Review: Freaks

Freaks (1932)

I first heard of this movie on another horror review website, so I thought of it in my head as part of the broader genre of spooky movies, but really it is unfair to call this movie "horror". I dont believe the overall point of the movie is to scare, although there are some things that could be shocking and the climactic scene is creepy as all hell, but overall this is actually a really touching story about misunderstood people. The film is about a group of circus performers and living sideshow attractions and the various love affairs and . It is incredibly humanizing and touching to see the interactions between these characters. The sideshow folks have their own family and are very protective of their kind. The true antagonist in the film is one of the non-freak circus performers who is taking advantage of one of the little people and his feelings for her. His fiancé who also shares his stature and Bavarian heritage is so heartbreaking in this as she stands by him even as he ignores her. This is a must-see for fans of any and all cinema. It is ahead of its time in the respectful and warm depiction of people who are marginalized into being a curiosity but without being patronizing or taking pity on them. And besides all that its just a really well put together and engrossing movie.

Share a laughing cup with your friends and family

Pour a little of each wine or whatever bottle everyone brought into the biggest goblet or bowl you have handy, pass it around so everyone can take a swig while chanting the following " one of us! One of us! Gooba-gabba gooba-gabba!" We're all freaks on the inside.

Review: The Gorilla

The Gorilla (1939)

This is an incredibly hard movie to review, or easy. Yeah its easy, because its basically a three stooges rip-off about a guy in a gorilla suit who may or may not be murdering people and three bumbling detectives trying to figure out what is going on, and who fail miserably. That's really about it. Don't know what to say. Its only about an hour long

Just take three shots of whiskey and put on another movie...

Sorry this one sucks...I'll make it up to you one day.

Review: Curse of the Demon (Night of the Demon)

Night of the Demon (1957)

A black and white mystery flick about an American psychologist sent to Enlgand to investigate a demonic cult. The last guy to investigate this cult met an untimely end from a mysterious accident. In fact the first thing we get to see is the dude get wasted by a rad demon puppet by dropping some power lines on him and frying him. The American, Dr. John Holden, is very skeptical and basically spends the whole movie denying and trying to explain away the mysterious things the cult leader, Karswell is doing. Karswell doesn't directly do too many evil things, he mostly tries to protect himself. The focus of the movie is on a spell that comes from runes drawn on parchment which kind of works like the black spot in pirate lore. The last person to touch the parchment receives the demon's curse and will be killed by him next. The demon effects are pretty cool, although the youtube upload I watched this on wasn't of the best quality so it was hard to enjoy them too much. The movie almost plays out like a noir, with the fedora wearing detective/psychologist walking around night-time London and English countryside alike chasing clues, leads, and being generally surly about it all. Towards the beginning of the movie Karswell tells Holden that he is cursed and has until the 28th of October (Hey that's when I watched this! How 'bout that?). Holden blows this off like all the other claims of magic at the begenning, but we slowly start to see him change his mind, and as he gets deeper into the occult underworld we see the fear in him grow. Its pretty cool movie with mysteries, magic, and demons.

A good movie for a dark and stormy night

Dark and Stormy
2 oz dark or black rum (Kraken)
1 bottle Ginger Beer (try to find the alcoholic kind, if possible)
lime

Fill a glass with ice, pour on rum, then pour in the ginger beer, squeeze the lime and drop it in. Put on your best black robe and recite the ancient incantation: Asmodeus Baphomet Belial.

Review: Black Sunday

Black Sunday (1960)

Mario Bava's atmospheric, gothic chiller with a gruesome streak. A nobleman's family is haunted by the curse of a witch sentenced to a torturous death. Super atmospheric, the movie captures the feel of the classic Universal horror films as well as delivering the kind of occult torture scenes and sadistic religious inquisitors that seemed to be popular in the 60's. I thought the film was pretty stylish, the haunted castle the film takes place in feels huge, like something from Castlevania. Mario Bava always incorporates really great visuals in his movies, so even if you can't dig the dubbed dialogue you could add your own soundtrack of some doom metal or some other dark tunes and imbibe in your favorite way and still have a good time.

Review: The Mummy's Curse

The Mummy's Curse (1944)

This will be my innagural review for the project I have started, the goal is to have a review for a horror movie I have never seen before for each day of the month of October. Its mostly for my own amusement, but maybe I will get some of my friends to see some movies they otherwise wouldnt.
We are going to kick it off old-school with 1944's The Mummy's Curse. This would be one of the last original Mummy movies made by Universal, and the last time Lon Chaney Jr would wear the bandages for the role. The oddest thing about this movie is that its inexplicably set in the Louisiana swampland, where the previous two movies were set in New England. But it means we get to see 1940's stereotypes of Cajuns which is kind of entertaining. Its definitely not the best iteration of the plodding mummy looking for his undead girlfriend formula, but it has some fun moments.