October 29 – November 5 / 2020

HALLOWEEN Classic horror films top monstrous local offerings

Hollywood blockbusters from the ’70s like The Exorcist dominate, with Japanese screamers just behind by Steve Newton

There’s no denying that William Friedkin’s 1973 movie The Exorcist is one of the top horror films of all time. The disturbing tale of imitated many, many times since then. I haven’t seen all these films, but I doubt that they have been able to really make as good a film as that. It dealt with a very unIf the all-American horror on display at the Rio isn’t your thing, then across town at the Cinematheque they’ll be doling out J-horror fixes. Friday night kicks off with Topping off the night is one Japanese horror film that wasn’t remade for the American market, and it’s easy to see why. According to the description on the Linda Blair shocked moviegoers with her portrayal of a 12-year-old girl possessed by a demon from hell in director William Friedkin’s 1973 adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel. a sweet 12-year-old girl possessed by a de- expected subject, with an evil child, which Japanese extremist Takashi Miike’s 1999 Cinematheque website, director Nobuhiko mon from hell has scared the crap out of is a terrifying idea.” Audition, about a widower who holds an Obayashi’s 1977 movie House is “a camppeople for almost half a century, and it still Frightening as The Exorcist was, von “audition” for a new life partner but winds fire ghost story told at the peak of a peyote packs a fearsome punch. It will be hitting Sydow was surprised when he first heard up on the wrong end of a wire saw. That’s trip...[that] involves seven giggly schoolthe big screen of the Rio Theatre in all its the much-publicized news about weak- followed by cult director Shin’ya Tsuka- girls who turn up at an aunt’s countryside nightmare-making glory this Friday and hearted filmgoers running from the the- moto’s out-there 1989 cyberpunk item Tet- home and, one by one, meet goofily grueSaturday (October 30 and 31). atre in panic and tossing their cookies suo: The Iron Man. Described by the British some deaths by some peeved-off super-

Unlike many fright flicks that rely heav- when the movie’s nastier bits were flashed Film Institute’s Lou Thomas as “completely natural weirdness.” ily on gore and jump scares, the main at- on the screen. bonkers”, Tetsuo is a low-budget mind Doesn’t sound like something your traction of The Exorcist has always been its “The film became something else,” he messer apparently inspired by the body typical Hollywood producer would kill to powerful acting. Sure, the green pea soup related. “It became some kind of a mental horror of David Cronenberg and the gro- greenlight. in the eye and the bloody crucifix in the test where people went to see this film to tesque surrealism of early David Lynch. It’s And for those who just can’t get out of you-know-what caught people’s attention, find out whether they could take it without about a “metal fetishist” in Tokyo who gets the house for in-person Halloween viewbut it was the stellar performances of cast fainting or throwing up or whatever. Or hit by a car and... Oh, forget it. That movie ing, may we recommend one choice item members like Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb, without having nightmares for two weeks.” is too weird for words. It has to be seen to from each of three streaming services? and little newcomer Linda Blair that made The screenings at the Rio of the 2010 be believed. Those with Netflix would be wise to the supernatural nastiness originating director’s cut of The Exorcist will be pre- On Halloween night at the Cinema- home in on 2018’s Hereditary, a satanic with William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel so ceded on Friday and followed on Saturday theque, the fun starts on a ghostly note flick in which the devil’s wrath seems tame shockingly believable. by a couple of other horror classics that with director Hideo Nakata’s 2002 film compared to the suffering that damaged

The guy playing the exorcist, Max von had scaredy-cats freaking out in the 1970s. Dark Water, about a divorced single mom family members can inflict on one another. Sydow, wasn’t bad either. The first night will see Brian De Palma’s who moves into a rundown housing com- If you’ve got Shudder, check out ’80s

When he was doing publicity in 1993 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s career- plex with her six-year-old daughter before horror honcho Stuart Gordon’s 2007 film for the Vancouver-shot adaptation of Ste- making 1974 novel Carrie bringing the they fall prey to unsettling supernatural Stuck, inspired by the sad but true story of phen King’s Needful Things—in which he high-school horrors of bullying and alien- happenings. Dark Water was remade in a homeless man who got hit by a car and switched teams, so to speak, portraying the ation—not to mention fiery supernatural 2005, with Jennifer Connelly as the belea- was left in the windshield to die. devil instead of a Satan-battling priest— revenge—to the fore. And—because what’s guered mom. And Amazon Prime subscribers should von Sydow commented on The Exorcist Halloween night without a good old-fash- The spooky thrills continue with an- try 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods, in which and its legacy. ioned slasher flick—All Hallows’ Eve will other Nakata effort, Ringu, which is cred- a gaggle of attractive young victims-to-be

“I think that is a very, very well-made see stab-happy Michael Myers roaming ited for kick-starting the J-horror craze in head out for some weekend fun in what film,” he told me for a write-up in Fangoria the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois, in John 1989. It’s about a cursed videotape that, looks like your typical Friday the 13th–magazine. “It has become some kind of a Carpenter’s 1978 blockbuster, Halloween. when watched, brings certain death to the style slaughterfest but which turns out to horror classic, and I think it really deserves it. And it almost started a trend; it has been Masks are encouraged; kitchen knives not so much. viewer a week later. It was also remade, with Naomi Watts starring, in 2002. be so much more. It could be the best horror flick ever made in Vancouver. g