On "The Village" (2004)

Joaquin Phoenix painting the trees with "the safe color" as a guard against "Those We Do Not Speak Of"

Star Rating: **½
M. Night Shyamalan’s "The Village" takes on the classic scenario of a small superstitious 19th century village, stricken by fear of the supernatural. That’s the premise. Not exactly original, but still interesting. The small village is surrounded by a thick forest inhabited by “Those We Do Not Speak Of”, which are supposedly fearsome creatures who object to humans living around their land. Here it starts getting a little too serious and overdone. To start with, the label “Those We Do Not Speak Of” sounds like something taken directly out of a Harry Potter story.

The conflict begins when the villagers start finding skinned animals, signs of the creature’s displeasure. Then a young man named Lucius, Joaquin, seeks permission from the village elders to go into the woods were these creatures live to fetch better medicines from the towns on the other side. The elders are much troubled by this request and they try to drill it into Lucius’s head how really terrible these woods are. The script doesn’t set these monsters up to be very interesting or intimidating. It just puts endless emphasis on how bad they are. This isn’t narration, more of a lecture.

Then the story shifts into a romance that Lucius has with a blind girl, Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), the daughter of one of the village elders, Edward Walker (William Hurt). Then Lucius is wounded by Noah (Adrien Brody), a developmentally impaired man, who is also in love with Ivy. Ivy seeks permission to go through the forest to seek medicine needed to heal Lucius. (Great idea, right? Send a blind girl through a forest full of monsters). On her journey, Ivy trips over sticks on the forest floor and uncovers Shyamalan’s trademarked twist ending.

"The Village" is not a total failure, but it is far from a masterpiece. It has some interesting prospects, but they are not well meshed together. This movie is suspenseful and there are frightening moments, but the movie takes itself much too seriously. The dialogue tries to sound early like some kind of nineteenth century jargon, but tries too hard and just ends up sounding unnecessary and corny. It uses too many big words and turns a simple sentence like “We were told of their engagement this morning” into “We were informed of their intentions this morning.”

There is little to no comic relief, just stuffiness. The village elders are stuffy and annoying. The characters I liked the most were Lucius and Ivy, who were the most developed characters. Lucius is a very shy and quiet individual. Ivy, a more gutsy and talkative person asks him, “Why can you not say what is in your head?” Lucius replies sharply and satisfactorily, “Why must you say everything in yours?” I was pleased for something that made me smile after an hour of just shaking my head. The end of "The Village" brings a lot of character development to everyone and we understand the whole stuffy picture, but it doesn’t do much in the movie’s favor I’m afraid.

To sum up, "The Village" is fairly forgettable entertainment. As far as Shyamalan’s movies go, this film is certainly not memorable as "The Sixth Sense" or even "Signs", but much better than his latest picture "The Last Airbender". M. Night Shyamalan has interesting if not hokey ideas, but a lesson in scriptwriting is probably in order.

On "Signs" (2002)

Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin wear foil head-guards to keep the aliens from reading their minds

Star Rating: ***
After thrilling an audience with ghosts, M. Night Shyamalan thrills us with aliens. But don’t be fooled—"Signs" isn’t all about the crop circles and flying saucers shown in the posters. As always with an effect psychological thriller, there has to be something else in place. Signs follows the depressed Hess family living on a farmhouse in Pennsylvania and how they handled an alien invasion.

The father and head of the family is Graham Hess, played by Mel Gibson. Graham had been a priest, but had lost his faith in god after his wife was killed in a car accident, shown in flashback towards the middle and end of the film. This incident causes Graham, and his children, Morgan and Bo, to become somber and depressed. Graham’s brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) a former baseball league champion moves into the house to help Graham raise the children, Morgan and Bo (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin). The atmosphere is far from happy throughout the entire film, however. This mass of unhappiness is just the perfect setting for an alien invasion.

At the beginning of the movie, the Hesses find several of there crops cut down, making a strange sign in the crops. They dismiss it as the work of the town pranksters—but then reports of these strange occurrences begin appearing from all over the world. And then when unidentified aircraft enter the earth’s atmosphere, people are convinced that it is an alien invasion.

With a well written script, Shyamalan sets the characters up to succumb to the fear of the so called “invasion”. Graham, who has lost his faith in god, believes that the humans were all alone in the struggle against the aliens. Merrill believes in miracles and that they were not alone. Not giving anything away, try to think about these two standpoints during the climactic scene.

Warning: Here be Spoilers:

The aliens land on earth and break into the Hess’s farm. There several long scenes involving the family bracing the doors while the aliens are on the outside trying to force their way into the house. The family runs into the basement, referencing the classic ending from H.G. Welles’s "The War of the Worlds". In the midst of all of this excitement, Graham’s son Morgan, who is an asthmatic, has an attack and nearly loses consciousness. Graham has to hold off the aliens and revive his son at the same time.

The aliens reminded me a lot of the ghosts in "The Sixth Sense". The difference is that the ghosts themselves were scary—here it’s more of the concept of the aliens that gets you. We see their legs and hands and we hear them “talk” over a walkie-talkie belonging to one of the children. We wonder what these creatures are. Shyamalan does a very good job setting us up for what is to come. When we finally see the aliens, they aren’t really scary—just unnerving.

Shyamalan loses some suspense by showing us the aliens sometime earlier (during a newsflash during the middle of the film). They are the pretty generic model of aliens that you might see in a costume-shop, i.e. tall guys in dark suits with oval shaped heads. It would have been more effective if Shyamalan didn’t show the aliens until the climactic scene, where he could have built this whole wall of suspense and then broken it down with a full shot of an alien. But what happened worked, too, and the picture is pretty scary nonetheless.

Spoilers Be Gone

M. Night Shyamalan said that he had been influenced by "The Birds" (1963) and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) in making "Signs". He had also said that he didn’t want to reference The Sixth Sense as he didn’t want to make the same movie twice. Signs also features a soundtrack composed by James Newton Howard, who had also composed the score for Shyamalan’s "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable". Howard had intentionally written the score as a specific reference to earlier horror movie soundtracks like "Psycho" (1960) and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977).

In a way, "Signs" is a retrospective of the classic alien pictures, (i.e. "Close Encounters") but it is also a new alien picture of its own. Shyamalan puts so much work into creating this tapestry of emotion tied up with fear and the supernatural. He pulls it off very well.

"Signs" was the last really good movie made by Shyamalan. It was at this point in his career, the quality of his movies started going downward. By this point, a new young filmmaker had dominated the psychological thriller. Christopher Nolan had burst onto the screen with "Memento" (2000), a thrilling exercise as fresh and exciting as "The Sixth Sense" had been a year earlier. Nolan would later make his Batman movies and Inception (2010), which are also very satisfying thrillers. Nolan and Shyamalan are vastly different filmmakers with regards to style, but they do specialize in the same style of using suspense and psychology to tell a story. Shyamalan isn’t the screen’s contemporary master of suspense anymore—but he ranks among them.

Trivial Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286106/trivia

On "The Sixth Sense" (1999)

Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment in a suspenseful moment of "The Sixth Sense"

Star Rating: ***½
"The Sixth Sense" combines two kinds of thrillers: psychological and supernatural. The result is a very effective and clever movie that writer director M. Night Shyamalan should be very proud of.

The film opens with child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) who is shot in the abdomen by a former patient of his, whom Crowe had failed to help. A year or so later, Crowe finds himself working with a troubled eight-year-old named Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment. Cole is a bright, yet depressed and isolated child who finds very little pleasure in anything. His mother, (Toni Collette), tries everything she can to find out what is troubling Cole and to cheer him up. Finally, Cole tells Dr. Crowe the truth—he sees ghosts “all the time”. These ghosts, who don’t know that they’re dead, get Cole to do things for them and Cole wants them to leave him alone.

This would make an interesting movie on its own, but the story is as much about the psychologist, Dr. Crowe, as it as about Cole. Dr. Crowe is troubled by two things. The prospect of his professional failure with his attempted assassin drives him to work harder than ever, shutting out all else, including his wife Anna, (Olivia Williams). Crowe loves his wife and is afraid of losing her but he is so preoccupied with his job that their relationship only becomes more and more distant.

Second to Dr. Crowe is Cole, who is supposedly troubled by the recent end to his parents’ marriage, but who finally explains that his unhappiness is due to his visits from the dead. Thanks to a good script and a good actor, (Osment), Cole’s personality is very tangible to the audience. You actually care about him and want to see that his problems get solved. "The Sixth Sense" is a very somber movie and borders on being a little too somber, but it is still enjoyable nonetheless. At the end of the long rope of suspense is a twist ending that is so cunning and brilliant that if you disliked the first half of the movie, you will enjoy the second half.

Aside from the depth of characters, the most “haunting” thing about "The Sixth Sense" are the ghosts that Cole sees. In the beginning, the audience cannot see them, but after Cole tells Crowe about his special ability, we also get the “sixth sense” and can see them too. These ghosts are nerve racking. They aren’t white, transparent creatures; they look exactly like regular people. Some have rather unfortunate injuries—such as an adolescent boy having a large bullet-wound in the back of his head. Some of the ghosts are scary because of the circumstances that include them in the scene. One of the most disturbing images in the movie is when Cole sees three people hanging dead from the ceiling in his school. He desperately tries to make Dr. Crowe, who is present with him in this scene, see the ghosts and begs him to “please make them leave!”

"The Sixth Sense" features a very Alfred Hitchcock-like premise. The most notable “Hitchcockian” trademark is the twist ending, a trait featured in most Hitchcock movies. For example, Hitchcock’s "Vertigo" has a similar premise to "The Sixth Sense"—a troubled detective shadowing a woman who is believed to be possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother; the same way that the troubled psychologist follows Cole and how Cole is visited by ghosts. Like "Vertigo", "The Sixth Sense" is a very suspenseful exercise with somber characters dogged by personal troubles that end in a climax that boggles the viewer’s mind. Shyamalan even makes a cameo appearance as a doctor in one scene. It’s getting easier and easier to decipher where he gets his inspiration.

"The Sixth Sense" isn’t the new "Vertigo", and Shyamalan isn’t the new Hitchcock. But the movies carry enough similarities that they make each other more interesting. "The Sixth Sense" is a frightening, touching and intelligent film that deserves a lot of praise. Mr. Shyamalan, you’ve done good.

On M. Night Shyamalan

Writer-Director M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan had made his film debut in the early 1990s, but had gone relatively unnoticed until he wrote and directed "The Sixth Sense" (1999). This eerie and macabre film stars Bruce Willis as a troubled psychiatrist whose client is an isolated boy played by Haley Joel Osment who is frequently visited by ghosts. The film was a great success and was nominated for six academy awards, including Best Picture. Most of all, it put Shyamalan on the map as a new and highly intelligent filmmaker. Over the next few years, Shyamalan made "Unbreakable" (2000), "Signs" (2002) and "The Village" (2004), all of which cemented his reputation a maker of scary movies with sharp twist endings.

Shyamalan has a particular style of moviemaking. Most of his movies are very sinister, and include supernatural backgrounds, such as the ghosts in "The Sixth Sense", the aliens in "Signs", or the “creatures” in "The Village". His main characters usually have had some trauma associated with their past that greatly effects the type of people they are and the roles they play in their movies. And of course, as I have mentioned, Shyamalan is known for his dramatic and unexpected twist endings.

His movies are similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s particular style of suspense drama, but the main difference is that Hitchcock’s movies are a lot easier to watch because they are not as sinister and have moments of comic relief. Shyamalan has cited Hitchcock as an influence for at least one of his films, ("Signs"), is not more. He also makes cameo appearances in his films the way Hitchcock had, and Shyamalan actually stars as a supporting character in Lady in the Water. To date, his latest film "The Last Airbender" (2010) is the only film where Shyamalan has not put in an appearance.

As his career progressed, Shyamalan lost the acclaim he had garnered from "The Sixth Sense", and went on to make "The Village" (2004), "Lady in the Water" (2006) and "The Happening" (2008), all of which were panned by critics (myself included). However, I do think that his movies deserved to be looked at and considered. For my Halloween segment this year I will be reviewing four Shyamalan pictures—"The Sixth Sense", "Signs", "The Village" and "Lady in the Water", all of which have Halloween themes. There is much to be said for all of these movies, but rather than explain it all here, tune in everyday from today to the 15th and read what I have to say about Shyamalan’s movies.

On "The Seventh Seal" (1957)

A Swedish knight who is bold enough to challenge Death to a game of chess 

Star Rating: ****
Ingmar Bergman’s "The Seventh Seal" asks the deep, complicated questions, does god exist and what is god? Why is this so special? Music and art has addressed these questions for years. It’s that Bergman asks this question in such an eerie, cinematic, literary and artistic way that you can’t help but consider The Seventh Seal a true classic.

The setting is fourteenth century Sweden. A knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand), return from the crusades to their home in Sweden to find it ravaged by the Black Plague. Death, in the form of a man in a black cape (Bengt Ekerot), arrives to take Block. Block challenges Death to a game of chess with the agreement that, if Block wins, he goes free. This game is played out in scenes scattered throughout the entire movie.

A few scenes later, Block goes to a church and confesses to a priest the reason for his broadened time on earth. “My life has been a meaningless search,” he says. “I want knowledge. Not belief. Not surmise. But Knowledge.” He adds, “I want god to put out his hand, show his face and speak to me.” He tells the priest of his game with Death, and Block even reveals his own strategy. Then Block realizes that the priest is Death in disguise and that he has given himself away. He creates a new strategy and tries to fool death but Death reveals, smiling, “Nothing gets past me. No one gets past me.”

The film also follows a line-up of other characters, who come into the acquaintance of the knight and his squire. A mute servant girl (Gunnel Lindblom), whom Jons rescues from be assaulted by a robber. Jons recognizes the robber as the idealist who had sent Block off on the pointless crusade. “Now you’ve become a thief,” says Jons. “A more profitable trade for a knave.”

Later, Block, Jons and the mute girl make friends of a small acting duo—Mia (Bibi Andersson) and Jof (Nils Poppe), and a blacksmith (Ake Fridell) and his wife (Inga Gill). Together, the group travels through dark forests, the type that is often used to symbolize to fear in literature, to Block’s house in order to allude death. Ironically, Death is following along in their footsteps every step of the way.

"The Seventh Seal" was and based on Bergman’s own 1954 stage play, "Wood Painting". After drawing ideas from the play, he created the story for our film. Also inspired by religious murals in churches, "The Seventh Seal" has the spirit of a religious painting mixed with a medieval epic ballad. It is beautiful, it is sad, it is confusing, it’s whatever you want it to be. It gives a great feel for how Europe was in the middle ages, while providing themes and questions that people of that age may not have dared to deal with.

"The Seventh Seal" is a very religious picture, with its title taken from a quotation from The Revelation of St. John the Divine. When he was a child, Bergman, the son of a Lutheran preacher, often accompanied his father to churches around Sweden. Bergman was enchanted by the religious paintings in the churches. In "A Program Note: The Seventh Seal", Bergman writes:

"There was everything that one's imagination could desire: angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans. There were very frightening animals: serpents in paradise, Balaam's ass, Jonah's whale, the eagle of the Revelation. All this was surrounded by a heavenly, earthly and subterranean landscape of a strange yet familiar beauty. In a wood sat Death, playing chess with the Crusader. Clutching the branch of a tree was a naked man with staring eyes, while down below stood Death, sawing away to his heart's content. Across gentle hills Death led the final dance towards the dark lands."

He adds:

"My intention has been to paint in the same way as the medieval church painter, with the same objective interest, with the same tenderness and joy. My beings laugh, weep, howl, fear, speak, answer, play, suffer, ask, ask. Their terror is the plague, Judgment Day, the star whose name is Wormwood. Our fear is of another kind but our words are the same.

Our question remains."

Bergman’s interest in religious paintings are touched on in one of the earlier scenes in the film. When Block and his squire Jons arrive at the church where Block confesses to Death, Jons comes across a painter painting the “dance of death” on the wall, “to remind people of death.” “That won’t make people any happier,” says Jons. “Why make them happy! Why not scare them!” The painter retorts. Jons sits down and paints a picture of himself, remarking, “Here’s Squire Jons. He grins at death, chuckles at the lord, laughs at himself, and smiles at the girls. His world exists only for himself. Absurd to all, even to himself.”

Warning: Here be spoilers

The film deals with the question, “what is god”? In one scene, Block approaches a young girl accused of witchcraft about to be burnt at the stake. He asks her to show him Satan so that Block can ask Satan about God. Satan does not appear, and Block’s dilemma is never answered. Yet in one of the final scenes when Death asks Block, “Did you enjoy your reprieve?” Block replies, “Yes.” When Death arrives at Block’s home, Block, surrounded by his wife and friends, pleads to God but there is no answer. In the end, Death must win.

Spoilers Be Gone

With "The Seventh Seal", Ingmar Bergman has created a Shakespearean drama with a life of its own. It has spawned parodies and homages throughout the years, including Woody Allen’s satirical film, "Love and Death" featuring several quotes from "The Seventh Seal". Another is an extremely humorous episode of the animated television series, "Animaniacs", a show which often parodies such cinema classics. In this episode, "Meatballs or Consequences", Wakko is taken by the grim reaper for over-eating. Yakko and Dot try to win Wakko back by playing (and cheating at) a game of chess with the icon. These references seem to have left out the key elements of Bergman’s original masterpiece however. "The Seventh Seal" is as much about life as it is about death.

Life and belief seem to play major roles in Ingmar Bergman’s work. In "Wild Strawberries" (1957), he tells the story of a man reevaluating his uneasy life. Then there is his unnamed trilogy in the early 1960s, "Through a Glass Darkly", "The Silence", and "Winter Light" to consider–all three are about belief. What makes them so special is the enthusiasm and professionalism he brings to the screen—the actors, the crispness of the stories the scripts and direction—every time he makes a movie. "The Seventh Seal" is the work of a believer. Not just a religious believer—but a cinematic believer.

Trivia Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/trivia

Writing Source: http://bergmanorama.webs.com/films/seventh_seal_programnote.htm

On "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

Now this is what I'd call a *mad* scientist

Star Rating: ***½
The Universal horror movies of the 1930s and ‘40s are funny in their own way, but the “master” of comedy Mel Brooks takes the subtle humor in these films and uses them as a springboard for a funny movie. He proceeded to bring to life "Young Frankenstein" which is one of the crowning achievements of his career.

"Young Frankenstein" is filmed entirely in black and white, to imitate the cult horror classics we know so well (partially thanks to this film here). The film features a classic Mel Brooks cast. Firstly, we have Gene Wilder, (Leo Bloom in "The Producers" and The Waco Kid in "Blazing Saddles") as the headstrong Professor Frederick “Fronkensteen”, the grandson of Victor Frankenstein. Frederick does not like to talk about his relations to such a notorious madman, and thus tries to alter the pronunciation of his name.

After a comical science lesson in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, a solicitor informs Frederick that he has inherited the Frankenstein family estate. Frederick bids his emotional and fashion-obsessed fiancé Elizabeth (Madeline Khan) goodbye and travels to Transylvania (the setting of Dracula, whereas the original Frankenstein movies were set in Germany). Frederick is driven to the Frankenstein family home, the classic Universal monster-castle, by the humpbacked Igor, pronounced “Eye-gor” (Marty Feldman), a servant of the household. “I’m a rather brilliant surgeon,” says Frederick, referring to Eye-gor’s hump, “I could help you with that hump.” To which Igor replies, “What hump?” Awkward silence. “Shall we go?” A few scenes later the hump switches sides. Frederick asks “Wasn’t that on the other side?” Eye-gor: “Was what on the other side?” Frederick: “Nothing.”

Frederick meets his housekeeper, the sinister Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). She is so frightening that the horses neigh at the mere mention of her name. I kid you not, even when her name is mentioned in another part of the house, the horses whinny. I mean, it is a comedy. Frederick’s other friend is his erotic and sunny laboratory assistant Inga (Terri Garr). Their first meeting is at the Transylvania train station, when Eye-gor drives Fronkensteen to the castle in a hay cart. She is concealed in the hay and Fronkensteen accidently hits her. She uncovers herself and says, “Hello. Would you like to have a roll in ze hay? It’s fun!” And she begins rolling around in the hay, while a relieved and confused Frederick watches. In another such moment in the laboratory, Frederick and Inga embrace. “Elevate me!” says Frederick. “Here, right now?” asks the alarmed Inga. “Yes, raise the platform.”

When inside the old Frankenstein house, drawn by the distant sound of eerie violin music, Frederick finds his grandfather’s laboratory full of much of the same equipment used during the filming of the original "Frankenstein" movies from the 1930s. At the other side of the laboratory is Frankenstein’s private library, where there is a book, How I Did It by Victor Frankenstein. Frederick reads these notes and realizes that “it—could—work!” He repeats his grandfather’s work and plans to create a great man. Instead, he creates a friendly, misunderstood, grotesque and slightly horny monster played by Peter Boyle in the roll that brought his career to life.

Unfortunately, Brooks’ creature has, in this case an abnormally comic brain, which includes the creature’s irrational fear of fire. Soon, the creature escapes to the outer world. He goes around town, having exchanges with a blind man and playing on a teeter-totter with a young girl. The girl tells him to shift his weight on the totter, and in doing so, he catapults her into her bedroom through her open window. Predictably, she lands undamaged in her bed.

Young Frankenstein can do two things for you, depending on whether of not you’ve seen the Universal horror films, or “Universals” as I call them, that it parodies. If you haven’t seen them, and you’re an aspiring film goer, then YF could convince you to see them. Comedy is a very effective way to create interest in a subject. It happens in comedy movies and in many other mediums as well—books, essays, etc. the first line or scene is witty so as to grab the viewer’s attention. This could be the first humorous paragraph that snags you into the Universal horror films collection.

If you have seen the Universal horror films, then "Young Frankenstein" could help you appreciate them more. I find it interesting to think that somebody could take material that was supposed to be dead serious and turn it into the epitome of hilariousness. But, expanding on the point I made in my opening paragraph, these horror films are humorous in their own way. They have a balanced degree of humor and seriousness, like any good movie should have. The Universals may seem like the deadest of clichés to a modern audience, but that’s only because that is where all the typical monster clichés began. Just like any genre of movie, this was totally new once.

So I have a lot to thank Mel Brooks for in resurrecting this material. I view "Young Frankenstein" as a comedy that doesn’t just parody the Universals, it salutes them. Like Victor Frankenstein, I can just imagine Brooks sneaking through old Hollywood, stealing ideas and bringing them back to a deserted studio and sewing them together to create—a comedy.

Trivia Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072431/trivia

First Annual Halloween Extravaganza

Good day to you, foolish mortals. It’s that time of the year again—autumn, cool crisp autumn. But most of all—it’s time for Halloween.

            Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. In addition to my love of getting free candy every 31^st of October, I love Halloween because it unleashes a creative side in me. The world becomes alive with images of witches, vampires and ghosts and other stuff that is completely fantastic and out of a fairy tale. This time every year, I take no greater pleasure than crafting ghoulish tales and writing them down on paper, thinking, “This would make an interesting legend.” But that’s not all. On Halloween night, I try on new faces and assume a different identity which I would normally be averse to—such as a monster or a gangster. I usually spend months in advance planning my Halloween costume, (I was contemplating the subject while mowing my lawn in July). That’s part of the fun. To me, that is the point of Halloween—to try new things. To try new faces, just like an actor or an actress.

            When September rolls around, and the leaves begin turning red and falling off, I always get myself into a Halloween spirit by reading creepy books and watching scary movies. This Halloween, from today to Halloween night, I will be reviewing twenty-four films that relate in some way to the spirit of Halloween. I hope to do this every year from now on, and for the first time I have carefully selected some very special movies to discuss. My first one is Young Frankenstein, a classic parody of the Universal Horror pictures of the 1930s. This is a spin off of spooky movies, and is purely a comedy. I fear though that the tone will darken.

            October 11 will bring Swedish film industry giant Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 allegorical masterpiece The Seventh Seal, a movie about life and death—a subject crucial to the Halloween theme. From October 12^th to October 15^th will be a spotlight on four films from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan: The Sixth Sense (1999), Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and Lady in the Water (2006).

            October 15^th to October 24^th will return to the 1930s and advance onward. These movies will be Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Harvey (1950), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), The Exorcist (1973), The Shining (1980) and The Witches (1990).  

            October 25^th to Halloween night is the finale of this eerie extravaganza and something I have personally been looking forward to—a spotlight on the great Horror films of the 1920s and ‘30s, including several made by Universal. In order, these films are Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Wolfman (1941). As I’ve mentioned above, I love to get myself into the Halloween spirit by watching eerie movies. My final review will be of my favorite Halloween film of all. It’s a 1949 Disney cartoon version of the classic horror tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, narrated by Bing Crosby.

            Some of these movies I’m reviewing are not as obviously related to Halloween as others (i.e. Harvey might not be considered a Halloween film while Dracula definitely is). For the films that are not obvious like this, think about them and try to understand why I chose them for this Halloween cycle. So over the next three weeks be sure to lend an eye—take a closer look at the haunted side of Hollywood.