Horror Movie Talk

This week we follow up David’s favorite “horror” movie of all time, with my favorite horror movie of all time: The Exorcist. Every time I revisit it, I’m reminded that it truly is a masterpiece.

Synopsis

The Exorcist, if you don’t know, is about an exorcism of a little girl. Regan, played by Linda Blair, is the 12 year old daughter of single mother Chris MacNiel played by Ellen Burstyn. Regan starts complaining about her bed shaking at night, and then as days pass, her personality slowly changes and she starts behaving erratically.

Chris exhausts every medical and psychological avenue, and is still left hopeless as her daughter continues to get worse. Some doctors reluctantly mention Exorcism as an option.

Father Karras, played by Jason Miller, is a reluctant skeptic, but is recruited to perform an exorcism. With the help of an older more experienced exorcist, Father Merrin, played by Max von Sydow, they struggle to expel the demon or demons that are tormenting Regan.

Review of The Exorcist

The Exorcist is the center tentpole of the horror genre for me, and probably for a lot of people. It’s often at the top of best horror movies of all time lists, and for good reason. Some of the themes and scenes from this movie are still genuinely disturbing nearly 50 years after it’s release. It deals with a lot of conscience and subconscious fears about life, reality, and little girls.

A lot of the notoriety about the film comes from it’s marketing and stories of people fainting or leaving the theater. However, it doesn’t owe it’s longevity to these gimmicks, it is still held as one of the best critical and commercial successes in horror.

The special effects might not hold up to modern audiences, but everything else is timeless. The acting is great, the themes are handled maturely, and the director had an unhealthy conviction to get his vision of the story. All of these work together to create a film that has spun off a whole subgenre of exorcism and demonic children.

Score

10/10

The Exorcist

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Final Recommendation

If you are a horror fan, and want to see the original “elevated” horror movie The Exorcist is a must see.

Alien is an incredible movie that did amazing things for horror, sci-fi, and cinema as a whole. It imagined an incredible amount of very real-seeming possibilities for space travel and contact with other life forms that impresses me to this day despite being 41 years old.

Synopsis

Alien is the story of a deep-space commercial towing vehicle, named Nostromo, and it’s crew who are bringing a tremendous amount of ore back to earth. 

There are seven crewmembers and they seem to be mostly blue collar folk, with the exception of the Chief Science Officer, Ash.

They are awoken from stasis following receiving a transmission from a nearby planet and are bound by their contract with “the company” to check it out. 

They discover some eggs near a spaceship crash-site and end up with more alien than they bargained for!

Watch Alien Now

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Review

Alien is one of the most impressive pieces of cinema in history. It set the bar so high for horror and sci-fi that I think it’s still the apex of both. 

Every single aspect of this movie is carefully thought-out and crafted to the highest of standards.

The setting is bleak and cold, very much unlike how space is typically portrayed today, with Guardians galavanting around galaxies and such. It’s completely unforgiving and inhospitable in almost every single way. 

With Dan O’Bannon writing the story and screenplay and Ridley Scott at the helm as the director, this is one of the most accurate and impressive imaginings of the far-flung future as I can find, with much of the tech they dreamed about being in use today. 

The xenomorph is, without a doubt, the coolest and most insane diabolic biological lifeform ever dreamed up. While everyone is very familiar with the xenomorphs at this point, you don’t get to see it almost at all in this movie, even though it seems like you do.

This may be my favorite movie of all time, and is definitely the best horror movie in my book. 

Score

10/10

Final Recommendation

If you don’t have a massive boner during your viewing of Alien, I don’t want to know you. This is a classic that trumps most classics, and should be seen by everyone within the sound of my voice and beyond.

This is a different kind of episode. You can’t see this movie yet, well at least not with some difficulty. This is a feature that I saw at the Portland Horror Film Festival, and it was by far my favorite. This will be available for streaming probably at the end of the year. It’s making the festival run right now, so if you can catch it at one, definitely do.

Synopsis

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die tells the story of mad scientist/surgeon Bill Cortner as he tries to defy the laws of nature and resurrect the dead. In a tragic car accident, Bill’s wife Jan is decapitated and he rushes to save her head with science!

While Jan’s disembodied head begs to die, Bill and his lab assistant Kurt search far and wide for the perfect replacement body for his wife. Preferably one with big’ole titties.

Review of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (2020)

The Brain that Wouldn’t Die is a loving remake to the 1962 film of the same name. You might recognise it from Mystery Science Theater 3000, when they lambasted the original reanimated head-on-a-table film. 

This film is surprisingly faithful to the original with a lot of the original dialogue, but with a distinctly more humorous tone. It’s in the realm of B-Movie homage comedy/horror films like Re-Animator and Young Frankenstein. That may sound like hyperbole, but this film is very similar to those two, and really funny.

Most impressive is how well they pulled off this film with an estimated $80,000 budget. To give you a sense of how little that is, the original that was actually filmed in 1959 had a budget of an estimated $62,000, which would be over half of a million in 2020 dollars.

The lead played by Patrick Green is pitch perfect, and the acting from the rest of the cast really sells the serious, but not serious tone of the movie.

If you would like a more modern take on brains and how they work, check out our review of Possessor Uncut.

Score

8/10

MST3K The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

Since you can’t watch this version, let the MST3k episode tide you over.

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Final Recommendation

Definitely go see it if you can. If you are a fan of Mel Brooks style humor, this is well worth your time to seek out.

Look for it at film festivals near you, and on streaming services later this year.

Spoilers

Mentioned in The Episode

The Lodge is a movie that is heavy in tone and aesthetic, that went to great lengths to disguise the danger and keep the audience guessing as to what or who may be behind the nefarious details of the story.

Synopsis

The Lodge is a story of two families, both with a tragic past that meet to determine who has it worse.

We have the Hall family, who are a fractured family of four, father Richard (Richard Armitage), mother Laura (Alicia Silverstone), older son Aiden (Jaeden Martell), and younger daughter Mia (Lia McHugh). Laura and Richard have clearly been taking a long break from their marriage and this has treated Laura much worse than it has Richard.

We also have Grace (Riley Keough), who is the only surviving member of a now dead, death cult which just so happened to be led by her father. 

Needless to say, both of these families have their fair share of problems. 

As the story unravels, the audience is left guessing as to what and where the danger may be coming from, but the tension is undeniable.

Watch The Lodge

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Review

The Lodge is a very interesting movie for a lot of different reasons. The directors, Severin Fiala, and Veronika Franz made a lot of wonderful choices that put this squarely in my “favorite movies of 2019” box.

The framing and location choices were bleak, cold, and clinical. This is an easy movie to compare to Hereditary based on many of the filming and set styles used. Lots of the shots are on the pretentious side of artistic and that’s just fine by me.

The mood was mostly sad, and strangely dangerous, with the story constantly dangling danger at the periphery of the audiences vision but never quite letting it come fully into the light. 

Just when you think you have a good handle on what is going on, the rug is pulled out from under you, which happens several times in The Lodge.

There is lots of allusions to danger, and coincidences in this slow burn thriller to keep any hardcore thriller fan happy. 

While I had quite a good time with the movie I must say, the content is deadly serious and fairly heavy, which left me with a gross taste in my mouth at the end, but that’s part of the allure.

Here at Horror Movie Talk, we are family people, and have made it very clear that one of the horror elements that work best for us in movies is the breakdown of the family structure, and The Lodge has that in spades.

Score

9/10

The Lodge Spoilers

Click here to expand spoiler for The Lodge

Re-imagining of “The Turn of the Screw”

I didn’t know this going in, but after the 2/3 point I started to realize that I was familiar with this story. The Lodge is a re-imagining of “The Turn of the Screw“.

It’s much better than another “Turn of the Screw” based movie, The Turning, which was released at almost the same time as this movie.

While the characters all have vastly different pretenses for their being in the situation, the story is still very much the same. This story gives a much more contemporary and compelling reason for the caretaker character, who is Grace, and an alarming background to her and the children she is in charge of.

So let’s take a brief look at how The Lodge unfolds and compare that to it’s original counterpart.

The Kid’s Backstory

The movie starts with Laura Hall, the mom, dropping her kids off at their dads house. Richard asks Laura if they can finalize their divorce noting that it’s gone on long enough and heis going to marry Grace in several month. Laura storms out and, in a very shocking scene, commits suicide.

The movie jump-cuts to a “6 months later” screen and we get a sense of how distraught Aiden and Mia really are. They argue with their dad that they don’t want to go to their vacation lodge with Grace because she is crazy.

They are often shown playing with dolls in a playhouse built to look just like the vacation lodge that their family owns. With this playhouse they seem to act out scenes that come true, indicating they are somehow manipulating those around them.

Grace’s Backstory

Grace has an even darker past than the Hall kids. She is the only remaining member of a, now dead, death cult that was led by her father. There is footage shown early in the movie that is shot by a young Grace, finding all of her family and friends dead in this gruesome mass suicide.

How it Comes Together

As Grace and the remaining Hall family settle in to the lodge for Christmas, Richard gets called by work for something urgent, and leaves his fiance Grace in charge of the kids.

At this point we are ever so slowly dipped into hell as a series of inexplicable events turn this lodge into a purgatory of sorts. Everyone’s belongings go missing, the power goes out, even the characters who should die, don’t. The whole while the audience is left guessing at whether it’s the kids, Grace, or something more sinister at work.

Who Did It?

It’s finally revealed that the kids have been messing with Grace the whole time, but while they did, they took away her medication.

Remember, Grace has a seriously fucked up past, so she has some serious demons that she has had to conquer to make it to a seemingly normal life.

Grace is pushed over the edge and retaliates in the most extreme of ways.

Final Recommendations

The Lodge is one of the slowest burns I have seen since Gretel and Hansel, but I enjoyed this even more than that. If thrillers and extremely dark subject matter are your thing, this is a fabulous movie.

If you are squeamish when it comes to emotions or the family unit being torn apart, steer clear.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser is a transgressive journey into a world where the lines between ecstasy, pain, heaven, and hell are blurred. It stands as a unique counterpoint to the one-note slashers of the 1980s.

Synopsis

Hellraiser is about a psycho sexual sadist named Frank that seeks out a personal pandora’s box. He believes that by opening the mysterious puzzle box, he will get everything he ever wanted in life. Turns out he was mistaken and he didn’t end up liking eternal pain in Hell. Whodathunk?

When Frank’s brother Larry and his wife Julia arrive at the family house that Frank mysteriously disappeared from, flashbacks reveal that Frank made his brother a cuckold by sleeping with Julia.

When Larry accidentally cuts his hand and bleed on the floor of the attic, he inadvertently helps Frank begin resurrecting himself.

When a mostly goo Frank is discovered by Julia, he recruits her to bring sacrificial singles in their area so that he can become a real boy.

The only thing standing in their way is Frank’s niece Kristy, and the hell-demon Cenobites that seek to recapture him.

Review of Hellraiser

This film is Clive Barker’s best film, and it is a unique mix of family dysfunction, sex, sadism, and gore.

At times it feels like a 50’s melodrama, other times like a nightmare, and sometimes like torture porn.

The tone that it sets is hard to put a finger on, but it is definitely dark and icky.

The surreal imagery and goopy special effects are really the best parts of the film.

The acting isn’t particularly great, but the imagery and themes of the film overwhelm any shortcomings it has.

Score

9/10

Hellraiser

Add Hellraiser to your collection or stream it now.

Buy/Rent Hellraiser

We watched tremors and I have to say that this may be the epitome of a made-for-TV-movie feeling movie. I’ve seen it 20 times and I’ll see it 20 more during my life, and that’s a good thing.

Synopsis

Tremors follows Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) in their attempt to leave Paradise Valley, Nevada, while doing odd jobs and handyman work. As they make their way up and down the valley between odd jobs and quirky small-town characters they begin to notice a string of seemingly related ground-level killings. 

Upon meeting up with a grad student, Rhonda (Finn Carter) who is doing some important if timely seismic research, they learn that there are a bunch of little earthquakes – or tremors – happening all over the valley. 

Before they jump the gun on declaring that there is a 100 foot tall, 200 ton serial killer on the loose, they find evidence of a subterranean suspect. A worm of sorts. 

The rest of the movie is spent running for their lives from an unlikely, if terrifying phenomena with a ton a quirky townsfolk.

Watch Tremors Now

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Review

Tremors, by director Ron Underwood, is one heck of a solid movie. It’s basically a monster movie, but it feels a bit more like an action-thriller to me because of all the action and adventure that takes place, along with lots of changes of scenery and methods.

Tremors is a nearly perfect movie in terms of it’s script, who we have S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock to thank for . Everything that is said or mentioned is followed-up on or ruled-out at some point in the movie. Almost nothing extraneous or unneeded is mentioned, and all the characters play a wonderful role in making Paradise Valley a believable place.

Maybe the best part of Tremors is it’s intense focus on the characters instead of the monster. Sure, we see the monster but the focus of every scene is on the characters and getting the audience to empathize with them. This forces a pivot in the otherwise fucked-out monster movie paradigm. It’s why Jaws was great, and it’s probably no coincidence that this is essentially a Jaws remake – even down to the movie poster. 

It’s terrifically ironic that a movie that focused so much on the characters instead of the monster spawned five completely monster-focused sequels that lack most of the charm of the first, with exception of the second movie, Tremors II : Aftershocks.

Many horror skeptics will say that this movie is not a true horror movie noting the goofy fun and light ambiance, but I beg to differ. Not only is Tremors definitely a horror movie, it’s the most important kind of horror movie – entry level horror. 

This is the stuff that I watched as a little kid and sent me scrambling for the rocks. It hooked my pint sized imagination and lit up every corner, making me wonder if it really was safe to play tag on the playground or if I should seek the high-ground.

Tremors is interesting, has wonderful tension, and most importantly is fun as any movie you will ever watch. 

Score

8/10

What Makes Tremors so Great?

From an entertainment and rewatchability standpoint this is a bit of a sleeper, but upon review, it holds up quite well. a big part of this is the horror aspect mixed with good, old fashioned humor.

Humor in Tremors

The humor in this movie is goofy, and downright wholesome, but it’s good enough to make you smile on every viewing. The wholesomeness of an early 90’s feel good sitcom mixed with the horror elements of Jaws really works.

It’s directly responsible for the late success of the movie on television. In theaters, Tremors did poorly with a 5 million dollar take on what cost 11 million to make. But the real success of this movie kicked in with syndication on cable TV. I watched it probably 20 times on TV because it was fun, funny, and always on.

You Can’t Beat Burt!

Burt (Michael Gross) and Heather (Reba McEntire) Gummer are just as much the leading actors as Val and Earl in this one, and how couldn’t they be? They are preppers and gun enthusiasts without being insane, instead just a little quirky.

You probably know a Burt, which is what makes this character so fun. But the character of Burt isn’t so over-the-top as to make him not human. He’s passionate, but not a caricature.

Burt brings the boom in this movie, and it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Graboids are Awesome

In my personal experience, it’s rare for monster design to work out well. It’s even rarer to have monster reveals work out well, but in this, Graboids are handled perfectly!

The monster design is simple, believable enough that it’s not totally jarring (unlike Pumpkinhead), and the presentation is fabulous.

Each Graboid is killed in a totally different way, but they follow the same rules. For example, the first one that is killed runs into a concrete wall while chasing our protagonists. This perfectly sets up the last Graboid kill, where Val runs toward a cliff and uses a bomb thrown behind the creature to scare it to make the jump onto the rocks far below.

The movie increases the tension before even first showing our worm like friends, which sets up the reveal quite well.

What Tremors Gets Wrong

So, it’s not all great, but what is? The worst aspect of this movie is definitely the musical score.

Bad Music Makes a Big Difference

I’ve talked a bit about how this movie is very similar to Jaws, and that’s mostly to it’s advantage, but they got it wrong in terms of music.

OK, I get it, it’s hard to stand-up to one of the best musical scores of all time, but man, you have to try! Tremors soundtrack digs deep into that 90’s sitcom bin of pop-country jazz riffs and pulls out the most goofy music you can imagine. A part of me says it works for nostalgia, but that’s the same part that cringes at nostalgia.

Ernest Troaost wrote the original soundtrack, but they only ended up using it for a few spots in the movie, most notably at the beginning and end. The good, suspenseful bits that are actually effective but not quite iconic were later written by Robert Folk.

Final Recommendations

This is the most crowd friendly movie that we have reviewed, even more so than Gremlins. Tremors is a very light-fair, action-thriller that goes easy on the cussing and sexual themes in favor of tension and violence that the whole family can enjoy.

If you haven’t seen this, you absolutely must.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a fictionalized, and harrowing vérité portrayal of real life serial Henry Lee Lucas. This is a movie that will stick with you and make you feel dirty. We’ve been sitting on this review for a while, but are excited that it is finally seeing the light. We recorded it back in September of 2019 to be a backup episode when we needed to take a week off. Turn’s out, we rarely take a week off.

Synopsis

Henry played by Michael Rooker,  is serial killer constantly on the move, but is momentarily staying with his former cell mate Otis (Tom Towles). Also living with them is Otis’ out of state sister Becky (Tracy Arnold). She flys in to escape her abusive boyfriend and to try to find work to bring her daughter down to live with her.

The drama in the film is in the interaction between these three characters. The trio is a powder keg trauma, sociopathy, and victimhood. However, as the title of the film suggests suggests, the main purpose of the plot is to paint a stark and unflinching portrait of Henry as a serial killer.

Review of Henry

This is one of those films that feels a little too real. Even though it is definitely a narrative driven Hollywood film, it shows the realities of killing in such plain detail that it almost feels like a documentary.

When I told David about this movie I described it as “Taxi Driver, but without the touchy feely parts”.

You are thrust into a world of people that are deeply broken and are dangerous to each other and themselves. 

It feels like a snuff film, mainly because within it, is a snuff film.

Watch Henry Now

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Henry reminds me of a couple of my favorite movies in terms of subject matter and tone. First is David Fincher’s Seven, and even more so, Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. It’s a film that sticks with you and makes you feel dirty just watching it. This is because unlike most narrative driven Hollywood movies, this one has no glamour or spin. It is full of dread and terror even in scenes that on the surface are innocuous. 

It is undeniably a great film, just from the fact that I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it and it deeply affected me. 

Score

10/10

Spoilers

Scream is maybe the best slasher ever made. It’s also the horror movie of the 90’s in every way that you can imagine. More than that, it’s a meta take on the genre of slashers.

Synopsis for Scream

Scream is the story of a bunch of 20 somethings that haven’t managed to graduate high-school yet and their quiet town of Woodsboro that has a serial killer problem and its fair share of quirky characters.

Our main girl Sydney, whose mother was murdered a year ago loses a friend to a horrific double homicide and quickly becomes the focus of the deranged and seemingly horror movie obsessed killer. 

As the killer cuts a swath of … killings… through the town the very old teens begin to realize that they are dealing with someone who strictly follows the rules of slasher flicks. And they end up with more death then they bargained for.

Watch Scream

on Amazon

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Review

Directed by Wes Craven and sporting an impressively sexy and notable cast, Scream defined and poked fun at horror movies for the casual movie going audience. It was one of the most easily accessible horror movies of my generation, being mainstream enough that parents all around the world wanted to watch it, which meant kids got to watch it too.

While it was accessible, it was also shocking and legitimately disturbing because it focused on uncontrollable teens as the killers – who doesn’t find that scary?

Not to mention, Scream was released in 1996, a mere three years before the Columbine school shooting, edging out reality by mere inches.

It is the most solid slasher I have ever seen – it’s disturbing when it’s supposed to be, fun when it’s supposed to be, and has a fabulous premise.

Score

8/10

Spoilers

Scream is an impressive who-dun-it, that throws an interesting and disturbing twist in at the end.

As it turns out, Billy and Stuart, the movie obsessed hot-heads, have been doing the killings in tandem for shits and giggles, but also because Sidney’s mom slept with Billy’s dad and caused his parents to break-up.

The thing that really gets me about this movie is the dedication to self-harm between Billy and Stuart to avoid having the finger pointed at them as part of their master plan.

When they start stabbing each other and willingly taking severe damage, it upsets me to my core. There is something about watching two people who are emphatically engaged in nearly killing each other but not in a fight, on purpose, that is so sick and twisted.

Couple that with the excitement they have about re-enacting their favorite horror movie killers – it’s just gross.

Final Recommendations

Scream is a solid movie and it’s probably the best slasher I have ever seen. I have to say, if you haven’t seen it, you must. It’s a 90’s nostalgia machine that will leave everyone with something to think about at night.

Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s
premiere horror genre film festival, is going virtual! Horror Fans can
soak up over 60 short and feature films over the 6 night event
beginning June 10th with the first shorts block and a preview of the
festival’s upcoming features. The terror continues June 17-21st with
more short and feature films from around the world.

In the midst of this pandemic, some businesses are finally starting to
re-open, but there is no way to know when theaters in Portland will
finally open, and how many people will be allowed inside once they do.
Many events have had to postpone again and again due to this uncertain
timeline.

Festival Directors Brian and Gwen Callahan believe the right thing to
do is follow the lead of amazing festivals like Fantasia and CFF, and
present Portland Horror Film Festival as a dynamic streaming event for
horror fans all over the US. While going virtual creates challenges
for the festival, independent filmmakers, and distributors, the
directors believe it is important to continue to evangelize
independent film and show the year’s best horror films to the
community. Rather than cancel or postpone the festival until things
are “safe”, which only increases the stress and uncertainty of these
times, going forward with a streaming event offers important relief
and a sense of stability to horror fans who are stuck at home. Beyond
helping horror filmmakers and fans, ticket sales will also benefit the
historic non-profit Hollywood Theatre, the seat of independent cinema
in Portland, which is currently closed due to the pandemic.

All films will be integrated into carefully curated nightly shows and
securely streamed during limited event hours for ticketed audience
members. Because a film festival is more than just watching movies,
nightly programming will feature both pre-recorded and live content,
including film introductions, interviews with horror icons, and live
filmmaker Q&As that the audience can take part in. “Our goal is to
foster the sense of community that makes our fest so magical, with a
fun and eventful stage and screen show… just on a virtual stage,”
said Brian Callahan.

This year’s feature film lineup opens on Wednesday, June 17th with
Wild Boar, starring Augie Duke and Daniel Roebuck as geocachers who
quest for a legendary treasure, only to end up as fodder for mutant
pig-men. Wild Boar was written and directed by Oscar winner Barney
Burman, known for his makeup effects on JJ Abrams’s Star Trek,
Zombieland: Double Tap, and the TV series Grimm. Thursday’s double
feature kicks off with Sunset on the River Styx, a surrealist and
contemplative story of two lovers who fall into a vampire death cult,
from writer/director Aaron Pagniano, winner of the Funny Bone Award
for last year’s horror comedy short “We Got a Monkey’s Paw.” Come for
the vampires, but stay for the zombies! Witness Infection is a
hilarious tale of mobsters and zombies directed by Andy Palmer,
written by Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911) and Jill-Michele Meleán (MadTV,
Reno 911), who star alongside Robert Belushi, Vince DonVito, Erinn
Hayes (Children’s Hospital), and Tara Strong (Rick and Morty). Don’t
miss fan-favorite Justin Harding’s Making Monsters, The Curse of
Valburga from Slovenia, with its hilarious splatterfest of
international tourist stereotypes and jaw dropping kill scenes, Uncle
Peckerhead with its punk-rock demon action, written and directed by
Matthew John Lawrence, winner of the 2016 Funny Bone Award for his
horror comedy short “Larry Gone Demon,” and the World Premiere of The
Brain That Wouldn’t Die, a crowdfunded love letter to the 1962
B-movie, filmed here in Portland.

Short film offerings include a wide variety of seriously terrifying,
thoughtful, funny, and Weird films from all over the world, including
the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Iran, The
Netherlands, France, Spain, Canada, the UK, and the US. Fans of the
bizarre will want to tune in Saturday night for the “Shorts Gone Wild”
block of the most unhinged films on offer.

Even if you’re not in Portland, you can immerse yourself in the
experience with a Deluxe Patron of Horror Ticket Package that includes
an exclusive t-shirt, souvenir lanyard, and a Portland Horror Face
Mask, so you can forage for toilet paper in style!

For more information on tickets, deluxe packages, and the festival –
please visit https://portlandhorrorfilmfestival.com/

Buy tickets through Hollywood Theater’s website here: https://hollywoodtheatre.org/events/portland-horror-film-festival-2020/

You can join the Facebook Event at
https://www.facebook.com/events/2774301782590900/

Candyman 2020 was supposed to be coming out in theaters this week, but that obviously isn’t happening. To tide over your sweet tooth for Candyman, we’ll be reviewing the original this week. Also in this week’s episode of Horror Movie Talk, we discuss our new logo, play a new game, and read comments from social media from listeners like you.

Synopsis

The film follows grad student Helen Lyle as she researches for her thesis on urban legends. When she stumbles across the legend of Candyman, whose story seems to be alive and thriving in the poverty stricken projects of Chicago. The legend involves an African American, Bloody Mary-eque apparition that appears when his name is called in front of a mirror. Instead of the three “Bloody Mary’s”, you must say Candyman five times, in some sort of supernatural 3/5ths compromise.

When the skeptical Helen calls Candyman five times in her mirror, she seals her fate and is led through a terrifying journey to discover the reality of the film’ boogey man.

Review of Candyman (1992)

Candyman is impactful, and multifaceted. Tony Todd is an instant icon in horror with his unique silhouette and hypnotic disembodied baritone voice. 

There is an uneasy balance between Candyman being a sympathetic and seductive figure, and that of being the realization of some deep seated racist fears. While watching this, my wife pointed out that some of the racist connotations of the plot, and my knee jerk reaction was to defend the film and say she was grasping at straws.

But as time went on… there was actually a compelling argument to be made for it relying on long held racist stereotypes about the dangers of black men.

Regardless, it’s a compelling gothic horror tale told well with the backdrop of nineties urban Chicago. Candyman is an iconic monster, and is one of the best horror movies on the topic of an urban legend.

Watch Candyman Now

Watch on Amazon

Click here to Watch

Score

8/10

Final Recommendations

This is definitely a nineites horror movie that is worth seeing. While it’s not perfect, it does create a great mythology and monster in Candyman.

Mentioned in the Episode