The Devil's Muse

Category: movie

  • IG Spotlight: Terror Detective

    My favorite Instagram account these days is Terror Detective. It features reviews and recommendations on gory horror movies. At least once a week, I learn about a new movie that I promptly watch.

    This week, I watched Joe D’Amato’s Beyond the Darkness (1979). I was intrigued by this comment on a post by Terror Detective about this movie: “Joe rode the wave of sleazy gorefests that flooded Italian cinema from the late 70s to mid 80s. This Italian Gothic flick was intentionally made with lots of gore to make people sick. D’Amato didn’t consider himself very good at creating suspense, so he figured he would go for the gross.”

    There was certainly lots of gross, from bizarre sexual relations to an embalming to the chopping up of a body and putting it into an acid bath. From beginning to end, it was a bizarre movie, but, I’m glad for having watched it. For all the years of horror movies I’ve seen, I like that I am still discovering more!

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  • Happy New Year 2022! Here’s to New Beginnings!

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  • Rue Morgue TV: How It Took Two Directors to Make CURTAINS

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  • Horror Comedy Trivia: Gremlins (1984)

    Did you know that there are many connections to executive producer Steven Spielberg’s popular movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) in Gremlins?

    One of the Gremlins says “phone home,” there is a stuffed E.T., and, at the beginning, one of the movies on the marquee is “A Boy’s Life,” which was the fake name under which E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was shipped to theaters.

    More facts about Gremlins at IMDb Trivia: Gremlins (1984).

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  • Horror Cinema: Sea Fever

    The overall feeling that Sea Fever left me with was of humans as prey, and the film did a great job of telling a captivating story of a small group of people facing the challenge of a deep-sea predator. Throughout the movie, I was convinced by the science and the characters’ slow realization of what was happening to them, which made the story believable and more frightening. Add the element of body horror to that with how the creature found its way into the bodies of the crew, and you’ve got a great creepy movie!

    My favorite aspect of the narrative was the superstition of the sailors, which provided ominous foreshadowing as the story unfolded. I also loved the deep-sea creature and how it was shown. It certainly put the limited power of the humans into perspective.

    Hardiman, Neasa. Sea Fever, Signature Entertainment, 2019.

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  • Mrs. Doubtfire, Horror Edition

    “An unemployed actor undergoes a drastic transformation in a twisted attempt to regain the trust of his estranged family.”

    This is amazing! By Peter Javidpour — via YouTube.

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  • Horror Cinema Trivia: Dracula (1931)

    Among the living creatures seen in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania are opossums, armadillos, and an insect known as a Jerusalem cricket (Stenopalmatus Fuscus).

    Opposum in Dracula’s castle.

    The Jerusalem cricket was common in Southern California, which may explain its cameo in the film.

    Jerusalem cricket in Dracula’s castle.

    The inclusion of armadillos was due to the fact that armadillos had occasionally been seen digging in graveyards, which led to the mistaken belief that they would dig their way into coffins and eat the cadavers.

    Armadillos in Dracula’s castle.

    Learn more about 1931’s Dracula at IMDb Trivia: Dracula (1931).

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  • Horror Cinema: The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (1968)

    I came across The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch while browsing for a horror movie to stream on Apple TV. The image of the little girl with the snake face in the trailer had me interested. When I started it, I had low expectations because it reminded me of Obayashi’s House, which was a major disappointment for me.

    The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch turned out to be excellent, and I highly recommend it. The supernatural aspects throughout the movie were clever plays on the protagonist’s childish imagination, and the movie’s narrative was captivating and rewarding in the end.

    Yuasa, Noriaki. The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Daiei, 1968.

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  • Horror Cinema Trivia: Nosferatu (1922)

    The concept in popular culture that sunlight is lethal to vampires is based on 1922’s Nosferatu, which depicted such a death for the very first time in film history.

    Find out more at IMDb Trivia: Nosferatu (1922).

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  • Horror Cinema Trivia: Elvira—Mistress of the Dark

    Elvira: Mistress of the Dark was produced by NBC, which set up a distribution deal with New World Pictures. Just as the film was slated to hit theaters, New World filed for bankruptcy. The marketing campaign was abruptly halted and the release was scaled back from thousands of theaters to just a few hundred. Critics were brutal and, without promotion to entice potential viewers, the film bombed at the box office, though it later became a best-seller on video and one of the highest-rated programs of the year when NBC aired it in 1990.

    As today is National Coming Out Day, I thought it would be appropriate to feature Elvira.

    A kid of the 80s, I adored Elvira and this movie. Learn more behind-the-scenes facts at IMDb Trivia: Elvira—Mistress of the Dark (1988).

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