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fibula-rasa · 1 month ago

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Watch More Movies Notebook: October ‘24

Collage of stills from my nine favorite new-to-me films of October '24

October's blog journal has a handful of technologically and creatively adventurous pre-code films and a selection of witches, demons, ghosts, and varied ghouls from six different countries!

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Month

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

As always, if any other films catch your eye, but you need specific content/trigger warnings, feel free to ask and I’ll try to oblige!

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Black and Tan (1929)

[letterboxd | imdb]

When Duke and his band are in dire straits, Fredi, Duke’s girlfriend, manages to land them a job. The catch however, is that Fredi must dance in the act even though she has a heart condition.

Dudley Murphy directs Duke Ellington and Fredi Washington in this short-but-dazzling musical tragedy. Black and Tan’s been in my watchlist for ages, but I found extra motivation to finally see it because I’m still watching through the films discussed in Lovers of Cinema, which I read this summer. I’m not new to Murphy’s work, but as I watch more of it, I’m starting to appreciate how unsung he is as a filmmaker. Highly recommend this one!

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Night of the Demon (1957)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An American parapsychology professor plans to attend a conference in England and discovers that one of his colleagues has died under mysterious circumstances. The professor takes up his colleague’s investigation of a local satanic witch cult—his skepticism blinding him to his imminent peril.

Completely unintentionally, I’ve avoided watching this movie for years because I had assumed I’d seen it already. Turns out I had it mixed up with Night of the Eagle (1962)—a movie that Night of the Demon shares more than a similar title with! Both are good though! Up tight academic psychology experts in England using the power of suggestion and hypnosis to face off with witches appears to be a pretty solid horror formula.

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Wolf’s Hole / Vlčí Bouda (1987)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A group of teenagers are accepted into an elite skiing camp on a remote mountain top run by three very odd characters. Red flags start piling up as the isolated kids gradually figure out that this ski camp is, in reality, a very sinister experiment.

A 1980s teen horror film directed by the great Věra Chytilová? How could it not be great? If you choose to check this one out, which I recommend, don’t read too much about it ahead of time—the way Chytilová unfolds the reveal is best left unspoiled. As a horror film fan, I loved how the kids being obnoxious is paired with the perspective that you’re still going to care about them and root for them to make it to safety. This is a much appreciated and humane opposition to many (obvi not all) American horror films where teens acting obnoxiously has become cinematic shorthand that they’re doomed to a violent end. It’s a tense, stressful movie with some bombastic choices within the limited setting. And, for those that need to know ahead of time: the dog does not die! Long live Pišta. CW for some depictions of prejudice toward a Romani character.

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The Bat Whispers (1930)

[letterboxd | imdb | hoopla (US)]

Infamous archcriminal, The Bat, has outwitted the cops once again and has shuffled off to the country. Coincidentally, out in the country, the local bank has just been robbed. The Bat is after the money, the cops are after the robbers, and caught in the middle is the wealthy society matron Cornelia Van Gorder and her long-suffering maid/companion Lizzie, who, hoping for a quiet respite from the city, have rented the bank manager’s house while he’s away.

Ambitious contrary evidence to the notion that early sound films fully broke from the rich, artistic visual grammar of silent cinema. I won’t go into that debate in too much detail here, as it’s a complex enough conversation to warrant an essay unto itself. But, in short, some filmmakers, theorists, and critics pointed out an overreliance on the structure and devices of drama in sound film that disrupted artistic development in film as its own distinct medium. That’s an oversimplification but the discourse around this—going all the way back to before sound film became the standard—is really fascinating, so please read up on it if the topic catches your interest. All that said, The Bat Whispers, shot on uncommon 60mm film, has extremely dynamic cinematography for a pre-code. Roland West and Co. do a great job of adapting a stage play to film thoroughly and thoughtfully so that it doesn’t feel stagey. The cast of characters are all delightful and Maude Eburne and Chester Morris deserve special credit.

I enjoy the later adaptation with Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price, but I have to say The Bat Whispers is all-around the superior film. Wide recommendation for this one, even if you don’t have particular interest in pre-codes!

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The Blob (1988)

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A small town in California is terrorized by a mysterious and deadly amorphous creature.

Another film that had been on watchlist for ages, The Blob might now be on my shortlist for best horror films of the 80s. A smart remake that recontextualizes the premise for the social anxieties of 1980s America. The characters are primarily fleshed out by how they react in crisis and the film offers a humane and heartening depiction of members of a community coming together and putting aside their differences in the face of abject horrors. In some ways this feels like it would make a great double feature with Vlčí Bouda (discussed above). (The dog also doesn’t die in this film, FYI.) Also the special effects are absolutely horrifying, and might be a little stomach turning if you are sensitive—very different from the original!

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Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma / 妖魔 (1989)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Demons called Yoma are ravaging war-torn feudal Japan. A lone ninja is on a mission to kill his former best friend, who is ushering in a full-blown Yoma invasion. This is a two-part OVA adapting two stories from a manga of the same name.

The world of Yoma is so interesting and creepy and I’m planning on hunting down a collection of the manga. Don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend this one very widely, but, Yoma’s horror-fantasy worldbuilding is super cool. Maybe I’ll come back with more detail after I’ve read the manga!

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The Vourdalak (2023)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A Frenchman travelling as an emissary for the king is waylaid and gets stuck in the middle of a supernatural family drama while waiting for a horse.

As soon as I found out that the undead dad in this adaptation was a puppet I knew I had to watch it. It did not disappoint! Great evil puppet, great cinematography (shot on super 16mm), great characters, great editing. Not for the faint of heart though as the gore is gory and I imagine for some people the inter-family patriarchal struggle might be too stressful. Also the dog does die in this one.

This is now the third film adaptation of Aleksei Tolstoi’s “The Family of the Vourdalak”—the first being the segment of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) and the second being The Night of the Devils (1972)—and I’ve really liked all of them. This source material is getting up there with “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a surefire hit with me!

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St. Louis Blues (1929)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Bessie deserves better, but that Jimmy sure can dance…

Much like Black and Tan, Dudley Murphy translates Black American Music onto film. This time the short focuses on Bessie Smith and her no-good boyfriend Jimmy. Not as technically adventurous as Black and Tan, but Bessie is such an emotional force that it kinda makes up for it. All things considered, St. Louis Blues feels a lot like a music video, but so meaningful in the context of capturing Bessie Smith’s work on film.

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The Phantom / Widziadło (1983)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Piotr Strumieński is being haunted by his first wife, Angelika, who died tragically young. Angelika cursed Piotr to never find happiness with another woman and always to be haunted by her singing. His new wife is trying to cope, but takes a lover. When his eldest son comes to visit on his break from boarding school, stranger and stranger things start happening around the manor house.

I was really taken by how the haunting is depicted—especially in Widziadło’s editing and sound design. Even though I knew what the ending of the story was ahead of time, it still shocked me! The story almost felt suited for giallo at times, but it’s definitively Polish in its execution. Horror movies were not particularly common in Poland during their socialist period, but the ones that were made will punch you in the gut.

As you may have surmised by this point, I watched a lot of horror this October, so I will be more than happy to try and advise on content/trigger warnings for any of these films. Widziadło in particular has a lot of potential triggers, so don’t hesitate to ask!

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Honorable Mention: Body Parts (1991) & Devil Story (1986)

Two very different films that didn’t make the list for very different reasons. Body Parts is way campier than I ever expected (positive) but in the end the film just doesn’t quite come together into something entertaining or thought provoking. I do really appreciate that Jeff Fahey fully committed to this film tho.

Now, we watched Devil Story after it was featured on Red Letter Media and somehow we still weren’t prepared for the chaos. It is not good by any reasonable metric. It’s also not campy—though clips and stills might give you that vibe. However, this film led my SO and I to go into full-blown Jungian dream analysis mode to suss out what the filmmaker likely intended for Devil Story and failed at. And that’s a good experience with a bad film, which can sometimes be as rewarding as watching a good film and for sure more rewarding than a well-executed movie with a bad or hollow spirit.

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Monthly Round-up

It sure has been a month.

I’ve put work into the addendum to Cosplay the Classics: Salomé and the next installment of Lost, but Not Forgotten, and I’ve also got at least one noir cosplay I’d like to get out for Noirvember this year. So, I guess stay tuned for what I get done first!

I may not have gotten all that much writing/research finished in October, but I did complete a tutorial on the Salomé costume in case anyone else wanted to try their hand at it for Halloween season.