Merry Christmas 2024!
Month: December 2024
Five More Underrated Ghost Movies (For X-mas)
2011’s THE AWAKENING is a ghostly stunner that stars the ever reliable Rebecca Hall (also splended in 2020's NIGHT HOUSE) and was at least partially written by Stephen Volk the brains behind 1992’s essential made for TV mind-screw GHOST WATCH. The year is 1921 and hard nosed proto ghostbuster Florence Cathcart (Hall) is summoned to a boy’s boarding school thought to be haunted. An orphan herself, struggling with the memory of a fiancé who passed away, Cathcart gains a confidant and love interest in the injured and enigmatic Robert Mallory (Dominic West). The two eventually figure out that all of the ghostly activity can be summed up as the result of a child’s prank but just as she is preparing to pack up and go home everything in her world is turned on its head (and then some). This is a great looking movie with some very memorable visuals and more than a few outstanding performances. Anyone who enjoys a classic approach to haunting tales should seek it out ASAP (more HERE)
IN 2005’s FRAGILE, Calista Flockhart (I know we all want to forget ALLY McBEAL but she’s actually good in this) plays nurse Amy Nicholls who has recently started working the night shift at an unnervingly grim children's hospital that is in the midst of packing up and closing down. The children speak of a ghostly presence that lingers on the abandoned second floor named Charlotte who is creepily described as a "mechanical" girl. By all appearances this spirit seems to be raging against being left behind and has taken to smashing bones and throwing people out windows. Of course, nothing is as it seems, there is a mystery that must be solved and Amy must separate the hospital's woeful history from the guilty baggage she brought with her. Fragile goes to some seriously dank, dark and convincingly eerie, seriously scary places and like all the best ghost stories it has a tragic heart that plays with your sympathies as much as your fears. Directed by the hugely talented Jaume Balaquero who delivered the horrifying adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's THE NAMELESS, the flawed but atmospheric DARKNESS and the instant classic [REC] (Full review HERE).
2007’s WIND CHILL finds two young college students (Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes who remain nameless throughout) who only vaguely know sharing a car ride to their respective homes for Christmas vacation. Strange behavior and paranoia eventually infest the journey and when the car crashes and the couple find themselves trapped in the middle of nowhere during a blinding storm, things get spooky. It’s admittedly refreshing to experience a ghostly tale that doesn’t utilize the old dark house setting and something about the idea of being lost and not being able to even clearly see a couple feet in front of you is genuinely unnerving. The resolution (or lack there of) may be too murky and undefined for some but I found the lack of definition sort of the whole eerie, dream-like point.
2016’s WE GO ON is from the same folks (Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton) who delivered the challenging YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010), It’s a wonderful ghost story that remarkably pushes the ancient art form into spaces I have never seen it occupy before. It's all about the pluses and minuses in believing in the great beyond and it pushes the idea that the further you step into the unknown the more you may find your safe seat of sanity dissolving in this plane. WE GO ON features the immensely talented Annette O'Toole (CAT PEOPLE) who deserves accolades and a half for her flawless work here. She's so darn good and she's in some fine company; Clark Freeman and Laura Heisler who were both in YELLOWBRICKROAD are welcome returners and as if we could dare ask for more, living legend character actor John (GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH) Glover is on hand to steal a few scenes too. If you prefer the chilly, cerebral, slow boil side of the horror bed you should tuck yourself into WE GO ON if you can track it down. It has so much more to offer than scares, it's the type of horror movie that keeps you up at night trying to close the doors it opened in your head.
2011’s found footage horror film GRAVE ENCOUNTERS works as a clever parody of your typical paranormal ghost hunting show. There's a phony shit shoveling psychic and an amusing scene where the host pays off a gardener to lie through his teeth about his experiences. The "Grave Encounters" crew (who stand in dramatic, ready-for-action poses) are filming their sixth episode in an abandoned mental hospital that they find out is indeed seriously haunted. What ensues, though never fully believable, is so fun and gleefully spooky that you'll feel like a kid running through a neighborhood haunted-house on Halloween. You know it's not real, but you can't help getting into the frenetic spirit anyway. Not only are the shock scares surprisingly effective, but this movie also plays with your mind pretty good too. The asylum turns into a trippy maze of sorts and things get eerily surreal and the feeling of being trapped is palpable. The authentic setting, not unlike the one employed in SESSION 9 is an indisputably unnerving place but unlike many films of its ilk the cast is likable enough that your stay in this maddening place will be if not peasant, than at least tolerable (more HERE).
Five Underrated Ghost Movies (For Christmas)
I’ve always been envious of the British tradition of sharing ghost stories around Christmastime and lament that America never took up the custom as well. I guess that in the states ghostly happenings got regulated to the Halloween holiday so that Christmas could focus on truly frightening things like family dysfunction, rampant consumerism and celebrating Santa’s penchant for home break-ins and animal enslavement. The fact is (hey, I googled it) Christmas, much like Halloween has Celtic origins and both hinge on the belief that on specific days the veil between the living and the dead is especially flimsy. So why don’t we kick that snitching elf right off the shelf and focus on the chillier side of the holiday season? Here are five ghostly movies that you should check out if you haven’t…
1989’s aptly titled THE FORGOTTEN ONE is a haunter that somehow slipped through the cracks even though it boasts an impressive rock solid performance from horror royalty Terry (the 1987 classic THE STEPFATHER, 1988's hidden gem PIN) O’Quinn. Mourning his recently deceased wife, author Bob Anderson (O’Quinn) moves into a lovely Victorian house and slowly becomes dreadfully aware that the joint already has an inhabitant in the form of a voluptuous ghost (THE HOWLING's vixen Elisabeth Brooks) with an ample grudge. Skeptical love interest/neighbor Barbara (the always welcome Kristy McNichol of WHITE DOG ('82) and DREAM LOVER ('86)) tries her best to be supportive (ya gotta love a gal that helps you dispose of a corpse) but soon fears her potential beau has flipped his lid. Things get a bit convoluted in the climax thanks to time traveling doppelgängers and I certainly could have done without a superfluous depiction of a kitten’s death (c’mon, man! I'm trying to relax here! ) but the initial build up is surprisingly creepy (in fact, early encounters with the spirit are genuinely unnerving) and the three central performances are worth it alone.
In THE SKEPTIC (2009) Tim Daly (of the excellent Stephen King miniseries STORM OF THE CENTURY) plays Bryan Becket, the title skeptic who inherits a most impressive old house from an Aunt who has kicked the bucket. Bryan is a grounded, rational lawyer who is proud of the fact that he believes in nothing. You won't be surprised to learn that he ends up having to reevaluate his worldview when once in the house he experiences what appears to be ghostly phenomenon. An eccentric psychic named Cassie (Zoe Saldana of 2014’s ROSEMARY’S BABY remake) convinces Bryan to let her stay in the place too and together they learn that it's Bryan himself who is haunted by a dark past (Full review HERE).
Directed by Lewis Gilbert (who I’m indebted to for 1983’s EDUCATING RITA) and based on a book by James Herbert (who I’m indebted to for 1982’s DEADLY EYES and its army of dachshunds dressed as rats) 1995’s THE HAUNTED features Aidan Quinn ( shout out to 84's RECKLESS) as professor David Ash who lives to debunk the paranormal funk and is notorious for pointing out the strings that make phony baloney ghosties float. That is until one day when he is persuaded to travel to a palatial estate to prove the joint’s weird occurrences are likely more the result of a frantic nanny’s senility than anything otherworldly. There he meets pretty Christina (Kate Beckinsale of the UNDERWORLD franchise) who clearly has a thing for him and her two eccentric brothers (Anthony Andrews & Alex Lowe) who clearly don’t. We’re surely in familiar territory for most of the film’s runtime (that’s not necessarily a bad thing) but there’s a few tricks up this flick’s sleeve than one might guess. Its fiery conclusion, though no longer the shocking revelation it once was, is still a rug pull that lingers in the mind.
Hey, I was just talking about 2000’s spooker BELIEVE (over HERE) and now I am singing it’s praises once again. This meek yet affable PG rated adolescent ghost tale may not provide the most frightening scares but it’s well shot, well meaning and it consistently entertains. It’s sorta like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys meet THE LADY IN WHITE (1988) and it features two of my favorite Canadians HOUSE OF WAX’s Elisha Cuthburt and the legendary Andrea Martin of BLACK CHRISTMAS (’74) fame.
1944’s CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE is well honored classic and hardly underrated but I’m going to include it here because I don’t see it mentioned enough when discussing supernatural Christmas films. Audiences expecting more of the same in this sequel to Jacques Tourneur’s psychosexual CAT PEOPLE (’42) were in for a bit of a surprise as rather than featuring feline transformations it centers on Amy (Ann Carter) the young daughter of the first film’s surviving couple (Kent Smith (also excellent in 46's THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE and Jane Randolph) who befriends the ghost of her father’s troubled first wife Irena (Simone Simon), much to her parents chagrin. The debut film directed by the great Robert Wise (who delivered arguably the greatest haunted house movie of all time, 1963’s THE HAUNTING), this thoughtful rumination on the plights and terrors of childhood is pure visual poetry. When poor Amy isn’t dealing with her less than supportive parents she must contend with a sinister spinster, a frightening old house, alienation from her classmates and even the headless horseman (more HERE)!
BONUS FLICK: All this ghost talk has gotten me pining for my yearly watch of 1982’s GHOST STORY which is based on what I would say is my favorite horror novel of all time of the same name by the late great Peter Straub. Now, this epic phantasmagorical book certainly would be much better served with a miniseries treatment but the existing film has got a great cast, gorgeous effects (thanks to legends Dick Smith providing jaw dropping make-up and Albert Whitlock delivering incredible matte paintings) and the overall bleak, chilling small town atmosphere is truly remarkable. A group of elderly men (the likes of Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and THE FOG ('80)’s grumpy John Houseman) who call themselves “The Chowder Society” gather together to frighten each other with terrifying tales of the supernatural but the scariest story of them all involves a secret from their own past that involves a beautiful woman named Alma (an off the charts ethereal Alice Krige) who just happens to be back from the dead to settle a long standing score. Put it in my veins (and haunt HERE for more)!
Name That Trauma:: Kevin M. on a Movie Theater Murder
Hello there!
Maybe you can help me out with this one-I only remember this from an afternoon TV preview commercial for an upcoming horror movie they were going to be showing on TV and the part that sticks with me is a woman in a movie theater going to wake up her friend and discovering blood (I Think) and that her friend is dead and she starts to scream. I always had it in my head that it was "He Knows You're Alone" but now I'm not so sure.
Thanks for any help!
Kevin M.
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