A “Lovecraftian” weekend: good #horror

It only made sense to close out my weekend with a late Sunday night viewing of Beyond Re-Animator (2003), since I started the weekend with Bride of Re-Animator. Both movies were equally enjoyable, mixing campy humor, weird special effects, lots of spurting blood, and loosely themed Lovecraftian horror.

Sandwiched between these two films was my continued reading of the short stories contained in the recently published anthology book, Lovecraft Unbound. These stories (none of them written by H.P. himself, but by a mix of modern, award-winning horror authors) are all extremely well-written. The only quibble I have with some of them is that they contain plot elements based on ideas embraced by the loony left-wing of American politics, ideas that are are more at home with those on the opposite side of the cultural war from me. Still, the stories are beautifully crafted, there can be no denying that. And they do hold to the particularly dark sense of wonder, madness, and despair that pervades Lovecraft’s works.

There’s a certain type of gloom about the month of November that makes this type of horror seem… right, don’t you think? My movie watching and fiction reading contributed in no small part to what happened to be a very good weekend in the Roscoe-verse.

Tonight’s movie of choice: Bride of Re-Animator

My horror flick this Friday night from the good folks at Netflix is Bride of Re-Animator (1989), one of the few movies in this series I’ve not yet seen.

The plot is summarized:

Eight months have passed since the Miskatonic Massacre (which occurred in the previous film, Re-Animator), and Doctors West and Cain are experimenting again. But this time, instead of reanimating corpses, they’ve decided to create new life — in the form of a beautiful companion (from spare body parts, of course) for Dr. West. Definitely not a match made in heaven!

The creepy special effects, eerie dark atmosphere, and campy humor of these Lovecraftian-themed films always relax me quite nicely. I’m counting on that from Bride of Re-Animator, in my DVD player and ready to start… right now.

Southern-Style Swamp Horror!

When Halloween Eve rolled past Midnight last night, Halloween proper found me watching Crypt of Dark Secrets (1976), which is certainly not the best movie ever made, but neither is it the worst. All things considered, it was pretty entertaining. (And if THAT doesn’t tell you something about my tastes, I don’t know what to say! Heh!)

The back of the DVD case describes this movie as:

Sometimes being alone on a “haunted island” isn’t so bad, as Vietnam vet Ted Watkins learns when he’s murdered and… well… doesn’t quite die. Robbed of his cash by three motley thugs who invade his home in the swamp and leave him for dead, Ted awakens to find that instead of being deceased, he’s the pet project of Damballa, a sexy witch woman who dances in the nude when she’s not turning into a snake. After informing Ted that he now “exists in the world of the living dead” (which doesn’t faze Ted in the least), she takes revenge upon his dimwitted killers with the help of a voodoo priestess, buried treasure, a smoking mummy case, and her CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS… Shot in Louisiana, CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS is a particularly off-kilter example of Drive-In-Approved Southern-Style Swamp Horror!

This film was actually relaxing to watch. My sleep after viewing it was the best I’ve had for several nights. It was such a good sleep that I almost consider the siege of insomnia that’s been plaguing me to be broken. If tonight brings me a good sleep I’ll breathe a sigh of relief and think of the Sandman as being my friend again.

The Naked Witch

I’ve seen some excellent horror movies as part of my 2009 Halloween prep. However, The Naked Witch (1961), the movie I watched a few hours ago, is not one I’d call excellent.

Up with insomnia but too tired to continue reading, I made the decision to watch a short movie, thinking that might numb my brain enough to let sleep finally come. So I popped The Naked Witch into the DVD player. This is a recent acquisition I’d not yet seen. But it was short, only 59 minutes long, and according to its description appeared to be bland enough to do the job.

On the back of its DVD case we find the following description:

Ding, dong, the witch ain’t dead! After a college student digs up the mummified remains of “The Luchenbach Witch” and removes the stake from her ribs – shazam! – via some godawful special effects, THE NAKED WITCH is alive and well and strolling through the Texas countryside in her birthday suit! Killing off the descendants of those who condemned her to death, she also seduces the student who eventually realizes he must send his sexy new girlfriend back to the grave… A charmingly goofy, naughty-for-its-time regional rarity, THE NAKED WITCH is also the first horror film directed by cult fave Larry Buchanan, the man who gave the world Zontar: The Thing From Venus!

Actually, The Naked Witch isn’t nearly as exciting as the above paragraph suggests. It truly does contain some “godawful special effects,” I’ll vouch for that. And the phrase “charmingly goofy” is pretty apt, too.

The first few minutes seemed much more like a documentary than any kind of movie, and I checked the disc menu to verify that the right track was playing. Sure enough, it was. So I restarted it and let it run. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the show, and I’ll probably watch it again (though not very soon). But as a cure for insomnia it didn’t work. Darn it.

El Muerto: one lovely, scary movie

El Muerto is one fine horror film, in my opinion. I watched it for the first time tonight, in the wee hours of Wed., 28 Oct. ‘09, and will include it henceforth in my annual Halloween prep.

Some reviewers have panned this film, but I suspect that is due largely to an anti-religious or an anti-Mexican prejudice, or possibly both, on the part of said reviewers. For anyone who lives in the border country between Mexico and the U.S., as I do, or for anyone who is Catholic and understands the importance and symbolisms of his faith, as I do, this film will smack home on many different levels. It will speak to our heart, it will embrace the language of prayer, it will pull at the strings of love, and it will prove to be one very scary movie.

Of course, if one isn’t a Catholic, or if one has no appreciation for multi-layered rituals and devotional practices involved in El Dia de los Muertos, then one is el stupido and simply does not have the understanding necessary to appreciate the beauty of this work of art. I have no patience for such idiots.