ok lets all shit our pants to something old: pre-2006 horror film thread

There are a few great actors in these films but I think most were of that "let's get this thing done then we'll all have a cup of tea" school.

Right, and maybe it's just my comparably stiff Midwestern upbringing, but nothing screams Halloween more than that sort of clipped, obligatory, autumnal-cozy style of horror. (The rest of the year, sure, give me French extremity or whatever else has replaced it, et al.)

It's annoying because the aesthetic of that era of gothic horror films is what I tend to prefer in horror but I'm just not that into most of the films. I like autumnal for sure.
It pretty much all blends together with the paperbacks and comics of the time. Some of the music too.

I'm very supportive of the idea of gothic Hammer revivalism but Sleepy Hollow and Company Of Wolves are the only decent films that spring to mind. It's odd that there should be so few because it gets quite a few modern attempts.
The Bride and Woman In Black weren't that great. Any suggestions are very welcome.

There are some aspects of the classic horror style that get really tired though: the polite old moralistic antiquarian investigators and the emphasis on their mannerisms.
I read ghost stories quite a bit and curious old intellectuals meeting up, with their polite manners fetishized gets old very quick.

That's why I like Castlevania games, but there you have to put up with a bit of Japanese soap melodrama. Ghouls N' Ghosts kindly does away with the story.

Right, and maybe it's just my comparably stiff Midwestern upbringing, but nothing screams Halloween more than that sort of clipped, obligatory, autumnal-cozy style of horror. (The rest of the year, sure, give me French extremity or whatever else has replaced it, et al.)

Otm (btw I'm in mpls stpl for the next week and a half-- any horra screenings I should know about?)

RAG I am super psyched abt that obscure hollow blog, thanking u

I'm in mpls stpl for the next week and a half-- any horra screenings I should know about?

Try people watching at the State Fair.

It's amazing to read contemporary reviews of Hammer films, and even moreso about the constant battles that the company had with the British film censors (Wayne Kinsey's two-volume production history of Hammer is esp gd on this.) We might think of these films as staid, decorous, cosy, but at the time they were utterly abhorred for their violence and sexual heat. Some of that does still survive, I think - in the sudden snarling aggression of Lee's Dracula, the icy ruthlessness of Cushing's Frankenstein, the heaving desire of Dracula's female victims - and when you combine that with the films' frequently gorgeous colours and decor, that's more than enough to get you through the duller, stagier scenes, imho. The recent Blu Ray editions of the first Hammer Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy are ,and make the films sparkle anew.

This week I saw a luscious new digital print of Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. Again, the colours, camera movements and costuming in the final costume ball sequence made obvious, as if it wasn't already, the huge debt that things like Hammer, Corman's Poe films and Bava's Blood and Black Lace owed to the non-naturalistic lighting of Hitchcock's great 50s films. To Catch A Thief is full of candy-bright colours, sexual signifiers and a prowling villain dressed all in black that just screams Giallo (literally - the very first narrative image in TCAT is of a woman victim screaming in horror).

I'm fairly fond of Curse Of Frankenstein (Lee looks fantastic and the story is better than average Hammer) and The Gorgon (when you see her reflection in the water, it's genuinely spooky, but the full reveal with the crappy medusa snakes is disappointment).

I like Twins Of Evil, Vampire Circus and a few others because of the beautiful girls but that's not a great recommendation for the films as wholes.

My favourite moment of Brides Of Dracula is when the vampire girls are smiling while watching Cushing being attacked from a distance. There's something very strange about it. Nice looking film in general.
Oddly, Weirdfictionreview did a piece about it, which I think was too generous but interesting anyway
http://weirdfictionreview.com/2014/06/i-can-hardly-believe-it-happened-terence-fishers-the-brides-of-dracula/

I've always loved the red eyed Christopher Lee Dracula. Less fond of him dying from walking into too many thorny bushes or falling through ice after being told he will be powerful beyond our wildest dreams.

Another screenshot blog with an even more fantastic name, Chilling Scenes Of Dreadful Villainy!
http://chillingscenesofdreadfulvillainy.blogspot.co.uk/

this reminds me - for the longest time I have been unable to determine the name/nature of a film I saw as a child courtesy of Elvira; had the whole Hammer vibe and its central conceit was a creepy mansion with an iron maiden, possibly involving the ghost of a woman who had been impaled in one. Does this ring a bell with anybody?

I keep having to fight the urge to fill in the missing gaps of Hammer and Amicus films I haven't seen because there is more people to talk about them with.
I should be pressing on with all my piles of JS Le Fanu, EF Benson, WH Hodgson, CA Smith, MR James, JH Riddell, RE Howard, EA Poe, HP Lovecraft, Vernon Lee, Arthur Machen, Tanith Lee, Fritz Lieber, Wilum Pugmire, Lord Dunsany, Bram Stoker, Ligotti, Charles Birkin, KE Wagner, Ramsey Campbell, TED Klein, Charles Beaumont, Richard Blackburn, Bradbury, William Sloane, William Sansom, Robert Bloch, F Marion Crawford, Mervyn Peake, Jack Vance, Abraham Merritt, Edogawa Rampo, Oliver Onions, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Aickman, Hugh B Cave, Edith Nesbit, Ray Russell, DK Broster and many others.

I thought I would have finished all those books years ago!
These will surely be more satisfying than most of the horror films I haven't seen.

Tried to watch Gothic, a movie I know mostly by the box cover and a vague knowledge of Ken Russell. Obviously, the movie is batshit, but it's also boring and stupid and inept and about 90 minutes too long. But hey, it's Russell, which often means many of the aforementioned adjectives. I prefer Lair of the White Worm.

Yeah, Gothic is sadly quite bad in too many areas to be an enjoyable mess. I really wish it was much better.
That weird thing riding the horse was quite cool though.

Lair Of The White Worm is a lot of fun, underrated actually.

I saw Ms 45 recently. I saw someone else lump it in with horror, so I'll do it here. It's a bit straightforward but Zoe Lund really makes the film, she looks incredible. The idea of a mute person suffering like that is quite interesting/horrible.

It has an adorable cutie little doggie too.

The idea of a mute person suffering like that is quite interesting/horrible.

This movie was sooooo much better than this poster art.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQwMjczODAyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDA5NjQyMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR1,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/dc/Mute_Witness_DVD_Cover.jpg/330px-Mute_Witness_DVD_Cover.jpg

The first half of it was.

I'd love to see more of these shows on tv because I'm reluctant to splash out on box sets after Thriller. I haven't seen many of these on tv and when I do they are usually horrendously dull, so I probably wouldn't tune in regularly.

You're generally right, but go Netflix the episode "The Weird Tailor" right now and thank me later.

No need for Netflix, I still have my Thriller box set. I don't use Netflix because the UK selection is very poor and probably wouldn't have Thriller.
I'll report back after I watch it.

I just watched it. Pretty good. I see that Asylum also has a version of that story.
But I don't get why the blind woman let the father meet the car dealer when she disagreed with what they were doing, only trying to prevent it later on.

I'm going to be short on money for quite a while and horror films are going to be lower priority. So I'll probably be on the animation snob thread more talking about stuff from youtube. But I'm still quite eager to buy House Of Laughing Windows.

But I'm still quite eager to buy House Of Laughing Windows.

^^ you totally should. way up there as one of my favourite giallo-ish movies on par with 'footprints on the moon' and 'a quiet place in the country'

Cool, thanks for the further titles I'd never heard of.

Footprints... is very very good indeed. I'd rank it higher than House With Laughing Windows, but still recommend both. Don't know A Quiet Place... but the imdb entry looks very promising.

Anyone seen the Japanese film Môjû (aka Blind Beast)? A friend was watching it recently, it sounds awesome: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140384/reference

It is really good. I haven't read the Rampo book yet but it has a whole second half that the film version doesn't.

blind beast is awesome, though the pervy creep factor is v high

that "though" might actually = "because"

Footprints... is very very good indeed. I'd rank it higher than House With Laughing Windows, but still recommend both. Don't know A Quiet Place... but the imdb entry looks very promising.

^^ 'footprints...' is prob my fav of those three. and if you're into this fractured mind/paranoia sort of giallo you might also try 'the perfume of the lady in black', if you haven't already. i'm sure there must be better examples along those lines and i wouldn't rank it very high, but it's still worth.

I dunno if it counts as horror - I guess it's more of a sci-fi action flick? - but man The Hidden is great

MANHATTAN BABY

Not much to recommend this film for. It takes bits from Excorcist and Indiana Jones (probably at studio insistence) but isn't really close to ripping them off.
A stuffed bird attack that doesn't really hide the strings. An easy going saxophone piece played at totally inappropriate times. Quite a bit of bad dubbing but once again that young boy from House By The Cemetery gets it really bad.

Does Frizzi re-use music from earlier films because I keep thinking the music sounds very familiar in each Fulci film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters_(TV_series)

Anyone ever saw this followup show after Tales From The Darkside? Completely new to me. Just saw the box set (72 episodes) for sale. I'd assume it is at the same level of the previous show.

Was trying to be frugal as possible and not bother with stuff like Rollin and Franco but saw piles of Rollin in Fopp for 3pounds each. I got 5 films for 15pounds: Living Dead Girl, Nude Vampire, Lips Of Blood, Grapes Of Death, Iron Rose.
Some other less celebrated ones were there, I would have got Rape Of The Vampire if it was there.
Hope I don't regret this but they were cheap as fuck.

Anyone ever saw this followup show after Tales From The Darkside? Completely new to me. Just saw the box set (72 episodes) for sale. I'd assume it is at the same level of the previous show.

I watched it when it was originally on. My memory is that it was slightly goofier than Darkside and that's why I gave it up. And I was their target audience. That said, there must be a few gems in there.

A few. A LOT of crap.

Those Rollin films are great. May see if I can get over to Fopp tomorrow.

Night Of The Hunted was there too. Quite a lot of Redemption/Salvation label films were there but I have no idea what kind of quality they are.
They had Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders on the label but Second Run put out a better DVD version.

NUDE VAMPIRE

Experiments on a vampire girl, a slightly science fictionish approach. Colourful fashions. Some mansions. Ritualistic cult parties for the rich. A son discovering his father is corrupt.

Good: a disordered messy soundtrack. Some decent images. The approach seems quite fresh compared against horror films of the time.

Bad: lots of scenes are quite clumsy and weak, especially the one with the twin girls being knocked downstairs. The visuals aren't as stylistically consistent as you'd expect from Rollin. One of the main male characters dresses laughably when he probably should have looked more powerful. Quite a few of the costumes look poor, there are some interesting fashions but few are pulled off very well.

I'm sure this was among the top recommended Rollin films but I found it mostly weak.

I was looking at my DVD collection to remind myself which Rollin films I had seen. I still have Shiver Of The Vampires but I must have got rid of Fascination. I keep having the feeling I've saw another one but maybe not.
I wonder why I got rid of Fascination but kept quite a few weaker films.

Nude Vampire DVD had quite a long interview with Rollin, mostly going over the basics, nothing too surprising.
Very little of his prose fiction has been translated but apparently some of it was quite weird. I often wonder how different directors would be when they have the freedom of words.

THE IRON ROSE

A boy and a girl meet at a party, go to the train station and run around massive old trains, then get lost in a graveyard at night. They can't find their way out, getting quite scared but then the girl finds her inner goth and doesn't want to leave, starts dancing, making poems and having visions.

The pleasure of the film is the stunning sexy cuteness of Francoise Pascal and the graveyard wandering that dominates the film. There's surprisingly little nudity (most nudity taking place in a beach vision), perhaps they were wary of getting into trouble but that doesn't explain what looks like proper graveyard vandalism in some scenes.
I quite liked it but I think it needed something more. Wish there was less of the douchey guy and more of the girl's visions. She mostly describes things and seems to imagine herself on a beach but I think there needed to be more ways to convey the other world she is talking about.

I've heard this divides fans but quite a few claim it is his best film (I think Kim Newman was of that opinion). It was even more of a passion project to Rollin than his usual films and he prepared himself for a flop but I think the response was worse than he expected.

For reasons I cannot fathom, I am the hugest fan of The Iron Rose. Its vibe is just perfect.

i made a rollin poll a few yrs back - un poll de jean rollin

I'm so tempted to buy that Monsters set now that it's available, even knowing that it's perhaps a little on the subpar side.

Universal has recently released a box set of what appears to be all of their OG monster movies (I think it's basically a repackaging of their old Legacy Collections). Any thoughts on what the hit/miss ratio is on these? I'm sure the sequels all pale in comparison to the originals but I'm curious nonetheless.

It pains me to say that I think the photo/stills books dedicated to Universal Monsters are better than the films for the most part, because just like Hammer, I totally adore the style. I presume we are talking about the sound era from 30s-40s-50s? I like the silent Phantom Of The Opera with Chaney Sr, even if it is way too long.

I'd warn any newbies buying these in bulk to not get their hopes too high. Despite being a huge studio with some solid contributors, all these films (even the best ones) feel slapped together to some extent. You can tell that a lot of the cast and crew really don't care. It really shows that they were churning these out.
However great some scenes look (and all of the ones I've seen do have something nice to look at), there is rarely a feeling of concentrated effort across a whole film. Many feature comic relief scenes that don't sit very well with the rest of the film.

From what I can remember...

DRACULA
Some cool sets, Lugosi and Frye are enjoyable but otherwise there isn't much going on. The Spanish version is widely considered better but I've yet to see that.

FRANKENSTEIN
More than anything Karloff looks incredible. Good sets. Fairly enjoyable but even as short as it is, it would benefit from a shorter length. Karloff looks better in this film but I actually like the two sequels better.

MUMMY
It's pretty questionable that Dracula is considered a classic but this is honestly the worst famous horror classic I know of. The closeup image of Karloff's hypnotic eyes and him in the mummy costume look amazing but all that only lasts for a mere minute. Two screencaptures of this film is all you need. Avoid!

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
An impressive smokey dark aesthetic but not much else.

OLD DARK HOUSE
Pretty good. This actually has some creepy moments and atmosphere. Karloff is really cool in this.

INVISIBLE MAN
It's okay.

BLACK CAT and THE RAVEN
I get these two mixed up. They were the start of a series of films that teamed up Karloff and Lugosi, usually as enemies. Also the start of many films that taken a Poe title but had little or nothing to do with the writer. Neither film made much of an impression.
I can't remember which but one of these films has an impressive image of a dead woman preserved beautifully with her long hair dreamily standing up.

WEREWOLF OF LONDON
This is often considered better than the Chaney Jr film but I wasn't much into it. It's fine.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
The crowning jewel of this bunch. It feels more like a fairy tale comedy with horror imagery than a normal horror film. Great character designs. Some great looking scenes. Two stunningly good looking actresses. The bit with the blind hermit genuinely made me cry. There are minor weaknesses but this film has a beating heart that the others don't.
Very much recommended.

DRACULA'S DAUGHTER
Really poor. Don't believe people who claim this is neglected. Prime example of actors not caring: some characters start with attempts at Scottish accents but clearly aren't trying very hard, only to drop the accents completely later on.

INVISIBLE RAY
One of the dullest ones. I actually bought this to see Frances Drake but she's barely in it. It starts out fairly gothic but just slides into this boring science fiction in a hot country.

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
I love Karloff's costume in this with the bear skin top. Lugosi's Igor is very amusing. Good set designs. It feels pretty creaky and far too long but the positives I mentioned made a good enough impression to make it worthwhile for me.

WOLF MAN
Fairly watchable.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943)
A rosy cheeked colourful musical. Barely anything horror about it. I don't remember anything good about it.

SON OF DRACULA
Some good looking bayou scenes and it seems genuinely interested in having a plot but I still found it very boring.

HOUSE OF DRACULA
Cartoony mish-mash, corny b-movie approach. This is the point where I feel it was very much aimed at children. Getting Close to the Abbott and Costello stuff. Okay-ish.
I have seen one Abott and Costello monster film a very long time ago but I don't remember it well enough to review.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Awesome costume, cool swimming scenes but otherwise very dull.

So at the end of this list Bride Of Frankenstein is sadly the only one I'd call a good solid film.

Check out the lists under each decade, there's way more than you'd think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Monsters
I'm amazed how many I've never heard of let alone seen screenshots of. I'd imagine they are mostly pretty bad but I'd hope all the ones with good images have been extensively screencaptured (hope I'll see all these images someday, probably a tumblr somewhere).
I'd still like to see Black Castle and Tower Of London someday in the unlikely event I exhaust all other priorities. If there is ever a huge boxed set beyond the core films for super cheap I'd probably go for it.

Here is a bunch of notables that are pretty much same as the Universal films...

FREAKS
Whether this is sincere and heartfelt or grossly exploitative has been debated a lot. I think it's a mixture of both things. It's unique and enjoyable, worth seeing.

MAD LOVE
Peter Lorre is really good in this. This is where I discovered the aforementioned beautiful Frances Drake. Pretty decent.

MARK OF THE VAMPIRE
Very slapped together but for classic horror imagery it's good. Some cool looking characters. The trailer has part of a scene not included in the film that suggests the story was being written as they went along.

WHITE ZOMBIE
Mostly dull but has some good moments. The stiff paralysed looking voodoo zombies are quite memorable.

I see the the boxed set is 30 films. Mostly prioritising the most monstery films. I really wouldn't call that complete when so many important ones are left out.

"A collection of all 30 Universal Classic Monster films from 1931 – 1956 with a 48-Page collectible Book and hours of bonus features including Behind the Scenes Documentaries, the 1931 Spanish Version of Dracula, Featurettes of Boris Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Jack Pierce, 13 Expert Feature Commentaries, Archival Footage, Production Photographs, Theatrical Trailers and much more!
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Mummy (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Werewolf of London (1935)
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
The Invisible Woman (1940)
The Mummy's Hand (1940)
The Wolf Man (1941)
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The Mummy's Ghost (1942)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
Invisible Agent (1942)
Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Son of Dracula (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
The Mummy's Curse (1944)
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
She-Wolf of London (1946)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)"

Wow, thanks for the much more comprehensive answer than I expected! My interest in seeing these movies has been steeping since the Legacy Series (which, for those who don't know, were themed collections of, for instance, all of the Universal Frankenstein movies) went OOP and became inaccessibly high priced. I'm sure there's waaaay more chaff than wheat in that set, but it's enticing.

virtually all that stuff is available streaming somewhere

virtually all that stuff is available streaming somewhere isn't it?

urk, shitty internet connection.

Old Dark House is probably the best thing that isn't in the boxed set.

Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco by Stephen Thrower. 336 pages. Strange Attractor Press (November 20, 2014)

Tempted to get this. I don't think I want his Fulci book anymore because I've seen most of the Fulci I want but since Franco's filmography is so enormous and Thrower is covering them all exhaustively, it's pretty enticing.

Also..
Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies, 1956-1984. By Cathal Tohill & Pete Tombs. 272 pages. St. Martin's Griffin (September 15, 1995).
"European cinema has always excelled when it comes to "bad" movies. When continental moviemakers combined horror with sex, they unleashed a tidal wave of celluloid strangeness that lasted nearly thirty years. From sexy thrillers to pulp surrealism, from decadent erotica to blood-soaked vampire epics, nothing could go too far. Immoral Tales tells the fascinating story of this unique period, peeking into the kaleidoscope of visceral horror, maverick directors, and erotic invention."

Surprised more people weren't compelled to say what they think of the Universal horror films.

LIPS OF BLOOD

A man is nostalgic for a night 20 years ago when he was a boy briefly meeting a mysterious young woman who offered him a place to sleep. He feels unfulfilled and clings to the hope of someday meeting her again. The girl starts appearing to him in visions that guide him to her. Some people are trying to stop him but there are also vampire girls trying to help him.

I quite enjoyed this but I think it deserved to be a much better film. It has a good core, I really love the idea of a vague but treasured memory coming back to someone and finding their desires through dreamily supernatural ways.
If there is a Rollin written prose version of this, it seems more enticing than The Iron Rose text, because the film doesn't manage to get across the feelings and ideas properly.

As is often in 70s-80s vampire films, the sight of the vampires baring their teeth looks a bit ridiculous. Quite a lot of scenes are awkward and clumsy and it really needed to be consistently poetic and ethereal.
There's a scene with a severed head and although it makes sense later, they shouldn't have clearly shown how fake it was, they easily could have shown the back of the head.

Along with the quest of dreamy nostalgic yearning and the solid soundtrack, there is enough nocturnal wanderings among good locations (mostly ruins) with silent vampire girls in billowing drapes to make this one of the better Rollin films.

If this was much better looking and far more confidently made it would be one of my favourite films.

Lips Of Blood is a fantastic title. I look forward to seeing Faces Of Skin and Torsos Of Viscera.