Horrorfest: Happy Friday the 13th!

It's baaaaccccckkk. And I'm already up to 13. 

I'm continuing my retrospective of the films of one of the best movie years ever - 1999. That's a big year for the genre with two massive summer hits that took the genre in two distinct directions: internet hyped found footage and PG-13 supernatural twists. I will have quite a few rewatches, and fix some blindspots from that year. Also, this year will be the 50th anniversary of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and 40th of A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

AFRAID
(Chris Weitz, 2024)

Standard computer-destroys-our-lives thriller about a California couple (John Cho and Katharine Waterston) who finds a Suri-esque computer assistant named AIA taking over their family in dangerous and deadly ways. Plays out exactly as you expect with no real surprises or suspense, but the Pizzagate aspect of the plot may be the only interesting thing it does. And like all movies of this subgenre, it'll be dated in a few weeks. GRADE: C-

THE 'BURBS

(Joe Dante, 1989)

I saw this on VHS way back in the early 90s. My memory often confuses it with Nothing But Trouble for some reason. Despite doing mediocre both with critics and at the box-office, this has developed a cult following given I've met several people over the years who consider it among their favorites. I've always thought it would be a good film for a remake, and turns out the day after I watched it, Peacock announced one with Keke Palmer. I'd say the initial reaction was probably the correct one as the film feels simultaneously overlong and undercooked. Tom Hanks plays a suburban dad on a staycation who begins to suspect his new neighbors might be murderers. Sadly, it doesn't quite hit its horror or comedy groove but, man, do I miss Tom Hanks in broad comedy mode. With Carrie Fisher and Bruce Dern. GRADE: C+

CUTTING CLASS

(Rospo Pallenberg, 1989)
Goofy slasher about a killer terrorizing the students and teachers of a California high school. Jill Schoelen plays an overachieving student caught between the sexy bad boy (Brad Pitt) and the outsider (Donovan Leitch) who was released from a mental institution after being blamed for his father's suspicious death. Some okay kills and Schoelen makes a good final girl, but it's all pretty standard late 80's slasher fare and not at all suspenseful. The subplot involving Martin Mull as her father is just way too silly. I must admit outside of the long-running franchises of the era and few other notable classics, I haven't seen many of the "lesser" masked killer films of the heyday. The one was released direct-to-video. Also with Roddy McDowall. GRADE: C-

THE FRONT ROOM

(Max Eggers & Sam Eggers, 2024)

A struggling couple (Brandy Norwood and Andrew Burnap) agrees to take in the husband's stepmother (Kathryn Hunter) after the death of his father. They soon find the elderly woman taking over their lives in nightmarish ways. With elements of Rosemary's Baby and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, the film never fully commits to either style and ends with a "that's it?" Be warned, though: there is a ton of gross-out scenes. However, Hunter is an absolute hoot and what a joy it is to see an actress like her get substantial roles later in life. Very nice to see Brandy again, too, hope she continues to get big screen roles. GRADE: C+

THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II
(Wes Craven, 1985)

Surprisingly, I had not seen this before. I did see the sequel to the remake of the original, which is not a remake of the original sequel. (Last time I make that joke, I promise! Maybe...) A group of motorbike riders travels to the desert for a race and comes in contact with the same cannibalistic mutant family from the first film. Several characters from the original return, and to pad the very short runtime we get a bunch of scenes from the original inserted. We also get a dog having a flashback. And even with all that, I don't think this film is as bad as its reputation has suggested. I mean, it's bad, but in an enjoyable way. With Michael Berryman, Tamara Stafford, and gay stud Kevin Spirtas, who appeared in Friday the 13th Part VII. GRADE: C-

POSSESSION

(Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)
Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill play a hot couple going through a messy breakup - one so severe it begins to have bloody and supernatural ramifications. After forty years, there still isn't anything quite like this batshit crazy movie, though the film's famous sequence - in which Adjani has a freakout in a subway station - has been duplicated and referenced numerous times including in this year's The First Omen. The actress's work here frequently gets cited as a genre masterwork and for good reason, but Neill is equally great. I love that neither have been a stranger to the genre and have done compelling work within over many decades. GRADE: A-

SPEAK NO EVIL

(Christian Tafdrup, 2022)

Figured I'd watch this before I checked out the remake later this month, and after watching it's baffling there is even a remake. Most of this is in English, but at least we will get a swole James McAvoy. A Danish couple accepts the invitation from a Dutch couple they met on vacation to visit their home. There, the visiting couple becomes increasingly unnerved by their hosts' behavior. If you've already seen the trailer for the remake (and I've you've seen any movie theatrically over the past 5 months, you have), it has pretty massive spoilers for this, and I hope the remake has some more twists in store or it gave away a lot. A lot a lot. Still, this works very well right up until its shocker of an ending. Just don't think of anything too much or you'll start to see the massive holes. GRADE: B

And on to the 1999 stuff...

BATS
(Louis Morneau)

Rushed through production the summer of '99 and released in theaters just before Halloween, this was the first release from Destination Films. That studio went under a year later. That's probably the most interesting thing about Bats, a standard genetically-engineered-animals-run-amok tale. In a small Texas town, a scientist has created bats that are smarter and more aggressive, and it's up to a sexy scientist (Dina Meyer from Starship Troopers) and a sexy sheriff (Lou Diamond Phillips) to stop them. Silly and stupid, and no better or worse than any Syfy Channel (is that still what it's called?) creature feature. GRADE: D+

eXistenZ

(David Cronenberg)
I first saw this one sometime in 2001-2002, and was excited to see Vinegar Syndrome's terrific new edition. The Canadian genre auteur's satire of video games in which a game designer (Jennifer Jason Leigh, great hair!) goes on the run with a marketer (Jude Law) after an attempted assassination. The two must enter her game world (named "eXistenZ") where the line between reality and fantasy starts to fade. Cronenberg's take on the game culture is as subtle as a sledgehammer, and the meta aspects give the film a very slight feel. Which is part of the point. Nevertheless, the director indulges in some gory body horror and creature effects, and I always appreciate when he does. I'm with John Carpenter when he said David was much more interesting when he was low brow.  Some consider this a bit of a spiritual sequel to Videodrome. Leigh and Law made a very sexy pair, and the supporting cast includes Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, and Sarah Polley. GRADE: B+

THE HAUNTING
(Jan de Bont)

I saw this theatrically on its opening day and really liked it. However, after seeing the original a few years later as well as the Netflix limited series when that was released, this is easily the worst of the adaptations. It doesn't help that the other versions had a deeper understanding of the story and weren't just surface level. Liam Neeson is a doctor who bring several insomniacs (Lily Taylor, Owen Wilson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones) to the haunted Hill House to do a study on sleep. One of the problems is that the house is just too big and opulent to be terrifying. I remember several critics said it would only give Martha Stewart nightmares. The ending is a bloated effects mess, which made me nostalgic for a time when it wasn't the entire film that was a bloated effects mess. I had forgotten about the PG-13 beheading. That was a nice touch. Also with future Oscar-nominees Virginia Madsen, Todd Field, and Bruce Dern. GRADE: C+

IN DREAMS
(Neil Jordan)

I'd say the first time anyone thought about this forgotten dud since its release was when Robert Downey Jr sorta-referenced it in his SAG acceptance speech, giving a shoutout to Annett Bening as one of the best he's worked with. Truthfully, both actors are histrionic here with RDJ being pretty bad. (Late 90's RDJ wasn't his best era for obvious reasons.) Bening plays a woman with a psychic connection to a serial killer, a connection that almost destroys her after her daughter is murdered. It's a little interesting and moody at the start, but falls apart midway through and most of the last act is a big eye roll. With Aiden Quinn and Stephen Rea. GRADE: C

THE SIXTH SENSE

(M. Night Shyamalan)
I don't think I've watched this the whole way through since early 2000, so this was a very nice revisit. When I saw it theatrically, I figured the twist out right away and thought it was just something we were supposed to know, as if Bruce's character was the only one who didn't know. Beyond the twist, this is still a beautifully made ghost story with first rate techs, a quartet of terrific performances, and a moving emotional final act. Bruce Willis plays a child psychologist working with a tormented young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who has a supernatural gift/curse - he sees the dead. While everyone talks about the final scene, I think the scene with Haley and Toni in the car is the film's best. Shyamalan's big breakthrough, the film earned 6 Oscar noms and was the second highest grossing film of '99. Forever inspiring PG-13 supernatural films with twist endings, it's probably one of the most influential films of the past several decades. But...The Others is still a tad better. Also with Toni Collette and Olivia Williams. GRADE: A-

STIR OF ECHOES

(David Koepp)

There was a small contingent in the fall of '99 that this was the superior psychic kid movie of the year, but I felt Sixth Sense was better. That film has stood the test of time, while this one has dwindled a bit in my mind. Kevin Bacon plays a working class man who after being "jokingly" hypnotized at a party begins having visions of a missing girl from his neighborhood. As it turns out, he realizes his young son has some psychic powers too. The hypnosis scene is very well done, but this film might be impacted by so many other movies and TV shows doing very similar things. Also kind of annoying the climax of the movie is a shootout. With Kathryn Erbe and Illeana Douglas. GRADE: B-