 With just a few days before Halloween, I thought I'd leave this Halloween edition of Screening Suggestions with a bang. 'The Haunting' is one of those few legendary black and white horror films that still totally hold up as being at least somewhat scary. In fact, a lot of the creepiness comes from the black and white footage with heavy shadows, odd angles, and various tricks of the camera. Even the very setting of Hill House, itself, is unsettling, as once again the house is just as much a character as the leads. And by the way, yes, I consider this version to be better than the 1999 remake.
The beginning and end of the film is narrated rather poetically by Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson). It begins with the history of Hill House; constructed by Hugh Crain as a home for his wife, she dies in a carriage crash on the way up to the house. Crain remarries, but the second wife dies with a fall down the stairs. His daughter, Abigail, is left there by Crain while he goes off to England to drown. She lived in the house for the rest of her life, trapping herself in the nursery, eventually dying as well. Her nurse companion she was left with then inherits the house, only to hang herself from the spiral staircase in the library. It was then inherited by a Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton), but has been empty for a long time. In the then-present day, Markway is interested in studying whatever paranormal activity resides within the huge, mysterious house. He's allowed, and goes through a list of several potential "lab rats" for his study, inviting them all to participate. He is, however, left with only three people - Theodora (Claire Bloom), a supposed psychic, Luke (Russ Tamblyn), Mrs. Sanderson's heir; and Eleanor, aka Nell (Julie Harris). If all of these names sound familiar, they should, as they were rearranged to be a family in 'The Haunting of Hill House', which is an awesome reimagining of things and I highly recommend it. Nell has a bit more of a backstory than the others, being our main character. She has spent eleven years caring for her sick mother, but her recent death has left her feeling guilty. She has also experienced poltergeist activity when she was a child, and seems to be a bit more in touch with the spirit world than the others - although Theodora is psychic, Luke is just skeptic. The group stays several nights in the house for Markway's study, but the women experience heavy paranormal activity through these nights while the guys don't experience much of anything at all. This involves loud banging on the walls, giggling, heavy breathing, and that creepy cliché of the haunted doorknob turning, which I believe this film gets credit for inventing. While the others are curious, and maybe even a little afraid, there seems to be something about Hill House drawing Eleanor towards staying put. It doesn't help that they find things like writing on the wall saying "Help Eleanor Come Home". In a weird way, the house becomes likewise drawn to her, and seems to want her to stay just as well. Although she often shows fear for the events happening within the house, she also has this sensation of feeling wanted and loved by something, and she eventually becomes seemingly possessed by it. So, if you're more familiar with either the 2017 reboot or the 1999 remake, things aren't entirely different when it comes to the bare bones of the story. I have to admit that I genuinely enjoy the 2017 Netflix version of this story more, but as the original film with this title, I still give full credit to it. My only real criticism is narrowed down to a lot of the melodrama that comes from Nell. Some of her lines are a bit much, but that's my only real nitpick. The film still had my full attention, and as mentioned before, totally holds up today. It's widely regarded now as one of the all-time best horror films, haunting films, and even influential films. We've had ghost movies before this, but the big deal here was that things actually got scary with a completely invisible force of some sort. 'Paranormal Activity' would probably be the equivalent today as something (whether you thought so or not) successfully scary that uses more subtlety than anything. Director Robert Wise is no slouch, either. Odds are I could list five films he's sat in the director's chair for, and you've seen one - this, 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', 'The Sound of Music', 'The Andromeda Strain' and 'The Hindenberg'. Even if you haven't seen any of them, you've probably heard of them at this point. It shows his flexibility in talent,, and I'd be curious to check out some more of the stuff he's directed (aside from a long-ass docking scene in 'Star Trek'). For now though, this is one of his highlights, often dubbed one of the best horror films of all time, and even by today's standards I completely understand why. Despite a bit of melodrama, I absolutely loved this.
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 While 'Halloween' is often toted as the start of the slasher genre, I prefer to think of it as the film that got things going. Before that, you had movies like 'Black Christmas', but 'Halloween' just had a strength to it. Perhaps the strength mostly comes from casting Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead role; daughter of Janet Lee, featured here in one of the most famous movie moments of all time - the shower stab, with the "ree-ree-ree" music!
This film is a milestone in horror, technically being the first big slasher movie. It's brought to us by the master of suspense, himself, Alfred Hitchcock, and it honestly still holds up to this day. Certain things have tried to duplicate it, like an awful 1998 remake, and a much better TV series in 2013, but no matter how they try, nothing can quite grasp the feeling of the classic 1960 film, where it all began. It all opens with real-estate secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), providing us with yet another tie to 'Halloween'. They are talking about marriage and the unaffordability of it with Sam's debts. Some time after, Marion is left a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Instead of bringing it to the bank to deposit it, she instead takes the money and runs, headed to Sam's house in Fairvale, CA. On the way, she is caught in a rainstorm, misses her turn, and ends up at the Bates Motel. There, she is greeted by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who gives her a room for the night. It's Norman Bates' character that really makes this movie shine, as even today, there's something terribly unsettling about him. He plays the role so well, as a bashful, almost boy-like man who just plain gives you that bad vibe. The only other actor I can think of who delivers the subtle horror of a serial killer while being polite is probably Anthony Hopkins from 'Silence of the Lambs', although I'm sure there are other examples between the two films. The two have a conversation where things intensify, and it all leads to that famous shower scene, killing off a main character only about half way through the film. To this day, that scene is intense, especially when the music stops, everything is still, and you see the bloody water pour down the drain. It's as though the film says "I'm not playing around here." The latter half of the film involves Marion's sister, Lila, coming into the picture. Together with Sam and a private investigator, Milton Arborgast (Martin Balsam), they all try to get down to the bottom of why Marion has disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, Norman Bates tries to cover his tracks while dealing with his overprotective and strict "mother". I think by this point we all pretty well know the big twist there, but when I first saw this years and years ago and new nothing about it other than the shower scene existing (I was still in elementary school, I think), it did manage to catch me off guard. In a time when I thought black and white equaled boring, this was one movie that came along and showed me otherwise. Over the years and after a fair bit of re-watching, it has become a personal favorite piece of cinematic art from the 60s. With franchises like 'Halloween', 'Friday the 13th' and 'Elm Street', I wonder where those would be now if 'Psycho' didn't plant the seed. I strongly consider this film to be the Grandfather of slasher horror ('Halloween' is the father). It is just plain legendary, and held high in my opinion as perhaps the quintessential Hitchcock movie. If you haven't seen this, you haven't seen wat Hitchcock was capable of - like making Janet Leigh terrified of ever showering again.  Almost 30 years before we got the presently super famous 'It', featuring Bill Skarsgård, we had the still-relative miniseries. I think it's safe to say that the miniseries holds a place in the heart of most from my generation. 'It' was always a very interesting phenomenon, growing up. A whole bunch of my peers got into reading the novel as almost a right of passage, relating heavily to the kids involved and the idea of facing personal fears head-on.
Some of that reading was fueled by this, and though it was initially released in November, 'It' soon because synonymous with Halloween. It was almost like 'Saw' or 'Paranormal Activity' in that sense. It had nothing to do with Halloween, but it fit so perfectly, constantly making an annual comeback. If I remember correctly, the miniseries would often return to TV for Halloween night, so that after a night of trick-or-treating, the kids had something suitably scary to watch. Yes, this one was indeed horror for the whole family, and holds a current rating of "TV-PG", just going to show what we used to be able to get away with on the small screen back in the day. Ah, 1990, how I miss you. Anyway, for those of you who have seen the current version, divided into two fantastic films, you already know how this works. The difference here is largely in how it's told, and the fact that this takes place in the 50s while the remake takes place in the 80s. This all blends pretty awesomely with the idea that Pennywise returns every 27 years to feast on the fears of children (at least if you are able to round to 30). Anyway, while the new movies feature a perfect divide between the story from their childhood and the story from their adulthood, the miniseries does a lot more jumping around, but with a primary focus on childhood in the first episode, and adulthood in the second. To be fair, that's a bit closer to the book's execution as well. I might say the remake takes a few more liberties with the source material. To start, I'll let you know that when I credit people here, it goes by "adult actor/child actor", as they both play near-equal parts throughout the miniseries. Part One opens with the mysterious murder of a little girl in Derry, Maine, which prompts Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid/Marlon Taylor) to place a few phone calls to his old friends - The Losers Club; Bill Denbrough (Richard Thomas/Jonathan Brandis), Eddie Kaspbrak (Dennis Christopher/Adam Faraizl), Stanley Uris (Richard Masur/Ben Heller) Beverly Marsh (Annette O'Toole/Emily Perkins), Ben Hanscom (John Ritter/Brandon Crane) and Richie Tozier (Harry Anderson/Seth Green). The gang made a pact 27 years ago to come back to Derry if "It" ever came back. One by one, the first part goes through each phone call, and personal recollections from each character about what It was. Although It takes the common form of a clown named Pennywise (Tim Curry), It is really more of an ancient, extraterrestrial evil that makes fearful children its prey, returning to Derry, Maine every 27 years to feed again. It also uses special abilities to its advantage, including shapeshifting, manipulating reality, and going completely unnoticed by adults. The takeaway from the whole ordeal is that these kids have to face their worst fears head on. Then, as adults in Part 2, things seem to get a bit more metaphorical in that fears "return" (they all have some sort of pressure going on in their adulthood) and they reunite to conquer them once and for all. I also fell that much of this has to do with the support of strong friendships in the face of adversity. I've always seen it as very symbolic, and something anyone can relate to. Out of all of Stephen King's material, it's probably safe to say that this is the story I've gotten the most out of over the years. One should take that with a grain of salt though, since this is the only King book I've ever read through (on audio, anyway), and that was for Halloween, last year. I enjoyed it, but I have to be blasphemous and say out of all of the 'It' material out there, I personally enjoy the two remakes more than anything else. The book gets... super, super, super weird - and I'm not just talking about the 12-year-old orgy at the end (yes, it's totally a thing). As for the film at hand, however, there's a lot to be said about it. It's interesting to me that this was a huge risk for ABC to take in airing, as in 1990, horror TV wasn't exactly at the top of the list of things to make. However, King fans took a real liking to it, and it really did turn into a bit of a Halloween tradition for many, for a while. So needless to say, it certainly had its popularity back then. Although pretty creepy for the time, however, it has aged to be pretty corny, altogether. The acting and dialogue often feels a bit stilted, the visual effects weren't quite touching CG yet, and all in all, it's not entirely scary... bearing in mind this is rated TV-PG. But one thing about it has remained a continued guilty pleasure for many, including myself, and that's Tim Curry's wonderfully hammy performance as Pennywise. He's having so much fun with the role, you can't help but be oddly charmed by him. I know I didn't exactly get deep into detail on the basic plot here, but I feel like just about anyone reading this knows what it's about, and to get into detail would really drag this already fairly long review out. So to conclude it, I will say that although I recommend the 2017/2019 films, there's definitely a really fun, Halloween connection I have to this all the same. It's not quite an annual watch, but it totally could be, even though it's not even really that good of a miniseries. I suppose one could chalk it up to a certain nostalgia, as this represents an interesting risk that sort of opened the doors up for horror TV, or at least allowing drama and sci-fi TV to have a more horrific edge ('X-Files' anyone?). It's a product of its time, but a lot of fun if you have three long hours to kill.  This month I decided to go full Halloween, and conjure up a few suggestions from my past. We stat with 'The Craft'; a somewhat modern take on witches. This movie was so powerful for its time that when the mid to late 90s brought the Goth trend around, this film was one of the primary fuel sources (along with many other things). We also get a great take on strong female characters, each having to overcome their own obstacles in their complex teenage lives.
When a troubled teenage girl named Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney) moves to a new town in LA, three girls who practice witchcraft quickly pick up on the fact that she can pull off some real magic. Seemingly headed by Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk), the rest of the crew consists of Rochelle Zimmerman (Rachel True) and Bonnie Harper (Neve Campbell), who is the one who discovers Sarah as she twists a pencil into the surface of her desk using only her mind... how no one else sees it is beyond me, but it's the moment that gets things going. The three girls approach Sarah to be their fourth so that they can really start to pull off some real magic, and the desire to do so is fueled individually. Nancy lives with an abusive stepfather in a trailer, Rochelle has to deal with a nasty, racist blonde cheerleader type named Laura (Christine Taylor), and Bonnie has horrible burn scars all over her back. Meanwhile, Sarah's trouble is mostly from herself, and the trauma of attempted suicide haunts her. While the four form a bond, and start to get their witchcraft on track, what begins as simple curses turn into real threats when some of their powers are abused. This mostly comes from Nancy who will stop at nothing to feel bigger than she is, even if it means invoking a wiccan spirit known as Manon - essentially a wiccan version of The Force. The way it's described in the film is, to paraphrase, "the stadium in which God and Satan would play football" - a pretty cool idea. One can look at this film in several different ways, but I tend to see it as a mixture between a story about teenage angst, and a cautionary tale about abuse of power. A lot of the angst comes from the girls being the outcasts of the school, the desire to use their magic to get rid of their problems. Let's face it, as teenagers, we all wanted a little bit of magic on our side to deal with whatever problems we were facing. The rest, about abuse of power, is fairly self-explanatory. The final takeaway from yours truly is "be careful what you wish for", as well as there being a karmic factor to one's actions. If I were to make a Top 10 list of "most influential high school films", in general, this would probably make the list. Much like 'Dazed & Confused', it was almost a high school staple. Things took off with this so much, in fact, that because of it, some of the people I went to school with actually got heavily into the wiccan culture, and taking it about as seriously as Ned Flanders takes Christianity. It was sort of mind-blowing, and the whole witch thing would become super popular. I don't know if this is true or not, but I also wonder if the whole trend helped guide younger minds towards 'Harry Potter', whose first book was published just one year after this. There really was something about magic back then. Anyway, with a new one on the horizon for this Halloween (which I intend on reviewing as well), the timing here couldn't be much more perfect. It had been a while since I've actually sat down and watched this, so I wondered how dated it would be. However, I personally thought it held up pretty well. It may look like something very 90s on the surface, but there is something timeless about the story being told, teaching us to curb our power (if we have it) as well as love ourselves enough to face the darkness head on (a little more towards the climax). If nothing else, it's a fun flick for the season, complete with a great, dark soundtrack that will put you in the mood for Halloween. Christine Taylor |
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