Hammer Films Rises from the Dead

After years of suspended animation, Hammer Films has returned to life.  Their first feature film in 30 years is Wake Wood, a sort of pagan horror movie filmed in Ireland.  It will soon be released in the U.K.  More interestingly, Hammer veteran Christopher Lee (above) and Hillary Swank are starring in The Resident, a thriller opening in late 2010.  Even more interestingly, a Hammer remake of the Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In will be opening in October.  An interview with the head Hammer person is here.  I've only seen a smattering of Hammer's classic productions, and I have to say that with the exception of Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, I wasn't entirely impressed.  Maybe it was just the luck of the draw - I do want to get around to seeing The Vampire Lovers and the rest of the Karnstein Trilogy.  I'll have to check out The Resident (trailer here), but I won't be seeing Let Me In.  More on this later.

A New Contender for "Worst Horror Novel I've Read"

Please stay away from Brian Keene.  I'd never heard of him, but had some store credit to burn at the Other Used Book Store (the one with higher prices and that one woman behind the counter who always looks at me like I'm there to steal something).  I noticed City Of The Dead.  It had zombies, so I grabbed it.  This was a big mistake. 

Keene, who apparently won a Stoker Award for his first zombie book, The Rising, appears to be trying to channel bad zombie movies into print.  It doesn't work, at least not with his writing.  It's awful.  The characters are cardboard, with dialogue so atrocious I'm not sure Keene has ever heard another human being speak.  An entire book that's just one extended "flee/fight the zombies" scene would get boring even in capable hands.  In Keene's world, the zombies are a result of demonic possession, which isn't a bad idea, but you can't really take them seriously because they talk (with Keene's cheesy dialogue), sing, burn down houses (and even sing while burning down houses:  "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire"), and are led by a demon who calls himself "Ob of the Obots".  Keene exercises the most creativity in going for the gross-out, with necrophilia and maggot-filled zombie testicles.  Oh, and everybody dies in the end.

The only silver lining in this frankly stupid book is for budding horror authors, who will realize after reading it that you really can get anything published (at least, if it's about zombies or vampires).       

The Shadow of the Wind

Back at the tiny used bookstore, pressed for time and crowded by not one, but several other customers (literally a crowd in this particular bookstore), I grabbed an offering from the horror section, a 2001 Spanish novel called  The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.  It stood out from all the Kings and Koontzs with an intriguing cover illustration of a foggy street and jacket blurbs with high praise.  I thought I'd stumbled on something interesting.

It wasn't really horror.  There were some Gothic trappings (abandoned mansions, crypts, family secrets, lots of fog), and an attempt at magical realism (which I don't much care for even when it is well done).  Although generally well reviewed, Zafón's first novel is disappointing, 506 pages that strive hard for style and lay on the literary allusions, but end up feeling shallow and highly repetitive.  It starts out when the protagonist Daniel is ten years old (although you couldn't tell this by the way Zafón has him speak), taken by his father to a mysterious book collection to select a rare book of his very own.  He chooses a title by Julian Carax, and very, very slowly begins to find out more about the failed author and to be drawn in to mystery and danger.  Occasionally, Zafón delivers a felicitous or humorous phrase, but overall the characters are thin, I didn't feel for them, and Daniel's excruciatingly slow quest to unravel the mystery of Carax's life made me want to flip to the end after roughly 150 pages.

So much for my hopes of stumbling on something interesting.  It was a little like finding an intriguing shell on the beach and having it break into little pieces when you pick it up, or maybe like opening a nicely wrapped present to find a pair of bargain store socks.

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

In Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi returns to his roots (along with brother Ivan, who co-wrote it along with Army of Darkness (1992)). The Raimis completed the script soon after Army of Darkness, but were sidetracked by other projects. I’m glad they finally got around to it.

Christine (Alison Lohman) has a mundane existence as a loan officer until she causes an old Gypsy, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) to be evicted. Mrs. Ganush, perhaps overreacting slightly, puts the curse of the Lamia, the “black goat” on Christine, vowing that she will be sent to Hell in three days.

Disbelieving at first, Christine is forced to acknowledge the seriousness of her situation as the Lamia begins to torment her, the demon’s manifestations increasing as the deadline approaches. Can Christine negate the curse with the aid of the mystic Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) and her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long)? Or will the Lamia succeed in dragging her to Hell?

In Drag Me to Hell, Raimi has returned to his element. Shades of the Evil Dead movies are everywhere. The fear of old people is once again used to good effect (the vengeful Mrs. Ganush echoes the farmer’s wife in the basement from Evil Dead). There is a sly mention of a cabin in the woods, and Raimi’s yellow 1973 Oldsmobile even makes an appearance as it has in many of his films. His inventive camera work has not flagged, nor has his penchant for grue. Watching Mrs. Ganush try to gum Christine to death when she loses her false teeth is particularly disturbing.

What has improved from the Evil Dead movies is the characterization and acting (no offense to Bruce Campbell). Christine is a more fleshed out character than many a horror movie damsel in distress, trying to escape from her accent and roots as a farm girl and former pork queen as well as from the curse. Raimi skillfully adds her anxiety to impress her boyfriend’s parents and get a promotion to the rest of the dread, and Alison Lohman does an excellent job in the part. Justin Long gives a very natural performance as Christine’s sweet, geeky boyfriend, and Lorna Raver, veteran of wide range of TV shows, seems to delight in the leering and snapping that the role of Mrs. Ganush demands.

Drag Me to Hell is much better than any recent horror movie I’ve seen- the Raimi humor is still strong, the story and script are good, sets, lighting, and special effects are all masterfully done, there are Gypsy curses, flies, gore, foreclosures, obnoxious bosses, scheming coworkers, and other demons. The only (slight) flaw is an over-reliance on Mrs. Ganush jumping out at Christine throughout the film. I kept wondering “Where will she pop out next?” and “Can I make a drinking game out of this?” Still, it’s highly enjoyable, especially when Raimi lets out all the stops for an over-the-top séance. He hasn’t lost his talent for making you laugh at the same time you’re getting the bejesus scared out of you.

Heart-Shaped Box

I read a review of Heart-Shaped Box when it came out in 2007, thought it sounded interesting, and promptly forgot about it.  I was pleased to find the paperback edition in one of the two used bookstores within driving distance, the one that is so tiny browsing is almost impossible if there are any other customers.

In the novel, an aging rocker with a taste for the macabre and the unlikely stage name of Judas Coyne buys a purported ghost in a box from an online auction site.  He soon realizes that he's being targeted by vengeful relatives of his ex-girlfriend, who committed suicide, and that the ghost is real.  The rest of the novel depicts Coyne, along with his current girlfriend and faithful dogs, attempting to escape the vengeful ghost.

Heart-Shaped Box is an action-packed, inventive novel that is difficult to put down, as the hunted humans travel the south looking for a way to banish their pursuer.  There are some extremely scary sequences, and some of the best are some of the more subtle, such as when the ghost first appears in Coyne's darkened hallway.  Along with the horror, Hill writes with a great deal of humor and poignancy, as Coyne is forced to examine his life and relationships past and present, as he struggles to avoid losing them.  

My only (minor) quibbles are that the frantic pace of the action sometimes takes away from the horror, and that sometimes villains are more frightening when they're portrayed with dimensions, not just evil and crazy.  Still, this is an engrossing, well-written, and scary read.

Tombs of the Blind Dead

This 1971 film is the first installment of Spanish writer-director Amando de Ossorio’s four-part zombie epic. The zombies are withered, wispy-bearded Knights Templars, who have made a pact with the Devil, drinking blood to become immortal. Unfortunately for them, they are also blind (the Devil is like that). ”Don’t let them hear your heart beating!” is the tag line. A young camper (María Elena Arpón) vanishes after wandering into the crumbling castle where the dead lurk, and her friends must solve the mystery of her disappearance. There are some genuinely scary scenes and a nicely grim ending, but this is a ‘70s exploitation film with gratuitous cheesecake and violence towards women, not a classic. Still, where else can you see blind zombie knights on horseback?

The Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price plays the titular protagonist in this 1964 film based on Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.  Price is the lone survivor of biological warfare which has turned the populace into ghouls.  Although the ghouls are as much vampires as zombies, George Romero was obviously inspired by the plot and particularly by the scenes of shambling undead trying to get into Price's fortified bungalow.  Price does well portraying a lonely, half-crazed man grimly hanging on against the odds, but the film overall is a little slow and lackluster.  The similarities between it and Night of the Living Dead are interesting, but for entertainment, read Matheson's novel instead.  And don't bother with the Will Smith version, either.