Day 8: 31 Days of Horror: Dementia 13 (1963)

Dementia 13 (1963) is a short and sweet horror movie. The movie is only 75 minutes long. Also, the movie takes a lot from Psycho (1960), so if you are a fan of that horror movie, you may want to check this one out. It's nice and suspenseful. 

The movie begins with a wife and husband rowing out in a lake during the night time. The husband, John Haloran, ends up suffering a heart attack and dies. Instead of bringing the body back to shore, his wife, Louise, decides to just throw it overboard because she fears that if he is dead, then she won't inherit his family's money. She decides that she will lie to the family about John's whereabouts and just act like he's on a business trip, for she and her husband are set to go and visit the family.

Louise travels to the family castle in Ireland alone. The family is holding their annual ceremony to honor the youngest daughter in the family, Kathleen, who tragically died after drowning in a pond when she was just a child. While there, Louise isn't really interested in honoring the dead, but she is interested in getting that inheritance, so she believes her presence and feign support will get her that cut.  

The Haloran family ceremony is only for immediate family members. It is a morbid ritual and the mother always ends up fainting at the end of it. After the ritual is complete and the mother is brought inside to rest, some strange events begin to occur and an ax-murderer is on the loose on the grounds of the castle!

The murders in this movie are surprisingly violet, at least, compared to others that I have seen from that time period. I thought that the story was interesting and I liked the setting. This is Francis Coppola's first feature film and it's pretty cool to see how he started out. 

Day 7: 31 Days of Horror: Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator (1985) is one of my new favorite horror films. I finally got around to watching it, since it was available on Netflix. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew it had to be weird because I recall it being mentioned by characters in American Beauty (1999).

Re-Animator is based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft. It is about a medical student, Dan, and his girlfriend, and how their lives change once another student moves into Dan's apartment. The student is Herbert West, he's very anti-social, strange and dedicated to conducting a bunch of bizarre experiments.    Just what sort of experiments is he conducting? Well, re-animating the dead, of course. He starts with injecting dead tissues, then moves onto dead animals and progresses to deceased humans.

The stuff that he injects into dead does indeed bring them back to life. Unfortunately, it does not bring them back to their normal, living selves. In fact, it makes them come back as very violent beings. Does that make Herbert stop his experiments? Of course not! He has to eventually figure out a serum that will work correctly in re-animating the dead into their normal living selves, right?

This movie is campy and hilarious. It has a lot of over-the-top scenes, which is why it is not for the faint of heart. Herbert is such a weirdo and he makes the movie fun to watch, if you can handle some odd, slightly gory scenes.

Day 6: 31 Days of Horror: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) is an odd movie. It is about a young girl, Rynn (played by Jodie Foster), who lives in a secluded house that she and her father have rented. The town they live in is very small and quiet and many of the people in the community are curious about the girl and her father. No one in the town ever seems to see the father, so they wonder if the little girl is actually living in the home alone. Whenever anyone visits the house, Rynn always says that her father is working, out of town, or resting.

However, a couple of people, a nosy landlady and her creepy, perverted son, Frank, become too curious about Rynn and her living situation. They will not leave her alone and Rynn is used to her life of solitude, she will do anything to get them off her back. Things end up getting out of hand when the landlady demands to look in the cellar, which ends up leading to her discovery of a dark secret, as well as an accidental death.

In need of some companionship, Rynn ends up befriending a crippled boy, Mario, who lives in the neighborhood. He is sweet and the two end up becoming very close. He will do anything to protect her, especially from creepy Frank. Will the two be able to successfully keep the pervert at bay or will he end up destroying Rynn's life?

This movie disturbs me, I think it was very well done, but I am surprised that Jodie Foster's parents allowed her to do this role back when she was 13. She handles it well, but that's not surprising, since she also starred in Taxi Driver (1976) during the same time, another role that seems too mature for a 13 year old to be in. I am so happy that I've seen other movies with Martin Sheen before this because I would definitely have been afraid of him. He's really scary in this film and I'm still upset over the hamster scene.

Day 5: 31 Days of Horror: Insidious (2010)

I love stories dealing with haunted houses and possession. They always freak me out. Now, Insidious (2010) is not the scariest movie I have ever seen, by any means, but it was a good attempt. It reminds me of an extremely condensed and tamed version of The Poltergeist (1982), The Changeling (1980), and The Shining (1980) all mixed together. The story is interesting, which is why it's worth checking out.

Insidious follows a young family who has just moved into a new house. One day, an incident occurs in the attic that terrifies their son, Dalton. Afterwards, Dalton ends up falling into an unexplained coma. No one seems to be able to help him and the family starts to experience more paranormal activity within the house, with visions of a man with a red face. The family becomes so frightened that they end up moving again, only problem is, the haunting follows them to the new place as well! 

Unsure of where to turn to next, the family ends up bringing in paranormal investigators for help. From this, they learn that their son is not really in a coma, but is a well-accomplished astral projectionist. In other words, he is successful in having out-of-body experiences when he is asleep. Usually, he is able to make it back to his body, but he ends up going too far into a dimension known as 'The Further' during his last projection that he and is unable to make it back to his physical body. Now, evil spirits have been lurking around his body in hopes of being able to possess it.

There is only one way to save Dalton and it is dangerous, someone else must successfully astral project themselves into 'The Further' and help him get back. It just so happens that the father is an accomplished astral projectionist and he too ended up in a dangerous situation back when he was a child because of this. However, he went through a lot of therapy, so he forgot it ever happened to him, therefore, he doubts he can go in and save his son. Will he be successful in bringing Dalton back to the living world? Watch to find out.

I do not think that this movie is too scary to watch, if you don't like to be too freaked out by what you are watching. I might have thought differently if I hadn't seen The Poltergeist, The Changeling, and The Shining before seeing this film, or if I had watched it at a younger age. However, those movies made me have high expectations for horrific moments. I will say, that old woman ghost in this movie did creep me out, more so than the red faced guy. I do not like that old woman ghost. She needs to go away. I also liked the concept that moving houses did not make the haunting leave the family. The seance scene was also well done. 

Day 4: 31 Days of Horror: Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Requiem for a Dream may not be considered a horror movie to some, but it should be. I think it's one of the most psychologically messed up movies I've ever seen. It scared my friend so much that he couldn't sleep for a week thinking about it. That's the kind of movie this is, hard to forget and realistically horrifying.

The film follows four different characters and their downward spiral from drug addiction. Addiction is an ugly, awful thing. It consumes the body, the mind, and ends up ruining lives at a catostrophic level. Requiem does not shy away from showing how awful life can get because of drug addiction. All of the characters end up failing miserably at life. They do not control anything themselves, it's only the drugs. Who is worse off? It's hard to say. One ends up without a limb, the other a prostitute, another in jail, and the fourth ends up in an insane asylum. Moral of the story? Stay away from drugs!

Ellen Burstyn gives one of the best performances I've ever seen. She plays a lonely widow, who craves for something in her life to give her something to live for. She ends up finding that something when she thinks she's going to be on television. She's so desperate for the experience, to be able to be in the spotlight, talk about her husband and son, that she obsesses about it. She decides she needs to get on some diet pills to lose weight in time for her television appearance, so that she looks nice and is able to fit into the pretty red dress she wore to her son's graduation. The amount of emotions she's able to show in her face make this movie so realistic. It also makes the addiction and experience the character goes through that much more terrifying and heartbreaking to watch.

This film is dark and disturbing. Do not watch it thinking that it's not going to freak you out because it will. There's nothing light about this movie.

Day 3: 31 Days of Horror: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 1920)

There's something about silent horror movies that really gets to me. I think a lot of silent movies are a bit creepy, well, at least the ones that I have seen, but they also have quite a lot of beauty to them. I love The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

Dr. Caligari focuses on a terrible memory that a man, Francis, and his wife-to-be have recently experienced. It all starts once the man visits the county fair and sees the Dr.'s act with his somnambulist Cesare, who when awakened from his slumber in the cabinet, is able to tell secrets of the future. A man asks Cesare what his future entails and he is informed by him that he will die by dawn the next morning. After this, a series of homicides begin to plague the town. No one is sure who is behind these heinous attacks, but they soon end up becoming suspicious of Dr. Caligari and his mysterious counterpart. Are they as creepy as they seem or is something else going on? Watch to find out.

This movie is extremely well done. I think that the set is my favorite part. I love the design of the buildings and the town as a whole. It seems as though this sort of design really influenced the art direction of Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

Werner Krauss, the actor who plays Dr. Calgari, was a genius. He knew how to contort his face into some very freaky grimaces. The makeup and lighting in the film really add to the scare factor. So awesome!

Day 2: 31 Days of Horror: Pet Sematary (1989)

As most of you reading probably already know, Stephen King is one twisted guy. At least, he comes up with very disturbing stories, which makes me think he's twisted. Horror is his forte and Pet Sematary (1989) delivers the creepiness.

The movie starts out with an adorable young family moving into an old house out in Maine due to a job opportunity for the father, Louis Creed.  The only thing that seems bad about their new house is the busy road they live on, especially for the family cat. However, unbeknownst to them, there is something much more dangerous and peculiar lurking behind their house, just beyond the neighborhood pet cemetery...

It isn't until his wife, Rachel, and children, Gage and Ellie, go on a vacation to visit the in-laws that Louis begins to understand just how dangerous it is beyond the pet cemetery when his daughter's cat, Church, ends up dead. Knowing how much the daughter loves this cat, Louis' strange, but kind neighbor, Jud Crandall, lets him in on a little secret. There is a burial ground beyond the pet cemetery and anything buried in it will come back to life.  The two end up burying the cat there and it does indeed come back to life, but it's definitely not the same, lovable Church, that the family was accustomed to.

The creepiness of the burial ground doesn't stop there. Louis and his family end up being haunted by a patient who recently passed away. He keeps warning the family, specifically Louis, that no good can come from the burial ground.  However, Louis ignores his warning when tragedy strikes their family. Distraught by the tragedy, Louis decides to give the burial ground another try, despite how badly Church turned out and the warnings from both the dead guy and Jud regarding how dangerous it would be to bury a human there. Sometimes, dead really is better...

The scariest thing about Pet Sematary is not the cat or the ghost of the patient, it is Rachel's deceased sister, Zelda. I don't know why she had to come into the story at all, other than to add an intense amount of terror into the movie watcher. I guarantee that if you have not watched this film, or even if you have, Zelda will be the one causing nightmares. Keep away, Zelda, don't come by me!

Fred Gwynne was the best actor in the movie, he was the perfect choice for Jud Crandall. I think it's his voice that really adds to his performance. It's very distinctive. Dale Midkiff, who plays Louis Creed, tends to go a little overboard with the acting at some points, but it's bearable, he's also not bad to look at. I had put off watching this movie mainly because I thought I was going to be upset about the cat, but it wasn't too bad. It's probably worse in the book. The family tragedy is pretty sad, but not enough to not watch the movie. Check out Pet Sematary, if you haven't yet!