So, I set myself the challenge of watching one horror movie or TV show for each day of October. There is one slight cheat: I watched Midnight Mass as soon as it dropped on Netflix in September. I’m a Mike Flanagan fanatic and there was no way I was waiting for that one. Everything else though has been watched during this month. And so far I’m up to 32 … yes, I do need to get out more… but in my defence, the pandemic isn’t over yet and our new house is three miles away from the nearest town…
Some of these are old, some are new, some are classics, some are trash, Hopefully, you’ll find something to like. Here’s the first five. Deep breath …
The Glass Man (2011, Dir: Cristian Solimeno)
This thriller with horror elements (made back in 2011, but released late last year) didn’t work for me. My cruel summary would be ‘Fight Club for eejits,’ but it does have some strengths. Andy Nyman and Neve Campbell are both convincing as an apparently affluent couple, with the husband too cowardly to confront his demons. The problem is that this cowardice is his defining characteristic. He’s impossible to sympathise with. He just needs to grow up and take responsibility. The film improves when James Cosmo shows up as a menacing debt collector with a Faustian offer, but its low budget is obvious throughout and the story and actors beyond the central trio just don’t carry it. Disappointing.
The Changeling (1980, Dir: Peter Medak)
This one was interesting. While it didn’t work for me as a scary story, despite plenty of ghostly shenanigans, it makes a pretty good crime movie with decent acting for the most part and reasonable production values. What is most fascinating is how apparently influential it is. There are two scenes in this that have direct analogues in more famous movies: a recording that captures a ghostly voice which is almost identical to the scene of Bruce Willis replaying the interview in The Sixth Sense, despite being released 20 years prior, and a body in a well which is hidden beneath the floor of a building, straight out of Ring. The novel ‘Ring’ came out in 1991, the film in 1998. The only conclusion is, at the very least, The Changeling was a massive impact on these later works. Perhaps those involved caught it late on TV one night and were sufficiently creeped out by it that it stuck with them. Moreover, Mike Flanagan (more on him soon) name-checked this as one of his influences when he made Ouija: Origin of Evil, a sequel infinitely better than the garbage original.
Anyway, with George C Scott (something of a horror icon due to his role in Exorcist III (Best. Jump-scare. Ever.)) in the lead and featuring the original Baltar, John Colicos, it has some genre pedigree and benefits from the creepy vibe of films from that era (which is the only conceivable reason why The Amityville Horror was so successful).
Worth checking out as a curiosity if you’re a horror geek or if you like a good crime yarn.
The Ring (2002, Dir: Gore Verbinski)
Ring (1998, Dir: Hideo Nakata)
Watching these again was a blast. Despite the fact I’ve seen Ring (after watching one of the extras on this special edition Blu Ray from Arrow, I’m no longer calling it ‘Ringu’) at least a dozen times, this was genuinely the only one of these films I’ve watched so far this October that managed to elicit a genuine chill. It’s a goddamn masterpiece. If you’re reading this and you haven’t seen it, and if somehow you’ve managed to avoid spoilers, then do yourself a favour and watch it. It’s as good as a ghost story can ever get, and for film lovers, it manages to turn the medium we love into a delicious source of dread. Truly one of the best horror films ever made.
Watching the 2002 remake again was also fascinating. I realized when I put it on that I haven’t actually seen it now for 16 years or more. Obviously, I know the story from the original intimately, so the changes for the American version were clearer this time. One of the biggest differences is cultural. The female protagonist in both versions conforms fairly closely to their national stereotype. Rachel is introduced in the American version chewing out her boss over the phone. She’s like Ripley if Ripley were a bad mother. I also remembered how certain details were given prominence in this version that turned out to be red herrings … this was the first version of the movie I saw and I had no idea where it was going. They did a good job of playing with your expectations.
Many didn’t like the CGI in a key scene, but for me, it works really well. Yes, the original is simpler and scarier, but this version is not using special effects for the sake of it. It makes perfect sense within the story context, it’s effective, it’s memorable and it is still very bloody scary, which is exactly what you want from a ghost story, no?
IT Chapter Two (2019, Dir Andy Muschietti)
Hmm, weird one. Overwhelmingly, the reviews rate the first of this pair of movies more highly and yeah, they’re right, but I still enjoyed this one more. Neither are remotely frightening. I wouldn’t even class them as horror. They’re monster movies, which is a minor but important distinction. I wouldn’t really say they’re very good monster movies, either.
Yes, there are horror scenes across the two films. They go full-on with George’s fate at the start of the first one. I’m still not sure whether a young kid should watch it (although I started getting into this stuff young. It might be the best time.)
Anyway, the reason I quite enjoyed the second was the humour and the cast. Bill Hader is funny at the worst of times and he’s both hilarious and perfectly cast as the adult Ritchie here. I’d watch Jessica Chastain in almost anything and James McAvoy is one of the UK’s greatest exports. There’s a repeated joke about McAvoy’s author character not being able to write a decent ending. I don’t remember if that was in the book, but it is certainly a criticism of Stephen King, who cameos here. I’ll come back to that later on in this marathon.
But here’s the thing: The humour works infinitely better than the horror. It just doesn’t work as a horror film. I enjoyed the jokes and the banter and I was bored by the ‘scares’. That’s a big problem in one of the biggest horror franchises of all time. Horses for courses, I guess.
Interestingly, the Rotten Tomatoes scores for this sequel are similar to the 1990 version of It with Tim Curry. I might have to check ‘it’ out again.
Come back tomorrow for…
- The Conjuring & The Conjuring 2
- Insidious: Chapter 3
- Stigmata
- Stir of Echoes
- The Mothman Prophecies
What do you think? Did you find anything you liked? Do you have recommendations? Comment and let us know!
