Day 11: 31 Days of Horror: Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Phantom of the Opera is one of the most over-the-top silent movies I have seen yet. There are so many exaggerated gestures, which I am not very accustomed to watching in a film. It's more on par with how people act in plays or musicals. I tend to find overly theatrical acting irritating to watch, but for this particular film, it actually works. 

Scariest thing in this film is definitely the Phantom. He is played by the brilliant Lon Chaney. His makeup is gruesome and when his face is revealed for the first time, it is frightening. I thought I'd feel bad for the Phantom because he was in love with a girl who did not love him back, but he was so creepy and a bit forceful, that I didn't feel bad for him. He was like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, but instead of improving his character, he just became more of a creepy stalker. No one likes a creepy stalker!

I really enjoyed when the Phantom would get up to his crazy shenanigans around the Opera house. He sure scared a lot of people. Especially when he sent threatening letters to the Opera about the singer he didn't like and what he was going to do if they let her sing again. He wasn't kidding. He caused a chandelier to fall because they let her sing again. Christine Daae is the only one he wants. He wants her a little too much though. 

The Phantom is obsessed with Christine and will do anything to have her to himself. He resorts to kidnapping her and bringing her to his secret hiding place in the catacombs. He tries to murder her lover, first by about setting him on fire, and then attempting to drown him. The Phantom clearly is very delusional about how to woo a woman. All he did was scare her. He seemed to think that the woman didn't love him because his face was so grotesque, but that was not the case. Yes, his face was frightening, but he was repulsive because of how mean and evil he was. He murdered others in the opera house and didn't feel remorse for any of the murders or his attempted murders. 

This is a great movie to watch to see how the horror genre started out. I wish that I could go back in time to see how audiences reacted to this sort of horror back in the day, without ever having exposure to the horror movies we have today. 

Day 10: 31 Days of Horror: James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Ever since I was a kid, I've been drawn to bizarre, somewhat frightening stories. Not always able to handle the scary films because of my over-active imagination, but it didn't keep me away from them. I have always been able to read scary stories. I was a huge R.L. Stine fan, mainly for his Fear Street books, which I began reading when I was about 8 years old. Still remember the one called 'Switched,' where best friends minds switch and one starts committing murders when she appears to be her best friend. There's a good plot twist in that book, too.

Before that, I read almost every Roald Dahl book that I could get my hands on, one of my favorites being James and the Giant Peach. I don't remember the book being frightening, but the movie version is. It also happens to be one of those movies from childhood to successfully scare the watcher all the way until their adulthood. I still know adults who refuse to watch this movie because of how much it scared them as children.

James and the Giant Peach has some horrific scenes in it. The one that sticks out first is the big rhinoceros that James sees in the clouds. That rhino is scary! It's like the evil whale, Monstro, from Pinocchio! I hate Monstro the whale and I am not a fan of that scary rhino! I associate both with brutal attacks and sinking ships.

Next up, the evil metal robot torpedo shark! Its teeth are like razor blades that spin quickly in a circle. The shark tries to bring down the peach and sink it. It shoots little mini-torpedo sharks at the peach to try to get them. It attempts to eat one of James' bug friends, Mr. Centipede, once he fell and got closer to the shark's mouth.

Last, but not least, the sunken pirate boat. Mr. Centipede about gets murdered by a bunch of skeletons. The creepiest one is the one who looks like Jack Skellington and grabs at Mr. Centipede as he's trying to return to the peach!

This movie is very well done. If you haven't seen it or if you haven't read the book, then you need to now!

Day 9: 31 Days of Horror: American Horror Story (2011 to Present)

Yeah, I know I've posted about American Horror Story before and it's not a movie, but it is a mini-series and can be enjoyed like it's a long movie. Any horroraholics out there should be watching this show! It is brilliantly done, extremely creative and the acting is above average with each season. One of the best things about this show is that it changes the focus of the show with each season. Nothing is ever dull in the world of American Horror Story! I'm more than obsessed with it! This post will have some spoilers, but it's more regarding the history of the Murder House.

Season 1, the Murder House! First five minutes are perfect for grabbing the viewers attention, extremely creepy. The house holds a lot of secrets and anyone who dies in the house is stuck in the house forever, so there are a lot of ghosts haunting it. The house remains on the market, despite the deaths that take place in it. This means that a lot of unsuspecting families end up purchasing the house and becoming victims of the house.

The newest family to move in is the Harmon family. Ben Harmon found the house and decided to move his family there after he basically ruins it. Vivien Harmon, his wife, had suffered through giving birth to a stillborn baby and Ben had an affair with one of his students named Hayden. Their teenage daughter, Violet, is not thrilled to be moving, but she loves the house when they see it because it's so strange and creepy.

The haunting of the ghosts in the house begins almost immediately. However, the Harmons do not realize this until later in the season, mostly because they refuse to believe that what they are seeing is a haunting. It's not an easy thing to accept. Some of the ghosts in the house are friendly, but unfortunately, others are very malevolent. There are ties to Rosemary's Baby (1968), Psycho (1960), Gaslight (1944), The Shining (1980), the Black Dahlia murder case, Sal Mineo's murder, and even The Changeling (1980) in this show. So good!

There are scenes that show the history of the house and previous owners, dating all the way back to the original owners from 1922. The Montgomery family built the house. The husband, Charles, was a doctor who becomes a drug addict, obsessed with anatomy and creating mutants in the house's basement. His wife, Nora, found him to be impossible to deal with once they move into the house. She also finds their baby son to be a nuisance. They were wealthy socialites from Philadelphia, however, they started losing money once they moved into the house. So, Nora thinks of a way for them to start making some extra money and her solution was to have her husband perform illegal abortions for girls in the area, in his 'lab' in the basement.

Things backfire on them though, once 1926 comes around. One of the girls who went under Dr. Montgomery's knife did so without the consent of her boyfriend. It is an understatement to say that the boyfriend was upset because it caused him to do something unimaginable. He kidnapped the Montgomery's child and murdered him, sending pieces of him back to the family. You'd think that'd be the worst part, but no, the worst part is that Dr. Montgomery decided to sew the child back together and the child comes back as a bloodthirsty Infantata. Distraught by her husband's horrific creation, Nora decided to murder her husband and then she committed suicide. That's how the curse of the Murder House begins.

Season two is amazing as well, it takes place in an asylum and has similarities to The Exorcist (1973). A nun becomes possessed by a demon and starts wreaking havoc on the asylum. A nasty nun, with a not so holy past, commits a journalist to the asylum, even though she is mentally stable. Then, later, she is wrongfully committed to the asylum after she tries to fix some of the bad things that have been going on there. A sadistic scientist is performing heinous experiments to supposedly 'correct' some of the criminally insane. Then, there's Bloody Face, one of the creepiest serial killers in history, who may be in the asylum or on the loose. I think that this season is definitely darker than the first one, but I love both of them for some creepy viewing.

Season three, Coven, just started on Wednesday. It started out with a bang! Jessica Lange and a whole bunch of actors from past seasons are back, with a few new faces. Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett are already killing with their scenes. I cannot wait for next Wednesday already! Wish the season premiere could have been two hours instead of one! This show is not for those who cannot handle scary or hard to watch situations, but if you can, then do yourself a favor and check this show out!

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.