52) My Soul To Keep (2019)

"My fear only makes it stronger. I know what it is. It's evil! And the evil I know has a name - the Bergly monster."

Director
Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad

Cast
Parker Smerek - Eli Braverman
Remington Gielniak - Sam
Arielle Olkhovsky - Hillary
Brandon Matthew Layne - Richard Braverman
Maria Wasikowski - Liz Braverman
Emmanuelle Torco - Emily Braverman


Eli Braverman, the main character in the 2019 family-oriented independent horror movie My Soul To Keep, stands for all kids in horror film and story history who know something unearthly living in their basement is waiting to "get" them.
The term "get" can mean an abundance of horrible possibilities - eating them whole, stealing their soul, kidnapping them to a dark realm where their parents will never find them, replacing them with a demonic double, tormenting them until they're driven crazy, or just killing them on the spot.
Eli is the kid in the horror movie trope of monsters in the darkest places of our safe, sweet home who decides enough is enough. He's taken the rivalry, that's often one-sided in favor the monster, and tries to turn the tables around.
This is so true as he faces the monster and lays things on the line.
"Get out of my house" he tells it. Eli doesn't yell. But there's no doubt whatsoever that he means it, or else.
Generally when the mustered fearlessness is the key to defeating an evil, it isn't enough to stop thr otherworldly creature. Kid or no kid, the monster here fights back.
I never heard of this movie until stumbling upon it on Hoopla. My horror movie library and lists of horror movies to watch is a bit scattered on various apps and notebooks. Something caught my eye with this movie's synopsis.
Eli (Parker Smerek) is convinced a demon or monster lives in his basement. It's a belief stemming from his vindictive and mean-spirited teenage sister, Emily (Emmanuelle Torco) who heard it from their dad.
Dad, Richard Braverman (Brandon Matthew Layne), claims it's just a story he believed as a kid, and it certainly isn't true.

Parker Smerek

But Eli is certain this monster, made of shadows, lives in the furnace and travels through the pipes to his room on a regular basis.
He keeps lights around his bed, ready to switch on, as he claims to have discovered it's afraid of the light just as kids are afraid of the dark.
Emily convinces Eli to share his story about the monster to his class, and he does. He calls it the 'Bergly monster'.
He tells his class this thing feeds on the souls of children. I guess Freddy Krueger started that motif. Now they're all doing it.
Of course, his class doesn't believe him. His friend, Sam (Remington Gielniak) and a girl named Hillary (Arielle Olkhovsky) are the only two who do.
Hillary takes to Eli rather quickly as she, too, claims to have been visited by the Bergly monster.
She attributes her survival to the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep..." which she recites each night before bed.
Meanwhile, everyone else thinks Eli's monster is nothing more than a conglomeration of some unspecified issues Eli is trying to deal with, and his child-brain created this thing as a sort of coping mechanism.
As things build up through the movie, and tension builds between Eli and Emily, his parents leave him alone with his sister one night while they have themselves a date night.
Eli is scared to be left with his sister, who already has it in for him believing he's treated too leniently for uploading an embarrassing video of her on social media while she is treated harshly for making fun of his "issues."
Emily feigns forgiveness towards her brother as the parents leave for their date. They also ask Emily's boyfriend to "babysit" Emily, while Emily babysits Eli. And they ask Eli to be their "eyes and ears" as her boyfriend is with them.
But Emily ditches Eli, leaving him alone in the house while she and her boyfriend head to a party.
So, rather than sit alone for a few hours, terrified, Eli is going to take this thing by the shadowy horns and own it (figuratively speaking).
As My Soul To Keep uses all the classic tropes - parents out for the night, uncaring babysitter, haunted basement, and best friend who lives too far away - I had a suspicion this movie was going to be the same story told over and over again. In some cases, yes it was. But not exactly. It does something I haven't seen horror movies such as this do.
It blows the flames of the child versus monster element of the story. Movie producers really try to make it a serious face-off. Well, as serious as a family centered horror movie can.
There's so much talk and build up throughout the entire movie, I was expecting a poor and completely disappointing pay off in the end. I mumbled to myself a few times that "something better happen!"
But there is a pay off. A twist that left a little confusion for me to mull over. It's so intriguing, I want a sequel so I can find out what exactly happened. The ending wasn't so unclear that it was nonsensical. Rather, it left the story open for something much more intriguing and scary to happen. There's material enough for the audience to explore even more should a sequel be made. Otherwise, we're left to our own imagination and interpretation as to what exactly happened in the end.
Unfortunately, the characters are lacking qualities enough for the audience to invest their interest in them. Eli does have determination, bravery and these unspecified issues I mentioned, but that's all. Otherwise, everyone else is a cardboard cutout of typical horror characters. They're bland.
Often horror movies receive a sequel because audiences want more of their favorite monster. They want more time to closely watch the demon haunting their dreams. Facing the demon once wasn't enough. We need to face him again, and again, and again...maybe eight more times? Perhaps the fourth time really sucked, so lets try again. If the third time's a charm, what about the seventh time.
This is one movie that probably deserves a sequel. This rivalry needs to continue.

Remington Gielniak

My Soul To Keep feels like it was made as a big setup for something upcoming. The payoff is good, but sitting through an hour of premise building is irritating after a while. Still, the effort to make something enjoyable isn't lacking. It's very much there.
Director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad has very few titles under his directorial belt, including the horror film Jinn. Based on this film, he seems to have a talent for story telling.
With My Soul To Keep, he leans towards a serious side while maintaining that family movie feel. Still, it has some moments that didn't allow me to turn away.
I'm interested in checking out his other movies.
It's time the child alone in his home takes the monster by it's tail and turns things around. My Soul To Keep pulled it off rather well. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a possible sequel. It's great for a family movie night. And I think there's potential for cult-classic status.

51) Willard (2003)

Yes! Look at the rats...

Director
Glen Morgan

Cast
Crispin Glover - Willard Stiles
R. Lee Ermey - Frank Martin
Jackie Burroughs - Henrietta Stiles
Laura Elena Harring - Cathryn

Say what you want about actor Crispin Glover. Sure, he comes across as awkward, eccentric, and sometimes a little too intense during interviews. But when he lands a role in a movie, especially a role like Willard Stiles in the 2003 movie Willard, he more often than not nails it perfectly. Glover is a great actor. Of course, he's memorable as George McFly in Back to the Future. He's great as a supporting actor in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. And his character in Willard should be just as remembered.

As the 1971 movie Willard is based on a novella called Ratman's Notebooks, which is also the basis for the 1972 sequel, Ben, the 2003 movie is really another adaptation of the same book rather than a remake of the original movie.
I saw Willard in the theater by accident. A friend and I, if I remember correctly, went to see something else that ended up being sold out. So, I picked this movie on the spot as an alternative. I didn't know anything about it. The poster is what attracted my attention.

My friend didn't want to go see this. But nothing else was playing. So, I talked him into it.
It was hilarious watching him whine and moan as he sat through a movie he didn't want to see.
Anyhow, Willard Stiles lives in a huge house with his elderly sick mother. She is still overly protective with him incessantly, and he is left to do whatever she asks.
At work, Willard is verbally thrashed by his boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey) who owns and operates the company founded by Willard's father.
And Stile's new coworker, Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring) quickly takes pity on him after seeing how mistreated he is at work all while dealing with his sick mother.
During a tirade, Martin tells Willard the reason he hasn't been fired yet is because he made a promise to his parents that he'd keep him on as long as one of them was still alive.
Willard's dad had committed suicide prior to the story, and his portrait hangs in the family home. Incidentally, the image of his father in the painting is that of actor Bruce Davison who portrayed Willard in the 1971 movie. So, maybe this movie is a sequel?
Willard's mother yells at him, complaining about rats in the basement, which indeed there are. She says she can smell them.
Willard tries setting basic rat traps, which the rats apparently outsmart.
He then tries glue traps, and manages to catch a white one that attempts to crawl away.
Rather than kill it, he takes it off the trap and keeps it.

As Willard has no friends, he finds comfort in this one rat. So, he befriends it and names it Socrates.
His comfort and friendship leads to an obsession.
Willard also learns to control the other rats in his basement, teaching them to do his commands. During this time, he finds a huge rat - bigger than the rest - who stays off to the side and observes Willard and his behavior with the other rats.
Willard calls this behemoth of a critter Ben...as in "Big Ben." As he trains all these rats, Ben takes on a leadership over the rats as well.
Willard's obsession festers and grows, creating jealousy over Ben. It's up to the audience's keen sense of interpretation to determine that Ben is looking for Willard's acceptance as well as a place of importance in his rodent army.
Nevertheless, as Willard trained the rats to "tear" and destroy, he takes them over to Martin's house late one night while purposely excluding Ben. But he sneaks into Willard's bag anyhow with the other rats.
Willard commands them to tear through the garage door and chew through the tires of Martin's brand new Mercedes-Benz. And they do. Cold refreshing revenge!
Later, Willard's mother hears the rats in the basement and panics. When Willard finds her, she laying on the basement stairs dead and surrounded by the rats.
At her funeral, an attorney for his parents' estate informs him that payments have fallen far behind and the bank intends to foreclose on the property.
He also looses his job now that his mother has passed on because Martin feels he doesn't need to keep the promise he made to them - that as long either of them were alive, he'd let their son stay on in the company.
The day he's fired is a day he brings Socrates to work with him. And this time he brought Ben as well.
Martin's secretary spots Socrates in the storage room as she's looking for Christmas decorations, and screams.
Martin and the other workers rush in, and Martin happens to find Socrates on a shelf behind some Christmas lights.
He bludgeons the rat with a broom stick. This pushes Willard well over the edge.
Socrates was all Willard claimed to have. So, he uses the trust and obedience of the other rats to seek the ultimate revenge on Martin.
Meanwhile, as Ben seems to desire Willard's affection, Willard is rather suspect of the huge rat and his anger towards this rodent grows.
Willard is loosing everything, and he's pushed more and more into mental instability.
So, he takes as many rats as he can with him to his former work late one night as Martin is burning the midnight oil in his office.
The rats creep in slowly until his office is infested. As the elevator opens with hundreds of rats pouring out, Willard stands in the middle with a sinister grin on his face. He makes his way to Martin's office and bursts in.
"They'll do anything I tell them," he declares.
Martin runs towards the elevator chased by hundreds of eager rats.
After that, as the world figuratively closes in on Willard, his fight turns towards who will control the rats? Ben, or he?
Glover is perfect in this role. Not only is the character Willard socially awkward, a misfit, and a loner, Glover adds a layer of "eow" and cringe which gradually intensifies as the movie progresses.
Willard's seclusion into himself becomes deeper and deeper, little by little. Glover depicts this trait and downward spiral so well.
It doesn't come across as overblown or laughable. His decline into madness is almost dripping off of him like that string of mucus which appears and hangs off his nostril while he leans over his mother's casket. 

The movie is entertaining, but there's a faint sense of stagnation. The movie doesn't peak much in excitement, save for the rat infestation in Martin's office, and the outcome of it.

R. Lee Ermey in Willard.

I remember this movie being a lot more "edge of your seat" when I first saw in theaters back in 2003. Seventeen years later, it didn't have the intrigue I remembered. I couldn't remember how it ended, so at least there was that surprise to look forward to.
The CGI rats used in some scenes stand out like a sore thumb. Perhaps that's just a byproduct of the day.
Otherwise, the real rats used in the rest of the movie seemed land on their marks impressively.
It's Glover's performance that makes the movie, as well as the number of rats that make this the cringe film it intends to be.
It's Glover's showcase of emotional instability thanks to the verbal abuse and pressure of the unwanted outside world that would make a person like Willard look for acceptance among a rat infestation. And through the actions of Glover's character, we have a good idea of the jealousy, loneliness, and power going through Willard's mind.
I thought at first the story lacked. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Willard used the rats for just what he needed. I thought there was so much more he could have had the rats do for his own personal gain. As I thought about it, I realized there really isn't much else for the main character to gain. As he indulged himself in selfish actions, such as using the rats to inflict revenge, the more he lost.
I'm glad I gave Willard another viewing. 

50) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

There are spirits all around us. They have driven me from health and home, from wife and child.

Director

Robert Wiene

Cast

Werner Krauss - Dr. Caligari

Conrad Veidt - Cesare

Friedrich Feher - Francis

Lil Dagover - Jane

As I've mentioned before, I set this blog up to review B-horror/thriller movies, obscure or obscure-er titles. I've bent that rule occasionally. But for the most part, I've held up this guideline pretty well.
As the horror genre has gained more respect and appreciation in recent years, it's only right to refer back to the movies that laid the groundwork.
Critic Roger Ebert called the 1920 silent German movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari the "first true horror movie."
This year marks the 100th anniversary of this movie. And in all that time, it hasn't stopped inspiring movie makers and artists. Maybe a lot of young cinephiles haven't heard of this movie. Maybe a lot of young horror fans haven't either. But it is not a movie to lightly brush over.
I feel presumptuous to critique this legendary cinematic story. I feel as though I'm daring to critique a work of Shakespeare if that Shakespearean work was a silent German expressionist horror film, as I sit at my clutter desk lined with Mad magazine paperbacks and other various geeky items making my desk more a shrine to pop culture than an actual work space. But, I'm doing it anyways.
As I'm 50 movies into my 1,000 days of horror, I wanted my 50th post to be something distinct and celebratory. I wanted to bring this movie the attention it deserves, especially for those who haven't heard of it, or haven't heard much about it.
I made it through 50 schlocky titles, I see this as a reward for myself before I venture forth through the remaining 950 movies...if I can make it through that many.
I've wanted to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for a long time. I just needed the right push to sit down and watch.
Film critic and horror fan James Rolfe from Cinemassacre recently released a video commentary about this movie. In his commentary he said, "If you haven't seen Caligari, now's a better time than ever."
As Rolfe points out, different releases of the movie through the years have different tracks, different title cards, etc. With the BluRay copy, he claims the movie is at its most original. So, that's what I wanted to see. I owe the movie that much.
I did come across a DVD released from Kino Classics. The movie is restored to its original release along with the German intertitle cards which match the surrealistic style of the movie. English subtitles were included on the bottom of the intertitles, so I was reading words on top of words. But based on information provided on the DVD before the movie begins, this copy is an authoritative 4K restored version of the movie scanned from the mostly preserved film negatives from the German Federal Film Archive and other film archives.

Stylized German intertitle used in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. 

The movie opens with Francis (Friedrich Feher) sitting on a bench with another man, where Francis admits that spirits have forced him from his family.
As he's speaking, a dazed woman walks by. Francis says she is his fiancee Jane who has suffered a lot just as he has.
The film shifts into a flashback of Francis's past in the town of Holstenwall, which is preparing for a fair.
The town is a composed of nearly insane imagery with painted shadows, abstract buildings, alleys that weave around corners and out of site. It surely stems straight out of someone's vivid nightmare? It feels as though there's something subtly sinister hidden beneath the details.
In the meantime, an old man named Dr. Caligari is seeking a permit from the town clerk to showcase a somnambulist (i.e. sleepwalker) named Cesare (Conrad Veidt) at the fair.
The clerk is completely rude to him, but still gives Caligari the permit. Later that night, the clerk is found dead in his bedroom.
Later, Francis and his friend Alan attend Caligari's spectacle. A box in the shape of a coffin stands upright on stage, as Caligari reveals the thin, lanky Cesare asleep inside.
He awakens at the doctor's command, and Caligari invites anyone in the audience to ask Cesare whatever question they wish.
Alan speaks up and asks, "How long will I live?"
Cesare slowly turns his gaze towards Alan without a blink, staring intently at him for a few moments. He then says, "Until dawn."
Later that night, in one of the most appreciated horror scenes, a dark figure sneaks into Alan's bedroom while he's asleep.
The culprit, Cesare, raises his knife as Alan awakes horrified. We see Cesare's silhouette on the wall as he stabs his victim multiple times. And Alan's hands are raised in his last attempt to save his own life.
Burdened with grief, Francis investigates his friend's death with Jane's help, and that of her father, Dr. Olson.

Dr. Caligari (Werner Kraus) and Cesare (Conrad Veidt).

Olson requests permission from the police to investigate Caligari's somnambulist, which he's granted.
Meanwhile, police apprehend a culprit who's witnessed attempting to murder an old woman. They find the potential murderer with a knife. He admits to the attempted murder, but when they press him on Alan's murder, he doesn't know what they're talking about.
Later that night, Francis spies on Cesare, watching him sleep in his coffin box.
At the same time he's doing so, Cesare sneaks into Jane's room and is about to stab her. She wakes up, and Cesare stares at her holding the knife above is head. He hesitates, and slowly puts the knife down.
He can't take his eyes off of her, and proceeds to kidnap her.
Cesare tries to drag her back to his abode as an angry mob gives chase down the street.
But he doesn't succeed. In a patch of gnarled black trees, Cesare, twisting in pain, and collapses.
The plot begins to twist and turn in such an iconic way for 1920, it's fascinating to think about.
The ending is not only a twist I didn't see coming, but the movie concludes on a cliff hanger. I honestly can't think of any other movie of this era that ended on a cliffhanger.
To say this movie is groundbreaking seems like an understatement, but that's exactly what it is.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is rich with anticipation.
With the use of distorted camera angles on top of an already impressive setting, these early filmmakers were thinking outside the norms of their day. It's commendable. And their reward is in the final film that's still highly praised and inspiring 100 years later. It's truly a horror movie among horror movies.
I watched this late on a Friday night with the lights off. Just the glow of the screen illuminated the living room. I put myself in this abstract setting. The movie is eerie with its hand-painted sets and the mood emanating from scene to scene.
This experience is precisely meant to pull audiences out of their reality and into a world that looks just like someone else's dream.

I wish I could go back in time and see how audiences reacted when this movie was first released.
I really took a liking to this horror movie, mentally placing it on a top shelf along with other true gems of the movie genre I heartily respect such as Freaks (1932), Frankenstein (1931), and The Exorcist (1973).
A few nights after I watched this and started drafting my thoughts, I had a dream about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I honestly cannot remember the last time a horror movie gave me nightmares.
Bravo, Caligari! Bravo!
Conrad Veidt was a veteran actor when he performed in this movie. He later went on to portray another iconic silent film character, Gwynplaine, in the 1928 horror classic The Man Who Laughs. His character later inspired Batman creator Bob Kane to create the Joker.
Veidt also starred in the movies Casablanca and The Thief of Baghdad. 
I get the impression that the actors in this film knew they were doing something completely unique, and put everything they had into making something they must have known was going to remain unique well into the future.
It's crucial that any person with a respect for the horror genre, or the art of films, watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It's a pioneer of a movie.

Here's to the next 950 movies...💀👻

49) Maniac (1980)

They don't know when to stop. They never know when to stop.

Director
William Lustig

Cast
Frank Zito - Joe Spinell
Caroline Munro - Anna D'Antoni
Kelly Piper - Nurse
Tom Savini - Disco guy
Abigail Clayton - Rita

Something about the 1980 slasher Maniac makes it seem a little more than just a hack 'n slash movie.
Unlike the maniacal monsters many audiences witnessed during this era, this time they're "treated" (I use the term loosely) to a more in-depth look at the twisted nature of a monster unlike before. Rather than watching a movie through the eyes of the victims. Maniac a story completely centered on the villain.
What makes it terrifying is that the monster here, Frank Zito (Joe Spinell - Rocky I and II, The Godfather I and II), is too grounded in reality than, say, Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th, or Michael Myers in Halloween. 
Maniac is a low budget psychological slasher flick. It's an underrated gore piece with disturbing imagery - what else can it be as it focuses on a disturbed killer with mommy issues.
While watching this, I picked up on influences likely derived from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Pyscho is based on a novel by Robert Bloch loosely influenced around the infamous serial killer Ed Gein.
Gein served as the inspiration behind other horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs - both movies are heavy in mutilation and dismemberment with a little more realism and focus than audiences see when Jason lobs someone's head off with one clean swipe of his machete.
Anyhow, Spinell's performance as Zito seems a lot like Norman Bates as far as his obsession with his deceased mother goes. In Zito's case, his obsession takes the form of a makeshift shrine to his mom, with votive candles and the delusion she still speaks to him from beyond. I also see some influence taken from killer David Berkowitz - the "Son of Sam."
In this movie, Zito's maniacal behavior ultimately stems from the abuse his mother, whom we discern was a prostitute during her life, inflicted on him as a child.
His broken mind has him talking to his late mother out loud when alone inside his empty apartment filled with female mannequins wearing the scalps of his female victims.
The movie opens with a couple sleeping on a private beach. As they awaken, they both end up murdered by a dark mysterious figure. It turns out to be Zito's sick nightmare.
He wakes up and pulls himself together. Zito then goes out for a walk around Times Square.
And as he strolls passed a cheap motel, a prostitute propositions him. She just needs one more...client...in order to make her monthly rent. At least that's what she tells her friend.
They check into the motel were he ultimately strangles her, scalps her, and takes her hair back to his apartment for one of his mannequins.

Joe Spinell in Maniac.

When he returns home, he's distressed over committing another murder. Zito starts talking to his mannequins, or to himself, claiming beauty is crime punishable by death.
When he later goes back out, he takes a shotgun with him.
Zito drives around for a while until he comes across a couple in a parked car.
The guy in the car is played by horror effects legend and actor Tom Savini.
As the couple makes out, the woman spots Zito peeping. She screams, and Zito hides in the shadows.
Finally, as Savini's character starts the car at the pleading of his girlfriend, Zito is standing directly in the headlights. He jumps on the hood, and shoots Savini at point blank. It's as gruesome as you can imagine, especially since Savini was involved. He loves his splatter and all that.
Zito walks around and shoots the girl also at point blank range.
Murdering victims in parked cars by shotgun was the general modus operandi of David "the Son of Sam" Berkowitz when he terrorized New York City.
Later that night, Zito hears about his crime on the nightly news. He begins to cry while talking to his mannequins. and finally falls asleep.
The movie shifts to a photographer named Anna shooting images in Central Park.
She captures a photo of a kid on a bike just as she almost runs her bicycle into Zito.
Zito sees Anna taking that picture, and secretly sneaks over to her camera bag as he pretends to tie his shoe. He looks at her name and address on the bag label.
That night he spots a nurse getting off her shift at Roosevelt Hospital. He follows her into the subway
she realizes she's being followed. In an intense and scary scene, she tries hiding in a bathroom. The intrigue plays out as the audience is led to believe Zito is in there with her. It draws out, making the suspense continue to build and build.
Zito later stops by Anna's apartment under the guise of being an artist. He claims to be genuinely interested in Anna's work, and asks her out for dinner.
After a few dates, he gains her trust. Finally his true nature abruptly comes out as he takes her to visit the grave of his mother before one of their dates. The culmination of all the demons haunting Zito take the form of his victims. The question remains, whether they really exist or only in his head.
It doesn't seem right to recommend this movie to just any one. I feel it needs a little disclaimer. In other words, this isn't an all-in-good-fun thriller type of flick. Zito is the worst kind of antihero.
The movie doesn't waste time making sure the audience knows what kind of monster they're about to spend the next hour and a half with. The audience quickly knows what sets him off. They know what he's capable of. And Zito's self pity and mental torture doesn't make him a sympathetic character in the least.
Not only is Maniac a cring-fest of horror to watch, hammering out a review was difficult. I didn't know how to approach this after watching it.
They say horror movies act as a kind of "how-to" guide in dealing with our fears. They give us a controlled environment to determine what we would do in various terrifying circumstances such as dealing with a maniacal killer like Zito. As horror director John Carpenter once said, "everyone's afraid of something. We're all afraid of the same things together. It binds us as a people."
Such is definitely the case with a serial killer horror movie like Maniac.
Maniac is meant to not just terrify, but to shock. It's meant to make us cower in disgust and trepidation. It's graphic depiction of gore is meant to make us turn our heads. And it certainly does all of the above. It completely plays out as a horror movie in the truest meaning of the term.

Hyla Marrow and Tom Savini.

Spinell's ability to shift emotions on a dime is impressive to watch. His eyes speak loudly despite his rather frumpy rotund body. He was a veteran actor, and plays his part with no inner-joy because Zito doesn't have any. He's an empty man, void of any inner peace. That must be a hard characteristic to portray on screen. Spinell manages to pull it off well, even for this low budget movie.
I feel like I'm walking on egg shells writing about Maniac. It does hold a place in the gallery of classic horror titles. It falls into the sub-category of classic cult horror thanks to its build-up and anticipation, bloody effects, and Spinell's acting.
Maniac isn't necessarily bad merely because of its graphic imagery. In some instances, that content and subject matter are more intense than the average slasher flick from the same era. I wouldn't say it's bad just because it was directed by William Lustig who directed porn films prior to Maniac, and used money from an adult film he directed in 1977 to fund this low-budget movie. It cost $350,000 to shoot, and many scenes were shot surreptitiously as the production crew didn't have the necessary city permits to film in certain areas.
A remake starring Elijah Wood was released in 2012, which I have yet to see. With the main character, it's all about the eyes. And like Elijah Wood, Spinell has eyes that dictate the intensity and mood of the film.
This movie is a little like an expose of a severely delusional madman. The audience sees him exactly as he is - delusions, gore, and all!

48) Midsommar (2019)

Do you feel held by him? Does he feel like home to you?

Director
Ari Aster

Cast
Florence Pugh - Dani
Jack Reynor - Christian
Vilhelm Blomgren - Pelle
William Jackson Harper - Josh
Will Poulter - Mark
Isabelle Grill - Maja

I had to write something about this movie despite an unwritten rule I have not to write about popular new horror releases on this blog. I set this page up for obscure titles and B-horror movies. But the 2019 movie Midsommar gives me a lot to talk about.
It's certainly no obscure film nor B-horror flick. It doesn't deserve to be, either.
This was going to be my 50th review as a sort of treat to myself for making it through 50 schlocky movies. That's why I picked this particular new release which has received good reviews. But I chose another, more appropriate title be my fiftieth review.
(Look out...SPOILERS AHEAD)
I saw a trailer for Midsommar when I went to see Pet Sematary. It caught my interest. And with the positive reviews it received, not to mention having Ari Aster (Hereditary) in the director's chair, I was anxious to see it. And see it, I did.
I watched it a week prior to writing this review, and in that time I've thought a lot about what I had seen.
There's so much happening in this movie both overtly and subtly. Hidden faces. Subtle meanings. Surreal imagery. Emotion. I feel it deserves a second viewing before I throw my thoughts and comments out to the public. But there's so many movies and so little time.
This movie has been called a "folk horror film." I had to look that term up on Google. It's a sub-genre characterized by European, pagan traditions.
If it were up to me, I'd call it "trippy horror." There's lots of trippy horror in Midsommar thanks to depicted trippy drug use. It's not quite the Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas kind of trippy. Midsommar is more nature-y than that. Hallucinogens play an integral part in the story. It's about enhancing the feels.
In the story, Dani Ardor and Christian Hughes have been dating for a few years, though Hughes' interest in the relationship has clearly diminished over time. He's become distant. Still, he strings her along.
Ardor is struggling to help her troubled sister, Terri. She then becomes traumatized after Terri kills herself and their parents by filling her house with carbon monoxide. This tragedy strains Hughes as he's all that Ardor has for support. And he's already at a point were he's fatigued at how dependent his girlfriend already is.
A few months later, Hughes, who's a grad student in cultural anthropology, is invited to attend a midsommar celebration by his Swedish friend, Pelle.
Hughes friends, Mark and Josh, are also invited to attend the event which is going to be held at an ancestral commune in central Sweden.
When Ardor finds out, she asks to come along though Josh and Mark, who dislike Ardor, prefer she stay behind. Of course they certainly won't tell her that.
Hughes is also reluctant to have her tag along, but agrees because he thinks he has to consider they are dating, and she's been through a traumatic situation.
When they arrive at the commune, they meet an English couple who are there on the invitation of Pelle's commune brother, Ingemar.

Florence Pugh as Dani.

He offers the visitors some mind altering mushrooms, which cause Ardor to have vivid hallucinations of her sister.
Things become surreal from this point on. Despite the gentle nature, and religious peace on the surface, there's a foreboding vibe that slowly emerges.
When the visitors witness a ceremony where two commune elders are honored, and then taken to a cliff where they leap to their death, tension and fear escalates quickly.
The subtle surrealism depicted in the set designs and other imagery is unforgettable, distinct and well used.
Director Ari Aster commented in an interview that this movie is really a drawn out break-up movie dressed as folk horror.
The tension between Ardor and Hughes amidst their strained and tired relationship is evident throughout the movie.
They depict this very well, though the conclusion seems rather extreme and unnecessary. This is especially true as the two aren't married nor even engaged.
Hughes is cowardly and unkind to string his girlfriend along despite his lack of interest in continuing on. Still, his demise isn't warranted.
The scene with the elders walking off the cliff plays out like a fever-induced nightmare. For a horror movie, or as a way to portray a pivotal moment through a harsh and horrific scene, that's not a criticism. Actually, it's a compliment.
In fact, I could see a writer conjuring up a story like this just around that one scene if it had been a dream or an image that popped in someone's head. This scene depicts how backwards and dedicated the group is, and it's is difficult to watch though played out wonderfully. It encompasses two sides - the dedicated followers who welcome the deaths the witness, and the visitors who are horrified by it. Both sides are summed up in this suicide scene.
What makes this movie stand out as a great horror movie is that there's no jump scares.
I find myself frequently rolling my eyes with recent horror movies because too many of them rely on jump scares and elements that have quickly become tiresome - dark and gritty atmospheres, low lighting, and built up suspense to lame payoffs.
When recent horror movies step away from all that typical stuff, it's almost encouraging.
The remake of Stephen King's It has evil creeping in some dark and creepy places (i.e. the sewers), but for the most part, the monster Pennywise lurks in the daylight as well. No time of day is safe.
Director Ari Aster proved he can scare without subjecting the audience to lame horror clichés with the 2018 film Hereditary - another fantastic film. He didn't rely on jump scares then either. For a supernatural horror film, the imagery and story line was scary and disturbing enough.
Midsommar uses some surrealism to make the audience feel they're seeing something peculiar and maybe unsettling.
Florence Pugh is great in this film. Again, horror movies too often use the over-emotional female protagonist that can be tiresome. But here, she has reason to be emotional. It's not over done. It's completely understandable. And (POSSIBLE SPOILER) it doesn't conclude on that note.
Pugh is convincing in her role.
As for the rest of the cast, they're not the usual crew of college students who are just asking to get picked off one by one. They're not entirely predictable like teens or college age kids would be in other horror movies, save for William Jackson Harper's character who's breaking of the rules of the commune is obviously not going to end well. But just what will happen to him, and when, is intriguing and tense. Like the rest of the movie's unsettling nature, the rule of storytelling to show, and not tell, is done fantastically well in Midsommar.
I previously watched the thriller The Sacrament (2013), and pre-judged Midsommar as a similar story. But it's quite different.

The Sacrament takes a large amount of inspiration from Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre in the 1970s. It's also shot in the "found footage" style.
Midsommar has more substantive elements of emotion-driven horror visible through the consistent ceremonial behavior of the passionate and dedicated cult members. It's much more "Children of the Corn-esque" but not as blatant on the surface.
Midsommar centers on a cult that's sanctimonious, absolutely dedicated, sold out, and completely misguided. They're much more dangerous than just simply being all evil. If that were the case, the audience would know exactly what they're dealing with. Otherwise, the audience has to really work their way into the cult, through the members and the rituals alongside the characters to see what is really at the heart of it all.
I thought the movie was too long at a running time of two and half hours. It dragged a little, but not enough to have me completely loose interest.
The intrigued continued to build gradually, and I had to keep watching.
The use of high angles and arial views added to the movie's spiritual yet sinister nature. And on top of that, the original use of cultish music to maintain that underlying evil disguising itself as good, or divine, is great.
Everything is drug inducing...and the angles taking the audience to areas we couldn't physically go, along with the subtle distortion of some of the scenes shows what our characters are going through. It all just plays so well together.
I can see this going down in horror history as a notable cult classic like The Wicker Man (1973) and The Witchfinder General (1968).
I don't feel like I've done the movie justice with just one viewing so I plan to see it again for sure. There's so much to see.