Casey Young’s Venture Through 31 Days of Voidoween: Week Two
Hey Secret Movie Clubbers!
I’m back for another Voidoween recap! This week we’ve got two foreign language films, two broken families, werewolves, vampires… Cat People…
If you haven’t read last week’s recap, click here if you’re interested; you don’t need it to understand this one, so feel free to keep reading here, if you prefer.
Let’s get to it!
OCTOBER 8TH - SLOW BURN
The Omen (1976) dir. Richard Donner
Slow burn horror is tough to pull off because how do you horrify someone slowly?
The Thorns are a happy family, living an idyllic life for years, before tragedy strikes (again). The Omen lulls us into comfort and then delivers the ultimate blow: the rupture of happiness. With the performances, borderline experimental direction, and perfect score, this film is a masterclass (I know, I’m sorry, I’m tired of that word, too) in tone. Like walking through a park at night or losing your mom in the supermarket, half of The Omen’s horror is in that unsettling gut feeling.
OCTOBER 9TH - WEREWOLF
The Howling (1981) dir. Joe Dante
First, I love the dream sequences here. They’re weird like real dreams while still following the unique tone of the film. I enjoy that this functions like a small town investigation film, and then taking a Rosemary’s Baby-esque turn. It’s incredibly well written, it doesn’t use the werewolves as a crutch, instead using the werewolf gimmick as the climax to a tense suspense film. (There’s mention and context before the climax but it doesn’t go all in until the very end.) The effects are awesome, generally well done while used fairly sparingly. (These last two points are in comparison to a film like An American Werewolf in London, whose runtime is mostly werewolf.)
Hot take! This is a good movie!
OCTOBER 10TH - FOREIGN LANGUAGE HORROR
Thirst (2009) dir. Park Chan-wook
I love Park Chan-wook because he knows each and every way to make a sad story devastating. Thirst not only is a wonderful vampire film, but it damns the idea of eternal life with lost and forbidden love, a fall from grace, and repeated betrayal. You sympathize with Sang-hyun and are forced to watch his life fall apart at every possible turn. Thirst has horrifying imagery and themes, and it’s also just bleak as hell.
OCTOBER 11TH - VAL LEWTON
Cat People (1942) dir. Jacques Tourneur
I picked a lot of eerie, moody films this week. I wasn’t entirely impressed with Cat People, so I don’t have much to say, but there’s one scene that exemplifies horror for me. A single location, a single actor, the thrill of terror administered by solid tension and good direction. I find with a lot of old movies that I don’t entirely like, there’s always a scene that completely blows me away.
OCTOBER 12TH - MARTIAL ARTS HORROR
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) dir. Ching Siu-tung
Sometimes I see a movie and I have nothing really to say beyond “it’s awesome.” I think A Chinese Ghost Story has enough story to keep you interested and enough ghost to keep you on your toes, the rest of the film is dedicated to bada** stuntwork. Being directed by a stunt choreographer, every action scene is given the attention it deserves.
I think more horror films need cool action and more action films need this kind of direction/cinematography.
OCTOBER 13TH - FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
The Babadook (2014) dir. Jennifer Kent
This film is phenomenal. Jennifer Kent created a horrifying Frankenstein’s Monster with the haunted house, possession, Boogeyman, and “Devil Child” tropes. While following a fairly traditional structure, the scares and monster are very untraditional. The way Mister Babadook scares is unpredictable and not entirely tied to his essence, and to have him manifest as a physical man but also as a stop-motion drawing is genuinely chilling. (Remember, the DoodleBob episode of SpongeBob is the scariest.)
Eerie and heart-wrenching, The Babadook is a wonderful examination of trauma and motherhood that has earned every ounce of hype it’s received.
OCTOBER 14TH - ALIENS
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) dir. Philip Kaufman
What a scary title sequence (designed by Ron Dexter, Howard Preston, and the team at Pacific Title).
The high contrast and shadow work here is a great carry-over from the original’s era, amplifying the unease and suspicion of our characters, and it still keeps that strange 70s experimentation and grunge. It also retains a classic feel by keeping a lot of the tension dialogue based: five main characters thrust into a storm of confusion and distrust, and none of the conflict is dull or contrived. The team behind this hit every mark perfectly because once the climax hits, your heart is racing.
And that’s that on that! Another 7 down, 16 more to go! Let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter (@moobi_dummy)!
xoxo Casey