Monday 17 October 2011

The Horror...part 4: The Creeping Flesh


Chaos Reigns.



The Haunting (1963)

The Grandaddy of Horror.
This film is more Tense and Packed full of shocks than any horror made today.
To follow this dark malignant evil film Robert Wise made The Sound Of Music!
Wise can do more with a Camera zoom and and sound effect than a director with a bag full of CGI tricks.This film looks and sounds like no other.
The influence from this film runs very wide.
Its usually along with the next film one of the first horrors that children get to see.
This doesn't make sense to me as this film relies on your imagination so it was a bit much for a young mind.
Such a classic. Martin Scorsese has said this is his favorite horror film.
Julie Harris is superb also.
Do not even consider the remake.





Poltergeist (1982)

A fun child friendly roller coaster horror that scared me so much when I was a kid.
Was it directed by Tobe Hooper or did Speilberg take over?
It certainly has elements of both directors but feels to me that its more Hooper imitating Speilbergs style.
Many great scenes in this horror, the man eating the chicken with maggots on it then ripping his face off, The killer tree, the killer Clown (the star of everybody's irrational fear of clowns?), the decomposed bodies popping up through the ground.
A really smart Script and plot about 8os American dreams ruined by an Indian burial ground.
I love how the film moves for curious fun to absolute terror.
One of my all time favorite trailers also.







The Descent (2005)

Great fresh (well 70s fresh) British Horror from Neil Marshal.
Pot holing would be my idea of hell anyway and this film really squeezes you into those tight spaces.
Great subtle creatures, Marshal had his monsters on set most of the time never telling his cast they just blended in with the scenery.
Violent, shocking, relentless and very bleak.
Marshal has potential to be the British Carpenter, if only he didn't want to be him so much.
Didn't need a sequel.



Night Of The Demon (1957)

Many great M.R James adaptations around particularly in TV such as Whistle And I'll Come To You.
The great Jacques Tornneur directs this superior Supernatural horror. And I think this one really is British! He never intended to show the Demon just suggest its presence but I'm glad he was persuaded as its one of the most memorable movie monsters the way it appears is very creepy. Niall MacGinnis plays a different side of evil as the leader of the Satanic cult which is very playful and light.




Antichrist (2009)

The most recent on my list and one of the most disturbing.
Nature is Satans church and Chaos Reigns.
Lars Von Trier feels he unsuccessfully tried to make a horror film but I disagree.
Its horror on another level, intelligent and perplexing.
It looks phenomenal and Lars utalises his super slo-mo to maximum effect.
I can barley watch some of the gore, its just too much.
I don't think this is Von Triers greatest horror though,that would be Kingdom.
Also Antichrist could have benefited from some Udo Kier action! But Willam Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg give two very intense performances which take us right back to Possession.
Shocking, hypnotic and beautiful.
I really wish I had bought an Antichrist T-Shirt from the Zentropa website.

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