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Post by cheesecake on Oct 1, 2017 13:31:52 GMT
It’s the return of my series… 31 Days of Horror: Some of the Best Underseen Freaky Films to Get you in the Mood for Halloween! For my previous lists: letterboxd.com/faboolis/list/31-days-of-horror-2013/letterboxd.com/faboolis/list/31-days-of-horror-2014/letterboxd.com/faboolis/list/31-days-of-horror-2015/letterboxd.com/faboolis/list/31-days-of-horror-2016/Day 1: The Lure / Córki dancingu (2015, Agnieszka Smoczyńska)A genre-bending debut from Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska who crafts an alluring story of two mermaid sisters (Michalina Olszańska and Marta Mazurek) who are adopted into a cabaret and become an overnight sensation. It's not all wine and roses, however, as one sister craves human love while the other is hungry for human flesh. The first musical from Poland, it’s also a horror and coming-of-age story drenched in '80s fashion and synth-score. Offering a refreshing twist on The Little Mermaid and siren lore, hopefully more will be able to experience this sensuous, immersive and unforgettable tail thanks to a Criterion release this month.
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Post by Viced on Oct 1, 2017 16:35:06 GMT
Glad this is back!
I've heard a lot about The Lure and will try to watch it this month.
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Post by Mattsby on Oct 1, 2017 19:35:39 GMT
My favorite thread! Cheers!
Interesting that Poland has (rather surprisingly) lacked output in the horror genre, historically speaking. Major movements in German & Italian cinema, others from Korea, Japan, France, etc... but Poland not really....
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 2, 2017 0:21:18 GMT
I hadn't heard of this film until Criterion announced their release. It looks wonderfully bonkers.
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Post by idioticbunny on Oct 2, 2017 0:45:43 GMT
Awesome to see you still continuing to do this! I thought I might also partake in something similar. Who knows if I'll be able to keep with or not as I'm currently on the job hunt, but we'll see.
Also, had no idea this was a horror film, nor even a musical, but that sounds awesome and right up my alley.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 2, 2017 1:46:46 GMT
My favorite thread! Cheers! Interesting that Poland has (rather surprisingly) lacked output in the horror genre, historically speaking. Major movements in German & Italian cinema, others from Korea, Japan, France, etc... but Poland not really.... Glad to have my faithful readers return!
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 2, 2017 1:47:45 GMT
Awesome to see you still continuing to do this! I thought I might also partake in something similar. Who knows if I'll be able to keep with or not as I'm currently on the job hunt, but we'll see. Also, had no idea this was a horror film, nor even a musical, but that sounds awesome and right up my alley. I love this time of year. Let me know if you watch any gems! Good luck with the job hunt.
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Post by idioticbunny on Oct 2, 2017 2:03:20 GMT
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Post by Christ_Ian_Bale on Oct 2, 2017 4:25:15 GMT
It has begun. You can really tell when your movie is under the radar when everyone talks endlessly about Adrien Brody banging a monster in Splice or the catfish cunnilingus in Uncle Boonmee, yet lesbian mermaid sex remains in the shadows. Very nice choice to start with. So beautifully shot and unforgettably bizarre. I like that the choice to make it a musical actually makes sense given the siren angle and isn't just for the sake of it (remember God Help the Girl? ) I also really dig the use of sound throughout. It can occasionally be distracting when they go into overkill, but the sound when they communicate telepathically is so eerie. If I have one problem with it, I've always felt they could have benefited from casting a more exotic looking actress to play Golden. She isn't a bad actress, but for what part is, she looks a little too bland next to Mazurek's unconventional beauty.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 2, 2017 14:07:51 GMT
Day 2: See No Evil (1971, Richard Fleischer)From the director of 10 Rillington Place and Soylent Green comes a chilling thriller about a blind woman (Mia Farrow) who makes a trip to England to visit with family at their old country manor. While still getting accustomed to the recent loss of her sight, it's hard enough for Sarah (Farrow) to familiarize herself with her surroundings without a crazed killer pursuing her. A very slow burn in which the cat is several steps ahead of the mouse, both the protagonist and viewer are unable to see the killer as he is only shown from the waist down until the big reveal. Suspenseful and unnerving, it would make for a spine-tingling double feature with Wait Until Dark.
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 2, 2017 14:29:55 GMT
That sounds amazing. Fleischer is one of my favorite guns for hire, and although I haven't seen 10 Rillington Place, I was practically raised on Soylent Green, so I know that he can do slow burn suspense and terror.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 2, 2017 15:23:15 GMT
That sounds amazing. Fleischer is one of my favorite guns for hire, and although I haven't seen 10 Rillington Place, I was practically raised on Soylent Green, so I know that he can do slow burn suspense and terror. I highly recommend 10 Rillington Place too! Hope you enjoy.
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Post by stephen on Oct 2, 2017 15:24:35 GMT
That sounds amazing. Fleischer is one of my favorite guns for hire, and although I haven't seen 10 Rillington Place, I was practically raised on Soylent Green, so I know that he can do slow burn suspense and terror. Dude. Dude. 10 Rillington Place boasts two all-time incredible performances that utterly obliterate anything else 1971 has to offer, and that's saying something.
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 2, 2017 15:34:16 GMT
That sounds amazing. Fleischer is one of my favorite guns for hire, and although I haven't seen 10 Rillington Place, I was practically raised on Soylent Green, so I know that he can do slow burn suspense and terror. Dude. Dude. 10 Rillington Place boasts two all-time incredible performances that utterly obliterate anything else 1971 has to offer, and that's saying something. I'm sorry, but George C. Scott and Topol have something to say about that.
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Post by stephen on Oct 2, 2017 15:47:44 GMT
Dude. Dude. 10 Rillington Place boasts two all-time incredible performances that utterly obliterate anything else 1971 has to offer, and that's saying something. I'm sorry, but George C. Scott and Topol have something to say about that. Exactly. Richard Attenborough is in my all-time Top 5 and John Hurt is shatteringly good.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 2, 2017 17:18:23 GMT
Dude. Dude. 10 Rillington Place boasts two all-time incredible performances that utterly obliterate anything else 1971 has to offer, and that's saying something. I'm sorry, but George C. Scott and Topol have something to say about that. So nice to see some love for Topol. I adore him in Fiddler.
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Post by Christ_Ian_Bale on Oct 3, 2017 4:43:47 GMT
I can usually take or leave Fleischer, with 10 Rillington Place easily being his best, but this sounds amazing. I can't wait to track this down as I loooove Wait Until Dark. The way you describe how the killer is shot is giving me vibes of the truck driver in Duel.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 3, 2017 11:58:32 GMT
Day 3: Mother Joan of the Angels / Matka Joanna od aniolów (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz)When a parish in the Polish countryside is said to be under demonic possession, a priest (Mieczyslaw Voit) is sent to investigate this claim and gets more than he bargained for. Loosely based on real accounts of mass hysteria in France in 1634, this story would also go on to inspire Ken Russell's classic The Devils a decade later. Kawalerowicz's take on religious fundamentalism is presented with bleak and dreamlike imagery and very uncomfortable close-ups. While it won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was digitally restored thanks to Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, this chilling story about the temptations of the flesh deserves a much wider audience.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Oct 3, 2017 12:12:37 GMT
Day 3: Mother Joan of the Angels / Matka Joanna od aniolów (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz)When a parish in the Polish countryside is said to be under demonic possession, a priest (Mieczyslaw Voit) is sent to investigate this claim and gets more than he bargained for. Loosely based on real accounts of mass hysteria in France in 1634, this story would also go on to inspire Ken Russell's classic The Devils a decade later. Kawalerowicz's take on religious fundamentalism is presented with bleak and dreamlike imagery and very uncomfortable close-ups. While it won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was digitally restored thanks to Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, this chilling story about the temptations of the flesh deserves a much wider audience. This one sounds fascinating and it's on youtube! I'll have to check it out.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 3, 2017 21:20:16 GMT
Day 3: Mother Joan of the Angels / Matka Joanna od aniolów (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz)When a parish in the Polish countryside is said to be under demonic possession, a priest (Mieczyslaw Voit) is sent to investigate this claim and gets more than he bargained for. Loosely based on real accounts of mass hysteria in France in 1634, this story would also go on to inspire Ken Russell's classic The Devils a decade later. Kawalerowicz's take on religious fundamentalism is presented with bleak and dreamlike imagery and very uncomfortable close-ups. While it won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was digitally restored thanks to Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, this chilling story about the temptations of the flesh deserves a much wider audience. This one sounds fascinating and it's on youtube! I'll have to check it out. Hope you dig it!
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 4, 2017 20:49:51 GMT
Day 4: The Bedroom Window (1987, Curtis Hanson)The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So learns Terry (Steve Guttenberg) after his mistress (Isabelle Huppert) witnesses an attack on a woman from his bedroom window. Not wanting to expose their affair, Terry offers to give the description of the attacker to the police instead but is quickly caught in a twisted web of lies. Adapted from a novel by Anne Holden, the film also features striking cinematography from Gilbert Taylor whose other credits include Repulsion, Dr. Strangelove and A Hard Day's Night. While it's not as sleazy as the plot and poster might suggest, The Bedroom Window works well as a Hitchcock-lite psychological thriller. Yes, Isabelle Huppert fucks Steve Guttenberg.
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Post by Mattsby on Oct 4, 2017 21:24:26 GMT
I really dig the film - its clever set-up and overall evocation of Hitchcock / De Palma, oh and Huppert naturally - everything until the third act. It felt a little rushed and clumsy, and the ending is kinda just stock. I think the whole thing would've been better with someone like James Spader instead of Guttenberg in the lead - at least that's who I could realistically picture in the role at the time. Gutts sort-of doesn't bring anything to the table.
And how 'bout that Edgar Allan Poe bar that McGovern works at!
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 4, 2017 22:48:24 GMT
I really dig the film - its clever set-up and overall evocation of Hitchcock / De Palma, oh and Huppert naturally - everything until the third act. It felt a little rushed and clumsy, and the ending is kinda just stock. I think the whole thing would've been better with someone like James Spader instead of Guttenberg in the lead - at least that's who I could realistically picture in the role at the time. Gutts sort-of doesn't bring anything to the table. And how 'bout that Edgar Allan Poe bar that McGovern works at! Ooh, Spader would have been fun. I don't think Guttenberg ever really brings anything to the table, lol, but I didn't mind him too much here. All the casting was so offbeat. The third act is lacking, but I had zero expectations going in and had fun over all.
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Post by Christ_Ian_Bale on Oct 5, 2017 3:41:25 GMT
Mother Joan of the Angels is creepy, for sure. There's something super eerie every time there's a look into the camera or a POV shot. My favorite moment is probably the initial "possessed scene", I guess you'd call it, when her voice echoes through the room, giving it the feel of two separate voices at the same time for the ultimate possession vibe. I still need to see The Devils. I hadn't heard of The Bedroom Window before tonight, and luckily, it was ridiculously easy to track down. Still can't get over how crazy diverse Hanson's filmography was. I know it's blasphemy around here to say this, but Huppert has never really done it for me so I was cautious entering this especially with Guttenberg on top of it (hehe), but this was really engaging and felt ever so slightly above the norm for this type of story. I think that absence of sleaze actually helped and made the overall product feel more focused. (Not to mention it would have been quality suicide if they tried that angle with Guttenberg leading.) I thought Wallace Shawn seemed a bit out of place in the opening credits, but he was perfectly cast and his scene is one of the movie's highlights. There are obviously moments where, to keep enjoyment steady, you have to be dismissive of certain things, particularly the way a witness' potentially dangerous self-investigation is welcomed with open arms by the detectives, and some obvious contrivances (I forgive the phone booth scene of this because it was Mark Margolis ) Very nice recommendation.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 5, 2017 11:27:11 GMT
Day 5: Two Evil Eyes (1990, Dario Argento & George A. Romero)After working together on Dawn of the Dead, Argento and Romero teamed up again to bring some Edgar Allen Poe-inspired madness to the screen. While originally planned as a four part anthology film along with Carpenter and Craven, the film was then split into two segments when those directors dropped out. The first story is Romero's "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar” and stars Carpenter collaborator Adrienne Barbeau as a desperate wife who will go to extreme lengths to get her hands on her dying husband's fortune. Argento's "The Black Cat" is the second story which follows Harvey Keitel giving a great performance as a crime scene photographer whose life is altered after the arrival of a mysterious feline. With make-up effects and gore provided by Tom Savini, Two Evil Eyes makes for a memorable double helping from two masters of the genre. Martin Balsam and Kim Hunter also appear, and you can sleep easy knowing that no metronomes or cats were harmed in the making of either film.
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