A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

I just had two stinkers in a row with Revolt of the Zombies (Victor Halperin's vastly inferior follow-up to White Zombie) and Paganini Horror (which is nowhere near as cool as its title) but did watch the 1934 version of The Black Cat last night, which turned out to be the best thing I've seen so far this month, so I guess it kind of evened out.


For your reference, the poster for Paganini Horror:

#28 Paganini Horror (1989)

Crappy Argento clone that thinks few colored lights is enough to make the film visually impressive. Script is laughably bad and acting holds up to same standards. So much worse than the director's earlier scifi horror Contamination. Only values this one has are couple of semi-decent rock songs and few unintentional laughs.

We don't actually have orgies.

We average two countdowns a year (usually a genre specific countdown followed by a decade countdown), and they're a big event around here . . . second only to our wet and messy orgies.

Nobody wants your herpes so we don't invite you.

Wait, why hasn't anyone told me about the orgies?

Never thought you'd be interested since we're all over 18.

What serious Vincent Price horror movies do you recommend? I say serious because I've seen The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Raven and Comedy of Terrors, each of which I liked, but I'm ready to see him in scary mode rather than funny mode. I have seen House on Haunted Hill.

I was on my phone when I replied yesterday, so you got the short answer. Here are some of my Vincent Price favorites--

Comedy:
Tales of Terror
Comedy of Terrors
The Raven
Phibes 1 + 2
Theater of Blood

Technically not comedy, but not so serious either:
House on Haunted Hill
The Tingler (SO much fun)
House of Wax
House of Usher
Pit & Pendulum (these last 2 are mostly serious but there's still a bit of a wink involved)

Serious:
Invisible Man Returns
The Fly
Last Man On Earth
Masque of the Red Death
Tomb of Ligeia
Witchfinder General

Viy (1967) -

While this film didn't impress me as much as I hoped it would, I still appreciated a decent bit about it and I may revisit it in the future. While its story was fine, I found myself mostly taken in by its mood. Through a combination of dream-like lighting effects, colors, and camera angles, Yershov and Kropachyov crafted a handful of sensually pleasing sequences. The highlight of this was a magnificent monster sequence near the end which is so impressive, it makes you wonder whether you're still watching the same film. Certain bits of it could be argued as cheesy, but the high level of craft in that sequence made it stick out as one of the best things I've seen in a horror film in a while. With that being said, however, I couldn't help but feel unsatisfied after the credits rolled. A few reviews I've read argued that this film doesn't get going until the second half, but I couldn't help but feel as if everything was build-up towards the night three sequence, which was one of the only scenes I loved when I rewatched it. This film reminded me of my experience with Battleship Potemkin. I liked a decent bit of it well enough (though I found some parts to be a slog), but primarily loved just the Odessa Steps sequence. Like Battleship Potemkin, I somewhat enjoyed my time with a lot of this film, but the one sequence I loved had me wishing that more of the film could've been that great. When rewatching the film, I found myself less invested in what came before the night three sequence and somewhat impatient as I waited for it.

I just had two stinkers in a row with Revolt of the Zombies (Victor Halperin's vastly inferior follow-up to White Zombie) and Paganini Horror (which is nowhere near as cool as its title) but did watch the 1934 version of The Black Cat last night, which turned out to be the best thing I've seen so far this month, so I guess it kind of evened out.


For your reference, the poster for Paganini Horror:

...but did watch the 1934 version of The Black Cat last night, which turned out to be the best thing I've seen so far this month, so I guess it kind of evened out.

Hmmm... I sorta see what you mean but I felt that once the "philosopher" gets to the church the first night, the movie takes off and doesn't look back, at like Evil Dead levels. I mean, the first scene with the old witch seemed right out of ED2 or even Army Of Darkness. And as short as it is, taking some time to get off the ground didn't really cost that much.

I see that The Tingler is on TCM this week. Will DVR.

I think the first night probably comes the closest to getting the film off the ground. I think that night two and the intermittent scenes between his nights in the church, however, slowed the film down before it was able to build up enough tension in those sequences for them to hit hard enough. If it wasn't for how much I loved night three, I might've been okay or less bothered by this, but, upon rewatching the film, most of everything else felt like buildup to that sequence concerning the level of craft on display in it in comparison to the other horror sequences throughout the film. I often found myself impatient to get to that sequence when I rewatched it. That's why I feel the film doesn't get going until that sequence.