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secretlyatargaryen · 2 years ago

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There was a post I read on this website a while ago about The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. The post was making the rounds and was fairly popular, I think, and touted the book as an example of an actually good YA vampire/enemies to lovers romance, but I can’t for the life of me find the post.

Anyway, I just finished the book, and I have thoughts.

Trying to find the post online, I found a few articles that talked about the book being problematic~ for its dated romance, and like, okay, I can kind of see that. Aeriel’s goal throughout most of the book is to kill the Darkangel but she also keeps thinking about how she doesn’t want to because he’s ~so beautiful~, but it doesn’t really feel like she’s romanticizing him, necessarily, or romanticizing a bad relationship, because she doesn’t really have a relationship with him. For most of the book, they barely interact, and she thinks about how he’s pretty but also evil, and her desire throughout the book is mostly to save the souls of his “wives”, women whose blood and souls he has stolen who are now undead wraiths (Hi, Bram Stoker). By the way, this book is beautifully written and wonderfully creepy, even if it took me a bit to get used to all the extryme fantysy spellying - the darkangel is not a vampire, but a vampyre - and the 80s science fantasy worldbuilding. But I’m into it.

The story feels less like a vampire romance novel, though, and more like a fairytale, having more in common with Beauty and the Beast or the various enchanted husband tales than with Twilight. Aerial does say she “loves” the darkangel at the end of the book, but that’s after he’s at her mercy and she gets to choose whether to end his life or turn him back into the boy he was before he was turned into a vampire by the witch who kidnapped him as a child. By that time, Aerial is no longer enthralled by his glamor, and has already defeated the darkangel and saved the souls of his wives. The “love” feels less like romance, and more like compassion for someone who she recognizes was also a victim. I think it does move into romance later on (there are two more books in the series), but Aerial never puts up with abuse from him while thinking she can change him or that things will get better. The idea that he can be saved is teased throughout the series - and advertised on the back cover snippet - but there’s never a “oh he’s not that bad” moment.

In fact, a criticism I saw when I was trying to find that tumblr post, which I agree with, is that it’s hard to believe in the darkangel’s “spark of goodness” that is advertised in the cover snippet. Before he’s turned back at the end of the book, he doesn’t seem good at all. He kidnaps Aerial and insults her, feels only contempt for the women he’s turned into wraiths, tortures small animals for fun, and wants to subjugate the world, which he can only do once he finds his fourteenth wife. The “spark of good” seems to be based on the fact that we learn that he was once a human boy, which doesn’t actually make him good. It just makes us feel sorry for him. Oh, also, he has bad dreams, which is a hint that he is tormented by what he has been turned into. Which again, doesn’t make him good, but it does make him a victim in some respects. I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, remarks Hamlet, were it not that I have bad dreams. Also the witch who kidnapped him when he was six is described as his “mother and lover” which...yeah. Even if we take this metaphorically, it’s. Something.

But the book doesn’t really need you to believe that the vampire is good, because at the end his behavior is chalked up to him being enchanted by the witch. Once he’s no longer a vampire he doesn’t seem at all interested in breaking the wings off bats, so there’s that. He also feels really, really guilty about murdering thirteen women. So I don’t know if we’re supposed to think that he deserved to be saved because he had good in him, or if he deserved to be saved because he was enchanted and he totally didn’t mean all that stuff he did as a vampire, or vampyre. I’m not sure if there’s a difference, which the book also seems interested in addressing, so I do want to see how the next two books deal with the fallout. It’s just kind of a disappointment that I was promised a story about a character changing from evil to good and what it ended up being was “it was all magic, actually.” The darkangel, while a powerful figure for most of the book, ends up the character with the least amount of agency, narrative-wise. But that might not actually be a bad thing, if you’re looking for a story with an empowered heroine.

This book also shares some similarities with Deathless, which I probably would have enjoyed more if it weren’t as beloved on tumblr by the weaponized femininity crowd years ago. I still cringe at remembering Cersei stans using that “you are a demon like me and do not care if other girls have suffered” quote as a feminist beacon for “dark romance”. In contrast, Aerial cares about the darkangel’s pitiful, horrible wives and there’s a fabulous scene where they get to tell him off, after Aerial poisons him on her wedding night to him.

Swiftly, silently, they fleeted from the shadows, the folds of the bed-curtains, the seams of the walls. The icarus’ hand went suddenly limp; Aerial saw him start. She slipped free of him as the wraiths surrounded him, stood ringed about him, keeping him from Aerial. The vampyre cried at the sight of them, threw up his arms as if to ward them away.

“What are you doing here, my wives?” he cried. “You are so hideous to look at. Keep off!”

The wraiths drifted in a slow circle around him. “We will not keep off,” they said. “You have chosen us, and we are yours.”

Damn.

I’ve ordered the other two books in the series, but the third one is coming tomorrow, before the second one gets here. That’s what you get with free shipping, I guess.

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dahliaborne · 6 years ago

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My inspirational list for halloween

D O C U M E N T A R I E S

The Witches

The Truth Behind Serbia's Notorious Witchcraft Subculture

Ghosts of Ireland

The Real Story About Lucifer and Devil

The Witches in Romania

Demons

Unnatural History of Vampires and Witches

The 3:07 AM Project

The Myth and Reality of Exorcisms

Witches: A Century of Murder Part 1 & 2

B O O K S

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Nineteenth Century Witchcraft by Henry Ridgely Evans

The Damned by Algernon Blackwood

Vampires: Myths and Methaphors of Enduring Evil by Peter Day

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

True Tales of the Weird by Sydney Dickinson

The Evil Eye by Frederick Thomas Elworthy

The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould

Scottish Ghost Stories by Elliott O'donnell

Demonology and Demon-Lore by Conway

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

F I L M S

Haxan

James Searle Drawley's Frankestien

The Ghosts of Berkeley Square

The Ghost Train

The Haunted House

House on Haunted Hill

Vampyr

A Terrible Night

The Sealed Room

The Phantom

The Bat

Cry of the Werewolf

S H O R T S T O R I E S

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

Hello, Moto by Nnedi Okorafor

The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter

Lacrimosa by Silvia Moreno Garcia

Premium Harmony by Stephen King

Click Clack the Rattlebag by Neil Gaiman

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

A Diagnosis of Death by Ambrose Bierce

The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton

How to Get Back to the Forest by Sofia Samatar

#enjoy #probably a bit early but i'm in spooky mood whole year sooo #my posts #i tried to add lesser known things

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Vampires vs. the Bronx Review: Young Bloods Clean Up the Concourse

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The Frog Brothers’ street cred echoes way uptown as Netflix offers up its after-hours, after-school Halloween special treat: Vampires vs. The Bronx. Think of it as Get Out for tweens as the real bloodsuckers in this Bronx tale are the real estate developers looking to gentrify the Concourse. They even dress like landed gentry. “The Murnau guys are chewing up the neighborhood,” street proud Miguel (Jaden Michael) warns his crew. The Murnau real estate firm doesn’t even try to hide it, they have a Vlad the Impaler face on their logo.

Miguel is known as Lil Mayor in the reluctantly transitional neighborhood. He is on a mission to save Tony’s bodega, where he basically grew up. He is the de facto leader of a gang which consists of his two best friends. Bobby (Gerald W. Jones III) just got kicked out of school for fighting, and the local priest is keeping a watchful eye on him. The son of a slain OG, a Concourse gang is also checking him out while cruising for recruits. Bobby turns down a job at the beginning of the episode. Luis (Gregory Diaz IV), or as Slim calls him “Puerto Rican Harry Potter,” is the horror geek with all the answers. Just in from Tampa, after three months of enforced Disneyfication apparently, he is the odd one out, and expresses it in an almost-Shakespearean/Neil Simon soliloquy. It’s enough to put hair on your legs.

Gloria (Imani Lewis) provides running commentary throughout via her video blog, GloTV. “Have you noticed those missing kids’ posters,” she asks over too many emojis. “Construction was supposed to be good for the neighborhood.” We get to know, and like, the kids on the block very fast. Lil Mayor, on a bike two sizes too big for him, is out saving the neighborhood and the people give him props for that. He also gets free snacks and sodas. Well, they’re on his tab, which he swears he’s going to pay back. It just feels like he will, but even if he doesn’t, he’s working it off ahead of time. The rest of the gang is super positive, on the sweet and down low.

Even the gangbangers are polite and shit. Expressing displeasure with the vintage fashions of their undead interlopers with a more muted “I didn’t say I liked them” retort than a loud slam of trash talk. Almost all the characters, even the minor ones, get in a wisecrack. But Bobby gets in the best understated punch line: “Not what I thought you’d say.” It doesn’t seem like much on the page, but after the suspense of the building, it is an absolutely killer line. Even the vampire commander’s personal familiar Frank Polidori (Shea Whigham) projects a cool understated wit. While locking the vampire hunters in the Murnau offices he notes how daylight can be murder. Frank might be a descendant of John William Polidori, who submitted the short story “The Vampyre” to an exclusive 1819 contest with poets Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley. He lost to the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

The first character we meet is Vivian (Sarah Gadon), a young white woman who moved after she was priced out of her old neighborhood. She’s getting her nails done for the first time in the Bronx by a manicurist who has pushed her last cuticle. She’s sold the salon and is moving to the suburbs. There is a twist to her character, and while this would normally make this particular reviewer cheer, she brings too much of what’s wrong with the changing neighborhood. She ultimately admits she’s been slumming the whole time.

The vampires are standard issued and off the rack, obviously pale and fairly innocuous, like something you’d find in the TV movie adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. Luckily, the book makes an appearance and an impression. It’s pretty creepy how the vampires in Vampires vs. the Bronx levitate as they bite during a particularly impressive introductory scene in an underground parking garage. It is also telling how everyone knows the cops wouldn’t do anything about finding Slim. Not because he’s a gangbanger, but because he’s from the Bronx. Parts of the movie comes across like a travelogue which tells you how to get to Sesame Street. The vampires have a hierarchy, and a plan. The kids very easily lift a bag with some kind of skeleton key and a zip drive and learn the building the Murnau company is building will be 13 floors high. That’s not the unlucky part, though. Each floor will have a dozen coffins, which means 156 vampires will be crowding the 4 Train.

Luis lays out “the basics,” during a lag in Blade, which the kids watch as an instructional tool. Stakes disintegrate vampire if you get them in the heart. The eucharist turns them into toast. Add garlic and it can be sold at the bodega as vampire garlic toast. But he leaves out the first sign of the neighborhood invaders: the canvas bags. As scary as the vampires are, they suck the life out of the hood with deeds and writs and foreclosure papers. That is their weapon as much as the kids have plastic crucifixes.

The overt vampire incursion is a parable about a very real and silent threat: gentrification. In the film, it’s not just any old white people buying up property in the Boogie Down. It’s ancient old people who stay that way by sucking the blood out of locals while draining the hood of anything special. But either way, it’s “all about getting that macchiato and gelato money.” No one wants to see a Butter Store on 3rd Ave. Gentrification isn’t the only thing that sucks on the Concourse. Vampires, humans, and clergy are also at the mercy of an even more insidious and equally covert menace: Sprite product placement. It is apparently the new holy water below Tremont Ave.

The weaponing-up scene is fun. Watching the kids steal garlic and fill holy water balloons is a direct homage to Lost Boys. The movie flubs the science. If the balloon the kids use as a beacon to find vampires pops outside a major nest, wouldn’t all the holy water balloons pop once they enter? The kids prove themselves creatures as their batting average soars on a Sammy Sosa baseball bat. But their ultimate weapon is their trash talk. A particularly adherent follower of vampire commandments learns the error of his ways because one of the kids points out he’s going to be the vampires’ “bitch for all eternity.”

Besides a millisecond of a flirtatious scene at the first devilish deal signing, the film offers nothing in the way of sexual tension, an absolute must for vampire entertainment. Miguel’s crush on the older 16-year-old girl who was raised to fight vampires because she is Haitian turns out to be a disappointment which only emphasizes how much of a children’s story this is. Dominican Republic-raised director Oz Rodriguez (Saturday Night Live, A.P. Bio) wanted to showcase the multiculturalism and youth of the city’s most underdog borough.

If you’re looking for the 2011 UK film Attack the Block, you won’t find it here. Well, maybe under the sugar coating. Vampires vs. the Bronx is for all ages, though not all species, apparently. There is not a single bat in the movie, and it wasn’t shot that far from The Bronx Zoo. They have a whole World of Darkness there. Bats also assemble in the Bronx Botanical Garden, but the new citizens of the get down haven’t done their homework. In 1995, Eddie Murphy claimed everything south of Fulton Street for the vampires in the 1995 film Vampire in Brooklyn. Staten Island has its own vampire reality series with FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. Vampires vs. the Bronx is a light and fun take on an old and familiar story. It’s good for a chuckle but won’t keep you up at night unless there’s been a lot of new traffic lights and Starbucks popping up on your block.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Vampires vs. The Bronx will stream on Netflix starting Oct. 2, 2020.

The post Vampires vs. the Bronx Review: Young Bloods Clean Up the Concourse appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/33nLBp7

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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nightmareonfilmstreet · 7 years ago

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DRACULA Makes the Rules: Visionary Author Bram Stoker Born 170 Years Ago Today!

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DRACULA Makes the Rules: Visionary Author Bram Stoker Born 170 Years Ago Today!

We all know the rules of the vampire, right? Garlic, bats, stakes, coffins, mirrors. All these attributes and more are so familiar, almost anyone could rattle them off. And why not? Like zombies, vampires have enjoyed a bloody reign over horror for so long, they have practically carved out their own genre.

Sure, the brain starved walking dead have gained a recent dominance over their classier counterparts. But it wasn’t long ago that Twilight ruled the bookstores and box office — for better or for worse. And let’s not forget True Blood, Interview with a Vampire, Salem’s Lot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the other iconic additions to the modern vampire myth.

But the current conception of the vampire wasn’t always set in stone. In fact, we have a single work to thank for the majority of the vampire myth as we know it today. The 1897 novel Dracula is where the modern vampire was truly established. And the author behind the horror classic, Bram Stoker, was born 170 years ago today.

Bram Stoker was an Irish theater manager working in London when he wrote Dracula. Stoker had made a habit out of writing novels on the side to earn some extra cash. The author became inspired to turn the European folk myths of vampires into his next story. Stoker spent seven years pouring over vampire folklore to research his book. Most of his sources were the legends and superstitions regarding vampires that were passed down throughout Eastern Europe for centuries.

The tricky thing was, a consistent set of rules for vampires couldn’t be pinned down from these folk sources alone. Besides the fact that a vampire was an undead revenant who fed on blood, everything else could vary widely.

So Stoker took all these folk elements, borrowed some ideas from gothic literature, added a dash of his own creativity, and set down the rules of the modern vampire. Some of these rules remain unaltered, some have transformed over time, and some have been forgotten. But they demonstrate how Dracula defined the modern vampire.

1. “I Never Drink…Wine”

The classic line, uttered by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film version of Dracula, is iconic because we all know what the vampire does drink. And of course the villain of Stoker’s novel consumes blood. He couldn’t be vampire if he didn’t do that!

What’s interesting is that, unlike most modern vampires, Stoker’s Dracula doesn’t need to consume blood to be immortal. He is undying simply by virtue of being a vampire. He does need blood to gain strength, and the more he consumes, the younger he appears. In fact, at the beginning of the novel, Jonathan Harker encounters a blood starved Dracula who looks old and decrepit. By the time the villian’s feasting on the blood of Londoners, he looks quite young and attractive.

So what else about this rule has stuck around in most modern vampire iterations? Dracula never eats food or drinks anything but the red stuff.

2. Mirror, Mirror

We all know the classic vampire tell. Hold up a mirror to the potential bloodsucker. No reflection? It’s a vampire!

This rule was set down clearly in Dracula, and it’s been a staple of the myth since. One aspect of this rule from the novel that has stuck around less consistently? A vampire will cast no shadow. Some films, like Vampyr (1932) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) prefer shadows that move independently of the vampire. Most forgo shadows and just keep reflections in play.

Either way, we can thank Dracula for confirming the importance of mirrors in the vampire myth.

3. Gone Batty

In pop culture, if a vampire isn’t a suave gentleman (or a sparkly teen heartthrob), they’re a bat. A squeaking bat emerging from a discarded cape is an iconic horror trope for a reason. The fact that vampires could transform themselves into a bat was one of the rules established in Dracula.

But the titular Count wasn’t limited to bats, in fact, he also transformed himself into a wolf, and according to Dr. Van Helsing, he could become dust if he’s in the moonlight, or travel as a mist for a limited distance. He could even become tiny to slip through cracks! Most of these rules have fallen by the wayside. But the Counts’ tendency to turn into a winged, nocturnal bat remains a fixture of the modern vampire.

4. Invitation Only

Another famous rule of the vampire that was set down in Dracula? A vampire cannot enter a place unless they are first invited in. However, once they are invited, they can enter as they please. This is one of the few rules established by Stoker that has remained unaltered in almost every vampire story since.

5. Vampire Repellent

Another standby rule that was established unaltered in Dracula is the classic combo of vampire repellent; crucifixes and garlic. These two remedies of vampiric folklore were firmly set down by Stoker. Because of this, they’ve outlasted salt, rice, mustard seeds, and numerous other traditional vampire repellents to be the two we remember today.

However, it’s interesting that rather than causing a vampire to screech and retreat, as is often seen in films, crucifixes and garlic simply cause a vampire to “take his place far off and silent with respect.” Essentially, he just stands in the corner awkwardly while the dreaded items are around.

6. Slay Away

What’s the most essential vampire rule? How to slay one of course! We all know a vampire slayer would be nowhere without their trusty stakes. And a stake to the heart is the most prominent method of vampire killing employed in Dracula. But it’s not the only possible method laid out by by Van Helsing, the vampire slayer of Stoker’s creation.

Decapitation or a “sacred bullet” can also do the trick. What exactly is a “sacred bullet”? It’s not the silver bullet of werewolf lore, though it certainly shares the folkloric origin. Instead, it’s a bullet that has been blessed, usually with holy water.

Some of these methods of vampire disposal are still featured in vampire lore to this day. But it’s the stake that has remained the most common method to defeat a vampiric threat. Its use in several memorable scenes in Dracula no doubt have contributed to its staying power.

What’s the major vampire killer that doesn’t come from Stoker’s novel? Sunlight! Believe it or not, Dracula’s count could survive the UV exposure that has destroyed many a vampire since. He even appears strolling around in broad daylight in the novel! Daylight does reduce his powers, but it’s not deadly to his kind. The killing power of daylight was established by Nosferatu (1922) and has remained a standby of vampire lore ever since.

It’s worth noting that none of these rules were outright invented by Bram Stoker. Instead, he combed through centuries of vampiric folklore and settled on what to preserve in his tale of the undead.

Other characteristics of the vampire featured in Dracula that have endured include the contagious nature of vampirism — those killed by a vampire will become one. This was sometimes, but not always the case in pre-existing folklore.

The characterization of a vampire as a suave gentlemen wasn’t invented by Stoker. It can be traced to earlier works like The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. But Stoker’s specific version of the vampire, based on Sir Henry Irving, Shakespearean actor and friend of the author, is what has endured. And it’s a serious departure from vampires of folklore; bloated, nightmarish fiends that certainly couldn’t pass undetected in high society.

There are some rules established in Dracula that haven’t stood the test of time. But the ones that have paint a complete picture of the vampire myth as we know it today. And without Bram Stoker’s iconic novel, an entire subgenre of horror would look very different. To anyone who’s ever watched a vampire movie or enjoyed a guilty-pleasure undead romance novel, we have Bram Stoker to thank.

#Bram Stoker #dracula #Dracula novel #horror anniversary #horror history #horror novels #vampire films #vampire folklore #vampire genre #vampire mythology #vampire myths #vampire novels #vampire tropes #vampires

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youbetterworkcovergirl · 7 years ago

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2018 Movies Watched

Mayhem

Creep 2

The Vault

Super Dark Times

Haunters

Lady Gaga Five Foot Two

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

Coco

Flatliners (2017)

Madman

Oxygen

Before I Wake

The Lodger

Marshall

Airheads

The Snowman

Rewind This

Big Business

The Crucifixion

Dinner with Friends

Natural Selection

When A Stranger Calls Back

Hairspray (original)

Geostorm

Return of the Living Dead 3

Empire Records

Heathers

Keep Watching

A Bad Moms Christmas

I, Tonya

Suburbicon

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Only The Brave

Mr. Mom

Girls Against Boys

The Cloverfield Paradox

The Open House

Seed of Chucky

Trick or Treats

#Horror

The Blob (1988)

The Stuff

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

American Satan

Insidious 4: The Last Key

My Friend Dahmer

Waco

The Ritual

Black Panther

Nothing But Trouble

Deadly Blessing

Dismissed

Manson

Student Bodies

The Silent Scream

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missuori

The Buttercream Gang

House of Long Shadows

The Babysitters Club

Veronica

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Shape of Water

So I Married an Axe Murder

Honey We Shrunk Ourselves

The First Wives Club

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Tom and Huck

Backdraft

The Brady Bunch Movie

Problem Child

Pitch Perfect 3

Winchester

Tormented

Prophet of Evil

Vincent

The Bat

The Comedy of Terrors

Witness To Waco

Echoes in the Darkness

To Catch A Killer

The Haunted

Seduced by Madness

True Crime

Night of the Creeps

Return of the Living Dead

Love Potion #9

Tragedy Girls

Fallen Angel

Adam: His Story Continues

The True Story: The Amityville Horror

Fatal Charm

The Zodiac Killer

The Real Amityville Horror

The Calendar Girl Murders

Terrifier

Cocktail

LA 92

Once Bitten

Explorers

Soulman

April Fool’s Day

Chopping Mall

Twins

Spookies

Crawlspace

Twins

Two Night Stand

Mr. Right

Spice World

Vibes

Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

The Big Green

Happily Ever After

Halloween Documentary

Poison Ivy

Singles

Gia

Forbidden

9/11

The Space Between

Rampage

Never Hike Alone

Who Put the Klan in the Klu Klux Klan

Frontier(s)

Four Rooms

The Strangers: Prey at Night

Poison Ivy II

Goodfellas

Detroit Rock City

Spaceballs

Soul Man

Space Camp

TerrorVision

Sometimes They Come Back

Hell High

Freaked

The Making of Halloween II

Going Postal

Tuff Turf

The Making of Prom Night

Exorcists: The True Story

Halloween: The Inside Story

Return To Crystal Lake

Rock and Roll High School

Rush Week

Maid to Order

Scream: The Inside Story

Iced

The Lightning Incident

Not Our Son

Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig

Monster Night

HouseSitter

The OJ Simpson Story

Mister Frost

The Story of Motley Crue

Star Trek:Beyond

In Cold Blood: The Chris Lane Story

More Brains: The Making of Return of the Living Dead

Sidekicks

The Disaster Artist

Embrace the Vampire

Day of the Dead: Bloodline

Wish Upon a Star

Avengers: Infinity War

Stand and Deliver

Sphere

Forever My Girl

Earth Girls Are Easy

Cry Baby Lane

The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid Part 2

Sound of my Voice

A Quiet Place

Trust Fund

A Killing In A Small Town

Kristy

Hush

The Greatest Showman

November 13: Attack on Paris

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Martyrs

Last Shift

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Amityville: Horror or Hoax

Amityville: The Haunting

The Love Witch

The Psycho Legacy

The Great Los Angles Earthquake

Stag Night

Overboard

Hell House LLC

Truth or Dare

Mom and Dad

Event Horizon

Deadpool2

Nobody Gets Out Alive

Love, Simon

No One Lives

Summer of Love

Snowbound

Bones

Hereditary

Justice Leauge

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Blockers

Breaking In

House II: The Second Story

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Pacific Rim: Uprising

The Incredibles 2

Jurassic World

Amityville 3-D

Monkey Shines

Regression

L.A . Slasher

Dog Soldiers

The Wave

All Eyez On Me

Notorious

Inside

Killing For Love

Playback

Pacific Heights

Love At First Bite

The Sisterhood

Deceived

A Horrible Place To Die

True Story

The Gift

The Roost

Masterminds

Preservation

Untraceable

The Crow: Wicked City

Never Talk To Strangers

Blow Out

The Decade You Were Born: the 1980s

9/11: Fifteen Years Later

78/52 Hitchcock’s Shower Scene

Copycat

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

The Unspoken

The Ritual

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House

House of the Witch

The Vanishing

The First Purge

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

Rebirth

Don’t Hang Up

To Die For

Diary of a Serial Killer

Held for Ransom

Don’t Look Behind You

Menace II Society

Aftershock

10x10

The New Daughter

Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills

The Secret Life of Bees

Ready Player One

The Boston Strangler

Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael

Ricky 6

The Day It Happened: Columbine

Satan in the Suburbs

Deadly Detention

A Cry In The Dark

Girl in the Bunker

Unsane

The Haunted History of Halloween

DC 9/11: Time of Crisis

The Meg

Overboard (2018)

I Feel Pretty

Life Of The Party

In Memoriam: New York City 9-11-2001

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Virginia Tech documentary

Columbine documentary

Nothing Left to Fear

If...

The 6th Day

Black Circle Boys

Splinter

The Tie That Binds

Bad Samaritan

Salem’s Lot

The Midnight Man

I Spit on Your Grave 2

The Tenant

Birth of the Living Dead

Shadow of the Vampire

Mimic

Halloween H20

The Midnight Man

The Endless

Summer of ‘84

Delirium

A Return to Salem’s Lot

An American Ghost Story

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Frantic

Nosferatu The Vampyre

Pieces

Peter Rabbit

Ingrid Goes West

Pumpkinhead 2

Fear Inc.

The Nun

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Indecent Proposal

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Harry and the Henderson’s

Bride of Frankenstein

Silent Night

Fahrenheit 451

Don’t Look Under The Bed

Devil’s Backbone Texas

American Psycho 2

Solo

the Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920)

Howling II

Scary Mary

The Looming Tower

Truth or Dare (2017)

Raising Cain

No Vacancy

Freaks of Nature

Munger Road

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

Malevolent

The Phantom Of the Opera

The Divide

One Day At Horrorland

Casper

Night of the Demons 2

Hayride

I’ve Been Waiting For You

The Haunting of Hill House

The China Syndrome

Ghost Stories

Pyewacket

The Haunting

The Wolfman

Unfriended: The Dark Web

Jason X

Night of the Demons (2009)

Unlikely Angel

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Oujia Origin of Evil

Survival of the Dead

Swamp Thing

Halloween (2018)

A League of their Own

Down A Dark Hall

Milk Money

Blown Away

Freeway

Intruder

Slender Man

Book Club

ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway

Dick Tracy

My Brother The Serial Killer

Joe Versus the Volcano

Mother’s Boys

Leap of Faith

Escape from L.A

Kid

P.U.N.K.S

Three Identical Strangers

RBG

Something Wild

Overloard

The Grinch

Fantastic Beasts 2

Office Christmas Party

Like Father Like Son

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

Men At Work

The Christmas Chronicles

The Wizard

Son In Law

Crocodile Dundee

Breakdown

Needle

Crazy Rich Asians

Searching

A Diva’s Christmas Carol

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story

Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart

A Christmas Carol

Life-Size 2

The Christmas Toy

The Unauthorized Full House Story

After Hours

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Whitney

Mrs. Santa Claus

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Blood Rage

A Very Claymation Christmas

Claymation Easter

Claymation Comedy of Horrors

The Show

Jingle All The Way

The Road Killers

A Regular Frankie Fan

Betty and Coretta

Blackkklansman

Devil’s Gate

Hamilton

Newsies

Newsies: The Musical

Demon House

Bird Box

The Rosa Parks Story

Patient Zero

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peanutdracolich · 7 years ago

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Peanut Dracolich Watches: Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

So this film is different. It’s an anthology of shorter tales, all with a Twilight Zone feel, or perhaps more Tales from the Crypt but I never watched much of the latter so my mind goes to Twilight Zone. Of course the 60s Twilight Zone (I haven’t seen the newer take save an episode or two) was a wonderful series and comparing something to it is not a bad thing. It is just worth noting that in many ways this changes the pacing and effect.

I also had horrible interruptions, so much that I stopped the film halfway and rewatched it the next morning. So the purity of effect was thus diluted. This hit hardest for the 3rd of the 5 tales, for it was both the low point of the film (I believe), and where I got to before I finally had to stop due to interruptions. As such I may be judging it unfairly, as it did not have the proper build up since on rewatching the intensity of the first two segments was reduced.

This is a film I would heavily suggest watching before reading the play by play, in part because the film was all around enjoyable. It was not a grotesque death filled slasher, it was not tense psychological horror, but it was a fun series of horror stories, which simultaneously made use of the advantages of cinematic presentation (sound, images, and acting) but kept the charm of a horror story that is so often lacking in a horror film; of course this is a warning as well, I typically watch horror films for a very different experience than a horror story and while this managed to combine the advantages of film with the nature of a classic horror story (well anthology) it is not the same sort of intensity and danger rush as a horror film. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of taste and the moment. I would say that it might be the film I enjoyed the most of the ones I have watched thus far, but that Vampyre with its nightmare shadow play is the better horror film, and for those normal experiences I desire from horror films I would turn to Prince of Darkness or Alien Covenant instead (or well Alien but that one I only partially watched this year).

The good, the bad, and the ugly and the play by play below the cut.

The Good:

The Acting: Although Peter Cushing really shines, the acting in all 5 of the anthology stories is good. Donald Sutherland gets a special mention, and Christopher Lee is a perennial favorite of mine. Still all the roles ranged from charming with minor mannerisms that added to Peter Cushing.

The Makeup on Peter Cushing: I would not have actually recognized the Grand Moff, time traveling Doctor Who, vampire slayer; he did a good job with an accent and affected personality, and a good job at the make up as well. All in all it was excellently done.

The First and Last Stories: Despite not having Christopher Lee, these two were probably the best tales. Little touches of foreshadowing, classic horror creatures done well, two excellent, short little horror stories and well worth watching on their own though the framing narrative does improve it, and all the stories would be worthwhile episodes of an anthology show.

The Overall Structure: They knew what they were doing with the ordering of tales, starting and ending strong, with a weaker middle which can be supported by the surrounding tales. Placing Lee in the 4th story both made wonderful use of his noble bearing (in the overarching narrative and story itself) and helped prop up what might have otherwise been a fairly average tale.

The Bad:

Predictability: Even on the first watching the stories are fairly predictable, everything foreshadowed well in advanced and the twists (when there are twists) while still quite enjoyable and satisfactory will not actually surprise. This is the worst thing about the film and still not that bad (if I were to rank the films of this month I’d currently place this one 2nd).

The Third Story: I’d say this was the weakest story in the bunch. Still worth watching on its own in a sort of horror story anthology show, but not as strong as the others. I think I’d have enjoyed it a fair bit more with a proper uninterrupted viewing experience, but more than the other 4 stories it relies upon the grip of terror from the other tales and in many ways its upbeat music (throughout most of it) squanders that grip.

The Ugly:

The Bat: Let it be known that the 60s could not make a convincing bat. It will shock and draw you out of the spell somewhat, and require the conscious decision to ignore the badly done bat.

The Plant Special Effects: Not as bad, but there’s a few scenes where it’s pretty bad. It’s the 60s so it’s to be expected and I can’t really hold it against the film, but it is to be mentioned.

The God-Forsaken Interruptions: This was just my personal viewing experience which forced me to rewatch the first two segments due to the sheer number of interruptions and internet failures I suffered.

And now for the Play by Play If you’re interested in watching the film, watch it first while it is highly predictable and nothing will surprise you by the time it happens, it does use twists that are more enjoyable seeing firsthand first (Why I don’t give this warning more... Because most of the films are better known, so that general cultural osmosis has already ruined the twists, or I found bad enough not to care, or I simply omit the Play by Play due to not wanting to give things away, here it is included because of my irritation at interruptions which might be enjoyable to someone)

We've got Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I do not expect a masterpiece, but I feel it will most likely be an enjoyable film.

Music in opening credits is suitably creepy, and we have a train station, and a train as well. Several men are getting on the train. One of them has immediate presence. Well actually several of them do. One of them I immediately note because Christopher Lee is a man with Presence with a capital p, but he's not the only one with stage presence that does not require a single word. Just the only one whose name I know and who makes me go Oooh Yay!

Still we've got 'man who plays with children's doll', 'man who makes me think of Shatner in his early Twilight Zone roles', 'man who whistles' (and tried to close the door on Christopher Lee), 'man with the death glare that scares the aforementioned' (Christopher Lee), and 'Man with the Winning Smile'. Lee still stands head and shoulders above them, but Winning Smile is likeable. The music changes and someone is given additional focus, the final member of our party; the Doctor... Terror that is.

And somehow this film makes me feel like I'm missing things if I take my eye off the screen for a moment. Even if it is just how people react to be gazed at by the Doctor. It makes them uncomfortable, even Christopher Lee raised an eyebrow though he was otherwise stoic. It was an expressive eyebrow.

We get a few establishing moments with Lee and the Doctor, using the rest of the cast as support to do so. The Doctor is a doctor of metaphysics, a field Lee calls nonsense; when he dropped his bag asleep everyone else immediately began to help pick it up, Lee did nothing; Lee recognizes the tarot, but seems to scorn it, the Doctor on the other hand is a devotee. It really actually establishes more than that, but pictures are worth a thousand words, and ephemeral impressions are hard to put into words.

The Doctor about how man's destiny is made of two parts natural and supernatural; his tarot deck can forewarn of the supernatural they are to experience in their life. It is his house of horrors. He explains how a reading works (4 cards to tell the future, 1 to tell how to change it if it is possible). Lee then calls it nonsense.

We then get to tarot reading, of man who made me think of Shatner. The Chariot. The High Priestess. The Moon. The Enchantress (though the card says La Force and its number is Strength). And we go to a story with !Shatner (he doesn't actually remind me that much of Shatner it was a brief momentary thing). He's an architect, and as I don't know his name he is now Mr. Brady. He sold his old house to someone who wants to alter the house and the rich widow wants his help altering it. We see some of the servants of the house, one of whom was a young girl when he left and is now quite the beauty and Mr Brady is attracted to.

We learn that the house was his family home.

Having been interrupted for long enough I decide just to restart the film and I must note that the make up artists and Cushing's voice work is good; I'd not recognize Grand Moff Van Who not knowing it was him (I'm not the best with actors in general, but he's one I've seen a lot), and even rewatching the scene it holds me just from the charm and the charisma of the actors.

Of course letting myself fall into the spell of the Doctor I find that when the story about the widow and the island begins it is a little lacking. It's not that the rest of the cast is bad. They've all shown a good bit of charm, it's just that they are not Christopher Lee... or really Peter Cushing (who does hold the scene with his charisma).

Also not being interrupted I must note that Valda (the girl who Mr Brady, actually Mr Dawson, thinks is pretty) gives Mr. Dawson a rather cold look that unsettles him.

But yes this is his family home which was in the family for centuries before he had to sell it. And with a well aged widow, he of course must flirt. We learn that she is in semi-seclusion in the Hebrides because of a breakdown at her husband's funeral, and intends to turn a portion of the house into a ballroom not for dancing, but to make a museum to display her husbands collections. There is a sound like a wolf's howl and Mr. Dawson goes to look into it, but sees nothing out of the windows and finds a locked cellar door. Valda makes a creepy appearance.

The next day the cellar key is missing, hidden by Valda it would appear. Though he gets the key from her grandfather, and Valda... creepily watches. And my fear of old cellars (I blame Evil Dead) rears its head when he enters the creepy old cellar and Valda watches. He immediately finds out someone has been reading too much Poe, for he finds a hollow wall and behind it a coffin, the cellar of a legendary werewolf who claimed the house was stolen from him by Dawson's ancestors. And the plaster is new.

Valda, who had been ominously watching moves away from the top of the stairs and Dawson and the old servant pull the coffin free and try to open it. Failing they go for tools and the werewolf opens it from within. And you know what I'm just gonna pull a foot up. Still the legendary werewolf is free and the men know it.

We get some nice scenes with the widow, and a letter from Valda telling Mr. Dawson she needs to see him. She's immediately found dead (or unconscious and bleeding) outside. There's a trail of (very fake) blood leading into the cellar; and like Kirk Dawson is half shirtless. Still while I mock the barechestedness of our hero, and the effects, the scene isn't bad. One must be willing to let their imagination play along with the 52 year old effects but it's well done.

While I was sidetracked thus, Dawson opened the coffin, found a wizened old corpse, gets his hand bloodied (though he soon seems to forget this), and decides that curse it all he'll melt the silver cross made from the silver sword that killed the werewolf into silver bullets. He takes vantage over the coffin, and finds that when it opens it is empty. The werewolf is attacking the widow. He rushes to save her... and I won't tell you the end.

It was a good, gripping story, a well done, short tale of terror which hit well and was all around well done. Putting me in mind of a Twilight Zone of Horror.

We see a bit more of ... I'm lagging behind the film too much, I'm stopping this because it's too intense to pause. Or at most I'm going to be vague at best.

The next story is set somewhere sunny; suburbia or the equivalent, and a story of a plant. A plant that screams in pain when attacked and resists cutting.

It has advantage of the fear, still extent, from the story before, that well done quick paced thing that packed more punch in 30 minutes than many have packed in their entirety and more per minute than most finales. At the same time it's got a high bar to overcome.

The family dog is investigating the plant and I'm scared. The family dog is dead and I'm sad.

The film defines bacteria as plants were they considered plants in the 60s? Fungus also is mentioned and lichen, before we get into your actual plants. Moss. Ferns. Flowering plants (no mention of conifers). And finally insectivorous plants. There's some really shoddy understanding of evolution here, but it's... I will buy in. An intelligent plant that defends itself and knows its enemies. A plant like that could take over the world. It sounds a bit silly but the film sells it well for the concept.

The plant has brain tissue in its leaves. And my wifi crashes stopping me from streaming. 15 or so minutes later I'm back but that means I have lost much of the build up and effect pulling back to the end of the first story. Still Christopher Lee helps blow the embers but it's definitely a dimmed effect.

Oh and here I get to say his cards: Fool, Magician, Hanged Man, and the Sun. The movie is doing its work to pull me in, but I no longer feel that clench at my heart, and my feet can be lowered once more.

Oh yes since it's not that sort of victim-killer film, I haven't talked about making people likeable so that you fear for them, but the film is good at it. Bill, the man with the doll, jokes with his wife, has a daughter, doesn't do anything asinine. Reacts to weird vine that is acting supernaturally, by contacting botanists (though it seems like he knows them). And the dog dies and with the foreknowledge and reduced grip it's less impactful. Also the brain tissue doesn't look the most brain-like.

That said I'm back where I was. The plant reaching for the botanist. The little girl not wanting to play outside without her faithful dog since it's just not fun without rusty. The plant grabs the man and begins to choke. His struggle could be more intense, it is rather minimalistic, but it works well enough. They call the head botanist for the plant has killed man.

This plant is murderously aware, almost psychic. It cuts the phone line to prevent calling for help. It attacks the man and suddenly has covered the house. It is something else. With the spell broken by RL circumstance it lacks effect, the silliness coming through more. The ordering was important, a strong foot first before a weaker second story, but even this story is a worthwhile episode of something like Tales of the Crypt. Then they realize it fears fire for "There's one thing that every sentient species is afraid of: fire. If something ever develops that isn't it could be the end of the world." Ironically man doesn't fear fire much. Still the botanist escapes. The story ends.

The effect of the story isn't enough on its own, and the ruined tempo hurts. And as I say that I am called and forced to interrupt again.

Still the Doctor presses the whistling man (a musician) to get his fortune told. Judgement, the World, the Tower, and the Devil. He makes a joke, but is told not to jest at the image of a god. For it is a powerful and malign god of voodoo.

Cut to an all white jazz band.

And I'm just gonna start fresh tomorrow and hope for less interruptions; the spell was too good to waste the film with this many souring it.

So I begin again with Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Opening music is by now a familiar little bit of a chill. It is a nice little opening score, though not really horror except that you expect horror knowing it is. The opening is more Twilight Zone than anything horrific, though again that might just be Mr. Dawson's right side of his face reminding me of Shatner for some reason. The first true horror element is Christopher Lee's appearance, because he counts as horror on his own. I jest of course, while he has an intimidating presence, and uses it here, it's not in and of itself horror. Instead the first is the music that plays as Dr. Terror himself arrives, the way he wipes the fog from the door, the music as he looks about the men. It's not ill done, though it's some masterpiece. Still it is not jarringly hamfisted; this is just me watching the scene for the 4th time in 16 hours.

Pter Cushing has charisma here, a little touch of the classic story teller. It is enjoyable to watch. Lee's stuck up and stick up his krampus persona forms a good foil to Cushing's story teller.

Since he's explaining the tarot, I find it worth noting that for the first two stories (and I suspect the others) the 5th card is Death and he refuses to actually reveal it because it means the future cannot be changed; they will die. Yet Death is a card of change.

With the first story the symbolism of most of the cards is fairly clear. The High Priestess is the Widow, the Moon equates to the Werewolf, the Enchantress is indicative of that she is a witch, but also the battle with the beast. The Chariot... Well I forget its true meaning and its meaning in the story is more obscure than the rest. Maybe just that he'll arrive via a carriage upon the island.

And it leaves me wanting to know more about Valda's situation. We don't get to see how she is bewitched, though that is my suspicion. I am not saying this is a bad thing. The story as presented makes sense, the acting implies and foreshadows that she's a false lead. It's all well done, albeit a little predictable and on the rewatch it does suffer but that's rewatching something the next day it will suffer. Though the less predictable bits (while you can guess the widow is bad, it's harder to guess there's a werewolf tomb) are beautifully foreshadowed as well, the actress playing the widow doing quite a good job.

Still I would like to see Valda's story. Not here, but as a supplemental material. It could be an interesting tale.

Still on a rewatch the effect and horror is substantially subdued and plot holes become more apparent. I'm not going to point out things that only bother me because it's a rewatch, that's not fair to the film as they don't really tear apart the story. And even on a rewatch it works better than some films I've watched this month. Still it lacks the grip upon the heart, the chest squeezing grasp of terror. At the same time it's a child friendly fear. Something that you could watch with a kid and they'd enjoy and yet it'd not create the nightmare causing effects of something like Evil Dead or Phantasm.

Still we are to the beginning of the second story. The Fool is a journeyer, it represents his vacation, and the dog in the picture is his dog. The Magician is the botanist, the hanged man is the vine's method of killing, and the sun is what makes plants grow. For just picking Major Arcana it's a good choice of cards.

The second part is better for coming after the first, but with the reduced effect of a rewatch much of that is lost. It's just not enough to keep it up, but a breather is often needed (90 minutes of tension is too much after all).

Also I like scientists in stories like this. Where it is not a SCIENTIST HAS GONE MAD WITH POWER but science will protect us from the horrors that nature may spawn. And on the rewatch while his struggle is stiff and unmoving (like could be a fake person entirely), his hands are at least in place to try and prevent being choked, ad the vines have his arms. Still in a modern film he'd be futilely kicking. Also I like how the plant is smart enough to cut the phone lines. It's as if it has grown telepathic, able to sense ill-intent towards it and act upon such plans. Still the scientists boss from the ministry escaped, and learned its weakness. While the family may be doomed (as the Death card implies) the plant will be napalmed.

No it's the musician, and I note that as he taps he snaps his fingers creating a beat. It's a nice touch and gives the Doctor a way to know he's a musician, just like the doll told him the man had a daughter.

Still I wonder how much of these stories the people see. This is the one that feels the slowest start. The band practicing as they're told they're going to the West Indies, the music light and upbeat... growing even cheerful when they go to the West Indies and there's a song about how everybody's got love. I feel a lack that wouldn't have been there if I hadn't been interrupted the first time, the tension having bee lower so draining off much quicker.

The musician called Dambala a monster and the club goes quiet, death gazes all towards him. We get stories of the Voodoo dances, the wild half-naked dancing in the woods; and he's told not to go since it's a religious ceremony not a place to ogle chicks. He goes to secretly watch from the bushes, like a peeping tom staring at the.. women in ankle length skirts, and shirts that show some of their stomachs. Oh no, he's not watching the girls. He's stealing the notes of the song, like some musical Prometheus performing a sacrilege against their god by trying to turn his sacred music into a cheap musical trinket for the English.

He doesn't notice the men silently coming up behind him, standing there, watching him, until they carry him within. The priest is pissed at him having written down the sacred music, and is more pissed when the musician suggests going 50-50. Still these Voodoo worshipers are reasonable sorts. He warns that if he steals from Dambala, then Dambala will be avenged upon him. Don't piss off a vengeful god you foolish Brit.

He still intends to steal it when they get back to London, and as he mocks the god's ability to harm him, he topples backwards as the railing falls out from behind him.

The story is not too scary, the grip and intensity is weak, the music is upbeat, the end result is obvious. Still the musician is a charming thief, likeable even as he does things that are foolish and selfish, and the story is enjoyable. It is a shame the spell was broken last night.

Still the film makes a simple door with a loose hinge swinging back and forth creepy. Everyone ignores it, but the winds begin to pick up more and more as they play, and soon papers and flying. Before too long tables are threatening to rise, and lost in the music the musicians still play, no reaction from them. Trumpet wild and it ends and... the musician doesn't belief anything. You were in door when a windstorm struck; Biff what are you thinking.

Of course when he's alone, at night, and the wind is still stirring, he grows uneasy. When he bumps into a large black man he grows scared. When he trips over a trashcan and sees a poster with a monstrous face he grows lost in his own dread. When he almost gets hit by a car stepping out straight in front of it, he is panicked. It's so so.

Still it has gone quiet except for the occasional wind. The wind that is closing windows. Slamming doors. The lights going out at his apartment. It's a good, tense bit. And when he manages to get a light on, there is a voodoo practitioner in full make-up coming for him, an avatar perhaps of the god. He reaches for Biff as if to choke and the musician faints. Still vengeful or not Dambala is not an evil god, he merely takes the music and leaves; if Biff is dead then it was sheer terror. After all the fifth card is Death, and this time they catch out Dr. Terror's attempt to hide it.

He finally gets Christopher Lee to agree and there is no tapping. We begin with Lee mocking some modern art as an atrocity.

We get two ideals of art. 'Art is supposed to have meaning.' And 'Art is supposed to create a reaction from within'. Still Lee praises a chimp's painting, leading him to mockery.It was not just a chimp's painting but a fairly sorry painting in general.

The artist he had been mocking begins to haunt him, mocking him with the fact, driving the art critic deeper and deeper into a corner, till at last he decides to act. He runs the artist down with his car, hitting him, and cutting his arm off with a wheel. An act of mad vengeance... but the artist survives.

Still the guilt, or more fear of being caught out, eats at Lee's character, even as the loss of what made him who he was drives the artist to suicide. Shooting himself through the head. A final act we see from his point of view before the hand that was lost comes for Lee, crawling in his car towards him as he drives. He throws it from the car, shocked and horrified. And that grip that has been lacking is growing once more, my feet and ankles tingle, my chest seizes just a bit.

There comes a rapping upon Lee's chamber door a rapping that will not answer. Frightful he begins to open the door only to find no one there, shuddering afterwards at the terror he had felt. He's jumping at shadows, not realizing the hand is crawling towards him. It grasps his foot and he seizes up with terror for a moment before tossing it into the fire.

Still the event haunts and worries him. And charred but not destroyed the hand returns. The hand can bleed, but it is now out for his life. Still he throws it into a lake in a box to swim with the fishes.

His fear is not gone, but he feels the weight lifted. We do not and upon a... Well let's just say the end is satisfying. And the poetic justice is sweet. While I think the first story was best thus far, it was a good one.

And we get the fifth tail, the blonde, blue eyed man's, the man with the winning smile. The Empress, the Hermit, the Star, and the Lovers.

He's an American, a New Englander. He's marrying a French woman. It's a happy little scene, his new wife moving into the house, but the grip of fear like the artist's hand about the throat, still hangs about. Is he using a screwdriver as a can opener? I know it’s been done but that just seems to be a way to get.. He cuts himself in the process and her reaction to blood is strangely sensual, almost aroused or certainly hungry. After all she cleans his wound with kisses. If it hadn't been sunny I'd be fearing a vampire. That she turns into a bat at night and flies away does little to reassure me she is not one.

We see the morning where we learn that our protagonist of the tale is a doctor, along with one other doctor in town (Blake). His wife doesn't like Blake.

Apparently lacking blood is not anemia now. I'm pretty sure that's a top of anemia, a specific type, but still 'it's not anemia the quality isn't wrong it's the quantity' is dumb to me; though I am not expert on anemia. Still the boy has a vampire bite upon his throat, and Dr. Blake says if it were medieval times.

We get a nice, tense scene of Blake and the vampiress playing a bit of cat and mouse in the lab building, but the bat effect almost ruins it; it's a pretty average bat effect for the 60s but those were always bad.

Another day and the child's blood is drained a bit more, and Blake decides to sit by his window with a pistol, slamming it shut before the vampire and shooting the bat. She comes home with a bloody hands. Blake sharpens his stake, our good 'protagonist' (he's really not the protagonist but) says that Nicolle is his wife. He is wooden, tears in his eyes. He doesn't want this, he's near to breaking down.

Teary eyed he tells her that he loves her after she returns and goes to sleep, kisses her sleeping lips, and stakes her. The cops come and he claims Dr. Blake will confirm it. And then...

We do not see what doom is there for Dr. Terror, but we see his fifth card: Death. They conclude the train is going to crash, they pass through darkness and Dr. Terror vanishes. They slow down, having reached the end early, only to emerge from the train into a dark station in an other worldly realm. The train has crashed, they rode with the Grim Reaper, and now all five are dead.

#peanutdracolich watches horror #Dr. Terror's House of Horrors #Peter Cushing #Christopher Lee #Good movie

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nightmareonfilmstreet · 7 years ago

Text

DRACULA Makes the Rules: Visionary Author Bram Stoker Born 170 Years Ago Today!

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/dracula-makes-rules-visionary-author-bram-stoker-born-170-years-ago-today/

DRACULA Makes the Rules: Visionary Author Bram Stoker Born 170 Years Ago Today!

1. “I Never Drink…Wine”

So what else about this rule has stuck around in most modern vampire iterations? Dracula never eats food or drinks anything but the red stuff.

2. Mirror, Mirror

We all know the classic vampire tell. Hold up a mirror to the potential bloodsucker. No reflection? It’s a vampire!

Either way, we can thank Dracula for confirming the importance of mirrors in the vampire myth.

3. Gone Batty

4. Invitation Only

5. Vampire Repellent

6. Slay Away

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