October Challenge: House of Wax (1953)

I have always felt that in the shadow cast by Cushing and Lee one of the truly greats gets forgotten, even by me. That great is Vincent Price. For a while Price meant horror to me and to the entire world. Even when he was reduced to playing "Vincent Van Ghoul" for the most anemic of all the Scooby Doo series. But not in this masterpiece, and it was Vincent Price that introduced movie going audiences to 3D.

But don't blame him for that.

House of Wax (1953)

In what must be the spiritual decedent of the Phantom of the Opera and the demented God Father of Price's later Dr. Phibes, Prof. Harry Jarrod is a demented, twisted, scarred man with a vision.  His vision is make the best wax museum in the world even if he has to cover his victims in wax to preserve them forever.  Its a crazy vision, but a vision all the same.
House of Wax though does suffer through some silly 3D gimmicks and suffers through some 50s steroetypes, but I can ignore these or be amused.
Really we have Price here at his best, a subtle mix of his more serious tone and his hammy best.
This movie also featured a young Charles Bronson as the mute Igor.  It was also a remake of the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and was remade in 2005.  Of that movie we will not speak of.

Like most of the classics, I saw this one years and years ago.

Tally 10 movies, 8 new.

October Challenge: The Legend of Hell House

After the fiasco over the last few movies (and things going on at home) I opted for a classic late the other night.
Now I'll be honest I often got this movie confused with The Haunting from 1963.  I plan to watch that movie soon and maybe even re-watch the remake from 1999.

The Legend of Hell House (1973)

The early 70s were a boom time for good horror movies. Legend of Hell House is no exception.  For me the sign of quality horror or sci-fi for the 70s means it must feature Roddy McDowall.  He is the star of this one, even if his performance as a medium is a bit understated.
The story is classic really.  Four people need to stay in a haunted house in order to collect some money.  In this case there is the added twist of being able to prove that there is life after death.  In a typical 70s vibe, even the physicist is willing to believe.
The house of course is haunted, and soon everyone is affected in different ways.
What strikes me about this film is house suspenseful it must have been for 73.

I remember seeing this years and years ago, but like I said I often got parts of it and The Haunting confused.  I remember some of the scenes, but not the big reveal at the end.  So that was a nice surprise for me.
Still to be fair I think I'll mark this one as a re-watch even it was 30 years ago when I last saw it.

Tally: 9 movies, 8 new.

October Challenge: Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned

And just when I thought nothing could beat yesterday's movie I found this little gem. And by gem I mean turd.

Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned (2009)

Let's say you took "The Hangover" and mixed it with "28 Days Later" and touch of "Dusk till Dawn".  You wold not get this movie, even if that's what it looks like the crew tried to do.
I can't even get into this one and I kept fast forwarding.
It was just too dumb.

Tally so far: 8 movies seen, 8 new.  Several SAN points lost.

BTW: The girl on the cover of this video is never seen in the movie.

Zatannurday: It's in the Cards

The upcoming Young Justice will guest-star a young Zatanna.

I don't know a lot about the episode to be honest, but there is this cool card that was being used to promote the show at the SDCC.

Of course I am guessing that the "7" here means she will be the seventh member of the Young Justice team.

Here is what I do know of the episode:

Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 6:30pm (ET) - “#15 Humanity”
The Team is on the hunt for Red Tornado, determined to find out once and for all whether the robot was the mole – even if it means kidnapping new friend Zatanna and dragging her along on their quest!


I am sure Zee does not go quietly.

I like her costume design.  Evocative of her "classic" costume, but still makes her look like she is a teen performer.  So something she would wear given that she would be standing next to her dad on stage.

Looking forward to seeing more of Young Zee on Young Justice.

October Challenge: Black Ribbon

Wow. That is really all have to say about this one.

Black Ribbon (2007)
I am not even sure where to start with this one.

The premise was very cool.  Writer moves out to country to work on new book.  Buys a possessed typewriter, then rape, murder and satanism ensue.
But the movie is so bad I can't even be sure that was what supposed to happen or like the book in the movie it just sort of got away from the writers.
A plot summary here is pointless really.  There is so much wasted effort here that alone should remove this movie from consideration.  No what makes this a true masterpiece of the awful is the terrible, terrible acting, terrible cinematography and just overall cheapness of everything.  It's hard to even enjoy it for camp value.
But like the proverbial train wreck I could not turn away and watched it to the end. But I will say my expectation were already really low, and it still managed not even to rise to that level.
Oh well.  Don't watch if you are easily offended by graphic nudity, implied incest, making fun of the mentally disabled, or satanism.

Tally: 7 movies, 7 new.

So what can I use here for my games?  Well easy I think.  Set up a game with a cursed object an old typewriter is a great choice.  Play in a modern system (like Unissytem) and then switch to the time when the typewriter was new (say Cthulhu by Gaslight) and have the same players play the characters that the first group is reading/writing about.  Go back and forth like this till no one knows which reality is real and which one isn't.  Course I could take a further cue from this flick and resolve it in third system at the very end.

October Challenge: Horror Hotel

Here is a movie with a creepy set, nice black & white photography, a coven of witches and Christopher Lee! The only thing I don't like about this movie is the title.

Horror Hotel / City of the Dead (1960)
Well the American title anyway.  "City of the Dead" is kind of cool.

A British film, set in America with British actors doing American accents.  Brilliant.

The movie starts with the burning of a witch back in the 17th century.  Fast forward to where Christopher Lee is a professor talking about the same burning now in the present.  BTW what do I have to do to get Christopher Lee as a professor of anything?  Anyway he send one of his students out to the town in the story for more research.  She uncovers a creepy town full of creepy people that look just like the people from the flashback.
College girls discovers all sorts of creepy things and is killed half way through the movie by the evil undead coven.  Her brother and boyfriend come to find her.  Rescue another girl and kill all the witches, Lee included, and the main witch dies when she can't complete her sacrifice to Satan.  Maybe she needed a school for girls instead.

This film is most familiar for the opening lines of Rob Zombie's "Dragula" for Christopher Lee's line "Fear, superstition and jealousy".  I didn't know that (and I should have really, there goes another hit to my street cred) and I laughed when I heard it.  I also can't help but wonder if this movie was just a little influence on his song and video "The American Witch".

In truth this film is slow, but a lot a of fun and still creepy 50 years later. The witch stuff is your typical witch = Satanist fare from that time, but it was still fun.  Christopher Lee was great and I didn't even realize the others were all British using American accents.
Patricia Jessel was great as the witch Elizabeth Selwyn and the modern version, Mrs. Newliss (Nywles; get it). If the film were redone today of course Selwyn would be portrayed as more sympathetic and Patrica Russel (the second girl and native to the town) would have her own magic from the "good" side of witchcraft.

Tally: 6 watched, 6 new

So to expand on yesterday's game idea.  The Salem School for Girls is for the best and brightest of America's young witches and it located in the town of Whitewood, MA.  While the school has had troubles in the past and the occasional rumor pops up about Satanism, that is all in the past.  Really. It is.
Guests can stay at the Raven Inn.

Vampire Smackdown

This is kinda cool.

Vote for your favorite vamp in the Vampire Smackdown over at A Piece of My Mind.
http://julia-mindovermatter.blogspot.com/2011/10/thursday-thirteen-229-13-ways-to-take.html