Every Tuesday in October 2022, we celebrate scary movies!
“Cults spread like wildfire across the southern states. Waitin’ for the messiah, but… he never came. Death came in its stead. And it came with teeth.”
2010’s Stakeland, directed by Jim Mickle is one of the best post-apocalyptic horror movies I’ve ever seen. Set in the near future, society collapses into religious zealotry and militia-run feudal terroritories when monsterous vampires take over the world.
Stakeland from IFC Films
Gossip Girl star Connor Paolo stars as a young man who finds a mentor in writer-producer Nick Damici’s mysterious drifter and expert vampire hunter, simply named Mister. Mister isn’t exactly a charming anti-hero, but he is totally badass and we’ll be so lucky if we find a teacher like him during our own dystopian journeys.
Every Tuesday in October 2022, we celebrate scary movies!
“There’s other justice in the world besides the law!”
Kicking off the Halloween season with Dark Night of the Scarecrow, starring the late Charles Durning, Lane Smith, and Jocelyn Brando, about a mysterious being seeking vengeance on a group of murdering bigots.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow, 1981, Amazon
This supernatural thriller first aired on Halloween night in 1981 and is scarier than any Made-For-TV movie has any right to be. Despite having zero blood and no gruesomeness, this chilling film still holds up today with timely themes such as bigotry, bullying, and injustice.
Happy October! After starting late this Halloween season, I’m now ready to post the schedule of this year’s 31 Days of Halloween Celebration. The theme this October is dystopian Halloween. With the doomsday clock ticking down, due to savages like Russian dictator Vladamir Putin and gun-crazed trump-loving jesus-freaks, it’s probably way past time to think about how humankind plans to survive the apocalypse, in particular, how we’ll preserve our traditions and holidays, like Halloween.
Part of the month, we’ll have some fun with the dystopian Halloween-horror theme, but I have decided to mix in some good old-fashion Halloween traditional themes as well, cuz, I just love talking about those Halloween memories.
Have a safe and happy Halloween season!
31 Days of Halloween Schedule
Monday Macabre Mondays are always dedicated to Haiku, but every Monday in October we’ll explore a dystopian Halloween.
Tuesday Terror Every Tuesday, I’ll share my favorite scary movies that I believe make great Halloween season viewing.
Wicked Art Wednesdays Every Wednesday, I’ll share some spooktacular Halloween art with an apocalyptic twist. I might even post some my own original Halloween pencil stencil art.
Throwback Thursdays Preservation of Halloween traditions is important for several reasons. Every Thursday, let’s explore the origins of some Halloween traditions and muse over whether these traditions might survive the apocalypse.
Friday Fright Nightcaps Ghosts aren’t the only ones who like to get sheet-faced on Halloween. Check back every Friday for Halloween season-inspired cocktails.
Sinister Saturdays In the past few years, Sinister Saturdays have always been dedicated to food and Halloween recipes. The problem was, besides my being the worst cook in America, people are simply reluctant to let you share their recipes online, even if you give them complete credit and link back to their website. So, in the true spirit of Sinister Saturdays, we’re just going to let the demons loose that day and see what they come up with.
Poe Sundays This year’s tribute to the master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, will feature my thoughts on the best Poe adaptations on film.
Kicking off Tuesday Terror is black/white classic The Old Dark House from 1932. Once considered a horror film, really, it’s more a thriller-comedy about a group of travelers, who on one violent stormy night, find themselves stranded in the mansion of an eccentric Femm family and their creepy mute butler.
Directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr. at Universal Pictures Corp., who were still riding the wave of success from the horror sensation, Frankenstein, the film starred soon-to-be-leading man Melvyn Douglas, English actors Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore and Lilian Boyd, and was the first Hollywood film for both British star Charles Laughton and Canada’s Raymond Massey. The film gave up-and-coming starlet Gloria Stuart her first starring role as well, and oddly enough, the film hottest star at the time, Boris Karloff, received his first credited starring role (Karloff’s name was not printed on Frankenstein publicity packages).
The Old Dark House is one of the first atmospheric, dark, creepy house movies. The lightening and cinematography and dreadful, menacing music sets the tone perfectly: cold, dark and wet. While it has its moments of creepy melodrama, particularly towards the end, I found the movie quite humorous. The script was brimming with funny lines and sardonic wit, remember, this is pre-code too, so there’s drinking, smoking, and a very thinly dressed leading lady.
As for the scares, it’s an entertaining build to the end, and then, it gets real dark and weird. Most of the horror is contained to the audience not knowing the motivations of the hulking mute butler, Morgan, played by Boris Karloff, in a role so similar to Frankenstein’s monster, the movie company issued a notice in the first frame that this movie is not the Frankenstein movie released in 1931. Unlike the sympathetic monster, Morgan is a nasty piece of work here, a mean drunk who terrorizes Gloria Stuart’s Margaret, navigating her way in the dark like a delicate gazelle.
There’s some real laugh out loud moments and charming interactions between the travelers, as well as a rushed love story, or maybe I’m just too cynical to believe two people can indeed fall in love in ten minutes. Despite not knowing whether to laugh or hide under the covers, it’s those bizarre and charming characters that really make the film worth watching. The film was even marketed on the strength of its cast and for being weird.
One of the highlights is Ms. Rebecca Femm played by the veteran stage actress and women’s suffrage activist, Eva Moore. Her turn as a cantankerous religious fanatic going deaf is both creepy and hilarious. Rebecca hates the idea of opening up her home to strangers (“No beds! They can’t have beds!”) and seizes several moments to insult her guests, especially the young and beautiful Margaret.
In 1957, Universal lost the rights to the film and the William Castle was hired to direct the remake in 1963 for Columbia Pictures. The original film was considered lost for many years until found by director Curtis Harrington, who discovered a negative print in the Universal Vaults in 1968. The first reel was in such bad shape, the famed George Eastman House was brought in to help restore the film.
With lukewarm reviews, the pic didn’t do much box office business in the US but broke some records in the UK, due in part to the talented English cast. Now, The Old Dark House is just an underrated thriller with a cult following.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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