Halloween Movie Nights Part III

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It was a rainy Halloween here in Chicago so my usual program of manning the front door, blasting creepy sound effects records and watching old (mildly) kid-friendly horror movies was cut a little shorter than usual. I did manage to watch Mario Bava’s Baron Blood. Not his best work but it has its moments. If you think burnt pilgrims are scary, this is the movie for you.

I also re-watched Four Flies on Grey Velvet. This is another Argento film that gets better with every viewing (I gave it a 7 when I first saw it). The plot is full of holes and has a vital clue that relies on such phony, crap science that it’s hard to suspend disbelief at all. But this is another Argento that is filled with humor, stunning visuals and another great, experimental Morricone score. So, if I were to rank Argento films this is how I would do it:

  1. Suspiria
  2. Deep Red
  3. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
  4. Inferno
  5. Tenebre
  6. Four Flies on Grey Velvet
  7. Opera
  8. Phenomena
  9. Cat o’ Nine Tails
  10. The Stendahl Syndrome
  11. Jennifer (from Masters of Horror)

Beyond these there’s just a bunch of forgettable garbage.

Crime Wave (8/10)

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A noir crime film from 1954 that features a young Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinsky) as the heavy in a group of three escaped cons. They leap through some gaping plot holes to enlist a former inmate buddy (who just wants settle down with his wife and make good) into their plot to pull off the ultimate bank robbery. Despite the logical flaws in the story, this was quite an entertaining film with a touch of realism at times and cartoonish characterization at other moments.

The Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection by Yma Sumac - CD (9/10)

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Yma Sumac had a voice that supposedly spanned five octaves. That alone would make for an interesting recording artist, but here we get her soaring voice backed with exotic space-age bachelor pad arrangements. It’s a great disc to play while enjoying cocktails on a lazy tropical evening.

Halloween Movie Nights Part II

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I managed to watch a couple more Halloween themed films this weekend. This included another Fulci film,  A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, whichI rank as his best along side The Beyond. Unlike most of his other work, this one is tightly plotted and suspenseful. It features a bunch of deranged hippies, surreal dream sequences, a fantastic Morricone score and a compelling performance by David Horowitz of TV’s Fight Back:

I got the entire family to watch the “Drop of Water” segment from Black Sabbath. This is Mario Bava at his best with loads of colored lights, sets that look like renaissance paintings and a super creepy corpse. I like the rest of the film too, but the slow pacing probably wouldn’t have kept the attention of the crowd that evening.

Darksiders II on PC (8/10)

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The first Darksiders was a blatant rip-off of (some might say “homage to”) the The Legend of Zelda. While it maintains much of that formula, the sequel feels a little more like its own thing. There’s more of an emphasis on acrobatic platforming complete with pillar jumping, vaults, wall-running and… er… okay it’s a rip-off of Prince of Persia this time, but who cares, it’s a formula that works!

The game keeps pushing you along from one puzzle room to the next and along the way you earn more and more advanced tools for passing obstacles. There’s still the pop gun, portal gun and hookshot thingy, but now you can also split into two characters, control ghosts and do a little time travelling. These new skills make for a couple really brain-twisting puzzles near the end of the game.

There is still quite a bit of hacking and slashing between the brainy stuff. A few of the battles are fun, but, for the most part combat is repetitive and uninteresting and can be reduced to spastic button mashing. The first game was a tad more sophisticated in its fighting controls.

As for the story, it just as convoluted and unintelligible as the it was in Darksiders. There’s a bit less of the bible fan-fiction feeling here, but still, I never really gave a crap about anything that was going on. The dialogue sounds like it was taken word-for-word out of the Lord of the Rings screenplay. Just replace “Mordor” with “The Corruption.”

Halloween Movie Nights

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Each year around this time I always tell myself that I am going to watch a different horror movie every night in the lead-up to Halloween. I never seem to get around to it and end up cramming two or three films in at the last minute—usually Halloween evening while the rest of the family is out trick or treating. Well, this year I have managed to be a little more on top of things. Especially now since we have a DVD-ready laptop positioned in front of my treadmill. There’s nothing like a bit of Fulci close-up gore to motivate the fat burning.

Speaking of which, this evening I completed Zombi 2 which I gave a rather terse review some time ago. I forgot just how creepy the zombies are in that film. It’s very bleak and dread-filled and has some really gross and disturbing effects. Modern zombie films (even The Walking Dead) don’t seem to understand that it’s this sense of supernatural dread and hopelessness that makes the zombie apocalypse so frightening. Sure there is also a ton of cheese (um, shark vs. zombie) but this is still one of the best films in this overcrowded genre.

I also watched The Bird with the Crystal Plumage again. This is more a thriller than a horror film and it’s one of Dario Argento’s best. Stunning visuals, lots of tension and, at times, a genuine sense of humor that disappeared from Argento’s later films. Oh, and it has one of Ennio Morricone’s best scores.

Copper Blue by Sugar - CD (8/10)

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I’ve never really liked most of Bob Mould’s solo efforts (and later-era Hüsker Dü for that matter). I thought Black Sheets of Rain was utter crap and had no intention of ever buying another Mould record but then Copper Blue came along and and he redeemed himself. The songs (at least the first two-thirds of them) are energetic and filled with hooks. As an added bonus, the drums don’t sound like they were recorded in a drain pipe. 

Astral Astronauts by Spoozys - CD (9/10)

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Spoozys were one of the half dozen or so Japanese bands I saw perform at Japan Nite 2001. Spoozy were my favorite act the evening, followed by The Polysics and then maybe Lolita 18. Spoozys sound a lot like a halfway point between Man or Astroman? and The Polysics. New wave surfy guitar, mixed with synthesizers and looped drums. Oh, and spacesuits.