Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
Listen! Can you hear them? The children of the night?
You probably can because it is, even as I type these words, using my own blood as ink, that most terrifying night of the year.
But is that what's on your mind?
I've no idea.
But I soon will have because it's also the last Tuesday of the month.
And that means it's the return of the feature that's been known to drive a stake of terror into the heart of even the strongest man.
It's the one in which you and you alone get to decide just what's going to be the day's subject for debate.
That subject could involve tonight's events but, given that we've only recently discussed Halloween, it doesn't have to be. It could be any subject at all that tickles your fancy.
For instance, I've noticed there's a new Beatles single out shortly. There are also three Doctor Who 60th Anniversary specials due to be unleashed in the next month. Guy Fawkes Night is mere days away - and Christmas is just around the corner. Then again, it may be something else altogether that's floating your boat right now.
And that's the point. It is your boat and, in the comments section below, you may launch it as you see fit.
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29 comments:
We can't let Halloween go by without a Halloween-themed topic so...
Who's the best Dracula: Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or somebody else?
Bela. That first Dracula movie still gets my attention and it’s long on suspense and no real gore. Charlie don’t like horror gore.
If I may add to Colin’s most-excellent question: do you have a fav “monster” movie, in keeping with Halloween?
charlz
Colin and Charlz, thanks for the topics.
My favourite Dracula is Christopher Lee, even if he refused to speak in some of his Dracula films. He had a genuine sense of menace about him.
My favourite supernatural monster movie was on TalkingPicturesTV, last night. It's Night of the Demon, known in the rest of the world as Curse of the Demon. Beautifully shot, intelligently written, well acted and impeccably constructed.
Yeah, I’ll go with Christopher Lee as Best Screen Dracula, too. DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE is my favorite of his Hammer Dracula pictures.
Charlie:
Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster is my all-time favorite Monster. FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF are endlessly re-watchable for me.
b.t.
The best Drac? Have you not asked that here before, Colin? Or maybe it was at Back in the Bronze Age...
Anyway, my choice would be Ingrid Pitt, in Countess Dracula. She's a very watchable lady.
Best horror film? Hard to choose just one... so here's three instead:
'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'. I wasn't expecting much from the prequel to a fairly inconsistent tv series - especially as up to that point I thought David Lynch was a fairly over-rated director - but it really gets to you. Well, it did with me.
'The Wicker Man' (do I need to specify the original 1973 one?) which I suppose is a fairly predictable choice... but thats because it's so undeniably great.
'The Ninth Gate'. Late '90s Roman Polanski flick thats (sort of) like an updated - and more understated - 'Devil Rides Out'. It didn't get good reviews, but I found that it really drew me in. Hard to explain why, but the curious can see it in full here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH-aYIfYR7g
-sean
Dracula will always be Christopher Lee to me, specifically Dracula Prince of Darkness.
Steve,
Lee stated he refused to speak in this film due to the poor dialogue given to him. However the script writer refuted this and stated no dialogue was ever written. I suspect the truth lies somewhere between the two.
My actual favourite vampire however, is Bill Paxton in Near Dark. A nasty piece of work, but a great movie (admittedly I haven't seen it in years).
DW
Sean, you've got a good memory as I have indeed asked this question before but NOT on SDC.
Anyway, my favourite Dracula is definitely Christopher Lee and, like DW, I think 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness' in which he never speaks is Lee's best Drac film closely followed by his debut in 'Dracula' (1958). For me another memorable Dracula was Louis Jourdan in the BBC's adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel from Christmas 1977. I re-watched this adaptation on YouTube a few years ago but the only version I could find had Portugese sub-titles at the bottom of the screen which was rather annoying at first but I soon got used to them.
But my favourite vampire of all is Mr Barlow from the TV mini-series 'Salem's Lot' which scared the living daylights out of me when I first watched it in 1981. To this day Mr Barlow is still the most terrifying vampire I've ever seen on screen!
To answer Charlie's question, it's difficult to choose a favourite scary film because there are so many. Last week I watched 'Don't Look Now' on BBC iplayer which I hadn't seen for donkey's years and which was better than I'd remembered it to be. Some of my favourite scary films include:
The Devil Rides Out
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (both the 1956 and 1978 versions)
The Haunting (the 1963 original NOT the dire 1999 re-make)
Horror Express (currently available to watch on BBC iplayer)
The Wicker Man (the UK original)
The Innkeepers (from 2010 about a haunted hotel)
Steve mentioned 'Night Of The Demon' and, if I remember correctly, one of the characters in that film quotes some lines from the poem "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread
Having once turned round, walks on
And turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread
My favourite monster movie overall is the Argento cut of Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Or 'Zombi' as we knew it around our way.
I recently watched the 4K version which, unfortunately, only really accentuated how simple the zombie make up was. The Goblin sound track, however, sounded great in 5.1+ (or whatever).
I may have to now track down Zombi Flesh Eaters.
DW
Sean,
If you haven't seen it, track down Fire Walk with Me: the missing pieces. A further 90 minutes of deleted/extended scenes. Worth it almost solely for the extended Bowie sequence.
DW
I'm recusing myself, as the Dracula films I've seen, didn't appeal. The book, however, I liked. I remember a 1990s/early 2000s vampire series, called 'Moonlight', which piqued my interest. It starred the guy from the weak Hawaii 5-0 remake. 'Moonlight', however, got canned (after one season?), so can't have been popular. As regards Monster movies, I remember some 50s B-movies, like 'From Hell it Came', about a walking tree attacking people. But that's just comedy value. Seth Breedlove's monster documentaries - Mothman, Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, etc - pass the time.
Phillip
Colin -
I'm shocked to realise I've never seen any of the classic Dracula movies. Not one. With limited years ahead of me to watch them, is there one I should definitely see that's actually really good?
Charlz -
I watched a few horror movies over the weekend as my wife was away and I was at a loose end. I watched 'Messiah Of Fear' finally, which I would recommend to any Steve Bissette and especially Dan Clowes fans. It's fascinating and clearly left a mark on them.
And I watched 'The Exorcist' which I never get tired of, on 4K [big fan of Blatty's 'Exorcist III' and the novel 'Legion' as well].
My other favourites are on the same page as a few of my fellow guests here: 'The Haunting', the 1978 'Body Snatchers', 'Quatermass & The Pit', 'Alien' etc.
Does anyone else like movies that aren't actually much good, but ARE scary? 'The Amityville Horror' and especially 'The Entity' spring to mind.
Matthew, I'd recommend the two Dracula films I mentioned in my earlier comment:
Dracula (1958) and Dracula, Prince Of Darkness (1966) both made by Hammer and both starring Christopher Lee. I'd say those two are the best of Hammer's Dracula films but actually I enjoy all of them and all of Hammer's other horror films too.
Philip, you don't like ANY Dracula films, not even the Hammer classics??
I've read the original novel too but, like the curate's egg, I thought it was good only in parts. I enjoyed the beginning and end, set in Transylvania, and the voyage of the Demeter from the Black Sea to Whitby was genuinely scary as the sailors start disappearing one by one - Bram Stoker invented the slasher movie! But the middle part of the book drags terribly and is way, way too long - the novel could be reduced in half without losing anything in my opinion. But worst of all is the total lack of an explanation for how Jonathan Harker escaped from Dracula's castle. Dracula departs for England leaving Harker behind in a forbidding castle in the middle of nowhere with wolves guarding the only exit and with Dracula's three brides waiting for sunset so they can have Harker for supper. Harker is doomed, right? WRONG! Later in the book Harker turns up in hospital in Budapest (I think) with no explanation whatsoever for how he pulled off his Houdini-like escape. I considered this glaring omission to be an insult to my intelligence to be honest!
By the way, if you like the book but none of the films, have you seen the BBC adaptation called 'Count Dracula' originally broadcast in December 1977 starring Louis Jourdan and Frank Finlay (which I mentioned in my earlier comment) because it was very faithful to Stoker's novel.
Charlie, I don't like blood and gore either but you don't need to go back as far as Bela Lugosi to see a gore-free vampire film - there was no blood and gore in the Hammer films and not even in 'Salem's Lot' made in 1979.
Colin - I've watched the Gary Oldman Dracula (in 1992 or 1993). As regards, the Hammer ones, I've started watching a couple, but didn't go the distance. I remember one with Dennis Waterman. Re: Hammer, I watched 'Twins of Evil', ages ago - but that's different. I've also watched a funny Drac, with George Hamilton. None of those, however, were stellar.
Regardless of plot holes, I found the book absorbing. As regards books dragging, that's nothing - I once read 'Ulysses' !
Phillip
Phillip, the Dennis Waterman film is Scars of Dracula and is fairly poor. I'd agree with Colin that the first Hammer Dracula film and Dracula Prince of Darkness are probably the best Hammer Drac movies.
Thanks, Steve - I'll give them a whirl, the next time Legend shows them, at a reasonable hour!
Phillip
Christopher Lee is my favourite Dracula. And Dracula Prince of Darkness my fav Dracula movie
Favourite horror films me would be The Thing (1982), The Fly and Alien ( SF crossover but kinda horror)
Phillip, 'Ulysses' has been called unreadable so congratulations on getting through it!
Another "unreadable" book is 'The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath' by HP Lovecraft which I've nevertheless managed to read.
Paul, 'Alien' is currently available to watch on BBC iplayer.
The Hammer Dracula films are fairly poor in general, Steve. Christopher Lee was well cast - he has an effective presence - but the main reason they're remembered with any kind of fondness is because they were on late night tv, where we saw them as youngsters.
If I had to pick a fave it would be 'Dracula 1972'... but I wouldn't seriously claim it was any good.
Moving off on a bit of a tangent, I have recently been enjoying the Hologram People's imaginary soundtrack for the non-existent early 70s horror flick 'Village of the Snake God' (a memorable Amicus/Dario Argento co-production judging from the the sound of it, and the lp cover).
If anyone here thinks that's the kind of think they might like, they can listen to it here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wci7VPwRpT8
-sean
DW, thanks for the pointer on the Fire Walk With Me 'missing pieces'. Seems there's a few clips on YouTube, so I'll have a look...
-sean
Sean, 'Dracula AD 1972' is often considered to be the worst of Hammer's Dracula films.
The most recent disc releases of TPFWWM have all the deleted scenes on.
Colin - You're thinking of 'Finnegans Wake' ! (Although that criticism, to a lesser extent, fits Ulysses, too!)
Phillip
Phillip, I'm sure I've heard that 'Ulysses' is unreadable too but I've never actually read it so I can't say.
Or never TRIED to read it I mean (if it's unreadable).
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