Introducing Movieline's Halloween 25: A Week of Must-See Fright Flicks For Every Taste
· The Sadist (1963)
This tense, low-budget film about a group of teachers held hostage by a sadistic couple takes no prisoners, revealing early on that likable characters will not necessarily be spared. Arch Hall Jr.'s relentless, completely psychotic performance only adds to the sense than anything can and will happen. Just watch the first minute below and try not to finish it. The film also features great, early work by cinematography great Vilmos Zsigmond, who, 15 years later, earned an Oscar for shooting Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
· Onibaba (1964)
Probably the scariest adaptation of a Buddhist parable ever filmed. A woman puts on a mask taken from a slain samurai in order to scare her daughter-in-law. It works (Ha!) ... but then it won't come off. Cue screaming, violence, anguish and lots of rain. This classic's influence is still felt today, most recently evidenced in the trailer for Clown.
· Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Ingmar Bergman always dabbled in the fantastic, but he really pulled out the stops in this tale of an artist who disappears after moving with his wife to an abandoned island. Well, abandoned except the terrifying, demented family who lives in the mansion on the hill! Forget everything you know about Bergman: This is a horror film through and through and it contains imagery that will haunt you for weeks, especially one scene involving a puppet show with a live man. And of course, lurking beneath the surface is Bergman's unique brand of existential dread. Good luck going to sleep.
Pages: 1 2
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
The Sadist? Talk about memories of walking through the aisles of Blockbuster looking for something, anything, to watch...and there's that box with Arch Hall Jr.'s face staring at you, looking like he was dropped as a baby in a mental institution. This has got to be good, right? Yeah, not so much.
Kudos on the inclusion of "The Seventh Victim". Nearly all of the Val Lewton-produced films driected by Mark Robson or Jacques Tourneur in the 40's have a terrifically moody/weird aesthetic.
I highly recommend setting the dvr for TCM's showing of "Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton - The Man in the Shadows" - it covers his entire career and gives a nice taste of his films. It airs Oct 30, 03:30AM-EST.
Eyes Without a Face is creepy and gives a great look at Paris in the 60's. For an even scarier Franju film, try "Le Sang des Betes," his documentary about a meat factory outside of Paris.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1534177851847179722#
Also, The Sadist rules.
If the category is "pre-1970, all in black-and-white" I'd nominate 1966's "Seconds". Is it super scary? No. (It plays more like a feature length "Twilight Zone" episode from the same period.) But it is an extremely unsettling as it pairs young director John Frankenheimer with an out-of-left-field performance by Rock Hudson, music by Jerry Goldsmith, and a title sequence by Saul Bass.
It's an odd duck of a movie, but well worth checking out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxRhqoJBhmU
Definitely, all of the Lewton + Tourneur/Robson movies are fantastic- Cat People was neck in neck with Seventh Victim for inclusion on the list. Finally, I decided Tourneur gets more love by film historians, so I gave a shout out to Robson.
Id suggest some of Lucio Fulci's horror collection.
They have an occultish feel to them and are ahead of their time with the gore.
Believe me, if I thought of four other good movies to include on a "Be Careful What You Wish For" list, Seconds would be at the top. It holds up so well - still very intense.
Still considering some of his stuff for one of the lists this week...stay tuned. One that I'm pretty sure I won't use, but is worth a mention is The New York Ripper - I really liked the fact that the killer talked in a duck voice.
After all, we've got to pay for that craft stash somehow!