Halloween, The World Series and at-home Horror on Monday Morning Diary (November 2)

                                 Jillian in Halloween garb

                                 Jeremy in Halloween garb

by Sam Juliano

Pumpkins will be around for at least a month longer, but in large measure to make pies and for Thanksgiving ornamentation.  The jack-o-lantern variety has mystically departed until next year, though it made its mark on many porches across America.  Gone too is the trick or treating, though horror film lovers aren’t about to give up the ghost yet.  Just when you get back into something with a marked passion, the calendar comes barging in.  But much like past years adherents of this genre will stay the course at least a few weeks longer.  This writer watched a bunch of horror classic on blu ray and DVD over the past week on a HD large screen for one, and it was great time for the family to share the fun.

As a lifelong baseball aficionado I have watched every minute of the World Series, and have marveled in the ups and downs for both teams.  The Kansas City Royals won in an unlikely comeback thanks to a crucial error and some 8th inning heroics in Game 4 to take a commanding 3 to 1 lead.  I will revise this post either late tonight or tomorrow morning to reflect the results of Game 5.  A Royals win will end the series, while a Mets triumph will force a Game 6 in Kansas City on Tuesday night.  Meanwhile the Giants incurred a bizarre 52 to 49 football loss in New Orleans to the Saints after a costly face mask penalty setting up the winning field goal.

I’m not so sure whether we will be celebrating the last two months of the movie year, or whether conversely we’ll be lamenting the dearth of quality works.  The proof, alas, will be in the pudding.  So far I’d characterize 2015 as an average year in movies, even if I will have no trouble compiling a ten-best list, what with a fair number of very good films part of this annual equation.  Things on this front won’t begin to heat up for another four to five weeks.  The opera season is well underway, and I’ll be seeing a number of the HD broadcasts in local theaters.  

No films were seen in theaters this past week as a result of all the Halloween events and preparations, though we re-watched a number of horror films at home:

City of the Dead (1961)       **** 1/2

The Seventh Victim  (1943)   *****

The Shining  (1980)    *****

Black Sunday  (1961)  *****

Cat People (1942)    **** 1/2

The Beast with Five Fingers  (1947)  **** 1/2

The Haunting  (1963)  *****

Black Sabbath (1963)  *****

Carnival of Souls (1963)  **** 1/2

 

Most links have been updated:

In his thirteenth podcast Aaron West (with Mark Saur) talk about the new Criterion release of David Lynch’s “Mullholland Drive” and  Unraveling the Mystery at Criterion Blues:                               http://criterionblues.com/2015/10/31/ccu13-mulholland-drive-2001-unraveling-the-mystery/        

 

At Overlook’s Corridor Jaimie Grijalba has concluded another magnificent Horror Madness countdown, concluding in grand fashion with the 1952 Finnish film “Valkoinen Peura”:                  https://overlookhotelfilm.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/october-overlook-madness-31-valkoinen-peura-1952/

 

At Twenty-Four Frames, our friend John Greco leads up with a fabulous Silver Scenes blogathon review of Jules Dassin’s 1947 classic “Brute Force”:    https://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/brute-force-1947-jules-  dassin/

At Noirish, the renowned writer (and voracious reader) John Grant has a remarkable listing up of his monthly record: https://noirencyclopedia.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/ot-octobers-leisure-reading/

At FilmsNoir.net Tony d’Ambra has posted a full list of films noir in US Library of Congress National Film Registry:                                      http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/list-of-films-noir-in-us-library-of-congress-national-film-registry.html/

Stephen Mullen offers up a terrific “Halloween Quiz” at The Listening Ear:  http://listeningear.blogspot.com/2015/10/halloween-quiz.html

Joel Bocko has published a superlative review of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Syndromes and a Century” at I Lost it at the Movies:  http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-favorites-syndromes-and-century-83.html

At Mondo 70 Samuel Wilson has penned a magisterial piece on Joji Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation:                                                 http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2015/10/on-very-small-screen-beasts-of-no.html

At It Rains…….You Get Wet Robert Tower offers up a spectacular presentation on David Fincher’s “Zodiac”:                                 http://le0pard13.com/2015/10/30/zodiac-film-review/

At Tuesdays with Laurie, our great friend Laurie Buchanan offers up a terrific post titled “Abracadabra”:                      http://tuesdayswithlaurie.com/2015/10/13/abracadabra/

Over at Attractive Variance Jamie Uhler offers up his fabulous latest installment of “Recent Cultural Happenings…..”:  https://attractivevariance.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/recent-cultural-happenings-noise-doesnt-annoys-end-of-september-2015/

At Movie Classics, Judy Geater has posted a fantastic piece on Clarence Brown’s 1928 “A Woman of Affairs.”:                    https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/a-woman-of-affairs-clarence-brown-1928/

David Schleicher has penned a superlative review of Ramin Bahrani’s “99 Homes” at The Schleicher Spin:          http://theschleicherspin.com/2015/10/12/the-death-of-the-american-dream-in-99-homes/

Our longtime friend the film maker and movie lover extraordinaire Jeffrey Goodman has resumed his Ozu series n-99-hwith a terrific review of the director’s 1930 “The Night’s Wife”:  http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2015/10/that-nights-wife-1930.html

Jeff Stroud brings a higher level of thought to his wonderful new post at The Reluctant Blogger titled “Blank Page”: https://jeffstroud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/blank-page/

Over at Patricia’s Wisdom, the terrific book reviewer and friend Patricia Hamilton has penned an excellent review of Jean P. Moore’s “Water on the Moon”: http://patriciaswisdom.com/2015/10/water-on-the-moon-a-novel-jean-p-moore/

Over at Ferdy-on-Films, Roderick Heath leads up with a superlative review of Wes Craven’s “The Serpent and the Rainbow”:                      http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2015/the-serpent-and-the-rainbow-1988/26355/

J. D. Lafrance’s offers up a splendid review of “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter” at Radiator Heaven:                           http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2015/10/captain-kronos-vampire-hunter.html

Shubhajit Lahiri has penned an excellent review of Wim Wenders’ 1975 “Wrong Move” at Cinemascope:                                                                                      http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-wrong-move-1975.htm

Terrill Welch’s incomparably beautiful Creative Potager blogsite leads up with “Paiting and then selling paintings are done on a different breath:  http://creativepotager.com/2015/10/06/painting-and-then-selling-paintings-are-done-on-a-different-breath/

At Filmicability Dean Treadway’s latest post is a superlative examination of the film year 1956: http://filmicability.blogspot.com/2015/10/1956-year-in-review.html

Sachin Gandhi has penned a terrific review on the Brazilian “She Comes Back on Thursday” at Scribbles and Ramblings:  http://likhna.blogspot.com/2015/10/she-comes-back-on-thursday.html

At his new site Enic-Cine, Murderous Ink has penned a brilliant piece on 1949’s “Late Spring” titled “Ozu, Pickles and Rice Bran” (Part 3):                                           http://www.enic-cine.net/ozu-pickles-and-rice-bran-part-3/

At The Seventh Art the exceedingly gifted writer Srikanth offers up reviews on two Hindi films under the banner grouping titled “Love in the Time of Gonorrhea”: http://theseventhart.info/2015/08/02/love-in-the-time-of-gonorrhea/