The Unseen Horror

There are horrors that we witness on a daily basis. Horrors that slither around our periphery that we catch sight of now and again. Horrors that rest in slumber until the fullness of time awakens them to arise and wreak havoc on our fragile will. These are the horrors I wish to illuminate for the time being.

Horror movies to be more precise. We have all watched our share of The Shining, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Dracula, Frankenstein and the rest. I present to you a brief selection of lessor seen movies in the horror and monster genre. I will assume that everyone in the castle keeps The Monster Squad on ready rotation and refuse to label such a classic as “lessor seen.” You would be advised to not inform me otherwise.

The Fearless Vampire Killers- This Polanski directed horror comedy drips with Gothic atmosphere and has a charm that is difficult to resist.

House of Frankenstein- John Carradine as Dracula. Boris Karloff as a mad doctor. Glenn Strange as the monster. Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man. The first monster free for all.

Wolf- Jack Nicholson as a werewolf. Michelle Pfeiffer as the love interest. A backdrop of the literary publishing world in New York. There is much growling and territory will be marked.

House of the Devil- A wonderful little film shot in the style of the 1980s films of yore (hey, that was my youth). A lesson in tightening the screws suspense. Rosemary’s Baby step-sister.

The Innkeepers- A good double feature with House of the Devil. A pair of ghost hunters not quite ready for prime time.

The Prophecy- Christopher Walken as the creepy angel Gabriel. Do I need to say anything else?

Try and catch these delectable little morsels of terror before they retreat once more to the cracks under the stairs.

Jack Wolf
There’s something on your face.

There was no driver…

With Halloween nearly upon us, I thought I would share a few of the movies I have watched to get in the spirit this year. I started with one of my all time favorites; The Monster Squad. I have always had fond memories of this movie. I had once resigned myself to viewing it only in those memories, until it finally was released on DVD. I owe much of my love of monsters to this movie. If you haven’t seen it, see it now. Right now. OK, now we can talk about the story of Dracula rounding up all his fiendish friends (Creature, Wolf Man, Mummy, and Frankenstein’s monster) to tip the balance of good and evil in their direction. Too bad they weren’t prepared for the local kids horror club rechristened the Monster Squad. Good thing the kids have that scary German guy on their side. Oh yeah, and Van Helsing’s diary.

The next movie in line was The Fog. I’m talking the original one, not the updated version that isn’t even worthy to crawl in the shadow of John Carpenter. The Fog is a classic, plain and simple. Remember, death always knocks in Antonio Bay.

Lastly, so far, was The Car. I suppose this is a great double feature with The Fog due to the title alone. This is another movie that I had resigned myself to never see reach DVD. It has its goofy parts but overall it is a great movie that knows exactly what to do with a killer modified black Lincoln. I could actually see this being remade today if the right person was behind the camera. Maybe I’ll tackle the script myself someday soon.

Speaking of scripts, I am still working on my Deadington script and am determined to finish this thing before this year ends. I don’t know why I find it so hard to find time to sit and write consistently…probably has something to do with a lovely little almost three-year old that wants to play. When she wants to play monsters, it’s hard to refuse.