If you have been watching closely, you may notice that streaming platforms, pay channels, and cable networks rely on hit movies for the bulk of their replays. Try to find some of your favorites outside the mainstream on Netflix, for example, and you’re likely to find mostly films made since streaming itself started to be a thing. Starz has been one monthly pay channel option that is slowly bringing back more obscure films from the past 50 years, films like Outland and Wolfen. Another you may have missed is Let Me Infrom a decade ago, another of those rare genre-bending films that–if you’re lucky enough to just stumble across it–is the kind of film to remind you why you love genre films. It stars twelve-year-old actors Chloe Grace Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee in powerful breakout performances, the same year Moretz would deliver one of the big screen’s best superheroine performances as the cute but foul-mouthed Hit Girl in the movie Kick-Ass with Nicolas Cage, and just after Smit-McPhee would co-star in the dystopian film The Road with Viggo Mortenson.
Is it horror, an early 1980s coming-of-age tale, a love story, crime-suspense, a story of an abusive father, or something more (as Starlord might say, “a bit of both”?). If you enjoy not knowing what genre of film you’re jumping into, this is for you. Like Midnight Special, Skeleton Key, 12 Monkeys, and The Others, much of the film will creep by before you even have any certainty as to what is “really” going on. Writer-director Matt Reeves, who brought audiences the Cloverfield series and the latest Planet of the Apes movies and is working on The Batman for 2021, mixes some truly dramatic moments into Let Me In, while also adding the next must-watch for coming of age movies, suspense-thrillers, horror, and romance. Just as James Mangold delivered a father-daughter love story in Logan, Reeves puts his own stamp on a compelling tale of a boy and the girl next door.
The clues Reeves delivers along the way will be more obvious to some than others. Donnie Darko, Fargo, Logan, The Outsiders–Don’t be surprised if Reeves’ deftly drawn scenes evoke feelings from all sorts of big films. Disturbing, poignant, triumphant, chilling. You might even get twisted into feeling a certain sympathy for one of the film’s creepier characters. A police detective played by Elias Koteas(Shooter, Zodiac, Gattaca) will have you think you’re following Mark Ruffalo’s character in another Zodiac movie.
It’s no secret I’m a big fan of ghost stories, and I’ve lamented before how hard they are to find among all the slasher horror gore fest flicks that pass for scary fare these days. So I’m always excited to stumble across a new one on film. One such recent discovery is Vincenzo Natali’s quiet Canadian production Haunter, starring Abigail Breslin (Maggie, Ender’s Game, Signs), Peter Outerbridge (Orphan Black, Nikita), Michelle Nolden (RED, Lost Girl, Everwood, Nero Wolfe), and veteran TV fixture Stephen McHattie (Adam-12, Kojak, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, Quantum Leap, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Haven, Watchmen, 300, A History of Violence).
It’s 1984, and Lisa Johnson (Breslin) feels stuck in a rut: Every day is just like the next. Just like the next, and she’s the only one in her family of four who’s noticed. The same Walkie-Talkie wakeup call from little brother Robbie (Peter DaCunha), the same pancake breakfast, the same friendly quarrel with Mom (Nolden) over the same load of laundry. (“I did the laundry yesterday. You just don’t remember that I did.”) Wearily she trudges though clarinet practice, Dad fixing the car in the garage, a conversation about a birthday celebration that never comes, and the same episode of Murder She Wrote. Until one morning, she’s startled Awake by a creepy noise in the laundry room, and discovers that her house, and her family, are at the heart of a long history of dark secrets. And another girl—another family—needs Lisa’s help, if she’s ever to escape the time loop.
Many parts of Haunter will feel familiar, maybe even derivative—but that’s OK. In some parts it feels like a remake of The Others, and there are echoes of The Ring and every knockoff of Groundhog Day you’ve ever seen. (See one of our early takes on time loops at borg.comhere). But it works, and it works well. Lisa’s world is tightly focused and claustrophobic, and her navigation of several parallel timestreams is seamless and gripping. Director Natali, known for his work on projects including Orphan Black, The Returned, Hannibal, and The Strain, has richly layered the film with finely wrought symbolism, from the leitmotifs of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” playing throughout, to Lisa’s Souxie and the Banshees concert T, to the dark fairytale iconography Lisa must wade through to learn the truth.
Victorian gothic romance directed by Guillermo del Toro with ghosts? Yes, please.
But unlike previous Gothic haunts like Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Watcher in the Woods, The Others, or Wolfman, genre favorite director del Toro is amping up the gore and violence in Crimson Peak, his latest and–reportedly–the greatest of his trademark visually spectacular fantasies so far.
And it adds another movie to that sub-genre of horror we keep talking about featuring creepy little girls.
Not for the faint of heart, check out this trailer for Crimson Peak, after the break:
That’s right, Halloween is almost here. This year we’ve been able to obtain an interview with one of the best horror writers around. Who will it be? Check back here on Halloween for a special borg.com interview.
For many, this week means tracking down spooky shows on Netflix, cable, or in the theaters. Back in 2011 the four borg.com writers posted each of their top favorite Halloween flicks. Since 2011 new films that fit the genre continue to be made, like The Woman in Blackreviewed here last year, but there was also a few to skip, like Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows and John Cusack in The Raven. This year we were impressed by the totally fun and totally watchableAbraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, and the over-the-top but fun Hansel &Gretel: Witch Hunters. There are plenty of opportunities to get your fix of dark, spooky, creepy, or just plain scary movies.
One film available on Netflix we haven’t reviewed yet here at borg.com is 2009’s Orphan, which should appeal to fans of The Others and Skeleton Key. Orphan stars Bates Motel’s Vera Farmiga and Skeleton Key’s Peter Sarsgaard as a couple adopting a third child into their family, played by the brilliant young actress Isabelle Furhman. It also features Warehouse 13’s CCH Pounder and Genelle Williams–both as nuns. Orphan is excellently creepy and an all-around good thriller worth checking out. And speaking of Vera Farmiga, if you haven’t been watching Bates Motel, you should. It’s a great creepy spin-off of Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Season 1 is available now on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.
Here is the link to our Halloween movie series from 2011 where you can view all of our recommendations. Some of the staples of Halloween horror did not make our lists, like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Saw, Scream, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, Poltergeist, Nightmare on Elm Street, or Amityville Horror. Jawsgot our joint highest ranking, making three of our lists, and The Shining, The Exorcist, The Exorcist 3, Watcher in the Woods, The Ring,and Paranormal Activity seem to rise above the rest, showing up on two lists. Seaside locales were the favorite location for scares, with Jaws, Rebecca, The Birds, The Ring, The Fog (both the original and remake) all taking place there, and creepy little girls are the favorite subject of–count ‘em–NINE of our haunts (The Ring, The Exorcist, Let Me In, Paranormal Activity 3, Watcher in the Woods, The Sixth Sense,The Shining, Turn of the Screw,and The Others). And we can now add Orphan and The Woman in Blackto that creepy assembly. (We Are What We Are was due out this year–another creepy little girl story, but it’s only been released in the UK so far). For us the supernatural won out over monsters, saws and axes. Four movies were by John Carpenter, three by Alfred Hitchcock. The oldest movie was Rebecca from 1940, the newest came out in 2011, Paranormal Activity 3. And look, we’ve got another one of those available now, too.
Happy Halloween watching, and don’t forget to come back to see what we have in store Thursday!
With a television series featuring Doctor Who and Arrow’s Alex Kingston, Life on Mars’s Dean Andrews, Luke Skywalker’s pal Wedge Antilles, and the lead actress from Attack the Block, you just can’t go wrong. And it’s really hard to beat an old British cottage near the woods as the setting when you’re creating a ghost story. Add to it one of borg.com’s most discussed subjects: a movie about a creepy little girl, and you’re in for a good show. That could not be more true than with the UK mini-series Marchlands. UK production company ITV and 20th Century Fox created an expertly constructed five-part, supernatural drama mini-series that traverses three families living in different eras in the same British house.
Marchlands first aired in the UK in 2010, but it hasn’t been released in the States yet. In fact the only way to view it is to buy it from a British online retailer along with a DVD player that will play DVDs from Europe. Along with watching all the other series from the UK long before they cross the lake to America, going the extra mile to get access to these series is well worth the effort.
Jason McClain is a big fan of Ed Brubaker’s writing. He’s mentioned his appreciation for Brubaker’s Sleeper books here at borg.com more than once. So when I saw the enticing noir cover art on the first issues of the new series Fatale, I figured this was a good place to start. I picked up Issues 1 and 3-5 and it took me awhile to track down #2 so I only this week could read the first story arc straight through. The new story arc starts with the next issue, coming out soon.
Based on the noir covers I was looking forward to what I have found in my favorite film noir–Otto Preminger’s Laura, Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, Dial “M” for Murder and Vertigo, Jimmy Stewart in Call Northside 777, also Sorry, Wrong Number, Elizabeth C. Bunce’s fantasy noir Liar’s Moon, and in a strange way, even the voiceover version of Blade Runner. For the most part these are all crime noir stories. A dangerous damsel–the Femme Fatale as in Double Indemnity–plus a Dana Andrews-looking character in a gray fedora who is usually a cop or newspaper reporter, and a dangerous city full of secrets and dark, wet streets–all of this is the stuff of noir. But I was thinking about this all wrong. I had no idea Ed Brubaker and artist partner Sean Phillips were creating a supernatural 1950s pulp horror/thriller, not a noir pulp crime novel. None of my favorite film noir has anything supernatural so from only a few pages in I was thrown a bit. Fatale is noir, but it is just as much supernatural horror. So I read the story once and was confused a bit. Then I figured out what genre I was reading and read it again.
If you like supernatural horror and you like the 1950s underworld as your setting, Fatale is a very interesting read–almost like revisiting a lost story type. The supernatural bits remind me of the TV series Medium, which often contained surprisingly dark and gory crime moments juxtaposed with the lives of good, caring people. Same goes here. Like the movie Skeleton Key, where a man and woman use voodoo to switch bodies and live forever, and like Rosemary’s Baby and The Others, Fatale’s characters are sucked into shocking and frightening situations and as readers we aren’t supposed to know all that is going on until the end.
Fatale has the requisite fascination of an otherwise boring man with an attractive, inaccessible, mysterious woman. Nicolas Lash meets Josephine at the funeral of his godfather, Hank Raines. Raines once knew Josephine back in the 1950s. She’s blackmailed by a detective in the 1950s world of the story, Walt Booker, and both Josephine and Walt have this unnatural power over each other. Is Josephine a “pusher” in the X-Files sense or does she just bring out something in others innocently? What are these occult priestly fellows in red showing up dead everywhere and this fanged beast who kills Raines’ wife? I’d need a few more re-reads to really catch the complexity of what happened here. Each issue from #2 on has a lead-in paragraph at the beginning to explain what happened in the prior issue. I found myself puzzled by these summaries, as in “oh, is that what happened last issue?” Since I read these through in one sitting, I’d think I shouldn’t be surprised by a summary of what I just read, yet I was. Usually if stories suffer it’s through too much “telling” and not enough “showing.” Here I think this story has the reverse problem, but only a bit, and could stand to explain a little more plainly what the heck is going on with the mass suicide, magic dagger, old novel script and some pile of papers that need translating. At times I felt I was totally in sync with the story–there was a 1960s James Bond aura at different points along the way that created a cool vibe. Then with the symbology and strange beast who was also a leader that looked like Hitler, I was out of sync again.
Without question, the best part ofFatale is Sean Phillips’ 1950s style art. If I wasn’t following a scene from the dialogue then I could usually get there with the visual storytelling. Fatale looks like the noir I’d expect to see, for most of the scenes. Dave Stewart’s coloring creates a world familiar to fans of Edward Hopper’s paintings. I think the storytelling has some jarring moments, however. Things like expletives that seem out-of-place and -time bothered me here. It could be because, even if people used expletives in the real 1950s, 1950s movies never did, and so the aura of 1950s drama seems more accessible to me than what might have been real-life lingo (although I refuse to believe folks in 1950s swear as much as, and with the exact same colorful metaphors as, we have today as this work reflects). So I love the look of Fatale, but am not sure of how much I like the story and whether I would recommend it to others not familiar with this genre. The “voiceover” parts were quite good (the “it was a dark night in the city when I first met her” kind of thing). Are Brubaker and Phillips’ other works supernatural horror like this? I’d be willing to try more of their works to find out.
Fataledid make me think a lot about characterization, mood, and what makes something a crime novel vs a horror novel vs a supernatural thriller. In a different kind of way, it made me think about complexity of story much as I did reading and watching the Watchmen graphic novel and film adaptation. Anything that makes you think like that is probably a good thing.
Fataleis available at Amazon.com for pre-order in a trade edition titled Death Chases Me.
To be honest, this was a challenging list for me. On the one hand, there is nothing I love better than a really great ghost story, so you’d think I’d be able to rattle off a list of ‘em just like that. But that’s the thing—the really great ones, the ones that well and truly conjure up that perfectly spooky atmosphere and transport me wholly to the Hallowe’en, ahem, spirit… well, they’re pretty rare, actually. I’m a little bit critical; I acknowledge that. But that’s another reason to love these lists: I’m always on the lookout for the next The Others or Watcher in the Woods.
For me, atmosphere is everything. Strike the right spooky ambience in a film, and you can overcome any number of shortcomings—including the total lack of an actual ghost in the story. So here’s an assemblage of ten films that get the mood right, at least, making them excellent viewing when the lights are off and the late October wind howls outside. In no particular order…
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Ok, I hear you. A Harry Potter movie on a Hallowe’en list? Well, bear with me here. Everything franchise-related aside, Azkaban has everything you’d want in a Devil’s Night creep-fest: the redesigned, gothic Hogwarts; the ghostly manifestations of the dementors haunting the castle and campus; the homicidal maniac on the loose; and oh, yes, the werewolf! The film also drips with backstory and dark secrets, another element paramount to a great spook story. And did I mention the werewolf?
2. The Others (2001)
This one is creepy almost without trying. Nicole Kidman plays the harried and pathologically overprotective mother of two light-sensitive children, occupying a remote English manor house in the days following World War II. Though the scares here are primarily psychological, skin-crawling elements abound (what is up with those creepy kids? And those servants! Egad!), and the story has one of the best twist endings you’re likely to find. So pull the blinds, get away from the windows, and watch for the seriously unsettling appearance of The Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, as Kidman’s estranged (or something) husband. I can almost guarantee you’ll want to watch this one again, straight through from the beginning, when it’s over.
3. Watcher in the Woods (1980)
For me, this film is the archetype of everything I want in a ghost story (erm, absent the actual ghost, I mean). This 1980 Disney offering was based on a young adult novel by Florence Engel Randall, but this is a rare case of the film eclipsing (no pun intended!) its source novel. It follows a pair of young American sisters who are renting a haunted English manor house for the summer, and who awaken the property’s chilling secret—and its chilling landlady, Mrs. Ayelsworth (Bette Davis). Many years ago, Ayelsworth’s daughter disappeared from the estate, in a secret ritual her now-grown friends have sworn to keep silent. But the past won’t be buried, and the apparent ghost of Karen Ayelsworth tries desperately to communicate with our heroines. The setting here is pitch perfect, from the foreboding house to a murky lake, to the chapel ruins with ravens stirring through the dead leaves. I loved this movie as a child, and it’s lost almost none of its wonder, atmosphere, and suspense. (Extended DVD scenes notwithstanding.)
4. Rebecca (1940)
This 1940 Best Picture Oscar winner is a faithful rendition of the Daphne du Maurier novel by the same name. Du Maurier’s writing, Alfred Hitchcock’s direction, and George Barnes’s Academy Award-winning cinematography are so skillful and subtle that you will swear you’ve seen the ghost of Rebecca de Winter haunting Manderley yourself—though she makes no actual appearance in the film. While the entire cast (particularly stars Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier,) turned in top-notch performances, the disturbing heart of the film is the unforgettable performance by Star Trek alumna Dame Judith Anderson as the first Mrs. de Winter’s devoted lady’s maid, Mrs. Danvers—the archetype for every creepy British servant to come. This is psychological horror at its best; an exploration of how our own memories are the most frightening ghosts to put to rest.
5. Skeleton Key (2005)
I’ll admit that I didn’t enjoy this film as much as I wanted to, but the fact that someone in our house bought the DVD, and our TV is mysteriously tuned to this movie every time it airs on late-night cable, should count for something. Set in rural Louisiana, Skeleton Key drips with Southern Gothic creep-factor: Spanish moss, an old plantation dank with rot, an aging Southern belle, evocative voodoo set-dressing, and the unmistakeable tinge of old racism. Add a smart heroine in over her head in something she doesn’t understand, plus a satisfying twist ending, and you’ve got a solid haunter with staying power.
6. The Sixth Sense (1999)
M. Night Shamaylan’s career has been so utterly panned by now that it’s hard to remember that we all loved The Sixth Sense, and couldn’t stop talking about one of the best Gotchas! in horror film history. Debate all you like, but this measured, thoughtful story of a boy with a problem, and the child psychologist who goes to unparalleled lengths to help him, is a mastery of mood, pacing, and misdirection. You can watch it as a straightforward drama, and it’s a perfectly solid film. The characters are skillfully drawn and acted with sincerity and subtlety, and you feel for the plight every single one of them is going through: the haunted boy, the caring therapist who can’t understand that his marriage is over, the lonely wife, and the desperate mother struggling to understand her troubled son. But it’s in the moments we peek inside the child’s terrifying world that the horror of this story comes home, and whether or not you see dead people (or saw the ending from a mile away), you know you were a little skittish walking into your kitchen alone.
7. The Ring (2002)
In the immortal words of Bravo’s Hundred Scariest Movie Moments, “There’s nothing creepier than a decrepit eight-year-old.” And while the combined lists on borg.com seem to bear that out, this is the decrepit eight-year-old you definitely don’t want to see climbing out of your TV late at night. It’s not immediately obvious why this adaptation of the classic Japanese thriller is so frightening—is it the disturbing iconography in the underground video? The ghoulish backstory? The jarring cinematography and special effects?—but it all adds up to seriously unsettling viewing. Bolstered by a strong mystery, a determined and believable lead, and the chilling ordinariness of her investigation, the contrasting horror seems all the more convincing, no matter how far-fetched a haunted videotape may sound. Trust me: you’ll be glad you ditched your VCR.
8. The Turn of the Screw (1999)
Henry James’s dark, “are they or aren’t they?” tale of two haunted siblings and the devoted governess desperate to protect them has been baffling audiences for 123 years, but that hasn’t stopped people from making movies out of it. 1961’s The Innocents, penned by no less a scribe than Truman Capote, is considered a modern classic, but this 1999 BBC version starring the brilliantly-cast Jodhi May in all her sloe-eyed anxiety captures all the frightening bewilderment of the original. It’s never entirely clear what’s bothering the children in her care. It could be ghosts, it could be pedophiles, or it could be the overactive imagination of the governess herself—but it’s from that uncertainty that the horror emerges. With no true resolution to the tale—no laying to rest of the ghosts, no cozy denouement now that the danger has passed—The Turn of the Screw is ultimately unsatisfying, leaving you vaguely uncomfortable yet somehow wishing for more.
9. The Fog (2005)
At first glance, there really wasn’t an obvious reason to remake John Carpenter’s classic tale of a seaside town getting a belated and ghostly comeuppance. But unlike ill-considered remakes before and since, The Fog loses nothing in translation—and even manages to surpass the original. One of the most vital elements of a ghost story is arguably its backstory—the chilling past that rises to menace the present—and this 2005 adaptation gets it absolutely right. The story of a town’s ill-gotten fortune at the cost of a doomed ship of lepers comes alive (or undead, at least) in rich period details, elaborate sets and costumes, and a powerful enriched storyline, all of which combine to create a pretty much perfect ghost story.
10. Dead Again (1991)
This may seem an odd choice for a Hallowe’en list, but this 1991 Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson film deftly blends film noir, gothic romance, and the paranormal in a gripping, genre-bending mystery thick with atmosphere and suspense. In two parallel storylines, Dead Again explores a post-war Los Angeles murder mystery that continues to haunt two people into the modern age. Playing dual roles, both Branagh and Thompson excel, first as doomed lovers Roman and Margaret von Strauss, and as their modern counterparts, trying to unravel the secret of how that epic romance ended in a gruesome murder. With its edgy, atmospheric soundtrack racing to a shocking twist ending, Dead Again is another film that will have you hitting the “replay” button on your remote as soon as the end titles roll.
, you should. It’s a great creepy spin-off of Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Season 1 is available now on DVD and Blu-ray from 
, I figured this was a good place to start. I picked up Issues 1 and 3-5 and it took me awhile to track down #2 so I only this week could read the first story arc straight through. The new story arc starts with the next issue, coming out soon.
