Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 10/16.

"Planet Terror - Robert Rodriguez's contribution to his Grindhouse collaboration with Quentin Tarantino - is a first-rate homage to the schlocky, sleazy B-movies of decades past, loading on the gore, clichés, and self-referential dialogue like there's no tomorrow with a cascade of influences from John Carpenter, James Cameron, George A Romero and Lucio Fulci (just to name a few), all the while topping off its gimmicky (though totally effective) construction with countless scratches, blips, audio/visual inconsistencies and even a carefully placed 'missing reel' in its loving ode to the almost lost end-of-the-line theater experience," writes Rob Humanick before catching his breath. But Jürgen Fauth agrees.

Also: White Zombie and King of the Zombies.

He asked for 31 Flicks That Give You the Willies, and now, Ed Hardy Jr lists "the 181 official nominees from the 67 nominating ballots I received." Lists of their own: Jonathan Lapper and Kimberly Lindbergs.

Murder Party is "part of the new 'hipster horror' (as coined by Radar), a style playing to the generation that grew up disillusioned and ironic through the late 80s and 90s, sucking all the weird out of Fangoria and Starlog that they possibly could," writes John Lichman at the Reeler. "It's a media-convenient label to be sure, but Murder Party filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier is happy to call it whatever people want as long as they see his film." Related: Matt Dentler talks with SXSW vet Saulnier, too.

Phil Morehart's got another clip at Facets Features: "For those not indoctrinated into the cult of Troll 2, you are missing one of the best/worst horror films ever created. Watch immediately. Repeat." And then there's Exorcist III, "a surprisingly fine addition to the brand."

"Kenneth Anger's dense, eleven-minute film Invocation of My Demon Brother shares almost none of the narrative conventions associated with classically labeled horror films," concedes Leo Goldsmith. "But as much as any film - and certainly any horror film - Invocation of My Demon Brother is one whose ultimate purpose is to prompt a visceral, even chemical response in its viewers. It is, as the filmmaker himself famously described it, 'an attack on the sensorium,' and as such is as aggressively horrifying as any more conventional horror film."

Also at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "As the director of The Fury, Sisters, Obsession and especially Carrie, De Palma samples heavily from the Hitchcock playbook (I do not believe, as some do, that he is a rip-off artist), and he frequently pushes forward the intensity of scenes, often to the brink of absurdity," writes Teddy Blanks. "Body Double, though, is in its own universe, a sublimely ridiculous piece of schooled filmmaking that embraces the sheen and excess of cheap 80s Hollywood as a flashy new avant-garde."

"You know a horror movie is great when you can't pinpoint just what it is about it that scares you." Adam Ross revisits Halloween.

Billy Stevenson on Vampyr: "This is the most impressive horror film that I have seen since Nosferatu, mainly because Dreyer also identifies the camera's gaze with that of the vampire, complicating Joan Of Arc's monochromatic starknesses to construe subjectivity as negotiation between moonlight and darkness."

At Cinematical, Richard von Busack lists seven "Horror Movie Gimmicks That Always Work."

Online listening tip. The he 4th Annual Drive-in Speakerbox Halloween Spooktacular!

More online viewing from the Shamus: "The Devil's Commercials!"

Posted by dwhudson at October 16, 2007 11:42 AM