Autumn’s officially here. It’s time for well-worn hoodies and knit sweaters. Comforting soups and warm beverages. It’s also time to break out the traditions well suited for longer nights tickled with cold. I have a tradition where I pick movies based on a particular theme to watch throughout the month of October. This week’s blog post we’ll look back at the past three years and explore what I liked about them.
2016 – Indie Horror Movies: It Follows, V/H/S, Goodnight Mommy, The Invitation, They Look Like People, The Babadook, Enter the Dangerous Mind
- I garnered a new appreciation for independent films. I was taken in by their ability to explore different human conditions such as grief and mental health, as well as their ability to make the most of their limited budget. Well-crafted scenes full of tension and suspense, as well as satisfying scares with actual payoffs have permanently influenced what I think great filmmaking means. While I didn’t enjoy every movie, I enjoyed experiencing the true technique of “less means more”. Most recommended movie, The Invitation, while I feel it teeters more on the thriller side, I felt that it really honed in on the themes presented and was able to successfully create a tense, almost claustrophobic atmosphere analogous to the mental state of the protagonist. Not recommended, Enter the Dangerous Mind, it wasn’t good, a socially inept male protagonist who eventually places the blame of his insecurities on his love interest wasn’t that compelling.
2017 – Classic Slashers: Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th part Two, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy’s Revenge, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween, Halloween II, Sleepaway Camp
- Most of these were a re-watch, but I wanted to take a look at them from a new perspective. Similar to the indies, these movies also had limited budgets and had to come up with creative ways to be effective. Honestly, they’re just bloody fun. They managed to balance cheap jumpscares with real scares, excelled at practical effects and established most of the horror movie rules we know now. When most people think of horror movies one of the figures are probably their first thought. They harkened on a primal fear of being stalked by something unperceivable through the darkness and created classic characters solely designed to elicit fear. These are just the archetypes, the messed up part is that if one of these slashers don’t do it for you in terms of fear, there’s one out there that will. While the evolution of some of the franchises hasn’t been that swell, they still make most people’s watch lists for horror movie marathons. With the success of the 2018 continuation of Halloween, maybe we’ll see more sequels take advantage of today’s technology to accentuate yesterday’s filmmaking techniques. As for recommendations, just watch all of them, they’re horror film history.
2018 – All things Hannibal: Manhunter, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Hannibal Rising, Hannibal tv series
- This was the first time I focused on a singular character instead of a broad category. Hannibal Lecter almost deserves a category of his own, a combination of psychological horror and visceral violence, the truly horrific thing about him is his unassuming exterior. His intelligence and psychological prowess make him an apex predator perfect for luring his prey, humans. The character Hannibal works best when there is less known about him, I find it harder to be encapsulated by his performance when I know more about his past, especially when it is framed for sympathy. The best part of watching Hannibal is catching yourself being enamored by his visage, like a fish swimming towards a light in the darkness not knowing there’s a gaping mouth waiting. You feel disgusted with yourself to find such a cruel character fascinating and can’t help but wonder how easy a victim you would make. He pulls regular people into his fray and bares himself in his despicable glory, it makes you wonder if someone could push the right buttons and unleash a similar monster in yourself. Most recommended, this is hard because Anthony Hopkins and Mads Mikkelsen both give different, but compelling performances of the cannibalistic doctor, but Silence of the Lambs is such a well-crafted movie and a wonderful performance by Jodie Foster. Not recommended, Hannibal Rising, no traumatic childhood could justify the person Hannibal Lecter eventually becomes, and when it boils down to it, it’s just another revenge movie that doesn’t take an opportunity to truly delve into Lecter’s psychology.
October’s coming soon and I still don’t know what I’m going to watch. I’ve been slacking, I know. Should it be monster movies? Horror movie remakes, space, and aliens, meta horror, 90’s horror? Help me out, got any suggestions let me know.
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