Category Archives: Movies

Hereditary (2018)

Our next entry in this year’s countdown of horrors old and new, famous and forgotten, is 2018’s most discussed tale of terror. Films like It and Halloween have something of the funhouse about them. We watch, in part, and often more than once, for the thrills. That may explain why, despite widespread critical acclaim and an eventual strong box office, Hereditary received an initially dismal response from audiences. Hereditary isn’t the funhouse kind of horror movie. Although it has frights, it’s more disturbing and distressing than scary. The opening doesn’t feel like a horror movie. The first act, in fact, subjects the audience to one of the most uncomfortable and traumatizing family dramas in years.

But, love it or hate it, Hereditary is difficult to forget.

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The Seventh Victim (1943)

As no one has heard from her sister in some time and tuition money has stopped flowing, Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter, in her film debut) leaves her private school and heads to New York City. Sister’s landlords open the door to her Greenwich Village apartment.

They see a chair, still upright, with a noose hanging above it.

The Seventh Victim (1943) fared poorly at first, though it made some money in England. Pity, because it now holds a curious place in the history of the horror film. Beautifully shot in shadows and light, it links Film Noir with the horror genre. It presages later occult thrillers, and likely inspired one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous scenes1. It also shares a cinematic universe with the well-remembered (and remade) 1940s horror movie, Cat People.

Our October Countdown of Halloween Horrors past and present continues with the definitive 40s cult horror movie.

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October Countdown: Suspiria (1978)

Our October Countdown of Halloween Horrors old and new, famous and forgotten, continues with:

September 30: Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (JD)

October 6: Suspiria (Alex)
October 7: The Seventh Victim (JD)

October 13: Friday the 13th-a “Make Me Watch It” Podcast (Blaine)
October 14: Hereditary (JD)

October 20: Hausu (Alex)
October 21: Eye of the Devil (JD)

October 27: A Quiet Place (JD)
October 28: Alone in the Dark (JD)

October 31: Halloween 2018 (JD)
Return of the Living Dead (JD)

We continue with a film that introduced Dario Argento to fans of horror outside of fans of Giallo, and which is getting a remake due to be released this November. Continue reading →

October Countdown: Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural

Our October Countdown of Halloween Horrors old and new, famous and forgotten, begins this weekend, with the end of September, and continues, oh, you fans of the fanged and frightening with:

September 30: Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (JD)

October 6: Suspiria (Alex)
October 7: The Seventh Victim (JD)

October 13: Friday the 13th-a “Make Me Watch It” Podcast (Blaine)
October 14: Hereditary (JD)

October 20: Hausu (Alex)
October 21: Eye of the Devil (JD)

October 27: A Quiet Place (JD)
October 28: Alone in the Dark (JD)

October 31: Halloween 2018 (JD)
Return of the Living Dead (JD)

We begin with a fiendish flashback flick that found a cult following, after initially being swallowed by the shadows of The Exorcist.

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