The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter
by Robert Horton
“I’ll be back,” the man calls out, “when it’s dark.” Those words are the warning, and the credo, of every monster that ever slouched through fairy tale or film. Toward the end of The Night of the Hunter, they are uttered by Harry Powell, the evil preacher who burns [...]

Let the Quantum In (Weekly Links)

A slow week for openings, thanks to 007. My Herald reviews:
Quantum of Solace.
Let the Right One In.
And for the Seattle Channel, I banter with Nancy Guppy about the new Bond picture and a box set featuring Gregory Peck: here.
I talk with KUOW-FM’s Jeremy Richards about 007 things and Buster Keaton’s The General. The movie talk comes [...]

Halloween Countdown: Psycho

Psycho, by Robert Horton
What good came from Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of Psycho? Well, it was nice to hear Bernard Herrmann’s music throbbing out of Dolby stereo theater speakers. The color design confirmed Van Sant’s talent as an inventive art director. Anne Heche was alert and vulnerable in the birdlike role Janet Leigh had [...]

Halloween Countdown: Godzilla x 3

One of the interesting things about reviewing movies for a long, long time is that certain franchises keep coming ’round on a regular schedule, like comets returning every few years. Here are some time-capsule looks at Godzilla pictures that orbited during my watch.
Godzilla 1985 (published in The Herald, 1985)
Thirty years ago, a monster was born in [...]

Halloween Countdown: Piranha/The Howling

An appreciation of a horror duo by Joe Dante and John Sayles, written in 1984 for The Informer.
Piranha and The Howling, by Robert Horton
As Pirahna opens, the camera descends out of darkness, finds a chain fence in the foreground and, continuing its downward motion, sees an old, battered sign: NO TRESPASSING. This shot is a gag, a reference [...]

Halloween Countdown: Bride of Chucky

Sublime-to-ridiculous time in this weeklong Halloween countdown. Tomorrow, something meaty; today, child’s play.
Bride of Chucky, by Robert Horton
There comes a time in every lad’s life when he must give up the wanderings of youth, when he should embrace the virtues of fidelity and security in a grown-up commitment. Herewith the theme of Bride of Chucky, [...]

Halloween Countdown: Rosemary’s Baby

Rosemary’s Baby, by Robert Horton
“Taking my script to Paramount’s secretarial pool, which was situated at the top of the building, I asked the elderly woman supervisor whether anything could be done to make it look shorter–like using more single-space typing. A faraway look came into her eyes. ‘The last person who asked me that,’ she [...]

Halloween Countdown: Day of the Dead

A quickie on the least appreciated Romero zombie picture.
Day of the Dead, by Robert Horton
The 1985 midpoint to George Romero’s zombie quintet. Poorly released and mostly ignored at first, this has always been considered a letdown compared to the undisputed horror champs Night and Dawn (and by the time Land and Diary came along, Romero was [...]

Halloween Countdown: Freaks

Being the first of a week’s worth of past writing on horror films — some short, some longish, one per day — culminating in a piece on Psycho on Halloween. Spoilers abound.
Freaks, by Robert Horton
Someone should put the scene in a movie: F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Hollywood in 1931 for one of his unhappy flings as a [...]