We went to a local horror event called Monsterfest this past weekend. The main guests are horror hosts and it mostly celebrates classic horror. I met a nine year old boy while I was there. A remarkable young person who loves old horror. The Night Stalker, Hammer Films, early Roger Corman movies, The Twilight Zone, Universal classics. How cool it was to meet someone so young with such a huge love for older horror and SF. He reminded me of me when I was a kid.
Monsterfest was a wonderful time that took me back to my formative days and the reasons I fell in love with this stuff in the first place. Wonder, imagination, thrills and delicate chills.
I knew of Ti West, but I hadn't managed to see any of his films until now. I always meant to catch The House of the Devil, and it's been recommended to me numerous times.
I've rarely seen a genre movie get such universal acclaim as West's X. I heard it was a throwback to classic, hard-hitting exploitation horror from the seventies. Things like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, and I Spit on Your Grave. We've seen this kind of thing attempted before, generally with disappointing results. Rob Zombie movies, Hatchet, The Collector.
X is the one that supposedly got it right. It took me a while, because I don't watch a lot of movies these days, and when I do it is usually with people who wouldn't care for this sort of thing.
I was home by myself due to a hurricane and I took the opportunity to watch X.
I can honestly say I've never been more disturbed by a motion picture. I mean that as a strong compliment. Ti West hit every note right, and he managed to evoke the Grindhouse/drive-in era, but also make X a startlingly new and fresh experience.
He was obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, and other classic American horror movies, but I don't think X would have gotten made or distributed in this country. At least not with an R Rating.
West seems to have taken as much inspiration from Eurosleaze directors like Joe D'Amato and Jess Franco as Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven.
X is a shocker, a slasher movie with jumps, gore scenes, and highly uncomfortable sequences. It also works on deeper levels, and I see the film as a meditation on the freedom of youth and the slavery of old age. I'm a lot closer to senior citizenship than I am to childhood, and I was disturbed in a deep and profound way.
It all works. The photography, the score, the choices of songs, the performances, and the editing. Ti West deserves the acclaim he's been receiving.
Horror film should take us to places we don't necessarily want to be, but X might be a few steps too far for me these days. My head has been back with James Whale, Terence Fisher, Roger Corman, and Bert I. Gordon. This movie makes Herschell Gordon Lewis seem sweet and innocent. It makes the horrifying decapitation in Hereditary seem like child's play.
This is light years from where I started, with Frankenstein and Dracula, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Even Friday the 13th and Halloween are bedtime stories in comparison.
I'm going to eventually watch Pearl, and when it's done, MaXXXine. I can't not watch them. I mostly plan to continue to go back to my roots and the classic horror I was weaned on. I suppose I really am getting old.
Written by Mark Sieber
Monsterfest was a wonderful time that took me back to my formative days and the reasons I fell in love with this stuff in the first place. Wonder, imagination, thrills and delicate chills.
I knew of Ti West, but I hadn't managed to see any of his films until now. I always meant to catch The House of the Devil, and it's been recommended to me numerous times.
I've rarely seen a genre movie get such universal acclaim as West's X. I heard it was a throwback to classic, hard-hitting exploitation horror from the seventies. Things like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, and I Spit on Your Grave. We've seen this kind of thing attempted before, generally with disappointing results. Rob Zombie movies, Hatchet, The Collector.
X is the one that supposedly got it right. It took me a while, because I don't watch a lot of movies these days, and when I do it is usually with people who wouldn't care for this sort of thing.
I was home by myself due to a hurricane and I took the opportunity to watch X.
I can honestly say I've never been more disturbed by a motion picture. I mean that as a strong compliment. Ti West hit every note right, and he managed to evoke the Grindhouse/drive-in era, but also make X a startlingly new and fresh experience.
He was obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, and other classic American horror movies, but I don't think X would have gotten made or distributed in this country. At least not with an R Rating.
West seems to have taken as much inspiration from Eurosleaze directors like Joe D'Amato and Jess Franco as Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven.
X is a shocker, a slasher movie with jumps, gore scenes, and highly uncomfortable sequences. It also works on deeper levels, and I see the film as a meditation on the freedom of youth and the slavery of old age. I'm a lot closer to senior citizenship than I am to childhood, and I was disturbed in a deep and profound way.
It all works. The photography, the score, the choices of songs, the performances, and the editing. Ti West deserves the acclaim he's been receiving.
Horror film should take us to places we don't necessarily want to be, but X might be a few steps too far for me these days. My head has been back with James Whale, Terence Fisher, Roger Corman, and Bert I. Gordon. This movie makes Herschell Gordon Lewis seem sweet and innocent. It makes the horrifying decapitation in Hereditary seem like child's play.
This is light years from where I started, with Frankenstein and Dracula, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Even Friday the 13th and Halloween are bedtime stories in comparison.
I'm going to eventually watch Pearl, and when it's done, MaXXXine. I can't not watch them. I mostly plan to continue to go back to my roots and the classic horror I was weaned on. I suppose I really am getting old.
Written by Mark Sieber
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