Scary DVD Picks for October

Around this time of year, we get bunches of requests for horror movies.  Unfortunately, folks don't come up to ask for a good horror movie--they tend to ask for whatever over-produced Hollywood slasher garbage from the last year or so has stuck in their minds.  So, eschewing the regular staff picks, this month I'm recommending six horror movies in order of least to most scary, on a subjective scale, of course.

Coincidentally, these are mostly movies I've seen for the first time in the last year. I wonder how that happened...

Pontypool
A radio DJ and station staff in a relatively small town receive reports of strange behavior and attacks, but valiantly stays on air.  Employs a unique concept in a traditional sort of horror film, and is enjoyably campy.



Sauna
This Swedish film follows a group of Swedes and Russians as they travel, mapping out the border between their two countries after the end of the Russo-Swedish War.  They come to a town not found on the map.  The sauna will cleanse them of atrocities they committed.  As an added bonus, this film looks so good--the photography, editing, costuming, and use of (or lack of) color add so much.



The Orphanage (El Orfanato)
A creeptastic Spanish film in which an adopted child's imaginary friends are perhaps less imaginary than originally thought.  Another great looking film with unique story elements that take this beyond being a mere haunted house film.




Drag Me To Hell
Sam Raimi's story of a cursed young lady who is tormented by demons and must shake the curse before she is, well, dragged to hell.  Includes a bit of Raimi's characteristic horror humor--you've been on edge, waiting for the tension to break in the inevitable scary moment and Bang!,  you're laughing instead. If you're a horror fan, you've already seen this, but if you're the sort of once-a-year horror person, you may have forgotten this one.

I'd love to put the trailer here for your convenience, but "the man" won't let me.  It's on IMDb, though.

Paranormal Activity
One of those movies that unwinds from footage provided by the characters.  A young couple has been hearing strange noises in their house and sets up a camera to document the fun.  I had low expectations for this one, but I was impressed.



[REC], or for the subtitle-averse, Quarantine, the US remake
All the Spanish of The Orphanage with all the characters-film-the-movie of Paranormal Activity.  A TV host and camera-man are filming a night in the life of the fire department, and go out to answer an emergency call at an apartment building.  There's no fire, but a terribly ill tenant, who turns out to have a sort of fast-spreading super-rabies.

 

Play Dead

Before I begin, I'd like to note that it is not April 1st.  Also, I could get into trouble for creating a fake record in the Lincoln Trails Library System catalog, although I should check on that as it could be a good prank...  Just so you know, I'm not joking about this.  Ryan Brown's Play Dead does exist.

It's the story of a high school football team that goes to play their hated rivals.  When the bus crashes and all but the QB die, he suspects the rival team of intentionally causing the accident.  Not about to let them win, he seeks out a lady with some black magic skills to bring the team back to life, rendering them undead.  They will play their rivals, but they will go to hell if they lose.  I'm still not joking.

Not only does the book exist, but two--TWO--book trailers exist.  For the uninitiated, book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books.  There are awards for book trailers, where the two or three people who care get together and pick their favorites.  I am joking about the two or three people.

I submit as further evidence of the existence of this book the first of two trailers.  It's short and not gross or scary.



Exhibit B is the second of two trailers, which is longer (3 mins) and slightly disgusting (spurting blood and portable body parts). 



I'm terribly sorry for exposing you to this.  It's even below my admittedly low standards and taste (I'm slightly offended by the voodoo lady, but I shouldn't be, as zombies are created by voodoo practitioners--George Romero gets an F).  This was all just too weird not to share.  On the upside, when this wins the National Book Award, you can say you heard it here first.

My Favorite Horror Flicks

Hey, if I can think of more lists of horror movies to make this month, I'll be posting them here to support my continuing effort to provide suggestions for folks who just want something scary this month. This list is gimme--my favorite horror movies. I'm at a disadvantage compared to other horror lovers on account of my wife's dislike of the genre, which limits my ability to watch these movies to times when she's not around. So, during my limited time spent watching horror films, I've enjoyed these ones the most.

The Descent - My favorite monster movie. A group of spelunking women encounter hungry, subterranean creatures after a cave-in.

28 Days Later - My favorite reinvention of the zombie. People infected with the rage virus become chaotically violent, posing more of a challenge to survivors than traditional moaning, shuffling zombies would.

Saw - You know they've made six of these? Don't bother with any after the first, as it's the only one worth seeing. The psychological horror is reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Se7en.

The ____ of the (Living) Dead - Or at least the Night, Dawn, and Day of--I haven't seen Land of, or any of the remakes. I am a fan of zombie movies in general, but the combination of campiness and both inadvertent and blatant attempts at social commentary in these films make them fun to watch and rewatch.

The Shining - There's too much good stuff to choose from here. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy, the hedge maze, the slow zoom down the hall with the tension building, the tricycle, the foreboding, giant kitchen... Sidenote: this is showing on Saturday at the Virginia Theater in Champaign. I'll be there for sure.

The Evil Dead - It's all camp and cliche when Bruce Campbell and friends shack up at a cabin in the woods and unleash the evil discovered by the previous occupant. There's a sequel that's essentially the same as this one, with the exception that Campbell winds up sent to the past, setting the stage of Army of Darkness (which we are reordering).

Latest scary flicks

October hits and all the horror films start growing request lists. People tend to get frustrated when they've thought of a title or two they'd like to pick up at the library only to find upon arrival that it's been checked out by someone else. With Halloween already on sale at stores and on television, it's not surprising that everyone's thinking it's time for something scary to watch.

In an effort to assist you in getting spooked, here's a list of the horror/thriller DVDs that have come out in 2009 and are owned by the UFL.

Local highlights
Filmed locally by locals.

Garbage Man - Filmed locally as well as in Chicago around 15 years ago, this movie tells the story of a serial killer in Champaign who does what the voices tell him to do.
The Transient: The Movie - A short, 25 minute horror comedy about a homeless man and his social worker trying to stop Vampire Lincoln from "sucking the blood of four-score and seven virgins." Included on the disc is the also local, 30 minute University of Illinois vs. a Mummy (also available separately).

Remakes
Looking back, it seemed like there were a lot of remakes, but maybe that's because there were so many gravelly voice0ver, scream-filled advertisements.

Friday the 13th - The one with the killer in the hockey mask.
The Last House on the Left - The one with the parents who capture the group that attacked their daughter.
My Bloody Valentine - The one with the kids and the killer in mining gear.

Hauntings
There were some possessions, angry ghosts, and other supernatural business, too.

The Haunting in Connecticut - A haunted house and a possessed boy...and a scene that looks like vomiting in zero gravity. Win, win, win.
The Haunting of Molly Hartley - Having mom locked up in the mental ward should fix things, right?
Mirrors - A mirror-filled department store built on ground formerly occupied by a mental hospital in which a mass killing occurred is a good candidate for a haunting.
The Unborn - A young lady learns she had a twin who died in childbirth, and this may be the small boy who is now haunting her.
The Uninvited - Anna's been having haunted dreams since her mother died in the boathouse/home hospital and her mom's former nurse is now her stepmother.

Plagues
There were viruses that turned people into cannibal-zombie-like creatures.

Quarantine - A film crew tagging along with a fire department on a call gets quarantined while responding to a call to an apartment building, trapping them with the infected.
[Rec] - The original film from Spain that inspired the aforementioned Quarantine.
Splinter - A young couple and an escaped convict are trapped in a gas station, trying to avoid catching the zombification parasite.

Evil that people do
Some movies are scarier because the plot seems plausible.

Alien Raiders - A militant group storms a grocery store, killing some people there and holding the rest hostage, claiming that they're stopping an alien attack.
Baghead - Four writers in a cabin try to write the scariest movie imaginable, while their imagined scenes become reality.
Let the Right One In - Okay, vampires aren't plausible, but it's the human characters, especially the Stephen Kingesque bullies, that drive the tension in this film. Oh, and our copies all have the good, theatrical subtitles.
Night Train - Three strangers on a train find a body and some diamonds, ditch the body and split the spoils, and then suspect one another of reneging on the deal.
Obsessed - A successful, monogamously married guy meets an attractive temp at work who will stop at nothing to get him.
Repo! The Genetic Opera -In the future, organ failure is common, and if recipients fail to pay their dues to Geneco, the repo man comes.
Sick Girl - An orphaned rural girl takes hostage the bullies who pick on her younger brother and subjects them to physical and psychological torture.

Coming soon
We may not get some movies soon enough before Halloween to borrow them.

Drag me to hell (Oct. 13)
Orphan (Oct. 27)

Bizarro Noir: Ben Templesmith

I just finished reading Feral City, the first installment in the graphic series Fell, written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Feral City compiles issues #1 through #8 of the original comic book run.

Comics Worth Reading writes:

Richard Fell, a cop with a mysterious past, has just moved over the bridge to the worst city ever. Each chapter, he investigates a crime, doing his job, even when he’s off the clock. Many of these cases are inspired by real-life, dementedly weird news clippings the author has seen ... [including] domestic murder, stranger murder, a vengeful suicide bomber, the interrogation of a disturbed killer, and a really disturbed child abusing parent. The book’s about the trade-offs that humans make to keep going in the face of an uncaring world that will do horrible things to its inhabitants.

Templesmith is the artist responsible for the cold and gory illustrations in the new-school vampire tale 30 Days of Night, penned by Steve Niles and translated (rather ineffectively) to the big screen by director David Slade.

After you've sat a spell with homicide detective Richard Fell, explore some of Templesmith's other projects, including Wormwood and other tales in the 30 Days of Night franchise.

Devil's Night Out

Halloween is just a week away, so maybe you're starting to panic about a get-up for the employee party. Fear not!

Instructables.com features a variety of how-to and do-it-yourself projects, including realistic flesh wounds and undead makeup; costumes for kids and adults; and festive accessories like the human brain carved from a watermelon.

For a little mood-setting, get your goosebumps on with one of TUFL's horror films or audiobooks from the horror collection.

Oh ... and heads-up, people: I have dibs on the Geico Caveman look.

Recycle a book! Contest by Matthew Reilly

What is the fate of many great but little-known books when they leave the new book display and go to their new homes in the stacks? We forget about them. The books languish in all their unread glory, waiting eagerly for a patron to once again riffle their pages. It’s time to recycle these books, so they can be read and enjoyed by a whole new audience.

I choose to recycle:
Contest by Matthew Reilly (2003)

“Winning is everything when you have everything to lose.”

Picture, if you will, an intense gladiatorial bout, called The Presidian. The host planet—Earth. The setting—The New York Public Library, a modern-day labyrinth. The contestants—seven sentient beings from across the galaxy. The charge—seven enter, one survives.

The Presidian is a competition dating back over six millennia, well-known throughout the universe--but not to anyone on earth. It is a battle among hunters and warriors, willing to stake their lives on their talents. The earth’s contestant is Dr. Stephen Swain. The radiologist was drafted to represent his race, not as a powerful human, but as a human possessing a “quick-thinking, adaptive personality”. Unfortunately, his daughter was pulled through the force field surrounding the library with him. Now the two of them are trapped and hunted. And Swain must summon all his mental and physical skills to ensure that they survive and escape the confines of the library.

Part science fiction, part thriller and part horror, Contest is an intense and plot-complicated book that will make you read obsessively to the final page. The author wrote the real-world architecture of the New York Public Library into this book as an accurate setting. Track the action by means of the NYPL floors maps provided at the front of the book.