Long-time readers know about our family tradition: On the Friday before Halloween, I start throwing monster movies in the like onto the screen in front of the kids, and I don’t stop until we all give up and go to bed.
The Mummy (1932) – Despite the poster images, there’s very little running time with Karloff as an actual mummy; it’s either flashback footage of him as Imhotep, Egyptian priest who fell in love with a priestess of Isis 3,700 years ago, or scenes of him as Imhotep in 1932 under his new name as “Ardath Bey,” a crinkle-skinned Egyptian nudging an archaeological expedition to “discover” the tomb of his deceased beloved. It’s Karloff, so he’s entertaining, but I wish he had been given more to do than stare menacingly. (Although he looks ten times better in a fez than Matt Smith ever did.)
Also of note: This movie established the touchstone premise of mummy movies, i.e., a mummified priest/magician/whoever searching for the reincarnation of his lost love… despite the fact that reincarnation was never a part of Egyptian religion.
The Fly (1958) – Gotta have Vincent Price show up for the marathon! What struck me with this viewing is how well structured and plotted the movie is: it all seems inevitable — as it must, being told in flashback — but it’s not predictable. I can only imagine the shock and delight that greeted its initial viewers, who were expecting typical drive-in fare and got an instant classic instead. (As Sariah said, “This isn’t scary — it’s just depressing.)
(My kids all laughed at the iconic image of leading lady Patricia Owens reflected a million times in the fly’s compound vision. Laughed. Perhaps my wife is right, and I’ve raised them to be just a bit too jaded.)
Beware! The Blob (1972) – The one ended up being universally vetoed at about the five-minute mark. The performances, script and musical score were just too concertedly annoying.
Cat’s Eye (1985) – Written by Stephen King anthologizing his own short stories, this is a fine piece of entertainment. The first story is black humor about a private non-profit that uses methods perfected by the mob to “encourage” its clients to stop smoking; the second is sadistic suspense that anyone with a fear of heights should NOT watch; and the third is a pure child-in-danger monster movie, which boasts some terrific over-sized sets to integrated the pint-sized troll into Drew Barrymore’s bedroom. (If you listen close, you can hear bits in Alan Silvestri’s over-synthesized score that he reused that same year in the main theme to Back to the Future. The more you know…)
Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues (1984) – The second veto of the evening! As Sariah forcefully reminded us, the only “good” part of the first one (watched in a previous year) was the throwaway voiceover explanation of a minor character having lost part of his foot “in a freak boating accident”… and if this movie wasn’t a prequel depicting that boating accident, it wasn’t worth our time.
It Came From Outer Space (1953) – A well-meaning but kind of muddled take on “accidental aliens.” Richard Carlson of The Creature From the Black Lagoon is a writer and amateur astronomer in rural Arizona who’s the only one who sees that the huge meteor that crashes nearby is actually a spaceship; Barbara Rush is his cute-cute-cute schoolteacher girlfriend who supports him while everyone else calls him crazy. Then the aliens start abducting and replacing locals, but declare to Carlson’s character that they mean no harm. Who’s the designated Man Of Science supposed to trust? Not the young sheriff who also has the hots for the schoolteacher, that’s for sure.
And that’s as far as we got. Sariah was this year’s official winner, as she was game for another, but the rest of us were ready for bed.
What movie was on deck when you folded?
Actually, thanks to the double vetoes (unprecedented!), we had gotten through all the movies I had gathered; IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE was already the spare.