Category: Uncategorized
Nightbooks (2021)
I was feeling under the weather recently and wanted to watch a horror film but I wasn't in the mood for anything that was going to bum me out or destroy my last shred of will to live (you know how it goes). Luckily I found the PG-13 dark fantasy/gateway horror flick NIGHTBOOKS hanging out on Netflix because it completely shifted my mood and delivered everything I could possibly ask for, especially during spooky season. It's surprisingly dark and intense at times (I'm pretty sure it references SUSPIRIA) but there's great humor too and the characters are super relatable and the message it delivers is something that's useful no matter what your age. Based on a children's book by J. A. White, it somehow successfully transported me back to the eighties and I was swearing I was watching a lost Joe Dante flick for much of the runtime.
Winslow Fegley stars as Alex, a kid obsessed with horror movies (posters for THE THING, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, CANDYMAN and others align his bedroom wall) and writing scary stories. Feeling alienated by others for his interests, he swears to forever reject his passions and destroy all of his writings in his Brooklyn apartment building's furnace. Before he can achieve his goal though, he is enticed into a neighboring apartment where he spies a TV playing THE LOST BOYS and a tempting slice of pumpkin pie. Suddenly he is trapped in a newfangled telling of Hansel and Gretel with a wonderfully sinister witch named Natacha (Krysten Ritter who is aces and born for the part), her prisoner Yasmin (Lidya Jewett) and a trouble-making mystical cat (who I immediately fell in love with) named Lenore. To stay alive, Alex must rekindle his love of storytelling to entertain Natacha, and frankly, she's a bit on the detail-oriented, critical side.
Our heroes may be trapped but their prison is a fantastic place to spend time for viewers. Natacha has an endlessly spiraling library, a neon garden full of truly threatening spider creatures and a menagerie of Hummel-like figures of her past victims. I don't wish to spoil anything but what's going on in her backyard is even more eye-popping, psychedelic and candy-coated Wonka glorious.
Eventually, strong bonds are formed, the mischievous cat reveals an appreciative heart and even Natasha inspires a tad of sympathy before her comeuppance. Most importantly, Alex learns that what makes him different is exactly what makes him special and I'm all for everybody getting down with that way of thinking. Do yourself the sweet favor of watching NIGHTBOOKS this Halloween season. It really is all any horror fan could wish for.
Name That Trauma:: Naja M on a Svengoolie Skeleton
Hi, The movie I am asking about is not one that scared me. I barely remember it. The reason I do want the name is because it's the background of one of our most awesome childhood memories, and I really wish I had the name of the movie when I tell this story to people.
In the early 1970's, I was 8 and my little brother was 7. We took a bus, by ourselves, 4 blocks down S. Ashland Ave to Chicago's People's Theatre on 47th Street to see a horror movie hosted by the ORIGINAL Svengoolie! Back then, an 8 year old could get into an R movie as long as they had money for a ticket. No one enforced the somewhat new ratings system. At that young age we were both already Svengoolie and horror movie fans because our babysitters loved to scare us on the weekends watching Svengoolie. We sat right up front in the old theatre watching Svengoolie do his thing in front of the movie screen. It was the time of our lives (up to that point haha).
Now for the movie. I barely remember it! I can remember there being a sit down dinner at a long table, possibly in a castle, but maybe an old mansion. Of course there was a pretty American blond at the table, as well as a few other Americans. They seemed to be visitors. The second (and only other) memory I have of the movie I think is near the end. A man is trying to get into a shed or cellar, maybe crawlspace. Once he gets the door open, the woman he loved is nothing but a skeleton and hair. The whole movie gives me a feel of Americans visiting England.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? I realize after this long that my memories may have taken on a life of their own.
Thanks! Naja M
P.S. This is my second submission over the past 10 years. Last time I think you got it after just a couple hours.
Name That Trauma:: Ploppa Smerph on a Time Loop Stalker
I'm helping a friend chase down an old memory and he has originally misapplied to the Friday the 13th series:
This memory is set squarely in the '80s. As I recall it — our "lone survivor" girl is running for her life at night, maybe from a camp. She gets into a car and starts driving away, panicked. She leaves [The Killer] behind, and he just stands there and watches her drive away. The next scene is her in the van (or whatever vehicle) and [The Killer] steps out of the brush ahead. She SCREAMS and dodges him and continues. Then, he steps out into the road again. Same thing happens. This continues 1-2 more times, and she finally tries to hit him but ends up crashing. He has eliminated the Twilight Zone episode The Hitch-Hiker and the looping scene in A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master.
Malignant (2021)
There was a point while I was watching James Wan's MALIGNANT when my eyeballs fell out of my head and rolled across the floor. I had to get down on my hands and knees, scoop them up and push the damn bastards back into my skull. It's been far too long since a movie has surprised me to such a degree and I think I'd almost forgotten what a glorious experience that is. The brazen originality is even more astounding when you consider that the lion's share of the film plays like a stroll through the horror section of a video store. It's almost a Where's Waldo? of horror homage; a colorful kaleidoscope spitting out splinters of BLOOD AND BLACK LACE ('64), SUSPIRIA ('77), PHENOMENA ('85), NEXT OF KIN ('82), THE SENDER ('82), I MADMAN (89), DARKMAN ('90), BASKET CASE ('82), BRAIN DAMAGE ('88), SCISSORS ('91), HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL('99), GOTHICA ('03) and so many more. Personally it made me feel like a pig in slop as so much of the set-up felt like a big budget remake of my personal pet fave MADHOUSE (‘81). But then, just as you're snuggling into the safety of the familiar parading by to the beat of one fantastic score, the entire highly stylized snow globe is turned on its head and shook ferociously and an incredibly novel and exciting new beast emerges.
Annabelle Wallis (who's got a wonderful Juliette Binoche meets Mary Steenburgen in DEAD OF WINTER ('87) vibe going on) plays Madison Mitchell, a very troubled and very pregnant woman with an abusive husband and a repressed past (her younger self is played by the always excellent Mckenna Grace). One evening her home is invaded by a sinister, shadowy figure that leaves her with a mutilated hubby, a null and void pregnancy and a big giant bouquet of flashbacks to a traumatizing childhood and psychic visions of murders as they occur. Madison is my favorite type of horror heroine in that she is an unapologetic, freaked-out mess that everyone thinks is crazy until the inevitable moment they do some light research and find the files that explain everything…well, almost everything. Lots of folks are going to find the over-the-top acting style and sometimes comic book-like approach a little too hokey to handle but I honestly found it refreshing not to be weighed down with tired faux-gritty "realism". This flick is a long way from SAW ('04) and the further away we get from SAW the happier I seem to be.
MALIGNANT needn't worry about cynical audiences and lukewarm box-office. This bad boy is destined to be obsessed over endlessly. No, it's not for everybody but thems the breaks when you draw outside the lines and stake new ground. I get the feeling Wan followed his heart and made exactly the film he wanted to and maybe he too was missing the broad colorful strokes and heights of fantasy horror achieved in less dour decades. In the end, it doesn't matter what specific titles or sub-genres influenced Wan, by and large he clearly meant to remind of us of a time when movies were freer and more fun and that goal was exceedingly met. I for one can't stop thinking about this wild, phantasmic explosion of dream-like insanity and I'm so grateful knowing that I can still find myself completely shell-shocked by a horror film.
You must be logged in to post a comment.