Horror-a-rama II: The Horrorier

Just two more films that I forced my roommate to endure last night.

House of the Devil: This is a film that I have had in my queue for a while now, but that I avoided actually watching because someone suggested that it got really gruesome in the last half hour. While it may not be immediately clear, I do not actually deal with either gore or suspense particularly well. I'm better than I used to be, but I still tend to get really keyed up by suspense, to the point where I will pause a movie and walk around a bit. I'm an anxious guy; don't judge. I have an even bigger problem with gore, any movie where the viscera can be described as "frequent and glistening" tends to turn me off. (This is why I tend to avoid zombie movies altogether.) My general rule of thumb is: nothing made in the past 20 years. Something about that temporal distance, or possibly the less complicated visual effects, renders it palatable to me. It's why most of the movies I've mentioned this Halloween are from the 1960s.

This movie, however: it LOOKS like it was made over 20 years ago. The style of the film, the technology they use, the hair, they all scream "early-1980s." And while I have not embraced 80s horror with quite the enthusiasm that I've embraced 70s horror, I enjoyed it a great deal. The performances were strong almost across the board, with Mary Woronov in particular giving a wonderfully creepy performance, given her limited time on screen -- seriously, what an amazing career that lady's had! I love her! As to the gruesomeness of the ending? I actually was a little disappointed that it wasn't even more insane than it was, but that disappointed is tempered a bit by the low-boil of suspense that the movie had us in through most of its running time. I went in with some reservations, but I actually really liked it a lot.

The Vampire Lovers: Well, that was certainly something! This is another Hammer Horror movie that weaseled its way into my queue thanks to Dr. K. I'm pretty sure that I would have gotten more out of this if I got anything out of women's breasts. Or women kissing each other. Or women in general. It was well made enough, and the acting was more consistent than Vampire Circus, but it was just a series of women in peril, usually with a breast or two hanging out. They never explain why this elaborate ruse was necessary just for Carmilla to feed, what the point of it was, nor do they bother to explain the waxy man in black, which I hold against the film. That said, it was entertaining enough, just not particularly scary.