How about another rundown of the movies I’ve been laying eyes on lately? Several horror flicks show up in this batch because, well, it’s horror season!
The Mist (2007)
Frank Darabont’s 2007 adaptation of Stephen King’s novella The Mist has really grown into a favorite of mine over the years. It’s an excellent example of a subgenre of horror I really love, the “under siege” subgenre, let’s call it. That’s when a disparate group of people are trapped somewhere—locations can vary—and have to figure out how to escape and/or hunker down and survive the coming onslaught. In The Mist, a group of locals become trapped in a small grocery store when a mysterious, and deadly, mist rolls in and envelopes the small town. The thing I love about siege movies is how they strip away all the extraneous bits of story and focus on the urgency of the situation and how the protagonists respond to their dire circumstances. It’s humanity at its most base level—fight or flight—and, when executed well, can lead to some powerful, hard-charging storytelling.
The Mist ratchets the tension throughout, just what I want from this sort of story. Thomas Jane shines as the ordinary father—whose young son is with him through this nightmare—thrust into a leadership role when things start to go sideways. His occupation is also clearly based on legendary movie poster artist Drew Struzan, which is cool! Several future Walking Dead cast members also shine here, including Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn. The late Andre Braugher delivers his usual strong work, while Marcia Gay Harden high-jumps way over the top as a religious zealot who declares the mist a sign of the end times and turns her acolytes against the sane and reasonable people in the store. What’s hiding in the mist? All I’ll say is that’s when the film layers some Lovecraftian horror on top of the site concept. The Mist’s ending is notoriously divisive, making it the thing everyone always remembers about this movie. While it differs drastically from the source material’s conclusion, King is on record as loving the film’s darker denouement, and I’ve with Uncle Stevie on this one (as I am on most matters, of course). I hear that current horror director-du-juer Mike Flanagan is developing a remake. I’ve like some of Flanagan stuff quite a bit (Doctor Sleep and Midnight Mass, especially), but I doubt he’ll be able to improve upon Darabont’s definitive take.
Backdraft (1991)
Boy, they don’t make big, slick studio movies like this anymore, do they? A killer cast, absurdly entertaining action and drama, and magnificently scored by a bombastic Hans Zimmer soundtrack—now THIS is how you do crowd-pleasing cinematic fare, circa 1991! Firefighters are always important, and Backdraft came along in 1991 to remind us of that fact. The stunts and set-pieces inside burning buildings in this film are insane!
As always, Kurt Russell is the coolest mofo around. He’s so freaking charismatic as Lieutenant Stephen “Bull” McCaffrey, who’s just trying to protect his little brother Brian, played by William Baldwin in one of his biggest roles, while a rogue arsonist wreaks havoc across Chicago. Russell and Baldwin apparently did enough of their own stunts that the stunt coordinator had then listed alongside the other stunt people in the credits.
Scott Glenn and JT Walsh turn in their usual excellent work, while Donald Sutherland seems to be having a ball with his small amount of screen time as a convicted arsonist named Ronald, turning in a memorably chilling performance. Robert De Niro is lowkey great as a cagey, no-nonsense fire inspector investigating the mysterious arsons. Jennifer Jason Leigh is largely wasted in a girlfriend role, but goodness does she look spectacularly hot here (pun intended)!
Ron Howard directs the hell out of this, which is yet another reason why Backdraft is one of the most ridiculously rewatchable movies of its time. I dare you to watch it and not have a blast, giggling away to yourself like Ronald when he gets excited saying abstract stuff like “Did the fire look at you?”
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Another movie starring the awesome Jennifer Jason Leigh—in fact, this is the movie that really launched her career! Amy Heckerling’s teen movie classic is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I’ve already told you why. To paraphrase what I wrote then, as far as I’m concerned, no movie has ever brought the experience of being a certain type of American teenager (i.e., “white, suburban Gen X”) to the screen any better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe understood us, and for that we’ll always see them as our cool aunt and uncle. I watched it again last week, for the billionth time, because I was in the mood to feel the spectrum of emotions that Fast Times elicits. It makes me grin from ear and ear and laugh out loud, but it’s also so tender and touching in its portrayal of teenagers. It’s one of those movies that just feels like home.
The Howling (1981)
Written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante, The Howling is horror royalty for me, an unassailable classic by which all other werewolf movies are judged. When I first saw it as a kid, it was one of the first times I recognized that the people making this movie were not only horror fans but they understood and lovingly respected the history and lineage of the type of film they were making. Even if I didn’t know all of the horror and B-movie Easter eggs sprinkled throughout, I understood that they were there and that I needed to figure them out because I loved horror as much as the filmmakers did. In a lot of ways, The Howling really kickstarted my budding love of horror into another gear entirely. I like to watch it every October, just to revel in Dante’s affectionate celebration of all things horror. I could write volumes on The Howling, so I’ll save that for future posts.
Graveyard Shift (1990)
Stephen King isn’t a big fan of this adaptation of his short story of the same name, but I gotta say, Steve, I’ve always loved Graveyard Shift. It’s a B-movie creature feature all the way, and I appreciate how it leans into that with gusto. Any movie where the legendary Brad Dourif—Chucky himself!—plays an unhinged rat exterminator named Tucker Cleveland is my kinda movie. With relatively little screen time, Dourif still steals the show by adding so many little, eccentric touches to Cleveland’s characterization. I’d like to see an entire movie about the guy. He also unleashes a tour-de-force, five-minute-monologue that is worth the price of admission alone. Add to that Stephen Macht doing the most atrocious Maine accent ever committed to screen, plus a giant killer rat-creature terrorizing mill workers, and you’ve got a party, folks. Every frame of the film looks and feels slathered in dirt, sweat, and grime. It’s glorious.
The Final Terror (1983)
One of my favorite slasher subgenres is the Friday the 13th knockoffs that were produced en masse in the first few years of the 1980s. Trying to cash in on the Friday phenomenon, most of these movies are actually very entertaining. Some were legitimately in production before Friday the 13th, or at the same time, but a slew of them flooded theaters in 1981–1984ish. Filmed in 1981 but shelved until 1983—and only released then to cash in on the sudden fame of some of its stars, namely Daryl Hannah (Splash) and Adrian Zmed (Grease 2)—The Final Terror is one of my favorites of the backwoods slasher craze. The forest cinematography is eerily atmospheric. The killer stalking a group of young people blends into the natural environment before emerging seemingly out of rock or bush in some very cool, and creepy shots. The cast is surprisingly strong, with Zmed, Hannah, Rachel Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Lewis Smith, and recent Emmy winner Ernest Harden Jr. all turning in good performances. Director Andrew Davis went on to direct Under Siege (1992) and a pretty big movie with Harrison Ford you might’ve heard of before, The Fugitive (1993). The Final Terror is a solid, taut slasher that deserves more love.
Lady Frankenstein (1971)
From a story by global exploitation maestro Dick Randall, this Italian gothic-horror offers a very loose remake of Frankenstein, this time with Italian bombshell Rosalba Neri as Tania, the gorgeous daughter of Baron Frankenstein who plans to follow in pop’s footsteps and put her brand new medical degree to good use by reanimating some corpses. This was fun and campy, if also more than a little dull in stretches. But hey, Rosalba Neri is always worth watching. If she’s in it, you owe yourself—frankly, you all of us—to watch. She’s truly a goddess of Italian cinema and we are not worthy. I watched this on an episode of Elvira’s Movie Macabre, just so I could spend some time in with alluring Mistress of the Dark. The print they showed was subpar and censored, but I was willing to ignore that just to gawk at Elvira during her comedic interludes. This is the one where someone posing as Elvira’s long-lost son ties her up and tries to hijack her hosting gig. Hilarity ensues!
Rosalba Neri and Elvira in one viewing? That’s a quality evening, my fellow horror hounds.
Unpleasant dreams…
