Night of the Living Dead made the top five in our list of the 25 Greatest Horror Movies, but our enthusiasm for George Romero’s seminal zombie film pales compared to that of PopMatters, which has put together an exhaustive tribute in honor of Night’s 40th anniversary. “Love it or hate it, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a recognized cornerstone of American culture and world cinema. After 40 years, Romero’s film remains an influential film that generates a variety of readings and discourses. Furthermore, this horror classic continues to spawn a variety of sequels, remakes, and copycats…Indeed, the magnitude of the cultural significance of Night of the Living Dead is made evident in this massive collection of 30 articles that uniquely analyze, dissect, discuss, and re-appreciate the cultural, political, social, ideological, philosophical, and psychological meanings of this groundbreaking horror film. Here you will find fresh perspectives, appreciations, and theoretical frameworks that bring a new light to the critical examination of Night of the Living Dead.”
Spoutblog checks out the sexiest vampire movie of all time: Daughters of Darkness. “The tone is set right from the start: an appropriately blue-hued sex scene, jump cuts from Valerie’s ecstatically grasping hand back to naked entwined torsos, Stefan virtually devouring his young bride, burrowing his head into the heaving flesh of her chest, going for the jugular without drawing blood. The entire atmosphere of the film is steamy, as visceral as the Florida summer of Body Heat. From the rising and falling suspense string score to the lush, sensuous colors and velvet fabrics of the European resort, as cavernous and creepy as the Overlook Hotel; from the fluid camerawork, the grand high angle and long shots, the noir shadows, the close ups on Seyrig’s flawless face, a playful pixie vixen, nails and lips forever painted blood red.”
Filmcatcher looks at (near) great horror movies you’ve probably never seen, including 1974’s Bad Ronald. “Scott Jacoby, a popular TV actor back in the day, plays weirdo Ronald, a high-schooler who lives with his mother. When Ronald accidentally kills a tormenter schoolmate, his Mom fears the police and hides him away in a secret room in the house. Well, Mom dies and eventually a whole new family moves in; trouble is, Ronald is still trapped in the house. Confined to his hiding place, old Ronny starts to become deranged and invents an alternative reality, a fantasy world called ‘Atrantra,’ drawing and writing about it all over the walls of his room in a scrawled graffiti that is truly freaky. Then Ronald begins to venture out of his improvised prison and things get really nasty…”
The 31 Screams photo-essays at Arbogast on Film continue with Arlene Francis. “Francis spends a lot of time screaming in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932). In fact, it's all she does. Cast in her film debut as a ‘Woman of the Streets,’ she is screaming when we meet her, watching in horror as two men kill one another (presumably for her favor). It's a startlingly savage scene for the time, grainy, shadow-ringed and doom-laden, and when both combatants are finally dead, Bela Lugosi swoops in whisk away this damsel in distress.”
Unfortunately, we end this installment with some real-life horror. Andrew Johnston, longtime contributor to The House Next Door, died on Sunday. House founder Matt Zoller Seitz pays tribute. “So many truths only become clear with hindsight. Here’s one of them: Unbeknownst to nearly everybody, even those closest to him, Andrew Johnston was a superhero. His influence was as profound as it was largely unseen. Like the hero of Miller's Crossing, Tom Regan, Andrew managed to re-order large parts of his universe without anyone being the wiser.”