Nite Owl (1993)

Vampires!

Can't live with them. Can't trust them not to kill you when making love or war. Amiright?

I watched this movie fairly recently, and although I was quite taken with the film at the time, it haunts me still. More so than before, if that makes sense. I can only assume it will be all consuming before too long.

Not sure who thought to film the entire movie in grainy black and white but Awesome. I mean makes total sense. I don't always watch moody art student films but when I do, I watch Nite Owl. They did this one right. Personally, I think vampires look best in black and white and covered in their own existential horror.

This is a rather sad horror film, but horror all the same. My only complaint is that they tried to place the movie in the early 80s but it was pretty obvious to me that it was the early 90s. First world problems.

That said, I wondered if perhaps this film was also a door into New York's changing social  and financial structure during the 80s...

The loneliness, isolation, addiction, and the attempts of non-vampires to make the vampires' world a better place (or  make them pay for making everything worse) surprised me - how well it was done surprised me - how much I'm still thinking about what it all means surprised me.

I highly recommend this film if you are a vampire fan, art movie fan, or  a fan of movies that tilts your head just a bit - and then keeps it there for a while - just because.


Recommend pairing: sad pizza and dusty wine. Surround yourself in either an uncomfortable setting or stay up later than you want to. Best watched alone.

Night Of The Demons (1988)

Today was strange.

Weird. Awkward. Good. Bad. Ugly. Useful. Productive. Not productive. Strange.

Seems like a perfect fit for Night Of The Demons. I'm not exactly sure why at the moment, but I'm sure it will all make sense in the end. Did this movie turn into a remake? I'm not sure yet - in fact, I don't care. At this point, I'm looking for straight up entertainment and I think this movie promises to be just that.

I've passed by this movie cover for nearly 15 years (and it scared me every time), it's about time I check it (and research some of it's history) out.

See you spooks all after the show!

Update:

I'm not sure if I'm halfway through the movie or not yet - I sense that I am but it's difficult to say because so far it's a beautiful mess and I had to get some sleep. It seems to follow some similar characteristics as The Evil Dead movies...just throwing that out there.

And I have three favorite quotes so far:

• "I found it in my mother's closet. She used to be an acid head"
• "Eat a bowl of f***"
• "I live  in a nice place, you know, with slip covers on the furniture"

The background/mood music sounds like it belongs with the ABC after school special soundtrack collection.

Oh my oh my. I'll try to finish this lovely up as soon as I can! In the meantime, I enjoyed the beautiful mess and I'm not sure what to do with it but pat it's head and say "So pretty."

Jaws (1975)

I tooled around today kicking ass and taking names, like you do. All the while I was trying to figure out what movie I should watch for tonight's October Challenge.

Now, I need you to sit down for this because it may come as a complete shock:

I have never seen Jaws.

[dishes crash, record needle slides off track, someone says something awkward and completely off topic right when the room is silent].

It's true. It's taken me a long time to admit it, but now is the time. Actually, I decided it was time while I was making snicker-doodle cookies and crock-potting cauliflower and cheese chowder. Oh fall, I love you.

I know what Jaws is about, but I've never experienced it. I've seen clips of it all my life, but never had proper context for what I was seeing. This. Is. Big.

The popcorn is ready - the juices are flowing (seriously, I just made some fruit juice) - time to get this much over-due party started! See you after the show!

Update:

Ahhhh. Yeeeaaeah.

This is a really great movie. It jumps right into the horror, connects you with the characters quickly, builds momentum while you are trying simply trying to get a grasp on any sense of stability and safety, and concludes with a heart grasping, fingernail biting end. Bravo, Jaws. You've earned another Will Never Go Swimming In The Waters Again fan.

Suggested pairing: Surf and Turf, and lots of water (with rum). 

Twixt (2011)

Not feeling so well this morning. So I thought making some eggs and turkey sausage would be a good idea (for some reason).

It was not. 

Now I'm really not feeling well and most of the movies I've picked out from Rain City Video appear grotesque. Except Twixt. A Francis Ford Coppola film that stars Val Kilmer and looks - well, safe for most stomachs.

Otherwise I'm not so sure about this one. I didn't have much luck with my last Val Kilmer horror movie escapade during last year's October Challenge. And although this is a Francis Ford Coppola film, I have a sneaky suspicion this was a Francis Ford Coppola experiment gone wrong. 

The movie description tells me this story is about a writer who investigates a murder, only to find that he's more involved in the murder than he thinks. Sure, sure. Okay - what ever you say typical story line. 

So, back to the couch to curl up and wait this ick out, and see what Twixt has to show me. See you after the show!

Update:

It took me an entire day to watch this film because about half way through the film I kept finding other things to do. Such as paying bills, doing the dishes, trying to figure what the cat was looking at, making chocolate chip walnut cookies, feeling better, going to the library, researching gigantic wasps in China and so forth.

I did not like this film.

I found it comical, absurd, disorienting, and a bit insulting. I'm not sure if this is considered a vampire film because there are goth kids in it, or a murder mystery because there is a bumbling sheriff in it, or a ghost tale because the main character's daughter is haunting his memories.

Edgar Allen Poe plays a rather significant role in this film. Well, an Edgar Allen Poe that apparently was being played by a very young Inigo Montoya.

Nothing made sense to me in this movie, and the parts that tried still failed miserably. It was neither scary or chilling. After the film mercilessly ended, I laughed manically at the tag line: "Once the Nightmares Begin, the Terror Never Ends". This is a true statement, and the only entertainment I found in Twixt.

Suggested pairing: you know what, just - just drink the day away. Or make cookies.

The Doctor and the Devils (1985)

I've got a birthday dinner to attend to shortly, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get a movie in today. Instead I'll discuss a bit about a movie I saw fairly recently: The Doctor and the Devils.

This is a little thriller nugget was tucked away, hidden from obvious view, at my local movie store.

And when I saw that The Doctor and the Devils was about an 1820's medical doctor paying thieves for fresh bodies (to demonstrate upon during lectures), I thought to myself: haven't I heard this story before?

In fact, poet Dylan Thomas wrote the screenplay for this story AND it is apparently based on the true story of Burke and Hare. Or, more likely, several different true stories all following a similar age-old story line: Medical specialists paying for dead people.

What I found so chilling about this film is how the thieves were able to make such a profitable business by simply hanging out in their environment. In addition to the consensus that it's quite alright to experiment on people killed by a law officials but not okay to experiment on people who were not killed by law officials.

I found this movie to be a chilling view on a STILL epic battle between the death penalty, poverty, and how education plays such a pivotal role in both. I'm not not exactly sure who all the devils are in this story - there are two many to count. That, I believe, is what makes this a horror film...