2008 Woodie Awards
Films designed for Day of the Dead
Somewhat obscure items for your Halloween viewing pleasure
By: Anthony Barsanti
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Lifestyle
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"Eyes Without a Face" (1959) - A daring film in its time, Cinemateque Française (the first major film lovers' museum/exhibition foundation created in response to the French New Wave) co-founder Georges Franju's passion for the subtle blending of the real and surreal are evident in this ghastly tale of a girl with a horribly disfigured face and a brilliant yet maniacal surgeon as a father. In a lovingly gruesome fashion, Dr. Genessier lures his patients (read: guinea pigs) to extract their facial tissue and graft it to his daughter's, thereby ensuring her a normal existence.
"Repulsion" (1965) - Roman Polanski's first English-language feature focuses on the slowly developing psychosis of a young Belgian woman named Carol (Catherine Deneuve) who lives with her sister in London. Dealing with her sister's neurotic married boyfriend, her job and Colin, a decent guy who's taken a liking to her, Carol becomes increasingly reclusive and unable to express her feelings. When her sister and boyfriend go away for the weekend, Carol's mind completely unravels - with devastating consequences.
"Wait Until Dark" (1967) - Audrey Hepburn delivers an Oscar-nominated performance in this thriller about an alert blind woman under siege by a criminal searching for a heroin-stuffed doll hidden in her apartment. Alan Arkin dons a dooming persona as the head villain attempting to use the woman's blindness to get what he wants. Not a freak-out flick in the least, this psychological yarn makes for a surprising delight.
"The Return of the Living Dead" (1985) - "Brains! Live brains!" Thus began "Return of the Living Dead," one of the most revered cult horror classics. The film, along with other campy horror films like "The Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn," has a knack for spoofing landmark horror films, in this case its predecessor "Night of the Living Dead."
"Pulse" (2001) - No matter what all you computer geniuses think, real live friends have more to offer us than the most animated of alternate realities; such a message may be gleaned from this startlingly scary story of Tokyo college friends who discover a member of their circle has committed suicide and started a trend of people resurrecting inside a shadowy Web site. The film predates and surpasses "The Ring."
"The Descent" (2006) - A refreshing departure from today's wave of bland horror movie-pies thrown up against a wall just to see if they splatter in an interesting fashion, British director Neil Marshall's story about a group of cave-diving, or spelunking, friends led by an overambitious member into an unexplored Appalachian fissure has more to it than one would expect.
Honorable Mentions: "Scanners" (1981) - director David Cronenberg's paranoid sci-fi enters new proportions in low-tech, on-screen violence/gore; "Manhunter" (1986) - arguably superior to its 2002 remake, "Red Dragon"; "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000) - John Malkovich excels as immortal German Expressionist director F.W. Murnau on the shoot of his "Nosferatu."
"Repulsion" (1965) - Roman Polanski's first English-language feature focuses on the slowly developing psychosis of a young Belgian woman named Carol (Catherine Deneuve) who lives with her sister in London. Dealing with her sister's neurotic married boyfriend, her job and Colin, a decent guy who's taken a liking to her, Carol becomes increasingly reclusive and unable to express her feelings. When her sister and boyfriend go away for the weekend, Carol's mind completely unravels - with devastating consequences.
"Wait Until Dark" (1967) - Audrey Hepburn delivers an Oscar-nominated performance in this thriller about an alert blind woman under siege by a criminal searching for a heroin-stuffed doll hidden in her apartment. Alan Arkin dons a dooming persona as the head villain attempting to use the woman's blindness to get what he wants. Not a freak-out flick in the least, this psychological yarn makes for a surprising delight.
"The Return of the Living Dead" (1985) - "Brains! Live brains!" Thus began "Return of the Living Dead," one of the most revered cult horror classics. The film, along with other campy horror films like "The Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn," has a knack for spoofing landmark horror films, in this case its predecessor "Night of the Living Dead."
"Pulse" (2001) - No matter what all you computer geniuses think, real live friends have more to offer us than the most animated of alternate realities; such a message may be gleaned from this startlingly scary story of Tokyo college friends who discover a member of their circle has committed suicide and started a trend of people resurrecting inside a shadowy Web site. The film predates and surpasses "The Ring."
"The Descent" (2006) - A refreshing departure from today's wave of bland horror movie-pies thrown up against a wall just to see if they splatter in an interesting fashion, British director Neil Marshall's story about a group of cave-diving, or spelunking, friends led by an overambitious member into an unexplored Appalachian fissure has more to it than one would expect.
Honorable Mentions: "Scanners" (1981) - director David Cronenberg's paranoid sci-fi enters new proportions in low-tech, on-screen violence/gore; "Manhunter" (1986) - arguably superior to its 2002 remake, "Red Dragon"; "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000) - John Malkovich excels as immortal German Expressionist director F.W. Murnau on the shoot of his "Nosferatu."
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