Halloween Countdown Day 5: Let The Right One In

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown? 

           Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)     Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)     

           Day 3: The Walking Dead / Dead Set   Day 4: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Day 5: Let Me In (2010)

Yes, I know, I should be reviewing Let the Right One In, the original Swedish version. I shouldn't be plugging another shameless “Americanized” remake, but I’ll be damned if Let Me In isn’t as good (and in some cases better) than the original. And you have no idea how much I loved the original.

The Plot in 140 characters: A little boy who totally isn't mentally disturbed at all gets a new neighbor. And did I mention he isn't disturbed at all? Because he's not.

Yep. Perfectly normal kid here.

The Actual Plot: Owen (or Oskar, if you watch the original Swedish version) is an extremely disturbed 12-year-old boy. He’s picked on every day and imagines killing his bullies with a knife.

Owen isn’t exactly what you’d call “well adjusted.” He collects newspaper clippings of serial killers. But just before he completely snaps and shoots up his school he gets a new neighbor. A sweet girl who soon becomes his only friend. 

The only problem is that she’s not exactly what you’d call “human.”

Why I Love It: I don’t understand the point of an “Americanizing” great movies. I don't understand the idea that Americans are incapable of reading subtitles, or appreciating any film that wasn’t made in Hollywood.

Especially a movie as good as Let the Right One In

Movies like Scent of a Woman, The Ring and The Magnificant Seven, are some of the better examples of the “so good we have to re-make it in English” category, but more often than not the films end up fizzeling (can you say Godzilla?)

Let the Right One In is one of the single best horror films of the last decade, hands down. So when word came that American studios were remaking it for American audiences I was, needless to say, skeptical.

The vampire version of Rear Window left a bit to be desired.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Let Me In is good. In fact, it is just as good as the original, and that is high marks. 

Not only that, but Let Me In stands on its own from the original.

Let Me In is directed by the man who previously brought us Cloverfield (which I hated) and stars Kick-Ass’s Chloë Moretz (who I like). 

Mortez does a nice job in the film, and unlike Kick-Ass she she conveys the tragic nature of Abby The Vampire perfectly.

And it stars the great Richard Jenkins in a darkly sinister role that I absolutely adore.

Both films, I should say, are based on the novel of the same name by Sweedish author John Lindqvist, and both follow the basic plots of the book, although they (I think smartly) are not as overt about the pedophalic overtones of the vampire-REnfield relationship. (The Sweedish version epecially). 

"I don't care what anyone says, Peter Kriss is the best KISS member."

The highest praise that I can give the remake is that there are several scenes that I think genuinely improve on the original. If you are a fan of the original I can safely recommend the film to you with the same passion that I can to someone who has never heard of Sweeden at all.

The film is a smart combination of horror and coming-of-age innocence. The film focuses primarily away from the gory vampire cliches (those there’s certainly a bit of gore in it for us fans) and instead on the relationship between Abby and Owen. 

It's sort of the Lois and Clark of vampire stories.

But don’t think that this is some Twilight knockoff. The film is dark, and smart and (frankly) it is exactly what Twilight should have been. If you want a story about love, vampires and alegories about never being able to truly be together, but aside your Stephanie Meyer and pick up this. 

The film is nicely blends the two genres and hits on all the emotional buttons. It’s tragic and sad, it’s sweet and innocent, it’s violent and bloody.

In short, this this (and Let the Right One In) would make excellent Halloween Night fodder, and if you are in the mood of OG (which true film lovers are) pleae pick up Let the Right One In, but if you want a quick fix please watch Let Me In.

TOMORROW: The single greatest horror film of all time. PSYCHO. 

Halloween Countdown Day 4: Behind the Mask

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown? 

Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)     Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)     Day 3: The Walking Dead / Dead Set

Day 4: Behind the Mask: 

The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Ever since The Blair Witch Project blasted into theaters in 1999, there have been no shortage of fake “found footage” horror films out there (movies like Rec, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, Diary of the Dead, and so many more) . 

Most of these types of films aren’t worth watching and the found footage subgenre itself has become almost too annoying for me to stomach, but every so often somebody like Leslie Vernon comes along and makes the whole thing worthwhile.

This is Leslie, and he's new face of terror.

The Plot in 140 characters: There is a lot more work that goes into a psychotic co-ed murder spree than you might have first realized. There is so much cardio involved.

The Actual Plot: Leslie Vernon is an aspiring serial killer who is planning his first big job: The murder of a group of co-eds at an old farm house.

He wants to be like his heroes Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees and when he is approached by a group of grad students wanting to make a documentary about his preparations leading up to the big day, Leslie agrees to give the crew the inside scoop on just how much work and effort goes into planning the perfect murder.  

And he is super excited about it.

Why I Love It: As I said, “found footage” horror films often annoy me. When I watch a movie like Diary of the Dead or Cloverfield I find myself unable to suspend my disbelief enough to really accept it.

I find myself shouting at the screen when I watch a movie like Paranormal Activity, because I usually find them just so implausible, or wondering why people are filming something in the first place. (In Cloverfield, for example, one of the characters is filming a going-away party and then just decides to keep shooting as he climbs one handed up a building to rescue a woman?) Pfft.

I guess I’m just weird to think that when monsters are chasing 
me the last thing I want to do is set up for a wide shot.

But Behind the Mask is different. It's smart and knows what its doing. And it plays with the formula, taking chances that just plain rock.

The film is really two movies in one: The first is a standard mockumentary where the majority of the film takes place. Leslie is a psycho-killer a la Michael Myers, and he’s showing a merry band of film students the finer points of preparing for a mass murder.

But every so often the film will cut away from the found footage style into a traditional slasher film, complete with spooky lighting, music, and all the slasher film ideas that Leslie clearly loves and appreciates so much.

Probably Behind the Mask’s best comparison would be the Scream series, but in many ways I prefer Leslie Vernon to Ghostface. Where Scream pokes fun at slasher films' stupid conventions, Behind the Mask embraces them, it is those same conventions that make the film work, because Leslie is able to turn them on their head and present old ideas in a new a refreshing way.

Where Scream just states the rules Leslie is able to have fun with them.

"Why don't you have a seat, Mr. Vernon.
Why don't you have a seat right over there."

But by far what makes the film work is Leslie Vernon himself. Played by Nathan Baesel, he’s a ruthless killer, but he is also the kind of guy you wouldn’t mind grabbing a beer with.

He’s an all-around fun guy, until he puts on his mask and becomes a silent predator. Through the charm and the laughs there is a definite sense of darkness about Leslie that makes him even more captivating to watch because you know sooner or later the Leslie Vernon time bomb is going to go off.

And when he does, watch out.

No, seriously. Watch out.

The film also has its share of cameos, including small roles for Robert Englund and the late Zelda Rubinstein in her final film performance.

"He's right behind me, isn't he?"

This film delivers in every way. It's almost a shame that it hasn't become a bigger hit. There are enough inside jokes to keep the horror fan in me smiling, and the film is believable enough to set it apart both as a slasher film and as a contemporary mockumentary.

By far the best moments in the film are the transitions from documentary to slasher film. It’s an idea that could have backfired, but the film is so convincing that it works. At the end of the film you realize that you would gladly have paid to watch either the slasher-film version, or the documentary.

Thankfully, in Behind the Mask, you get both.

TOMORROW: Ain't no sparkly vampires here. We're talking about the Let The Right One In American remake known as Let Me In.

Warning in advance: This is a remake. And it's WORTH watching.

Halloween Countdown Day 3: Walking Dead/Dead Set

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown? 

Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)     Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

Day 6: Let's Talk Television

As much as Halloween is about trick-or-treaters and candy, to me it has always been about movies.

I can still remember watching the final scene from Alien with my dad one Halloween night, and the peeking out from behind a blanket while the alien is stalks Dallas in the airlock. That film is still as terrifying to me now as it was when I was 9.

But there has never been, in my opinion, a great long-form horror series on television. Shows like The X-Files were good in a pinch, but I always wanted something more than that “monster of the week” format. I wanted something lasting. I wanted a show that could stand on its own against the likes of Jaws and Nightmare on Elm Street.

It took years, but finally, I can say that a show exists. Two shows, in fact, and they are both about zombies:

Let’s start with the one you’re probably most familiar with:

The Walking Dead (2010)

The solution is in the title: A brisk jog is all you need to escape from most zombie attacks.

The Plot in 140 characters: You know in 28 Days Later when that guy is like "Hey guys, I was just in a coma, how's it all go---HOLY CRAP, ZOMBIES!!" It's basically that.

The Actual Plot: The story revolves around Rick, a Kentucky sheriff who is shot and wakes up in the hospital to find that (spoilers) zombies have taken over. Rick has to find his family and a safe place to escape from the undead.

Note to self: This place? Probably not safe.

Why you should watch it: The Walking Dead premiered on Halloween 2010 to absolutely fantastic ratings. For anyone who hasn’t seen the 6-episode first season I suggest you give it a try, although I have to admit that despite my initial excitement for the series, Walking Dead's first season was (at best) a bit anti-climactic for me.

As of this writing we are only two episodes into the second season, and it is already much better.

There is a lot to like about the series. Just the fact that AMC was willing to give the film the production value needed to make the story believable is wonderful.

But aside from the "I've never seen stuff like this on TV before" factor, I don't know that The Walking Dead has done much for the genre.  Truth be told, the series' first season falls for many of the same cliches that zombie films have always fallen for, but it gets a pass for the most part because it is doing it on American television for the first time.

It also stars one of the most angular faces of all time.

My biggest problem with Walking Dead's first season, though, is its inconsistency. In a 6 episode season there's no room for filler. Every minute needs to advance the plot, and tragically half of The Walking Dead's episodes are pointless. If you do watch the first season you can pretty much skip episodes 3, 4 and the season finale. And that's a shame.

Thankfully, season two is much more promising, and so far its worst episode is better than half of the last season.

My problems with the flow of the series aside, there is no denying that the first episode "Days Gone By" might be one of the finest 90 minutes of television produced.

This scene, particularly, was enough to make this entire episode a winner for me

Episode one is exactly what the whole season should have been. There’s little dialogue, there’s little music, it’s just Rick trying to survive after waking up in the hospital. And it is a great way to start off a series.

That along with the accompanying episode 2, "Guts" would make the perfect Halloween evening. The rest of the season doesn’t hold a candle to those two episodes.

But what I really want to talk about is a show that you have probably not heard of as much. The British zombie tour de force that is...

Dead Set (2008)

The Plot in 140 characters: The undead are attacking! Good news: We've found a perfect place to hide. Bad news: It's on the set of Big Brother. And it's eviction night.

The Actual Plot: The reality television series Big Brother is all the rage in the UK, and it is during a live broadcast of the show that a bunch of angry zombies decide to get their bite on. Soon the only people left alive are the people inside the reality show, and they will have to leave the safety of the set if they want to survive the outbreak.

Why you should watch it: Dead Set isn’t a show that got much traction here in America, which is a huge shame. It was broadcast over five nights leading up to Halloween 2008 on England’s Channel 4. The show was a critical success there, winning tons of awards for  being awesome (awards it greatly deserved).

The series is as close to a perfect zombie film as I can find. Yes, the zombies in Dead Set are the fast kind, which I normally can't stand, but the show makes it work, and if there were ever a movie that were to sway me from slow zombies to fast ones, it would be this one.

Toby's reign as pudding eating champion of West Sussex lasted 
for a full fortnight before being overtaken.

What I like best about the series is how different it is. It takes chances (even in its basic premise: an entire zombie film contained within the confines of a movie studio) and pulls the rug out form under you with just how real the series feels. 

Walking Dead does a good job of making the zombies look realistic for the most part (anyone who remembers the bicycle woman from the first episode can attest to that) but that series is nothing to the gore that is Dead Set. The blood in Walking Dead is often times digitally added later (or at least it looks that way) but here it seems organic, giving the whole thing an unsettlingly realistic feel.

That true-to-life feel comes from more than the blood and gore, but also from the sets. The crew used actual Big Brother sets and actors (including host Davina McCall) to give the show the perfect sense of credibility.

You are about to be eaten by Davina live on Channel 4. Please do not swear.

Where The Walking Dead characters often go on these often bloated speeches (“I’m just a man looking for his wife and son. Anyone who gets in the way is going to lose” as Rick says in one of the first episodes) the characters here seem more plausible. Their dialogue is realistic and frankly many of the characters in Dead Set are genuinely unlikeable, even the main protagonist.

And like the best of the zombie genre, Dead Set is, at its core, a metaphor. Like Dawn of the Dead before it, the film nudges at ideas of popular culture and society without letting it get in the way of the action and the gore.

SYMBOLISM!

 That’s all there if you want it, but if you don’t there still a darn fine horror film in there.

And that’s what Dead Set is, in the end, a horror film. It’s not made to entertain, it is made to frighten, and I would be lying if I said I walked away from this one unscathed.

Dead Set’s five episodes back to back make for a nice 140 minutes of carnage, and there is not a single moment in the series feels like a cheap television program. It might well be one of the best zombie films since Dawn was released 30 years earlier.

Boyakasha.

Unfortunately, Dead Set has never been released in America, so finding it on Netflix or Blockbuster is probably out of the question, but never fear, it's easily found online (in fact, you can watch all of them by clicking on this link right here (if the link fails let me know).

TOMORROW: What do you get when you cross a solid gold slasher flick with a totally awesome documentary about a serial murderer? A little film called  Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.

Halloween Countdown Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown?

Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

 

The Mouth of Madness, is also the name of Ann Coulter's autobiography.

John Carpenter gets a lot of crap these days as a director that has passed his prime. Long gone are the days when he brought us films like Halloween and The Thing.

But recent poor choices aside, it wasn't long ago that JC was churning out solid material, and In the Mouth of Madness certainly ranks up there as one of his best films in recent decades.

The Plot in 140 characters: Sam Neil needs to hunt down a missing author. That's about it. Oh, there's also a giant tentacle-woman who chops up her husband with an ax.

And a dude who punches off his own face.

The Actual Plot: In the Mouth of Madness plays like a nightmare.  It doesn't really have a discernible plot so much as a constant foreboding that something horrible is happening. And that's a good thing.

What little plot there is seems to go as follows: Sam Neil is an insurance investigator sent to find a missing horror author whose new book is set to come out soon. The author, Sutter Cane, is extremely popular. So popular, in fact, that his books have become a religion unto themselves and the mere mention of a new novel has sent the population into a frenzy.

Neil goes off to find Cane, who is hiding out in a small New England town to finish up the book, but the town isn't on any map and the book's apocalyptic tone may be more real than Sam Neil initially believes... 

Why I love it: Back in the mid-90s, the horror film was pretty much considered dead. The once mighty slasher film had devolved into pointless sequels like Jason Goes to Hell and Leprechaun In Space. The genre was crumbling under its own weight. To survive it became self-deprecating and satirical, and horror became little more than a joke of itself.

What I'm trying to say is that horror in the 1990's was pretty much...

But there were a small band of filmmakers that were still breaking ground. People like John Carpenter and his In the Mouth of Madness.

There is nothing satirical about Madness. It's an apocalyptic ode to H.P. Lovecraft with more than a sprinkling of Stephen King. It is an intelligent and serious film about our perceptions of reality, and it is so much fun.

The film starts with a plot but like the best nightmares,  the conventional narrative soon falls away, and the film is soon replaced with primal ideas and disturbing imagery.

There is little gore in the film and little of the terms questions are ever explained, allowing us to fill in the ideas for ourselves.

What we do know is that something horrible is happening, and there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it.

Much like waking up on a Greyhound halfway to Saskatchewan.

Sam Neil spends the majority of the film trying to figure out how to get out of the nightmare, but try as he might there is no escaping from the dream until it runs its course.

The film revolves around a new novel by a great horror author (who is in no way Stephen King) named Sutter Cane, and as the film progresses I find myself wanting to read the novel that he is working on. What we see in the film is so good, and I want more.

The film plays with our ideas of reality. The characters aren't sure what is real or not, and neither do we. As the film progresses it becomes less and less clear what reality is, and how important that question is at all.

The film has pretty much everything: An ancient evil, haunted paintings, monster children, cannibals and ax-wielding literary agents.

Also, amazing wallpaper.

The plot may be sparse, but the film works without it. You find yourself sucked into the world of the dream and like any nightmare you don’t question its logic.

That’s not to say that the film is perfect. It has its flubs along the way (I like the idea of using practical effects for the monsters, but some of the execution is questionable), but in the end the ideas are good enough that it overshadows any faults the film might have.

Fun fact: Sam Neil is always the first to pass out at parties.

The film isn’t my favorite Carpenter film (The Thing and the first two Halloween films still claim the top prize) but the film tries new things and makes for an excellent Halloween night experience. 

Tomorrow: We are changing things up a little bit. We'll take a look a couple of horror TV series, the ridiculously popular The Walking Dead and its (much better) British equivalent Dead Set.

Warning in advance: These shows are so good, you'll think you died and went to zombie-heaven.

 

Halloween Countdown Day 1: My Bloody Valentine

It’s Halloween, and Geoff’s getting in the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)

This is NOT the dumb 2009 remake. We're going OG here.

All the way to the Great White North circa 1981.

Canada is a magical place: Universal health care, an ever present moose problem, Wayne Gretzky --- and now MASS MURDER!

The Plot in 140 characters: Harry hates him some Feb. 14, but the small Canadian town he lives in just won't listen. Time to turn off the Degrassi and stab some hosers.

"Take off, b'y or yer in fer a world a hurt, there, eh?"

The Actual Plot: The small mining town of Valentine Bluffs, Nova Scotia throws a big Valentine's Day Dance every year, but when two miners take off for the party several workers are killed in an accident, save one. Trapped in the mine for weeks Harry Warden murders some folk and swears if the town ever holds another V-Day dance again he'll be back.

Twenty years later, they hold another dance.

Why I love it: My Bloody Valentine is one of those movies that flew under my radar for years, but now that I've seen it I can't imagine a world without it. It's the perfect example of the of what made slasher films in the late 1970s and early 1980s so much fun, before the genre jumped the shark in more recent decades.

Back in the early '80s the slasher film reigned supreme. With the commercial success of Halloween and Friday the 13th, movie companies jumped on the bandwagon, producing imitation after imitation of crazy killers stalking sex-starved co-eds with ridiculous weapons and gimmicks.

My Bloody Valentine is certainly no exception to that trend. It went from script to screen in a blistering 6 months, and it certainly has its share of gimmicks (a crazed killer who only strikes on a holiday? Michael Myers called, he wants his concept back), but why I love My Bloody Valentine is because although it steals from films like Halloween and Friday the 13th rather liberally, it still finds a way to be all kinds of unique.

"What do you mean we're out of Moosehead?"

Valentine doesn't bother following the slasher film "rules." There is no traditional Last Girl,  virgins die just as frequently as everyone else  and the main "hero" of the film isn't really all that likable of a character (in fact, he's kind of a tool).

Plus, these aren't sexy co-eds out to bang each other at camp, these are working class blue-collars who struggle to make ends meat day in and day out. It's dangerous work and they look forward to one day a year when they can let loose and enjoy themselves. And nothing is going to stop that.

More contemporary slashers (including Friday the 13th) have made the killers into supernatural monsters, but back in the day it wasn't about that. Harry Warden isn't some supernatural predator come back from beyond the grave, he's just a man with a (pick)axe to grind.

 

In fact, when you get right down to it, My Bloody Valentine is a charming little film. Sure it's got people getting murdered and stuffed into dryers, and people getting murdered and stuffed into freezers, and people getting murdered and stuffed into old mine shafts but when you boil it down Harry Warden isn't such a bad dude. Harry may kill indiscriminately but at least he has a reason. Those miners DIED because of the Valentine's Day Dance, and all Harry wants you to do is respect them and their sacrifice.

If they decided to hold a Canada Day Dance, for example, I bet Harry would have been all for that.

Part of me also loves this movie because it's just so under appreciated. Not that it doesn't deserve the scorn it received initially, the theatrical cut of the film is as butchered as some of Harry's early victims.

The film received an "X" rating before its release because it was "too violent" and every death scene had to be re-cut to tone down the carnage.

Slasher films rely on blood and gore to survive, and the film bombed theatrically because of it. With hardly any violence, that film flows more like a silly made-for-TV version of what could have been a great Halloween-night flick.

On the other hand, you do get to see the beautiful Canadian landscapes

Thankfully the uncut version of the film was finally released a few years ago and boy is it worth it. I had originally only seen the theatrical cut and found it a bit pointless, but having recently watched the uncut version I stand corrected.

If you are going to watch one slasher movie this Halloween, make it the director's cut of My Bloody Valentine.

Mind: BLOWN.

(Geoff's note: As of this writing, My Bloody Valentine is on Netflix, but only the theatrical cut, so a trip to Best Buy might be in order to pick this one up. It's worth it. Trust me).

Also, before I forget, it has a rather touching END CREDITS song:

TOMORROW: The John Carpenter's final "Apocalypse" film, In the Mouth of Madness.

Warning in advance: This film makes absolutely no sense.

It's that time of year again!

If "by popular demand" you mean "it's Geoff blog and he said so" then YES. It's back!

 Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I love everything about it: The decorations, the costumes, the candy, but most of all my favorite part is popping some popcorn and being scared stupid watching scary movies.

This is the perfect time of year to cuddle up on the couch with someone and watch something dumb and spooky, and this week we will be talking about movies just like that.

There are a million examples of awful horror films out there, but that's not what we're here to talk about. Over the next week we will be talking about the movies that are worth watching. Some are old favorites, a few are newfound loves, and some little gems you might not have ever heard about.

 

All of the movies we will be talking about can be found through services like Netflix or Blockbuster, or easily found online so feel free to update your queues so you can enjoy these right along with me.

A new movie will be posted here every day until Halloween, so check back often!

If, however, you're an impatient jerk who doesn't want to wait around to find out which film is next, I've post the next day's film after each discussion.

If you haven’t seen any of these then get on it! They are waiting for you.

We start tomorrow! If you have a suggestion for a film I should watch let me know, and if you want to go back and look over last year's lineup, feel free to do so here.

First up: The original My Bloody Valentine.

Oh yeah, this year is gonna be fun...