Hannibal Lecter and his doll, the great Joe Spinell, Kevin Bacon see's ead people, and the hills have new eyes...
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| The 70's |
Magic (1978)- To see a then-obscure
Anthony Hopkins starring in a
Horror flick about a man and his killer ventriloquist dummy, is an oddly compelling thing to say the least. There's always something unsettling about
Horror movies that involved dolls; whether they're "alive" or just sitting on a shelf in a creepy room, they're just scary as hell. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that dolls are even creepier than clowns. This movie is a subtle, psychologically terrifying little gem, that will definitely unnerve you if you're scared of dolls. Or
Anthony Hopkins. Especially if you're scared of both.
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| The 80's |
Maniac (1980)- Ah,
Joe Spinell; he played
Cicci in the
Godfather I&II,
Gazzo in
Rocky I&II, and an utterly insane killer in
Maniac. He is truly creepy, unsettling, and dare I say brilliant to watch in this role. It's bloody, disturbing, and makes me never want to see another mannequin wearing bloody human scalps again. The
classic Tom Savini "shotgun scene" is also in this. Great movie, a must see/own. (*Fun trivia; The corpse at the end is the corpse of Jason's mother from
Friday the 13th. Also, the song
Maniac, from
Flashdace, was originally the movie's theme song, but with harsher lyrics. I'm not shitting you at all here, folks.)
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| The 90's |
Stir of Echoes (1999)- This is a well made, smart, creepy little supernatural thriller... and it has
Kevin Bacon in it. How can you not love that guy, especially when he is having creepy visions of dead people? I didn't expect much form this one, as most movies like this tend to suck, but this one didn't suck at all. Just think of this as
Footloose, minus the dancing and cool soundtrack, and full of murder, rape and ghosts.
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| The 2000's |
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)- Remakes. I am not usually for them, and am usually pretty vocal about it. This one however, actually improved on the original; the new version is bloody, balls-out, tense and an overall visual treat.
Wes Craven's original is still great in many ways, but
Alexandre Aja's version continued where his 2003 classic,
High Tension left off , and proved that he is a director to watch in the genre. The movie works on basically all levels. I really love it when a Horror movie can be brutal and unrelenting, especially these days, and that's why this remake gets my seal of approval.
See you tomorrow with #27...
The Hills Have Eyes was creepy as hell, and I did not know that "Maniac" was originally going to be the theme song, that would have made it even awesomer.
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