Although the book had been a bestseller, Blatty, who produced, and William Friedkin, his choice for director, had difficulty casting the “The Exorcist”. After turning down, or being turned down, by major stars of the era, they cast in the lead roles the relatively little-known Burstyn, the unknown Blair, and Jason Miller, the author of a hit play who had never acted in movies before… casting choices that were vigorously opposed by studio executives at Warner Bros. Pictures. Principal photgraphy was also difficult. Most of the set burned down, and Blair and Burstyn suffered long-term injuries in accidents. Ultimately the film took twice as long to shoot as scheduled and cost more than twice its initial budget.

On December 26, 1973, “The Exorcist” was released in 24 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Audiences flocked to it, waiting in long lines during winter weather, many doing so more than once, despite mixed critical reviews. There were ‘reports’ of heart attacks and miscarriages; a psychiatric journal carried a paper on “cinematic neurosis” triggered by the film. Many children were taken to see the film, leading to charges that the MPAA had accommodated Warner Bros. by giving the film an R rating instead of the X they thought it deserved in order to ensure its commercial success; a few cities tried to ban it outright or prevent children from seeing it, and obscenity concerns kept the film from a home video release in the United Kingdom until 1999.

The cultural conversation around the film, which also encompassed its treatment of Roman Catholicism, helped it become the first horror film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, one of 10 Academy Awards it was nominated for, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing. “The Exorcist” has remained high in critical esteem and commercial success ever since, for many years after its release remaining the top grosser in the supernatural horror and R-rated horror subcategories. The film has had a significant influence on popular culture, and several publications have regarded it as one of the greatest horror movies ever. In 2010, the Library of Congress selected the film to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Loosely based and inspired by the 1949 exorcism performed on an anonymous young boy known as “Roland Doe” or “Robbie Manheim” by the Jesuit priest William S. Bowdern, who formerly taught at St. Louis University and St, Louis University High School. Doe’s family became convinced the boys aggressive behaviour was connected to demonic possession, and called upon the services of several Catholic priests, including Bowdern, to perform the rite of exorcism. It was one of three exorcisms to have been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States at that time. Later analysis by paranormal skeptics have concluded that Doe was likely a mentally ill teenager acting out, as the actual events likely to have occurred (such as words being carved on his skin) we such that they could have been faked.

Although Freidkin has admitted he is very reluctant to speak about the factual aspects of the film, he made “The Exorcist” with the intention of immortalizing the events involving Doe that took place in St, Louis in 1949. Friedkin has said that he does not believe that the “head-spinning” actually occurred, but this has been disputed.

For directors, Warner Bros. had approached Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Penn and others who all turned down the project. Originally Mark Rydell was hired to direct, but William Peter Blatty insisted on Friedkin instead, because he wanted his film to have the same energy as “The French Connection”. After a standoff with the studio, which initially refused to budge over Rydell, Blatty eventually got his way. Principal photography for “The Exorcist” began on August 21, 1972.

Director William Freidkin & Linda Blair On Set, The Exorcist (approx. 1972)

Casting for the film especially for lead roles, was not easy. Although many name stars of the era were considered for the role, including Marlon Brandon for the role of Lankester Merrin. Jack Nicholson for the part of Karras and Audrey Hepburn for the role of Chris MacNeil. Hepburn insisted the “The Exorcist” be shot in Rome, since she had just moved to Italy with her husband. This was not to be, as filming abroad would have raised the budget significantly, as well as creating language barriers with crew. Famously the lead role was offered to Jane Fonda who turned down the film as a “piece of capitalist rip-off bullshit” …who’d danced around in a sci-fi bikini having interstellar orgasms as Barbarella not even 5 years prior.

The question of whether or not a young actress, even a talented one, could carry the film was an issue from the jump. Film directors considered for the project were skeptical. Mike Nichols had turned down the project specifically because he did not believe a 12-year old girl was capable of playing the par, and would likely not be able to handle the psychological stress it could cause. The first actresses considered were names known to the public. Pamelyn Ferdin, a sci fi veteran and Denise Nickerson, who had played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was considered but the material bothered her parents too much.

Friedkin started to interview young women as old as 16 who looked young enough to play Regan, but was not finding anyone who worked. Then Elinore Blair came in unannounced to the director’s New York office with her daughter Linda. The agency representing Linda had not sent her for the part, but she had previously met with Warner Bros. Pictures casting department and then with Friedkin. Both mother & daughter impressed the director. Elinore was not a typical stage mother, and Linda’s credits were primarily in modeling: she was mainly interested in showing and riding horses around her Connecticut home. “Smart but not precocious, Cute but not beautiful. A normal, happy twelve-year old girl” Friedkin recalled.

Blair let Friedkin know she had read “The Exorcist” by stating “it’s about a little girl who gets possessed by the devil and does a whole bunch of bad things – she pushes a man out of her bedroom window and she hits her mother across the face and she masturbates with a crucifix.” Friedkin asked Linda if she knew what masturbation meant. “It’s like jerking off, isn’t it?” and she giggled. “Have you ever done that?” he asked. “Sure: haven’t you?” Linda responded. She was quickly cast as Regan after tests with Burstyn, and Friedkin realized he needed to keep that level of spontaneity on the set. Friedkin went to extraordinary lengths manipulating the actors, reminiscent of the old Hollywood directing style, to get the genuine reactions he wanted. Yanked violently around in harnesses, both Blair and Burstyn suffered back injuries and their painful screams were included in the film. Burstyn injured her back after landing on her coccyx when a stuntman jerked her around using a special effects cable during the scene when Regan slaps her mother. According to the documentary “Fear of God: The Making of The Exorcist”, the injury did not cause permanent damage, although Burstyn was upset the shot of her screaming in pain was used in the film.

After O’Malley confirmed to Friedkin that he trusted the director, Friedkin slapped him hard across the face to generate a deeply solemn reaction for the last rites scene; this offended the many Catholic crew members on the set. He also fired blanks without warning on the set to elicit shock from Jason Miller for a take and told Miller that the pea soup would hit him in the chest rather than the face in the projectile vomiting scene, resulting in his disgusted reaction. Lastly, he had Regan’s bedroom set built inside a freezer so that the actors’ breath could be visible on camera, which required the crew to wear cold-weather gear. This could also be simply that Friedkin is a fucking crazy person and director. For the crucifix scene, Linda Blair’s own voice was recorded as she yelled her demon dialog. The recording was then slowed-down to achieve a very low bass. The very-low bass result was then recorded at such a speed to achieve a raging alto male voice.

“The Exorcist” is a product of a time drenched with horror, both real and on the screen: Vietnam War, Watergate, street riots, racial divide, crime and movies that starkly reflected it all – including those considered depraved, such as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Night of the Living Dead”. What is so horrific about The Exorcist to me isn’t even the demonic possession, it’s the incredible performance from Ellen Burystn. We watch a mother, completely skeptical of religion and any type of paranormal entity slowly unravel as she tries to rationalize the slow decline of her daughters health and…existence. As Regans health and behavior remains mysteriously unresolvable Chris turns, in desperation to the church. The head exorcist is the globe-trotting Father Merrin with Father Karras, a troubled psychiatric-counselor priest who also boxes, assisting. Inhabited poor Regan’s body it seems is none other than Pazuzu, an ancient demon god. The one plot-hole being there is absolutely zero explination as to why Regan is selected as it’s vessel – regardless it doesn’t really matter. Evil is evil regardless of the laws of nature.

Although the ‘shocks and scares’ may not hold up in 2019, they completely serve the stories purpose and make you feel even more for all those trying to help this child, and of course her exhausted mother. The tone of “The Exorcist” is often clinical and, except for the infrequent sounds of the prickly score there is virtually no music on this soundtrack. Unlike so many horror movies that followed, “The Exorcist” is actually about something. It’s about facing and trying to let go of traumas. Getting sick and growing old and all the bullshit that comes along with that. Accepting things outside of your own beliefs. And most of all – That pea soup will forever be tainted by this movie.

Combining new-style realism and sexual radicalism, old style horror and religion made for the perfect recipe in this revered classic. I watched this movie alone when I was around 12-13 years old and it is a movie that has affected me the most to this day. And for that and MANY other reasons – “The Exorcist” is the last choice on 31 Days Of Horror Countdown on Screamish!

Beyond it’s inventive, original take on the Vampire story (considered the first “Everyday vampire” character) the film is driven by iconic hand-held camerawork and creative editing, plus special effects by Tom Savini in his first collaboration with Romero. The film was seized and confiscated in the UK under the “Video Nasties” act due to its graphic depictions of rape and violence, but its unique story and style have influenced everyone from UK band ‘Soft Cell’ to Silent Hill creator Hideo Kojima. There’s even an Italian-version of the film, Wampyr, with a totally-different edit from Dario Argento that includes heart-pounding soundtrack by Goblin – the wizards behind many of director Argento’s horror film scores. While forever remembered for inventing the modern zombie movie with “Night Of The Living Dead”, Romero’s “Martin” may be in fact his best movie and equally important to modernizing a classic monster.

After a dreamlike sequence where a woman is attacked while asleep on a train, drugged and drained of blood with a razor blade, the film follows Martin (John Amplas in his film debut) as he is sent to live with his religious uncle Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) in the grey wasteland of 1970’s suburban Pittsburgh. Cuda’s from ‘the old country’ and his old-school ways have led him to believe that Martin is an 84-year-old vampire. He forbids his nephew from speaking to his cousin Christine and tries unsuccessfully to repel him with traditional methods: strings of garlic and holy objects like a crucifix and blessed statues. Martin mocks these attempts and says forcefully to Cuda that he is a family member, not someone to be treated like “Nosferatu”. Cuda warns that if Martin murders anyone in Braddock, he will stake him through the heart. His grand-uncle believes a family curse is responsible for Martin being the reincarnation of the famed Transylvanian vampire. Eventually overpowered by his psycho-sexual thirst, Martin sneaks out to downtown Pittsburgh and begins to feed on local women, kicking off his descent into full blown vampirism.

Throughout “Martin“, Romero blurs the line of reality in Martin’s mind, with fantasical black and white flashbacks cut with drab, depressive contemporary scenes that play like a teenage fantasy against horrors that vampires would really face. Martin himself never seems sure if he needs to feed or if it’s all in his head. Panned on its release for its slow, improvisational style, Romero allows the mundane drudgery of “normal” life to almost be its own character, one that’s another of Martin’s antagonists. When the film does get violent, it’s punctuated by a percussive, frenetic Jazz soundtrack by Donald Rubinstein that adds another layer to an already complex film. Whilst inventive and satirical, “Martin” is still a dark, sombre and somewhat cruel story, never confirming on denying if Martin is merely mad, or truly a monster. Highly recommended for fans of inventive cinema and off-centre Horror stories, check the trailer below and seek this rarity out for a 31 Days Of Horror viewing. Due to rights disputes that plague much of Romero’s work, this one’s not available to stream, but if you’re a collector Arrow put out a, unfortunately now out of print, box set that’s the only version worth owning.

The story of “Onibaba” was inspired by the Shin Buddhist parable of yome-odoshi-no men (嫁おどしの面) (bride-scaring mask) or niku-zuki-no-men (肉付きの面) (mask with flesh attached), in which a mother used a mask to scare her daughter from going to the temple. She was punished by the mask sticking to her face, and when she begged to be allowed to remove it, she was able to take it off, but it took the flesh off her face with it.

Every frame of “Onibaba” could be a painting, stunning its viewers with sheer beauty. The shadows inside the huts are atmospheric and abstract. The thick reeds of the susuki grass appear as waves in the ocean at night. This story of a controlling woman’s fate and also the effects of war, weave together perfectly with emphasis on the imagery of faces based on the effects of nuclear bombing. An odd mix of drama, pulp, exploitation and tension makes for one of the most well-rounded films in all genre history.

As someone who had lived through the Second World War, Shindo had first-hand experience of the horrors of marital conflict, not just for those on the front line, but also for those left home alone. Even if “Onibaba” tells the story of a haunting that is entirely faked, the horrors that it contains are real and compelling enough, depicting a war- ravaged landscape, where the basic need to survive has overridden all morality, and ordinary people unblinkingly enact the most depraved of misdeeds.

Shindo wanted to film “Onibaba” in a field of susuki grass. He sent out assistant directors to find suitable locations. Once a location was found near a river bank, prefabricated buildings were set up to live in. Filming started in June 1964 and continued for three months. On set, there was a rule that if somebody left they would not get any pay, to keep the crew motivated to continue. Shindo included dramatized scenes of the dissatisfaction on set as part of the 2000 film By Player.

Although a horror movie, there is no denying its political / anti-war message. Beautifully shot in black-and-white with a membrable soundtrack by Hiraku Hayashi, consisting of sax, drums, tubas and ritualistic voices, “Onibaba” is a stark portrayal of lust, jealousy, raw hunger and the failures of capitalism. “Onibaba” was saved for one of the last films on our list for a reason, it’s one of the more haunting and important ones ever covered and a MUST SEE for any horror or film fanatic. You can see it in glorious HD on The Criterion Channel, or grab the Blu-Ray, and make sure you watch the hypnotic trailer below!

“The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” is Adapted from Fredrick Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi, which had been previously made into a Hollywood film, “Screaming Mimi (1958)”, directed by Gerd Oswald. After working for several years as a scripter (including a co-writing gig on Sergio Leone’s 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West), Argento marked himself as one of the godfathers of the Giallo genre with this directorial debut.

A stylish murder-mystery that proved to be very popular amongst other filmmakers (Brian DePalma owes his entire career to Hitchcock and Argento in my opinion), “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” stars Tony Musante as Sam Dalmas, an American writer living in Rome with his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall). One night, Sam witnesses a violent attack in an art gallery. The victim (Eva Renzi) survives the attempted murder and Sam becomes obsessed with catching the assailant, who is more than likely responsible for a slew of murders in the area.

Although, Argento’s scripts are often more than questionable, he manages to time and time again create engrossing mysteries that keep you waiting for the next twist or iconic neon red covered kill. “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” features a pimp who delivers the same one liner in almost every scene, an eccentric artist who EATS CATS, but also one of the most offbeat scores by the legend himself Ennio Morricone, and gorgeous cinematography from Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now).

All in all – This movie may lack structure, substance and general common sense in some places, however “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” is an important piece of not only genre and giallo cinema, but filmmaking in general, featuring the skills of many future iconic filmmakers, musicians and artists. Gorgeous visuals, a dizzying soundtrack and classic Italian slasher kills place this on our 31 Days Of Horror Countown! ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT. Stay tuned to Screamish as we round off the end of the spookiest month of the year with more hidden gems & rare bops!

“The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” has been released by Arrow Video on Blu Ray / DVD, in a brand new 4k restoration from the original camera negative, or You can also watch online on Amazon Prime, Check the trailer below for a taste!

And it’s not like their influences on the film are subtle… the film’s Italian writer and producer Ovidio G. Assonitis was known as “The Rip Off King” for films like Beyond the Door (The Exorcist) and Tentacles (Jaws but with a killer octopus), wholesale copies of popular American genre films made cheap for the European market. But in “The Visitor” Assonitis and director Giulio Paradisi (credited as Michael J. Paradise, easily one of the best hack pseudonyms ever) go nuts and steal everything that wasn’t nailed down in the warehouse of 1970’s Horror Cinema Ideas and create a weird, wildly psychadelic and almost undefinable b-movie gem that’s greater than the sum of it’s many, many parts.

To call “The Visitor” another rip-off though, would be woefully inaccurate. It’s actually kind of genius in its own bonkers, impossible to explain way. We start in an hallucinatory, alien landscape, Jerzy Colsowicz (John Huston) experiences a mind-altering vision of a powerful and destructive storm brought about by a young human girl, Katy, who is the descendant of an evil alien guy named Zatteen (there’s that subtle writing in effect) who fled to Earth thousands of years ago. He was killed by a bunch of birds, somehow under the control of God, but his spirit lives on through his evil, bald-assed bastard children, whom he made dozens of by getting all kinds of 1979 freaky with some sexy ladies. Katy has mind-control powers that she sometimes tries to kill people with, and a pet hawk who she is telepathically linked with, and there’s a cabal of creepy old men led by Lance Henriksen as an Atlanta Billionaire (huh?) who are dead-set on getting her mom pregnant in a sort of reverse Rosemary’s baby meets Omen kind of thing to bring about a new world by opening a dimension portal. Or something. “The Visitor” is definitely “you just gotta see it” territory as Katy and her family battle forces beyond the realm of any logical plot you’ve seen before.

Film.com’s David Ehrlich referred to “The Visitor” as “a remake of The Bad Seed as filtered through the acid-tinged mind of Alejandro Jodorowsky”  and we’d have to agree. Evan Husney from DraftHouse Films, who led the restoration of “The Visitor” several years ago,  told Vice at the time:

“There are two ways to watch the movie. The first is where you just completely disregard the movie’s logic. The second is to put every scene down on a notecard and lay it out—then you’ll kind of see the A to Z plot going on, but there’s never a sense of you knowing what’s happening as it’s happening. It has this completely nonsensical logic and if you’re cool with that, great. The movie just seems like it’s a mashup of 40 different movies.”

A schizophrenic blend of shot-for-shot imagery from existing films and goofy, self serious 70’s symbolism that likely made sense to the moviemakers at the time of production, “The Visitor” is difficult to sum up as it defies logical explanation. It’s been called “The Mount Everest Of Insane 70’s Italian Movies” and championed by those that argue that It’s actually well made, but doesn’t make much sense. For Horror-heads there’s lots of kills, but we can’t really understand who most of the characters are and why they get murdered in so many ways: However none of this really matters, because like other films that champion style over story (Blood Machines anyone?), if you’re into it after the inter-dimensional monks battling an alien devil intro on another planet, you’ll probably have a blast watching it like we did.

Available on Shudder in a great re-master, this is definitely one we’d recommend to watch with some herbal suppliments for your 31 Days Of Horror. Check the trailer below and see if you’re down to get way, way out there with “The Visitor”

When the TV adaptation of EC Comics “Tales From The Crypt” became a surprise hit after its 1989 debut, it was only a matter of time before a feature film followed. But unlike “Creepshow” and “Tales From The Darkside“, “Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight” isn’t an anthology, but rather an entirely original film, a celebration of every trashy late-night cable horror film trope from the 90s packed to the brim with biblical bad guys, blood, boobs and of course … Billy Zane. The screenplay of “Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight” wasn’t actually adapted from the pages of EC Comics like other stories in ‘Creepshow’ or the television series, but was written in 1987 as a straight-to-video slasher two years prior to the HBO series’ debut, when it bounced around until being reworked as the first in a planned series of spin-off features. That plan was cut short by the disastrous second entry in the series: Bordello of Blood, but the less said about that one the better. What we’re left with as a final note in Tales From The Crypt’s legacy is a glorious monument late-night, cable TV trash packed with tons of fun for those who want something a little silly to celebrate 31 Days of Horror.

The story , such as it is, is simple: Ex-soldier Brayker  (William Sadler) is the immortal protector of a mystical key that can unlock a power of tremendous evil; his pursuer, the sleazy but charming Collector (Billy Zane in a scenery destroying role) is the demon who wants the key so he can kickstart the apocalypse. On the run for almost 100 years, Brayker finally stops in at a boarding house in New Mexico where he plans to finally face off against the Collector and his band of ghouls, preventing them from ever seizing the key. Brayker uses blood from the artifact to protect the building and tells the residents they must wait out the night. The Collector assembles a team of demons to attack, but is unable to get in. The Collector uses psychic powers to seduce and possess Cordelia (Brenda Bakke) who turns on the group. They escape through old mine tunnels under the building, where the other townsfolk, under demonic possession, drive them back into the church for another final showdown. That’s it: Story wise there’s nothing in here we haven’t seen in a hundred other bad b-movies, but “Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight” cranks everything up to 11 and goes completely over the top in the best possible way, as literally everyone dies, comes back and dies again in more and more eye-popping, goo splattering ways.

Releasing right before the tipping point of terrible CGI taking over in horror films, Demon Knight boasts some outstanding practical FX throughout from Todd Masters, on top of Billy Zane’s scene-stealing, ridiculously perfect performance which really carries the entire film. Much in the same vein of Demons (from which it clearly draws a ton of style), if you want to enjoy 90 minutes of ghastly ghouls getting dispatched in increasingly gruesome ways, this overlooked genre gem will get the job done… and then some. Check the trailer below, you can catch “Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight” on Amazon Prime or pick up the awesome Scream Factory special edition on Blu-Ray.

Interviews with the original Creepshow’s legendary make up artist Tom Savini seem to indicate that “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” was to be the third film in the “Creepshow” series, and zombie-guru George A. Romero and Stephen King returned to write for the film as they had in the past. As well, project director John Harrison, who’d worked on both previous instalments, and Cinematographer Robert Draper who’s since returned to shoot the new series on Shudder return, along with much of the effects and production crew. In the most confusing origin story, Romero’s segment, “Cat from Hell” was originally supposed to be in “Creepshow 2,” but was scrapped due to budget, then brought back to be a TV episode when “Tales from the Darkside” initially began life as the first “Creepshow” TV series (but was transformed in to its own series before airing due to rights holder conflicts), then scrapped again, which then gave birth to it’s final incarnation in this 1990 film. The third segment, adapted by Beetlejuice and Thinner writer Michael McDowell, was already previously adapted in the Japanese horror anthology film “Kwaidan” before being reworked for this format. With all this mixed parentage, it’s no wonder the film wound up a bit of a mess, but, given the impressive players behind it, “Tales From The Darkside: The Movie” is a throughly enjoyable anthology stuffed with late-80s charm and just perfect for a spooky season afternoon during 31 Days Of Horror.

The framing story involves a modern-day witch (literal goddess Debbie Harry!) who is preparing her dinner: a little boy (Matthew Lawrence). To stall the witch he proceeds to tell her a series of tales from a book of scary stories, the titular “Tales From The Darkside“, and from here we jump into the first of three shorts. In the first segment, McDowell adapts Arthur Conan Doyle‘s short story “Lot No. 249” into a modern monster mystery with film-noir overtones. A graduate student, Edward Bellingham (played by a young but somehow still old looking Steve Buscemi), has been sabotaged by two classmates, Susan (Julianne Moore), and Lee (Robert Sedgwick), who framed him for the theft of an artifact to ruin his chances of winning a scholarship for which they were competing. As one does when theses things happen, Bellingham reanimates a mummy with an ancient scroll and uses it to murder them both, which turns out to be far more complicated than expected.

In the second tale, George A. Romero adapts a little-known Stephen King short story “The Cat from Hell“. We meet Drogan, a wealthy, wheelchair-bound old man (William Hickey) who brings in a hitman named Halston (David Johansen, best known for his role in ‘Scrooged’ as the undead cabbie) for a bizarre job: Drogan wants him to kill a cat, who is convinced is murderously evil. Drogan claims that one by one, the cat killed three other occupants of his house: his sister, her friend Carolyn, and the family’s butler, Richard. We learn that Drogan was the CEO of a drug company that had killed thousands of cats while testing a new drug, and he is now convinced that this black cat is here to exact a Lovecraftian, cosmic revenge.

The third short in “Tales From The Darkside: The Movie” is a dark love story borrowed from Japanese folklore. Written again by Michael McDowel, “Lover’s Vow” followed despondent artist named Preston (James Remar) who witnesses a gruesome murder committed by a demon-like monster. The monster agrees to spare Preston’s life as long as he swears never to speak of what he saw or describe the monster’s appearance to anyone. After a dreamlike encounter leaving him scarred for life, Preston’s situation suddenly takes a turn for the better and his struggling art career becomes wildly successful…until, of course, he breaks his promise with horrifying results. From there our wraparound story gets its own conclusion, and then the credits roll, leaving us with a grin.

Made during the height of pre-CGI practical effects, everything here has its own goofy, ghastly charm, with great performances from a lot of the actors “before they were stars” and knowing winks to the audience like George Romero’s movies playing in the background throughout. And while it’s far better than most anthologies, “Tales From The Darkside: The Movie” still suffers from the hit-or-miss nature of other anthologies, where one or two stories inevitably outshine the rest. Without the humour of “Creepshow” it doesn’t quite live up to it’s full potential, but as a guilty pleasure, and one many fans might not know about, it’s definitely found a home in our collection of Horror. Check the trailer below, or watch on Amazon Prime.

Jamie (Jim Sturgess) is a painfully shy young man who walks the streets of East London hiding his face. He is still a virgin at 25 because a lifetime of bullying have left him unable to make friends or attract women. Unfortunately, Jaime’s been cursed twice: once by a huge heart-shaped birthmark covering one side of his face and twice by recently losing his father. He works as a photographer with his older brother and cares for his ailing mother in their run down apartment, which is “Heartless“‘s way of saying he’s really got nothing to lose. One day while developing photos, he notices a disturbing face looking at him from the window of a house. Investigating, he follows a suspicious man to a group of hooded vandals around a fire, who emit eerie shrieks, and Jamie is shocked to see they have demonic lizard-like face masks with huge pin-like teeth. Over time Jamie becomes aware of a series of horrific murders by fire that have been occurring in the neighbourhood. A witness to one of the murders tells a TV reporter that they weren’t wearing masks; the demonic faces were real.

Jamie and his mother are walking in the neighbourhood when they are attacked by the demonic gang. His mother is immolated while Jamie watches helplessly, and he is savagely beaten and left for dead. While unconscious in hospital he glimpses a man in a dream who says he’s waiting for Jamie. Later, he receives a phone call from a man with the same voice, and is guided to the apartment of Papa B (Game Of Throne’s Joseph Mawle) and his assistant Belle (Nikita Mistry)…who looks just like the little girl from the TV report. Papa B offers a Faustian bargain: Jamie must fulfil Papa B’s desire for chaos with some occasional acts of …creative vandalism… in return for “everything he’s ever wanted”. Jaime accepts and quickly learns to be careful what you wish for.

Writer and director Philip Ridley is much like Richard Stanley (Hardware, Colour Out Of Space) in that he has only made a shockingly small number of films over almost thirty years despite clearly being a unique filmmaker, having only 3 directorial and one screenwriting credit (the classic gangster film ‘The Krays’) to his name. There is a broken, haunting beauty about “Heartless” that similar films of the time failed to capture, stemming from the director growing up in and around the areas the film were shot. Awash in a constant, depressing gray or oil-stained ochre, the film’s supernatural elements remain mostly in the shadows. The quick glimpses of shrieking demonic faces under hoods never lose their ability to shock through overuse, and the effects of arson and splashes of gore are even more striking against the film’s muted industrial palette. And while it’s obvious to us that our man Papa B is the devil, the film relies mainly on Joseph Mawle’s supremely menacing presence and creaking delivery to make us see his true nature. Sure, some of what comes in “Heartless” is telegraphed, but that’s part of the fun, as the film moves us to each plot point in unexpected ways with a heaping helping of gritty atmosphere.

It’s not a masterpiece, but “Heartless” is near perfectly paced throughout it’s runtime … save for a slightly slow start and a pre-final act falter with the sudden introduction of a villain who looks like a reject from Mortal Kombat, and even manages to be even a bit romantic in it’s depiction of Jaime finding confidence as a reborn version of himself…until of course he has to start murdering his neighbours. With strong performances throughout and a genuinely unique setting for a Horror film, “Heartless” deserves a watch by genre fans looking for something they may have missed. Check the trailer below, you can watch this one on Amazon Prime.

To start: “Jacob’s Ladder” is a literal fever dream, with the fractured narrative bouncing between the Vietnam War and New York, 1971 and 1975. In Vietnam, Jacob’s company is assaulted along the Mekong Delta, and strange things being to happen to his fellow soldiers as they’re cut down in front of his eyes. Suddenly, Jacob awakens in the New York City Subway, glancing a Lovecraftian tentacle protruding from a sleeping homeless person. Jacob is increasingly beset by disturbing experiences and surreal visions, including the iconic “faceless” men who follow him. He attempts to contact his regular doctor at the local VA hospital, but after first being told that there is no record of him ever being a patient there, Jacob is told that his doctor has died in a car explosion, one of many ominous mysteries that begin to occur in his life. Later at a party, a psychic reads Jacob’s palm… telling him he’s already dead, hurtling Jacob into a growing spiral of delusion as he tries to hold on to reality.

The plot twists and turns through time as Jacob desperately tries to solve the mystery of why these visions are plaguing him. Director Lyne downplayed script writer Bruce Joel Rubin’s original “intimidating” biblical imagery and instead unleashes Jacob’s nightmares in an ingenious homage to the styles of Francis Bacon, the Tibetan Book Of the Dead and the Body Horror maestro himself, David Cronenberg. In his screenplay, Rubin used traditional imagery of demons and hell, flashes of which do still pop up in the infamous party scene, However, Lyne decided to use images similar to thalidomide deformities and war injuries to achieve a greater shock effect, which gives the film an unsettling and disturbingly realistic feel. A stark departure from most genre filmmakers, Lyne used entirely in-camera effects, with no post production, adding to the realism of each scene. According to the director’s DVD commentary, test screening’s were “too overwhelming” for the audience. In response, about 20 minutes of disturbing scenes, mostly from the last third of the film, were removed from the final cut, since made available on the complete Blu-Ray edition.

For all its monstrous scenes of horror. “Jacob’s Ladder” is a profoundly spiritual film (after all “Jacob’s Ladder” is literally the bridge between Heaven and Earth). Scriptwriter Rubin got the initial idea after experiencing a bad acid trip in the ’60s, as he embarked on a spiritual quest spending several years meditating in Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. Interviewed at the time of release, he remarked: “If you watch this film with your mind, trying to understand what’s going on, you’re going to be torn into a million pieces”. The performances of Tim Robbins (who at the time was a semi-known character actor doing mostly popcorn comedies) and the late Elizabeth Pena anchor the story in dramatic realism, rather than in the b-movie hysteria that a lesser film would indulge in.

The horror of the movie would be in the revelation that hope is hell’s final torment, that life is a dream that ends over and over with the final truth: that life was never real, that we are all creatures trapped in eternal suffering and damnation.

–Bruce Joel Rubin

More serious in tone and subject than most Horror films, Jacob’s Ladder delivers seriously disturbing images that stick with you longer after the credits. Available to watch on Shudder, check out the trailer below if you’ve not yet seen this cinematic nightmare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDEoi16gXyw

The story is simple: After a man named Alderson (Our favourite Canadian character Actor Julian Richings, from The Witch and Urban Legend, in a grisly cameo) is killed in a mysterious cube-shaped room, five strangers – Disgraced cop Quentin (Maurice Dean Wint), Awkward office worker Worth (Pin’s David Hewlett), Holloway, a paranoid doctor, the bookish nerd Leaven (Nicole de Boer from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”), and Rennes, a prison escape artist, – awaken and meet in another seemingly identical room. No one knows where they are, how long they’ve been there or how they got there. Each room has doors on every surface, and, as there’s no food or water to be found, the group desperately sets off to find their way out.

Quentin tells the group that some rooms contain traps, which he’s discovered while exploring. The maze is beset by frequent tremors, and Leaven notices numbers inscribed in the narrow passageways between rooms. As the rooms become increasingly dangerous and their journey more and more surreal, the tenuous bonds between characters, and their own sanity, break down, creating a tense cat-and-mouse game between the captives that plays out to tragic results. It’s in the endless surprises that Natali keeps coming that “Cube” has earned it’s cult status, so if you’re one of the few who’ve not seen this Canadian classic, we’ll spare you the spoilers to allow maximum impact.

Questions of philosophy and existential matters are on touched on in the dialogue, and its obvious to read some pretty heavy-handed allegory into “Cube“, but the film never gets too far up it’s own ass in film-student philosophizing, keeping the pacing tight and the danger of the maze ever present. Working with an actual Mathematician, Natali’s unique maze design manages to be simultaneously surreal and anchored in technical possibility, adding to the terror we feel as the walls literally close in around them. Cinematographer Derek Rogers developed strategies for shooting in the tightly confined spaces of the 14×14 ft. set that keep us consistency engaged with the actors and the action at hand, and paired with an early, very solid score from composer Mark Korven, (best known for his work on “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse” with Robert Eggers), Natali’s managed to make a compelling, concise thriller that stands amongst the best in Sci-Fi Horror. A marvel in filmmaking cleverness, “Cube” won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and the Jury Award at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, establishing Natale’s voice as a genre Director and paving the way for future work like “Splice” and the more recent Stephen King adaptation “In The Tall Grass”.

“Cube” is available on the always awesome Shudder, as well as a solid anniversary edition Blu-Ray, but trust us when we say that once you love it as much as we do: avoid the sequels at all costs, which over-explain and under deliver on every aspect that made “Cube” a classic. Check the trailer below for a gem you may have missed for 31 Days Of Horror!

The third movie of Carpenter’s loose Apocalypse Trilogy (Which includes “Prince Of Darkness” and “The Thing”), ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ starts with cynical, skeptical insurance agent John Trent (played by the always amazing Sam Neill) who we meet after being committed to an asylum, proclaiming not to be crazy. He is then introduced to Dr. Wrenn (David Warner in a great little cameo, one of many memorable character actors who pop up throughout) who hears Trent’s story about the events that led to his current situation. Unfolding in an extended flashback, Trent’s been hired to find Svengali-like novelist Jürgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane , currently the #1 Horror writer in the world, who’s disappeared along with his latest manuscript. His publisher, Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston!) at Arcane Publishing (one of many fun Lovecraft references peppered throughout the film) wants to know if it’s a hoax to build publicity, or if their golden goose really has flown the coup, which is strange because Trent’s just been attacked in broad daylight by an axe-wielding ghoul spewing those immortal words: “Do you read Sutter Cane?”. The publisher assigns Cane’s editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), to accompany him. Linda explains that Cane’s stories have been known to cause disorientation, memory loss and paranoia in “less stable readers”, and that the man who attacked Trent earlier was Cane’s agent.

As his waking dreams become increasingly horrifying, Trent notices that lines hidden on Cane’s book’s covers form the outline of New Hampshire and mark a location alluded to be Hobb’s End, the fictional setting for many of Cane’s works. They set out to find the town. Linda experiences bizarre phenomena in a surreal, Lynchian sequence during the late night drive, and they suddenly arrive at Hobb’s End in daylight. Trent and Linda search the small town, encountering deformed people and bizarre landmarks believed to be as fictional as Cane’s novels. Here the film suffers it’s only, and brief, lag in action, as the two detectives puzzle through the clues Cane’s left behind. Quickly though, ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ shifts gears again into the final act’s fever dream of 4th-wall breaking, tentacled monstered madness, with far too many twists to go any further in revealing the plot if you’re one of the few who’ve not yet seen it.

One of Carpenter’s most technically impressive films, the effects from KNB (including Evil Dead’s / Creepshow’s Greg Nicotero) are amongst some of the last great practical puppets put to film, buttressed against some, at the time, impressive work from Industrial Light & Magic, and of course, we get another synth-soaked Carpenter score for the film, including his wildly goofy heavy-metal intro that ..somehow.. works perfectly to set the film’s tone. Shot in Toronto by longtime collaborator Gary B. Kibbe (who shot Big Trouble In Little China & They Live!), the film oozes that John Carpenter aesthetic in its excellent use of lighting, shadow and location, while simultaneously keeping the “fictional” feel of ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ story intact, making great use of local landmarks and clever set dressing in the apocalyptic final act. By bringing together two major influences in style under one story, Carpenter left a lasting legacy with one of his final great Horror films.

‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ is not perfect, but it is very, very close, and if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s really no excuse. Available on a fantastic Blu-Ray re-release from late last year, as well as on Shudder, you can check out the trailer below to put you in the mood for madness.

We open with a scene of Teutonic Knights slaughtering an entire village of apparent Satanists in a pulpy, very “Monty Python” style intro sequence. Here, Soavi’s inventive framing (he is Terry Gilliam’s go-to 2nd Unit Director for good reason) and gleeful love of gore kick things off with a great energy, establishing our location, the titular Church itself, built on a pile of writhing, undead Satanic zombies, and a few unfortunate horses for good measure, with the hopes of locking their evil away forever. Heads roll, peasants are run through with pikes, and we’re quickly dropped into the present day with a classic, unending one-take shot through the now massive church. We meet our American visitor, Evan (a standard plot device in pretty much every Italian horror film) who, of course, notices things aren’t quite right with the bishop, the violent frescoes, and “The Church” itself, which has no graveyard and a mysterious cavern beneath it’s forbidding basement.

The inexplicably gorgeous restoration expert Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) who’s been working in the church restoring the violent, demonic artwork adorning its walls, discovers a mysterious manuscript foretelling the end of the world, and after some genre-standard and unexplained sexing, our librarian Even decides its time to see what’s going on in the basement, and sneaks off to pry open the tomb by removing the seven eyed satanic goat head locking the demons below. In a scene right out of Exorcist III, he’s attacked by dozens of hands emerging from the crypt in a terrifying vision, one of many he begins to suffer as the demons take control of his mind. There’s some fun stuff here, especially when he rips out and eats his own heart, but the energy wanes in the set up to the films extended final act, especially with the dead-eyed “performance” from Argento’s daughter, Asia, and Star Wars own Hugh Quarshie as Father Gus, the eventual “final priest” left to battle Evan’s monstrous transformation…. who spends a lot of time doing nothing much at all in a clumsy detective sub-plot the film never really needs.

However by the 3rd act, the origins of Demons‘ script begin to show through, as various side-characters get trapped in “The Church“‘s clockwork security system (explained in a great, gore soaked flashback to the inquisitions) and, of course, picked off one by one from the spreading Demon infection as our initial protagonist gets fully on the side of the demons, resurrecting previously killed priests and transforming into a giant, horny, goat monster. This is prime Giallo time, where you can turn off your critical thinking and enjoy the ride, as Sovai’s takes us through some fun jump scares, creative kills and impressive camera work towards the films conclusion.

If this is enough to get your interest piqued, then you’ll likely love “The Church” as a flawed, but fun, take on the Satanic apocalypse trope through the eyes of a genre legend. There’s more than enough monsters and mayhem here to keep most horror fans attention, and like all of Soavi’s films, his love of movie making is always on display even through the film’s clumsy construction. While definitely not perfect, “The Church” is indeed a rare find, difficult to classify but never boring, and a worthy addition to the library of any Argento fans. Watch the trailer below, and find it on Amazon Prime’s pretty amazing collection of B-movie horror.

A young David Hewlett, long-time Canadian character actor from Cube and Stargate fame, stars as Leon, an outwardly affable but obviously high-strung young man whose arms-length upbringing has left him on the edge of sanity. His father, Dr Frank Linden (the iconic Terry O’Quinn in a fantastically creepy turn) runs a medical practice successful enough to afford the family an enormous house in the countryside, but he himself is odd, distant … and may not be all together there…much like Leon’s germaphobic mother, who forbids him any outside “influences”. Leon’s world only has two friends: his younger, normal, sister Ursula (Cynthia Preston) and Pin (voiced by Breaking Bad’s Johnathan Banks), a life sized anatomical doll (nicknamed Pin from Pinocchio), complete with transparent skin, his father keeps at his clinic. Having a talent for ventriloquism, Leon’s father uses Pin to talk to his children, providing awkward lessons about human reproduction. An early scene where a Nurse enjoys Pin’s anatomy in a very personal way leaves Leon scarred and also, more unsettling, aroused by what he sees, adding layers of extra-creepy obsession to his character. Ursula laughs her Dad’s odd mannerisms off, while Leon slowly becomes convinced Pin is a living being. This strange belief lingers on well into the siblings’ adulthood, when an apparent tragedy orphans Leon and Ursula, leaving them, and Pin, alone in the family’s estate.

As is the way that these stories go, Leon becomes more controlling of Ursula, and Pin more controlling of Leon, through long, rambling conversations, imbibing their dynamic with a serious menace. When their Aunt moves in to help, and Ursula begins to leave the nest with a new job and lover, Pin’s control grows more complete, and violent, as Leon loses himself in obsession. Without spoiling the ending, “Pin” delivers it’s big payoff as Leon finally loses it, offering us a much more sympathetic character to fear than an unstoppable slasher or demonic puppet, which in turn makes the madness Leon ensures all the more real as he unravels completely by the film’s conclusion.

Director Stern’s use of slow pacing and a clear, ever building tension that overtakes Leon makes “Pin” feel like a cousin to David Cronenberg‘s Dead Ringers, a similarity heightened by its cold visual style and clean production design. Shot in Montreal and produced by the same team (Pierre David & Rene Malo) that gave us Scanners and Videodrome, Leon himself looks like a catalog model, serial killer hybrid, almost and early prototype to the characters in “Funny Games” and “American Psycho”, his immaculate hair and clothing betraying his frayed mental state. Pin himself is styled as an unsettling object, a red-veined ghoul who may, or may not, be real (At least to Leon), and, despite never actually doing much, brings a much more serious threat to our characters than many movie monsters can muster. And while it’s clear the leads are in no-way their apparent ages, some of the scenery-chewing can get a little hammy at times and there’s some of that classic “made-in-Canada” cheapness that you just couldn’t escape in the late 80s, “Pin” is as good as any, and better than most, of the psychological horror genre.

Currently unavailable on streaming, Arrowdrome, Arrow’s sister-label, delivered a hard-to-find DVD edition, and some kind souls have uploaded “Pin” to Youtube, where, albeit in VHS quality, you can still enjoy this disturbing tale of a boy and his doll. Check the trailer below for a taste of “Pin“s strange story.