Melissa George – Missile Test

The Amityville Horror 2005 movie poster I didn’t find the original Amityville Horror all that memorable of a horror flick, but it had more than its fair share of iconic moments, what with the bleeding walls, fly attacks, and exterior look of the house. It was based on a book that was a supposedly true telling of events the Lutz family experienced after moving into a house on Long Island in the 1970s. The whole story has since been shown to be bunk, part of the Ed and Lorraine Warren hoax industry, but some real awful events did occur in the house prior to the Lutz’s arrival that were used as a precursor to what was supposed to have occurred with the Lutz family.

At around three in the morning on November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. entered the bedrooms of his sleeping relatives — his parents and four siblings — and killed them with a lever-action rifle. DeFeo claimed he did it because he was hearing voices. Six murders carried out in the middle of the night. That’s brutal stuff. To this day DeFeo remains in prison in upstate New York.

In 2005, another adaptation of the book was made. Since the original film spawned a number of sequels and became a horror franchise, this new film can be considered a reboot as much as a new adaptation. This telling comes from screenwriter Scott Kosar and director Andrew Douglas. It stars Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George as George and Kathy Lutz. The two need a bigger home for their family and can hardly believe the deal they got on the Dutch colonial house right on the water. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: The Amityville Horror (2005), or, Jump Scare: The Movie”

30 Days of Night movie poster The film 30 Days of Night, adapted from the popular graphic novel, was marketed as a modern update on classical vampires. A break from pattern, these creatures of the night were more fearsome, more violent, more bloodthirsty, than any that had been onscreen before. Indeed, the vampires of 30 Days of Night are not Anne Rice’s cultured charmers, nor are they the stealthy apparitions of Bram Stoker, although their physical appearance pays homage to the Dracula of the classic film Nosferatu.

These vampires are more animalistic, with little inclination to wipe away the blood after a successful hunt. They speak a guttural language meant to evoke an ancient mystique, with faces twisted into grotesque snarls. They maintain only a tenuous connection to humanity. In fact, they can hardly be considered human at all, vampirism becoming more than just an affliction or a state of mind. Here it is an addiction that changes a person into something else, a different species born from man, yet not of him. Everything about them is more, but it’s not new. For the characters in the film, it is akin to the difference between legend and fact, where all the cultural knowledge one has absorbed about vampires encounters a reality that lacks the politeness built up by layers and layers of popcorn horror. So, as far as the monsters in the film are concerned, mission accomplished. Continue reading “October Horrorshow, Retroactive: 30 Days of Night”