Hallowe'en Horror Quartet!!!

Annihilation (2018): adapted for the screen from the Jeff VanderMeer novel and directed by Alex Garland; starring Natalie Portman (Lena), Benedeict Wong (Lomax), Oscar Isaac (Kane), Gina Rodriguez (Anya), Tessa Thompson (Josie), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Dr. Ventress), and Tuva Novotny (Cass): The first half is a slog hallmarked by monotonal performances from the leads, punctuated by occasional bursts of yelling. The second half is better, with some nice creature and production design. 

A mysterious alien 'zone' named the Shimmer has enveloped part of the Southern United States. And it's growing. A team of five scientists goes in, other teams having vanished in the year or two the Shimmer has been active. They find a strange zone of mutated and mutating plants and animals. It's very much like H.P. Lovecraft's seminal piece of eco-horror, 1928's "The Colour Out of Space." But with a lighthouse. Lightly recommended.

Mimic (1997): adapted by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro from the (very) short story by Donald A. Wollheim; directed by Guillermo del Toro; starring Mira Sorvino (Dr. Susan Tyler), Jeremy Northam (Dr. Peter Mann), Alexander Goodwin (Chuy), Giancarlo Giannini (Manny), Charles S. Dutton (Leonard), Josh Brolin (Josh), and F. Murray Abraham (Dr. Gates): 

Donald A. Wollheim's very short story "Mimic" simply presented the idea that there were lifeforms humanity wasn't aware of because they'd adapted to hide in the urban landscape. The movie gives humanity the blame for creating these things, albeit for a good cause -- the elimination of a child-killing, cockroach-spread disease in New York through the use of genetically engineered 'Judas Bugs.'

Giving the mimics an origin saps the story of much of its mystery. Guillermo del Toro does a nice job of conjuring up murk and mayhem in the underground vaults and abandoned subway lines of Manhattan. Making the story yet another iteration of Frankenstein, albeit with human-sized insects that can mimic human appearance, eliminates any sense of mystery or the Sublime. It's still a pretty solid piece of action-horror movie-making. 

And kudos to del Toro and co-screenwriter Matthew Robbins for addressing the simple fact that a man-sized insect would need lungs to even exist. Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam are solid but a little bland as the scientists who are the cause of, and solution to, the problem of man-sized bugs in Manhattan. Lightly recommended.

Ju-On (2002): written and directed by Takashi Shimuzo; starring Megumi Okina (Rika), Misaki Iyo (Hitomi), Misa Uehara (Izumi), and Yui Ichikawa (Chiharu): Itself a sequel to two (!) of the writer-director's similarly titled made-for-TV movies of 2000, Ju-On was remade as The Grudge, a so-so horror movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. 'Grudge' may be the least effective translation of a concept from Japanese to English in, like, ever. 

The Grudge in this case involves ghosts that murder people over the course of years or even decades whenever those people have the misfortune to encounter these ghosts... or the misfortune to have a family member encounter these ghosts. That's some grudge!

The capricious nature of the supernatural attacks, and the presentation of them as being wholly inexplicable, make Ju-On a success. Some of its tropes have been recycled and parodied nigh onto exhaustion in the years since, but the source still contains the power to shock and disturb. On the other hand, there's a cute ghost cat! On the other other hand, these ghosts can materialize literally anywhere... and they can drag you off to some hellish netherworld! Highly recommended.

Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972): written by Don Houghton; directed by Alan Gibson; starring Peter Cushing (Lorrimer Van Helsing/ Laurence Van Helsing), Christopher Lee (Dracula), Stephanie Beacham (Jessica Van Helsing), Christopher Neame (Johnny Alucard), and Michael Coles (Inspector Murray): We start with an exciting pitched battle between Dracula and his arch-nemesis Van Helsing in 1872 Victorian England. Then we jump to the groovy times of 1972, where a dink with the unlikely name of Johnny Alucard has gotten his friends all hepped up to hold a magical ritual for, you know, kicks. Is Johnny Alucard trying to resurrect Dracula? What do you think?

Any Dracula movie with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in it is going to be watchable. Lee is only on-screen for about ten minutes, leaving the always capable Cushing to do the heavy lifting in a dual role as both the Van Helsing of 1872 and the grandson of Van Helsing in 1972. Stephanie Beacham overcomes the movie's focus on her ample, heaving bosom to deliver a solid performance as Van Helsing's grand-daughter. 

As always, though, it's Cushing and Lee we come for, whether in a Dracula movie or some other horror or thriller. They deliver, as always. The opening battle, on top of a runaway carriage, is one of the high points of the series. The scene in which we discover that the running water from a shower  head can incapacitate a vampire, not so much. Recommended.

Strange Bedfellows

Quick Change: adapted by Howard Franklin from the novel by Jay Cronley; directed by Bill Murray and Howard Franklin; starring Bill Murray (Grimm), Geena Davis (Phyllis), Randy Quaid (Loomis), and Jason Robards (Rotzinger) (1990): This is almost a 'lost' Bill Murray movie, one that didn't do well at the summer box office back in 1990. I think it may be too low key to have ever been a huge success, but it also got lost in a flood of blockbusters that year. As is, it's the only movie which Murray also produced and (co-)directed, and it's really good.

Quick Change follows a bank heist masterminded by Murray's character. That part goes smoothly. However, getting out of New York turns out to be the real problem. Terrific supporting work from Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, Tony Shaloub, and Jason Robards makes a zippy script flow smoothly even if the plan does not. Murray's character, while sarcastic as always, nonetheless also resonates with what appear to be warmer human feelings. It's a fine, neglected performance from Murray in a fine, neglected film. Recommended.


And Then There Were None: adapted by Dudley Nichols from the play Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie; directed by Rene Clair; starring Barry Fitzgerald (Quincannon), Walter Huston (Armstrong), June Duprez (Vera Claythorne) and Louis Hayward (Philip Lombard) (1945):  Adapted from Agatha Christie's play, itself an adaptation of her own novel which at one point had a truly regrettable title in Great Britain (look it up). Fun though somewhat stagy and a bit overlong, the movie adapts a book that really works as the foundational work for an astonishing number of horror movies and thrillers in which a rising body count lifts all tides. Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald pretty much act everyone other than Judith Anderson right off the screen. Recommended.

The Grudge: adapted by Stephen Susco from the screenplay by Takashi Shimizu for Ju-On; directed by Takashi Shimizu; starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Karen), Jason Behr (Doug), William Mapother (Matthew), Bill Pullman (Peter), Grace Zabriskie (Emma), Clea DuVall (Jennifer), Ted Raimi (Alex), and Ryo Ishibashi (Nakagawa) (2004): The sprung rhythms of this horror movie, adapted from a Japanese horror movie directed by the same director, sometimes yield good scares. By the end, though, the ridiculous omnipotence of the ghosts makes the movie an exercise in the cliched nihilism of most American horror movies.

No one even tries to find a religious or spiritual solution to the ghost problem, though there is a scene early in the film which suggests either an abandoned plot thread or a red herring. The logic of the ghosts in the movie would seem to suggest that everyone on the planet should have been murdered by spirits long ago. They can do anything and go anywhere. And what is up with the hair? Lightly recommended because it's really short.


Night of the Living Dead: written by George Romero and John Russo; directed by Tom Savini; starring Tony Todd (Ben) and Patricia Tallman (Barbara) (1990): 1990 remake of George Romero's genre-defining zombie masterpiece of 1968. Romero supplies a new script, while make-up wizard Tom Savini directs for the first time. The whole experience loses something in colour, but the thing does build to a satisfying climax.

Stuntwoman Patricia Tallman makes for a good heroine, much less passive than the original Barbara, while Tony Todd is sharp and sympathetic as her brother-in-arms (though not the actual brother who says that famous line I'm not going to repeat). The social satire is much more pointed this time around, and much more in the vein of Romero's Dawn of the Dead. His zombies may be dangerous, but they're also sources of sorrow and pity in a way few other film-makers have even even tried to capture. And unlike so many younger American horror film directors, Romero isn't afraid to mix a bit of hope in with the despair and the disgust. Recommended.