It’s that time of year again when the doors to Hell are opened wide, when the restless spirits and spectres are abroad, and when other typically disturbing shenanigans occur; no not Christmas - Halloween. We at FractalMatter are mindful of such card-selling events, and have therefore put together our most horrifying list of bloodcurdling films that you should definitely watch from behind your sofas.
Take heed of our warnings gentle reader and turn back, turn back I say, before its too late!
Lifeforce (review by Alasdair Stuart)
Starring: Peter Firth, Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Frank Finlay and Patrick Stewart
Directed by Tobe Hooper
It’s hard not to love a film which opens with a joint US/UK expedition to Halley’s Comet. I’m a sucker for anything involving big crazy space science, and the fact that the opening scenes of Lifeforce follow a modified space shuttle as it enters the comet’s tail does nothing but make me happy. The fact that, as the film progresses, this becomes the most sensible thing that happens only makes it more endearing.
When the mission drifts back into Earth orbit, burnt out and with mysterious crystal coffins in the hold, Colonel Colin Kane of the SAS is called in to investigate. Kane, played by Spooks’ Peter Firth is utterly unflappable, a quintessentially English hero with a streak of pragmatic fatalism a mile wide. Kane doesn’t care that beautiful naked people have been found in Halley’s Comet, he doesn’t care that the mission commander (Railsback) is either insane or psychically linked to them, and he really doesn’t care that the Prime Minister may already have been taken over. As far as Kane’s concerned, its just a job. Albeit one which requires a lot more stabbing space vampires with iron spikes than normal.
Lifeforce is effectively a Doctor Who story with added blood and nudity as Kane and Carlson, the mission commander, pursue the lead vampire (May) across the country. Passingly acquainted with clothes, in any other film she’d be the weak link. Here, she’s the means to an end, the first stage in a very English apocalypse that takes in everything from a vampire government to thermonuclear sterilisation of London.
What really makes Lifeforce though is the cast. Firth is fantastic as the dry Kane, a role, which he seems to have mined for his Spooks character, whilst Railsback throws himself bodily into a role that requires as much wailing and grinding of teeth as it does actual acting. However, the real gem here is Finlay as Doctor Failata. He’s not only given the best job in any b-movie (the scientist who explains everything), but actually gets to do it as his soul explodes out of his back and hurtles towards the spacecraft mining them from London. Now that’s not a sentence you get to write every day.
Lifeforce is demented, over the top and quite quite wonderful. Cheerfully OTT and crammed full of frantic invention (Psychic blood ghosts! Patrick Stewart possessed! Desiccating vampires!) it’s a long overlooked treasure. Do yourself a favour, and check it out.
Frankenstein (review by Mo Ali)
Starring: Colin Clive, Boris Karloff, Dwight Frye and Mae Clarke
Directed by James Whale
Horror classics don’t come any more iconic than the 1931 film Frankenstein. Mary Shelley’s original novel is a story about a student of natural philosophy who learns the secret to imparting life to a creature he has constructed from various dead bodies; the story is not just a tale of the macabre, but a stark warning about Man’s mis-use of power and its devastating impact upon the world.
The James Whale adaptation of the novel is a pretty loose one, taking the basic premise and spinning it in a conventional movie direction; a major liberty taken immediately with the ‘monster’ itself - a giant lumbering creature with deep sunken eyes and flat scarred head, complete with the brain of a madman.
The monster is played by Boris Karloff, an unknown actor at the time, who actually makes the character pitiable as a misunderstood freak of nature.
The part was originally supposed to be played by Bela Lugosi, who had embodied that other most famous fiend of film Dracula, but when Lugosi turned down the part director James Whale decided on an unknown for the role, which turned out to be a perfect casting choice. The opening credits also add to the uncertainty with a mysterious absence of name for the actor playing Frankenstein’s creation; Karloff’s name only given to us at the end of the film when the credits are repeated.
Actor Colin Clive portrays Doctor Henry Frankenstein, an obsessed scientist driven to extremes in his quest to prove his theories, giving the character an intensity that not so much treads the line of genius and insanity as laughs at it and calls it names behind its back.
There’s also Dwight Frye who plays Frankenstein’s hunched assistant ‘Fritz’ – a now common stereotype that set the standard for future ‘incompetent sidekicks of mad scientists’ to come. Mae Clarke ends up getting a typical female role of the times, playing Frankenstein’s wife-to-be ‘Elizabeth’, whose main function seems to be to look distressed, forlorn and to scream when necessary.
The restored version of the film is a bit more satisfying to watch: Dr. Frankenstein proclaiming “Oh, in the name of God now I know what it’s like to be God!” after the iconic “it’s alive!”. No doubt such blasphemy was deemed unsuitable for cinema audiences at the time; along with a shocking scene that shows the creature throwing a young girl (‘Little Maria’) into a lake, the creature full of childlike ignorance when he commits the horrifying act and distraught as he realises the enormity of what he has done. This also adds to the shock when you see the father of the child carrying his drowned daughter’s body through the town as a festival is taking place.
The film is one of Whales earlier films and is therefore not as finished cinematically or flavoured with dark subversive humour apparent in later efforts, but given the limitations of early film-making, this is a striking and memorable movie.
The Haunting (review by James Dodsworth)
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn
Directed by: Robert Wise
This 1963 film is based on the book The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. This isn’t a hokey haunted house movie though, it’s a psychological paranormal confrontation of a film. Relying on atmosphere, music and sound to create an overwhelming sense of terror throughout, it’s a film that demands to be watched alone and in the dark.
Opening with a brief history of the house, we are shown the young wife of the house’s architect, Hugh Crane, being killed seconds before seeing the house. The second Mrs. Crane dies falling down stairs, and Hugh Crane’s daughter Abigail is left to live alone in the house after her Father dies in England. Abigail subsequently dies of old age when the hired help ignores her cries, and racked with guilt the hired help eventually hangs herself in the library.
90 years later - Dr Markway (Johnson) assembles a group of people to investigate Hill House as part of a scientific experiment into proving the paranormal exists. The group consists of Eleanor Lance - a nervous lady who had a poltergeist experience when she was a child, and some inner torment for good measure. Luke Samson – a nephew of Hill House’s owner, sent along by his Auntie to keep an eye on the group as they carry out their experiments, and also to see what his inheritance consists of. Theodora - a psychic who has a more than professional interest in Eleanor, but being 1963, this sexual tension is very understated, and only became apparent to myself after seeing the movie a couple of times.
It is a very slow paced film, and the trick comes from having limited use of special effects and shooting it in a very atmospheric black and white. Sounds are heard, doors close by themselves, strange noises plague the visitors. The tension builds and builds throughout the film like a pressure cooker, and this is the reason why the film is so scary; it’s the psychological scares that get you. What you can’t see makes your brain work overtime trying to fill in the possible horrors.
The house itself is a character in this movie, the rooms and corridors are as important as the plot. Wise knows how to work his angles, each shot is measured to emphasise tension, or loneliness, or even madness. The result is my favourite horror movie purely because the human condition is placed alongside a non-corporal protagonist. The results are terrifying – watch it alone late at night with the lights out. I guarantee you will be scared.
Mo Ali was born in a haunted hospital and has exceeded all expectations and kept breathing.
A digital artist, poet and writer, he needs to find some paid work before the inevitable apocalypse. To make matters worse he lives in Berkshire.