Editorials
31 for 31: Through the Decades Challenge – Week 2
It’s almost time for Halloween which means it’s time to watch a crap ton of horror flicks! This year with my 31 films in 31 days of October I wanted to branch out a bit. I realized that most of the films I watch are generally from the 80s (with a sprinkling of late 70s). To push myself outside my norm, I’m donning this year’s adventure “31 for 31: Through the Decades Challenge”. Simply put, each day will correlate to a specific decade, and I must watch at least one film a day. No exceptions! Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I had to make a further set of rules for myself to ensure I’m getting lots of variety. Those rules as follows:
- One film must be watched from each decade (50s – 10’s)
- One film must be watched from a major horror franchise.
- One film must be watched from one of our late-great masters (Craven, Romero, or Hooper).
- One film must be watched that deals with witches or witchcraft.
- One film must be watched that deals with the undead.
- One film must be watched that stars either Christopher Lee or Vincent Price.
- One film must be watched that contains sci-fi/horror elements.
- One film must be watched that is a remake.
- One film must be watched that is from Italy.
- One film must be watched that takes place during Halloween.
This past week was a lot of fun. Overall, I managed to catch some awesome films I’d never seen before as well as cram in some always reliable classics. I even had the chance to work in a few bonus watches. Let’s dig in!
October 8th – Night of the Demon (1957)
Rules Met: 1, 4, 10
“American professor John Holden arrives in London for a parapsychology conference, only to find himself investigating the mysterious actions of Devil-worshiper Julian Karswell.”
Directed by Jacques Tourneur (amazing Val Lewton productions Cat People, The Leopard Man), Night of the Demon is an atmospheric creepfest. The director relies heavily upon his skill to illicit fear based off the power of suggestion alone. Nonetheless, Night also happens to be a bonafide creature feature (apparently Tourneur lost that battle with the producer). The film uses witchcraft as a springboard to build an escalating sense of dread while creating an interesting mythos all its own. Ultimately, the titular “demon” may seem terribly dated but it remains a truly impressive effect given the time period. The story even takes place during Halloween!
October 9th – Planet of the Vampires (1965)
Rules Met: 1, 7, 9
“After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.”
Mario Bava is the godfather of Italian horror cinema. His films were often duplicated or ripped off. One need only look to the first two Friday the 13th films to see numerous deaths lifted straight from Bava’s Bay of Blood. For years now, critics have claimed that when Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon crafted Alien, the duo stole a lot from this 1965 sci-fi/horror mashup. Truthfully, Planet of the Vampires, Bava’s candy-colored tale of a crew lured to a desolate planet only to discover the remains of a long-dead civilization…that maybe aren’t so long-dead after all, has a lot more in common with Prometheus. Planet is a fun film that gets a lot of mileage out of gorgeous cinematography and the high camp value of its 60s idea of the future.
October 10th – Horror Express (1972)
Rules Met: 1, 6
“In 1906, in China, a British anthropologist discovers a frozen prehistoric creature and must transport it to Europe by train.”
Horror Express is possibly the coolest discovery I’ve made this year so far. This Spanish production brings Hammer’s biggest names, Lee and Cushing, together on a train ride filled with plenty of bloody mayhem. From a cryptoid monster, body jumping shenanigans, and mindless zombies, Horror Express crams a whole lot of genre into one tight package. This film also happens to be in the public domain, so you can pull up one of a myriad of copies online right now!
October 11th – Deadly Friend (1986)
Rules Met: 1, 3
“After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting robotic microchips into her brain.”
Wes Craven always wanted to step outside the horror genre. Working on a script based off the novel Friend, Deadly Friend works best as a coming of age tale. The first half featuring adorable Matthew Labyorteaux and Kristy Swanson meet cute-ing as next door neighbors and dealing with life’s various growing pains (abusive father, first love, the pressure of robotic science over achievement) is great stuff. Once the more horrific Frankenstein elements come into play, the story loses a great deal of footing. It’s no surprise to note Craven’s original cut (unreleased to this day) was much more focused on their characters and their relationships. Reshoots forced numerous fake out nightmare sequences and gorier deaths onto the production. I’m sure we can all agree that the only good to come of that was death by basketball.
October 12th – House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Rules Met: 1, 8
“An amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.:
The first of what was to be a string of updates to old William Castle films by production company Dark Castle, House on Haunted Hill came at a time when horror was still raking it in at the box office. At the time, most genre films featured WB stars in fairly bloodless films. William Malone’s take on the old dark house motif was a breath of fresh air amongst the norm. While Haunted Hill hasn’t aged too gracefully, it still remains the closest example of bringing the thrills of a seasonal haunted house attraction to life in cinematic form. Every couple of scenes are punctuated by a surprising twist or grand guignol gore gag. The main drawback is the characters are all generally unlikable or plain bland. Thankfully, the bitchier characters are played with gleeful zest (Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen) and the vanilla leads (Ali Larter and Taye Diggs) have decent chemistry. It’s the perfect brainless flick for an All Hallow’s movie night.
October 13th – Freddy vs Jason (2003)
Rules Met: 1, 2
After an unbelievable amount of time in development hell, Freddy vs Jason finally came out to a starving crowd of slasher fans. For most, it was everything they wanted. Freddy cracked wise and Jason sliced up a bunch of folks. For me, I found it underwhelming. I wasn’t really sure why I didn’t care for it at the time. I mean, it’s a perfectly serviceable popcorn hack n’ slash. I realized upon this rewatch that the script actually presents some interesting ideas (the Hypnocil, the idea that Freddy needs Jason to bring fear back to Springwood), but overall everything is rushed through so quickly it hardly has time to register any impact. Director Ronny Yu is a master stylist. The film is way more beautiful than it has any right to be. The problem is that any tension that might have existed is completely absent due to the need to keep things moving at such a quick pace. Despite these complaints, the film really does shine during the climax. Yu knows how to choreograph an amazing fight, and Freddy and Jason’s showdown is enough to keep this film in many a horror lover’s heart for years to come.
October 14th – The Babysitter (2017)
Rules Met: 1
“The events of one evening take an unexpected turn for the worst for a young boy trying to spy on his babysitter.”
McG attempts to channel Sam Raimi by way of John Hughes in the newest Netflix horror release. The Babysitter is a quick ride that runs through its plot points with all the delicacy of a machine gun. Overall, I enjoyed the viewing. The main issue is that it tries to balance two distinct tones: over the top gory horror/comedy and coming of age tale. While I’m sure there’s a film that could pull that off exceptionally well – this isn’t it. Regarding the horror element, we’re introduced to an ancient satanic text and sacrifice ritual but the payoff is just a run of the mill murder spree. Where are the demons? Where’s the Satan of it all? Instead of going full hog, we get half-assed attempts at emotional depth that simply don’t land. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a perfectly fun film that would probably play best amongst a rowdy group of friends. It’s just not the instant classic is so desperately wants to be.
BONUS WATCH:
- The Haunting (1963) – I’d never seen this chilling gothic horror, and it’s plainly clear why it is so frequently at the top of “Scariest Films Ever Made” lists. The camerawork alone is astounding and its influence can be clearly traced to a number of our favorite genre works. Beyond that, there are moments of genuine blood cooling terror and heavy homosexual and emotional subtext that makes this one haunted house film worth peeling back the layers on.
- Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street (1980/1984) – I’m extremely lucky to have near me a Coyote Drive-in. They’re a small chain that has been popping up with high quality, multi screen drive-ins. While it’s always fun to see the newest horror release there, they occasionally host some classic double features. As a special event this past Friday the 13th they showed…Friday the 13th! It played as part of a double bill with the original Nightmare. These may be films that I’ve seen a hundred times before, but seeing them on a massive screen with the special magic of a drive-in theater coursing through the air was a truly awesome thing to behold. One of my friends had never seen either of them. Over 30 years later, Nightmare on Elm Street still succeeds at frightening viewers. She had to go home and watch Will and Grace to try and clear her mind of the dream demon.
Alright, so who is doing the “Through the Decades Challenge?” What have you watched for your 31 for 31?
Comics
‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man
A little while back, I wrote an article chronicling the Hellraiser franchise’s affinity for Film Noir and touched on how that genre has, historically, always been connected to horror.
This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.
What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.
With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).
The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir
Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.
The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir
Jack Huston as Sandman in ‘Spider-Noir’
When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.
While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.
The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.
The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.
Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television
Ben Reilly/Spiderman (Nicolas Cage) in SPIDER-NOIR
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.
I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.
In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.
That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.
At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.
You must be logged in to post a comment.