Once upon a time, Hollywood was actually able to make good movies out of Stephen King novels, and The Shining is one of the best. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring an at-his-peak Jack Nicholson, The Shining scared me like few movies ever have.
I was 10 when this movie came out in 1980, and seeing it at that age on the big screen branded the most shocking scenes into my brain good and deep. But watching it again and again over the years with the benefit of more maturity — and less crying — has let me appreciate some of the “quieter” but no less powerful pieces in The Shining. One of my favorites is just a conversation between Nicholson’s Jack Torrance and the ghost of Delbert Grady, but it’s a scene that is chilling in its restraint and menace.
The same year The Shining came out another, much different movie called Friday the 13th was released. Unsuspecting audiences were introduced to Jason Voorhees and a girl named Annie, who would be one of the first of many, launching a horror icon and an apparently equally undying movie franchise.
And just a quick note: Is it just me, or is there something weirdly satisfying about the idea of Jason driving a Jeep?
You might have noticed that thanks to technical difficulties over here at GCP-HQ, the last couple of days have been sadly bereft of Halloween clips. That’s right, I said “bereft.”
Normally I would bundle all the clips that were supposed to run into one post, but including today’s that would be six all together and that seems kind of ridiculous. Instead I’ll just point you in the direction of some great, classic horror movies, including; Fright Night, An American Werewolf in London, Poltergeist and The Fly.
As for today’s entries, I thought I’d share something a little less well-known. First up — Black Christmas, 1974 slasher movie about the terror of the holiday season and the danger of having a second phone line. Also, Margot Kidder and a unicorn. Doesn’t that sound nice?
Next, another favorite of Sandy’s and something I’ll have to track down because it just looks nuts. Death Ship is a 1980 film starring George Kennedy, Richard Crenna and a freighter haunted by undead Nazis and the ghosts of their tortured victims, Which would be bad enough without Kennedy getting possessed at some point and somehow still-rotting bodies showing up at every turn.
Decades ago, Linda Blair starred in a landmark film that would reset the bar for horror movies, a film that resonated with audiences and showcased the young actor’s well of talent.
That’s right — I’m talking about 1981’s Hell Night.
Speaking of things coming up from deep, dark wells, let’s talk about The Ring. I know some people will want to start with, “Oh, but Ringu is so much better, especially in the original Japanese and blah blah blah,” and y’know, I agree — originals are almost always better and I like to watch foreign movies in the native language, too.
But I liked The Ring — it was creepy and atmospheric, and I actually cared about what happened to the characters. And while this movie launched a thousand copycat ships with pale, dark-haired demons moving in quick-cut edits, this quiet scene was one that really weirded me out.
The big day is only a little more than a week away and I’ve still got a chunky list of movies that I just can’t bear to abandon. They’re like my babies! So to get these cinematic hellspawn into good homes, we’ll be doubling up on the clips from here on out.
First up, a true classic. I never, never get tired of Night of the Living Dead, a film that invented not just a genre, but an entire modern mythology. Here are some quick observations:
• Oh man, do I hate this bald guy. I can’t think of more fitting end for this prick and I’m glad he gets it. MAN, do I hate this guy!
• On the other hand, Ben (played by Duane Jones) doesn’t get nearly the credit he should for being the first zombie-killin’ bad-ass.
• This is definitely the first (and maybe the only?) instance I can think of where you see a zombie using a tool. I’m kind of glad it didn’t become a regular aspect of zombie-hood, but I think it’s interesting anyway.
We’ve already seen one TV commercial on the air right now that’s just … creepy. And it’s not even Halloween-themed! But there is another commercial floating around that’s specifically for the Halloween season, and I actually get a kick out of it.
The commercial for Snickers reappeared this year after debuting in 2010, and it’s easy to see why. Set in a shadowy, seemingly empty grocery store, poor Mrs. Jensen is just trying to get some shopping done when she’s suddenly face-to-belly with a towering, old-lady-masked — person? — sweeping candy bars into her cart.
Is it the slightly sinister setting that’s so weird? The sing-songy voice coming from the disturbingly flexing mask? Or is it the ickily familiar way the Old Lady strokes Mrs. Jensen’s face?
Jon is one of those guys who is a true aficionado of cheese. Not the kind you would eat, but the kind you would consume through your cassette deck or VCR. If it could be considered obscure or underground, or at least the sort of thing most sane people would recoil from out of fear and confusion, Jon had a line on it. It was pretty amazing considering this was still in the early days of the Internet; he did most of his hunting and gathering through the mail, discovering and ordering his oddities by following photocopied “catalogs” like faded parchment maps.
Best of all, he brought his friends along.
At the time we were all working together at the same newspaper, slogging (and then racing) through our 3-to-midnight shift on the copy desk. Once we actually left the building about an hour later, we’d often stop at some fast food place that was still open, head to Jon’s, and watch whatever bootlegged piece of culture-trash he’d managed to have shipped across state lines.
Basket Case. Meet the Feebles. Winnie the Pooh cartoons set to the Apocalypse Now soundtrack. I saw all of these for the first time at Jon’s apartment, full of Taco Cabana nachos and surrounded by friends (though the nachos might take care of that last part). I have fond memories of those times and of those movies, including this one — 1992’s Dead Alive (originally released as Braindead), a Peter Jackson splatstick film considered by most to be one of the goriest movies ever. Consider yourself warned.
As a kid growing up, the Catholic Church was a constant presence in my life. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was super-religious, but there was a Bible in the house and I went to church most Sundays with my family. I wasn’t even Catholic myself — but Grandma and Grandpa were, and that made me a de facto Catholic.
All of which means I had a healthy fear of the Devil. And lucky me, that dude was all over the movies in the 70s, scaring the hell out of me and teaching me to whip out the Sign of the Cross like holy lightning. Between The Exorcist (we’ll get to that one later) and 1976’s The Omen I spent a good part of my childhood absolutely positive that Satan had it in for me personally, and was either going to possess me someday or at the very least challenge me to a fiddle contest. Either way, I knew I’d be screwed.
It’s been years since I’ve been to church and I learned the trombone instead of the violin (so I’m really screwed). Luckily, though, I learned to love the devils I feared and now I try to watch The Omen at least once a year. What can I say? I’m a better movie fan than church-goer.
The Omen, of course, is the story of Damien, a cherubic little boy who also happens to be the Antichrist. This is a surprise to his parents Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, who are even more rattled by all the death and medieval chanting that seems to go on whenever their son is around. Meanwhile, Satanists are trying to protect Damien on the sly when they’re not throwing themselves out windows for him, and the good guys … well, the good guys have kind of a rough time.
Oh, OK — as a special bonus here’s The Omen‘s most famous scene, too. Let’s just say a certain someone made me do it.
Between the bloody delivery room scene, the “something chewed through the umbilical cord” thing and the bizarre, animal-like crying of Junior, It’s Alive traumatized me in a lasting way. And since my mom is an OB-GYN nurse, at the time it meant it wasn’t unusual for me to be hanging around doctor’s offices and hospital labor wards surrounded by pregnant women.
Which only emphasized an important lesson: If you hear the pitter-patter of little feet … run.
