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The Movies’ Top Five Scariest Living Dead

In The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment not only sees dead people, he hears them as well. Bruce Willis, for his part, sees and hears what he wants to see and hear.

The Day of Dead ended on this meridian about five hours ago. But the Night of the Dead is still here. It isn’t quite midnight, yet. (It wasn’t; it took me longer to write this post than I expected. Even so, it isn’t midnight in Hawaii, yet.)
In honor of this Christianized pagan holiday — the pagans came up with some of the most important Christian holidays — below is my list of the movies’ Top Five Scariest Living Dead. By that I don’t mean actors, characters, or real-life [...]

Top Five Movie Screamers

Top Ten Movie Screamers: 10 to 6

5 – Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960)
I don’t recall myself recoiling in horror while watching Janet Leigh’s shower scene in Psycho, but I do recall quite vividly one night long ago when I was showering at an acquaintance’s place and imagined myself facing the same fate as Leigh’s unlucky bank teller. So, I guess that sequence did leave a lasting impression on me. (Needless to say, I was out of that acquaintance’s shower stall and all dried up in a matter of seconds.)

4 – Fay Wray in King Kong (1933), Doctor X (1932), and The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray has to be here. To her belongs the title of [...]

Top Ten Movie Screamers

Doctor X directed by Michael Curtiz (top); Janet Leigh in Psycho (bottom)

Halloween Time. So, here’s my list of the Top Ten Movie Screamers of All Time.
Well, at least the Top Ten Movie Screamers of All Time That I Can Think of Right Now.
You won’t find any new movies here because I tend to avoid most recent horror movies — partly because most of the recent ones I’ve seen are total crap; partly because there’s enough horror in the world out there and I see no need for me to go looking for more at the movies.
Also, most of the screaming newcomers don’t have the vocal flair of their predecessors. Even Naomi Watts, a really good actress, pales next to [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Halloween Movies

The Loved Ones by Sean Byrne (top); The Hole by Joe Dante (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi has announced the list of films scheduled for Halloween. They are:

Joe Dante’s The Hole
Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones
Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright
Michael Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie

All four films will screen on Saturday, October 31, at the Mann Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood.
Presented in 3-D — a first for a feature film at AFI FEST — Joe Dante’s thriller The Hole follows two young brothers who "stumble upon a mysterious hole in their basement that houses an evil force that can create a physical manifestation of their deep-seated fears. After unwittingly unleashing [...]

Japanese Horror Classics: GOKE, HAUSU at the Egyptian

House by Nobuhiko Obayashi (top); Goke, Bodysnatcher from Hell by Hajime Sato (bottom)

Schedule and synopses from the American Cinematheque website.
Wednesday, September 23 – 7:30 PM
Japanese Cult Classics Double Feature:
HOUSE (HAUSU), 1977, Janus Films, 87 min. This long-lost fantasy/horror masterpiece from director Nobuhiko Obayashi has finally surfaced in America. Oshare can’t wait to spend the summer with her father…until he informs her that he plans to remarry. She decides to go away with some friends to visit an estranged aunt…who, unbeknownst to the girls is immortal and can only remain that way by feeding on virgins. Her evil house, with its girl-devouring piano, does the killing for her. Based on an idea given to the director by his then 7-year-old [...]

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA d: Robert Gordon

It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
Direction: Robert Gordon
Screenplay: George Worthing Yates and Hal Smith
Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr, Harry Lauter, Chuck Griffiths, Richard W. Peterson
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
I looked through one of my DVD sets, Columbia Pictures’ "The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen, Legendary Science Fiction Series," and plucked an old fave of mine to rewatch: the 78-minute, black-and-white, 1955 classic It Came from Beneath the Sea. While not one of the more hyped Ray Harryhausen productions, this sci-fi effort is still a cut above the usual drive-in fare of that era. As a plus — drum roll — it stars Faith [...]

Cannes 2009: Lars von Trier’s ANTICHRIST

Antichrist: Filmmaker Lars von Trier (top); Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe (bottom).
In this pyshcological horror-drama, a married couple struggles to come to terms with the accidental death of their son.

Wendy Ide in The [London] Times:
"Von Trier has moved away from the sparse, rough and ready work of the Dogme era and embraced a stylised and visually sumptuous look for Antichrist. The movie is packed with arresting and atmospheric images, some of which you’ll wish you could permanently erase from your memory.
"If von Trier’s issues with female sexuality have been evident in previous films, particularly Breaking the Waves and Dogville, in Antichrist he ups the ante, constructing a gender war of nuclear intensity between [...]

GODZILLA d: Ishirô Honda

Gojira (1954) / Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
Direction: Ishirô Honda; with additional footage by Terry O. Morse for the American version
Screenplay: Ishirô Honda, Takeo Murata; from a story by Shigeru Kayama
Cast: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Toyoaki Suzuki. Also: Raymond Burr in the American version
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Heaven. When I came across the long-awaited release of the original 1954 Japanese monster film Gojira on DVD, I thought I had struck heaven. That it was accompanied by its Americanized cousin, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, only doubled the joy of expectation. And for once, I was not disappointed.
The mark of a good critic is admitting biases, so I will state up front that as a young [...]

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