034. The Bad Seed (1956)

9/10

This is a startling movie about psychopathy. The acting is stagey and melodramatic (it's based on a stage play, with most, if not all, the original stage cast), and there's a lot of monologues, but hell, does it work. Central is the little blonde girl, who psychopathy is clear - she's charming but forcefully and oddly so, confident to a degree it feels unnatural for her age, and completely devoid of remorse. She feels trivial setups completely justify her murderous actions. Her glee is scary, but scarier still are the moments we detect a vacancy and absence of...something...behind those eyes.

And it's not just her performance that electrifies the movie. The mother, torn by knowledge of her daughter's evil actions, but still loving her daughter, gives a borderline hysterical performance that's terrific, only surpassed by a grieving mother whose little son is dead...and she suspects it wasn't an accident. Also, there's a terrific Southern gardener who reminds you of William H. Macy, who is on to the little girl at the start, and threatens and teases her throughout...and it's very unsettling how the little girl handles the (true) accusations with such clear confidence and offhandedness.

What I thought was the ending was extreme and shocking (I'm not going to spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it), but there are further scenes that feel tacked on (kind of like the end of Psycho?), but that are in their own way, almost as weird as the preceding 2 hours, and in a way more dreamlike and pushing the story into archetype fairy tale.

Would make a great double bill with Night of the Hunter for a great night of fantastic black-and-white gothic-thriller-horror.

Nice... they just released Bad Seed on Bluray.

035 Island of Lost Souls

9/10

This is amazing. Whilst there are some slightly better horror movies made in the 1930s (I'm looking at you, Bride of Frankenstein), this is definitely among the handful of really great pulp/graphic horrors of the 30s, before the Hays code kicked in. I'd lump this in with Freaks and The Black Cat as in that class of great 30s pulp horror that still stands up today.

The really weird makeup and dialogue, and memorable setups such as the panther woman, the 'house of pain', "The Law", and the weird mudhut village in the jungle, along with Charles Laughton leering over his creations, the women, and his use of the whip really build to something special.

Here's to never being in The House of Pain.

036 Star Wars IV: A New Hope

9/10

A real thrilling spectacle. It's been 10 years or more since I last watched this, and I have to admit, I was excited about rewatching it. And yes, it easily lived up to the expectation and excitement. My favourite part is one of the quieter moments, where Vader declares 'I find your lack of faith...disturbing.' But there are a dozen of more really great moments, and the 2 hours whizzes by.

I enjoy Alec Guinness the most in this, I think, but Harrison Ford comes a close second.

Still thrills, all these years later.

book: God-Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert 8/10 A really interesting and in some ways tricky book (you get out as much as you put in), which used to be my favourite of the Dune series but now drops a place, conceding top spot to the first book, Dune.

037 The Empire Strikes Back

10/10

A magnificent, driving narrative, with solid dialogue, great lighting, editing, framing, visuals, acting, music, tone, mix of drama and comedy, spectacular special effects for 95% of the time, and adding a depth to the space-fantasy genre in movies that was entirely absent before it.

Contains great-must see moments, at a rate of, I dunno, 1 every 8 minutes it feels like.

Ridiculously good.

I guested on a podcast recently talking about the Quatermass movies. The episode just came out. Here it is, and I am Mark.


http://www.drunkenzombie.com/blog/wp...pisode_205.mp3

038 Stone Cold (1991)

7/10

Whilst Brian Bosworth has all the acting ability of a tree stump, the charm of this movie is generated by 3 things; the grandiose scene-chewing of Lance Henriksen, delivering lines like 'This reminds me of my father's last words: "Don't son, that gun is loaded!" ' and doing a world-class evil laugh; a raging William Forsythe who acts like a cross between a coke-up Harvey Keitel and a grumpy bulldog who has been forced to sleep on a bed of Lego; and the rather fine action set pieces. It's all 80s through-and-through, which is a shame because it was made in 91, and hitting the tail-end of that particular action era.

Baggy in places, but starts well (with a game of chicken where guys shoot beercans off each other's heads which quickly escalates to using uzis), and ends really, really well. How the hell did they get permission to do all that mayhem in a great building like that?

039 The Wicker Man (1973)

Such an electrifying movie in the last act, made so by the baffling, unsettling buildup throughout the film.

This staunch, upright policeman represents us, the viewer, as he first strides, then falters, through this strange island culture where everything seems sexualised and wanton and weird. He is as confused as us, the viewers. The villagers veer between odd and friendly, and almost everything said and done seems distinctly off-kilter.

We see this staunch Christian feel himself diminished and isolated as he realises he is in an environment like he's never encountered, where the friendly words, and seemingly joyful music has an underpinning of debauchery, cruelty and barbarity he finds hard to cope with - from the beetle deliberately tied to the pin to go round and round until it's tied up, to the little girl made to put a frog in her mouth to get rid of a sore throat, to the odd tricks the children play on the policeman.

The film itself is indeed a horror movie, but defies genre. It's a dark, dark comedy of sorts - reminiscent of the old TV series The Prisoner in its disconcerting changing of familiar buildings and clothes into something alien - a musical (the music infuses the film almost wholly, with the only odd music being an out-of-place funky electric guitar score very near the end when Woodward is trying to escape pursuit), and a detective story.

The vacant smiles and constant digressions the villagers and Lord make when talking to the policeman just keep building and building the tension, until the nature of the old religion makes itself clear.

Finally, you feel that both Christian and heathen are equally wrong and equally impotent as the villagers sing and dance on the windy grassland. This sacrifice feels both dreadful (Woodward is amazing in the last act) and pointless, as the villagers cavort in the windy sunset, you feel the gesture they are making to nature is pointless, and nature will do what it will do, and the actions of men won't change a thing.

A great film, horror or not.

I find it really hard to watch Return of Jedi...I can go back and watch Empire and New Hope.....but as soon as those ewoks enter the plot something dies inside of me. And I think it is fair to say - I felt that the first time I watched it - however young I was then.

I really don't mind the ewoks.

040 Vampyr (1932)

6/10

This didn't really work for me for the first half. I really enjoy another movie by Dreyer, specifically The Passion of Joan of Arc, but the silent screen aesthetics employed in this, a talkie, seemed retrogressive. The quality of the print also didn't help. However, there were some really striking scenes in the first half that kept my attention, and I actually felt more immersed and less bored by the half-way mark, where the movie definitely picked up for me, and it was much more enjoyable.

I watched it because it's on so many 'great horror movie' lists and I've been meaning to for a long time, and I can see why it's on such lists, but it does take a little time to immerse yourself into.

This really looks like something that was a profound influence on David Lynch. I did feel Eraserhead lurked somewhere within its scenes and structure.

I dont think you have JarJar without the ewoks ---> he kinda got away with the ewoks..right ..I dont like them but I do not have that visceral hatred I have toward JarJar....so I think the ewoks allowed Lucas to think to himself - I can basically indulge every whim I have about my universe.

I hope that makes sense....like an initial breach of quality control that lead to a worsening standard.

are you taking suggestions on movies or do you have a list you are working thru?

Half and half.

Ill take suggestions. I still have An American Werewolf in London to watch as a suggestion.

DB, can't remember why, but I watched the 2006 remake of this movie (starring Nic Cage) and thought it was terrible, will the original get the bad taste out of my mouth or does knowing the ending (assumming its similar), ruin its appeal?

Woodward is so spectacularly good at the end, I think it will definitely help in your recovery program.

Thanks, I'll add it to my queue.

A movie a day is incredible, I shoot for 100 per year, but usually only get to 80, you're inspiring to go for 150 this year though. Since you mentioned recommendations here's a few from my list I don't think are mainstream, although based on the depth of your list they might actually be high profile.

- Judgement Night (Action)
- Cheaters (Drama)
- The Other Sister (Drama)
- Touch the Top of the World (Docudrama)
- The Killing Room (Thriller)

I've never heard of any of those. If any are on Netflix us, I'll add them to my queue, ta.

041 White Zombie

Whilst not quite as good as some of the other great, weird horror movies of the 30s (Freaks, Island of Dr Moreau, The Black Cat), it really works well whenever the zombies are on screen. It works less well in the stagey, ridiculously melodramatic performances, the ridiculous pauses to indicate significance, and Lugosi being Dracul-ish at every opportunity.

However, I did definitely enjoy the zombie/walking dead parts, and can happily ignore the pointless scenes, the constant Lugosi hand-gestures to indicate he's turning up his mesmeric power to 11, and enjoy the odd tension, the pretty 'white zombie' of the title, and the vulture that looked distinctly like an eagle. Oh and a pretty good ending.

042 The Man With The Iron Fists

5/10

This movie had some real problems, and I was getting bored in the first act. It looked pretty, the action scenes were decent to very good, and you could tell care was taken over the look and feel. However, it really fell short in terms of narrative coherence, and and sort of character building. It felt like a lot of fussy scenes that weren't building to anything involving characters you really couldn't care about.

However, it did get better as it went on. In the second act, things started to line up, and there was a better sense of cohesion, and things made sense, which dragged me from apathy to paying better attention.

By the time the final act/finale started rolling, I was fully engaged, really digging the visuals, and whilst the action could have been editing better, I found myself enjoying the ideas, panache and sheer amount of mayhem going on.

Overall, yes I enjoyed it, but I nearly turned off 20 minutes in because it seemed diffuse and more like strung together action scenes rather than a coherent whole, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

It obviously was a homage to 70s martial arts movies, and also a homage to the subgenre of spaghetti Western where gadgets are significant - the most famous example being the Sabata movies, I guess.

Fun, but the first 30 minutes are something to put up with, rather than enjoy. The rest is fine though.

Whew, that gets me up to 42 movies for month 1, so comfortably above my target of 1 movie a day for the year. It was fun.

Official January 2014 film watching report

42 movies watched, started with King Kong Vs Godzilla, ended with Man With the Iron Fists. Best was joint between The Wicker Man and Empire Strikes Back, worst was joint between Friday the 13th Part 5 and Nightmare on Elm Street remake. 'League of its own goes to The Bad Seed', and the little blonde psycho in pigtails.

Was watching Empire Strikes back like giving yourself a treat for doing your chores? Or did you just randomly throw it onto the pile? Or some other reason?

I'm podcasting about the star wars movies in a modified machete order (google 'machete order'), and our first cast of two will cover:

Star Wars: A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Attack of the Clones

Podcast 2 will be
Clone Wars (the animated series, NOT the CGI movie or series)
Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi

If you don't know about the machete order, it seems an odd order, but read up, it's a good order. It keeps all the dramatic beats in the right order without completely dismissing other Star Wars offerings.