Darling (2015, Mickey Keating)

When a suspicious elder lady (hey look it’s Sean Young) tells me that the last person she hired met a bad end, it would be enough to make me run the other way. Darling (Lauren Ashley Carter), a young woman, is desperate enough for cash that she ignores the warning and agrees to house sit a freaky house in New York City. Without that you don’t have a movie that is creepy, eerie, and full of surprises. All shot in glorious black and white, and featuring some freaky hallucinatory moments that add to the film.

I also like how tightly paced and well made Darling is, which works to it’s advantage. The film is also divided up into chapters, and manages to pay homage to Roman Polakski’s classic horror films and The Shining. It has a lot in common with a few others but those influences, which the director Mickey Keating builds upon, shape the film while also feature Keating putting his own stamp on the horror genre. The visions are scary and I almost waited until daylight to finish this one. I’m always glad to find a hidden gem during my Horrorfests, and this is one such film.

Horrorfest 2016 Presents: Jacob’s Ladder (1990, Adrian Lyne)

For some reason psychological horror thrillers were a big thing in the late 1980s and 1990s. They were usually well made and had a higher pedigree than many lower budget horror films. Jacob’s Ladder was one of them, and it’s a great and freaky journey into the psyche of its main character, played by the famous actor Tim Robbins. Robbins does a fantastic job of conveying man on the verge of madness, haunted by his past. Adrian Lyne does a fine job of visually presenting these nightmares and giving us a window into Jacob’s shattered mind.

Dealing with his troubles are his girlfriend, Jezzie, played by Elizabeth Peña and his chiropractor, Louis (Danny Aiello). Neither though really has answers for what is going on with Jacob, and even his own old army unit fails to give him any peace. One scene where Jacob is wheeled through a hospital is quite freaky, and there are other eerie moments that make the viewer wonder what is really going on.

My only major complaint about this film is that I already knew certain major details. I wish I could have seen this in theaters back in 1990, as I’m sure that this movie surprised many movie goers. I consider this to be a well made horror drama, one that is much tragic as it is scary. Also it’s too bad that even decades later Vietnam and other war vets suffer from the traumatic events of war.

Horrorfest 2015 Presents: Q The Winged Serpent (1982, Larry Cohen)

Out of all the monster films I’ve watched over the years Q: The Winged Serpent is rather bizarre. After all this is a movie about a cult that brings to life a freaky God creature that flies around and devours people. Plenty of awesome and entertaining moments there, not to mention Cohen once again directing a film set in New York where people are being killed by a strange force and the police are investigating.

What makes this film also interesting is the performances of Michael Moriarty and David Carradine. Moriarty plays a criminal piano player that stumbles onto the creature’s nest and being a crook naturally demands money for leading the police to the monster. Carradine’s police officer is a man too smart for his own good, who runs up against the fact that the police don’t like conspiracies. Much easier to simply tackle a beast flying around Manhattan as it kills people.

Despite being rather cheesy and not being quite as developed or as well made as some of his films this one is still rather solid. Also the creature effects are claymation, which is a nice touch. The 1980s didn’t have enough big monster movies save for the ones from Japan and a few others, which is kind of a shame as I love me a good big angry monster movie.

The Foreigner (1978, Amos Poe)

Hey look its Deborah Harry. Cool.

The Foreigner (1978) is an underground movie, at times punk driven even, and I watched it thanks to well….TCM’s Underground theater that airs on Saturday’s now. The copy was grainy, the audio scratchy, and yet I couldn’t stop watching despite not really knowing what the plot exactly was. The main character, a French agent named Max, is stationed in New York City but he has little information about his mission or why he’s there. I loved the opening credits, set to a rather cool sounding score: Max in the cab, looking quietly out the window as the taxi drives on through a tunnel into the New York City streets.

I was reminded of Michael Mann and Taxi Driver, however really this film is more Repo Man (1984) in terms of being about the punk scene and punks in general. Max wanders aimlessly through New York, getting in and out of trouble; there is a rather shocking scene where he is stabbed and assaulted by some toughs in a random dive which features…a punk band. Having Harry pop up in a back alley smoking is an amusing moment, as this film was made just as Blondie was beginning to achieve stardom, but it also speaks to this movie’s odd moments.

However later on it appears this is as much about racial intolerance and fear of “The Other” as it is a spy thriller movie. Max proves unable to save others, and by the middle to later part of the film he is chased by the very tough youths that gave him trouble earlier. Desperate to gain further meaning and understanding, he achieves neither and chases it in strong drink and strange women. I love how the film ends, with a stark viewing of the Statue of Liberty. Apparently in this film the immigrant is not received warmly, but is rather cast out and abused, beaten and in the end, destroyed.

Sure this is a really low budget film and the acting is not the greatest, but I was captivated throughout and I really would like to see this again. Unfortunately I had to delete it from my parents’ DVR (I no longer live there but I still use it heh) and according to an online search this is sadly not a better copy of this film. Too bad, as it should be seen by more and it reminded me of another equally underrated cult classic, the 1962 film Blast of Silence, which I own on Criterion.