31 Days of Horror 2013: Days 26-31

26.  The Devil's Rejects (2005)

27.  The Gorgon (1964)

28.  The Lords of Salem (2013)

29.  The Conjuring (2013)

30.  The Others (2001)

31.  Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 (2009)

We ended the month with three Rob Zombie movies, one more Hammer movie, and two ghost stories.

26.  "The Devil's Rejects" is a sequel to "House of 1,000 Corpses," and it continues the story by showing the murderous Firefly family on the run from the law after their house full of corpses is discovered.  Whereas the original movie is a some times cartoonish, but still effective, mishmash of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "House by the Cemetery," the sequel is a gritty, brutal film more akin to Wes Craven's movies from the 70's, "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Last House on the Left."  Rare for a horror movie and even rarer for a sequel, it actually develops its characters.  Because I feel like I know the characters so well and because the story is told mostly from their point of view, I always find myself sympathizing with them a bit and hoping they'll escape even though I also find them despicable and want them to be caught.

27.  The final Hammer movie of the month, "The Gorgon" was also a highlight of this year's 31 Days of Horror.  In Greek mythology, the Gorgons are sisters with snakes for hair whose gaze turns people to stone. One of them features prominently in "The Gorgon," but it takes place in a German village in the early twentieth century rather than in Ancient Greece.  As the dead, Gorgonized bodies start to pile up, a newcomer to the village investigates and learns of a legend that one of the Gorgons, Megera, took refuge in a local castle after fleeing Greece.  Part of what makes this movie so enjoyable is the ridiculousness of its concept.  However, it's played straight and for the most part it succeeds in avoiding unintentional campiness.  It also features some very effective scenes showing the Gorgon's victims turning to stone.  The creature effects are a bit silly, but this doesn't detract from the fun of seeing the Gorgon's head full of writhing snakes.

28.  "Lords of Salem," Rob Zombie's most recent movie, is in many ways his best.  In telling his story about a dying witch's curse being fulfilled on a present day resident of Salem named Heidi, he weaves a tightly controlled narrative that slowly unravels before fraying altogether as Heidi falls victim to the curse.  The last half hour is so bizarre that it's almost incomprehensible as Zombie employs the irrationality of nightmares to illustrate the curse's impact on Heidi.  A highlight is a scene with a zombie-like figure walking a goat on a leash through a cemetery. 

29.  "The Conjuring" is a disappointing example of a good horror movie that's prevented from being a great one by a bad ending.  It merges a haunted house story with a tale of possession that has several moments of true spine-tingling horror.  But it's almost ruined by an ending that resolves the possession far too easily and leaves everyone living happily ever after.  The devil doesn't necessarily have to win for a possession movie to work, but it should at least end in a tie with the demonic spirit relinquishing control of its victim at the cost of taking another life or leaving everyone involved deeply scarred.

30.  "The Others" is an example of why serious filmmakers should avoid twist endings: they don't hold up to repeated viewings.  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie when I saw it upon its initial release in 2001 and liked it well enough during a few subsequent viewings, but although it was mildly entertaining looking out for the clues to the big surprise this time around, for the most part, I was just bored. 

 

31.  Earlier this month, I mentioned that Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2" is one of the best horror movies of the past ten years.  It's populated with well-developed, likable characters who make it much more than a mindless, brutal slasher movie.  The violence is horrifying not simply because it's so intense, but because the movie makes us care about Michael Myers' victims.  Whereas in the "Halloween" remake Zombie floundered with a lame attempt to give Michael a back story while also attempting to follow the basic narrative of John Carpenter's original film, in the sequel, he abandons any pretense of honoring the spirit of the original and makes the story truly his own.  Michael Myers is a bearded, long-haired lumbering brute who hides out in an old barn until the spirit of his mother calls upon him to reunite his family through bloodshed.  Zombie uses this portrayal of the character to explore the often inexplicable bonds that can tie together even the most dysfunctional of families, a theme that has appeared in all of his films to date.  

31 Days of Horror 2013: Day 25: 5 Reasons Why "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is the Best Horror Movie Ever Made

25. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I wanted to save this one for Halloween, but Vicki asked if we could watch it earlier, and I couldn't say no.  Here are five reasons why it's the best horror movie ever made:

1.     Leatherface - He's by far the most interesting horror villain, and this has a lot to do with the fact that the movie tells us so little about him.  All it reveals is that he's part of a family of butchers who treat humans like any other livestock, that he wears a mask made of human skin, that he cross-dresses, and that he can't speak.  We learn nothing about his family history, why he wears the mask or where it came from, or why he sometimes wears a wig and make-up, and not once during the dozens of times I've watched this movie have I to stopped to ask.  Sequels and remakes try to explain Leatherface and by doing so they ruin the character.  Psychos are much more horrifying when there is no explanation for their behavior. 

Another important fact to remember about Leatherface is that although he's responsible for the deaths of three people in the movie, he does not harm them until after they enter his house.  In fact, TCM could be viewed as a home invasion movie.  The first time we see Leatherface is when a young man walks into his house looking to borrow gas.  Leatherface, clearly a misanthrope with no semblance of social skills, sees this stranger in his home and then reacts the only way he knows how:  by beating him on the head with a sledge hammer, placing the body on his chopping block, and then cutting off the meat with his chainsaw.  Several minutes later, when Leatherface finds the young man's girlfriend in his living room, he defends his home from this intruder by dragging her into the kitchen and hanging her on a meat hook.  Granted, he didn't have to kill either of these people to defend his home; he could simply have chased them off his property with this chainsaw, but the point is that unlike Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger, the other horror icons of the 70s and 80s, Leatherface does not stalk his victims. 

In fact, he even seems distraught by the fact that he has been compelled to kill the home invaders.  After hanging the  girlfriend on the meathook, he retires to the living room, holds his head in his hands, and seems to ponder why these people keep coming into his home uninvited.  Later in the movie, Leatherface does kill wheel-chair bound Franklin in a field outside his house, but he still can't be accused of stalking his victims.  He was tired of people coming into his house and had decided to be more proactive in keeping them out. 

Of course, the main appeal of Leaterface is the chainsaw.  The scene when he chases Sally through the field with the chainsaw buzzing and smoking makes most other horror-chase scenes seem like playground antics.

2.   The ending -- The difference between a good horror movie and a great one is often the ending.  In too many cases the ending either lamely sets up a sequel, provides a quick, easy, and utterly unsatisfying resolution, or both.  TCM ends with Sally escaping in the back of a pickup truck while Leatherface spins around in the middle of the road swinging his chainsaw in frustration.  Neither will ever be the same.  Sally might have survived, but the final shot of her sitting in the truck bed, covered with blood laughing hysterically makes it clear that she'll be spending the rest of her days in a loony bin.  Leatherface, who seems to have had little or no contact with the outside world before Sally and her friends entered his home, has just endured an experience he is incapable of understanding. Both have been terrified by the experience, and because nothing has been resolved, the ending leaves viewers with nothing to latch onto that might provide some relief from the 80 minutes of horror we've just witnessed.

3. The realism -- Too many movies try to seem realistic by claiming they are based on real events.  In most cases, the connection between the movie and the events are so tenuous that the same claim could be made about almost any movie.  Although it's based loosely on the real-life serially killer Ed Gein, TCM never makes such a claim (although it has probably been marketed in this way at some point in the last 40 years).  Instead, it horrifies by telling such a convincing story that it feels real.  From the opening monologue that gives the movie a documentary quality, to the convincing performances of all the actors, to Sally running through windows to escape the crazy family, to the closing shot of Leatherface swining his chainsaw, every aspect of the movie helps create the impression that the events it depicts could actually have happened.

4.  The beginning --  Building upon the ominous tone of the opening monologue, TCM unsettles further with its opening shots of a sculpture made of parts stolen from graves.  But what makes the beginning so effective is the way the sculpture is revealed.  First we see a black screen and hear sounds of something grinding.  Then a camera starts flashing, gradually revealing different parts of the gruesome sculpture.   When night becomes day, we finally see the full figure made of dug-up limbs and a skull sitting on top of a gravestone, and as it's revealed, we can just barely hear a news report claiming that the graves were robbed for occult rituals.  Images and sounds work together to create an opening that hints at the horrors awaiting Sally and her friends.

5.  The dinner scene -- While she's tied to a chair in a kitchen decorated with human skin and bones, Sally can do nothing but watch and listen while the crazy family debates who will kill her.  When they decide to let Grandpa do it, Sally's head is held over a bucket into which Grandpa keeps dropping the hammer with which he's trying to kill her.  Each time the hammer falls into the bucket, the bang it makes gets louder and so do Sally's screams until she finally pulls free  and jumps through a window.  We observe most of this from Sally's point of view, and the scene is so intense that in addition to the horrifying sights and sounds, we can almost experience what she's smelling and feeling, resulting in a very uncomfortable viewing experience.