Stephen King has always been less about ghosts and monsters, and more about the ghosts and monsters in man. “The Shining” and “It” were so much less about the supernatural, as they were the darkness that is already there in humanity that helps breed evil and allow it to thrive. The stay at the Stanley hotel, the experience that inspired “The Shining” also helped King garner a keen insight in to the human condition. “1408” is something of an extension of “The Shining” where a man is already doing battle on the inside and comes face to face with a presence that is only a mere extension of himself. That’s scarier than anything that anyone can conjure up.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
5 Reasons Why “Twilight Zone: The Movie” is Underrated
“Twilight Zone: The Movie” is one of my childhood favorite movies, it’s a pretty all star tribute to one of my all time favorite television series. While it’s by no means a masterpiece, it’s also never been as bad as many people have proclaimed it. It has genuine heart, some wonderful production quality and a great sense of humor to it. Re-watching it years later, it’s still very heavily flawed, but damnit, it’s also a strong anthology horror film that’s inconsistent in tone, but also embraces the weird and wonderful of the original show. Despite the horrendous legacy involving the on set deaths, the movie is worth checking out, and sets the stage for the solid eighties reboot.
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula III – Legacy (2005)
The “Wes Craven Presents Dracula” series has been one of the kookiest and oddest trilogies ever conceived by a studio. Obviously the trilogy is just a hodgepodge of three vampire movies connected because Dracula. But it’s an eccentric trilogy when you take a step back. The first was a sleek action horror film with Dracula being the reincarnated Judas. The second is a goofy thriller about scientists trying to manipulate Dracula’s blood in to a healing medicine. The third is a romance with a martial arts fighting rogue priest who is trying to stop immigrants from becoming Dracula’s imported food.
A Look at “The Elvira Show” Pilot
It’s tough to find someone like Elvira who can squeeze in so many double entendres in to only a half hour of comedy. “The Elvira Show” was essentially like the movie from the late eighties, but extended in to a sitcom setting. It was “Bewitched” meets “Sabrina” meets “Married with Children” with Elvira dominating the screen as always with her sexuality and sharp delivery of one liners. There are so many great sexual puns squeezed in to the opening scenes of the pilot from replying to hunky officer Chip “I bet you can’t eat just one,” to explaining that she and her family will be like the Cleavers, with she, of course, being “The Beaver.”
Othello (1952, 1955): Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]
Orson Welles had an obviously nightmarish vision in mind when approaching Shakespeare’s “Othello.” The story itself is a maddening depiction of betrayal, deception, manipulation, and death, and Welles emphasizes that back drop in every shot. Despite being a troubled production, “Othello” looks beautiful and depicts the world around Othello as a confused and jarring mess where nothing is ever what it seems; that’s emphasized by the dizzying editing and close ups. Othello is a man driven by his passion who finds that the one person he trusts has likely betrayed him. This makes him abusive and inevitably murderous, and Welles offers no quarter when it comes to the titular character.
Bug (2006)
William Friedkin’s adaptation of “Bug” is a clear and stark picture of how often it only takes a nudge to bring someone in to the deep pool of insanity and how they can drown in their own delusions. “Bug” is a slow burn horror thriller that pictures two people colliding in a perfect storm of misery and sadness that have convinced themselves that there are dark forces outside that have caused their sadness and misery. It’s not negligence, or ignorance, or just plain bad decision making, it’s “something else” entirely, and what’s haunting is how easy they are willing to bend to the notion that there is an elaborate force outside their door manipulating their lives, rather than own up to the fact that some of us can never truly learn from our mistakes and from our pasts.
Innocent Blood (1992)
I love John Landis, and I love that he at least tries to do something new whenever approaching the horror genre. No one else would try to bring together the mafia movie with the vampire movie. And while “Innocent Blood” stumbles in to a messy, dull, and silly horror comedy gangster picture, Landis is at least courageous enough to try to see where it’ll all take him. “Innocent Blood” suffers mainly from being so self congratulatory, to where Landis almost seems to be patting himself on the back at times. There are myriad scenes of characters in the movie watching classic horror movies on television, which is distracting considering the movie is set in Pittsburgh during the winter.