#countdown to halloween

Countdown to Halloween~ 17 days.

Artist: @shecanliftahorse on IG

countdown to halloween! ~ 30 days.

Artist: Jeremiah Morelli 

Countdown, Days 22 & 23: Early 1980s Body Horror

There’s just something about early (and even mid-) 1980s body horror that I love. I haven’t put my finger yet on what it is about these films and their aesthetic, but I’ll figure it out at some point. Here are two of my favorites. Dart Player: Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Chess Player: Beware the moon, lads. An American Werewolf in London (1981, dir. John Landis) is a fascinating…

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Ah, fear of the female body and female sexuality…

He’s gonna laugh at you. They’re all gonna laugh at you!

Carrie (1976, dir. Brian de Palma) is a classic of menstrual horror. That opening shower scene, that horrific mother. Carrie herself is an interesting figure of resistance to that, but she’s obviously also kind of monstrous, reflecting so many of our conflicted cultural ideas about young women and female fertility.

Ginger Snaps (2000, dir. John Fawcett) takes up similar concerns but provides much more agency to the young women involved and, significantly, does not completely isolate the young woman whose body is changing so thoroughly.

I get this ache… And I, I thought it was for sex, but it’s to tear everything to fucking pieces.

Puberty + sex + violence + werewolves = Ginger Snaps. It’s kind of amazing.

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)
12. The Wicker Man, dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
13. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dir. Tobe Hooper (1974)
14. Cabin in the Woods, dir. Drew Goddard (2012)
15. Suspiria, dir. Dario Argento (1977)
16. The Witch, dir. Robert Eggers (2015)
17. Rosemary’s Baby, dir. Roman Polanski (1968)
18. The Babadook, dir. Jennifer Kent (2014)
19. It Follows, dir. David Robert Mitchell

Countdown, Day 19: It Follows

It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you. It Follows (2014, dir. David Robert Mitchell) is one of the best horror movies of the last few years. It’s stylish and scary and revises the Final Girl horror trope in interesting ways. As in many of my favorites, its score is particularly effective, too. There’s one sequence in the…

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The Babadook (2014, dir. Jennifer Kent) scared and upset me so badly on first watching that I had to pause it. As with Rosemary’s Baby, though, the thing that was most frightening wasn’t the supernatural but the familial. Watching Amelia, the mother, lose control with her son was terrifying. I could imagine being him and being terrified of a parental figure, someone who is bigger and more powerful than you and who is supposed to love you and protect you. I also worried, though, about becoming that mother figure. I wasn’t pregnant yet, but I was thinking about it. What if I lost it like that? The Babadook himself as well as the book and rhyme and visuals associated with him are very effective, but they’ve got nothing on the threat of maternal violence.

This is also a really great movie for its design. The Babadook himself has a very cool design, and the book about him is neat – in a creepy way. It has a physicality that props in films don’t always have. It seems like it could reach out and enter the real world. In addition, the overall light and color scheme for the film works effectively to create the sense of depression that follows naturally from the loss of a loved one and visually connects nicely with the images associated with the Babadook. Both are dark but also kind of grimy.

You can’t get rid of the Babadook.

I also wanted to note that this is one of only two films on my countdown directed by a woman. There are quite a few that focus on female characters or experiences or that feature strong performances by women, but there are so few women horror directors. I hope that the work done recently by Jennifer Kent here (as well as a handful of others) will open the door for more horror directed and created by women.

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)
12. The Wicker Man, dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
13. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dir. Tobe Hooper (1974)
14. Cabin in the Woods, dir. Drew Goddard (2012)
15. Suspiria, dir. Dario Argento (1977)
16. The Witch, dir. Robert Eggers (2015)
17. Rosemary’s Baby, dir. Roman Polanski (1968)

Countdown, Day 17: Rosemary’s Baby

Witches… All of them witches! I am following Suspiria and The Witch with yet another witch movie: Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski). Despite my reservations about Roman Polanski as a person, this is such a great film. I particularly love Mia Farrow as Rosemary. Her descent into paranoia and then her resistance to what’s being done to her are powerfully performed. Although I opened by…

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The next two entries, to kick off a week focusing on women in horror, pairs two movies about witches: Suspiria (1977, dir. Dario Argento) and The Witch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers), which I have previously written about at greater length than I do here.

Suspiria might be one of the most beautiful, stylized horror films I’ve ever seen. It’s worth watching for Argento’s play with light and color and design, if nothing else.

Bad luck isn’t brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds.

The Witch is visually stunning, too, but less beautiful in its style than Suspiria. It is rather more bleak than beautiful. Dark and gray, with the forest looming over the tiny human settlement, it’s easy to imagine yourself in such an isolated situation, and this imaginative connection makes it a bit easier to understand why the characters behave as they do. The score is especially worth noting, too. Stark (like the visuals) and sometimes difficult to listen to, it presents a sustained anxiety throughout the film.

The best part of the film, however, has to be Black Phillip:

Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)
12. The Wicker Man, dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
13. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dir. Tobe Hooper (1974)
14. Cabin in the Woods, dir. Drew Goddard (2012)

Friday the 13th (1980, dir. Sean S. Cunningham) would be the natural choice for Friday the 13th, but I don’t actually much like Friday the 13th. Instead, I’ve turned to other slasher films for this pairing: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, dir. Tobe Hooper), a classic, alongside Cabin in the Woods (2012, dir. Drew Goddard), a sort of meta-slasher.

I seriously considered Scream(1996, dir. Wes Craven) for this weekend, because it’s also a pretty great meta-slasher and because it was kind of a big deal for me and my friends in 1996 when it was released. I think it’s ultimately outranked by these two, though.

I just can’t take no pleasure in killing. There’s just some things you gotta do. Don’t mean you have to like it.

I actually only watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time a couple of years ago. I read about it a lot and knew it was important, but I was scared of it. I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it. Happily, as it turns out, I could handle it. It, like many other 1970s films on my list, is a favorite because of its combination of violence, philosophy, tension, and boredom.

On the other hand, I saw Cabin in the Woods in the theater not long after its release. I didn’t know much about it going in, so it was a nice surprise seeing how things developed. In fact, this film got me into horror as an adult. I had been watching bad Syfy and Asylum movies with my friend Rachel, but this may have been one of the first actually good horror movies I’d seen in a while. It has moments that work so well as simple, straightforward horror, but it’s also such clever commentary on the genre, really, a love letter to the genre.

Marty:[incredulous] Giant evil gods.
Dana: I wish I could’ve seen them.
Marty: I know. That would have been a fun weekend.

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)
12. The Wicker Man, dir. Robin Hardy (1973)

I’ve seen both the 1973 Wicker Man (dir. Robin Hardy) and the 2006 remake (dir. Neil LaBute and starring Nicolas Cage). Here I am concerned with the 1973 Wicker Man, not the remake. The remake is … interesting. But also boring somehow. The 1973 film is, on the other hand, amazing.

The way it pits paganism and Christianity, rural and urban, old and new, etc., against each other is fascinating. The imagery of the Wicker Man of the title is striking. And Christopher Lee (Lord Summerisle) is always worth watching.

Lord Summerisle: I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)

Countdown, Day 11: Creep

Creep (2014, dir. Patrick Brice) is an interesting one. I wasn’t sure I liked it at first while I was watching it, but it grew on me, largely due to Mark Duplass, who I generally really like. By the end, I was very much into it, and this movie has stuck with me. I don’t know how to say much more without giving away a lot, but I suspect this one is less well-known than most of the others on my…

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Countdown, Day 10: Candyman

Come with me and be immortal. There’s not a lot of 1990s horror on my list of favorites, but Candyman (1992, dir. Bernard Rose) just has to be included. Its commentary on urban legends and myth-creation, race, urban segregation, and the way the past follows and shapes the present are all thought-provoking and meaningful, especially for its historical moment – immediately after Rodney King and the…

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Countdown, Days 8 & 9: Jaws and Teeth

This pairing is organized not by director or even by subgenre but by teeth. I’ll be honest, it amuses me greatly to be able to put Jaws (1975, dir. Steven Spielberg) next to Teeth (2007, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein). One is the quintessential shark attack movie; the other is a movie about vagina dentata. I love them both. The poster alone is a striking reminder of the iconic nature of Jaws.…

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For my second set of paired days, who better than Alfred Hitchcock? So here are 6 and 7 on my list: Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).

How can you not love Psycho? Even knowing what’s coming at every step of the way, it is a masterpiece of suspense and style. The use of taxidermy to set a mood, Bernard Herrmann’s score, the shower scene, and – of course! – creepy, creepy Anthony Perkins. This final scene never fails to give me chills.

We all go a little mad sometimes. 

The Birds is a horror film of a different stripe. Where Psycho is narrowly focused, internally oriented, The Birds travels and wanders a bit more, brings in more color and range, and turns the focus outward – to the natural world. This is an early film in one of my favorite subgenres: creature features, or natural horror. What causes the birds to attack? We get no explanation (psychological, ornithological, or otherwise) from the film, the way we do in Psycho. We never really know. That’s part of the fear.

I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn’t stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)

Countdown, Day 5: Hellraiser

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) is so ridiculous that I can’t help but love it. I’m honestly not even sure what I want to say about it. The design of the Cenobites is so very memorable, and the 1980s hair and costumes are … also memorable. There are moments or images that are truly horrific, then the film will cross a line and it becomes hard not to laugh. It’s just so much.  Kirsty Cotton:…

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Countdown to Halloween, Day 4: Get Out

Some of my countdown choices are quite recent. Only time will tell if they stick with me the way Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers have done. I think Get Out (2016, dir. Jordan Peele) has a good chance of doing so, though. It’s smart, well-written, and visually appealing. I want your eyes, man. I want those things you see through. Like Invasion of the…

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I am doing a countdown of horror movies this October. I’ll be posting images and quotes on my office door all month and also posting here. I’ll post one movie per day (two on Mondays and Fridays to account for the weekends), not in any ranked order. They are just horror movies I love in an order that pleases me.

I’m starting with George Romero. I didn’t even have to think about this as a starting point or about including either of these films on my list. Romero is just a given.

They’re coming to get you, Barbra!

I have taught Night of the Living Dead (1968) in multiple classes, and I love it. Students often have trouble getting into it because it’s kind of old-fashioned and slow by their standards, but I love the human drama, the slow zombies, the zombie daughter, and the bleak, bleak ending.

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

And I adore Dawn of the Dead (1978). Again, students don’t always appreciate it, but I love the very things that they have been critical of: the makeup, the weird musical montage where they play in the mall, the dramatic shifts in tone between parts of the movie, the Goblin score.

In both cases, the zombies are interesting, but the real draw is in the way the non-zombie human characters interact with one another as they try to survive – whether fighting or trying to set up house in a mall.

More to come!

Countdown to Halloween, Day 31

And, of course, the countdown to Halloween has to end with Halloween (1978, dir. John Carpenter)! It’s Halloween; everyone’s entitled to one good scare. This is a classic for a reason. From the opening scene and its first person perspective, ending with the very creepy shot of little Michael Myers in his clown costume, the film is iconic. Jamie Lee Curtis’s Final Girl. The score, which plays so…

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I have become a fan of South Korean film over the past few years. One of my favorite directors, in fact, is Bong Joon-ho. The Host(2006), Mother(2009), Snowpiercer (2013), and Okja (2017) vary in style or genre but all are great.

I mention him here because I love his work but he didn’t make this countdown. The Host is science fiction/horror, but I decided it wasn’t clearly enough a horror film for my purposes here; I tried to stick with movies that fall more clearly within genre lines. If I’d included The Host, I would also have wanted to include Gojira (1954, dir. Ishiro Honda) and Silence of the Lambs (1991, dir. Jonathan Demme), so I just simplified my list by cutting them out. If I have any regrets about my list, this is where to find them.

The South Korean films I did include here are Train to Busan (2016, dir. Sang-ho Yeon) and Thirst (2009, dir. Chan-wook Park). Beyond their origin, these two films don’t have too much in common, however.

Train to Busan is a well-executed zombie film that takes place largely on a train and in train stations. It reflects some interesting cultural values and ideas about community and about fatherhood and has some impressive action sequences. It also uses sentiment in a way that worked for me, and it made me cry.

Thirst is much slower and very bloody. I want to watch it again – I need to in order to be able to say much about it – but I remember it as being very intense and very good.

Earlier countdown entries:

1. Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead, dir. George Romero (1978)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman (1978)
4. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
5. Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker (1987)
6. Psycho, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
7. The Birds, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
8. Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (1975)
9. Teeth, dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)
10. Candyman, dir. Bernard Rose (1992)
11. Creep, dir. Patrick Brice (2014)
12. The Wicker Man, dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
13. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dir. Tobe Hooper (1974)
14. Cabin in the Woods, dir. Drew Goddard (2012)
15. Suspiria, dir. Dario Argento (1977)
16. The Witch, dir. Robert Eggers (2015)
17. Rosemary’s Baby, dir. Roman Polanski (1968)
18. The Babadook, dir. Jennifer Kent (2014)
19. It Follows, dir. David Robert Mitchell (2014)
20. Carrie, dir. Brian de Palma (1976)
21. Ginger Snaps, dir. John Fawcett (2000)
22. American Werewolf in London, dir. John Landis (1981)
23. The Thing, dir. John Carpenter (1982)
24. The Fly, dir. David Cronenberg (1986)
25. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
26. It Comes at Night, dir. Trey Edward Shults (2017)
27. Shaun of the Dead, dir. Edgar Wright (2004)
28. 28 Days Later, dir. Danny Boyle (2002)

Countdown, Days 27 & 28: Zombies (Again)

I’ve watched a lot of zombie movies. Some are very bad; some are very good. Some, like Shaun of the Dead (2004, dir. Edgar Wright) and 28 Days Later (2002, dir. Danny Boyle), are excellent. You’ve got red on you. I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead more times than I can count. Billed as a rom-zom-com, it’s doing multiple things at once – and it is doing all of them very well. Even after so many viewings,…

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Countdown, Day 26: It Comes at Night

It Comes at Night (2017, dir. Trey Shults) is the most recent film on my list. I have yet to see it a second time. But it made a huge impact on me. I saw it in the theater. Alone. I was literally the only person in the theater. Partly because of this viewing experience, but largely because of the effectiveness of the film, I was badly scared more than once. You can’t trust anyone but family.…

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