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Author: Horror Movie Maven (page 10 of 11)

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

October 7, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: Do you like Clue or the House on Haunted Hill? This was a precursor to those tales and will feel very familiar to you.

In The Cat and the Canary, the seventh movie in Studies in Terror, a wealthy old man passes away. All of his relatives gather in his creepy old mansion for a reading of the will, hoping to get their share of the fortune.

A creepy hand reaches out from the wall to snatch young Annabelle’s jewels in The Cat and the Canary.

Young and beautiful Annabelle West, played by Laura LaPlante is named the heir, but there is a catch. If a doctor declares that she is mentally unsound later that night, she will lose the fortune and the new heir will be one who is named in a different sealed envelope.

(Side note: as a lawyer, I have to warn all other fellow lawyers that you need to forget everything you know about wills and estates law while watching this film.)

During the night, we discover that the mansion is filled with secret panels and passageways. We also learn that a madman is on the loose. And the lawyer who holds the sealed envelope naming the hopeful heir is murdered.

Yes, this is a story we have heard over and over again. But the fun in watching it lies in the fact that you are watching one of the first. According to Studies in Terror, this was a film that launched a hundred copycats. While watching The Cat and the Canary, I continually compared it to Clue, The House on Haunted Hill, and episodes of Scooby Doo.

A new theme emerged while I was watching this film. It was directed by the same man who directed Wax Works, Paul Leni. In my opinion, the intervening years did much to improve his directing abilities, and it was fun to see how he had improved his style.

I would recommend this movie to fans of classic movies and those who love films where the characters are all locked together in an old creepy mansion.

I found the movie on Netflix Instant Watch. I also found it on youtube without musical accompaniment:

Scary Story: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

October 6, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: If you like IKEA and you like horror stories, give this book a read.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

I love IKEA. Every room of my house has something from that store. I also love horror, as you well know at this point. Imagine my delight when a book came out that combined the two: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix.

It’s a story of a fictional IKEA knockoff store called Orsk. Everything about Orsk is IKEA, from the Marketplace to the showrooms designed to draw you in and never let you out.

Cover of Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

Strange things start happening at the store: items go missing, sofas are defiled, and people get inexplicably turned around in the aisles. An overzealous manager decides to keep a couple of employees late one night to investigate. The same night, two other employees trespass to film their own amateur pilot of a ghost-hunting show.

Both plans go quickly awry. This Orsk happened to be built on top of a demolished prison, where countless prisoners were killed by their mad warden. Now the warden and prisoners are haunting the store and are out to imprison the five poor souls in the store that night.

The book is short and it isn’t the best piece of fiction I have read. However, what it lacks in depth and density, it makes up for in the terrific design of the book itself. The inside and outside of the cover is designed to look just like an IKEA catalog. It has, in fact, fooled several people who saw me reading it. Additionally, the chapters are broken up with descriptions for fake furniture you can buy at Orsk.

The result is a very fun read that I recommend if you’re looking for a quick read and like a ghost story.

The Unknown (1927)

October 5, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: A fast campy story that was fun to watch.

The sixth movie listed in Studies of Terror, The Unknown comes in at a short 41 minutes. But in the short time, a lot happens and the story moves quickly.

Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford in the Unknown

The plot involves characters in a gypsy circus in Spain. The leading man, played by Lon Chaney, is an armless knife thrower named Alonzo. He is obsessed with Nanon, played by Joan Crawford, a young girl who is terrified of hands (I’m not making this up). Alonzo thinks that this will make things easy in his pursuit of this girl. But there is another suitor, the dashing strongman Malabar. Also, Alonzo happens to still have his hands (yes, it is this ridiculous).

To give more away would ruin the quick story, and it is worth a watch. While the tale is far fetched and at times even ridiculous, the campy tone and fast pace make it entertaining. Also, I was truly surprised by how hot Joan Crawford was in 1927. I am a straight female and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

By today’s standards, I would not call this film terrifying. But I would still recommend it to people who are interested in old-timey horror, especially since the star is Lon Chaney of Phantom of the Opera fame.

If you want to watch it, you may have to hunt down a DVD copy. I got a copy through Netflix’s DVD service. Here is a good amateur trailer that I found on youtube that can give you a feel for the film:

I also really enjoy this poster:

Poster for The Unknown (1927)

Review: Annabelle

October 5, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: Some good jump scares and creepy scenes but nothing new for the genre of demon haunting/possession movies.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars

Synopsis of Annabelle

Annabelle provides the origin story of the creepy doll from the beginning of The Conjuring. Set in 1970, the story centers on a young church-going couple. The husband is a med student. The wife is very pregnant and collects dolls.

Late one night, they hear a disturbance at the neighbor’s house. When the husband goes to investigate, the perpetrators sneak into the couple’s home and violently attack the wife as well as husband who comes back to save her.

The decidedly creepy doll known as Annabelle.

The assailants, who we later learn are devil-worshipping members of a cult, die in the aftermath. The male assailant is shot by the police. The female slices her own throat while holding the doll known as Annabelle.

Thus the doll becomes a conduit for an evil demonic presence who wants a soul. The demon torments the young wife and her baby, as demons are wont to do.

What I Thought of Annabelle & Who Should Watch It

When watching the movie, it is clear that the creators wanted to ride The Conjuring’s gravy train because the film largely imitates the strong elements from that film and some of the elements from Insidious. As a result, while I enjoyed the suspense and the jump scares, I did not find anything unique about this film that will drive me to watch it again.

Poster for Annabelle

That being said, as I exited the theater, I heard a girl behind me state, “I almost had a heart attack. That was the scariest shit I have ever seen.” It may be that I have been watching too many horror movies lately and am a bit jaded toward the old tried and true tricks that resonate with audiences. I can tell you that this movie would scare the crap out of my husband; he flat out refused to see it.

As a result, I would recommend this to people who don’t watch as much horror as I do. If you liked The Conjuring and Insidious, you will likely love this film too. Like those two movies before it, it had a great production quality and excellent suspense.

Trailer for Annabelle

The Hands of Orlac (1924)

October 3, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: The acting of Conrad Veidt alone makes this a film you must watch. He displays his emotions with the slightest movements of his hands and eyes, and, as a result, you are drawn right into the story.

The Hands of Orlac is the fifth movie listed in Studies in Terror, and it is the first that I am certain I will watch again. It follows the tragic story of Paul Orlac (played by Conrad Veidt), a pianist who is injured in a train crash. Unable to save his hands, the surgeon replaces them with the hands of a recently executed murderer.

Conrad Veidt as Paul Orlac in The Hands of Orlac.

When Orlac awakens and discovers the origin of his new hands, he is filled with despair and fear. He begins to believe that his hands are driven to murder and other nefarious acts. Watching Veidt’s Orlac, you puzzle over whether it is all in his mind or if his hands do have some evil purpose.

This movie was incredibly fun to watch. With Studies in Terror next to me, it didn’t take me too long to realize who I was watching: Conrad Veidt played Cesare in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Ivan the Terrible in Waxworks. Suddenly a theme emerges, and that theme made watching Conrad Veidt’s latest work all the better.

The strong emotions he portrayed as the troubled somnambulist Cesare shine through in The Hands of Orlac. Watching his expressions, you are drawn into his tale and can sympathize with the horror and pain Orlac is feeling.

I would definitely recommend this film to fans of horror, especially if you have watched the previous films I’ve blogged about from Studies in Terror.

Here is The Hands of Orlac on youtube:

Waxworks (1923)

October 1, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: Don’t bother watching this movie. It’s downright silly and not even the least bit frightening.

The fourth movie listed in Studies in Terror is Waxworks (aka Das Wachfigurenkabinett), and I did not like it one bit. The premise involves a poet looking for work. He stumbles across an ad for a writer at a wax works museum. At the museum, the owner informs him that he is looking for someone to create exciting tales about the various figures in the museum.

The poet and his girl in Waxworks.

It’s an oddly small museum, for as far as the film shows, there appear to be only three figures: some caliph from Baghdad, Ivan the Terrible, and Jack the Ripper (which the film mistakenly refers to as Spring Heeled Jack, a completely different person).

The poet jumps right in and starts creating stories about each character. These stories feature him and the girl he loves, who happens to be with him as he applies for the job. How do I know they are in love? Well, that would be the sappy and dopey way he looks at her every 30 seconds.

I could provide more detail into each of the stories but, frankly, I kept getting distracted by anything other than the film.

What I did see was hokey and dull. It was not nearly what I would expect from a book about terror. In Studies in Terror, the author focuses on the story of Ivan the Terrible and that the actor who played Jack the Ripper was the same man who played Dr. Caligari. Unfortunately, by the time I got through the first story of the caliph, I was utterly bored.

Here is the film on youtube:

Want to convince me to give this another try? Leave a comment.

Nosferatu (1921)

September 29, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: Max Schreck’s vampire carries the film and makes it worth watching for his spider-like fingers and dominant presence on screen.

I’m at the third movie listed in Studies in Terror: Nosferatu. I’ll admit, I’ve seen this German horror classic before, and I have always liked it. Not only is it a solid vampire movie, especially given its age, but it is also a study in copyright issues. The film follows Stoker’s oft-told tale of Dracula. The difference: director F W Murnau never got the rights from Stoker’s estate. As a result:

Max Schreck as Count Orlok in Nosferatu

We have Count Orlok and not Count Dracula
The story does not take place in London, it’s set in Bremen, Germany
The names are all different (if you are watching an old version of the film)
Vampire bites do not create more vampires; they lead only to death

I don’t think these changes are necessarily a bad thing. Instead, they set the film apart from the book. The first time you watch it, it is similar enough to the book that you can follow it but the slight variations keep you on edge, unsure of where this particular version will take you.

One thing really popped out at me while watching this movie: somnambulism. When psuedo-Mina Harker’s character was sleepwalking, an intertitle referred to it as a “somnambulistic dream.” I couldn’t believe it. There was that word again that I had to look up while watching the Cabinet of Dr Caligari. I only noticed because I’m trying to “watch the book.” This seems to be a theme in 1920s horror, and I wonder if it will crop up in other films.

Sleepwalking fad aside, if you like vampire movies, this is the first great one. And anyone who professes a love for horror should watch this film at least once.

You can even find it on youtube now that it is in the public domain:

Häxan (1921)

September 27, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: A bit too long but worth watching all of the creepy vignettes about medieval beliefs when it comes to witchcraft and satan.

Häxan, the second film listed in the book Studies in Terror, definitely has some creepy moments. The movie itself is almost like a documentary. The first 20 or so minutes are entirely textual descriptions of medieval beliefs along with images from that time period. It starts to get good, however, when the film starts showing those images acted out on the screen. This leads to some eerie vignettes involving:

The devil in all his creepy glory.

Witches literally kissing Satan’s ass
Demons sacrificing an infant
Satan tempting a lady out of her marital bed
A witch selling a love potion made from dove hearts and cat feces

Those are just a few of the scenes that stood out.

This is definitely a movie I would recommend to people who want to see some unique early horror. Some of the shots of the witch’s kitchen could also provide excellent inspiration for a haunted house.

I managed to find this movie on youtube (turn on subtitles or much of the film will be useless to you):

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

September 25, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

My take: A confusing film with a couple of creepy scenes. Only watch this if you are a true fan of horror who wants to see a bit of history.

I’m just starting my attempt to watch all of the movies in the book Studies in Terror by Jonathan Rigby. The first movie is Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, which was first released in Berlin in 1920.

Dr Caligari (in the top hat) and the somnambulist, Cesare (in the cabinet)

The story is about mountebank named Dr. Caligari that has a tent in a town fair that advertises a somnambulist. I had to Google mountebank and somnambulist. A mountebank is a swindler or charlatan. A somnambulist is a sleepwalker.

Caligari awakens the somnambulist, Cesare, after a supposed 25-year sleep. Then tells the audience that the sleepwalker has seen the future and can tell any man his fortune. A man steps forward wanting to know when he will die. Cesare tells the poor man that he only has “until tomorrow’s dawn.” The man is later found dead and other mysterious deaths follow.

The film is unbelievably difficult to follow at first. It took me about three-fourths of its mere 51 minutes to get into the story. The film’s strange set design and character makeup definitely played a role in my confusion, and I am not alone. According to Studies in Terror, a German review of the film in 1920 said, “Audience reactions wavered between amusement and plain incomprehension.” That is spot-on how I felt. Apparently, I have something in common with the Berliners of the 20s.

It was an interesting film to watch, but I do not think I would recommend it to anyone who is not a die-hard horror fan. Even amongst the die-hard fans, this film’s value is almost entirely historical IMHO.

If you do want to watch it, you can find in on youtube:

Watch the Book: Studies in Terror

September 23, 2014 / Horror Movie Maven / 0 Comments

I often see blogs and posts where a foodie “cooks the book.” In other words, they try to make every recipe in a book and review them. I’ve always liked the idea, but I am a very lazy chef.

I can, however, watch horror movies. I never seem to tire of them. So, I thought I would do something similar to those “cook the book” posts. I plan to “watch the book” instead. The book is Studies in Terror by Jonathan Rigby.

Cover of the book Studies in Terror by Jonathan Rigby.

The book covers 130 landmark horror and suspense movies. In the introduction, the author points out his choices don’t always align with the best films of the period. He admits that some selections may simply indicate his “own preferences.”

When I bought the book, I was embarrassed by how few of the films I had actually seen. I have seen a lot of “classics” of horror cinema, but one quick flip through of this book and I knew that my knowledge was lacking. So, I have decided to watch every film listed in this book (and I’ll post about each one in turn).

The book goes in chronological order, so I will too. Starting with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in 1920 and ending with Outcast in 2009.

I’m a bit worried that I may not be able to get ahold of some of the films. If that happens, I will have to skip ahead. Hopefully youtube or Amazon can come to my rescue in those situations.

Have you read any good books about horror movies? Any classics that I should be careful not to miss during my journey?