DAY 25 OF 31: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

Published October 25, 2022 by Philip Ivory

“One two, Freddy’s coming for you…

Three, Four, better lock your door…

Five, Six, grab a crucifix…

Seven, Eight, gonna stay up late…

Nine, Ten, never sleep again!”

What if the world of dreams provided no refuge from our troubles, but was actually the most dangerous place of all? That’s the brilliant conceit behind Wes Craven’s 1984 horror film, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

Meet Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), child killer, burnt to death by a bunch of vigilante parents after he got off on a technicality. Now he returns in the dreams of those parent’s offspring, pursuing and slaughtering innocent teens as they sleep.

One of the targeted teens, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), gets pretty fed up at seeing her friends mysteriously murdered, and strikes back, trying to stop this dreamland demon from taking more lives.

Freddy’s coming for you.

On the film’s release, Krueger quickly emerged as a distinctive rival to such slasher film boogeymen as HALLOWEEN’s Michael Myers and FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH’s Jason Voorhees.

While the more familiar name “Freddy” would begin to stick in the sequels, here the killer is mostly referred to as Fred, and he’s a leaner, meaner incarnation, a ghoul of few words not given to the playful witticisms that would later define him and help elevate him to the pantheon of beloved horror characters.

How is Krueger different from those unstoppable killing machines, Michael and Jason? Those two remain eternal adolescents, but Krueger represents the adult world, a dark, twisted version of it, full of sins and dark secrets as seen from a teen’s perspective.

Fred Krueger (Robert Englund) terrorizes Nancy (Heather Langenkamp).

Krueger has his own weird sense of style including the filthy red and green striped sweater, the black hat worn at a jaunty angle, and most ominously, his glove adorned with fingertip knives.

Mostly, Fred has personality, and unlike strong silent types like Jason and Freddy, he’ll talk to you. (“I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy,” he quips, his tongue coming through the phone as Nancy tries to call her boyfriend Glen, played by young unknown Johnny Depp.) And while his wisecracks are kept to a minimum this first time around, artist that he is, he still likes to take a moment to strike terror before serving up the killing blow.

“I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy.”

In one instance, he pauses while chasing Nancy’s friend, Tina (Amanda Wyss), so that she can see him slice off a couple of his own fingers. He seems to be saying, if I’m willing to do this to myself, imagine what I’ll do to you.

The surrealistic imagery made possible by the dream sequences provides for some startling visuals and makes the film distinctive from other slasher films of the era.

It must be said, though, that the rules about how you can die in a dream and what you can physically take back with you when you wake up seem loosely defined and arbitrary. This lends the story an “anything goes” vibe which actually works against the sense of peril for the teen characters.

Johnny Depp as Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen.

It was a terrific concept nonetheless, and Freddy would return in many sequels and a 2010 remake.

One sequel, WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (1994) imposes a kind of “meta” take on the material, offering Craven, Englund and Langenkamp as real-life film professional versions of themselves, as Freddy tries to leave the prison of being a movie character and bust out into reality.

And, in grand FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN style, FREDDY VS. JASON (2003) brings the two titans of terror together as allies and later as battling demons. (Who will win?)

It’s been a while since we had a new NIGHTMARE film, but it’s probably a good idea to keep the coffee brewing. Dreamland awaits, and so does that unforgettable character, Fred Krueger.

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DAY 24 OF 31: THE SHINING (1980)

Published October 24, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Stephen King was not happy with the changes that were made in the 1980 adaptation of his 1977 novel. But for many horror fans, Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING, despite its differences from the book, is an unforgettable experience, full of iconic horror imagery, nerve-shattering sequences directed with Kubrick’s trademark glacial elan, and vivid, full throttle performances.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as caretaker for a magnificent but secluded mountaintop hotel, the Overlook, while it closes for the winter, hoping the peace and quiet will give him a chance to finish the book he’s writing.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) surveys the hotel’s model of its gigantic hedge maze.

With him are Jack’s wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd).

One of the departing staff, Overlook cook Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), meets Danny and senses the boy has a psychic gift similar to his own, which Hallorann calls “the shining.” Hallorann warns Danny that, like burnt toast, bad things can leave traces behind, which Danny might experience due to his “shining” ability.

“I think a lot of things happened right here in this particular hotel over the years,” Halloran tells Danny. “And not all of ’em was good.”

Boy, is that an understatement.

Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance.

As the family does its best to shore up the hotel against the winter elements, we sense Jack’s mental health slowly unraveling. Is it just the seclusion, or are the malign forces Hallorann hinted at preying upon Jack’s vulnerable mind?

Things go from bad to worse. Although the hotel’s meant to be empty, Danny claims he was attacked by a woman in Room 237. Jack investigates the room, has his own encounter with a beautiful naked woman who transforms into a decayed and cackling corpse, sending Jack running in terror. And yet Jack tells Wendy he saw nothing in the room.

In the visions the hotel presents to Danny, Kubrick provides startling displays of horror imagery, including an elevator overflowing with blood, and two little girls in dainty blue dresses with British accents that greet Danny in a hallway. “Come and play with us, Danny,” they call.

Danny encounter the Grady girls, who were chopped into bits by their father, the previous caretaker.

Problem being, these girls were murdered decades ago by their father, who like Jack was caretaker for the hotel. Danny, understandably, reacts in utter terror.

Jack, a recovering alcoholic, soon is drinking again, with the help of a ghostly ballroom complete with bar, and a bartender who helpfully tells him: “Your money’s no good here, Mr. Torrance.”

Jack decides that drinking with dead people is better than not drinking at all.

It seems the hotel covets Danny and his “shining” ability, and apparently the best way to bring Danny into the hotel’s decadent embrace is to drive Jack to kill him and Wendy.

More unforgettable sequences:

Wendy makes a horrifying discovery that speaks to Jack’s state of mind when she takes a peek to find out how well his novel’s progressing.
Wendy uses a baseball bat to defend herself against her increasingly abusive and unhinged husband.
An axe-wielding Jack pursues Danny through the hotel’s snow-blanketed hedge maze, in an eerily beautiful night sequence.

Sheer terror as Wendy Torrance (Shelly Duvall) tries to save herself and Danny from Jack’s rampage.

Detractors of the film will point to Nicholson’s over-the-top performance, which seems to bring Jack to the edge of lunacy too quickly and easily. And like King, many complain that the film lacks true fidelity to the novel.

It’s not a perfect film, but it’s undoubtedly a brilliant one. It’s one I can’t pry myself away from if I catch it playing on TV, no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

Like burnt toast, THE SHINING lingers.

INTERESTING FACTS

THE SHINING received mixed reviews on release, with various critics calling it “ponderous,” “overbearing” and “a crushing disappointment.” The film’s reputation improved gradually over the decades.
ROOM 237 is a 2012 documentary that explores radical interpretations of the meaning of Kubrick’s film and purports to reveal its hidden messages.
DOCTOR SLEEP, the film adaptation of King’s sequel to THE SHINING will be released in November 2019.

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DAY 23 OF 31: THE BROOD (1979)

Published October 23, 2022 by Philip Ivory

THE BROOD is an early directorial effort by Canadian master of the clinically creepy, David Cronenburg, and remains one of his most striking and original films, as well as an early excursion into what is known today as “body horror.”

Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) is the creator of a new therapeutic technique called “psychoplasmics,” carried out in secret upon resident patients at his private facility.

Oliver Reed, right, is an unconventional therapist.

One such resident is Nola (Samantha Eggar), dealing with extreme anger issues over her divorce from her husband Frank (Art Hindle) and the custody battle over their daughter, Candace (Cindy Hind).

All isn’t well with Raglan’s prize patient, Nola (Samantha Eggar.)

As Nola is subjected to Raglan’s unconventional methods to express her anger, something very strange begins to happen.

Child-size assassins with blank eyes and frightening impish countenances seek out and kill people who are the targets of Nola’s simmering resentment, including each of her parents and one of Candace’s teachers, who Nola suspects is having an affair with Frank.

Don’t be fooled by their size. These somatic projections of Nola’s rage will kill you double quick.

On first viewing, we’re so startled by our first glimpses of these tot-sized killers decked out in children’s snowsuits that we can barely be sure of what we’re seeing. These sudden, savage attacks provide some of the most frightening scenes in Cronenberg’s whole unsettling oeuvre.

It turns out that these child-sized monsters are somatic outgrowths of Lola’s rage, physically birthed from her body and liberated to carry out her unconscious wishes.

Candace (Cindy Hind) becomes subject her mother’s rage in the form of the Brood.

It will be up to Frank, with the help of Raglan who comes to regret his role in creating this horror, to stop the killings and save Candace before she too becomes a target of her mother’s rage.

With Eggar’s portrayal of a deeply disturbed woman willfully giving birth to murderous monsters that are unleashed on those closest to her, it’s hard to think of THE BROOD as a feminist fable. Unless you see it as a feminist revenge fantasy. The best horror films are complicated beasts, hard to pin down to once definitive meaning.

THE BROOD will leave you with plenty to ponder, and shiver about.

INTERESTING FACTS:

Cronenberg would go on to direct such genre favorites as SCANNERS, THE DEAD ZONE and the remark of THE FLY.
Howard Shore, who served for several years as bandleader for Saturday Night Live, provides the film’s score, one of his first soundtracks. He would go on to provide scores for many important films, including Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS and HOBBIT films.
Oliver Reed earned his horror film cred playing the young lycanthrope in Hammer Films’ CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF.

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“How’d you like some ice cream, doc?”

VIDEO REVIEW: Archive 81

Published October 22, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Archive 81 is an absorbing supernatural thriller in eight episodes on Netflix, ominously moody and full of arresting imagery.

PREMISE: Dan, a specialist in restoring damaged video tapes to a viewable condition, is hired to work on a series of camcorder tapes at a remote facility in the woods. They are raw footage for a research project by a young woman, Melody, in the 1990s, as she interviewed residents of a Manhattan apartment building, the Visser. At some point in the 90s, the Visser burned down, presumably taking Melody with it.

Melody’s tapes show Dan that she had a personal motive, trying to locate her birth mother who lived in the building. She gets no closer to locating her mother but learns other things. The residents, a bunch of Rosemary’s Baby-type arty weirdos, are involved in a cult centering around a statue of an entity named Kalego. A snuff film showing a sacrificial slaughter to Kalego becomes part of the record. Melody tries to protect a teenage girl who seems to be slated to be the next sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Dan becomes aware that he is secretly being monitored while he’s viewing the tapes. In dreams, he starts communicating across the decades with the vanished Melody, who begs him to find her. He’s also shocked to learn that his psychiatrist father, who died in a different fire along with the rest of Dan’s family, treated Melody and was involved in what happened to her.

It’s pretty rich, multi-layered stuff, with charismatic anchoring performances by Mamoudou Athie and Dina Shihabi as Dan and Melody, and solid help from other actors like Martin Donovan. Athie somehow makes compelling a character who mostly stares at video screens, while Shihabi engages our sympathy as she gets further and further entangled in the unholy mystery of the Visser.

The bad news is that Episode Eight ends on a twisty cliffhanger that cries out for continuation, but the show has not been renewed for a second season.

Still more than worth watching in my opinion.

DAY 22 OF 31: HALLOWEEN (1978)

Published October 22, 2022 by Philip Ivory

“The Night He Came Home” was the sell line for 1978’s HALLOWEEN, directed by John Carpenter. The “he” was Michael Myers, seen in an effectively eerie subjective camera prologue sequence at age 6 slaughtering his sister with a knife on Halloween night for no discernible reason. (Well, except for one, which we’ll discuss later.)

Six-year-old Michael Myers has killed his own sister.

Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from his asylum to return home on Halloween to stalk babysitting teen girls and their friends, foremost among them Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis (daughter of PSYCHO star Janet Leigh.)

The adult Michael is a looming, ominously silent figure carrying a knife, wearing a blank-faced mask that makes him the repository of all our primal fears.

Psychological horror? Not so much, since we’re given no past trauma, no motivation whatsoever to justify Michael’s murderous behavior. Is the devil or some other supernatural agency behind it all? We’re given no such indication, although Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) describes the boy Michael as having had “the blackest eyes, the devil’s eyes.”

HALLOWEEN dares to present us with a figure who represents pure evil, a malevolent force that is neither explained or justified.

Jamie Lee Curtis, P. J. Soles and Nancy Loomis.

Part of the pleasure of the film is Carpenter’s depiction of the naturalistic interplay between Laurie and her two friends, Annie (Nancy Loomis) and Lynda (P. J. Soles). (Lynda, for instance, adds “totally” to almost every sentence.) They surreptitiously smoke pot and tease each other about boyfriends, and seem like real friends.

In the film’s setting, Haddonfield, Illinois, Carpenter gives us a peaceful, almost idyllic looking suburban town, with fake leaves imported in during filming, which took play in May.

Michael Myers comes home.

That peace is violated by Michael’s rampage, which is rendered in a series of taut sequences in which characters go about their business unaware that Michael is stalking them. He may not be a supernatural figure, but he has an uncanny ability to fade almost invisibly into the background, and then pop up suddenly to deliver the killing blow. These scenes are staged with minimal blood but considerable Hitchcockian skill by Carpenter.

Are Laurie and Lynda targeted first because both like to get frisky with their boyfriends? That’s the same activity Michael’s teen sister was engaging in when something was triggered and Michael became a murderer for the first time.

Much has been made of this “sex equals death” idea, which was played out ad nauseum in the HALLOWEEN sequels, the FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH films and other teen slasher movies of the 70s and 80s. (The more recent IT FOLLOWS riffs brilliantly on this familiar horror film trope.)

And yet if that’s the real reason, why does Michael’s primary target seem to be the more modest and chaste Laurie? Will the fact the Laurie is less sexually experienced than the others help assure her survival?

Carpenter himself never had much to say about these ideas, and perhaps to obsess on them is to miss the point. The point being that HALLOWEEN is full of wonderfully scary suspense sequences, punctuated by shocking but not over-the-top gory kill scenes.

The fact that we care about the characters helps give the scare scenes more weight. Curtis’ Laurie Strode is a likable, earnest character, and one who proves surprisingly resourceful and resilient during her final climactic sequence being pursued by Michael.

Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis.

Donald Pleasence is fun in a slightly loopy performance as Loomis, a man so intensely focused on killing Michael that he seems to have forgotten he is Michael’s physician. Lurking in the dark and making goo goo eyes, he’s given to such ripe pronouncements as “He’s gone from here! The evil is gone!”

Carpenter’s minimalist keyboard-based music score is an asset, and the three-note HALLOWEEN main theme is instantly recognizable to any classic horror fan.

Most of the sequels and the sleazy Rob Zombie remake can be safely avoided, although the sequels in which Jamie Lee Curtis returns as star are at least worth a look.

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DAY 21 OF 31: THE OMEN (1976)

Published October 21, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Building upon an interest in all things Satanic set in motion by films such as ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE EXORCIST, and drawing upon the biblical book of Revelations for inspiration, THE OMEN is a chronicle of the birth and early childhood of Damien Thorn.

He’s a chubby-cheeked tot, the doted-upon son of highly born parents, American Ambassador to the UK Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick). This child of privilege also happens to be the Anti-Christ.

Harvey Stephens as Damien, center, with Lee Remick and Gregory Peck.

Directed by Richard Donner, THE OMEN is slick, handsomely made, well-appointed with A-list stars and opulent sets. It’s most memorable for the shocking deaths that seem to be supernaturally visited upon anyone in the film who becomes too nosey about who Damien really is.

The story’s set in motion when Robert, wishing to spare Katherine sorrow because her pregnancy has resulted in a miscarriage, agrees to a deception suggested by a mysterious priest. A motherless baby will be substituted for the Thorns’ dead child, and Katherine will never be the wiser.

As the baby, Damien, grows into a seemingly happy and healthy child, bizarre deaths happen around him. Damien’s young nanny hangs herself during his fifth birthday party. A new nanny, Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw), mysteriously appears to take her place.

“I am here to protect thee, little one,” says Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw).

An acolyte of Satan, she’s there to protect Damien so he can grow up and fulfill his destiny, which is outlined neatly in this poem:

When the Jews return to Zion

And a comet rips the sky

And the Holy Roman Empire rises

Then You and I must die.

From the eternal sea he rises,

Creating armies on either shore

Turning man against his brother

‘Til man exists no more.

This poem is recited to Robert by another priest, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who was in on the conspiracy of Damien’s birth. He has repented and wishes to warn Robert. Pretty soon, during a freak storm, a bolt of lightning causes a church spire to fall, impaling Brennan.

An untimely end for Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton).

Photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) also tries to warn Robert, and travels with him to Italy to ferret out the truth about Damien’s unnatural birth. (Hint: a jackal was involved.)

Jennings succeeds in convincing Robert that Damien is the Antichrist and must be destroyed, but Jennings’ reward is to suffer a horrific death involving a sheet of plate glass that decapitates him.

Robert Thorn is helped in his search for the truth about Damien by Jennings (David Warner.)

Even Damien’s mom, frightened of Damien and unable to love him as her own, comes under attack by the unseen forces that protect the boy, especially when she becomes pregnant with an actual child of Robert and Katherine.

Robert comes into possession of the seven sacred daggers of Meggido, the only weapons that can extinguish the life of the Antichrist. Will he have the nerve to use them? Or will Damien kill him first?

THE OMEN is intriguingly structured as a mystery, as Robert works to discover the truth about his adopted son. The mystery element is lost in the subsequent films, each of which stands as a tableau of unfolding elaborately staged deaths.

For this reason as well as for others, the original installment of THE OMEN remains the best, and well worth discovering.

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“I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes… the devil’s eyes. “

DAY 20 OF 31: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

Published October 20, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Attacked by many critics upon its release, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE has grown in stature since 1974, partially based upon recognition that there is considerable artistry to the film’s seemingly chaotic mix of mayhem and madness. It has been hailed by Rex Reed among others as the most terrifying film ever made.

I recall reading a review that said that even the soap bubbles on the van windshield in an early scene came across as ominous. The film builds, with quiet passages, but the sense of dread is omnipresent.

The in-your-face, over-the-top title and the full-throttle action that takes over in the second half of the film distract from the fact that there is careful mood building and even restraint at work, not to mention doses of bizarre humor that almost take the film into the realm of the surreal.

Violence there is, and blood, too, but the film is not quite as gruesome as the title would have us think. The killings are shocking more from their suddenness and bizarre nature than from an overindulgence in actual gore.

Marilyn Burns as Sally.

Directed on a low budget by Tobe Hooper and featuring a mostly unknown but game cast, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE follows a group of young people including Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain). They seek out the old Hardesty homestead but run out of gas along the way.

Seeking help at an isolated farmhouse which contains knick-knacks and furniture made of bones and human skin, the group ends up being attacked one by one by a family of psychopaths who used to be slaughterhouse workers until the old place went out of business. They now have to depend on passersby like the Hardestys to keep their old skills in practice.

Leatherface is an icon of 70s horror.

Most memorable of this crew of cannibalistic crazies is Leatherface, a heavy-built, seemingly retarded man who wears a face mask made of human skin.

Only Sally Hardesty survives the initial series of attacks, and the remainder of the film consists of Sally screaming, fighting, leaping out of windows, and doing everything possible to evade and elude her insane tormentors. She gives a remarkable performance, constantly on the edge of hysteria and sometimes beyond, in the tradition of the great Fay Wray of KING KONG fame.

Meet Leatherface, right, and his family, including comatose but not-completely-gone Grandpa at the head of the table.

Most bizarre is the family dinner scene, in which a seemingly mummified Grandpa is pulled out of mothballs, coming back to life as he is allowed to suck like some obscene infant on Sally’s bleeding finger. There is a kind of dark comedy at work, which only slightly relieves our unbridled horror at the depraved madness on display.

Sally earns our admiration as she continues to fight to survive. Incredibly, she gets away, but we’re left in doubt as to whether she has escaped with her sanity intact.

In an oddly poetic final image, Leatherface vents his frustration at her escape by twirling his chainsaw in the air in a defiant dance.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is not for the faint-hearted, but it’s a rewarding and unforgettable ride for committed horror fans and an absolute touchstone in 70s horror.

INTERESTING FACTS

The opening narration informing us that the events we are about to see really happened is read by actor John Larroquette of 80s sitcom fame.
That narration is an effective mood-setting device but a lie. The events didn’t really happen as shown. The story takes some loose inspiration from the case of infamous Wisconsin killer Ed Gein, whose exploits also helped inspire PSYCHO and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
In 1982, Tobe Hooper directed the Steven Spielberg-produced POLTERGEIST.

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“From the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore,

turning man against his brother, ’til man exists no more.“

DAY 19 OF 31: THE EXORCIST (1973)

Published October 19, 2022 by Philip Ivory

THE EXORCIST, still widely regarded as a prime candidate for most frightening film ever made, was explosive in its impact upon its release in 1973. The novel by William Peter Blatty had been a sensation, bringing the subject of demonic possession to a wide, fascinated and fearful readership.

Debate still lingers as to whether the film version directed by William Friedkin is a masterpiece of full throttle terror with a deep concern for spiritual issues, or an exploitational exercise that was shallow in its approach to demonology and possession, that wallowed in material that was shocking or obscene for its own sake.

Linda Blair in full possession makeup.

Without a doubt, the transformation of loving 12-year-old Reagan MacNeil (Linda Blair) into a grotesque, scarred, foul-mouthed parody of childhood innocence remains profoundly shocking and disturbing, something that left audience members of the day shaken to the core. If nothing else, the depiction of Reagan’s possession is a technical triumph calling upon Blair’s skill as an actress and pioneering makeup effects by Dick Smith.

Many scenes still convey a wallop today, from Reagan’s head-spinning moment in which she takes credit for the murder of her mother’s film director friend, to the full-on dread and terror of the exorcism scenes.

Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn as Regan’s beleaguered actress mom gives a committed, high-strung performance, while Jason Miller as Father Karras conveys compassion, sadness and depth in his role as a young priest on the verge of losing his faith, who nonetheless summons the strength to try to save Reagan’s life.

Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller.

Max Von Sydow, playing much older than his 44 years with the help of Smith’s makeup artistry, lends much-needed gravitas and dignity as the senior priest, while Lee J. Cobb as Lt. Kinderman is either ingratiating or annoying, depending on your take.

Stephen King once said THE EXORCIST reflected fears of parents in the turbulent early 70s, who saw their children rebelling against the previous generation, transforming into unrecognizable versions of their younger selves. But couldn’t that be said about the process of adolescence in any era?

The impact and cultural resonance of THE EXORCIST, including an ongoing interest in all things demonic, remains infernally strong many decades after the film’s original release.

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DAY 18 OF 31: DON’T LOOK NOW (1973)

Published October 18, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Venice, with its meandering, maze-like pathways, ancient canals and decadent palaces seems like a perfect backdrop for tales of the mysterious and macabre.

Adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier and directed by cutting-edge Australian director (of such films as WALKABOUT) Nicholas Roeg, DON’T LOOK NOW is an atmospheric tale mixing psychological horror and the occult against Venice’s exotic and romantic locale.

In a harrowing flashback, a beloved daughter drowns.

A couple played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are haunted by the loss of their daughter, recently drowned in an accident.

The husband takes work in Venice on a church restoration project. But why does he see glimpses of things that may be the future, or the past, including a tiny red-coated figure that may or may not be the specter of his lost daughter?

The couple become involved with a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and apparently psychic, who claims the couples’ daughter is trying to communicate with them. The husband has a vision of his wife with the two sisters on a funeral barge with a coffin.

Will these strange forces, and the force of their shared grief, threaten the couple’s marriage? Or their lives? And who is the figure in the red coat that seems to be drawing the husband on to some unforeseen fate?

With Roeg’s trademark fractured editing style and its detached, elliptical approach to storytelling, not to mention an in-your-face explicit lovemaking sequence that raised eyebrows at the time, DON’T LOOK NOW is a fascinating, sometimes challenging viewing experience, well worth checking out.

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“Your mother’s in here, Karras. Would you like to

***leave a message?* *I’ll see that she gets it.”***

DAY 17 OF 31: THE OTHER (1972)

Published October 17, 2022 by Philip Ivory

Because of its rural, depression-era setting including a large extended family living under one roof, I often think of THE OTHER as being like “The Waltons,” if “The Waltons” had a horrifying murder taking place every 20 minutes.

My question for the day: Is THE OTHER the scariest film ever made?

Before I attempt to answer that, first a word of explanation about the choices I’ve made in picking my 31 films for this October challenge I set myself. And then a confession.

As to my choices, I’ve received some intriguing suggestions on Facebook and elsewhere for films to include. Mostly though, I’ve stuck to the list I compiled before October started.

How scary is THE OTHER?

I’ve picked films I believe to be original and/or influential, and that demonstrate a certain degree of artistry. I’ve excluded remakes and sequels, which helps explain, for instance, why BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is absent, and why films produced by Britain’s Hammer studios are entirely missing from the list. The 1950s was a good decade for big bug scares and alien invasions, but not so good for thoughtful horror films, so only one film from that decade appears on my list.

Now here’s the confession: I’ve included THE OTHER on my list even though I can’t claim it’s entirely original, since I believe its very fine source novel is influenced by PSYCHO and other psychological horror stories of the time. And since it’s a film that’s not widely remembered, it’s hard to call it influential. I think other horror films of the 70s would have rolled out much the same if THE OTHER had never existed.

So why include it? For one thing, it’s beautifully directed by Robert Mulligan, who directed TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and brings a similar sense of small-town authenticity to THE OTHER, seen this time through an ominous lens.

The acting work by Chris and Martin Udvarnoky as twin brothers Niles and Holland Perry is remarkable, as is, less surprisingly, the performance by celebrated actress and drama teacher Uta Hagen as the boys’ fiercely loving Russian grandmother, Ada.

Chris Udarnoky as Niles and Uta Hagen as Ada, his grandmother, playing “the game.”

But more than that, and this is purely personal, it’s the film that scared me more than any other. Which brings me back to the first question I raised at the beginning of this discussion.

Is THE OTHER the scariest film ever made? For me, yes, but probably not for you.

I happened to see THE OTHER on television when I was home alone, at about age 10. By that age, I was well versed in fog-bound Gothic horrors of the past. I’d seen Godzilla fight it out with King Kong, Frankenstein’s monster battle the Wolfman. But I had not yet seen PSYCHO or other horrors that explored twisted corners of the human mind.

I sat through THE OTHER and was deeply shaken to the point of almost feeling physically ill. After it was over, I wandered the house in a wretched state, waiting for my parents to get home, avoiding dark corners for fear I would glimpse Torrie’s missing baby hidden in the shadows. (More on that below.)

Yes, there’s a baby in THE OTHER, and things don’t end well. THE OTHER goes there, let’s just leave it at that.

As I mentioned, I was used to the cozy Gothic horrors of the films of the 30s and 40s. But like PSYCHO, THE OTHER is a story of human frailty and madness, madness brought on by an insular family environment and an excess of one of the most valued and celebrated human emotions. Love.

Yes, THE OTHER is about loving too much. In particular, if you’re Niles it’s about loving your suspicious, malicious-minded twin brother Holland too much.

Thomas Tryon’s novel was a huge success in the 1970s, a golden age for paperback horrors.

It’s hard to write about THE OTHER without giving away its vital twists and turns. I imagine sophisticated modern horror fans could guess the movie’s big reveal. As a naive kid, the revelation that comes at about the two thirds point hit me like a Mack truck. It was horrible. And yet I wish I could get back to that innocent state in which a well-made horror film could wallop me so effectively.

Like the novel by Thomas Tryon that it follows closely (Tryon also did the screenplay), the story is set in a farmhouse in rural Connecticut during the Great Depression. (Hence the “Waltons” vibe.)

Twins Niles and Holland run freely through the idyllic-seeming countryside, but the sweeter-natured Niles is always at pains to tamp down Holland’s darker impulses.

Holland resents their pampered cousin Russell, who soon jumps into a bale of hay only to be impaled upon a pitchfork someone has hidden there. Holland has no love for the crabby lady next door either, and she ends up dead too, terrorized by someone wielding a dead rat. The twins’ mother becomes too inquisitive about what’s going on, and she takes a ruinous tumble down a flight of steps, leaving her paralyzed, unable to speak.

And while Holland is clearly disturbed, Niles keeps terrible secrets hidden in a cigar tin: a family ring, an heirloom that belonged to the boys’ dead rather (another murder, seen in flashback). And there is something else, something unspeakable wrapped in blue paper that looks like a severed human finger.

And what role is played by the twins’ Russian grandmother, Ada, who teaches Niles “the game,” which allows him to project his feelings into animals and believe things that can’t be real? How responsible is she for the murders that keep taking place?

Oh, did I mention that Holland becomes jealous when older sister Torrie (Jenny Sullivan) gives birth to a beautiful healthy girl? Niles loves his baby niece, but Holland … I can say no more, except that the movie’s tag line, “Holland, where is the baby?” still haunts my dreams to this day.

Watch THE OTHER. You won’t be scared the way I was when I was a kid. Now that I know its tricks, I’m not so scared either, and can watch it in a calm and detached way.

But you might enjoy an artfully made film about how an excess of love between two brothers leads to madness, death and ruin for an entire family.