The Evil Dead (1981)

            There are many great horror films you should watch around Halloween time. Here at Highbrow Horror, we’ve covered the meat and potatoes of what we consider great movie marathon material for this time of year. So what are the perfect elements of a worthy Halloween movie? Gore, goofy dialogue, demons, gore, Bruce Campbell, and a cabin in the woods. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I am speaking of the splat-stick masterpiece Evil Dead.
            As a young child I can recall going into the horror section at every video store I ventured into, and Evil Dead always seemed to stick out to me for some reason. It was probably that sweet movie cover. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to watch the movie until much later. Actually, just about four years ago around this time of the year I bought it on a whim. The first time I watched it, I was in awe of what I saw. So much so that I went back and bought the other two films in the series to complete the trilogy. What is all the fuss with this movie you say? Well let’s sink our chainsaw into it!
            Five Michigan State students travel to an isolated cabin in the woods to have a weekend of fun. Shortly after arriving, one of the guys stumbles upon an old tape recorder in the basement, and the book of the dead. The whole group has a listen to the tape, and thumbs through the book of the dead. Bad idea. Sure enough before they know it they have released ancient demons and they have come to wreak havoc on the poor students in the cabin. It’s up to Ash to save the night and ultimately become a hero.
            Sam Raimi and company were forced to work within a small budget, much like their horror counterparts of the 80’s. They actually filmed a short called Within the Woods, which they used to go around to doctors and pitch their movie to see if they would be interested in investing. It ended up working well enough for them to finance Evil Dead. The film as a whole took about a year in a half to film due to time restraints. Filming would often be rough for actor Bruce Campbell who would be covered in corn syrup and coffee creamer on a nightly basis in the near freezing temperatures. After debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, it was picked up and released in theatres in 1981. 
            Evil Dead has gained a loyal cult following, and deservedly so. The gore is outrageous and there is so much blood its funny. The whole movie there is a demon locked in the cellar in the living room. She looks wicked and just stands there and says the funniest things to everyone. One by one everyone mostly turns into a demon, which Ash has to deal with in some way or another.  Don’t forget the notorious tree rape scene, although it’s not as bad as it sounds. There are a few creepy moments, but overall it is just a fun, bloody movie that never takes itself too seriously. Did I mention how much humor is in this thing?
            While the Halloween spirit is in the air, do yourself a favor and check out Evil Dead. It’s available for instant streaming on Netflix, and if you don’t have access to that, then it is more than likely available for rent or purchase in your town. Pick it up tonight and watch it with some friends. Such pretty skin, give it to us!


-Chris

Poster by Micah Moseby. 

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

            Whether you like it or not, Wes Craven is the master or horror. Or he is at least the most successful director horror has ever seen. No one has a better resume that he does. In the 1970’s, Craven was responsible for some of horror’s most shocking pieces. The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes are two of the genre’s greatest that would much later be remade and achieve big box office success. However, it was in the 1980’s that Craven was finally crowned king with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

            I’ll assume everyone who has been alive for the last century is aware of the films plot, but for fun I shall sum it up. Nancy and her high school friends are being taunted in their dreams by a burnt, “knives for fingers” boogeyman. Once Nancy’s friends start to die off, she confronts an evil past and discovers who and what Fred Krueger is. First off, it is worth noting that Craven conceived the idea for this after reading a few newspaper articles on a young man dying in his sleep. Instead of playing up the “based on true events” gimmick, he decided to blur the lines between fantasy and reality to really toy with the audience.

 Another thing is that Nightmare came out after Halloween and Friday the 13^th. So at this time the slasher genre was alive and kicking into its prime. I think Craven did the smartest and best thing to set his film apart from the rest: give the killer a personality. See, that’s the thing a lot of slasher films lack. Up to that point, the axe-wielding killer just moped around destroying people. But Craven gave his villain the ability to speak, and I believe that is what makes Krueger quite possibly the best horror movie villain of all time. The movie was a huge box office and critical success. It was made with a modest budget of a little over a million and would earn twenty four million more domestically. It would spawn numerous sequels and become a storied franchise. The film was also Johnny Depp’s first starring role. Pretty crazy huh?

            So what else can I say about this film that hasn’t already been said or written about? There really isn’t a lot. The gore is great. The blood flows well a few times and it isn’t too campy or too serious. Freddy’s iconic look was done extremely well and may play a part to why he is practically the face of mainstream horror, right along with Jason Vorhees and Michael Meyers. After all these years, I personally consider this to be one of the top five best horror films of all time. It is absolutely timeless. The bottom line really is, if you haven’t seen this film for some unbelievable reason, please stop making excuses and go rent it. I’d steer away from the remake, as good as it is, it’s just not quite on par with the original. After all, this is one of the quintessential films for Halloween.

-Chris

Poster by Micah Moseby.

            

Zombie (1979)

             The 1970’s are considered by many horror fans to be the “Golden Age” of horror. Many of the most controversial and sickest movies of the era and of all time were being churned out during this period. This was the world’s first introduction to such greats as Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, and David Cronenberg. While all of these filmmakers hailed from North America, there was something magical brewing over the pond in Italy. And in 1979 my friends, the world was introduced to Lucio Fulci’s Zombie.

            Zombie, or Zombi 2 as it was released in Europe, was in indirect sequel to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Although it did debut the year after Dawn, neither films have any relation other than Zombie trying to cash in off the success of Dawn. The film opens up in New York City where we see an abandoned boat. The police have been called to investigate, only to discover a zombie stowaway. From there we meet Anne, the daughter of the owner’s boat. She is distraught to hear the news because she hasn’t heard from her father other than that he is on a tropical island conducting research. Hotshot reporter Peter West is assigned to report on the boat. The two accidentally meet on the boat, only to discover a mysterious note left by Anne’s father saying he has contracted a rare disease on the island of Matool. Anne and Peter decide to figure out what is going on, and depart for Matool. They meet up with a couple who is out to sea, and depart in their boat for the island. Once there they meet Dr. Menard, a physician who is investigating the strange occurrences on the island. The rest of the movie is an all out zombie fest of the bloodiest kind.

            First of all, you have to talk about the makeup. The FX and gore are so good it’s scary. Giannetto De Rossi was at the helm, and boy did he deliver. Just take a look at a zombie from Dawn, and a zombie from Fulci’s film. Then consider that the two films are merely a year apart. Among the superb gore work is: the trademark eyeball scene, lots of nasty flesh being eaten, and zombies coming out of the ground. It’s all just rather stunning. The next thing that really sticks out is the cinematography. This film is shot so damn well. It doesn’t look like you are watching a film from the late 70’s, or a foreign film for that matter. While the American’s were putting out low budget, grainy horror epics, the Italians were offering the world slick, hauntingly beautiful masterpieces. The acting serves its purpose. I’m not so sure anyone is actually paying attention to the acting anyway. The movie is chock full of mediocre to slightly bad dubbing, but that’s always kind of fun. Lastly, the score by Fabio Frizzi is awesome. There’s not much else you can really say about other than that.

            There are some great memorable scenes in Zombie. Probably the most talked about is the shark scene. In this part, one of the women on the boat that’s sailing out to the island goes sea diving. Before too long she is face to face with a zombie. This is interesting because this may be the first experience with a zombie under water. A fight then ensues between the undead and a shark, which is pretty incredible. This scene was also recently featured in a Window’s 7 commercial. The next and perhaps even greater scene is the eyeball scene. Dr. Menard’s wife is home alone and has a zombie encounter. She manages to lock herself in the bathroom, but the zombie’s strength shatters part of the door and pulls her by her hair, impaling her eye on a large splint of wood. This scene would later spawn more eyeball splatters in Fulci’s work.

            While there are as many zombie films as there are zombies in them, very few stand the test of time. Right up there with Romero’s original trilogy, Zombie is timeless. It’s epic, bloody, and fun as hell. If you are looking for the right zombie movie for Halloween season, I can’t say there are many better than Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE.

-Chris

Poster by Micah Moseby.

Martyrs

         Welcome back to French Horror 101! This may be my last installment in this area for a bit, but Dave will soon have his review up of the film that started the “French Horror Wave”. Before I get started with my review, I must warn anyone that shows interest in viewing this film. This movie is heavy stuff. There is even an introduction by the director before the movie starts, warning viewers of what they are about to view. Granted you’re not seeing a snuff film, but you will see stuff that is highly upsetting. Now let’s take a look at Martyrs.

         Martyrs starts off with young Lucie, our main character who has been imprisoned and abused for some time, escaping her abductors. She is brought to an orphanage where she befriends Anna, our other main character. We get a glimpse into their friendship as children. It is apparent from the start and later on that Lucie and Anna are best friends, with Anna acting as a caretaker to Lucie. Fast forward fifteen years. Lucie discovers who her captors were and where they now live. One unlucky morning, the family is greeted by Lucie and her fully loaded shotgun. Lucie informs Anna of what she’s done, and the two try to make sense of the mess. During this whole time, Lucie is being attacked by a strange, vicious creature that hurts her physically. This has gone on since childhood, and continues throughout. Lucie confronts her demons and commits suicide, leaving Anna to pick up the pieces. She sticks around long enough to discover a very dark secret. This is where the madness goes into overdrive.

         Sound confusing? Well, it kind of is. There are a few different things going on at once, but they all come together to make sense. The thing haunting Lucie isn’t totally a subplot, but it is very evident for half of the film. The movie will make sense about midway through the film, then again at the end. The biggest aspect of Martyrs is that it transcends genres. This film is honestly as much a dark drama as it is a horror film.  You will be disgusted, pissed off, upset, and shocked at what you see in this film. But there is something much deeper lying beneath Martyrs. The underlying message will be what you make of it. This will definitely take a long time to sink in, and will probably keep you thinking about it for a few weeks.

         The tone of the film is total dread. You never know what is coming, but you feel like the outcome won’t be promising. The gore isn’t there for the sake of gore; this is one of the few instances where this is true in a film. Though, what gore you do get, it is done superbly. The cinematography is sweeping and luscious, while the score is very interesting, but works perfectly. The final thirty minutes of the film can be unbearable to watch. It’s a grueling experience, but it is necessary for the film. Overall, Martyrs is a horror masterpiece that truly transcends itself and becomes something larger. If you can tolerate the things you see in Martyrs, you will be paid off with an incredibly unique film experience. That is something that can’t be said of too many horror films of the last decade.

-Chris

Inside

            Leave it to the French. This has become my motto towards horror films lately. The 2000s were somewhat of a bleak era for American horror. America was caught up producing remake after remake of the genres greatest hits including: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and The Hills Have Eyes just to name a few. There was a sever lack of creativity outside of Eli Roth and a few select others. So while this was going on here, the French were busy upping the ante with their own imprint of brutality. In 2003 the French unveiled Haute Tension (High Tension). High Tension was released in North America two years later. Its depiction of violence and depravity was something that hadn’t been seen since the golden years of horror in the 70s and 80s. This was a very good first impression of French horror that would only be outdone with future films, which leads us to Inside.           

            Inside, or À l'intérieur, found its way onto DVD in the states in 2007. The film starts our with a nasty car wreck in which we find our main character, Sarah. Sarah, our lone survivor of the wreck also happens to be pregnant. Fast forward to Christmas Eve, our heroine is due the next day. Visions of her deceased husband from the wreck haunt her through the night. Here is where things get awfully bad. Late in the evening, Sarah gets a ring at the doorbell. Santa, maybe? I wish. It turns out to be a mysterious woman who knows a lot about Sarah. Frightened, Sarah calls the police to report the incident. The police arrive to find nothing at all and wish our poor Sarah a safe and merry Christmas.

            What unfolds for the next hour is one of the greatest achievements of the horror genre in a few decades. I won’t get into great detail because I don’t want to spoil much of the surprises, but consider this: our villain’s choice of weapon is a large pair of scissors. The blood flows real quick as Sarah is stuck in a nasty game of cat and mouse in her home with this mysterious woman who wants to take her baby from the womb. A few poor guests meet a grim fate at the hands of a pair of scissors. Throw in a lobotomy, an incredible blown off head scene, and a human hand stabbed to the wall and you have yourself an ultraviolent French horror film.

            Although the film takes place entirely in Sarah’s home, the tension is nightmarish. The FX is some of the best I’ve seen, and doesn’t rely on CGI to get the job done. The last fifteen minutes of the film are pure carnage and chaos that won’t leave your mind for a few days. I’m sure everyone has heard that before in a horror film review, but you haven’t seen it like the French do. So does Sarah survive and keep the baby? This is one hell of a journey you’ll have to make for yourself to find out. Welcome to French horror 101, courtesy of Highbrow Horror. 

- Chris

Poster by Micah Moseby.