Last Night in Soho (2021)

 Last Night in Soho (2021) was interesting. I wouldn't say I loved it (it didn't crack my Top 100 list, for example), in part because it wasn't really very scary... it was more a drama/thriller. Also, I wasn't blown away by the solution to the mystery, and finally, I'm tired of the misogynistic portrayal of sex work as inherently degrading. But I enjoyed the 60s dream sequences, and the identity crisis trope is always interesting. Others that do it better are Perfect Blue (1997), Fight Club (1999), Black Swan (2010), and Cam (2018). Thomasin McKenzie sure is a beauty though! And a good actress, I look forward to more from her. Also stars Anya Taylor-Joy, of The Witch (2015) and Split (2016).

The Hour of the Wolf (1968)

I forgot I'd already seen Ingmar Bergman's The Hour of the Wolf (1968). It's Bergman so it ain't crap, but I don't care for this one. Unrequited love this pathetic doesn't sit well with me. Like his other works, this straddles genres, but I think it is better termed drama than horror

Photo: me whenever anything happens during the pandemic

The Innocents (1961)

The Innocents (1961) was fantastic! Beautiful  costumes too, and a gorgeous spooky mansion. Very tense! And intriguing, ambiguous action. Excellent.

"What shall I sing to my lord from my window?

What shall I sing, for my lord will not stay?

What shall I sing, for my lord will not listen?

Where shall I go when my lord is away? 

Whom shall I love when the moon is arisen?

Gone is my lord, and the grave is his prison.

What shall I say when my lord comes a-calling? 

What shall I say when he knocks on my door?

What shall I say when his feet enter softly?

Leaving the marks of his grave on my floor.

Enter my lord!

Come from your prison!

Come from your grave, for the moon is arisen.

Welcome, my lord...”

Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966)

Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966) had some gorgeous shots -- the townsfolk carrying the coffin, silhouetted against the sky, is amazing -- but overall this movie feels a little ludicrous to a modern viewer. Not Bava's best. (And I'm pretty sure I've seen this before, or maybe it's just totally predictable? haha)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Jamie, Jake and I watched What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). It was definitely disturbing, but we couldn't get over the fact that Blanche is so ridiculously passive in her attempts to get away from her crazy sister. Not sure if that's a function of the times/gender roles, or if Blanche was just kind of a wimp. 🤣 Also now that damn daddy song is stuck in my head. 😅 I will say, it was interesting how the film explored sibling rivalry and female/child exploitation.

Planet of Vampires (1965)

I love Mario Bava, but Planet of Vampires (1965) is not his finest work. And there is not a single vampire in the whole goddamn movie, so IDK how it got that title. 😂 The Italian title, Terrore Nello Spazio (Terror in Space) is more accurate. It does have nice atmosphere, and was clearly a strong influence on Alien, so it might be worth seeing for those reasons, but it has no place in a vampire flick list!

Queen of Blood AKA Planet of Blood (1966)

Phew! You'll be glad to know it IS possible to make a good movie about vampires in space. :) Queen of Blood AKA Planet of Blood (1966) was a delight.

The Birds (1963)

Not Hitchcock's best, but definitely inspired by the fashion... Who says a girl can't wear a fur coat in a dirty rowboat?!

House of Usher (1960)

Now THAT'S what I call horror! House of Usher has it all - Vincent Price, a haunted house, a family curse, a woman who sleepwalks nightly down to the crypt... "Evil is not just a word, it's a reality."

Peeping Tom (1960)

Peeping Tom was soo good!! So creepy... 👁📽😰

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Rosemary's Baby is the best horror movie of all time. It is the rare perfect movie. Mia Farrow is captivating. The pacing is brilliant. The aesthetic is compelling. The camerawork is striking. The movie itself is thrilling, and the ending is satisfying. But most of all, the story stays with you, because it taps into deeply felt horrors, which are emotional and cerebral and visceral - no cheap thrills here.

This film perfectly epitomizes (and was seminal in developing) two central horror tropes -- 

1) A person leading a normal life is exposed by chance to the dark, seedy underbelly of the world. Experiencing this new truth radically transforms the hero's view of society and of their place within it. As the hero probes deeper into this new, ugly truth of the world, they are inexorably dragged deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. If they conquer the dark forces and emerge successfully, they are forever altered.

~ This trope is profitably explored in Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), for example.

2) Others refuse to validate the new truth the hero is experiencing, and the hero is forced to choose between denying the truth of their own experiences (and thus accepting that they have gone mad), or believing that everyone around them is out to get them, and is involved in some great conspiracy at the hero's expense. This tension fills the hero (and vicariously, the viewer) with terror and uncanny revulsion, at the loathsome prospects of insanity, or betrayal. The need to resolve this tension is what drives the hero deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. 

~ In this blog, I have used the tag "I know yall think I'm crazy but..." to identify films with this theme.

~ Hitchcock of course inspired the term "gaslighting" with his eponymous 1944 film. 

Repulsion (1965)

Wow, Polanski's 1965 Repulsion is POWERFUL!! Definitely one of the strongest films on this list. Dan pointed out something that I did not know, namely that Polanski himself is a sexual predator, which quite possibly informs this movie's gripping portrayal of one woman's (well-founded) androphobia. Yuck!!

Black Sunday, aka The Mask of Satan (1960)

First horror movie of the season: Black Sunday, aka The Mask of Satan. Awesome! 200 years after she is burned at the stake, local witch comes back to wreak her vengeance! Hold tight to your crucifixes!