Cinema Basement

A review by Brooks Rich I can't believe I haven't discussed the genius of FW Murnau yet or even discussed the brilliance of German Expressionism really. My favorite genre to study in my early film classes in college was German Expressionism. In a time when silent films were very simple and were more plays being filmed, German directors like Murnau were experimenting with light and camera angles. They are the pioneers of discovering the advantages of film and how it can be more than just static shots. Today I am discussing my favorite silent film of all time, FW Murnau's 1922 masterpiece, Nosferatu. In 2022 it will be a hundred years since Nosferatu came out. Even all these years later Nosferatu is still one of the creepiest films ever made.  If you've never seen a silent film before, The Artist does not count, it is a very different style than what we're used to in film today. Everything is very exaggerated and over the top. Remember all these actors are co...

Dracula (1931) A Film Review by Forrest Humphrey  Many famous archetypes have an iconic figure. Detectives have Sherlock Holmes, Superheroes have Superman, Spies have James Bond, and Vampires? Vampires have Count Dracula. Created by Bram Stoker in his iconic 1897 novel, Dracula might well be the most recognizable villain in the world, with more appearances in film, stage, television, novels, comics and any form of media one can imagine than maybe the aforementioned Sherlock Holmes.  His name is practically synonymous with the word “Vampire”, instantly bringing an image to mind of a tall, handsome man in a suit and cape with slick black hair and a thick accent. That image is the iconic Bela Lugosi, who's imposing presence and Hungarian accent remain ingrained in the cultural conscious even nearly one hundred years later as one of the most famous portrayals of any character in cinema. “I bid you...welcome.” “Listen to them, the children of the night! What music the...

A review by Brooks Rich I was ready to go do this film from the first month this blog was up. But I wanted to wait until October. Plus an added bonus it's included with our spectacular four way vampire coverage. This is not only one of my favorite horror films of all time, this is just one of my favorite films period. It's probably my second favorite foreign language film as well behind Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Let the Right One In is a beautifully haunting coming of age film while also being a tragic and brutal horror film. Out of the four films covered for our vampire special, this is probably the quietest one. The film follows twelve-year-old Oskar, a lonely boy living in a suburb of Stockholm who is tormented at school by bullies. One day he meets a quiet girl named Eli in the courtyard of his apartment complex. A quiet girl who only comes out at night. This film is gorgeous. Director Tomas Alfredson is a very visual director and he finds the beauty in the stark...

A Film Review by Forrest Humphrey  'Tis the season to get spooky! My fellows informed me that for the special month that is October, it would be really cool to do a theme together, and that theme ended up being Vampires. Which is good news for me, because I absolutely love Vampires, and now I get to talk about one of my favorite films: 1987's “Near Dark.” “Near Dark” was the second film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and was born from her own desire to film a Western and the studio's desire to chase the growing vampire sensation at the time. One might think these two genres couldn't work together, but the film's setting of Kansas and Oklahoma provides ample opportunity for both urban grit and country sprawl, as well as some absolutely gorgeous cinematography.  A young man named Caleb, played by Adrian Pasdar (whom some may know from his role in 'Heroes') is our central protagonist. One night, Caleb is hanging around with a couple friends when a pre...

A review by Chris Lee “OK, Vampire Killers. Let’s kill some fucking vampires!” As someone who absolutely adores great creature features, it is hard to write this review without sounding like I’m gushing. Quentin Tarantino’s first paid screenwriting gig is a mile-a-minute roller coaster of pulp drama and gory practical effects; a genre mashup of criminal caper and b-movie horror proceedings. There is really no film like it, that pulls of its characters and threadbare plot in such a satisfying, earnest, and entertaining way.  The film follows criminal siblings Seth (George Clooney) and Rich (Quentin Tarantino) Gecko, who’re on the run from the law and seeking to make their way across the U.S.-Mexico border to freedom. On their way down south, they commandeer the camper of the Fuller family, a dysfunctional trio made up of a widower preacher named Jacob (Harvey Keitel), his biological daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis), and his adopted son Scott (Ernest Liu).  Racing o...

A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman I don’t know why I love this movie. 30 Days of Night is not a film to wax poetic about and its barely a movie that revels in being a B-movie. It is an odd artifact of a different time in Hollywood Studio filmmaking like most things from the 2000’s but it is far from a deeply memorable film but yet it is a movie I think of often. When we thought about talking Vampire films it was the first film I thought of yet I don’t speak of it as masterpiece. So why is that? Well I think 30 Days of Night was the last time for decades I saw vampires as being scary before the great vampire romance that made up the end of the 2000’s 30 Days of Night has one of the best premises in history. Alaska has 30 days of night and vampires come and destroy a town in what become a human all you can eat 24-hour buffet. There is no romance. There is no well spoken dialog. It is vampires as a force of nature, as an absolute predator and as something that cannot be stopped. They barel...

A review by Brooks Rich I've talked about a wide variety of horror films this Halloween season and I'm not done. But we now come to a film that actually terrifies me. This film is exactly as it title says, sinister. This is one of the scariest films to come out in the past ten years and I am shocked it has not become a modern classic. It's so disturbing. How have people just never seen Sinister? Was it the found footage element that turned people off? I don't get it. This film is so good and it does what a good horror film should do. It scares you and makes you feel uncomfortable. Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswald, a true crime writer who is trying to recapture the glory of his most successful book. He moves into the house of a family found hanging in their backyard, minus a daughter who is missing. Oswald discovers a series of super 8 films in the attic. Films that depict horrifying images. The super 8 tapes are the main source of pure horror here. They are so dis...

A review by Brooks Rich Let's talk about the anthology horror series. The best one of all time is the original Twilight Zone. Rod Serling's masterpiece influenced not only science fiction but also horror, thrillers, and drama. Recently the anthology series has made a comeback with Black Mirror on Netflix and CBS All Access doing a revival of the Twilight Zone , which like the two other Twilight Zone revivals pales in comparison to the original. Honestly if you want more Twilight Zone then Rod Serling's Night Gallery is far better than any of the Twilight Zone revivals. But today I want to talk about the anthology series that was on HBO from 1989 to 1996. Tales from the Crypt was a tribute to the EC comics of the 1950s, similar to what George Romero and Stephen King did with Creepshow . This show was a major deal and had not only an impressive slew of guest stars but was produced by guys like Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Richard Donner. That'...

A review by Brooks Rich Later this year the film Doctor Sleep will be released. The sequel to The Shining , Doctor Sleep is directed by Mike Flanagan who is a director quickly making a name for himself in horror. He might be best known for directing the adaptation of Gerald's Game and also directing every episode of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. I was planning to do Hush , a film he also directed for Netflix, which is a terrifying home invasion film. But instead I'm going with the psychological horror film, Oculus .  Oculus is about a sister and a brother who believe their parents came into possession of a haunted mirror. The film takes place in two time periods – when the siblings are children and years later, after the brother gets out of a psych ward. The sister has kept the mirror and wants them to confront it and learn the truth about the death of their parents.  Oculus did fairly well at the box office, making $44 million off a $5 million dollar budget – but ...

A review by Brooks Rich I love the old Universal monster movies. They were one of my first exposures to the horror genre and I will probably cover a good portion of them as the blog moves forward. I'm starting with the one that has always been my favorite. I imagine everyone has seen James Whale's 1931 masterpiece Frankenstein. Right? By today's standards it's probably not scary to a lot of people, but in 1931 it terrified audiences. It was also highly controversial. Remember… Dr. Frankenstein is playing God, creating life. The prologue of the film not only introduces the film, it also warns audiences that Dr. Frankenstein is going to play God and that the film might scare them.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJU7jd7EVdI Even now, this is an extraordinary film.  It is truly hauntingt. Frankenstein is stunningly photographed and is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful black and white films of all time. There are images in this film that are still extremely...

A review by Brooks Rich Joker  is a film people need to see.... no matter what critics say. Chris has given his thoughts and now I will share mine. People need to see this film. You need to see it for yourself and judge it for yourself.  The plot centers on a struggling wannabe stand up comedian named Arthur who watches his life unravel before his eyes, essentially pushing him to a complete mental break. That's all I'm going to say. Let's start with the absolute best part about  Joker . Joaquin Phoenix is transcendent in this role. This is not a man acting. This is a man becoming a character. There are moments in this film that are like ballet ..... a perfectly choreographed performance. This film does not work at all without his excellence in the role. He is in almost every frame. There is no justice in this world if Phoenix doesn't win some hardware this award season.  Slight spoilers ahead. I won't ruin anything plot wise, but some might consider what ...

A review by Brooks Rich In 2013 when this film came out I was working as an usher at a theater. This film looked like typical modern horror that's nothing but jump scares and poor acting. But the consensus from the audience coming out of Mama was, "that was actually really good" or "that was surprisingly creepy." So I clocked out one night and went to the midnight showing of Mama. The consensus was right. This is a deeply underrated horror film from Andy Muschietti, the director of IT Chapter 1 and 2. Mama has a fairy tale feel about it. It eve starts with the words "once upon a time" and the early shots have a dreamlike quality to them. The film is about two girls whose father murders their mother and then takes them to a remote cabin. Before he can finish them off he is killed by an unseen presence. Years later the girls are found and are practically feral. They claim to have been raised by an invisible being they call Mama. Ok so yes this film...

A review by Forrest Humphrey After Godzilla's immensely successful and popular crossover with Mothra as seen in our previous review, the franchise continued with vigor for another eleven years and nearly as many films before taking a decade long hiatus and making a triumphant return in the form of a film simply titled “Godzilla” or “Godzilla 1985” in the states, but the title you will see most is “The Return of Godzilla.” For his big comeback in a new decade, The effects received a significant upgrade, as well as a return to a grimmer, more somber tone not seen in decades after the franchise took a lighter approach for a younger audience in the 1960's and 70's. The film was a hit, and launched a new series of films that would continue until 1995 and another, shorter, hiatus Our story is a simple one. We open with a fishing boat caught in a storm, sending out a mayday before a nearby island and a new, but familiar, roar is heard before fading out. A short time later o...

A review by Chris Lee "Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, 'Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.' Man bursts into tears. Says, 'But doctor…I am Pagliacci.' Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains." – Rorschach, Watchmen (1986-1987), by Alan Moore Joker is Warner Bros. latest foray into adapting DC Comics legendary characters for the silver screen. Movie-goers would be forgiven for thinking this was going to be just another edgy take on the Batman’s most notorious villain, as the trailers, and the attached director - Todd Philips, all suggest a moody but fun crime drama following the antics of the titular character. How wrong were we? To put it as bluntly as the film presents its own subject matter: Joker ...

An article by Brooks Rich Let’s talk about Stephen King. He is one of the most prolific writers of all time and one of my favorites. Sure, sometimes King goes overboard with his ideas and he has recurring themes and characters in his works. There’s almost always an alcoholic, a writer, and a villainous religious fanatic. Also, Maine. Always Maine. King is most known for writing horror and to be fair –he has written some truly terrifying novels. Salem’s Lot might be next to Dracula as the scariest vampire story of all time. Let’s also not forget The Shining, Misery, and IT. But King has also written some of the most beautifully moving stories about growing up, death, and faith.  There has been a fair share of film and television adaptations of his work. Just this year three were released: In the Tall Grass, Pet Semetary, and IT Chapter 2. I would be willing to bet that everyone has seen at least one Stephen King adaptation. For this article, I am counting down my 10 most favor...