33.-37. The Monster Squad, Byzantium, Penda's Fen, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Razor Blade Smile
I'm watching huge numbers of films at the moment, mainly with Joel, and indeed going about all over the place doing lots of cool things as well. Which is awesome, but while I'm managing to record the various trips and adventures on FB at least, there is a big queue of films waiting to have anything at all written about them anywhere. This post is an attempt to address something of that backlog.
33. The Monster Squad (1987), dir. Fred Dekker
Watched with Joel in Whitby on my birthday, and not of course to be confused with The Monster Club (1981). While we should in theory have been able to cast it onto the massive TV on the wall of the apartment where we were staying, unfortunately the wifi was so bad that we actually couldn't, and ended up watching it huddled over his phone instead. Ain't technology marvellous, eh? It's about a bunch of kids who love classic monster movies, and have a club which meets in a clubhouse lined with posters from them. But little do they know, monsters are real, and Dracula is busy gathering together / resurrecting his own squad of monstrous chums to try to take over the world via the medium of a powerful amulet. They, of course, have to figure out how to stop Dracula and save the world, with the aid of a diary written by Van Helsing exactly a century earlier and a neighbour who lives in a scary, dilapidated old house, but turns out to be very kind and helpful towards them - and is also incidentally a Jewish former concentration camp inmate.
It's fun, silly, and a nice example of the self-referential humour which flourishes within the horror genre. I think in fact that the kids in the squad probably map fairly directly onto the monsters in theirs - e.g. one of them has a dog, which matches up with the Wolfman; Sean, the ring-leader, wears black and red just like Dracula; his little sister develops a special affinity with Frankenstein's monster which is clearly meant to recall the (doomed) friendship between the monster and the little girl by the lake in the original Universal movie, etc. But I was a bit too tired to really put the full details of that together as we were watching. Meanwhile, as Joel pointed out, it has one of the most bad-ass Draculas ever committed to celluloid, who fights practically every other character in the film, lobs live sticks of dynamite about the place, rips the door off his own hearse with his bare hands, etc etc. All good stuff.
34. Byzantium (2012), dir. Neil Jordan
I've watched and written about this before ( LJ / DW), but on my first viewing I had no idea how good it was going to be, so have long wanted to revisit it with the full focus and attention it deserves. Luckily, Joel was amenable to the suggestion. ;-) And it does indeed very much reward a second viewing. There is a great deal in the early scenes which makes fuller sense in the light of what the film later reveals about the characters than it can on a first viewing, such as Clara singing what is clearly a nineteenth-century nursery song to Eleanor in the cab of the lorry as they flee their original location. And so many other clever echoes between the present-day and flash-back scenes, like Eleanor desperately sucking up Frank's blood from a discarded tissue after he has cut himself, followed later by Clara coughing up her own consumptive blood into a similar handkerchief. Having not felt like I did this film justice last time I wrote about it, because it was part of a multi-film catch-up post written long after the fact, I'm annoyingly in much the same position again now. But suffice it to say that I love it, and it remains very comfortably within my top five non-Dracula-based vampire films.
35. Penda's Fen (1974), dir. Alan Clarke
A folk horror classic which I've been wanting to watch for an extremely long time, and therefore put on the birthday present wish-list which I supplied to my family. It's basically about both homosexuality and paganism bubbling up from under attempted suppressions, impossible to eradicate no matter how hard conservative society might try - all of which is obviously immensely appealing. It's surreal, contemplative and very beautifully filmed, and will certainly reward repeated viewings. I also hadn't really taken on board before watching it just how deeply engaged it is with the landscape and history of my native Midlands, what with its setting amongst the Malvern hills (prominent and extremely recognisable in the photography), its interest in the music of Elgar, who was born in Worcester, and of course the appearance of the eponymous Penda, king of Mercia. As for Byzantium, it's one I'll probably want to rewatch now that I know all that, so that I can really appreciate how it all works together.
36. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), dir. Francis Ford Coppola
A re-watch, with a previous write-up here: LJ / DW. My basic opinion that it is tonally uneven, with flashes of what could have been a great film just serving to show up the flaws around them, remains unchanged. I particularly bridle at the stuff around Dracula's wife, which rolls two misogynistic tropes into one. First, her death provides Vlad's whole motivation for turning against the church and becoming a vampire, so is a prime example of fridging, and second the whole reincarnation trope inevitably erodes Mina's agency - although, to be fair, Mina does not just fall straight for Vlad, as usually happens with reincarnated lost lovers, but rejects and resists him at first, and has some general conflict about the whole thing.
But the reason we watched it was following a conversation about some of the Classical references in it, such as moving snakes in one of the brides' head-dresses very clearly referencing Medusa, and it was worth returning to with those eyes on. There's actually quite a lot of Classical statuary and artefacts dotted about the place, and generally used intelligently to add extra dimensions to the story - e.g. a bronze head and vase in a cabinet at the party where Lucy's suitors are introduced, signalling that the hosts are established aristocrats whose ancestors did the Grand Tour, a Marsyas in the cemetery / garden, signalling punishment and torment, and a Lar on Lucy's nightstand signalling domesticity. So, again, an insight into what some people involved in the film were trying to achieve, even if the efforts weren't consistently sustained.
37. Razor Blade Smile (1998), dir. Jake West
I hadn't (that I can remember) heard of this film before, but Joel suggested it because he thought I'd appreciate its '90s Goth vibe, which I did! It's basically about a vampire called Lilith who spends her time partly hanging out in Goth bars and partly operating as an assassin hunting down the members of a mysterious and evil sect. It's extremely low-budget, but it was evidently made with enthusiasm and is definitely a nostalgia-trip as far as '90s fashions and interior decor are concerned. Lilith wears a great deal of PVC, and indeed has something of the vibe of Tanya Cheex from Preaching to the Perverted (which came out the year before) about her, but she still has a terrible pine bed-frame, exactly like that found in every teenager's bedroom and rental property at the time. Oh, and there's a nice little twist ending, where it turns out the whole assassin / sect thing is just a game she plays with her long-term lover to while away the centuries. Excellent fun, but should definitely be watched with alcohol.
33. The Monster Squad (1987), dir. Fred Dekker
Watched with Joel in Whitby on my birthday, and not of course to be confused with The Monster Club (1981). While we should in theory have been able to cast it onto the massive TV on the wall of the apartment where we were staying, unfortunately the wifi was so bad that we actually couldn't, and ended up watching it huddled over his phone instead. Ain't technology marvellous, eh? It's about a bunch of kids who love classic monster movies, and have a club which meets in a clubhouse lined with posters from them. But little do they know, monsters are real, and Dracula is busy gathering together / resurrecting his own squad of monstrous chums to try to take over the world via the medium of a powerful amulet. They, of course, have to figure out how to stop Dracula and save the world, with the aid of a diary written by Van Helsing exactly a century earlier and a neighbour who lives in a scary, dilapidated old house, but turns out to be very kind and helpful towards them - and is also incidentally a Jewish former concentration camp inmate.
It's fun, silly, and a nice example of the self-referential humour which flourishes within the horror genre. I think in fact that the kids in the squad probably map fairly directly onto the monsters in theirs - e.g. one of them has a dog, which matches up with the Wolfman; Sean, the ring-leader, wears black and red just like Dracula; his little sister develops a special affinity with Frankenstein's monster which is clearly meant to recall the (doomed) friendship between the monster and the little girl by the lake in the original Universal movie, etc. But I was a bit too tired to really put the full details of that together as we were watching. Meanwhile, as Joel pointed out, it has one of the most bad-ass Draculas ever committed to celluloid, who fights practically every other character in the film, lobs live sticks of dynamite about the place, rips the door off his own hearse with his bare hands, etc etc. All good stuff.
34. Byzantium (2012), dir. Neil Jordan
I've watched and written about this before ( LJ / DW), but on my first viewing I had no idea how good it was going to be, so have long wanted to revisit it with the full focus and attention it deserves. Luckily, Joel was amenable to the suggestion. ;-) And it does indeed very much reward a second viewing. There is a great deal in the early scenes which makes fuller sense in the light of what the film later reveals about the characters than it can on a first viewing, such as Clara singing what is clearly a nineteenth-century nursery song to Eleanor in the cab of the lorry as they flee their original location. And so many other clever echoes between the present-day and flash-back scenes, like Eleanor desperately sucking up Frank's blood from a discarded tissue after he has cut himself, followed later by Clara coughing up her own consumptive blood into a similar handkerchief. Having not felt like I did this film justice last time I wrote about it, because it was part of a multi-film catch-up post written long after the fact, I'm annoyingly in much the same position again now. But suffice it to say that I love it, and it remains very comfortably within my top five non-Dracula-based vampire films.
35. Penda's Fen (1974), dir. Alan Clarke
A folk horror classic which I've been wanting to watch for an extremely long time, and therefore put on the birthday present wish-list which I supplied to my family. It's basically about both homosexuality and paganism bubbling up from under attempted suppressions, impossible to eradicate no matter how hard conservative society might try - all of which is obviously immensely appealing. It's surreal, contemplative and very beautifully filmed, and will certainly reward repeated viewings. I also hadn't really taken on board before watching it just how deeply engaged it is with the landscape and history of my native Midlands, what with its setting amongst the Malvern hills (prominent and extremely recognisable in the photography), its interest in the music of Elgar, who was born in Worcester, and of course the appearance of the eponymous Penda, king of Mercia. As for Byzantium, it's one I'll probably want to rewatch now that I know all that, so that I can really appreciate how it all works together.
36. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), dir. Francis Ford Coppola
A re-watch, with a previous write-up here: LJ / DW. My basic opinion that it is tonally uneven, with flashes of what could have been a great film just serving to show up the flaws around them, remains unchanged. I particularly bridle at the stuff around Dracula's wife, which rolls two misogynistic tropes into one. First, her death provides Vlad's whole motivation for turning against the church and becoming a vampire, so is a prime example of fridging, and second the whole reincarnation trope inevitably erodes Mina's agency - although, to be fair, Mina does not just fall straight for Vlad, as usually happens with reincarnated lost lovers, but rejects and resists him at first, and has some general conflict about the whole thing.
But the reason we watched it was following a conversation about some of the Classical references in it, such as moving snakes in one of the brides' head-dresses very clearly referencing Medusa, and it was worth returning to with those eyes on. There's actually quite a lot of Classical statuary and artefacts dotted about the place, and generally used intelligently to add extra dimensions to the story - e.g. a bronze head and vase in a cabinet at the party where Lucy's suitors are introduced, signalling that the hosts are established aristocrats whose ancestors did the Grand Tour, a Marsyas in the cemetery / garden, signalling punishment and torment, and a Lar on Lucy's nightstand signalling domesticity. So, again, an insight into what some people involved in the film were trying to achieve, even if the efforts weren't consistently sustained.
37. Razor Blade Smile (1998), dir. Jake West
I hadn't (that I can remember) heard of this film before, but Joel suggested it because he thought I'd appreciate its '90s Goth vibe, which I did! It's basically about a vampire called Lilith who spends her time partly hanging out in Goth bars and partly operating as an assassin hunting down the members of a mysterious and evil sect. It's extremely low-budget, but it was evidently made with enthusiasm and is definitely a nostalgia-trip as far as '90s fashions and interior decor are concerned. Lilith wears a great deal of PVC, and indeed has something of the vibe of Tanya Cheex from Preaching to the Perverted (which came out the year before) about her, but she still has a terrible pine bed-frame, exactly like that found in every teenager's bedroom and rental property at the time. Oh, and there's a nice little twist ending, where it turns out the whole assassin / sect thing is just a game she plays with her long-term lover to while away the centuries. Excellent fun, but should definitely be watched with alcohol.