My Favourite Horror Movies, Alphabetically: Deep Red

Deep Red
Dir: Dario Argento. Starring David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia. 1975

I saw this - my first Argento – during the VHS boom of the 1980’s. It had all the gore that I’d come to expect from my beloved Italian horror imports, but Deep Red also had suspense, a plot with entertaining twists and turns, and sequences that have rightfully become classics of the horror genre. What perhaps appealed to me the most, though, was that this is a movie painted with broad strokes – bright colours, a first rate pounding score from Goblin, bizarre close-ups, extreme violence, ripe dialogue, broad characters – all elements that actually serve to showcase Argento at the top of his game as a director. After all, we watch Argento movies to be thrilled, to see where he’s going to take his camera next. Present too in Deep Red are some of Argento’s favourite themes – the outsider/artist involved in a murder investigation, the protagonist struggling to unravel that one piece of information he’s misinterpreted, and murder as terrible beauty. What these pieces add up to for me is the ultimate Dario Argento movie, aided in no small way by his then-wife, star, and co-writer, Daria Nicolodi.

My Favourite Horror Movies, Alphabetically: Cat People

Cat People
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Starring Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith and Jane Randolph. 1942

Producer Val Lewton was responsible for creating a string of literate horror films in the 40’s that transcended their studio-imposed titles and delivered highbrow chills. For me, Cat People is the stand out, though all are essential horror movie viewing, especially The Body Snatcher, I Walked With a Zombie and The Seventh Victim. Here, a woman’s fear of sex and intimacy creates the belief that she becomes a wild panther whenever she responds to these impulses. Or does she actually transform when her emotions are heightened? The addition of a few seconds of film required by RKO lessens the mystery, but only does minimal damage to the film. Blurring the lines between horror and film noir, Cat People features several stand out scenes and plenty of memorable imagery in its brief 73 minute running time.

My Favourite Horror Movies, Alphabetically: Carrie

Carrie
Dir: Brian De Palma. Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving and John Travolta. 1976

Basically a contemporary fairy tale, Stephen King crafted a story with Carrie that is so solid and explores fears that so many people share that it feels like it’s been part of literature’s lexicon for centuries. Working from excellent source material, Brian de Palma edited any literary detours and added his own sensibilities to create one of horror’s classic films, featuring outstanding performances by the entire cast, but particularly by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. A bullied Carrie unleashes her blossoming telekinetic powers against her high school tormentors and religious fanatic mother in a blood and thunder fairy tale. The prank staged at the prom is one of de Palma’s best Hitchcock influenced montages, using the 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much as its source.

My Favourite Horror Movies, Alphabetically: The Brood

The Brood
Dir: David Cronenberg. Starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds. 1979

A significant jump for Cronenberg in maturity as a filmmaker while still retaining his early grotty body horror. In other words, a perfect balance of Cronenberg’s arthouse and grindhouse sensibilities. As a filmmaker, Cronenberg has always been at the forefront of doing what horror does best – making metaphors – and The Brood is a prime example with its vengeful rage-made-flesh children pummelling members of a divorcing household to a bloody pulp.

My Favourite Horror Flicks, Alphabetically: Blood & Lace

Blood and Lace
Dir: Philip S. Gilbert. Starring Gloria Grahame, Melody Patterson, Len Leser, Vic Tayback and, in an early and brief appearance, Dennis Christopher. 1971

A nostalgic favourite of mine, not to be confused with Mario Bava's terrific Blood and Black Lace. I saw this on the Late Show when I was approaching double digits and it scared the hell out of me. Ellie’s (Patterson) prostitute mom and a john are bashed by hammer then set on fire in a sequence that is very similar to the opening of John Carpenter’s later Halloween. Ellie is sent to an orphanage where a flame-scarred killer is on the prowl, and the directress (Grahame) is carrying out a sick little scam of her own. Orphan murders, dismemberment, frozen corpses, hammer bashings, a scary-faced killer, and stuff I can’t talk about without giving too much away all add up to create a lurid horror flick that holds a special place in my little black heart.

What I Say When People Ask Why I'm a Horror Fan

I have loved horror movies dating back to a viewing of The Deadly Mantis at age four. Seemingly ever since passing through that creaky gateway, the uncomprehending have wondered about my love for the genre. It always seemed to me that their queries held an air of judgment, an assumption that there was something not quite right about me. These inferences made me shy away from looking deeper into my fascination with the genre until I realized that “I don’t know; I just do” wasn’t a good enough explanation. I began to reflect on my response to horror, and oddly enough, the first thing I discovered was the thing I was most afraid of:

I’m not normal.

I like the odd, the macabre, the other. I don’t necessarily learn, think and act like the majority. Once I started to accept it, though, I could go ahead and live my life, with the important caveat that I have a firm grip on the difference between reality and fantasy.

Aside from letting my freak flag fly, what else do I love about the genre?

• I love the pure physical reaction I have to horror.

• I love that horror is somehow a companion to, and commentator on, my real world experiences, grief, and woes.

• I love being part of a subversive group of fans that doesn’t typically reflect the mainstream.

• I love that most horror is a metaphor.

• I love that horror can reflect great creativity and extreme emotions.

• I love that horror can show you the unexpected.

• I love that horror has no boundaries.

• I love gazing into the forbidden.

• I love that horror reflects the zeitgeist of the times (the atomic/scientific horrors of the 50's, the personalized horrors of the 70's that reflected a fear of what was happening to our kids and to the world around us, the serial killer fears of the 80's, right up to the post-September 11 fears of torture porn).

• I love uncovering horror films from around the world, the silent era, the discount bin, and those that have been ignored.

• And when it comes to splatter, I love the effects the way I love a magician's trick.

What am I left with? Horror is my genre, and that doesn’t make me creepy, crazy, in need of shock therapy, or a threat. I’ll continue to stay cloaked in its cape as long as I’m able, and I’ll take my love of it with me into the void.

 It's directed by William Girdler, the same guy who did Grizzly, Three on a Meathook, The Manitou, and Day of the Animals. Though the movie is relatively rare, the picture and sound quality of this DVD is pretty poor. Still, it's fun for fans of this sort of thing. Like me.

I Had a TV Cartoon Show!

So back in the early aughts, Copie Zero TV + Media, led by Executive Producers Campbell Webster and Matt Zimbel, brought And Yet I Blame Hollywood to television. "AYIBH" is the movie review cartoon strip that I still write/draw monthly for The Buzz. The concept of the strip and toon is that I, usually accompanied by whomever I'd actually seen the movie with, would comment on the flick while clips from the movie were interspersed with the animation. Its emphasis was/is on the experience of going to a particular movie, all in either five panels (strip) or two minutes (toon).

Copie Zero found a buyer for AYIBH in a late night TV show called "ZeD", broadcast nationally on CBC, and Campbell found an awesome animation house called Fatkat, owned by Gene Fowler, to animate it.

The production schedule worked this way: We'd pass potential film titles for review past the ZeD producers, they'd yay or nay, then I'd write the script for each episode. Copie Zero Associate Producer David Malahoff was the script editor, and when each script was good to go, Campbell would take voice actors Rob MacDonald, Matt Rainnie, Rob MacLean and Nancy McLure to Perry Williams' Virtual Studios to direct the recording of dialogue; I kept my distance during this part of the process for fear that I would go prima donna. When that was complete, the script and voice tracks would be sent from Prince Edward Island to the animators, located first in Nova Scotia, then later in New Brunswick. They'd e-mail back a storyboard version of each episode and we'd comment on each, and then they'd produce the final version. Ensuring that everything went smoothly along this chain was Copie Zero Associate Producer Ghislane O'Hanley.

The show (actually an interstitial or short) ran for a year, and it was a lot of fun to do. Overall, 24 episodes were produced; some were shown at film festivals. After broadcast, each episode was available on ZeD's website for a while, but when Zed was eventually cancelled, the website was taken down.

Just today, Gene Fowler published a link on his Facebook page to a cover story in Atlantic Business Magazine that charts his progress from Fatkat to his new company, Loogaroo. It's an interesting read and an excellent case study of what can happen in the animation industry. Gene and I traded a few comments back and forth, and then he directed me to a Vimeo page that features 20 And Yet I Blame Hollywood episodes. Glad to find that AYIBH has a web presence again, here's a magic link to them.