Tonight we go back to Britain for a film I consider a must see in the horror canon, Jacques Tourneur'sCurse of the Demon (1957) aka Night of the Demon. Based on the story "Casting of the Runes" by M.R. James which had previously been adapted into a radio play for the program "Escape" (you can listen to it here at the Internet Archives). Tourneur had already proven himself as a master of "less is more" horror with I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People and had originally planned to shoot the movie without
directly showing the monster, but the studio pressured him to add it for
commercial reasons towards the end of filming. It was released in the U.S. as the lower half of a double bill with Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein.
Trivia tidbits from the IMDB:
• This is the movie that the line "It's in the trees! It's coming!" was sampled from for the opening of Kate Bush song "The Hounds of Love".
• This film was mentioned in the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Science Fiction Double Feature"): "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skill".
Time to sample from Amicus Productions with The Skull (1965)! Got to give Kat a rundown on just what horror creeped onto the screen thanks to Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky (the masterminds behind Amicus) such as Dr. Terror's House of Horror, The Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood and Tales from the Crypt. We just might need to watch some of these fine productions in the nights to come! And of course, this is directed by Hammer star helmer, Freddie Francis, who was also cinematographer for David Lynch's The Elephant Man!
Okay. So Detention was NOT a horror film, but rather a pop culture comedy that in a post-Scott Pilgrim world, wears out its welcome early on. Smart jokes and some slick and snazzy execution, but an overload. It wasn't the fright fest that Kat and I were looking at so... DOUBLE BILL!
Popping on the Spanish/American co-production Slugs (aka Slugs, muerte viscosa) by Juan Piquer Simón (aka J.P. Simon) who directed Supersonic Man and Pieces!
I began writing this just as the credits are starting and had to pause after learning that Slugs was based on a book. A quick Google search sent me peering into a rabbit hole when I learned that the prolific author, Shaun Hutson, just might be the inspiration Garth Marenghi (as suggested in this Jonathan Ross interview). Wonder what the most lurid of his works are? I always thought Marenghi was based on Guy N. Smith...
Anyways, back on track and about to start Slugs. Been ages since I've seen this, but remember it delivering on the gore and being surprisingly earnest when I first watched it. Time to get slimy!
Day 2 of this countdown to Halloween and ever since my "Cent une tueries de zombies" project last Saturday at Nuit Blanche, Kat has been asking about the clip of the redhead walking towards the car with the zombie off in the yard. That would be Let Sleeping Corpses Lie aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue aka Don't Open The Window. As a kid, this one was a rarity and I had only seen a few stills, so when I came to Toronto and was introduced to the underworld of VHS tape trading, it soon found its way into my hands and did not disappoint. Now if Kat likes it enough, we might just have to track down a copy of the recently out of print green vinyl soundtrack LP issued by Death Waltz Recording!
Luke Insect's artwork for the green vinyl soundtrack LP issued by Death Waltz Recording!
The Haunting poster by Toronto's own Phantom City Creative
I watch lots of horror films regularly, for work and pleasure, so it might not be much of a change of viewing habits, but for 31 days straight...? Now that is a change. I'll be doing this with my wife, Kat, who is quite the movie fiend, but hasn't seen some of the films that I consider to be on the canon of horror. Tonight, a classic... Robert Wise's The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson's novel, "The Haunting of Hill House".
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep on this run with a new film every day, culminating with a 35mm screening of Creepshow preceded by an on stage conversation with George A. Romero at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Nice way to round it all off!
Film Installation Curated by Colin Geddes and Mike Lane
Part of Nuit Blanche 2012 - September 29, 2012 TIFF Bell Lightbox
In the 21st century, zombies have overrun our society. Since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead in 1968, they have been feasting on our collective consciousness and are now in the mainstream of film, television and popular culture. Cent une tueries de zombies is a looped visual installation compilation of 101 "death" scenes of zombies from cinema and television. The scenes are a combination of classical hard-cut Eisensteinian montage and De Palma-inspired split-screen. By playing with the cause-and-effect and time-space of specific scenes, there will be an added level of physical tension and drama to the proceedings.
Recently was given a treasure trove of old cinema books and as I was flipping through one of them, this fell out.
And below is the Odeon Fairlawn Theatre on Yonge Street, north of Lawrence Avenue. Notice the Yonge streetcar tracks that are visible in the foreground.
City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail Collection, Fonds 1488
My wife and I saw this poster in our favourite pizza place in Cannes back in May (add Papa Nino's to your tour guides) for the 1976 edition of the festival. Amazing! Anyone have a spare one kicking around? Found one of eBay for over $300...
