Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 10/26.

"More than 80 years after its completion, FW Murnau's Nosferatu remains among the most potent and unsettling horror films ever made," writes Geoffrey Macnab in the Independent. "Among the reasons the film remains so resonant to contemporary audiences is its fascination with the links between sex and disease, its anatomy of physical and moral corruption, and the way it plays on the fear of the 'other.'"

"Can my jaded 7-year-old be scared, or at least have his pulse set racing, by a little old-fashioned smoke-and-mirrors, black-and-white moviemaking?" wonders Wendell Jamieson in the New York Times. "So for the last several weeks he and I have watched a series of clever horror movies from the 1940s, including a few exciting recent releases. I'm happy to report success. Dean has learned to allow his imagination to frighten him, and he doesn't seem any the worse for wear."

In the San Francisco Chroncle, Violet Blue counts down her top ten lesbian vampire flicks - a well-annotated list.

The Saw movies are "radically conservative," argues Grady Hendrix in Slate. "Like the creaky old Republic serials of the 1930s, they're full of deathtraps, nerve gas, slow-acting poisons, and a complete misunderstanding of how electricity works. But their greatest crime is rejecting the anarchic thrills of the slasher movie in favor of reinforcing modern-day corporate culture."

"This time last year, enervated by the hollow experience of watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and then energized by a late-night viewing of John Carpenter's lovely and terrifying The Fog, I began a week-long blog expedition to reclaim horror for myself," blogs robbiefreeling for Reverse Shot, and he's off: "Even more so than in its gruesome, creative killings, Inferno locates its fear through hallways, basements, shadows, colors, and crawlspaces." Also: "With her mix of panic and pity, [Dee] Wallace gets what makes Cujo such a thoroughly untraditional horror movie: the central monster lacks motivation, it's just a lumbering, besotted animal, yet its insatiable hunger forms a nearly insurmountable obstacle."

"An unapologetic amalgam of sci-fi monster schlock, college campus comedy, and, of course, gory zombie horror, [Night of the Creeps] avoids the hazards of genre mingling by pitting its heroes against a believable undead threat, and not allowing its audience many uneventful moments to dwell on the film's inanity," writes Thomas Scalzo at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "Even when a joke falls flat or a bit of dialogue is especially painful, the frenetic pace, occasional hilarity, and solid horror set pieces overcome the letdown, and pull us irresistibly deeper into this manic tale of cops and coeds fighting to kick the ever-increasing numbers of undead permanently off campus."

At Cinematical, Ryan Stewart explains "Why I Don't Care for Zombie Movies" and argues that Candyman "h does so many things right I can hardly list them all. This is a horror movie that gets depressing right - how many movies can hit that note?"

"Despite the strongly emphasized exoticness its Haitian scenery, The Serpent and the Rainbow may be Wes Craven's most pedestrian film," writes Rob Humanick. "This says a lot about a director who has defined his career largely through the presentation of everyday scenery perverted by the unexpected and the supernatural, from Freddy Kreuger's creepy distortion of his surroundings to the tight, uncanny claustrophobia of the seemingly innocuous Red Eye."

Eric Alt introduces Premiere's DIY Halloween Film Fest, 24 hours of disturbing home viewing.

The Chicago Reader rounds up local screenings of Halloween movies.

Online browsing tip. "I'd like to direct you to some of my favorite sites, and their thoughts on the looming All Hallows." Movie Morlocks' Richard Harland Smith is your guide.

Online sing-along tip. The AV Club presents "14 Songs About Vampires."

Online viewing tip. At Facets Features, Phil Morehart posts "a disturbing, disorienting, panic-filled seven minutes" from the real Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Posted by dwhudson at October 26, 2007 1:28 PM