2010 Horror Fest Pt. 2

Still no title yet for my movie fest.  Ghoul-o-vision?  Spooktacular?  Nah...


Zombiemania (2008)

I enjoyed this, but it was a completely different film than I thought I was watching.  I intended to watch American Zombie ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765430/ ), which is a mockumentary about what it would be like if zombies were real.  However, I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was selecting from my Netflix Instant queue, and instead I got this - an ACTUAL documentary about zombies in our culture.  It was a quick (57 minutes), breezy review of zombie books and movies, featuring clips and interviews with the main people behind zombies both past and present (like George Romero and Max Brooks) as well as actors, writers and critics.  Not a bad way to blow an hour, although I still intend to watch American Zombie before the end of the month...




The House of the Devil (2009)

This is another movie that I have seen already.  in this case, though, I re-watched it on purpose.  I know I enjoyed it during the first viewing, but I was watching it late at night and (due to the time and a few beers) I dozed off and on through the last 30 minutes.  Therefore, I wanted to give it another go.

The House of the Devil is an homage to horror films from the late 1970s and early 1980s.  It even includes a statement at the beginning that it is based on true events - a trick used often by other films from that era, whether it was true or not.  The director, Ti West,  used several other techniques that were straight out of the horror movies of the time, like a freeze frame of the final scene under the closing credits.  West also shot the movie on 16mm film to give it a retro look.  The characters had 70s/80s hairstyles, and all the music played (other than the "scary music") was from the time period.

All of this attention to detail to make this feel like a much older film would have been a waste if the movie itself were lacking, but fortunately that was not the case.  House is a very suspenseful throwback that relies on the scenery, the situation and the characters to scare you, rather than loud music and cheap fake outs like a lot of movies today.  The story is pretty simple: a college student in need of money agrees to babysit for a family that turns out to be a satanic cult, and needs her for a ritual.  Rather than through a convoluted plot, the film instead uses a creepy old house, ill-lit rooms, and lack of music to create a sense of isolation and of not being alone all at the same time.   The tension ratchets up until the scary music finally kicks in and things speed up to creepy concluding sequence that has some nice twists.