Over the past month, I have been putting together a list of a few “scary” movies that I quite enjoyed and have reviewed them all below. Please enjoy, and have a happy Halloween!
Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Disgusting, vile, but immaculate nonetheless, Silence Of The Lambs is truly one of the greatest horror films of all time.
The story follows young FBI agent Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster) who is tasked with recovering Catherine Martin, the daughter of a U.S. Senator, from being killed by the notorious serial killer Buffalo Bill. To accomplish this, she teams up with the infamous cannibal Hannibal Lecter (superbly played by Anthony Hopkins) to save her before it is too late.
Many of the lines spoken in the film have entered into the popular vernacular, such as “Good evening Clarice”, “Fava beans and a nice chianti”, “Love your suit”, and “I’m having an old friend for dinner” all being commonly repeated to this day.
The frequent use of close ups of the face leads to a constant sense of unease and paranoia. One of the few issues I had with the film was with the characterization of Buffalo Bill as a Transgender character, feeling as though it perpetuated problematic and unrealistic stereotypes of trans people being “predators”. To the movie’s credit, it does try to address this problem and it is easiest to just view it as a product of its time.
This film actually is the most recent to win all of the “Big 5” Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress) in recent memory, with the only other two movies achieving this distinction being It Happened One Night from 1934, and 1975’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
This truly is a fantastic movie, and one that I highly recommend (If you have the nerve, that is…). 10/10.
–Silence Of The Lambs is currently streaming on Max.
Bram Stoker’s Drăcula (1992)
And now for something on the more “artsier” side of horror flicks, we have an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s seminal classic Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola, the director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
This film reimagines our eponymous vampire as the undead form of the infamous Vlad Țepas “The Impaler” Drăcula (played brilliantly by Gary Oldman). We follow the real estate agent Jonathan Harker (played by Keanu Reeves) who goes to Transylvania to work for the secluded Count Drăcula but is imprisoned after a photo of his fiancée Mina (played by Winona Ryder) reminds the count of his own lost love Elisibeta (also played by Winona Ryder). He then sails on the ship “Demeter” to London to try to take Mina as one of his many brides.
One thing that particularly struck me about the film was its production design, gloriously gothic in every way, that really sets the eerie mood quite well. The use of shadows and Dutch angels also reminded me of the German Expressionist films of old, the most directly being 1922’s Nosfuratu.
Anthony Hopkins plays the seasoned vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, whose many years eccentricities are almost as numerous as his previous turn as Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.
While it is hard to hate Keanu Reeves in much of his vast body of work, his attempt at a British accent is almost as appalling as Dick Van Dike’s turn in Mary Poppins.
The film is absolutely gorgeous to behold, with its many practical visual effects still holding up, with the simple act of having Drăcula’s shadow not matching up with his body, and extreme close ups of blood cells remaining beautiful to this day.
While it may suffer from having a few rough edges, that doesn’t take away the fact that this is one of the most visually stunning horror films I have ever seen. For those who are willing to watch the movie, it is one that I highly recommend. 9/10.
-Bram Stoker’s Drăcula is currently streaming on Pluto TV.
Frankenstein (1931)
Finally, we end our journey with one of the most iconic films of all time: Frankenstein.
Adapted from the first science fiction story ever told, written by Mary Shelly, we follow Dr. Frankenstein as he tries to play god and create life itself. To accomplish this, he commits grave robbery and steals body parts for his creation. Then, in a lightning storm our Monster is brought into this world with the exclamation “It’s alive!” However, all is not well and the Monster tries to escape from captivity, and chaos ensues.
The performance by Boris Karlof as Frankenstein’s Monster is one of the most famous in cinematic history; bringing such subtlety and nuance to an otherwise lifeless creature. The production design is also quite eye popping, with various structural elements possessing many expressionist and gothic flairs.
While the film’s runtime of only 70 minutes may seem to end abruptly, this is because it only adapts the first half of Mary Shelly’s original novel. The other half is told in 1935’s The Bride Of Frankenstein.
While not a perfect movie by any means, it still holds up over 90 years later, and will continue to be a Halloween classic for many years to come. 8/10.
–Frankenstein is currently streaming on Peacock.
