Category Archives: horror films

Movie classic: ‘Shaun of the Dead’

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shaun-of-the-dead

Did anyone anticipate just how damn good “Shaun of the Dead” was going to be?

When the 2004 British comic-thriller, about a couple of goofy guys stumbling their way through life and, suddenly, the zombie apocalypse, debuted, I don’t think many of us appreciated how much comedic gold was to be mined from the end of the world.

Director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – two under-achieving blokes who only very gradually realize the population around them is turning into flesh-eating zombies – turned the zombie story on end.

There’s plenty of creep factor, as zombies zero in on victims, and there’s some derring-do. But what made “Shaun of the Dead” so great was its humor, as Pegg and Frost sort through vinyl records to see which are suitable to toss at zombies or plot out schemes to save Shaun’s mum and girlfriend.

Random observations:

I love that Martin Freeman has a cameo in the movie. And I love that the actor, better known now as “The Hobbit” and John Watson from “Sherlock,” is featured in Wright’s upcoming apocalyptic picture “The World’s End.”

shaun-of-the-dead scene

I love that there’s a mirror-image group as counterpart to that led by Pegg. There’s an amusing scene when Pegg’s group encounters the other and nobody really seems to notice that they’re like an alternate universe version of our heroes.

“We’re coming to get you, Barbara!” Frost shouts into the phone to Pegg’s mum. It’s a play on “They’re coming to get you, Barbara,” From George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” of course.

Has there been a better ending to a zombie apocalypse movie? Plainly, no.

It’s the end of the world and we feel fine

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The-Worlds-End

No, this isn’t another of those Mayan calendar stories a few weeks late. It’s a quick look at the trend in end of the world movies and TV.

For most of the pop culture world, “The Walking Dead” kicked off the end of the world, zombie style. The AMC series returns for the second half of its so-far gripping third season on Feb. 10.

I’m feeling pretty confident that the show will give us eight more good episodes documenting the most detailed zombie apocalypse so far.

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I’m more uneasy about “World War Z,” the big-screen version of Max Brooks’ excellent episodic novel. The Brad Pitt-starring movie, due out June 21, seems to bear little resemblance to the book based only on what we’ve seen from the teaser trailer. There’s no character in the book comparable to Pitt’s government zombie apocalypse expert. The book makes readers tough out the end of the world and beyond.

“Warm Bodies” is yet another take on the zombie story with a zombie – I guess we could consider him the spiritual descendant of “Bud” the trained zombie from “Day of the Dead” – who, post apocalypse, is so enamored of a living girl that he begins to revert to human.

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I’m kind of amused but skeptical about “This is The End,” the end-of-the-world comedy featuring Seth Rogen, Danny McBride and a host of young comedic actors, most of them apparently playing themselves. Judging by the trailer, this looks to be a blue end of the world.

I’m enthusiastically looking forward to Edgar Wright’s “The World’s End,” Wright’s take on an epic pub crawl featuring his regulars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Martin Freeman. I don’t know another single thing about the movie but I want to see it now.

Classic horror movie: ‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes’

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dr. phibes w mask

The 1960s saw Vincent Price, who had appeared in films at the tail end of the 1930s and onward, experience the beginnings of a second life at the movies. He had made the popular 3-D movie “House of Wax” in 1953, but it was still a few years before he delivered back-to-back-to-back horror hits: “The Fly” in 1958. “House on Haunted Hill” in 1959 and more. Not to mention – although I will – a series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations for American International Pictures in the 1960s.

So by the time “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” was released in 1971. Price was something of a horror institution. Like Boris Karloff before him, he had transcended the role of horror movie actor and become a personality.

So the Phibes movie, and its sequel, “Dr. Phibes Rises Again” – with their revenge-driven plots, gory killings and campy trappings – might have seemed a little out there, but Price could be counted on by American International Pictures to deliver an audience of horror fans.

Keep in mind, the Phibes movies came out at the tail end of a particular era in horror films. Within just a half-dozen years, John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and its many imitators changed horror movies forever. (I’m deliberately overlooking “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 1974 because the effectiveness of the film was considered a fluke, a very nearly dirty pleasure, like the porn films that flirted with social acceptance at the same time.)

The first Phibes movie acquainted us with the character Price would immortalize: He played Anton Phibes, a physician who was apparently burned to death in a car accident as he rushed to the side of his wife in emergency surgery.

dr. phibes unmasked

Phibes survived, but was horribly disfigured. His wife did not survive her surgery. Now, years later, in 1925, Phibes and an always-silent assistant, Vulnavia (Virginia North), murder, one by one, the surgical team who Phibes believed botched his wife’s operation. Phibes’ revenge comes in the form of Biblical plagues: One doctor is stung to death by bees, while a nurse is eaten by locusts, for example.

As one of the doctors, played by Joseph Cotton, and Scotland Yard inspectors try to track him down, Phibes enacts his revenge and camps it up with Vulnavia and a clockwork orchestra even as his wife (a beautiful corpse played by cult movie actress Caroline Munro) awaits one final voyage with her beloved husband.

As oddball as “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” is, there’s a classic and classy feel to the movie because the murders are accomplished through such elaborate and arcane means. Within a few years, Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees and a host of other killers would chop and impale their victims and it all became so very ho-hum.

You might roll your eyes or even shake your head when Phibes enacts Biblical revenge on someone. But you won’t think, “Well, I’ve seen that before.”

Classic horror movies: ‘Chamber of Horrors’

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I first became acquainted with “Chamber of Horrors” sometime in the 1970s when it aired on TV. Which was ironic since the movie was made for TV in 1966 – it was even a pilot for a series, as the final “what adventure will we get into next time” scenes makes obvious – but was considered too gruesome for broadcast.

So “Chamber of Horrors” was released to theaters and with that release came the opportunity for a great gimmick.

Cesare Danova and Wilfred Hyde-White are the owners of a wax museum in Baltimore in the late 1800s. They are also amateur detectives, investigating killers who might be good displays for their gruesome House of Wax.

The run across a serial killer, Jason Cravatte (Patrick O’Neal, suave in a cast of suave actors), who would make a likely addition to their chamber of horrors.

If he doesn’t kill them first.

Cravatte is a fun Big Bad because of his gimmick. He’s missing a hand, so – like the villain from “Enter the Dragon,” only years before – he replaces the missing appendage with various murderous sharp objects.

To flesh – no pun intended – out the running time of the movie for theatrical release and amp up the gimmickry, the producers inserted the “Fear Flasher” and “Horror Horn,” visual and audio clues to tell audience members when they should close their eyes or turn away.

When Cravatte was about to chop off a body part, the screen would flash red and ungodly noises would begin blasting at the audience.

If we didn’t understand, narrator Wiliam Conrad explained things to us:

“Ladies and Gentlemen … The motion picture you are about to see contains scenes so terrifying, the public must be given grave warning. Therefore the management has instituted visual and audible warnings at the beginning of each of the FOUR SUPREME FRIGHT POINTS … the HORROR HORN and the FEAR FLASHER. The Fear Flasher is the visual warning. The Horror Horn is the audible warning. Turn away when you see the Fear Flasher. Close your eyes when you hear the Horror Horn.”

Of course, if you dared continue watching, you didn’t really see any gore. Not like the decapitations and amputations on your average episode of “The Walking Dead” today.

But it was a great gimmick.

Personally, I wish “Chamber of Horrors” had led to a TV series. It would have preceded “The Night Stalker” as an episodic horror series by several years and would have been a favorite of all us bloodthirsty movie and TV geeks from back in the day.

The Essential Geek Library: ‘A Pictorial History of Horror Movies’

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As a young science fiction and horror movie fan, I watched every movie I could see, a challenge sometimes in those pre-home video days. So I spent endless hours checking out books about the genre. I’m noting a few of them here in this recurring space.

If Famous Monsters of Filmland was my favorite magazine, Denis Gifford’s “A Pictorial History of Horror Movies” was my standard reference, my bible.

Gifford’s book, published in 1973, was a scholarly but loving look at several decades of horror movies.

Gifford, a British writer of comic books and books about pop culture, apparently amassed what was considered one of the biggest collections of British comic books in existence.

But it’s his love for and knowledge of horror movies that endears him to me.

His book truly lived up to its name. “Pictorial History” is loaded with vintage photos from horror films from the 1920s to the 1970s. Even before I saw some movies, Gifford’s look at them gave me a good visual frame of reference. Some movies, like the silent version of “Frankenstein,” are completely represented in my mind by the pictures included in Gifford’s book.

As a young man who loved to draw, I would study those stills and try my hand at reproducing them with pencil and paper.

And Gifford’s book didn’t discriminate. He included movies from the Universal classics to low-budget movies made here and abroad.

Gifford passed in 2000. I’m hoping he knows what a milestone he left for all of us fans. I’m guessing he knew.

As a side note, by the way, the hardcover cost only a few dollars in 1973. In doing research for this, I found it for sale online as high as $199. I showed that to my son, who said, “You should sell it!” Never.

‘World War Z’ trailer: Not the story I know

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I’m on the record with my concern about the big-screen movie version of Max Brooks’ “World War Z,” one of my favorite end-of-the-world novels of recent years.

So seing the trailer for the movie starring Brad Pitt, which opens next summer, filled me with even more dread.

The trailer, with Pitt as some sort of … zombie expert? … with his family in New York when the zombie apocalypse begins plays more like the flashback scenes in Will Smith’s “I Am Legend” than anything in Brooks’ ingenious novel, which tells, in episodic scenes that rarely return to the same characters twice, the tale of the fall and rise of civilization.

I’m not sure I can bring myself to see this.

Lots at stake: Google’s ‘Dracula’ doodle

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You don’t need me to tell you that Google comes up with some pretty fun and cool doodles.

Today’s doodle, marking the 165th birthday of “Dracula” creator Bram Stoker, is one of those.

And it’s inspired me to quickly try to re-read one of my favorite books.

Stoker’s “Dracula,” published in 1897, not only inspired a century (and counting) of adaptations, sequels, imitators and knock-offs, but sparked as many lurid daydreams and sweaty nightmares as any story ever.

I’ve got a nice stack of books on my night table right now. But the doodle reminded me of how much I loved Stoker’s book, how action-filled and suspenseful it is.

At least it’s that way in my memory from having read it last a few years ago.

So I’ll be dipping back into the book sooner rather than later and hoping to find the same gripping story I remember. I’ll share those thoughts with you when I do.

 

‘Evil Dead’ remake: Trailer is released

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Yeeesh.

Yes, Sam Raimi’s horror classic “The Evil Dead” is getting remade. Raimi, who more recently graduated to the likes of the (also recently rebooted) “Spider-Man” movies, is producing the remake, which comes out in April 2013.

Some observations on the “red band” – or age restricted – trailer:

Yes, yes, we all know that the original “Evil Dead” preceded “Cabin in the Woods” by about three decades. But I can’t get over how much this trailer reminds me of the horror movie set-up – certainly not the behind-the-scenes story – of “Cabin.”

First … there’s a cabin in the woods. Yes, I know. Right out of the original “Evil Dead.”

But there’s the whole “Don’t go into the basement” and “Don’t touch anything from the basement” deal. Again, I know what was below the trap door was part of the original movie. But still. It just conjures up memories. Just saying’.

Not surprisingly, this is one gory movie. Any movie that features a tongue-splitting is gory.

iPhoneography: Cool Halloween stuff

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Has it been a year already? Can it possibly be the weeks leading up to our favorite geeky and spooky holiday?

It’s twue, it’s twue. It’s not all that long now until Halloween.

And that means it’s time for our first 2012 installment of iPhone photos of freaky Halloween stuff.

If you remember from last year, I snap iPhone pics of fun, cool and unappetizing Halloween costumes, masks and decor. Considering that I saw my first Halloween stuff in the stores in July this year, I think I’ve demonstrated remarkable restraint in waiting until September.

Anyway, here goes:

Let’s start with the Zombie Baby pictured above. Remember Zombie Babies? I saw them for the first time last year and was immediately taken (and taken aback) with how twisted they were. Really. A co-worker put one in another co-workers chair last year. This year I’m waiting to see if anyone is brave enough to surprise a new parent with a Zombie Baby (like Freaky Frankie here; yes they all have names) in a playpen. They make quite a strong visual impression.

Ah, the classics. You can’t go wrong with a Michael Myers motif, copying the killer from John Carpenter’s classic “Halloween.” The original was apparently a modified William Shatner mask.

And speaking of classics: This officially sanctioned by Universal Studies mask of the classic Frankenstein monster is beautiful. This photo doesn’t do justice to how detailed it is.

Another classic, more recent: Pinhead from the “Hellraiser” movies. The pins are rubbery, of course. No need to worry about what damage you’ll do to the couch when you fall asleep, still wearing it, after the party.

And classics, part three: For decades, Don Post masks have been Halloween standards. Tor Johnson, anyone? (Remind me to do a special Don Post … er, post … in the coming weeks.) This one – Old Lady with Scarf – isn’t top-of-the line Don Post, but it’s nice to see the brand in Halloween stores.

How about a black rubber fetish mask? (The zipper doesn’t work; sorry.) How about standing in a dark room, after everyone else has gone home, wearing a black rubber fetish mask? How about someone calling 911 for me?

If you’re interested in something a little more light-hearted, you could do the time warp clear back to the 1970s with these sideburns …

Or this tambourine. Be cool, man. Some of us were alive during the ’70s.

If you prefer something of a more recent vintage. I imagine Eminem fully sanctioned and licensed this “White Rapper” mask.

As I’m sure that Tupac’s estate approved this “Thug Life” mask.

Getting away from masks for a moment: This scary clown piece would be perfect to hang in the aforementioned dark room. Now with extra creepy!

Last but not least for this time around: Pizza face for your coffee table.

More next time.

‘Walking Dead’ season 3 poster arrives

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It’s not like we were looking forward to the Oct. 14 return of “The Walking Dead” or anything.

Oh, who are we kidding? Of course we’re looking forward to the third season of the AMC show, to see what happens when the survivors of the zombie apocalypse venture into the prison and the town of Woodbury.

And bonus: Merle!

AMC has released the poster for the new season and it features Rick atop a toppled bus in the prison yard.

“Fight the Dead. Fear the Living” is a good slogan. Of course, there are echoes there of George Romero’s classic 1978 “Dawn of the Dead,” where bikers and human frailty posed more of a threat than zombies.

Anyway. Oct. 14. Be there or be zombie chow.