The View From The Mountain

So many horror movies start out with a really great concept that when you see the basic idea introduced in the trailer, you’re eager to watch the film, just to see how this plays out--only for the movie to fall flat on its face, thanks to the filmmakers being unable to run with the idea. Weapons is one such horror movie that deftly avoids this pitfall. The main intriguing idea that Weapons has is the mysterious disappearance of an entire classroom of students at a specific time--2:17 am--one dark night. But these children don’t just vanish. They’re each seen running out of their homes on security cameras, still clad in their pajamas, with their arms bent back as they run, as if they’re flying. Once out of sight of the cameras, the children--17 in all--seemingly disappear off the face of the earth. If they were abducted by strangers, it would actually make for an easier case for the police to work. But it’s an even more bizarre mystery with the children having all ran off ...

October is a rare month for boys. That’s what author Ray Bradbury reminds us at the beginning of both his novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes , and the movie that was made from it some twenty years later. Bradbury (1920-2012) was a celebrated grandmaster of science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy--writing novels, short stories and screenplays throughout the better part of the twentieth century. He would also write The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451 . Something Wicked This Way Comes started out as the short story Black Ferris . Bradbury later turned it into a film script, but when plans fell through, he adapted the script into a novel, publishing it in 1962. Taking place in a small town in the early 20th century, SWTWC deals with a pair of boys who face a malevolent force that seeks to destroy everyone and everything they hold dear. Will Holloway (Vidal Peterson) and Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson) are best friends who are innocently enjoy...

With 28 Years Later , director Danny Boyle returns to the zombie saga that he began with 28 Days Later. The direct sequel, 28 Weeks Later , was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. At the end of 28 Weeks Later , the zombies were busting out of England and sprawling onto the European continent. But in 28 Years Later , the “zombies” (who are still-living humans infected with a rage virus) have been pushed back into England, and the entire British Isles has now become something like New York City in John Carpenter’s Escape From New York : a vast wasteland that has been placed under quarantine by the outside world. But the British Isles are not all gloom and doom. A small village of non-infected humans are thriving on an island off the Scottish coast. Despite being shunned by the rest of the world, these hardy people have formed their own way of life and customs. They’re protected by a natural causeway that connects their island to the mainland--a causeway that sinks below the ...

Despite coming out thirty six years after the first film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , once again directed by Tim Burton, wound up being vastly entertaining, adding lots of pleasant surprises, like the use of stop-motion animation. The sequel takes place within the same real-life time frame, with Lydia Deetz, played with wry humor by Winona Ryder, now the host of a ghost hunting show. She’s also the mother of Astrid, a teenager played by Jenna Ortega. They live with Delia Deetz (the always great Catherine O'Hara), Lydia’s step-mother and Astrid’s step-grandmother. After the death of Charles--Delia’s husband and Lydia’s father--during a bird-watching accident involving sharks, the Deetz ladies must go back up to the creepy house in Winter River, Connecticut for his funeral. This is the same place where Lydia first encountered Beetlejuice all those years ago, and she is understandably reluctant to even mention his name, lest she accidentally calls forth Beet...

“You’ll enjoy Mr. Barlow. And he’ll enjoy you.” --Richard Straker (James Mason) from ‘Salem’s Lot 1979 ‘Salem’s Lot is one of my favorite novels by Stephen King. ‘Salem’s Lot is the locals’ name for their town, known officially as Jerusalem’s Lot, in Maine. King’s book describes the insidious and terrifying invasion of ’Salem’s Lot by vampires, led by Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow, two outsiders who have come to the town to disingenuously open an antiques store. They also bought the Martsen House, a creepy old abandoned mansion that sits overlooking the town, to serve as their home. Writer Ben Mears, who suffered a traumatic event in the Marsten House as a boy, returns to ’Salem’s Lot for research for his latest novel, only to find himself--along with several others--battling for the very souls of its townspeople. With this masterful book, only his second after Carrie, Stephen King updated the vampire myth to the then-modern day. Instead of lurking ...

Halloween is coming. We’re still in the throes of summer right now, but not for long. It’s already getting cooler, and I’m seeing some slight color in the trees. I thought I’d give an early welcome to my favorite holiday by watching three new horror films that were released this year. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire -- I really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife for two reasons: the introduction of a new, younger cast to the franchise, and the fact that it takes place in the completely different setting of Oklahoma. Frozen Empire takes place back in New York City, eliminating the freshness of having the story be in a new place, and the new cast is basically reduced to being guest stars. There are just too many people, here. The old Ghostbusters are shoehorned into the story, along with new characters who have been introduced in Frozen Empire. This doesn’t give the new cast much room to shine. And the nostalgia factor is getting very annoying; we have to see Slim...

Released in June of 1973, The Legend of Hell House was a supernatural gothic horror movie that was based on the book, Hell House , written by Richard Matheson. On the surface, The Legend of Hell House can be seen as a remake of The Haunting , the 1963 classic ghost story movie that was adapted from The Haunting of Hill House , the equally classic Shirley Jackson novel. Both films deal with paranormal investigators probing a legendary haunted house, but Matheson’s take on the story was different in that science played a stronger role, and Hell House had a very nice twist at the end. Directed by John Hough (he also helmed Twins of Evil , and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry , among others), Hell House abruptly begins when physicist Dr. Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) is called to the estate of a millionaire (Roland Culver), who makes him an enticing offer: take a paranormal team to The Belasco House, otherwise known as “the Mount Everest of haunted houses,” to determine if ...