2020 October Horror Challenge #100: "The Stepford Wives (1975)"

 

This movie is based on a book written by Ira Levin. So was "Rosemary's Baby," and when I watched that movie, it sucker punched me out of nowhere and haunted me for days. After that happened,  I turned into a big baby and chickened out of ever watching this movie, so the DVD has been sitting on my shelf for like 14 years. The thing is, I know everything that's going to happen in this movie, I've had the whole plot spoiled for me over the years, but I also knew everything that was going to happen in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" too, and look how that turned out. I've managed to conquer my fears and watch some other movies I was afraid to watch this year for the horror challenge, so here goes.

I'm sure you know what this movie is about. A woman named Joanna played by Katharine Ross, moves with her husband and children to a small town to get away from the city. There's something weird about the town though. The men are a tight-knit group who seem to be keeping secrets, and most of the wives seem vapid and subservient to their husbands. The only real friend Joanna can find is Bobbie, played by Paula Prentiss, who is another new transplant to the town of Stepford who agrees that the town is a little creepy. They begin digging into the town's history trying to find answers, and what they discover is horrifying. 

So it's obvious that this movie has feminist overtones. The men of Stepford have boorish,  outdated views on how women should behave, and their vision of the ideal wife is obedient to her husband, has no real interests of her own, and lives to serve her man. Needless to say, this doesn't go over well with the new wives who move to Stepford and want to have lives of their own that don't revolve around pleasing their husbands.

The thing is, Joanna is kind of a jerk. She's on her husband's case a lot and wants to argue with him a lot, and I get how that can be annoying,  but that's just what having a relationship with another human is like. You're going to butt heads, disagree, compromise. Would you really want to trade that in for a marriage to an obedient little robot who agrees with everything you say? I wouldn't,  and I would hope most people wouldn't want that either. Movies like this where people want to control their spouse just get under my skin, so the whole movie experience is uncomfortable for me (that's why they call it horror though, I guess). This kind of movie will always be more horrific for me. I can watch a million monsters rip people's heads off, but give me a movie like this and I want to cover my eyes and cower in fear.

The scariest part about watching this movie is watching Joanna grow more and more terrified as time passes because she sees the way the women in town act, she sees her friends change from women with personality to robotic, obedient little drones, and she knows that it's going to happen to her soon, and there's nothing she can do to save herself. Her husband who used to love her now wants to order her around like she's a pet, and she doesn't  know what's happening or how to stop it. When Joanna is confronting her former friend Bobbie trying to get her to admit that she's changed, or snap her out of whatever trance she seems to be in, and she's crying, yelling "when I cut myself I bleed, do YOU bleed?" It's pretty terrifying. And the fact that her husband gives in and agrees to whatever horrible plan the town has, I want to punch him in the face. I want a partner, not a robot, and it makes me sick that people would settle for anything less. So yeah, this movie is scary, and it makes me sick to my stomach,  but in a good way that let's me know it's done its job well.

2020 October Horror Challenge #99: "Summer of Fear(1978)"

 

I'm glad I wasn't just imagining this movie. I could swear to God "Summer of Fear" was a young adult novel by the author Lois Duncan (she also wrote "I Know  what you did Last Summer") but then I thought that might just be in my head, since I only vaguely remembered the title of this book, then Amazon recommended this movie to me, and I looked it up online, and yep, Lois Duncan book. This is also an early Wes Craven horror movie that would probably have been a Lifetime movie of the week if it hadn't come out years before Lifetime movies existed. I figured since this was a Wes Craven movie, I would enjoy it, so I gave it a shot.

In this movie, a young woman named Rachel's life is turned upside down when her cousin Julia comes to stay with her family after the mysterious death of her parents. Strange things start happening, and it almost seems like Rachel is cursed all of a sudden. More and more strange occurrences happen, and soon Rachel begins to suspect that befcousin isn't as innocent as she appears. Eventually, Rachel begins to suspect that Julia is using witchcraft to control people and get what she wants.

The thing about Lois Duncan is that she flies under the radar a lot because she's this sweet lady who doesn't have cussing in her books and she seems to write "horror lite" so you underestimate  her, think her books aren't going to be that bad, and then she punches you in the face and throws you off a bridge, and you're in the water trying not to drown and wondering what the hell happened. "Daughters of Eve" is a book she wrote that is legitimately terrifying, and "Stranger with My Face" still creeps into my nightmares from time to time, and I read that over twenty years ago. I don't know how she does it, but somehow,  someway, she weaves a story in a way that it sticks with you, and wiggles its way into your mind and pushes buttons you didn't even know existed. 

This movie is a good example of that storytelling. There are these little details that are freaky in a way that I never expected. Like Julia is jealous because Rachel has a horse she loves, so Rachel puts a curse on the horse, hoping it will die, just to hurt Rachel. That's mean and cruel (seriously,  who does that? If you want to hurt people that's bad enough, but to harm a poor animal just to hurt someone who loves it?) The story also plays on the fear of being the only person who sees the evil in someone,  while everyone else loves that person. It's horrible feeling powerless and watching people around you get hurt when there's nothing you can do to stop it.

This movie deals with some themes that are common to Duncan's books. Envying someone's life so much that you try to take over their life, supernatural forces intruding onto everyday life, the banality of evil. Linda Blair plays Rachel in this movie (damn, she always gets hurt by supernatural forces) and she does a good job playing an innocent girl who's trying to keep evil from hurting the people she loves. Lee Purcell plays Julia, and she pulls off the creepy interloper role very well. The movie is cheesyand silly in places, but it works pretty well. I'm glad I watched it.

October Horror Challenge #98: "Get Out (2017)"

 

Ok, I'll  be honest with y'all.  I bought this movie as soon as it came out,  so I've had it for a few years now. But every time it came around to watching it...I chickened out. I watched the trailer and it actually made me cry, I was so freaked out.  So I put off watching it because I was afraid. I mean,  I honestly think I KNOW what happens. I'm not white, but I *look* white, so people feel comfortable making the vilest racist comments around me, and it makes me want to puke and die. I don't want to live in a world where those things are ok to think and say (if people say that out loud, think of what they might hold back?) So yeah. Racism. Ew. And from gleaning what I've heard online, I'm pretty sure I have a good idea what happens in this movie. Similar to "The Stepford Wives," in a lot of ways, which I'm already the hugest baby because I bought that movie years ago and I'm afraid to watch it too. So yeah, I'm a huge baby. And I'm scared. But I'm watching this movie today, because I think it deserves that much. 

So this movie is about a guy named Chris and his girlfriend named Rose. They've been dating for awhile, so they're at the "hey, let's meet my parents" stage of dating, so Chris heads away for a trip to meet Rose's parents. At first, Rose's parents seem overly accommodating, and he chalks it up to her parents being nervous because of the difference in race (he's black, she's white). As time goes on, though their behavior seems more and more sinister. Soon he's fighting for his sanity, his soul,  and his life.

So last year a friend of mine watched "Tales From the Hood" for the first time, and he complained that the movie was racist, because all the white people were racist against black people. I tried to explain to him that first, that wasn't true, there were some good white people in the movie, but they weren't in big roles because for the first time, most of the characters in the movie were black. Most of the time, all the people in these horror movies I watch are white, so it's rare to see a black character, let alone them be the majority of the characters in the movie. Second, these "tales from the" type movies are about bad people getting to hell and being forced to review their pasts  looking back on their lives and seeing how what they did was wrong, so yes, most of the white people are racist just like most of the black people are violent and evil, because they're BAD and the stories in the movie will reveal how and why they are bad people and why they deserve the punishment of hell. Third...dude, watch all these horror movies with almost all white characters,  then pick the only movie in the whole bunch that contains actual black people, then say that movie is racist against whites. He said that helped him put things into perspective.

I think the worst part of all of this is...he loves her. Chris really loves Rose, so he's willing to put up with a lot from her family because he really cares for her. You can see it in his eyes when he looks at her and talks to her. I've been in love before,  and it made me ignore red flags that could have covered several acres of land, because I loved that person, and LOVE CONQUERS ALL, right? It's do wrong to take advantage if that love, but people do it every day.

So at one point I'm screaming at the screen "no, what's wrong with you?! You're doing the same thing all the stupid white people do in the horror movies,  you dumbass!" And yeah, true facts. When Chris calls his friend halfway through the movie, and his friend tries to warn him that the situation is fucked up, but Chris doesn't want to listen...I was screaming at the screen, like I do during horror movies (why do they never listen to me?) It's just...during some movies, we're watching like...mutated fish rip people's heads off, right? And that's not going to happen,  right? But there are a depressing number of white people who hate black people and think they need to be subdued and controlled...so you can't comfort yourself with "oh, well, it's just a movie, it's pretend" BECAUSE IT'S REAL. Or it could be real. And that's what makes it terrifying. 

In movies like this, It's often a choice between the person in danger keeping quiet and trying to please everyone,  or choosing to run and save whatever life they can salvage from the wreckage. Take it from one survivor who ran...even over 20 years later, I sometimes look back and question my choice. I know the danger I was in, I know the daily death threats I heard, I can still feel the plaster from the wall hitting my face when someone shoved a knife into the wall right next to my head...and sometimes I still miss the family I had that I wish I was crazy just so I could take it back.That's just as crazy as it sounds, but it's true. The only family and home I knew was slowly killing me, yet sometimes I wish I coduld go back. So I get how Rose feels in this movie. She loves her boyfriend,  but she loves her family, and she's known them all her life. So what does she believe? Who does she choose? Or is it even a choice, has she known the truth all along and she's just playing along with the sick game?

So the movie is over, and I'm done having my panic attack,  and I'm thinking...honestly, I'm not sure what to think. At one point during the conclusion, I was sure the movie had jumped the shark, and it was just too silly to be salvageable, but then it kept going, and it got scary again, then silly, then scary, then funny (in a good way) and overall,  my opinion of the movie is positive. I think it does a lot right, and taps into some deep seeded fears (meeting your partner's parents is often terrifying, even if no one is a big old psycho). Like Jordan Peele (the director) says, it "rings true." But I just feel like the movie gives too much away and becomes more physiological than psychological, and it would be better keeping more hidden and unknown. Thpugh I've watched the special features, and the alternate ending was something I liked better than the theatrical ending, but I understand why he changed it, and I do think it works out in the end.  Stephen King once said that no matter how mysterious you try to keep your villain, at some point you have to put on the monster mask and go "ooga booga!" And when you do, you run the risk of the audience saying "oh THAT'S IT?! I thought it would be way worse," and maybe that's what I'm doing now. But so much of this movie is good and worth checking out that I won't let some ambivalence about its  conclusion make me miss that it's a good movie. Just maybe flawed. But better than a lot of movies, so it works for me. I'm glad I finally watched it. 

2020 October Horror Challenge #97: "The Lift (1983)"

 

Somehow I missed this movie in my quest a few years ago to track down every elevator-centered horror movie. There are actually quite a few. This one was one if the earlier ones, back in 1983. It's a Dutch horror/sci-fi flick, and it's kinda dubbed badly, but im hoping to enjoy it in spite of this.

So there's this elevator in a building that starts behaving strangely and killing passengers (whoops!) It's hard for authorities to belive this strange occurrence,  but a maintenance man and a reporter know that something has to be wrong with the elevator (you think?) so they try to get to the bottom of the mystery and stop the elevator from killing passengers (and even people who just walk too close to the elevator).

Right when the movie begins, there are some really obnoxious people in the building, and I was hoping the elevator would kill them so I didn't have to listen to them anymore. Score! Well, they don't die, but they almost do, so that at least shuts them up for awhile. Soon people start actually dying, though, and while authorities don't want to believe that the elevator is targeting and killing people, the maintenance guy  knows better. I kinda feel bad for him. He's a jerk, but he's also one of the only people who realizes that the elevator is dangerous and is trying to stop it.

The tabloid reporter is the only other person who believes there must be something wrong with the elevator. The company that made the processors used in the elevator keep blowing her off, but it's clear that they realize something is wrong, because they secretly meet to discuss how to stop the elevator from killing people, but they don't want the public to know, so I guess they're willing to let the elevator keep killing people until they figure something out. Meanwhile, the maintenance guy's wife sees him out with the reporter and thinks he's having an affair, so she leaves him and takes the kids. I really can't blame her with his cagey behavior and unwillingness to tell her what's going on.

The elevator is creepy and menacing. It's definitely freaky enough, there's just more focus on the annoying characters that I want to punch in the face instead of the evil elevator that showld be the star of the movie. When the movie focuses on the elevator stalking its prey or spitting out a dead body, it's cool. It's when the movie veers off to focus on the annoying characters that it gets boring. We're supposed to feel bad for Felix (the maintenance guy) but the fact is that he's not doing his job very well, taking time he's supposed to be fixing things and running around doing a secret investigation with the reporter, so his wife and his boss have every reason to be pissed at him.

So, I have a question for you. If you knew an evil elevator was killing people, would you get in it and climb around? I wouldn't. I guess we're supposed to see him as a big hero trying to save people, but this guy has been an asshole the whole movie, treating his wife and boss and even his reporter friend like crap, and we're supposed to believe he's what, noble now? It's more like he just wants to beat the elevator because he's pissed off, so ok, it still doesn't make me care about him. I will say that those scenes inside the elevator shift are pretty tense, and there's a twist right up at the end that's cool, so the movie is ok. I just wish there had been more likeable characters. 

2020 October Horror Challenge #96: "The Old Dark House (1932)"

I always start wanting to watch older classic movies at this point in the challenge. Last year I binges a bunch of silent horror movies like "Nosferatu," but this year I was excited to find a little black and white gem directed by James Whale ("Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein") that I've never seen before.

Some weary travelers get caught in a storm one night, and when they discover that the road is out ahead, they seek shelter in a creepy, dark mansion they pass on the road. The family inside the house are pretty eccentric and downright strange, but they allow the guests to stay, eat dinner, and stay the night. Soon more travelers show up to seek shelter, and it's a full house. The Female family, who own the house, are Horace, the reluctant host, Morgan,vice butler, who is mute, and Rebecca, the older lady who is hard of hearing and prone to strange outbursts about chastity and her family's tragic history. As the night goes on, Morgan begins to show a romantic interest in the lady guests, and Rebecca become more irritable and fed up with the guests. As the night goes on, events take a frightening turn. Will they all survive the night or will they succumb to the terrors of the old dark house?

Was it typical back in the day days to just go up to some stranger's house and knock on the door and ask to stay the night because it's storming outside? I can't imagine doing that now. The family is very odd and not terribly hospitable, but I might be cranky too if some strangers showed up on a stormy night and asked me to let them stay in my house for the night. And let them eat dinner too! Why did they make so much food for only three people? It's like they knew they would have company. The second set of travelers,  a man and a woman, are about as strange as the family in the house. One is a chorus girl, and one is an industrial businessman. They're loud and goofy, dancing around and making weird conversation around the dinner table. Was it normal to get into big fights about politics around the dinner table with total strangers like this? Nowadays people just fight on Facebook and it seems much more efficient.

Morgan the butler is played by Boris Karloff, and he's said to be a drunk with a penchant for turning violent. Soon he's (literally) chasing after the female guests. Jerk. And there are lots more secrets to discover within the house too. It turns out there are two more family members that the reluctant hosts neglected to mention, one of whom appears to be very dangerous. In the midst of this, two of the guests spend some time together and announce that they're in love (dude, can you wait until a time when you're all not in grave danger? This really isn't the time). Soon there are fights breaking out, crazy people running around the house, and the threat of the whole sordid evening going up in flames. This is a strange little movie, but it was a fun watch. Remind me never to stop at creepy old houses if I get caught in a storm.

2020 October Horror Challenge #96: "Dead Heat (1988)"

 

How have I never heard of this movie?! It's a cop movie that's also a horror movie about zombies, with Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, AND Vincent Price! Clearly I was meant to love this movie, and the cruel, harsh world was keeping us apart,  but now we can be together at last. I can't wait to watch it.

This movie is about two cops, partners, who are after a violent gang of robbers who are extremely reckless and hard to kill. One of the cops dies fighting the gang, but finds himself resurrected as a zombie. He and his partner try to track down the rest of the undead gang and solve the "hey who's making all these zombies" mystery before it's too late.

Treat Williams looks so young in this movie! It's adorable. Joe Piscopo is really young too. Their banter and antics are a lot of fun even before zombies enter the picture. I would totally watch a buddy cop movie with these two. They could still make one! Somebody needs to get to work on this project immediately, because I want to watch that movie. Until that movie happens, though, I'll be content to watch this movie. Vincent Price is also great as always. He stars as the "asshole scientist who wants to play God" and I loved every minute.

This movie has some great special effects for its time. There's a zombie transformation scene that has to be seen to be believed. It's cool to watch even as I'm sad for what's happening to the character involved. There's another sequence that takes place in a butcher shop where the animal corpses suddenly come to life, and it's disgusting but hilarious. We also get to see a zombie go from human-looking to rotted corpse as time passes and tissue deteriorates. There's some skin melting, a good stabbing, and lots of dead bodies in various stages of decay. There's also a zombie vs. zombie shootout that you won't want to miss, and a body exploding (because what movie is complete without THAT?)

There are some great twists in the plot, too. The movie sneaks in a love story of sorts, and there's a mystery surrounding who is behind the zombie scheme and the dozens of murders that pile up while the cops are doing their investigation. I feel like saying more would give too much away, and this movie is such a blast that I'd hate to ruin it. Suffice it to say that young little baby Treat Williams shows his action movie chops in such a fun way that the movie just ended and I already want to watch it again. 

2020 October Horror Challenge #95: "Strange Behavior (1981)"

 

This movie was also released under the title "Dead Kids," and it's listed under "Strange Behavior" on Shudder, but when you hit "play," the title credits read "Dead Kids," so I had to find a poster for both.  Speaking of posters, these are pretty awesome. I would have been obsessed with watching this if I'd seen those as a kid. I'm pretty excited about watching it even now.

This movie is set in a small Midwestern town in Illinois. A bunch of teenagers are dying, and a policeman is convinced that the deaths have something to do with experiments being conducted at a local college. His own son has participated in the experiments, as has his son's best friend, who has been acting strangely ever since. It appears that while the experimental drugs given to the teens increase brain activity (making them smarter) they also have dangerous effects on behavior (hello homicidal rage!)

This plot has been done many times now (one of my favorite teen horror flicks, "Disturbing Behavior," is one example) but the idea was more original back in 1981. This movie is considered a seminal qork in New Zealand cinema (so much for the film being set in Illonois) so it's an example of early Oz-ploitation cinema. Gotta love it. The acting is pretty cheesy, but not much worse than any early 80s horror flick. There's only one character in one scene who can't keep their American accent, which made me smile, but otherwise everyone could really be from Illinois, so they did a good job.

At first, this seems like a run of the mill slasher, and not a great one at that,  so I wasn't very impressed, but as the movie goes on, it becomes more of a story of the dangers of scientists overreaching and playing God. Lots of horror movies have similar themes, so this one resonated. There are some good gory scenes, and the teens who have undergone the experiments have this confused, off-kilter, zombielike way of acting that actually works for the movie and creeps me out. Once the entire plot is revealed, it's pretty messed up,  and I like how the Sheriff stops messing around and is ready to end things in a hail of bullets (I can't exactly say I disagree with him at that point). The ending is insane too. It's fucked up in a way I didn't expect it to be. Good job, filmmakers! can see why this movie went down in Oz-ploitation history. Overall, I ended up liking this movie much better than I thought I would.