Let the Right One In

Thanks to the God awful Twilight saga, vampires have lost their edge. They're viewed as sexy instead of scary. Somewhere Bram Stoker is rolling in his grave.

Ironically, the same year the first Twilight movie was released, a foreign movie entitled Let the Right One In brought the vampire movie back to its roots. Instead of being sparkly and brooding, the main vampire is hungry for blood. Stoker would be proud.

I personally like foreign movies every now and again. (Reading subtitles is a strain sometimes.) Old foreign movies are loaded with religious imagery; new foreign movies focus on depression and sex. Let the Right One In doesn't rely on any of those. It relies on a common aspect of horror movies: suspicion.

Let the Right One In is one of the best movies in recent years. When you think it can't get any scarier, it does. Again, if Stoker was alive to see this, he would be proud. Suck on that, Twilight. (Pun intended.)

My Rating: *****

Session 9

Paranoia movies are always the scariest kind of horror movies. When the main character slowly starts going insane, so does the viewer. (This is from someone who has seen one too many episodes of The Twilight Zone.)

Session 9, however, isn't one one of those movies. It tries to be like The Shining, but it tries too hard. I give Brad Anderson points for the build-up, but he loses those points (among other things) in the long run.

Of course Session 9 has the usual list of horror movie cliches: abandoned mental hospital, checkered past of said hospital, those sort of things. If Anderson wanted to present a new type of horror movie, ditch the cliches and do something unconventional. Seriously, it's not that hard.

If I wasn't clear enough, Session 9 tries too much to be something new and instead becomes the typical forgotten horror movie. It's all right in some parts, but it falls flat on its face by the end. I wasn't impressed.

My Rating: ***1/2

Scream

It's obnoxious. The more popular a contemporary movie is, the least likely I would have seen it.

Wes Craven's Scream is no exception. (Yes, I hadn't seen it before. Get off my case.) By all accounts, this is one of the few horror movies in recent years that's effective. Most horror movies that reference ones in the years past tend to fail in spectacular fashion. (Remember the Scary Movies?) Fortunately with Scream, it works.

Of course the matter of horror and comedy fused together for one movie is a tricky one to tackle. Fortunately, Craven makes it work in Scream. After all, this man brought the horror genre back from the dead. (Also love the cameo of his where he's conspicuously dressed as Freddy Krueger.)

Scream, as I mentioned before, is one of the few horror movies in recent years that's effective. It gets a little silly in some parts, but I still like it. If you haven't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for?

My Rating: ****

Fatal Attraction

The most common type of horror movie villain is what I affectionately call the "psycho bitch". You know, the woman who is so mentally unhinged she will do anything drastic to get what she wants.

The most famous example is Glenn Close's Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction. Close is one of the best actresses working today and Alex is her most famous role. For good reason too. She appears to be a pleasant person, but one look into her hollow eyes proves otherwise. As much as I like Cher in Moonstruck, her work pales in comparison to Close's.

It's the small details of Fatal Attraction that makes it work. Take note that Alex's apartment, most of her clothing and possessions are white. However, she is anything but pure. The first time we see her, we almost pick up immediately that she's trouble with a capital T. Too bad Dan (Michael Douglas) doesn't pick up on it.

Fatal Attraction is a very effective thriller, but it loses something when Close isn't on screen. This movie probably made men think twice before having an affair. (Close said that people thank her for saving their marriages.) One more thing about Close. Two words to describe she means business: bunny boiler.

My Rating: ****1/2

The Fly

Science fiction and horror go hand in hand frequently. Like when an experiment goes horribly wrong. Trust me, it works.

An example is David Cronenberg's The Fly. Like Videodrome, The Fly is bound to cross over into messed-up territory. And it does that exactly. The slow (and disgusting) transition from human to fly is meant to be seen than described. (Especially when his ear just falls off.)

The Fly was viewed by some upon its release as Cronenberg's take on the AIDS epidemic. In a sense it is, but I like to view it as Cronenberg's twist on The Elephant Man. By this, I mean Cronenberg shows a misunderstood and deformed being, and has us come to terms with this creature.

The Fly is infused with science fiction, horror and Cronenberg grossness, all of which work wonders. The makeup makes this version and the 1958 version appear as though they aren't even the same story. However, it's on the gross side frequently. One for the horror junkies.

My Rating: ****1/2

Videodrome

Considering the only David Cronenberg movies I've seen were some of his more realistic titles (Eastern Promises, Spider, A History of Violence), I was bound to see his movies from the 1980's sooner or later.

One of them is Videodrome. I've heard that this was a really messed-up movie and boy, is it ever. I knew Cronenberg's movies from the 1980's were...different from his more recent work, and Videodrome is just downright bizarre.

Though Videodrome shows the influence television can have on people. As most people know, the media is a contributor to most crimes. Cronenberg is making a statement on the influence of television and its impact. (It's not pretty in the least bit.)

Videodrome is good, but it was too surreal for me to really like. I do like Cronenberg's take on media influence however. It's basically one of the strangest movies out there. After seeing this, it'll make you think twice before watching television, especially late at night.

My Rating: ****

The Thing

By now, everyone knows that remakes don't always work. There are those very rare exceptions, but the number is still small.

Most people know by now that John Carpenter is a devotee to Howard Hawks. (After all, Assault on Precinct 13 is a sci-fi take on Rio Bravo.) Carpenter's The Thing, although based on a different source, clearly had Hawks' The Thing from Another World as an influence. (Yes, I know Hawks wasn't the official director, but just go with it.)

I'm not big on gore, but Carpenter is fortunate enough to not overdo it. Okay, he does overdo it sometimes, but it has meaning to it. Saying I got nightmares from it is an understatement; I got nightmares for all eternity. As if Halloween didn't spook me out enough. Now Carpenter's my go-to source for something scary.

The Thing gets a good feel of paranoia. Think of it as Invasion of the Body Snatchers set in Antarctica. You don't know who's been taken over, so you're constantly on edge. You know how Brian De Palma kept making homages to Hitchcock? Carpenter did that with immense ease with both Halloween and The Thing.

My Rating: *****

Marathon Man

There are a number of movies that are famous for one scene. Examples include the kiss on the beach in From Here to Eternity, the shower scene in Psycho, and the subway grate moment in The Seven Year Itch. Sometimes, however, there's more to the movie than that one scene.

Of course for Marathon Man, the (in)famous scene in question is where Laurence Olivier tortures Dustin Hoffman through dental work. (His "Is it safe?" is just flat out unnerving.) Because of this one scene, I shall now be forever cautious of going to the dentist.

The scenes of dental distress aside, Marathon Man is a very well-acted thriller. Hoffman goes from unknown resident of New York City to victim to defender within the span of two hours. Roy Scheider makes it clear that he isn't what he seems. But this show belongs to Olivier. He is perhaps the most horrifying Nazi preceding Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. When you hear the name Christian Szell, run for your life.

Marathon Man is very good. It has a few flaws here and there, but the work from Hoffman, Scheider and Olivier gives the movie support. It has an accurate balance of thrills, so I recommend it mostly for that and the acting.

My Rating: ****1/2

Theater of Blood

Most horror movies that are dubbed underseen are usually not very good. That doesn't mean they're all bad.

Vincent Price is noted for his appearances as the villain in movies. (That voice of his might be a contribution to it.) In Theater of Blood, he's somewhat of a sympathetic sort of person. After all, his Edward Lionheart is merely getting revenge on the critics who mocked his career.

What makes Theater of Blood clever is what the inspirations for the murders are from. Lionheart is a Shakespeare actor, so naturally he would use scenes from the Bard's work. Makes a person wonder if Andrew Kevin Walker watched this a few times before he wrote Se7en.

Theater of Blood is one of the more clever horror movies out there. Price is his usual diabolical self, but he shows more range with this. If you ask me, it's really worth checking out for its entertainment and shock value.

My Rating: ****1/2

Night of the Living Dead

It's always good to see the firsts in film. It's a good way to acknowledge yourself with such movies. (It's good for bragging rights too.)

George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is dubbed the best zombie movie ever made. Boy, is it ever. Movies like 28 Days Later have to thank Romero for revolutionizing the zombie movie. Without him, those movies wouldn't have a formula to rely on.

There are only a few moments of zombie gore, but they sure work. It's clear the leads are heading up a slippery slope when they see how unstoppable the zombies appear to be. Hey, no one said fighting zombies was going to be easy.

Night of the Living Dead just works on many levels. The scares work, believe me. It's amazing how a movie with a plot so simple can do wondrously. There aren't many movies that can accomplish that.

My Rating: *****