10th Anniversary Celebration at WitD, Jamie Uhler’s Horror Fest and 2018 Caldecott Medal Contender series launching on Monday Morning Diary (September 17)

Tenth Anniversary at Wonders in the Dark!

Last week we at the film/arts site WONDERS IN THE DARK celebrated our 10th anniversary. So much has been achieved that to list them here would be a Herculean task. Decade and genre countdowns, weekly Monday Morning Diaries, spectacular essays from co-editor Jim Clark, terrific reviews from J.D. Lafrance, Allan Fish Online Film Festival tributes, the annual Caldecott Medal Contender series reviews, annual horror film round-up by Jamie Uhler, podcasts, are sure highlights but the archives of course reveal so much more an spill into opera, theater and music as well.  Thank you so much Joel Bocko -a friend and affiliate since almost the beginning- for reminding us of this monumental achievement.  It all began on September 7th 2008 with the following statement from Yours Truly:

“Today, September 7, 2008, a new blog is born. The main thrust of this cultural endeavor will be the publication of reviews, which will examine films, theater, concerts and opera. Several writers will be on board to bring the steaming excitement of Manhattan culture to the internet world. In the area of film, there will also be ongoing attention to classic and contemporary cinema by some terrific writers and a tracking of new DVD releases of art house product. As the site matures, it is also anticipated that pictures and photos will be utilized. This is a most exciting project and I am thrilled with the prospect of rewarding discourse by way of posts and comments.”

Within a day of that post my dear late friend and writer extraordinaire Allan Fish came aboard and the rest they say is history. I would never have envisioned this impulsive endeavor to last for a long ten years but here we are, still moving ahead albeit without our cherished friend, but still with relevance and terrific writers. HAPPY BIRTHDAY WONDERS IN THE DARK!!!

The 2018 Caldecott Medal Contender series will begin with a post set to go later today.  This is the sixth annual project covering the year’s noteworthy American picture books and it will run until mid-January, two weeks before the awards are announced.

Jamie Uhler has launched the annual Horrorfest via e mail and this year it is quite the comprehensive affair.  Jamie has agreed to allow posting at WitD so many others can engage in these banner reports and recommendations.  Here is the first of these reports:

I’m happy to announce, with some delay my official 31-in-31 October Horror list. I say ‘some delay’ as mid year my 7 year old external hard drive crashed, vaporizing 2.5 TBs of films instantaneously. I lost thousands of riches, but who wants to dwell in that much depression (plus, fuck it was all illegally downloaded for nothing anyway!). Undeterred, I had to cobble together to the best o of my knowledge what I had been stockpiling in a Horror2018 folder (a yearly exercise ensuring that I see more obscure works. You’ll notice this year the full fledged return of the classic 31-in-31, as past years got out of control, with sometimes over 50 films attempted in the expanded, more than 2 months Horror season. Thus, I’m trying to keep this one as much in the window of October as I can, perhaps only cheating into September to lighten my daily October load. This year’s selections also started much looser, without the sectioned off ideas of years past, which alas, still found some nice, interesting buckets to contain most of the picks into.

And, most interestingly, where in years past older films would make up 4-8 picks in general, this is the first year a dedicated commitment to older Horror was made, with 17 of the 31 being pre-1950. On this point you get a vacuum sucking out much of the trash that usually is appearing on most year’s lists. This is, again, for the first time really in these marathons. I look forward to the pre-discussions (I’m really interested in if Maurizio is familiar with the Inner Sanctum films), and the eventual mini-essay write-ups that follow each viewing.

Complete Inner Sanctum filmography
Calling Dr. Death (R. LeBorg… 1943) Inner Sanctum noir mystery
Dead Man’s Eyes (R. LeBorg… 1944) Inner Sanctum noir mystery
Weird Woman (R. LeBorg… 1944) Inner Sanctum noir mystery
Pillow of Death (W. Fox… 1945) Inner Sanctum noir mystery
The Frozen Ghost (H. Young… 1945) Inner Sanctum noir mystery/ghost
****can’t locate Strange Confession (J. Hoffman… 1945) Inner Sanctum noir mystery if I can I will watch****

Unheralded Universal Monster movies
Werewolf of London (S. Walker… 1935) Universal monster
Son of Frankenstein (R. V. Lee… 1939) Universal monster
The Wolfman (G. Waggner… 1941) Universal monster
Night Monster (F. Beebe… 1942) Universal monster
The Ghost of Frankenstein (E. C. Kenton… 1942) Universal monster
House of Frankenstein (E. Kenton… 1944) Universal monster

Michael Curtiz twin-bill
Doctor X (M. Curtiz… 1932) mystery
Mystery of the Wax Museum (M. Curtiz… 1933) mystery

Get that Witch on the Phone
Witchcraft (D. Sharp… 1964) witch
Eye of the Devil (J. L. Thompson… 1966) supernatural/occult

Random grab bag through the eras
Return of the Vampire (L. Landers… 1943) Dracula/vampire
The Lady and the Monster (G. Sherman… 1944) science-fiction/horror
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (C. Barton… 1948) horror comedy
Deadly Sweet (T. Brass… 1967) giallo
Wake in Fright (T. Kotcheff… 1971) psychological thriller
Dark Age (A. Nicholson… 1987) exploitation
Born of Fire (J. Dehlavi… 1987) supernatural/fantasy
Fear (R. S. O’Bannon… 1990) serial killer
Tale of a Vampire (S. Satō… 1992) vampire
Pontypool (B. McDonald… 2008) virus
Thelma (J. Trier… 2017) supernatural
You Were Never Really Here (L. Ramsay… 2017) psychological thriller
Unsane (S. Soderbergh… 2018) psychological thriller

Eccentric outliers

L’ Inferno (F. Bertolini/A. Padovan/G. De Liguoro… 1911) silent
Psycho (mashup of 1960 and 1998 versions) (S. Soderbergh)
Killing Gävle (30 m. BBC) (J. Fletcher… 2017) documentary

I also forgot to add these to (which actually puts me at 33)
The Vampire Bat (F. Strayer… 1933) vampire
The Stone Tapes (P. Sasdy/N. Kneal… 1972) BBC television film

 

At the conclusion of October, November come down
Eerie, Indiana (Complete Series, 19 episodes)(J. Rivera/K. Schaefer/J. Dante… 1991-1992) supernatural TV

 

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