Terra and I watched The Lure (2015) tonight, which was great! Not what I would term horror though -- a musical drama with some horror elements. Beautiful, great soundtrack, and very sad. 😭 Too much stomping on my heart, not enough vicious man-eating! 😝
Possession (1981) was incredible! And Lovecraftian, which came as a pleasant surprise. With Sam Neill, 12 years before Jurassic Park. Themes of madness, death, perversion, doubles, radical love. Incredible story, cool effects, dope music, and fascinating shots. I've said it before but I'll say it again, nothing beats 80s horror. Recommended if you liked Dead Ringers (1988).
Tonight Mark and I watched Body Bags (1993), which was amazing!! Cool creepy stories, great effects, classic Carpenter soundtrack (and direction), and chock full of cameos, a veritable "who's who" of horror. (More appreciated by Mark than me, I'm not very good with recognizing celebrities or knowing actors, idk, that part of my brain is missing, I guess -- tho I did love seeing my boy David Noughton, from my all-time fav American Werewolf in London!) I really loved all 3 stories, tho content warning, the third had upsetting sexual violence. I do think the transplanted-body-part trope is a cool one, Heart of a Dog vibes. 👍👍
Megan and I plunged into the abyss with Dario Argento's insane giallo Phenomena (1985). My all-time favorite horror film, Suspiria (1977), is by Argento, and this film stars the exquisite Jennifer Connelly one year before her appearance in Labyrinth, so I was pretty psyched for this movie. The narrative has been called "muddled," but that's a dramatic understatement. It starts out as a rational and linear (if fantastic) story, but abruptly devolves into visual and narrative chaos and depravity. The aesthetics of the film are great and characteristic of the genre, with intense colors, crazy zooms, and wild music (Iron Maiden, anyone?). I LOVED the movie until its utterly strange denouement... now need to sit with it a bit. Still, I'd recommend! // Oh also, there was some weirdness with the release of this film (they cut out 20 min and re-released in English as the widely-panned Creepers). We watched the so-called "hybrid" version, with ~6 min of footage where no English audio exists, so there were random Italian scenes. 🙄 These were supposed to appear with subtitles, but did not on Amazon prime, so brush up on your Italian!
Wow, can't believe I'd never seen Phantasm (1979)! 🤣 There was a lot going on in this movie, to say the least. Lots of jump scares, which I normally find very tacky, but this was old school and effective. Loved the 70s aesthetic, and the fact that the 13-year-old kid is driving around town and using a shotgun. Some fun practical effects too. Awesome. Also, the soundtrack was crazy good! I thought it was Goblin (sounded so much like Suspiria), but it was apparently Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave.
Suspiria (1977) is my favorite horror film, so it was LONG overdue for me to watch Argento's Profondo Rosso, aka Deep Red (1975), also scored by Goblin. This movie has excellent shots and some very memorable dialogue. One of my favorite exchanges, after a woman is brutally murdered in her home:
Prof Giordani: Who could have done this?
Old housekeeper: A maniac, of course! It's always a maniac, and they never catch them.
I enjoyed this film, although to me it felt kind of all-over-the-place.
Watched Dario Argento's Opera (1987) tonight. WOW, it was amazing! Soo many incredible shots (love the crow's eye at the beginning), gorgeous music, and the series of strangely beautiful yet utterly grisly murders. I don't want to include any spoilers, but there was at least one shot I've definitely never seen before - honestly not sure how they did it. 😱👍👍
