We're creeping closer to All Hallows' Eve, which means mandatory discussion of favorite horror movies. Far be it from me to abstain, in this instance anyway. I love a good scare. I especially enjoy tracking horror's evolution through the decades, with different styles and themes prevailing from one generation to the next.
With that in mind, I present to you three horror movies in spiffy new Blu-ray releases. Two of them you probably know; the other, probably less so. Now, wanna see something scary?
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, directed by Don Siegel, released by Olive Films) — Few films ever captured so many societal anxieties than the original attack of the pod people. Is it anti-Communist? Anti-blacklist? Anti-conformity? A warning of the Atomic Age's capacity for destruction? Look at it from different angles and you can make an argument for each of the above.
This is a lean (80 minutes), cheaply made genre movie that left an unexpected dent in popular culture. The central idea, that the person you love can become an emotionless drone, gets at the very issue of identity. The means by which this happens, through viscous seedpods, carries a serious ick factor. There's also some nifty camerawork, from cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks, and a pair of lead performances, by Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, that rise to the level of the material. If you want a double Invasion fright night, chase this one with Philip Kaufman's 1978 version, which transformed 8-year-old me into a quivering mess.
Deep Red (1975, directed by Dario Argento, released by Arrow Video) — The Italian horror master's name has been buzzing about because of the new version of his 1977 color-blasted classic Suspiria. But many fans consider the blood-spattered Deep Red the ultimate in giallo.
Deep Red finds David Hemmings up to the artful sleuthing that kept him busy in Blowup. This time he's a pianist who witnesses a grisly murder in the apartment above his. He falls in with a female reporter (Daria Nicolodi); they bicker and banter like romantic-comedy lovers. Then someone else gets hacked to death. You can tell when this is about to happen because of the jazz-fusion score that kicks in when danger is afoot.
The real star here is the camera. It zooms in and pulls out as if on a string. It frames every interior space for maximum fright. The colors are deep and rich; the film more than earns its title. There's a reason so many filmmakers love Argento. He's a visual master, and Deep Red finds him at the top of his gooey game.
Hereditary (2018, directed by Ari Aster, released by A24 and Lionsgate) — Some movies don't have to make complete sense to scare the bejeebers out of you. That's another way of saying I'm not certain this year's horror hit is all there, and that I don't really care. Hereditary is so commandingly creepy and terrifying that it doesn't matter if it dots all the i's.
A dark cloud of malice hangs over the film and the family at its core, a neurotic and deeply unhappy bunch that seems haunted by secrets they don't even know about. If they don't know, we obviously don't, either. But we learn. Boy, do we learn.
Aster, like Argento, knows just where to put the camera to create terror. He also knows how to use stillness and silence, and how to interrupt both with a pungent image. All that, plus Toni Collette, who gives one of the year's most vivid and deeply committed performances. Comparisons to The Exorcist should always be issued with caution, but in this case they're deserved.
