215) Barbarian (2022)

"You cannot get it upset."

Director
Zach Cregger

Cast
Georgina Campbell - Tess
Bill Skarsgård - Keith
Justin Long - AJ
Matthew Patrick Davis - "The Mother"
Richard Brake - Frank

As I've mentioned before on this platform, horror movies are often a reflection of society's deepest fears whether those collective fears surround European enemies during World War II, the possibility of hostile invasive aliens from outer space, or cultural shifts and counter cultures. There's a lot. When it comes to horror movies of the last five to ten years, they have a lot of themes centered on racial issues, delusions about how terrible America is, and sexual abuse amidst a sexually deviant society. The latter is seemingly the theme to the 2022 horror movie "Barbarian" starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long. 

The movie opens as Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) pulls up at night to an Airbnb in a low-income neighborhood. 

Much to her chagrin, the homeowners double-booked the Airbnb. When she gets there, it's already occupied by a young guy named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). He's just as put out as she is, but he's certainly patient about the mishap. 

As they can't get a hold of the homeowner, Keith and Tess stay up for a while and talk before deciding that she'll sleep in the lockable bedroom while he takes the sofa. She has to get to a job interview the next morning, so she needs sleep. 

During the night, Tess wakes up to find her bedroom door open though she closed and locked it before turning in. 

Startled, she wakes Keith up to see if he opened her door. Irritated, he insists he didn't open the door. 

The next day, Tess heads to her job interview. After the interview, the interviewer asks where she's staying. Tess tells her the neighborhood, which she noticed leaving that morning is in nearly complete decay except for the house she's staying in. The interviewer advises Tess that the neighborhood isn't a place she should be staying, and suggests she locate another place to stay for her own safety. Of course, Tess thinks she'll be o.k. 

When Tess returns to the house, a homeless man chases her inside yelling for her not to go in. 

Tess manages to get in the house before he can catch up. Since Keith isn't home, she starts exploring the house and heads to the basement. 

However, the basement door shuts on its own, locking her down there. 

In the basement she finds a secret door into a dark corridor with a room at the other end that has nothing in it but a spring bed and a video camera. That's certainly disturbing. 

Georgina Campbell as 'Tess' in 'Barbarian.'

Keith returns back to the house and opens the door to let Tess out of the basement. 

She tells him about what she found down there, and he explores this secret space on his own...and doesn't come back. 

Tess goes into the secret area to look for Keith but he's not in there. She finds another secret door at the other end of the short corridor next to the room with the bed and camera. Behind that door are steps leading to a dark and dank subterranean maze of rooms. 

Tess musters up courage to go down those steps to the underground. She's not prepared for the evil that lingers down there, which emerge late at night to roam the abandoned neighborhood. 

Tess finds Keith just before he's murdered by a deformed woman who's living down there. 

Meanwhile, the homeowner, a TV actor named A.J. (Justin Long), is accused of raping a co-star. His legal costs are more than he can afford. So, he's pressured to sell his assets, including the house, in order to pay the increasing legal fees. 

He heads to the house to check it out before putting it up for sale. 

A.J. has no idea Keith and Tess, or anyone for that matter, has been staying there. He seemingly doesn't know it was being used as an Airbnb. He finds their belongings in the house and thinks squatters have been living in the home. 

After spending a night, he finds the tunnels the next day and is taken by this deformed woman who attacks him before putting him into a hole where he finds Tess. This monstrous woman tries to act like a mother by treating A.J. like an infant in the most disturbing way possible. The more he tries to escape, the angrier she gets. 

The movie cuts back to the original homeowner named Frank (Richard Brake) who lived alone in the house back in the 1980s. The neighborhood was much more vibrant and inhabited at the time. Little do the neighbors know that Frank has been abducting women. The aftermath of his terrible crimes dwell beneath the house. 

After watching this movie, one question remains unanswered. Who opened the house as an Airbnb? And why? 

Matthew Patrick as 'The Mother.'

Anyways, the movie is such a gag inducing experience. I hated thinking about this movie days after I watched this. All the worst scenes made me sick, especially during my lunch breaks. 

It's a lot of uncomfortable scenes and grotesqueries in order to preach a theme of sexual abuse and the trauma it causes that never goes away. Such a twisted and consuming sin like sexual abuse leaves scars even after those involved are gone. 

I do appreciate the premise that public sin corrupts both the culprit and society in general. That moral is seen in the character being pulled into the sludge of Frank's crimes, and the decay of the neighborhood that went from a nice vibrant place to raise a family, to a crumbling abandoned "wrong side of the tracks" kind of neighborhood. 

Regardless, the movie feels pretentious. It's as though it's proud of itself for being "daring" enough to touch on a subject that's been preached to death by the blatant unconscionable hypocrites of Hollywood who submerge themselves to begin with in promiscuous behavior.  

The suspense begins as soon as the movie starts. The story pulls the audience in, wanting to see what'll happen. It's unpredictable. I thought it was going to go one way, and it went a completely different direction. It's at a medium level when it comes to being scary. Or I've just watched too many horror movies. It's probably a mix of both. 

"Barbarian" has an uncomfortable storyline held together by stomach churning images. That's what it relies on most after its message about sexual abuse and the lasting scars such abuse leaves behind. 

It's a disgusting modern creature feature with something to talk about. It did pull me in only to leave me wishing I hadn't watched it. Even writing this, I don't want to think about the movie. It just upsets my stomach. 

214) The Haunted Palace (1963)

"One becomes accustomed to the darkness here." 

Director

Roger Corman 

Cast
Vincent Price - Joseph Curwen / Charles Dexter Ward
Debra Paget -Anne Ward
Cathie Merchant - Hester Tillinghast
Frank Maxwell - Priam Willet / Dr. Marinus Willet
Lon Chaney Jr. - Simon Orne

Milton Parsons - Jabez Hutchinson

Roger Corman's movie, "The Haunted Palace," is his sixth movie loosely based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This one is a sinister turn from Corman's previous off-the-wall Poe movie, "The Raven." 

As Frankenstein's monster himself, Boris Karloff, shows up in "The Raven," as does Peter Lorre, this time, Lon Chaney, Jr., famous for playing the Wolfman in the Universal Wolfman movies, stars in "The Haunted Palace."

As expected, Vincent Price returns in the lead role to carry this picture just as he has with the other Poe movies except for "The Premature Burial" where he's replaced by Ray Milland for the lead role. 

In this movie, strange things are afoot at the big house on the outskirts of Arkham, Massachusetts back in 1765. 

Residents know something's not right at the house. In fact, they all think that Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price), the master of the house, is a sorcerer or warlock. 

A young girl wanders up to the house, led in trance by Joseph and his mistress, Hester (Cathie Merchant). 

The couple take the girl down into the house's dungeon - all the big houses in Corman's Poe flicks have a dungeon. Anyways, she's forced to take part in some weird ceremonies and rituals. 

During these rituals, an evil entity is summoned and rises from a pit in the dungeon to possess this girl. 

Afterwards, some of the folks in town see this girl wander from the house clearly in a strange daze. They think she's cursed or under some kind of enchantment. 

So, they all march up to the house, grab Curwen, and take him to be burned alive. 

Just before he goes up in flames, Curwen curses the entire town and its inhabitants along with their descendants. 

Vincent Price in "The Haunted Palace."

The story jumps 110 years after these shenanigans. Curwen's great-great-grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price, again) has inherited the estate. So, he and his wife Anne (Debra Paget) move to Arkham to take over the house. 

However, the townspeople don't welcome them so warmly. 

They blame Charles's ancestor and his curse for all the locals suffering from deformities and other afflictions. It's all Joseph's fault as far as they're concerned. 

Charles and Anne are disturbed by all the disdain hurled at them that they consider leaving. 

However, the house's caretaker, Simon (Lon Chaney, Jr.) convinces the couple to forget about the crazy townspeople and all their personal issues, and to stick around. 

One thing that completely astounds Charles is the amazing and practically identical resemblance he has to his great-great grandfather, Joseph. His portrait hangs above a fireplace. He's taken by this portrait so much that he becomes obsessed with it. It's as though the portrait of his great-great-grandfather begins to possess Charles.
He and Anne meet a local doctor named Marinus Willet (Frank Maxwell) who catches them up to speed about Joseph and why everyone in town hates them so much. 

To add fuel to the fire, Marinus introduces them to the Necronomicon - the book of black magic. He tells Charles and Anne that the book belonged to Joseph, which he used to summon some nasty evil spirits, two in particular named Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth. 

Joseph's diabolic plan was to conjure up these evil spirits to, uhhh... hook up with women and then create a race of superhumans. This is what led to all the deformed towns folk. 

Meanwhile, Charles eventually falls under the complete control of Joseph's painting. In fact, he's completely possessed by Joseph's spirit and begins conducting the same rituals Joseph did over 100 years ago. 

Corman brings his Poe line-up to a much darker and more serious tone with "The Haunted Palace." The story has an eviler sting to it. Eviler - that is a word, I believe. 

The story is based partly on the poem of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe, and partly on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H. P. Lovecraft. The
Lovecraftian elements are clearly seen in the presence of the Necronomicon and the inclusion of Yog-Sothoth and obviously Cthulhu.

Price's performance here is the best yet. Don't get me wrong, being a fan of Vincent Price, I haven't yet seen a performance of his I didn't like. But here, he brings such an unsettling tone that fits brilliantly well. Price seems to take each role of his seriously and meticulously puts details and specific tones into each of them. That's especially true here. 

If I had to pick a favorite Vincent Price role among these Poe movies, I'd think, thus far, this is it. He's playing dual roles and has the task to meld them together. 

Seeing Lon Chaney, Jr., is certainly a treat. I'm telling you, the casting choices within these last couple of movies is nothing short of classic. For me, being a fan of Universal monsters, it's a treat. This is the kind of stuff I geek out on. 

I'm loving Roger Corman's low budget but grand Poe movies, and "The Haunted Palace" certainly hits the spot.  

The movie has a generous and very welcomed portion of unsettling images that are off-putting, especially the deformed towns folk, some of whom have bare skin instead of eyes. In true Corman form, this Gothic film has an impressive set and showcases Corman's masterful talent in making a grandiose film despite a small budget. 

The age of the movie adds to the welcomed creepy factor acting like real cobwebs left untouched in a haunted house attraction. 

This movie is a return to something dark, in true Poe and Lovecraft fashion, and is more serious in tone than the previous film before it. 

Also. in true Corman/Poe fashion, the story ends with a large gothic looking home going up in flames. It's the signature on a priceless art piece.