House (1977)

            First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of reviews, updates or anything really from us here at Highbrow Horror. You see, the week after Halloween is probably the most depressing week for us throughout the entire year. I call it the post-Halloween blues and I have had them particularly bad after such a full Halloween season. I don’t have an excuse to watch a horror film every day now and it just brings me down. I usually feel this way for two to three weeks after the big night and I was on schedule for just that until last night. You see, last night I was cured!
            I sat down with Jonah to watch a Japanese film from 1977 called House. I had heard all kinds of wonderful things about this movie. I had read glowing reviews saying that it was a whacked out bit of psychedelic horror/comedy that would crank the energy up to eleven with every passing second, that it was completely ridiculous, and the closest experience to doing drugs without doing drugs. Well, all of those things are right on the money. However, they don’t even come close to actually capturing the insanity that takes place in this movie.
            I’ll admit right now that I’m not going to be able to articulate what happens in this film or why you need to see it. I was tossing around the idea of watching it a second time before I wrote about it but I realized that a second viewing probably wouldn’t yield any further understanding either. I’ve seen it, it blew my mind, and now I’m trying to get you to see it. That’s probably as far as I’m going to get.
            The film is about a girl named Gorgeous and her six friends (Prof, Melody, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy) who travel to her aunt’s creepy old mansion in the country to spend their summer vacation. What they don’t know is that Gorgeous’ aunt is really an old spirit who feeds off of young girls who come to visit her. Items in the house (chopped wood, mattresses, pictures, and an old piano) all eat the girls one by one until the climax of the film when…well…I don’t wanna spoil it anymore. You just have to see it to believe it.
            Director Nobuhiko Obayashi has created a film that is all kinds of insane by using so many different camera tricks, colors, animation, film-within-film, split screens, crazy edits, and much much more. The movie started and ten minutes later I was trying to catch my breath and soak in everything that was happening. Visually, it looks like Suspiria on steroids, it has the feel/tone of The Evil Dead, and the energy/humor of a Three Stooges episode. Is all that possible in one movie? Of course it is! There are no limits to what House will do.
            One of the many things I love about this movie are the girl characters. Each one of them has a ridiculous name that relates to their character in some way. So, Gorgeous is stunningly beautiful, Prof is a genius, Melody plays the piano well, Mac is fat, Sweet is charming, Fantasy is a day dreamer, and Kung Fu knows kung fu really well. Of all of them, Kung Fu is my favorite. Anytime a door needs to be knocked down or someone is in trouble, she arrives on the scene and leaps all over the place in a hyper edited form with crazy kung fu music blaring. She’s a blast! Fantasy also has some hilarious day dream sequences as well, especially when she dreams of prince charming taking her away on his valiant steed right after she’s just seen her friend get eaten by a piano.
 Now, the thing to remember here is that this movie was meant to be fun. Yeah it’s about a haunted house that eats young girls, but it is not serious for a second and you shouldn’t take it that way for a second either. It is pure adrenaline that’s sole purpose is to entertain. And entertain it will. I should warn you that it is extremely different than anything you’ve ever seen before. The humor and visuals can be very off-putting during the first twenty minutes if you’re not into these kinds of films.  But if you are still reading this review then you are probably all about something bizarre like this.  
            Truthfully, I haven’t been this entertained by a movie in awhile. It’s a beautiful melting pot of art house, horror, comedy, and kung fu all steaming in a Japanese stew of awesomeness. Movies like this are the reason why I love the horror genre. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something like House comes along and rocks my world. The Criterion Collection has released the film with beautiful packaging and tons of extras to boot. Get it on Amazon or come over to my house and watch it with me because I’m dying to see it again!  

-Dave

Demons (1985)

            Here’s a slam-bang gore fest that will have your Halloween spirit bursting from your chest and put a smile on your face as wide as a Jack O’ lantern! We’ve been talking about movies that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make you sleep with the lights on all month long, but sometimes it’s good to sit back and watch your television light up with insanity. That is exactly what every gore soaked second of Lamberto Bava’s Demons will do. Once again hailing from across the pond in Italy (can you tell the Italians knew what they were doing?) comes a film of unequaled camp and adrenaline that will get your pulse going from the opening credits.

            The film begins with a masked man handing out free tickets to a special screening at a new theatre called the Metropol. Two college girls, Cheryl and Kathy, accept the invitation, along with a host of other memorable characters. Most notable among these characters is a pimp and his two dates who spout out one-liners like rapid-fire. Once the screening begins, the audience starts noticing that the events in the film they are watching is mirroring what’s happening in real life. Of course it isn’t long before the audience members begin turning into bloodthirsty demons one by one and picking each other off in increasingly gruesome ways.

            At one point in the film, a character shakes his fist at the sky and shouts, “There has to be an explanation!” Do we actually get that explanation as to why all these people are turning into bloodthirsty demons? Will the poor audience members make it out of the theatre alive? Do any of these questions matter? Of course not! What we do get is Bobby Rhodes (the pimp I mentioned earlier) kicking some major demon tail, amazingly awful dialogue (see quote above), ultra-gory demon transformations/murders, and a climax featuring a dude on a motorcycle chopping off demons heads with a katana. Top it off with a pulsing hair metal score that screams, “This movie was made in the 80’s,” and we have the makings of a classic.

            Dario Argento’s name is attached to this project as a writer and producer. I think he got bored of making artfully crafted films and decided to write something totally off the wall and crazy. That being said, even though it is directed by Lamberto Bava, it is easy to see Argento’s influence. The movie theatre provides a gigantic set piece for numerous gory murders and mayhem to occur in. It is also very well lit and colored. One shot in particular of the demons walking up a flight of stairs in the dark and fog-covered hallway stands out. Their bodies are nothing more than shadows as they hover through the darkness, yet their piercing yellow eyes are seen plain as day. It’s a great shot that always reminds me that Argento was involved in this movie.

            Truthfully there is nothing scary about this film. But it is an absolute blast to watch. Once the people begin turning into demons, which doesn’t take long at all I might add, the movie turns into a gore soaked party. We get to see people’s throats ripped out, eyes gouged, bodies chewed on, heads decapitated and some spine ripping near the end. It’s one of those movies where you don’t know how the filmmakers are going to top what you’ve just seen until a helicopter falls through the roof…which happens, by the way.

            See Demons (or Demoni, as it’s known in Italy) this Halloween and prepare for the best hour and a half of your life. Then see it again with a bunch of friends and tell them to thank you later. Buy it on Amazon or at a Vintage Stock store, they will have it. It will probably be the best decision you’ve made in a long time. 

-Dave

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

Dead Snow

  A group of medical students are spending the week at a secluded cabin in the mountains to relax and escape the stress of school.  Unfortunately for them, their cabin sits atop the site where a large battalion of Nazis froze to death during WWII.  Oh, by the way, the Nazis are now zombies.  How? Why? That’s not important.  What is important is that these college kids are now in a fight for their lives against a troop of flesh eating National Socialists.

            Dead Snow is a movie made by horror fans for horror fans and director Tommy Wirkola makes this very clear from the get-go.  Wirkola’s Norwegian Nazi-zombie flick can be seen as his homage to classic horror comedies of the 80’s and early 90’s.  Fans of the early works of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson will be instantly sold.  The self-aware nature of Dead Snow is what allows it to succeed.  While the premise of a group of kids visiting a secluded cabin has been done to death, it becomes justified when the characters reference the Evil Dead and Friday the 13th in the opening scenes of the movie.  From that point on, any self-respecting horror fan viewing this film is forced to abandon any “they don’t make them like they used to” attitudes toward contemporary horror and simply enjoy the ride.     

  The first half of the movie is pretty slow-paced, almost to a fault considering the familiar nature of its narrative structure.  Once the students are settled in the cabin, they are visited by a mysterious drifter who claims there is a curse on the mountains and they would be well advised to leave as soon as possible and never come back.  The kids ignore the warnings and the drifter continues to inexplicably wander aimlessly through the same mountains he claims are too dangerous for any human to inhabit.  Even though a good forty-five minutes are spent setting the stage in Dead Snow, the characters are still relatively one-dimensional, with the only real attempt at depth being that one of the medical students is, ironically, afraid of blood.  

  However, the uneventful first half of Dead Snow is completely redeemed once zombies start to rise from the snow.  As soon as the living-dead Nazis begin to attack the cabin, any notion that Wirkola would not be able to live up to the standard of classic horror he references at the beginning of the film is instantly abandoned.  Dead Snow features the cutting edge in gore-related technology and showcases a brutal struggle for survival as the characters face off against the undead Third Reich.  Each blood-soaked attack leave will you thinking, “There is no way they can top that” and yet, somehow, Wirkola manages to continue to outdo himself in every scene until the credits roll.

Horror connoisseurs are sure to appreciate Dead Snow, a film that is truly aware and respectful of its roots.  If the notion of an unoriginal plot or one-dimensional characters concerns you, then you’re missing the point.  Dead Snow delivers tense and shocking moments as well as thrills, laughs, and plenty of buckets of blood.  This movie pulls no punches and is exactly what you want from a film about undead Nazis.  It’s time to update your Netflix queues, horror fans.  Dead Snow will not disappoint.

-Jonah

Poster by Phantom City Creative.

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.