Best New-to-Me - October 2021

 It's with a touch of melancholy that we bid farewell to spooky season proper. The end of October hardly means the end of my horror movie watching for the year but it does mean the end to being able to see your interests reflected just by walking into the grocery store for a while. This year was notable in that I participated in my first ever HoopTober challenge instead of just doing my own thing, that I was able to return to the theater for some watches, and that I participated in #Horrorgivesback via the Unsung Horrors podcast (which you can still donate to as of this posting). I think I got in a nice mix of older and newer movies and managed to knock off some watch list items that have taken me years to get to while re-visiting some old favorites. Per usual, I will only be discussing what I liked best out of the new-to-me watches - and limiting those to the ones I watched in October - but feel free to check out the entire list: https://letterboxd.com/mplsmatt/list/slashing-through-hooptober-2021/

Inugami no tatari/Curse/Curse of the Dog God (1977) - Japanese folk horror from psychotronic visionary Shunya Ito. While this doesn't achieve the same heights as the Female Prisoner Scorpion films it's filled with striking imagery and genuinely creepy sequences. The film does meander a bit but it manages to take on both modern industrialization and old superstitions without really endorsing either. This absolutely needs a restoration and is ripe for rediscovery by a broader audience.

Vampyros Lesbos (1971) - No kidding, right? I'm still playing catch up to all kinds of things and that includes Jess Franco. I was never that interested in his films when I was younger after watching Oasis of the Zombies so it's only in the last couple of years that I've been watching one here and there. Vampyros has so far been my favorite Franco film to date. Sunbathing vampires, erotic floorshows, kites, scorpions, Istanbul, the color red, robotic transmissions, and an absolutely smoking score. Looking forward to more.

Night of the Demon (1957) - I've been meaning to watch Jacques Tourneur's horror classic for years now and I just never seem to find the time for it. Aesthetically and atmospherically impeccable - Night of the Demon is deeply evocative and effective even without the arresting supernatural sequences. I do wish we got more of those sequences though as they're absolute magic. If I had a quibble with this one it's that Dana Andrews' skeptical Dr. Holden already comes off as arrogant and overbearing but is made more so by the fact that the audience witnesses supernatural craziness before he's even introduced. I do prefer the more ambiguous take of a film like Night of the Eagle - which would make a stellar double feature.

The Black Cat aka Demons 6 (1989) - One day I will do a write up on my favorite non-sequitur Italian sequels and this movie will surely rank among them. This Black Cat - not to be confused with Fulci's Black Cat or the dozen other movies sharing the title - is somehow a spiritual follow up to Suspiria and Inferno, an entry into the legendarily convoluted Demons series, and according to some title cards an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe. I'm not sure about the last bit, but it is a mainline injection of late 80s Italian chaos magic. Bold colors, exploding torsos, lasers, heavy metal, lots of cat footage, and buckets of goop. Pure, lovely craziness.

Titane (2021) - I haven't listed a ton of new movies since I started doing these but Titane was one of the most exciting theatrical experiences I've had in a while. Beautiful, great music, gleefully transgressive. Probably best of the year material.

Lamb (2021) - Who's blog even is this? Haunting, atmospheric, certainly melancholy - Lamb stretches the horror designation until it's largely unrecognizable but delivers on a dark tale very much centered on real fears and anxieties. I would also make terrible sacrifices to protect that lamb girl.

The Burning Moon (1992) - Another long suffering watchlist denizen. I caught this as part of a group watch and it truly lives up to its reputation. Besides the off-putting post synch sound, this is an impressive SOV production that shows real attention to detail and craft even in the non-gory elements. However, it's the gore that's the real highlight here. The finale "hell scene" is absurdly gruesome and filled with the kind of horrors you wish haunted houses actually delivered on. The fire effects are ambitious and include a living person in motion, one bathtub corpse, a decapitated head, and no less than two crucifixes bursting into flame - and a burning moon of course.

The Living Dead Girl (1982) - Speaking of gore, this has to be one of Rollin's gorier efforts. However, he manages to imbue it with an emotional substance and gothic longing that you rarely get from on screen gut munching. There are some attempts at light comedy that I could really do without but it's an absolutely gorgeous film.

Primal Rage (1988) - You're going to want to bump this to your next Halloween viewing list. Experiments reviving primate brain cells result in a baboon infected with some kind of rage virus - sound familiar? - that when unleashed on a Florida campus results in gory chaos. This has some trappings of an 80s sex comedy and probably one of the best 80s Halloween dances on film. Umberto Lenzi has a writing credit for this and Claudio Simonetti did the music so it's the best kind of bonkers.

Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968) - This was my Halloween matinee choice and I ended up really
loving it. Despite the title, there are probably not enough scenes with monsters but the ones you get are fantastic. There are a couple towards the end shot in beautifully evocative slow motion featuring dozens of monster/apparition designs. If you like weird Japanese supernatural stuff - this seems like a home run.

The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch (1968) - This is a weird film that definitely has a children's entertainment vibe - particularly with the focus on the main girl and her narration of events - but it's also surprisingly grisly. The effects are cheap looking but there is a ton of visual creativity at play - the various nightmare sequences are genuinely eerie and the use of obvious puppets caused me some cognitive dissonance enhancing the overall effect. I'm not sure that everything in this movie makes much sense but it took some cool narrative turns and the climactic scene is TENSE.

Abby (1974) - The fact that this film got buried under litigation is truly criminal. Yes, this is a Blaxploitation Exorcist rip-off but there were dozens of possession movies in the 70s and this is a particularly fun one. The cast is great with Carol Speed, William Marshall, Austin Stoker, and Bob Holt as the voice of the demon. Shot in and around Louisville, Kentucky it has a terrific regional independent quality and though the budget was modest, the most is made of what they had. It would be great if this got a restoration and could be screened in front of audiences again.

The Psychic (1977) - I've been re-visiting or finally viewing a chunk of the Fulci filmography and managed to fit this one in. I've always heard mixed reviews of The Psychic and I think that's largely due to comparisons to his other gialli. It doesn't possess the acid-test insanity of Lizard in a Woman's Skin or the ferocious cultural criticism of Don't Torture a Duckling (though it does borrow that wild dummy drop). Still this is an incredibly lush giallo that takes a lot of the genre stylings and turns them all the way up to eleven. The music is cranked, the cameras sweep and zoom, there isn't a huge body count but there are some satisfyingly gruesome moments. Recommended if you're a fan.

The Funhouse (1981) - Another filmography hole finally filled! Tobe Hooper really had a unique lens into American familial dysfunction. Aside from strained family dynamics this is an absolute carnival ride of a film - a half wrecked calliope lurching around the fairgrounds spewing cotton candy and small engine exhaust. I had a blast.

Ghosthouse (1988) - Somehow sold as a sequel to Evil Dead 2 this is closer to an Italian stab at Poltergeist. Ghosthouse offers a wild mix of amateur radio enthusiasm, spectral kids, creepy clowns, exploding jars and lightbulbs, casio beats, inexplicable hitch-hikers, psycho caretakers, maggot-y grim reapers, and a slew of competent and sometimes surprising gore effects. Also at one point the floor gives way to corrosive ghost milk filled with skulls. You know you want to watch it.

Patrick Still Lives! (1980) - Completely unauthorized Italian remake/sequel to Ozploitation slow-burn Patrick. For some reason I thought this would be zanier but it is kind of a scumbag watch with a seriously sleazy take on the tale of a comatose psychic. I loved it but don't yell at me if you manage to catch it. 

The Mansion of Madness (1973) - Absolute stunner from the director of Alucarda. This does get a bit chatty in parts but I found it consistently engaging and surprising. Would make for a terrific theatrical experience.