The Devil's Muse

Category: horror cinema

  • Horror Cinema: The House of the Devil

    I recently re-watched Ti West’s The House of the Devil. I remembered liking how spooky it was, but I forgot how much I liked the storyline. The narrative both pops and lulls as it unfolds toward a dark ending about free will and Satanism. The gore is bloody and satisfying. The heroine is strong and resourceful. The villains seem distant but are many and close by. So spooky!

    Admittedly, I might be biased because Rosemary’s Baby is one of my favourite movies and The House of the Devil pays an intriguing homage to the Unholy Trinity. Its ending is very different than its predecessor’s, however. It is unresolved yet satisfying, which I liked. I am very much a Ti West fan!

    West, Ti. The House of the Devil, MPI Media Group (theatrical) / Dark Sky Films (DVD and VHS), 2009.

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  • Horror Cinema: The Bride (1973)

    A marriage made in heaven … and a honeymoon in hell!

    The Bride, also known as The House That Cried Murder, is a horror tale reminiscent of a Tales From the Crypt story. Told in a dreamy and moody way like only horror movies from the 1970s can, it begins with a betrayal that makes watching the traitors suffer at the hands of the vengeful victim feel like a satisfying, rewarding punishment.

    If you like the slower pace of older movies, then this one is for you. I do think that the frights and ending are worth it, while bearing in mind the time and place when it was made.

    Watch the film, if you haven’t yet and if I have peaked your interest:

    The Bride, also known as The House That Cried Murder (1973) – FULL MOVIE

    Pélissié, Jean-Marie. The Bride / The House That Cried Murder, Bryanston Distributing (USA), 1973.

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  • Horror Cinema: My Bloody Valentine (2009)

    After watching the video I posted yesterday about the original 1980s My Bloody Valentine, I was inspired to watch the 2009 remake. Like the first one, the remake’s plot was weak, but weaker. Plot aside, it was awesome! Good gore from the start of the movie. It had my attention!

    My Bloody Valentine (2009)

    The remake reminded me of another of my favourite gore flicks, the 2013 Texas Chainsaw. They both dove into graphic gore prettty quickly and sustained it throughout the movie. And the gore was vivid. Your face got in it. And that is when I realized that these movies were both made for 3D.

    My Bloody Valentine (2009)

    The gore effects were intended to freak out the audience wearing 3D glasses, so weapons were swung at them and blood was made to splash on them, like audience participation.

    Texas Chainsaw (2013)

    The thrill of the splashy gore outweighed the weak story lines of these movies for me, although I will confess that I love Texas Chainsaw because it turns into a sympathy-for-the-devil narrative in the last third. I am always a sucker for a horror movie where I’m cheering on the villain in the end!

    Texas Chainsaw (2013)

    Luessenhop, John. Texas Chainsaw, Lionsgate, 2013.
    Lussier, Patrick. My Bloody Valentine, Lionsgate, 2009.

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  • Horror Cinema: My Bloody Valentine (1981)

    I am a hopeless romantic and love when Valentine’s season comes around every dreary February. I’m also born Canadian. Mix those facts up with horror, and you get My Bloody Valentine.

    My Bloody Valentine (1981)

    The movie’s straight-forward slasher narrative and playful take on a Valentine horror make it one of my favourite horror flicks. The slasher’s community revenge plot is part Freddy Krueger, part Jason Vorhees, and the kills are satisfyingly grotesque.

    A good video introduction to the movie:

    My Bloody Valentine (1981) Five Facts by Human Echoes [YouTube]

    Image result for my bloody valentine movie 1981

    Mihalka, George. My Bloody Valentine, Paramount Pictures, 1981.

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  • Horror Cinema: Wrong Turn 4 — Behind the Scenes

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  • Horror Cinema: Victor Crowley

    Movie review
    Adam Green’s Victor Crowley

    The most refreshing part of Victor Crowley was that it was not bogged down (pun intended) by unnecessary back story justifying the villain and his behaviour. I have really disliked the trend of director’s releasing biopocs of my favourite senseless killers, like Rob Zombie’s Halloween or the 2017 movie Leatherface. What attracts me to these villains is their senseless violence and mania, not trying to figure out why they are that way. To me, a slasher villain is a hurricane, some careless and destructive act of nature that you don’t want to cross.

    Victor Crowley was, in contrast, a straight-up gore flick: another installment of a group of people who cross paths with the murdering monster Victor Crowley. While the storyline was flimsy and the characters a bit annoying, the face-smashing, decapitating and disemboweling made up for it.

    This installment of the Hatchet series won’t be my favourite, but it holds a deserved place within the canon.

    Victor-Crowley

    Green, Adam. Victor Crowley, ArieScope Pictures, 2017.
    Poster image from Movieweb.

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  • Horror Cinema: Psycho

    I love discovering that a personal horror-film favourite is based on a novel:

    “Psycho was the first movie adapted from a novel by Robert Bloch (1917-1994), and despite its great success, he only received $9,000 from selling the film rights to his novel. However, the movie helped his career tremendously, and he wrote for a number of films and television shows over the next three decades, most of them in the horror/thriller/suspense genre, such as The Night Walker (1964) starring Barbara Stanwyck, and Strait-Jacket (1964) with Joan Crawford.” (from Trivia & Fun Facts About PSYCHO by Turner Classic Movies)

    Adding Bloch to my reading list!

    PSYCHO - American Poster 6

    (poster from Discreet Charms & Obscure Objects: Images of rare/well-known movie posters)

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  • Horror Cinema: The Boy (2016)

    Movie review
    William Brent Bell’s The Boy

    I started watching The Boy with very low expectations. With the iconic dolls of Chucky and Annabelle dominating the horror genre, I was not sure how this storyline of a possessed doll would play out another time around.

    I was pleasantly surprised as The Boy unfolded with its creepy relationship between the main character and the doll, particularly those moments when the main character notices in a mirror that the doll has turned its head to watch her or when objects are seemingly moved around by the doll.

    While the movie was a slow burn for the first half or so, once the identity of the doll surfaces, the action kicks into high gear until the end. One aspect of the movie that I especially liked was the strength of its storyline. The villain’s background, as it was revealed, was believable and logical—something I was definitely not expecting going into the movie. The fact that the narrative becomes believable as it unfolds makes the movie that much scarier than the Chucky and Annabelle movies where the villain is supernatural.

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    Bell, William Brent. The Boy, STX Films, 2016.

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  • Horror Cinema: Wake Wood

    Movie review
    David Keating’s Wake Wood

    I came across Wake Wood last night. It’s a supernatural horror film set in Northern Ireland, and its ambience and story-telling were excellent. In addition to the gore throughout the movie (mostly with livestock, but still unnerving), I liked the character development. Towards the last quarter of the movie, it was a thrill-ride to see one of the main character’s bad decisions coming back to haunt him. The best part: a horrific little girl villain.

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    Keating, David. Wake Wood, Hammer Film Productions, etc., 2011.

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  • Horror Cinema: Hatchet II

    As a New Year’s gift to myself, I picked up some new-to-me horror movies from a secondhand dvd store. One of them was Hatchet II, which I chose because I liked the first Hatchet. I was impressed again by the sequel. The gore was brutal, senseless and violent, making this a perfectly great horror movie for my tastes!
    hatchet2
    Green, Adam. Hatchet II, Dark Sky Films, 2010.

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