Cool News
AMAD: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969), WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972) and CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the final entry to the special Halloween run of A Movie A Day!
Since it is Halloween and I have gotten caught up in the festivities of my favorite holiday (thus getting behind on these entries) I figured why not package all three of the remaining AMADs together!
Even though the last film I’ll be talking about is considered a classic in the horror genre I must admit to liking WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? the best of all three movies.
It’s not a mind-blowingly eerie film or even really creepy or scary at all, but what it does have is some fine, fine acting.
I loveses Ruth Gordon. As a kid she was the funny grumpy lady in EVERY WHICH WAY YOU CAN and ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN and as I grew older I found her in films like ROSEMARY’S BABY and the amazing Hal Ashby twisted romantic comedy HAROLD AND MAUDE.
I’ve described character actors as “comfort food” for cinephiles and if I stick with that analogy Ruth Gordon would be a big ol’ quart of cookies & cream ice cream. I get an automatic smile when I see her.
So you can imagine my joy to see her in a cat and mouse thriller as two aging women engage in a game of wits.
Geraldine Page is an older lady used to an extravagant lifestyle. Her not-so-loved husband died and left her nothing but debt, so naturally she does the noble thing… kills her help after taking their savings in a Madoff-ish stock market scheme.
The only trouble with doing that is that you have to hire someone new to take their place… preferably someone with enough money to make it worth going through the effort of murder.
Shortly we’re introduced to Ruth Gordon as Alice, the new “companion” which in rich-speak means maid that talks to you. She seems the perfect victim… she has some money, but no family or friends. Yep, she’s destined to end up under one of Page’s trees. Oh yeah, she gets rid of the evidence by planting trees on top of the bodies.
In true rich-killer socialite fashion, Page has her Mexican gardener dig the hole and then at night Page herself bumps off the old lady AFTER making her “companion” drag the sapling. Yeah, what a bitch, right? There are some harsh class warfare allegories at work with this flick apparent enough even to dumb ol’ me.
So you’re already rooting for Ruth Gordon even before she arrives with her hot temper and too-perfect background.
Final thoughts: Produced by The Dirty Dozen’s Robert Aldrich the flick has an undeniable class to it. Even at its craziest the movie doesn’t delve into exploitative territory, which might turn a few horror fans off, but those that are willing to stick it out will really dig it, especially when Gordon shows up. She’s at the top of her game and it’s awesome watching her and Page go at it.
Next up is an Italian Giallo starring a Bond!
This trailer has run a few times at the Alamo Drafthouse and it’s a doozy. Check it out:
When I finally forked over the dough for the DVD I knew I was ultimately going to cover it in one of these columns, for good or ill. It’s one of those movies that has a title too good not to give a watch.
The trouble with the movie is that only hardcore Italian horror and giallo fans are going to seek it out, but if you’re a hardcore giallo fan you’ve seen much better entries into the genre than this one.
I won’t say WHO SAW HER DIE? is a bad movie. It’s not. It’s a very competent, well-acted (for the most part), not too horribly dubbed movie. Unfortunately it also lacks that zing that could have taken it over the line. There’ just nothing memorable about the movie.
This film is set in Venice as a father searches for his daughter’s killer. In many ways it’s a precursor to Don’t Look Now, but with half the atmosphere, half the script and half the “oh Jesus God No!”ishness.
George Lazenby plays the dad and does a good enough job in only his third feature credit. He’s about as ‘70s as you can get, with shoulder-length post-hippie hair, a giant mustache and a turtleneck. He actually manages to turn in a natural performance while having to re-deliver his performance with ADR, providing his own dub.
As you’d expect in a giallo the more he searches, the crazier people he finds, ultimately leading to a debauched sex circle that has something to do with why the killer is murdering children.
Without giving away the twist on who the mysterious woman is smothering ginger girls to death the most interesting aspect of the movie is the meaning behind the person that is revealed and just what that says politically and socially. There’s a definite statement being made about just how horrible extreme conservative social values can be.
A real nice treat, though, was getting to listen to the bizarre, but typically A+ score from one Ennio Morricone. I didn’t see his name on the credits, but even during the movie I was thinking the score was pretty rad. Go Ennio!
And the final official entry into this limited AMAD return, film 31 of 31, is noneother than:
I feel really bad being underwhelmed by this movie considering its reputation, but that’s how I feel.
CARNIVAL OF SOULS is an interesting movie, but it definitely wears its age on its sleeve. In fact it really does feel like a Twilight Zone episode expanded to feature length, which isn’t a bad thing, but it wasn’t like watching the best of Val Lewton or looking into the Universal monster movies as a kid. I liked what was on-screen and appreciate the story they’re telling, but I couldn’t really connect to it past a purely respectful position.
The flick opens with a drag race where a car full of girls flies off a bridge. And by flies I mean falls slowely. The cops drag the river for 3 hours and suddenly one of the girls emerges from the water like the accident just happened. She’s somehow alive, but they can’t find the car.
If you’re worried about me spoiling the twist ending… well, there’s no real danger as the movie spoils it for in the first 5 minutes. Everybody keeps commenting that she doesn’t have a soul… from a confused guy interested in her to the priest at the church where she plays organ, although she herself isn’t religious… presumably she was that way before the accident.
As this poor girl (played by Candace Hilligoss) tries to get her life back together she starts seeing a creepy old guy dressed up in make-up very much like the first Romero zombie you see in the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. That’s pretty creepy when he’s glimpsed distorted in reflections, but he shows up a lot and we see a lot of him so he just kinda becomes a guy with white make-up caked on him.
Final Thoughts: Great set-up, rather dull story, I though. I get The Haunting. I get The Innocents. I get James Whale movies, I get Robert Wise and Val Lewton movies. This one I don’t get. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for this one.
Considering it’s Halloween my final recommendation title is going to be a flick set on Halloween and will probably make classic horror fans think I’m insane for loving this piece of ‘80s cheese while not jumping on board the CARNIVAL OF SOULS.
There are many things you will find in 1988’s NIGHT OF THE DEMONS that you will not find in CARNIVAL OF SOULS. For instance, there is not a scene of Candice Hilligoss taking her top off while possessed and using her lipstick to draw a spiral shape ending in the nipple… culminating in the lipstick being pushed into the breast via nipple.
Night of the Demons is cheesy, but it’s also pretty creepy. It has a little bit of an Evil Dead-ish vibe, which I really dig. Real simple, perfectly ‘80s set-up… Kids dress up and get fucked up (and just fucked) on Halloween. They head to an abandoned funeral parlor (wrong) and then make matters worse by deciding to do a séance (wrong). That brings the possessing demon and spreads like a zombie.
Eighties scream queen Linnea Quigley plays her typical character here… Slutty McNakedskin. Surprise surprise, but she’s good at it.
Can I also say how much I love horror movies set on Halloween? There aren’t all that many, actually. Halloween and its sequels, this movie, Hell House, Trick R’ Treat… maybe you can count a hybrid like Lady In White. I’m sure I’m missing some big ones, but that’s all that spring to mind as I huridly type this up so I can get my costume going.
So, yeah. Watch this movie if you haven’t seen it (and can find a copy… holy shit, the DVD is out of print and selling for more than Criterion on the Amazon marketplace right now. Crazy!) and you’ll have a ton of fun, especially if booze, drugs and/or friends are involved.
From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate all you guys supporting AMAD’s brief return. Don’t fret. AMAD may be over, but I think you might be seeing a return to the regular AMAD in the next couple of months… nudge-nudge.
Now I leave you with something that screams Halloween for me. From the best movie about witch kids at a school ever put on video or whatever horrible thing those wacky Canadians shot on in the ‘80s…
Ladies and Gentlemen… may I present The Grand Wizard, otherwise known as Mr. Timothy Curry Esq.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
AMAD Halloween Spectacular 2009:
October 1st: Nothing But The Night (& The Wicker Man)
October 2nd: Beware! Children At Play (& The Devil Times Five)
October 3rd: Cameron’s Closet (& Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood)
October 4th: Afraid of the Dark (& The Lady In White)
October 5th: The Pit (& The Gate)
October 6th: Brain Damage (& Basket Case)
October 7th: Brain Dead (& Braindead, aka Dead Alive)
October 8th: Visiting Hours (& Dressed To Kill)
October 9th: Macabre (& The Beyond)
October 10th: Private Parts (& Eating Raoul)
October 11th: Road Games (& Duel)
October 12th: Dead End Drive-In (& Repo Man)
October 13th: Psychic Killer (& Alone In The Dark)
October 14th: The Body Snatcher (& Son of Frankenstein)
October 15th: The Leopard Man (& The Ghost and The Darkness)
October 16th: Wolfen (& Cujo)
October 17th: Madhouse (& Happy Birthday To Me)
October 18th: The House With The Laughing Windows (& Deep Red)
October 19th: The Spiral Staircase (& Eyes of a Stranger)
October 20th: Demon Seed (& Inside)
October 21st: Stagefright (& Phantom of the Paradise)
October 22nd: Dead of Night (’77) (& Twilight Zone: The Movie)
October 23rd: The Serpent’s Egg (& Don’t Look Now)
October 24th: The Swarm (& The Birds)
October 25th: The Flesh and the Fiends (& Prince of Darkness)
October 26th: Count Yorga, Vampire (& Dracula AD 1972)
October 27th: The Sadist (& Fortress)
October 28th: Christmas Evil (& Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Click here for the full 215 movie run of A Movie A Day!
-
+ Expand All
-
And that's an order, not a request!
-
And starred Fairuza Balk. Can't blame us Canucks for this one. For Canuckian Halloween try Witch's Night Out.
-
The original tv movie version of The Worst Witch. Shot in England too.
-
Now THAT's a talkback name waiting to be stolen.
-
the order for A Christmas A Day?
-
with CARNIVAL OF SOULS, either. it would have made a great short, tho. recent viewing hereabouts: FRIGHT NIGHT ($6.99 at BORDERS), PHANTASM II (first time i've ever seen it in widescreen), ORGANIZM (much better than expected; a little more $ in the CGI and i'd have called it a must-see), LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and for tonight, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II
-
...that you watched all three films in one day, and that might have influenced your take on _Carnival_? Probably not, I guess; it's just that I'm a big fan of this, and I hate to see you unimpressed by it, especially when we agree so often. Too bad.
-
Obviously I'm kidding.
-
Midnight Meat Train, Martyrs, and Deadgirl. In that order. Everything else I was either revisiting or sucked.
-
This is a superb column and get tons of recommendations from you. Look forward to any future installments.
-
Oct 31, 2009 9:54:52 PM CDT
I always watch The Nightmare B4 XMas on Halloween night
by nasty in the pasty
Usually chased by either Frankenweenie/Vincent or Corpse Bride (the latter this year). Halloween just isn't right without Tim Burton puppets.
-
If it becomes overwhelming again, why not make it A Movie a Week? Make it something to anticipate? I've seen a lot of other movies I wouldn't otherwise have wanted to see had I not followed this column, Quint.
-
Midnight Meat Train is a victim of studio politics. It's a crime that Strangers got a theatrical release instead. Best movies I watched this month for the first time were: Brain Damage, Street Trash, Spellbinder, The Manitou, Midnight Meat Train, Phenomena, 1408, The Gorgon, Society, Teeth, Ted Bundy, Christmas Evil, Silent Night Deadly Night 1 and 2, The Sadist, R-Point, Visiting Hours, Wind Chill, Asylum, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Zodiac, Wait Until Dark, Abominable, It's Alive!, C.H.U.D. and Combat Shock. All remarkable movies I would recommend to anybody!
-
Dick In Ass.
-
Is PURE Halloween for me. We watched this every year lol. Worst witch man...good times...plus charlotte rae as the good and evil witch lol.
-
Man, until just now I completely forgot about that film!
-
DUDE!--- How could you leave out "Maniac"?(1980). A buddy of mine dropped by last Halloween with a 12-pack of Dos Equis and the DVD, and told me "We're watching this; you will like it". His taste in horror movies is impeccable, so I didn't ask questions. DAMN solid movie; one of the earlier entries in the slasher genre, and top notch work from The Man Himself, Tom Savini. Maybe you can give us your thoughts about it October of next year?I agree with Ronald Raygun, BTW. Have at those Xmas movies in the month of December, and don't forget the Pit Bull of them all: "Silent Night, Deadly Night".
-
Thanks for all of these reviews! Funny thing about Night of the Demons. I am pretty positive I finally watched it with a friend of mine sometime last year (or maybe early this year) but I can't remember whether I liked it or not and also can't remember a single thing about it. Weird. I'm going to guess I wasn't fond of that one. This year I watched Murder Party, Halloween 2 and 4, and Dawn of the Dead. Have you seen murder party Quint? I watched it for the first time and really liked it. It is another movie that takes place on Halloween!
-
...actually takes place on halloween too. the calendar in the film is quite prominent ;-) watched is yesterday with NOTC and played some serious Nazi Zombies. 'twas a great halloween! I 3RD the Xmas movie a day. has to be done quint. my top 3 are, muppets xmas carol, santa claus the movie and home alone, i am a child of the 80's and early 90's after all.
-
I love these postings - I love the generosity of spirit for films that are not so new but why - oh why are there so many typos? "Any Which Way You Can" AND "Any Which Way You Can" ... (WTF?) You didn't even try to make this work. Those titles are the same - not "Any Which Way But Loose" ... Not even "Any Which Way but Wrong" --- just the same damned title repeated. Oh My God this world is full of people who just type shit and forget to read it. The whole world online is a bunch of barking mad idiots.
-
Anyway, i'm about to watch something called "Sickhouse". Never heard of it before one of my friends told me it was an under-rated little horror movie. Then again, he's got terrible taste in movies so it's probably gonna suck.
-
Nov 01, 2009 10:09:08 AM CST
Gotta say it took guts to diss a fan fave like that
by seppukudkurosawa
And I had the same experience to Carnival of Souls as you did when I first watched it. It might have gone down better on the build up to Halloween rather than Halloween itself. When you're with a few friends, it's always a safer bet to go for the shlock-horror over the more atmospheric pieces.
That Aunt Alice movie looks interesting, though. I'll have to scout it down. It's because of movies like that that I'm not even gonna think about turning blu; can you ever imagine something like that or The Sadist getting a Blu Ray release?
Cheers for all your hard work, Quint! It's made for a lot of fun reads...and you've got my cock thoroughly teased by your promise of The Return of AMAD! If only the English language had a word for every other day, you wouldn't have to drive yourself crazy having to squeeze out write ups night after night at 3 in the AM when you can barely concentrate on your monitor.
By the way, much as I really like Carnival of Souls, The Innocents shits all over it! Not many horror movies are works of art, they don't have to be, but that's one that really is. -
Look a little closer and you will see one of em is "every which way you can" and one is "any which way you can".
-
it was a great source of undiscovered little horror diamonds.anyway.
-
I love so called classic horror. Universal Monsters, Hammer, Amicus, Corman, particularly his Poe inspired stuff, the original versions of The Haunting and Village of the Damned (and to a lesser extent, its sequel, Children of the Damned), the original House of Wax and the remake of it with Vincent Price, Peeping Tom, Tod Browning's Freaks, Night of the Living Dead, Last Man on Earth, The Blob, William Castle. All that kinda stuff. But Carnival of Souls is just terribly stilted, utterly predictable, and deathly dull. And not in the least bit creepy or eerie. It's just one of those films that, despite it's praise, just never really worked on any level for me. Funny thing is, I'm someone who can usually appreciate a film for when it was made, just as much as how it was made, so most films that some write off as being dated or "a product of its time" usually still work for me, but not this one. Don't know why. I've watched it a couple of times and I find it a real trudge to even sit through.
-
check this hilarious review:
http://tinyurl.com/yhdu8fg -
Classic horror is my favorite kind from Freaks, Nosferatu, The Night of the Hunter, Psycho and Carnival of Souls. Plus Carinval of Souls was filmed im my town, Lawrence, KS!
-
with a pretty full moon was nice as well. hella thanks Quint great job. plan on grabbing a few of these
-
It's been a fun ride. Look forward to doin it again next year!
-
It could have been PARADISE GARAGE!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIgGrzQVK3g
-
I just wanted to thank Quint for this month of suggestions. It inspired my friend and I to hit about a dozen horror movies this month in our own AMAD (which is pretty good for men with jobs). Thanks Quint! You're the True Blue of this site. The real thing.
-
Just make sure you do it again next year, ya hear?
-
that music during the "Who Saw Her Die?" trailer is freaky and is now stuck in my head
-
Go ask her when she's 10 feet tall. Oh wait... that's not right...
-
Alice, ALICE, who the fuck is Alice...
-
Are you still doing the weekly column?
-
Even though cheesy 80s horror is probably my least favorite kind of supernatural film I still read these every day. Thanks to the talkbackers, too, the ones that show up, for their interesting and sometimes relevant feedback.
-
...but you have to love the really beautiful b&w cinematography. And some of the imagery is haunting. I will admit to loving this primarily because I first saw it as a wee tyke and the guy's face in the car window at night scared the bejesus out of me. Yes, it's not so scary as an adult, but I still have a place for it in my heart. At least you gave it a shot.
-
I'm not sure. I'm thinking of just taking a breather on the AMAW so I can come back in two months or so with a real run of A Movie A Day. I'm compiling the list now and it's some really good shit... Got Capra, more Hitchcock, more Matthau, more Monroe, Powell & Pressberger, Marx Bros, more Newman, some Bronson... gonna be a great run, just gotta get a little R&R in... or as much as I can get while keeping up the regular site work.
-
look forward to it, Q!
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 151 total posts 140 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 128 total posts 94 posts
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 92 total posts 91 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 474 total posts 70 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 64 total posts 64 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 51 total posts 51 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 116 total posts 41 posts
- Wanna smell like the Hulk? What about Cap? Consider yourself a Thunder God or a unisex God of Mischief? -- 71 total posts 40 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 35 total posts 35 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 35 total posts 34 posts