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“Even winter bleak has charms to me,” wrote Robert Burns. Seems like most filmmakers scribbled that memorable line of verse on a post-it note a long time ago. Snow-covered vistas are an irresistible visual, capably employed by directors from the Coen Brothers to Sam Raimi to Christopher Nolan to John Carpenter. Any movie set in a frosty environment has an automatic in with me, and one of my favorites is the little-seen 1987 thriller Dead Of Winter.
Mary Steenburgen plays an actress who is lured to a remote, snow-bound mansion, only to discover that she’s become ensnared in a lethal game of blackmail. Shrill and largely helpless at first, she slowly turns the tables on her captors, outwitting them using her skills as a performer. This throwback thriller (loosely based on the 1945 film My Name Is Julia Ross) plays like a feature-length version of Where’s Waldo for cinephiles: spot all the Hitchcock references! Some are obvious (shrieking violins as a knife plunges), but some are quite subtle (a tall glass of milk on a platter, as per Suspicion). Roddy McDowall steals the show as the droll, effete, eccentric manservant. Meanwhile, the underrated Jan Rubes (so paternally benevolent in Witness) is deliciously evil in a hammy villain role, the sinuous tones of every syllable he speaks suggesting guile and charm in equal measures.
The movie nicely conveys the chill of winter, with whistling windstorms, snowglobe-style visuals and a sparse piano-based score. But the entertaining tone makes the film a good deal less depressing than some of the other movies that utilize similar environments (downers like Fargo, A Simple Plan, et cetera, which used barren settings to mirror the bleak desperation of their characters). Thematically, it plays much in the same key as Rob Reiner’s Misery – a violent but highly diverting cold-weather chiller.
So, when the mercury dips and you decide to stay in for the night, check out Dead Of Winter. A cup of hot chocolate in hand will help, too (just don’t let Roddy McDowall prepare it – trust me on this one).
Holiday 
films fall into two categories: those with at least a hint of magic and the supernatural (The Santa Clause, It’s A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol) and those that leave the mystical behind and focus on family gatherings (dysfunctional or otherwise). National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation falls into the latter category, and it’s arguably the best of the subgenre: classic comic timing from Chevy Chase in his best role; hilarious comedy setpieces; zingy, fun dialogue from John Hughes; and just the right dose of Yuletide heart.
If you’re like me, you notice subtle little gags every time you watch the movie. Here are a few that I picked up only after repeat viewings:
Clumsy Cousin Eddie: When Clark and Cousin Eddie are shopping at the supermarket, watch Clark repeatedly attempt to put delicate objects like light bulbs into the cart, only to have them smashed when Eddie plops big bags of dog food on top of them.
Fashion Sense: Take a look at Cousin Eddie’s outfit when he and Clark are chatting in front of the Christmas tree shortly after Eddie’s arrival. True to his clueless, country bumpkin form, Eddie is not only wearing a far-too-tight white sweater, he’s also combined it with a painfully obvious black mock turtleneck.
Great Minds Think Alike: When Clark enters boss Mr. Shirley’s (Brian Doyle-Murray, brother to Bill Murray) office to give him a Christmas present, take a look at the gifts on the table from the other employees… they’re all exactly the same shape.
“It’s just a little dry”: The dinner table scene is full of subtle bits of physical comedy that are easy to miss if you don’t happen to be looking at the right part of the scene. Some highlights: Ellen surreptiously flicks the inedible turkey from her fork, Clark accidentally wipes his mouth on his holiday tie, and Cousin Eddie amuses himself by playing the old “here is the church; here is the steeple” game.
Only in France: Next time you watch, flick on the French subtitles. In France, the film is known by the rather bawdy title of Le Sapin A Des Boules. Translation? The Fir Tree Has Balls. Hmmmm.
Grab a cup of eggnog (or smoking bishop, if you’re really keen to set the proper mood), curl up next to a cozy fire and listen to Team Video’s holiday podcast. Alex and I take on the most famous holiday tale of them all, Charles Dickens‘s A Christmas Carol. Get set for all the festivities as we guide you through nine major adaptations of the beloved story, from the high-gloss MGM version to the famous Alastair Sim portrayal, to the big budget CGI effort from Robert Zemeckis and more. Which ones bring classic Dickensian holiday cheer, and which ones are like a big lump of coal in your stocking?
Listening options:
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! From Thanksgiving Day until the new year’s bells (or pots and pans) chime, the holiday season is officially in full swing. Sure, there is plenty of hassle that mars this festive time: elbowing through bustling crowds of shoppers, agonizing over finding and being able to afford the perfect gift for so-and-so, having to endure certain family members who you would prefer to avoid… We’ve all been there. However, there’s plenty of joy to be found as well: classic Christmas songs on the radio, driving through neighborhoods full of blinking lights and inflatable Spongebob Santas, delicious homemade (or store-bought) cookies and other treats… If all else fails, you can always drown your sorrows in some egg nog (I recommend Silk Nog with a splash of Johnny Walker Red)! Anyway, one of my favorite things about this season is the wealth of holiday movies, specials, commercials, etc. all over TV and the internet. I’ve got the newspaper listings tacked up to my refrigerator and my DVR is locked and loaded. Like the classic song made famous in Bruce Willis‘ Armageddon, I don’t want to miss a thing. (Is it stuck in your head now too? Yeah, you’re welcome.) Recently I saw a delightful Christmas trailer courtesy of the BBC, which I will now share with you. This is quite a star-studded affair, but what I am really interested in is Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, decked out in gorgeous reindeer sweaters, playing Twister with a Cyberman! If this jaunty clip doesn’t get you in the Christmas spirit, I’m not sure what will. And if you don’t already watch Doctor Who, may I suggest adding The Complete David Tennant Years to your wishlist? Now there’s a gift you can enjoy year-round.
So, might be a little late to the party on this one, but figured it was worth a post anyway. Tomorrow is the day we American’s celebrate coming together and giving thanks by eating too much food, watching parades, t.v specials and football. No, not Christmas (not yet anyway) but Thanksgiving. So in honor of the great Turkey Day, I’ve pulled together a list of some Thanksgiving movies for the family to enjoy. (And hey, maybe they’ll learn something too!)
Going to start off with a classic: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Since there is a Charlie Brown special for almost every holiday is it really any wonder I’m starting here? Charlie Brown gets stuck having to produce a Thanksgiving feast for all his friends, and make to his grandmother’s house in time for his family’s celebration. It’s the typical kindhearted Charlie Brown story that just make you feel good during the holidays.
Next up we’ve got Pieces Of April, starring a young Katie Holmes as April Burns the eldest daughter in a dysfunctional family, who decides to have the whole bunch come to her small tenement apartment in Manhattan for Thanksgiving. It’s funny, and probably a good way to see that your family isn’t really that bad…. unless of course it is.
Steve Martin can do (almost) no wrong and this is definitely one of his best comedies. Planes, Trains and Automobiles stars Steven Marin and John Candy as fellow travelers trying to make it to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Ending up paired together they overcome many obstacles (many brought on themselves), to get home and find that they may have little in common but they can still be friends. (Cue the “Awwwww”).
Home For The Holidays, is a classic but entertaining holiday film. Parents, siblings, spouses and kids are all sources of frustration for Holly Hunter, who stars as a recently fired single mom. This family will probably just barely make it through the Thanksgiving holiday, but then they’ll do it again the next year. Proving, that you can’t escape no matter how hard you might try.
And now last, and possibly least is ThanksKilling a comedy-horror movie about a killer turkey who has just had too much! So he decides it’s time to get revenge on mankind. A good post dinner treat.
Halloween II turns 30 this year and was recently given the Blu-ray treatment. Team Video discussed this film briefly in our horror sequels podcast, but in honor of Halloween, I thought I would tip my hat (mask?) to this unusually strong horror follow-up (*spoiler alert herein for certain key plot points*).
It picks up precisely where the John Carpenter-directed part one left off, giving us another 90 minutes of Michael Myers’s killing spree in Haddonfield, Illinois. In this sense, the film is a classic “more of the same” sequel – it doesn’t attempt to veer off in a different direction, but instead offers what amounts to a “second helping” of the first. To that end, Halloween II, directed by Rick Rosenthal, has the same pared-down, evocative simplicity of the original.
The film plays in the same visual key as its predecessor, thanks in part to Dean Cundey’s atmospheric cinematography, and is filled with plenty of pleasing rhymes to the 1978 Carpenter installment. Night Of The Living Dead makes a cameo appearance, just as The Thing From Another World occasionally popped up on the TV set in Halloween. Alan Howarth effectively tweaks Carpenter’s original musical themes with synth textures, retaining the same urgency of the iconic piano material while infusing it with a fresh feel. Nick Castle does not return to play Michael Myers, but stuntman Dick Warlock nicely recaptures Myers’s bizarre manner of moving – catlike at times, stilted at others. There is something of the uncanny valley here . . . his motion is recognizably human, but with certain ineffable qualities that aren’t quite right. Particularly unsettling is Myers’s final assault on the hospital entrance – Myers simply walks straight through the door, breaking glass and metal but slowing down only slightly.
One of the most striking sequences is the final pursuit through the hospital, as Myers chases last-woman-standing Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) into an elevator. We can all recall moments when we impatiently fidgeted with elevator buttons, waiting for the doors to finally close. We can only squirm with a perverse delight to imagine a scenario where our very life depends on the speed of those doors closing! The editing and music here is perfectly calibrated to keep the tension on a slow agonizing rise.
Not everyone is as lucky as Laurie. Halloween II features some of the most grimly disturbing slayings in the entire series. Sure, there are spectacular send-offs, such as the grisly boiling of Nurse Karen during an ill-timed hot tub tryst. But it’s the less over-the-top sequences that linger in the memory: ambulance driver Jimmy’s slow death by apparent brain injury, or Mrs. Alves’ Dr. Phibes-esque drip, drip, drip blood-draining demise. Both conceptually and in their execution, these deaths are disorienting, unpleasant and surprisingly subtle.
The film is not without its problems. Having hero Laurie immobilized and stuck in a hospital makes the beginning of the movie somewhat slack. (This is a puzzling decision. Although Laurie was stabbed at the end of Halloween, stalker-film heroes have soldiered on through far worse wounds than this. Perhaps this was merely screenwriter Carpenter’s way of getting the story into the hospital, an admittedly strong environment for horror goings-on.) Plus, the twist of making Laurie the long-lost sister of Michael Myers seems like a dim appropriation of the ending of The Empire Strikes Back.
Nevertheless, Halloween II is a worthy successor to the original Halloween, rich in atmosphere and matching the first film’s beautiful evocation of the Halloween season. Plus, The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” will never seem quite the same ever again . . .
If you were still on the lookout for the perfect song to get you in the mood for celebrating tonight, boy have I got what you are looking for. Yes, I can hardly resist dancing along to the “Monster Mash” and “The Blob” is an undeniably fun time. However, I’d like to cast my ballot for Tim Curry‘s “Anything Can Happen On Halloween” as a modern day holiday classic. This song appears in The Worst Witch, a film which is criminally underrepresented in the usual yearly October viewing lists. The film stars Fairuza Balk (who would later go on to star in The Craft) as a young witch at a magical boarding school who manages to mess up nearly every spell she attempts. The highlight of the movie is when The Grand Wizard (Tim Curry) shows up to regale an audience of swooning witches, students and teachers alike, with a tour de force tune that details the various things that could happen on this unpredictable holiday. Enjoy!
In a little less than a week, my favorite holiday Halloween will be upon us when witches and ghosts, ninjas and princess walk the streets together with pillowcases, buckets and pails to collect candy of all colors, shapes and sizes. To lead up to that most awesome of days, Journey (writer of some awesome blog entries and general cool and knowledgeable movie guy) and I sat down to discuss our picks for some of the most Horrible Horror Movie Sequels.
Our picks: (in no particular order)
We focused primarily on the sequels with some background from the originals, and a mention of the remakes. But, I’m not going to give too much away here, because you can go stream the podcast here or you can download it here and you know what? If you like our podcast you should totally subscribe via iTunes to Team Video so you can get the latest of the entire teams movie opinions, reviews and more!
And – be sure to check out our next Podcast which will have me, Journey and Nicole in the next in the director series where we’ll talk about Tim Burton.
Multiple sources report that the 1984 classic Ghostbusters will receive a limited-run theatrical re-release in mid October. As an avowed lover of revival screenings, I’m excited to revisit the Bill Murray horror/comedy. While I would much prefer a large-scale theatrical run for John Carpenter’s Halloween (which, with its marvelous use of the full Panavision frame, is perfectly suited for cinematic re-release and big-screen TVs), Ghostbusters will still satisfy at least some of my yearly craving for ghouls and ghost and goblin host. Halloween aside, what spooky movies would benefit from a theatrical revival (or, at the very least, a re-watching on a mammoth HD screen)? Here are four I’ve seen at revival houses in the past few years, and how much oomph they have on the big screen.
City Of The
Living Dead – Lucio Fulci’s bizarre Italian horror movies compensate for their awkward dubbing and plotless “storylines” with spectacular horror setpieces. You sink into your seat, staving off Mr. Sandman as stiff, boring actors exchange meaningless dialogue, and then Fulci whams you with something like the “splinter scene” from Zombie (a girl’s eye is slowly, inexorably, wince-inducingly drawn into a door splinter). City Of The Living Dead’s similar and equally infamous drill scene almost had me hiding under my cinema seat. And really, isn’t that just what we want from a horror movie?
Nosferatu – Odds are, if you catch this silent film fave in a theater, you’ll also be treated to a live musical performance. A wide variety of musical accompaniments have appeared on the DVD editions of the film, ranging from traditional organ to spooky, ambient new age. A nice string quartet, with the bowing violin as a shrill aural representation of vampire Nosferatu’s predatory gaze and bite, seems the ideal sonic complement to director F. W. Murnau’s haunting visuals.
Poltergeist –
Don’t you just hate it when they move the cemetery but they leave the bodies? Effects-heavy movies always play best on the big screen. And admittedly, some of Steven Spielberg’s (oops, Tobe Hooper’s – let’s save that old controversy for another day) matte shots do look a little bit dated on home video. The big screen experience gives them all a distracting visual sweep, allowing you to enjoy the Freelings’ clash with restless spirits without thinking much about matte lines.
The Shining – The legendary genre effort is not shot in an ultra-widescreen format (in fact, all video versions until 2006 were in a full-screen, open matte format at the director’s behest), but the oft-mentioned Steadicam shots, to say nothing of that elevator unleashing torrents of blood, are ideal big screen fodder. And when little Danny spins round those corners in his Big Wheel, you’ll feel like you’re right there in the Overlook Hotel with him.
What old-school horror movies would you love to see playing again at your local cinema? Re-watch a few old favorites and post some suggestions in the comments section.
Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
Saw V: 2 Disc Unrated Director’s Cut
Horror Express
House Of 1000 Corpses
Underworld: Awakening