Editorials
31 for 31: Through the Decades Challenge – Week 3
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.
After last week I was worried that I might have made my rules for this year’s challenge a tad too restrictive. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ve still crammed in plenty of classics, films that I’ve always loved and simply needed a good reason to rewatch, and and an undiscovered gem or two.
October 15th – House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Rules Met: 1, 6
“A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.”
After revisiting the remake last week, I realized I’d never seen the original House on Haunted Hill in its entirety. While William Castle was a true genius in the various ways he hocked his films, the gimmick attached to Haunted Hill is one of the best. During one of the climactic scenes, a plastic skeleton would go flying across the theater audience, suspended by a string. The film itself is cheeky fun, but manages to shoot itself in the foot by explaining away every supernatural occurrence while still expecting the audience to buy into the mythos, unlike the remake which balances both fairly well. Of course, Vincent Price is his always delightful self as the hateful millionaire offering up thousands of dollars to total strangers.
October 16th – Horror Castle (1963)
Rules Met: 1, 9, Bonus 6
“Women are being tortured to death with various torture devices in the dungeon of an old castle by a deformed, hooded, holocaust survivor.”
Knowing I needed to fit in an Italian flick, I was very close to rewatching one of Mario Bava’s classics, The Whip and the Body. Instead, I decided to dive deeper into the gothic horror cycle of the 60s. While I’ve pretty much torn through a majority of the Gialli from the 70s and most of the gore-fests of the 80s, I didn’t realize how many Italian directors were tackling the genre in the 60s outside of Bava. Director Antonio Margheriti is one such filmmaker. Horror Castle starts slow but quickly escalates with one intense set piece after the other. The gore is surprisingly brutal for a film made at this time with one set-piece involving an ancient torture device and ravenous rat being particularly revolting. It’s hard to go wrong with this Italian gothic horror film with Christopher Lee playing a possibly gay ex-Nazi, a “living skeleton”, and some truly wicked effects work.
October 17th – Season of the Witch (1972)
Rules Met: 1, 3, 4
“A bored, unhappy suburban housewife gets mixed up in witchcraft and murder.”
Season of the Witch began Romero’s foray into placing social commentary at the forefront of his narrative. It’s not subtle in the slightest. The opening scene is a trippy dream sequence where Joan (or Jack’s Wife, the original title of the film) is led carelessly by her husband through a park. He eventually leashes her up like a dog, swats at her with the newspaper, and boards her up in a kennel. This housewife is not living life to her fullest potential. Thankfully, a little bit of hoodoo voodoo might be the key to setting her free. This is certainly an overlooked film in Romero’s oeuvre. It’s a strong dramatic piece that toes the line with the supernatural. Season of the Witch is a captivating film that tackles witchcraft in the same grounded way that Romero did with vampires in Martin.
October 18th – Halloween 2 (1981)
Rules Met: 1, 2, 10
“While Sheriff Brackett and Dr. Loomis hunt for Michael Myers, a traumatized Laurie is rushed to hospital, and the serial killer is not far behind her.”
With recent news that everything beyond the original would be discarded in the forthcoming reboot of John Carpenter’s seminal slasher flick, I thought it a great time to revisit Halloween 2. There was a lot stacked against this follow up to one of the greatest horror films of all time. Carpenter didn’t really want to be involved, the production was rushed, and Jamie Lee Curtis’s wig is far more frightful than any of Michael’s shenanigans. Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable slasher sequel that mixes things up with the hospital setting and familial ties reveal. It’s hard to imagine a Halloween film at this point without the Myers-Strode blood relation looming overhead, we’ll just have to wait for next October to see if the gamble pays off.
October 19th – Village of the Damned (1995)
Rules Met: 1, 7, 8
“A small town’s women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.”
Many consider this remake to be one of John Carpenter’s worst films. Truthfully, it’s not that bad. The main issue with Village of the Damned is in the casting of Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley. One alone may have worked against a different actor but together – they just feel off. The first half of the film is successfully eerie as the entire town falls under a mysterious fainting spell, only for the women to wake up pregnant hours later. Once our glowy eyed, killer tots show up the groundwork gets shaky under the weight of cheese filled moments and puzzling government conspiracies. There are huge leaps in logic and narrative that are surely the fault of studio meddling: an out of nowhere romance, possible alien connections, etc. While at first glance, this may seem like a strange choice for Carpenter, echoes of the director’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” become evident by the final reel.
October 20th – Ginger Snaps (2000)
Rules Met: 1, Bonus 10
“Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.”
Ginger Snaps has always been one of my favorite films. It’s dementedly funny at times and heartbreaking at others, all building to a true wham bang finale amidst a rowdy Halloween party. While the effects and creature work are top notch, the true shining stars are Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle. As sisters who have always been attached at the hip whose relationship becomes strained over an unfortunate mixture of puberty, jealousy, and lycanthropy – the duo draw the viewer in almost immediately. Ginger Snaps is a perfect feminist, coming of age horror film that doesn’t skimp on the “horror”.
October 21st – Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
Rules Met: 1, 5
“Three scouts, on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.”
From the opening moments featuring a slacker janitor singing Charli XCX and Iggy Azalea’s Black Widow into the handle of his mop, I had a good inclination this movie might just be for me. The scene culminates in fun product placement for both Takis and Tic-Tacs while giving a gory nod to one of the best moments in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Christopher Landon, you get me. Beyond the insane opening, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse succeeds at being a cute throwback to films of the 80s. However, it never truly elevates itself beyond amusing pastiche, but there are far worse ways (especially within the modern zombie subgenre) of spending 90 minutes. Landon has a colorful and zany approach to horror that hasn’t been seen from modern genre directors in quite some time. I haven’t had a chance to check out Happy Death Day yet, but here’s hoping he continues to grow this POV with each film.
BONUS WATCH: I recently started a local horror pop-up cinema in my hometown, and we held our first screening this past Saturday. We started with a double feature of two black and white classics, Night of the Living Dead and City of the Dead. Obviously, we should all know how amazing NOTLD is. City of the Dead, on the other hand, is terribly underrated! Also known as Horror Hotel, it’s an early effort from the producers who went on to create the Amicus studio. It’s filled with gorgeous cinematography and chilling atmosphere. Seek it out, pronto!
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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