Watching Movies Oct 11

Spooky Exorcist stuff happens on the set of a TV talk show. I'm not sure why this is set in the 1970s, but they take so much effort to make it seem like a found footage period film and it never hits quite right (compared to films like Computer Chess or The Love Witch). Maybe because it's Australian? Despite failing to convince me it's authentic, it's a fun little thriller horror with an unusual premise, and David Dastmalchian is great as the TV host. 

Spooky stuff happens in a morgue. Centering a movie around an autopsy to solve a mystery is a great idea that I'm surprised isn't done more often. The mystery veers into the silly supernatural, but it's intelligently directed and Brian Cox grounds the movie to make it work. It's one of those horror movies where the characters do the smart thing, and that makes it a fun watch.

Spooky haunted house stuff happens to Nicole Kidman. This movie sets up so many rules and then breaks them left and right, and all the rules have little justification or consequence to the story. So you end up just sitting around waiting for the big reveal which is clever but isn't all that surprising. It should be a cinematographer's dream with all the darkened rooms lit by oil lamps, but the lamplight looks a lot like daylight and it's not visually interesting at all. 

Horror trilogy spinoff of Tales from the Crypt directed by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper that's mainly worth watching because of the celebrity cast, particularly Stacey Keach in a comedic role and Mark Hammill doing a variation on The Hands of Orlac.

I didn't have high expectations for this TV movie. I thought Jack Palance might be a great unhinged vampire, the director created Dark Shadows (which I've never seen), and the script is by Richard Matheson, but unfortunately they all disappoint. Palance mainly because he's not in the film much, and Matheson because the script is dully by the numbers. It hints at telling Dracula's backstory, which could be an interesting movie, but it's far from that. There's no horror or tension and the story has been told so many times that you'd have to be the most hardcore Stoker fan to even bother with this one. I'm surprised I watched the whole thing. 

I was expecting more of a spooky supernatural film, but it's more of a psychological crime drama. It's very methodical (meaning it can get tedious for a modern audience who can see where it's going) and is only worth watching because of the great performances of Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough. 

The first half-hour or so is full of amazing gothic imagery and clever effects. The only thing missing is the death metal soundtrack. However, once Faust signs his name in blood, it abandons the whole story it's built up to that point and becomes a totally different movie, and it's not a terribly interesting or visually captivating one. That first part is definitely worth checking out, and Emil Jannings has a lot of fun playing Mephisto, no doubt inspired by 1922's Haxan.