“It’s in the Trees! It’s Coming!”

The Halloween season at Casa di Rodan is officially underway, for the required annual viewing of Jacques Tourneur’s Night (Curse) of the Demon is complete.

It’s not as though Brugger and I don't watch scary movies pretty much all the time, but it is an unbreakable tradition to kick off the Halloween season with several of our favorites, such as John Carpenter’s The Thing; Trick R Treat; It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; and, of course, the aforementioned Tourneur classic.

Night of the Demon (to use its proper UK release title) remains my favorite horror movie of all time, and Friday night was its turn on the screen. It still gives me a case of the creeps, mainly from remembering how deeply the image of the critter scared me as a young ’un. And I still love that critter; whatever its imperfections, I don’t believe the movie would be the classic it is without the thing.

A few of the past week’s cinematic highlights (and low points):

Brugger and I watched Smile at the theater the other night. We both found it needlessly heavy in the jump-scare department, but it was at times wonderfully eerie, and we liked it overall. There was 1999’s The House on Haunted Hill, which we both enjoy quite a bit (I’ll play the heretic here and admit that I prefer it to William Castle’s 1959 original). We watched the new Hellraiser on Hulu. This one had some merit, particularly in its exposition about the Lament cube, yet it still felt unremarkable and ultimately disappointing. We followed that up with the original Hellraiser, which I appreciate on a deeper level than the new one, but I can’t claim that it’s ever been a particular favorite. And we took in the original 1953 War of the Worlds last week, which I have adored since the first time it thrilled me as a seven-year-old. On my own, I watched The Houses October Built, mainly because I remembered it featured some cool haunted attractions and very creepy haunted attraction personnel. My memory was pretty accurate, and I was not disappointed.

One evening this past week, Ms. B. had a hankering to watch The Haunting from 1999, as she finds it entertaining. I hated the movie when it came out, but I was fine giving it another chance, as I have not watched it since its original release. Sadly, my opinion hasn’t changed. It’s awful. Not to fault her enjoyment of it; I can hardly claim to have no affinity for some admittedly awful movies...

The first of the season’s Halloween parties went off last night, at our friend Margaret’s place in Rural Hall. And what an affair! Margaret brought in a caterer for the food, offered beverage selections customized to attendees’ tastes, and provided various favors for the guests (fairly expensive ones, at that, and even cigars for those who might be interested). So, yeah, I indulged in a cigar (I blame Tony Tremblay for stoking that long-dormant vice at Necon back in July).

Brugger and I will be having a little bash here at home later this month, as will friends Terry & Beth (who accompanied us to a pre-Margaret-party visit to Hanover Park Winery yesterday afternoon). There may be others.

I do have a very busy week coming up. There will be updates later, no doubt.

Boo!

As a hobby, Kimberly’s dad builds these lovely miniature houses, barns, and other town buildings, which she
displays before our fireplace. Now they’re lit by Halloween lights — as they should be. 

Found at Lowe’s Foods in Lewisville, NC, on our way to friend Margaret’s party. Wowz!

I blame Tony Tremblay for the cigar craving. Note the lovely wine glass, courtesy of friend Margaret.

Horror of the Demon

Always on the list of absolutely-can't-miss-or-Halloween-can't-come Halloween picture shows — right up there with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown — is  Jacques Tourneur's 1957 classic Curse of the Demon (or, as it was originally known across the pond and increasingly on these shores, Night of the Demon). Since I first saw it sometime in my teens, I have considered it my favorite horror movie, and each yearly viewing renews my appreciation for it.

That cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland right there. Yeah, that one, issue number 39. That did it to me. Long before I ever saw the film, I saw that cover — probably around age ten — and if you've been reading this blog, you already know I was the world's most terrified kid. That image freaked me out like few other images ever have. Something about those burning eyes, the gaping maw with all those teeth, the horns, the fiery crimson backdrop....

Some people hate the inclusion of the monstrous demon itself in the film; director Tourneur had no intention of any such thing and essentially disowned the movie after the thing was inserted at the behest of executive producer Hal E. Chester. Chester was a showman, a drive-in-monster-movie-type producer, while the film as Tourneur made it was atmospheric, cerebral, and, as far as the existence of the driving demonic force, quite ambiguous. The special effects, masterminded by the ubiquitous Wally Veevers, were done on a shoestring budget, and, in the finished product, it shows.

That's if you care. Me, I love the monster. For all its flaws, it still generates a little shudder, draws the events of the movie out of the psychological realm and drops them squarely into the supernatural. I do so like that. While the film as Tourneur originally made it might well have been a masterpiece, I doubt, seriously doubt, that for me personally, it could ever have been as satisfying as knowing that, within the scope of this motion picture, the demon is real. For all the skepticism of psychiatrist Dr. Holden (Dana Andrews); the rational refutations of all things paranormal; the careful examination of facts, theories, and possibilities under the cold light of reason; and the mounting evidence that the almost lovable villain, Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis) is merely playing psychological games with Holden and his attractive young ally, Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins), the supernatural forces reign absolutely in this picture — rendering us, as human beings, very small, ultimately helpless things rather than the more highly evolved rational beings we think we are.

Some feel that having prior knowledge of the demon's existence cheapens the drama, making moot the point of the thoughtful investigation, the convincing scientific discourse. I believe it does not. We see the human mind doing what the human mind does best; for Tourneur, this was delving, questioning, weighing evidence. But what it amounts to in the film as it exists is us fooling ourselves into thinking we're smarter than we are — making it, in my view, very much a Lovecraftian story, even if the source material really is not.

From the opening scene of Professor Harrington's drive down a dark, ominous country road; to the revelation of Julian Karswell's multi-dimensioned character; to Holden's scary venture through the woods outside Lufford Hall; to the suicide of devil cult member Rand Hobart; to the final appearance of the gigantic fire demon, Curse of the Demon is all dark atmosphere and a relentless sense of foreboding. It is the perfect Halloween movie.

And my favorite horror movie. Ever.

Dana Andrews as psychiatrist Dr. Holden and Peggy Cummins as Joanna Harrington

The almost-lovable villain, Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis) with familiar Greymalkin

Dr. Holden hears eerie sounds in the corridor of his hotel.

"It's in the trees! It's coming!"

Beware the casting of the runes! Dr. Holden at the home of Karswell devil cult member Rand Hobart.

Karswell's attempts to eliminate Dr. Holden appear to have backfired.

What a happy boy.

Day of the Dead

So, after work, I went out to Northeast Park to hide a new cache, which I figured I'd title "Day of the Dead," given it's about that time of the season, and all. Imagine my surprise when I got out to the trail and ran into the fellow you see pictured above.

I also ran into this:

And this:

And this:

I've listed the new cache, a nice little two-stage multi, indeed titled "Day of the Dead" (GC371JE), which I expect will be published at geocaching.com in the next day or two. You really just don't know what you're going to find in the woods sometimes. Me, I could hardly have been more pleased.

Since all this good stuff kicked my Halloween spirit into high gear—a day late—I went on and watched Curse (Night) of the Demon, my favorite horror film, just to make it official. I can't tell you how glad I am that I decided to go hide that cache rather than just head home and cook bison burgers. Of course, after the job was done, I did go and cook those burgers. The bison were almost dead....

And here's a little spoiler I left at ground zero for stage 1 that might help those who go hunting the cache: THE DEAD WALK