Halloween Horror Watch #4

Monster House (2006) -- Gil Kenan
I saw Monster House in the theaters upon its release and I still stand by my assessment I made then: were I a child watching this movie, it would scare the crap out of me. First off, it's got a crazy old man. Second, there's a house that not only eats people, but it lures them in. Third, it goes on a rampage after the kids. And fourth, it was made with a less-creepy-than-Polar-Express-but-still-kind-of-creepy motion capture technology. But since I'm an adult, I wasn't remotely scared. In fact, the movie is quite fun even if some of the celebrity voice acting is a little glaring (I'm looking at you Jon Heder). It's no accident the kids come out best.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of this viewing (my third or fourth) is that it's my first since the show Community came out and thus my first chance to note that Dan Harmon wrote the damn thing! Crazy. I feel like there's a whole world of people out there who will discover/have discovered Monster House based on that alone.



Frankenstein (1931) -- James Whale
My theater showed a 35mm print of this over the weekend and I wasn't about to miss out. The stand-out observation of this viewing was how terrific Boris Karloff is as the Monster. Much has been made about the pathos he brings to the table, but there is a wealth of subtlety in the physical performance as well (tiny movements of the hands, posture, etc). I was blown away.

I'd also forgotten how intimate a story this telling is and how invested in the character's desires one gets. No small feat for a 70 minute monster movie. This print was edited to have a thunder crash over the line "Now I know what it feels like to be God!" which made me nervous the girl murder would be excised, too. Fortunately, I fretted for nothing. And Ollie lasted almost the entire film without making a noise. We all earned a nice glass of the Baron's mother's wine that day.



The Hole (2009) -- Joe Dante
I'd been waiting for The Hole to get a release for years. Everywhere else around the world got it before we did. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it in the theater. I would have even paid up for 3-D for Joe Dante, one of my top-5 favorite filmmakers.

The Hole plays around with one of Dante's favorite scenarios, the suburbs run amok, but lacks most of the humor of his other movies. He also shies away from referencing his influences, which takes away the Dante stamp. Only at the very end with the German Expressionistic set does it start to feel like old school Dante.

Still, The Hole is pretty creepy for a movie aimed at younger folk and it has some cool effects (I was glad to see there was minimal CG until the very end and a few 3-D gimmicks. The resolution is pretty lame, but the ride there is enjoyable. Plus, Dante stalwarts Dick Miller and Bruce Dern pop up, so it's all good. Sadly, Jerry Goldsmith (a favorite film composer of mine) is no longer with us and was unable to supply the score. It's the first Joe Dante movie without his touch since The Howling (in 1981!)



Earth vs The Flying Saucers (1956) -- Fred F. Sears
It's not a bad movie. In fact, it's perfectly fine. But I'd already seen all of the fun stuff so my memory of Earth vs The Flying Saucers is that there's a lot of talking. This is a problem with lots of science fiction (particularly from this era), but most of those movies don't have the reputation of this one (even if that reputation is mostly due to Ray Harryhausen). That said, I do enjoy that the first response the U.S. military has in the movie is to fire at the space ship without trying to learn anything. It's always best to shoot first and ask questions later. It's not like it might lead to the destruction of most of earth's major cities...



The Seventh Victim (1943) -- Mark Robson
I'll be honest with you. I was trying to sneak The Seventh Victim in while Ollie was napping (it's a scant 71 minutes), but about 3/4 of the way through, my eyes decided to fight my desire to watch the movie. On the plus side, it was like I was back in film school fighting to stay awake during movies and having my dreams take tremendous leaps from the last images my eyes and brain registered. On the down side, I can't really say much about the movie.

The Seventh Victim is a noir-ish tale about a woman trying to find her sister and a Satanic cult is involved somehow and they are trying to keep people from looking for the sister. It's good, but it doesn't feel as moody as other Val Lewton productions, like his collaborations with Jacques Tourneur. perhaps this is why my body started to drift away.