and loved it! great stuff. Criterion is running a "2000s horror" series including this one.

Just rewatched all of the Herschell Gordon Lewis horror films, from Blood Feast (1963) to The Gore Gore Girls (1972).

My opinion is the same as it was when I first saw these at age 19 back in 1987-88. 2000 Maniacs is his tour de force; it's the tightest, most flawless film he ever made. The gore effects got better and more outrageous in later films, but the narratives did not. A Taste of Blood (1967) is his best looking film, but it's also his slowest and most boring (of the horror films...How to Make a Doll 1968) is his worst overall of what I've seen).

2000 Maniacs for sure my favourite but I have an awful lot of time for Scum of the Earth, which despite being among first is still probably one of the best of the roughies.

I'd only gotten around to watching Scum of the Earth in this recent binge and I was surprised by how well done it was. Definitely watchable.

continuing with the Criterion 2000s series, we watched Rogue last night, good stuff, killer croc vs Australian boat tour (spoiler alert, the dog dies)

Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue location spotting:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/living-dead-manchester-morgue-locations

The church is allegedly where Little John (out of Robin Hood) is buried.

Saw The Descent at the cinema this evening, the 4K version. It looked and sounded incredible, and, true to form, there were a couple of moments in the caves (before any gribblies turned up) when I thought I might have to leave.

Any opinions on the black and white Mexican horror films Indicator has been released a while ago?

Curse of the Crying Woman I liked a lot, although some will complain it plays out a little like a Black Sabbath tribute. The characters (especially the men) could be better developed though and at times it feels more like an exercise in animating paintings than a film.

Witches Mirror uses some ideas from Les Yeux Sans Visage and maybe The Skin I Live In but only partially successfully, cast in a supernatural wrapper. It succeeds in some ways but is a little disappointing and my least favourite I think.

The Brainiac is a tremendous film which either lives within its own constraints or ignores them to tell a much more complex and rich story, depending on your own interpretation. Never less than wildly entertaining.

Black Pit of Doctor M is arguably a highlight of genre cinema. It takes the premise of Poe's Valdemar story and ends up prefiguring films like The Asphyx, and maybe even Zeder. A bit of a masterpiece imo.

The Vampire double set is pretty great too.

Thanks. I ordered Curse Of The Crying Woman before I posted last night but I'm holding off on the others because I've had a string of disappointments recently and I'm learning to trust film trailers more, even though they certainly can be misleading, they're usually mostly accurate.
Anyone seen Phantom of The Monastery and La Llorona from the 1930s?

Somewhat predictably, I have too.

Phantom of the Monastery is great - a little obvious maybe if you've seen more than a dozen movies in your life but it's a very well made spooky house mystery.

La Llorona didn't stick that heavily in my mind so I can't have been that overly convinced by it. My memory says it was well made but... I think the end lets it down? If it's in a deal or is cheap then it's probably worth it.

Thanks again

Was going to say that none of the trailers for these were especially enticing, but some of them were so poor that I suspect they are just incompetent trailers.

I've seen all of these too. La Llorona is weird because it's barely horror. A crying ghost pops up a couple times but could basically be metaphorical. It's got a couple nested stories of tragedy with a wraparound that's about a child being kidnapped in a revenge plot.

Yeah, Phantom of the Monastery looks great and is obvious if you've ever read one ghost story in your life.

I thought The Curse of the Crying Woman and The Witch's Mirror were pretty good. The Brainiac I really didn't like, but I need to rewatch it along with The Black Pit of Dr. M, which I wasn't wowed by but was fine. I've been slowly rewatching every horror movie in existence made up to 1962 chronologically and my rewatches have been generally more favorable than first time watches, though there are some still some movies that I find just aren't very good.

I initially disregarded Brainiac because it looks like a typical silly b-movie monster and I never had much time for those, but I might give it a go now.

I've been slowly rewatching every horror movie in existence made up to 1962 chronologically

― servoret, Wednesday, November 26, 2025 11:01 AM (six hours ago)

Any surprises or underrated stuff?

And why is 1962 the cut-off?

probably will take until they're age 113 to get that far

I listen to Scream Scene Podcast, which has been covering horror movies chronologically one film per episode for a while, like I want to say seven/eight years. They're up to 1962 releases now after 337 episodes, and I've been listening and watching along the whole time. I recently decided to do a rewatch because I was looking at the Letterboxd list I maintain for the show and my ratings seemed so low to me, like I wasn't really enjoying watching most of the movies. On rewatch I like almost all of them better outside of the real duds. I think I'm less harsh on myself now as a viewer, where before I was being really critical about most movies falling into a bell curve of enjoyment for me.

Surprises? I really liked The Bad Seed, The Ghost Ship, The Body Snatcher, I Married a Monster from Outer Space. I don't know if any of those are underrated though. Maybe The Ghost Ship. I'll probably turn up more as I go from 1939 where I'm at now through to 1962 again.

I couldn't do a big project like this, I need to cherry pick very carefully now and it's largely going to depend on strong recommendations and whatever is being reissued. Just couldn't tolerate seeing many more films like The Ape Man.
Want to see both the House Of Wax films, Waxworks, The Uninvited, Island Of Lost Souls and many more of the japanese ones.

Wasn't long ago that I written about it but 30s Jekyll & Hyde was a big surprise. There was a Universal crossover film I liked much better than the others but can't remember which.

So I rewatched that Mexican box and the four films are pretty much as I remembered them and in order of preference.

xpost
Island of Lost Souls is very good, easily a top ten pre-war horror film. First House of Wax has its moment, but is fatally undone by a comedy reporter lead actor who is just insufferable. The Vincent Price remake has lots of shots designed to exploit the 3D process, probably more than any other 1950s 3D movie.

And Charles Bronson in a small supporting role.

I think it's quite surprising how rarely films are made in the style of 20s-30s horror films. I don't want to encourage more studiously retro films but I think those styles could be expanded in interesting ways and the 1920s films that have survived and stand out the most point in exciting directions that never happened.

I have whatever completist streak it takes to do big projects, like working down the thousand entry They Shoot Zombies, Don't They? list was another one I more or less completed back in the day. I did suffer from burnout this year though, after peaking at about 1500 features watched in 2024 (I have a lot of free time). Even though I do have to suffer through films like The Ape Man (although I haven't gotten to it yet; maybe I'll give it more than one star this time), even some of the cheapies end up being kind of endearingly goofy, like The Devil Bat, where Lugosi plays a mad perfume maker who douses his enemies with scent that attracts giant mutated killer bats.

You averaged 4 films a day?! I take my hat off to you.

Curse Of The Crying Woman (1961) - It takes one of it's main images from Black Sunday, if you like Bava and Corman from the early 60s, you might as well throw this one in too. Dodgy special effects come with the territory but one that really stood out is when the big dogs are supposed to be eating a man's face, but they're licking food from a pane of glass.
The bonus interviews with Rita Macedo's daughters are notable.

This 1942 version of Malombra looks great, there's a few dvd bootlegs with english subtitles but I'm going to wait a bit. No idea of what the chances of a bluray are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCzMUuo24OY