DVD Collectors Online

The Haunting, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Haunting
Year of Release: 1963
Directed By: Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn
Genre: Horror

Overview:
"It was an evil house from the beginning, a house that was born bad." The place is the 90-year-old mansion called Hill House. No one lives there. Or so it seems. But please do come in. Because even if you don't believe in ghosts, there's no denying the terror of "The Haunting."

Robert Wise returned to psychological horror for this much admired, first screen adaptation of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House." Four people come to the house to study its supernatural phenomena. Or has the house drawn at least one of them to it? The answer will unnerve you in this "elegantly sinister scare movie. It's good fun" (Pauline Kael, "5001 Nights at the Movies").

My Thoughts:
What a great film!  There's no blood, no gore, no monsters - everything is completely unseen, and you never find out what exactly is going on.  Yet that only makes the events more sinister.  The house is perfectly realized, unsettling from the moment you see it.  The atmosphere is thick, stifling, and genuinely creepy. 

The performances are all quite good - though I never liked Eleanor's character, I thought Julie Harris did a good job with her.  However, what really shines for me is the direction, cinematography and design.  The camera angles, sound, lighting, everything about the way the film is made make it so very, very good.  Highly recommended.

I really want to get this one on blu-ray.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 4.5/5

(From Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon on October 2nd, 2014)

From Dusk Till Dawn, a review by Jon

From Dusk Till Dawn
4 out of 5



I love this movie. One of my favourite horrors. And after the last few days of the elegant brilliance of Val lewton, I felt I needed to cut loose with some balls-out action vampire killing!

I wish I could have seen it without knowing what it actually was, because the shock of the switch from thriller to horror would have been great fun. It's great that Rodriguez put full effort into that first half to give us well rounded characters, because a problem with a lot of horror films is the thin characters. What's also lacking is a sense of humour, but last section is full of laughs, especially Tom Savini trying to hide his new teeth! Or the vamp that disintegrates on a pool table and his eyes roll into the pockets!

Speaking of which, the gore never gets boring. So many gags, you could watch this several times and still see something new and disgusting. The script is fantastic, full of quotable lines, some of which I've been able to get into everyday conversation... like "I might be a bastard, but I'm not a f***ing bastard!" or the speech about pussy. Actually, I wish I'd not tried that last one. I'm still not welcome in Asda...

It's alright having a good script, but you need a good cast to deliver it and this lot are perfect. Even Tarantino, working to his, erm, strengths. Juliette Lewis I thought would be wrong, but she strikes a good tone between schoolgirl and temptress to Richie's nightmare. Harvey Kietel is as dependable as ever and Clooney is obviously having a riot. Well, I say "obviously", but the outtakes show him frequently pissed off and without his usual humour, so maybe it just proves what a good actor he actually is. And it does no harm to have room for cult favourites like the afore mentioned Tom Savini and Fred Williamson.

Everything oozes confidences in this movie. All the scenes have that little extra they didn't actually need, but looks cool anyway. It will possibly always stand as Rodriguez' best film because it's the most perfect fit for his seat of the pants directing style and there aren't many stories that can stand such a change in tone and still work fully committed to both styles.

"And I don't want to hear anything about "I don't believe in vampires" because I don't believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what I saw is fucking vampires!"

(From October Marathon: Horror! on October 8th, 2008)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
This is a children's show from East Germany. It was the first in the "Spuk" series. During the summer three kids spent their days on the fair grounds and mostly in the haunted house their grandparents run. Three of the life-size puppets come to life and cause havoc in East Berlin and later the Harz mountains.


(lit. "The Fugitives")
One day a group of kids accidentally get three life-size puppets dirty: the witch, the giant and Rumpelstiltskin. When they secretly try to clean them in the river Spree the puppets come to life and escape. Their first mission is to get a broom so that they can fly away from this strange town they've woken up in, so they visit the next shopping mall and steal the next best thing to a broom: a vacuum cleaner.

My Opinion
When I was a kid I enjoyed this seven-part show. So when it became available on DVD I bought it purely for sentimental reasons. But if you're having small children, it's still a great story.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on April 4th, 2013)