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Henry Spencer
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Works: Halloween
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Five Themes to Scare Your Ears
City of The Living Dead: Main Theme
If you've read this blog for very long, you'll realize that most of us love a good zombie movie. While most prefer the rough and rugged American style (Night of the Living Dead, etc), we have a soft spot for the Italian flicks as well. They are usually a little gorier, and normally have a weird reason for the dead to roam the Earth.
City of the Living Dead, a film by horror master Lucio Fulci, is a perfect example of the genre. In the film, a priest's suicide opens the gates of hell and beckons the dead to arise. A psychic witnesses the events in New York and the main characters travel across the pond to stop hell from spewing forth.
The music is the epitome of soundtracks of Italian horror. Gentle at times, pounding at others, City's main theme will have you watching your back for the living dead!
Phantasm: Main Theme
One of the best things about horror films of the 70's is that they often took old ideas and made them weird. Cemeteries had been used in scary movies since the invention of the genre itself. Yet, the makers of Phantasm took the idea and turned it on its head. The result was one of the strangest, unsettling films of the period. (They even scared us by just having a guy walk down the street!)
The music to Phantasm is equally impressive. It features a simple pattern repeated over a warbling organ/synthesizer. The effect could almost be comical if left to the wrong hands. However, the composers knew exactly what they were doing. Playing this piece with the lights turned low will surely have you ducking under the covers in terror! (Although, that didn't work out so well for the kid in the first film....)
Suspiria: Main Theme by Goblin
Italian Horror legend Dario Argento's frequent collaboration with rock band Goblin produced a number of outstanding, if unlikely, scores. Perhaps the best one of the bunch is the theme from Suspiria. The music begins with a loop that is reminiscent of The Exorcist (or even Phantasm). But don't let the intro fool you. Other instruments slowly begin to creep in. Soon, a demonic voice is added. The music builds to crescendo before the band flies into full swing. The music instantly switches from soundtrack to prog/punk.
The music works much like Argento's directing style. He allows space to fill his scenes, almost to the point of dullness, before lashing out with a gory effect. The theme to Suspiria performs exactly the same way. It is one of the most unusual scores, to be sure, however it is definitely one of the most effective.
Martin: The Calling/Main Theme
After the success of Night of the Living Dead, director George Romero branched into broader territory. His film, Martin, tells the story of a young man who is convinced he is a vampire. He moves in with his religious relatives so that they may execute him in the traditional ways. The film updates the vampire lore for modern times. Martin doesn't bite his victims, he drugs and drains them. One of the strengths of the film is that it leaves the final decision of Martin's identity to the viewer. Is he really a creature of the night, or a young man suffering mental disabilities?
The film is shot much like Night: in a stark documentary fashion. The music, contrasts the film's look with an elegant piano based score. Other instruments are brought in (woodwinds) as well as a haunting vocal. The dichotomy of the film's look with its sound illustrates the main character's other worldliness. He appears to be one thing, while just underneath, there is something entirely different.
The score is beautiful and enchanting. Though definitely not one of the greater known pieces in horror films, the soundtrack will have your skin rising at the setting sun.
28 Days Later: In the House/In A Heartbeat
By the early 2000's, the zombie genre was pretty much, er..dead. Sure, the occasional film would be made, but there were no television shows, games, or much else to be found that dealt with the undead. People had grown tired of watching characters run from slow moving, mindless creatures. Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later changed all that. Suddenly, zombies weren't slow any more. They were the crazed, blood thirsty animals they had always been, however they could run just as fast as the humans. The film was a huge success and relaunched the genre in a big way.
Not only did the film deal with the grim subject in a flashier, more compelling way, it handled the music in a similar fashion. Instead of relying on the usual orchestral score with massive hits meant to make the audience jump, Boyle uses ambient artists like Brian Eno to set a more human mood. The main theme of the film, is a triumphant in horror music. It is unnerving, to say the least, however, it holds the sadness of the situation within its simple piano and guitar strumming. You can picture a lone survivor walking down the road to this music. As a figure reveals itself in the distance, a steady pounding of bass is added beneath the guitar. The figure eventually lunges for the survivor; his teeth gnashing and clawing for blood. At this point, the music becomes a frantic mesh of distortion and drums. There is no way not to feel anxious once you start playing this theme.
Friday, October 5, 2012
E is for...
For the movie, Moran is played by Barbara Hershey. The character is a young mother who seems to be randomly attacked one night. Though there is physical evidence, Moran's charges go unheeded. She can not identify the assailant, and people begin writing her off as crazy. The attacks continue, growing more violent each time. Moran is finally approached by paranormal researchers who take her seriously. The ending of the film is pretty over the top (obviously a film invention rather than actual occurrence.)
Like any movie involving rape, The Entity can be a little rough to sit through. It is creepy, to be sure, probably more so for women. The film essentially rests on Hershey's acting ability; luckily an actress of her caliber is quite capable of supporting the weight. The film even features some effects work by Stan Winston who would go on to great fame with the Terminator films, and a number of others. The word "fun" doesn't spring to mind with this film, however, it will send a shiver down your spine.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
D is for...
When you think of child actors, Leif Garret may not be the first to spring to mind. He made a name for himself through his singing career, as well as a number of film and television roles. Perhaps his strangest was in a film originally titled Peopletoys. The film, which eventually was re-titled Devil Times Five follows the exploits of a bus full of children, on their way to a mental institution naturally, who survive a crash. They make their way through the snowy mountains of somewhere until they find a group of adults vacationing in their lodge. The adults take the children in, and generally ignore them in favor of their petty arguments. This leaves the kids with plenty of time to indulge in their murderous deeds. One by one, the grown ups succumb to their traps.
Devil is a rough and gritty film. Though the violence is not as graphic as some of the other films of the period, it is shocking, never the less, to watch children kill people. The fact that each child is an archetype of cuteness (the young innocent girl, the cowboy loving boy, the flashy pompous child, and an albino nun..yeah, really) only adds to the horror. The movie, which was fairly low budget, holds up pretty well. Sound and picture are fine; the acting is actually pretty decent. I would expect no less from the child star, his mother, his sister, and the guy that played Boss Hog. If you like slashers from the 70's, and have a tendency to avoid day cares, then this is the film for you.
Monday, October 1, 2012
B is For:
Blood Feast became the first gore movie, setting the stage for nearly all horror films to follow. The plot is fairly simple: a killer stalks the streets of the city. He preys upon young women and chops them into pieces; removing limbs and organs for an unknown purpose. The police are baffled, and the town in a panic. Meanwhile, a rich woman decides to throw an extravagant dinner for her daughter's birthday. Little does she know, the mother hires the killer to cater the event. Guess what all those body parts were for?
There is little about this film that is actually very good. The acting is wooden, the cinematography consists of a stationary camera and one bright light. The sound recording is pretty crappy, too. At the time of its release, however, Blood Feast caused quite a controversy. In three short years, audiences had come from being spared the grisly images of Psycho through black and white film (and chocolate syrup) to watching a woman's tongue being ripped out in glorious technicolor.
The film earned five times its budget and established Lewis as the premiere shock director for a number of years. To this day, Lewis' name is still synonymous with graphic imagery.
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