Don’t Look Now is the Pick of the Week

dont look now criterion

When I talk about horror movies I suspect a lot of people think of harsh violence and heavy gore. For sure some horror movies specialize in that type of thing, but many of them do not. To tell the truth, as I get older, and especially now that I have a young daughter, I find I have less tolerance for the ultra-violence on screen. Especially sexual violence.

But horror doesn’t have to include that. I love eerie haunted house movies and movies that terrorize you with the threat of something awful happening. I love a good psychological horror.

Don’t Look Now is a film that has very little on-screen violence. In fact, it has very little violence at all. But it does have horror, mostly coming from a sense of dread and grief. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play a young couple who recently lost their son due to a tragic accident. Sutherland’s character has taken a job in Venice and they are both using it as a way to escape. But you can’t escape that kind of grief. It is a beautiful, powerful, and yes horrific film. Criterion has just released it in a new 4K addition and it is my pick of the week.

Also out this week that looks interesting:

Prey: Predator is a ridiculously dumb 1980s action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger who goes to the jungle to fight a killer alien. It is also kind of awesome. It somehow managed to launch an entire franchise. I haven’t seen all of them, but I’ve seen quite a few of them and they are definitely a mixed bag. Prey is really freaking good. It is basically the same premise as the first one except for this time the alien lands on Earth some 300 years ago and a Comanche Indian has to fight it with primitive tools.

Talk to Me: I’ve heard good things about this horror film about a group of friends who conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. They become hooked on it, go too far, and unleash the spirit world upon them.

Evil Dead Rise: The original Evil Dead is a low-budget horror masterpiece. The sequel, Evil Dead II, took the same premise (dumb teens go to a cabin in the woods and unleash evil) and turned it into a slapstick horror/comedy masterpiece. That spawned another sequel (Army of Darkness, not as good, but fun) and eventually a TV series (Ash Vs Evil Dead, I’ve only seen a few episodes, but I liked it). Then came a soft reboot which went back to its roots (dropped Bruce Campbell and the humor). And now it has a sequel. That’s a lot of words to say that I have no real desire to see this. I saw the reboot and didn’t much care for it. Like I said earlier, hard-core violence just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

It Came From Outerspace: Very silly-looking 1950s science fiction flick gets a nice release from Universal Studios.

The Movie Journal: September 2023

cottage to let

I watched 44 movies in September. 40 of them were new to me. 30 of them were made before I was born. 22 of them were British films.

British films were of course my theme of the month. I had a lot of fun with that. I didn’t expect to watch so many British films from the 1930s and 1940s. I didn’t expect to watch so many World War II films. But I did, and I loved it.

I mention this nearly every time I do a monthly movie theme, but the point of doing them is for me to watch movies I might not otherwise watch. That was certainly the case this month as I watched a lot of films I’d never even heard of before.

Humphrey Bogart to number two on my actors list with 6 films watched. He’s my favorite actor of all-time so that makes sense. Boris Karloff still leads the list with 8 films. I suspect I’ll watch another film or two with him in it this month as he did a lot of horror films. The director list looks mostly the same except for Terence Fisher who enters the list with four films watched. He directed a lot of Hammer films and I watched a lot of those last month.

Anyway, here’s the full list.

Gone Girl (2014) – ****
The Return of Doctor X (1939) – ***
Experiment Perilous (1944) – ***
Urban Legend (1998) **/12
Messiah of Evil (1973) – ***
Infinity Pool (2023) ***
Teknolust (2002) **1/2
Ladies in Retirement (1941) – ****
Local Hero (1983) – ****
Marlowe (2022) – ***1/2
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) – ***
Countess Dracula (1971) – ***1/2
Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971) – ***
Spree (2020) – **
Get Carter (1971) – ****
King and Country (1964) – ****
The Seven-Ups (1973) – ***
The Heart of Justice (1992) – **1/2
Night Train to Munich (1940) – ****
Went the Day Well? (1942) – ****
Contraband (1940) – ****
Tales of Terror (1962) ***1/2
The Purge: Election Year (2016) – ***
The Purge: Anarchy (2014) – ***
Cottage to Let (1941) – ****1/2
Moss Rose (1947) – ***1/2
Little Women (1933) – ****
Wichita (1955) – ***
The Big Knife (1955) – ****
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) – ****
Murder She Said (1961) – ****
The League of Gentlemen (1960) – ****
Night of the Living Dead (1968) – ****1/2
Life (2017) – *1/2
Island of Terror (1966) – ***1/2
Modesty Blaise (1966) – ***
The Wicked Lady (1945) – **1/2
Against the Wind (1948) – ****
They Live (1988) – ****
Borsalino (1970) – ***
Night Boat to Dublin (1946) – ****1/2
Slaughterhouse Rules (2018) – ***1/2
Quatermass and the Pit (1967) – ****
The Innocents (1961) – ****

31 Days of Horror: Messiah of Evil (1974)

messiah of evil poster

The 1970s were a fascinating time for horror movies. The studio system was dead, and independent cinema was on the rise. The production code was out and the ratings system was in. Sex, nudity, pervasive language, and violence were suddenly not only permissible but encouraged. The real-life horrors of the Vietnam War were all around. Also, Watergate, Nixon, and racial tension pervaded the minds of America. If horror is a reflection of what a culture is going through at any given time, in the 1970s we were going through a lot.

There were tons of great horror movies released in the 1970s – The Exorcist, Halloween, Suspiria, Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc., etc., etc. It was a great decade for horror.

Something I’ve noticed about a lot of horror films from the era is that they often have this gritty, impending sense of dread. Horror movies can be entertaining. Some of them are even fun. But horror in the 1970s was often dreary, filled with a sense of hopelessness and doom. I suppose that is a sign of the times, of all those things I just mentioned – war, politics, struggling for basic rights.

That can make for a great horror film. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is incredibly bleak, but it is also one of the greatest horror films ever made. But when not done well, that sense of dread can be a real bummer.

Messiah of Evil isn’t a bummer, but it isn’t a lot of fun either. The basic plot – a woman travels to a small seaside town looking for her father only to discover it has been overtaken by cultish cannibals – isn’t particularly clever or all that fleshed out, really. There are long sections that I found to be rather dull.

But there are a couple of terrific set pieces. One in which a woman wanders into a grocery store only to find the customers are all munching on raw meat and then eye her for the next course. Another whereby another woman goes into a deserted theater to watch a film only to have it slowly filled with those crazy cannibals in a manner that eerily resembles a similar scene in The Birds.

There is also some wonderful set work. The father’s house is painted with incredibly detailed, and quite uncanny murals.

But so much of the rest of the film seems to just meander about. The woman, Arletty (Marianne Hill) comes to town looking for her father. She asks about and everybody says they’ve never heard of him, but they all seem to be hiding something. Eventually, she finds some people in a hotel who may know something. But first, they interview an old drunk (Eisha Cook, Jr.). He tells some old stories about weird happenings in the town a hundred years ago. The man (Michael Greer) says he’s interested in old stories, folklore, and the like.

But none of this really goes anywhere. We hear some more about the town and those strange events from 100 years ago. They seem to be happening again, but the film doesn’t explain any of it. I’m okay with a film not explaining every detail about what is happening, but this one only muddies the water in unsatisfying ways.

Thom and his two female companions loaf about in Arletty’s father’s house. The girls becomes jealous of her while he tries to seduce her. Etc. and so forth. It all feels like a lot of padding for those two (admittedly incredibly) set pieces.

It is definitely worth watching for those two scenes, but otherwise it is a bit of a drag.

31 Days of Horror

Just over a year ago, Amazon Drive gave me notice that they were discontinuing their service. That forced me to make a decision I had been pondering for quite some time anyway: should I keep The Midnight Cafe going? Or should I shut it down?

Obviously, I decided to keep it going, but I did make some major changes. I quit doing individual posts for individual shows and started doing one post each day with a link to the downloads via Google Drive. I started writing lots of movie reviews, posting YouTube music videos, linking to cool stuff, and generally turning this site into an old-school blog. Like what I used to write when I first started. I also started making public all of my old non-bootleg-related posts from years ago.

I am genuinely curious as to what everybody thinks of the site, one year later.

But also it is time for 31 Days of Horror again. That was the first major non-bootleg series I did on this site since making this change. I remember having a lot of fun with it and I’m very pleased to be doing it again.

I guess this feels like an anniversary of sorts, and that makes it seem like a time to look back. I don’t have any big thoughts on all of this, except to say I really enjoy writing these movie reviews and talking about things that interest me beyond just posting downloads to live music. I hope you do too.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Infinity Pool (2022)

infinity pool poster

David Cronenberg is one of the most interesting directors of the last few decades. He began by making low-budget body horror flicks (a genre that he essentially invented) and grew into one of the more intellectually stimulating horror directors ever with occasional stints into science fiction, crime, and straight dramas.

His son, Brandon has recently started directing films and so far he hasn’t strayed far from his father’s roots.

Possessor from 2020 was a film about an assassin who is able to take control of people’s bodies with some kind of brain implant technology. I quite liked it.

Infinity Pool is weirder and far less interesting.

James (Alexander Skarsgård), a failed writer looking for inspiration, and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) the rich daughter of a book publishing mogul take a holiday at a resort in a vaguely Asian, and apparently backward and rather hostile country.

They are not supposed to leave the gated resort, but when they meet Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert) they are talked into sneaking off to a beach for a bit of fun and drinking.

I don’t know how to talk about this film without spoiling some of its central concepts so be warned.

On their way back James, driving a bit drunk, hits a local man killing him instantly. The next morning he is arrested and told this country has very strict punishments, but a rather unique way out of it. For the killing, he is to be executed, but if he can pay a large fee they will clone him and it is the clone that will be killed.

He does just this and is forced to watch the son of the man he killed take a knife and stab his clone to death.

That night Gabi and Alban introduce James to a group of people who have all been through the same ordeal. But rather than be devastated over this, they have found it freeing. Here is a country that will literally let them get away with murder, as long as they can pay the fine. Having to watch their clones get executed afterward is just a bizarre perk.

The film has a lot to say about nepotism (which is really interesting since Brandon is a nepo baby) and how the rich can get away with anything. Both Goth and Skarsgård give really good performances. But it all left me wanting for more, or at least something different. It is an unsettling film, I felt very uncomfortable while watching it, but I couldn’t exactly pinpoint why.

Some films give you a feeling of dread – they make you feel like something terrible is going to happen to their characters and you dread the moment it comes. This had that same feeling, but all of the characters in Infinity Pool are terrible people, I was kind of hoping the bottom would fall out.

Cronenberg disorients us on several occasions. It begins with idyllic scenes of the resort with his camera turning upside down, making you feel a little seasick. There are several drug-induced hallucinations where he quickly cuts a lot of different images, many of which are flooded with psychedelic lighting that did nothing to help the film but did make me dizzy.

In the end, it felt like a film with some interesting ideas, some good performances, but the messy filmmaking dropped it all on the floor.

Great British Cinema: Went the Day Well? (1942)

went the day well

George Orwell once stated that All Art Is Propaganda, and after watching Went the Day Well? I wanna ask, is that such a bad thing?

My tongue is planted firmly in my cheek, and to be fair, I’ve never even read that Orwell book, but Went the Day Well? is a piece of wartime propaganda. And it is excellent.

The thought experiment goes – what if the Nazis successfully took over a British town? What if they invaded England? The answer the film proposes is that we’d have to fight back. Sometimes brutally.

In the small village of Bramley Inn a group of what appear to be British soldiers arrive unannounced. They state that they are there to judge the village’s preparedness and ask to be quartered there for a few days.

At first, the villagers believe them and are excited to see some real action (or as real as they think they’ll ever get). The village has done its preparations, they have a Homeguard and have practiced what to do if the war comes to them.

But soon they begin to think these soldiers may not be what they say they are. One of them slips up in their English and another writes his “7s” in the European way. Just as they are trying to decide what to do, the soldiers reveal themselves as Germans setting up the invasion.

The Nazis are ruthless. They mow down the Homeguard without a second’s thought and have no problems shooting anyone else who causes trouble.

The message is clear: the villagers have to be just as tough. In an amazing scene – and I’m sorry for the spoilers on an 80-year-old film – a sweet little old lady is serving dinner to one of the Nazis. She prattles on as she cooks, revealing a surprisingly intimate detail about her life – that she and her husband couldn’t have children and they both blamed the other one. Then, when the Nazi isn’t looking she tosses pepper into his eyes, grabs an axe, and gives him a whack.

It is a surprisingly violent film for a 1942 film, but the message is clear again. The enemy will not hesitate to kill you and the British way of life, and you must be willing to fight back with all you’ve got. Even if you live in a little village that will likely never see any sort of action, you must be prepared.

As a piece of propaganda, it is quite effective. But better yet as a piece of cinema, it is excellent all around.

Great British Cinema Cottage to Let (1941)

cottage to let

Mrs. Barrington, a kook of a woman (Jeanne de Casalis), has agreed to take in child evacuees from London during World War II. She’s also agreed to allow her cottage to become a military hospital. Naturally, she has forgotten to inform her leasing agent of any of this so besides the children and the infirmed she has let her cottage out to a strange man, Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim). Also living at her estate is her husband John Barrington (Leslie Banks) an inventor who is currently working on a new bombsight which is of great interest to the Royal Airforce and Nazi spies.

Cottage to Let is a wonderful little drama filled with mysterious and eccentric characters and enough twists and turns to keep everyone guessing.

Mrs. Barrington might be a bit dotty, but she’s smart enough to realize she only has so many rooms so she only takes one child evacuee, and one soldier in need of attention. Still, that amounts to a large cast of characters. Moreso when the British military higher-ups come into town when John Barrington refuses to come to London to clue them in on his work.

Early on we realize there must be a spy amongst this lot, but we aren’t sure who it could be. The film has a lot of fun insinuating various characters but never quite letting us know who it is.

It is suspenseful in the way Hitchcock’s films are often suspenseful – which is to say it creates some interesting tension while also letting you know no real harm is going to come to our heroes. It is also clever and quite funny.

I found it to be wonderfully delightful.