The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor Sjöström

Körkarlen's brutal, realistic qualities, come mashed up with some drunken ancient lore to produce one of the most powerful horror movies to date. Well at least during this era. Director Victor Sjostrom takes audiences to places that they normally wouldn't have wanted to go in their time. The imagery that he uses and the way that he presents death is so fantastic but it has this nagging realism to it. This movie makes you fear death.

This story comes with a bit of background. Every year on New Years Eve, Death goes around collecting souls. The last one to die before the hands on the clock strike midnight gets to be the carriage driver the next year. That being said. The tale is a depressing one with three men getting pissed drunk in a grave-yard and then one of them, David, dies only to have to serve out that horrible job description from above. David is taken by death to see what the prior year had been like for him. He is shown, in various flashbacks, that he treats everyone around him like garbage and lets booze lead his life. It costs David his family, friends, and everyone that he loves.

The special effects in this movie are the best for its time. Audiences must have been frightened when they saw it. Scenes of the ghostly carriage meandering around the film are haunting, while the shots of Death himself walking through walls or picking up souls are phenomenal. Then we have the imagery. This movie wasn't for children. The movie has some really harsh overtones and some really violent scenes. It makes for great suspense.

This movie is insanely cool, if you are not used to watching silent movies than I would highly suggest this one. Its a really good find and you can watch it online. Its not a expressionist piece. Its not a ghostly jump out of your seat kind of horror either. This movie has a genuinely frightening feel to it. The movie feels real even though obviously it isnt... or is it? Ingmar Bergman chose this movie to describe why he got into film. This movie is that good. If you don't know Berman I would suggest looking him up before seeing this.

Comments

The Human Monster (1939) - Walter Summers

Bela Lugosi turns in a fantastic performance. It is right on par with the exact same films that had made him famous like Dracula . My personal favorite being The Black Cat . Like the latter, this film suffered from poor circulation and lack of advertisement. Either that or the public wasn't interested in seeing Lugosi in anything else other than his famous bloodsucker. This film has a broad and well acted plot that was rich with detail. Lugosi has two sides in this picture. His well loved and compassionate side. The other is a strict, brutal lone shark that acts as a sinister villain to blind and handicapped people. He really brutalizes his victims. It's a macabre message to pay your bills. The film is slow moving and plagued by the usual setbacks from its time. Most of the nation wasn't really that concerned with horror at the time. But studios knew that they would always have an audience. This film is a prime example of that. It's sad because it's

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Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t

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Inseminoid (1981) - Norman J. Warren

What can be said for mindless schlock pictures like this one. They were pumped out in droves during the eighties. Inseminoid !? give me a break! It sounds like some pre-pubescent teenage boys came up with the title. On the plus side the movie isn't horrible to look at and it has a decent amount of gore. If you can separate yourself from the political incorrectness, then you might have a perfectly decent Sci-Fi Monster Feature. A research team exploring caves on Jupiter accidentally awakens an ancient alien that rapes and impregnates one of the team members. She suffers from terrible shock and trauma, leading to a complete mental breakdown as her pregnancy accelerates faster and faster. Feeling threatened she decides to kill anyone she deems a threat. Can the rest of the research team survive or will they all become victims of INSEMINOID! Apparently this movie had a million dollar budget. That's really shocking considering the outcome of the picture. The acting

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