Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Eight - The Quiet Ones

I'm a little embarrassed to say that as a long term horror fan, it took me almost until I was twenty-five to see my first Hammer Horror film. Hammer Films, a production company out of the UK is most well-known for making a series of Gothic horror films from the '50s through the '70s featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, and other assorted monsters, in films like House of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, and The Mummy. These reinterpretations of the Universal monster movies of the '30s and '40s are all well worth the watch, and if you happen to catch one of the many directed by Terence Fisher, you are in for a real treat.

Although Hammer continued to produce stories into the 90s, it wasn't until 2010 that they began working in feature films again, with movies like The Woman in Black, Let Me In, and today's pick The Quiet Ones, once again working to create a brand in horror.

The Quiet Ones takes place in Britain in 1974 and follows a university experiment led by Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) who, along with a team of three students, attempt to cause a psychic manifestation from a young woman named Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke). In my opinion the two leads are the best part about the film, as the professor works as leader, father figure, and mad scientist, while the focus of the experiment, Jane, effectively straddles the line of victim or manipulator through the majority of the film. In addition the film has a fun use of the camera-as-viewer, as one of the main characters has been brought in to document the experiments, about 50% of the footage seen comes from his camera.

Where the film lost me was it's reliance on obvious tropes (pretty much the entire third act had little to no surprises for me), and an unfortunate use of CGI in the film looked fairly ridiculous - and was also fairly unnecessary - over the summer I've been watching the web series Marble Hornets which uses video film tracking errors and distortion to a much greater effect than the CGI in this film.

It was a pretty good horror movie, but no, I won't be keeping it.

RIP Michael Gough

Tonight I’m off to see the Nation Live Theatre Production of Frankenstein, starring Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, and as I probably wouldn’t have a lot of time to come up with a post I decided to check my usual newsfeeds for anything I could comment on.

Then I read that Michael Gough had passed away at the age of 94. Wow.

Like most kids my age (I was 13 in 1989) I was introduced to Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth in Tim Burton’s Batman. Even though I spent a lot of the film fixated on Batman and the Joker, I had to admit that Alfred was a pretty cool dude.

Over the last twenty-two years I’ve come across his work in everything from comedies like Top Secret! to appearances in the Hammer Horror films and even The Avengers (the ‘60s series I watched a few months back) – also a quick note for my BFF Mike – he was married to a Doctor Who companion for a while as well.

To be honest it was my interest in seeing a younger Alfred that led me to Horror of Dracula, which led me to checking out Curse of Frankenstein, which led me to the show I’m checking out tonight, I guess that just shows the effect a really good actor can have on you.

He’ll be missed.

Movie Review: Four From Hammer Horror

Back in June I posted about my explorations of the films from Hammer Horror with a review of Horror of Dracula. Over the last week my online rental service sent me four more Hammer Horror films, so here is a quick impression of the films I saw.

The Mummy (1959)

This film is actually a lot closer to the recent remakes than the original Universal film - you've got the Mummy himself, looking like the classic bandaged creature rather than the completely human looking Boris Karloff and even better Peter Cushing as a young, driven, and basically a nice guy (very different than his Baron Frankenstein).

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Far and away my favourite of the lot, this film had everything I love in vampire movies - great atmosphere, an effective score, a sense of dread, and even though it had a ridiculously fake vampire bat - I have to say it tops the list for coolest vampire kill I've ever seen in a motion picture. I will definitely be purchasing this movie.

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

This one was actually pretty cool as it was adapted from the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore, which I read last year, and kept remarkably true to the original story (except it was set in Spain rather than Paris), a lot of fun, and you get to see a very young Oliver Reed.

The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

Although considered a bomb when the film was originally released, I was impressed with the fact that the studio did actually ensure that a film taking place in an opera house had an actual opera being performed in the film. The creature effects were cool and I loved Michael Gough as a villain (although to me he'll always be Alfred Pennyworth).

By the way, after my last post I got a comment from the folks over at the Watching Hammer blog and after checking it out, I've got to say that I can't think of a better place to start if you are looking to explore the many films from the folks at Hammer.

Things I've Noticed: Hammer Horror is pretty cool

Over the years I’ve watched a lot of horror, as a little kid I watched whatever I could find on television, then as a teen I made my way through the standards of a kid growing up in the ‘80s (Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Lost Boys), and as I grew up I began exploring all sorts of aspects of the genre in film, from world cinema (if you haven’t seen it, the 2006 Korean film The Host is probably my favourite monster movie of the last 10 years) to the silent film and Universal classic monster movies.

For whatever reason, I had never got around to the Hammer films before last year. I knew they were supposed to be high on atmosphere and were considered shocking at the time, but I simply didn’t have access unless I wanted to purchase them. Since I began using an online DVD rental service these films have become available to me and I’ve got to say they’re a lot of fun. So far I’ve seen Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, and Revenge of Frankenstein, and all three of them are definitely worthwhile.

For starters you’ve got some pretty good star power, Christopher Lee (as Dracula and the monster in Curse of Frankenstein) is fantastic, and Peter Cushing (pictured right) is unrepentantly evil in the Frankenstein films, sleeping around and using his creature to clean up after his indiscretions.

Part of what I love about these movies is the ability to simply lose myself in them, the cinematography is brilliant and even though I am very familiar with the source material, I made enough gasps of shock throughout Horror of Dracula that I had my wife laughing at me from across the house.

Next up for me is The Mummy, and so far I’m looking forward to working my way through these films, up to and including the ones with the kung fu vampires from the ‘70s.