It’s possible I’m a wimp, but…

…1963’s “The Haunting” (which, for those of you keeping score at home, is these days rated G by the MPAA¹) is genuinely scary. As in it scared me more than most modern PG-13 or R-rated films I’ve seen during the last two decades.

It’s black and white, nearly two hours long, and I think a lot of modern audiences would find it slow, or start picking out familiar tropes and predicting the ending (which I mostly called). If you give it a chance, though, it’s quite good.

One thing I really enjoyed about it from a meta standpoint was stunt-casting halfway through. Tragically, I’d have wanted to remake it 10-15 years ago on account of the actors’ freshness dates. James Marsters is the spitting image of Russ Tamblyn in this, but at 47 he’s not exactly the most convincing Luke anymore. Tom Selleck as Dr. Markway. Catherine Tate for Nell. Unfortunately, I need 2010 Meryl Streep for the woman who owns Hill House, so perhaps I need a TARDIS in addition to the camera crew.

Other things:
- I don’t think I even have to go anywhere near a limb to say Theodora is a lesbian.
- The Grace/Markway/Nell triangle is brilliantly played and very sad. From an internal standpoint, it makes me wonder how the events of the film affect Grace/Markway’s marriage in the long term. It seems like the main wedge between them (her lack of belief in the supernatural) is well sorted by the end of the film. On the other hand, hello massive trauma.
- We all know going in what Luke’s arc has to look like, but I enjoyed watching him go from “I majored in martinis in college and this house is going to make me rich” to “burn it and salt the earth” tremendously.
- I love that what we actually see, for the most part, is all reaction and set dressing. No monsters, no “disembodied hand in the sauce,” no blood on the walls or ghastly dead old ladies. Just frightened people shrieking when they turn the wrong way and run into an old mirror, or a statue.
- I really want Medusa-head doorknobs now.

—
¹ Who probably fell asleep fifteen minutes in and thought “oh, it’s just a harmless old black and white film that nobody will watch,” and slapped the label on without actually paying it any attention.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com

The increasingly terrifying case of Steve Perry

It’s been a while since I posted an update about Steve, though he and I kept a little bit of contact. For the last week I’ve been meaning to drop him an e-mail and see how things were progressing.

Today a friend linked me to this.

Short version: Steve Perry’s van was found abandoned in a hotel parking lot, either containing or near a severed arm. More remains were found nearby. Steve is missing, and so were his roommates until police found and arrested them. His son Leo is safe.

If I find out more, I’ll be sure to pass stuff along.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com