{"id":5352,"date":"2022-03-04T12:57:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=5352"},"modified":"2022-03-04T12:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:57:29","slug":"haunted-house-month-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/?p=5352","title":{"rendered":"HAUNTED HOUSE MONTH: Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This month I\u2019ve decided to dive into haunted house\/supernatural invasion movies, and to kick things off I watched the 1980 classic, THE CHANGELING<\/strong>. An old-fashioned ghost story, The Changeling<\/em> stars the always good George C. Scott as a music professor who, after the death of his wife and child in a car accident, seeks a change of scenery by moving into a large house in Seattle. It isn’t long until he begins hearing strange noises coming from the attic, and eventually uncovers a murder mystery and decades-old secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Changeling<\/em> is an interesting film because it\u2019s not your typical modern haunted house flick. Sandwiched between the visceral FX of Amityville Horror<\/em> and Poltergeist<\/em>, The Changeling<\/em> seems like an idea that came from the 1940s, when ghost stories were more subtle and less about the \u201cboo\u201d moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The screenplay (written by William Gray and Diana Maddox) flows as more of a mystery, and director Peter Medak keeps the attention on character development and story structure over visual supernatural activity. That\u2019s not to say the movie doesn\u2019t have its share of creepy moments – its rich atmosphere could be a character itself, with shadows playing a big part in the narrative\u2019s otherworldly reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the complete opposite end of the cinematic spectrum is Lucio Fulci\u2019s gory answer to Amityville<\/em>, 1981\u2019s THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY<\/strong>. Set in the same altered reality as Fulci\u2019s gruesome twosome, City of the Living Dead<\/em> and The Beyond<\/em>, House<\/em> features a small family who leave New York and move into dusty old “Oak Mansion” outside Boston. There, the dad (Paolo Malco) plans to continue the research his ex-colleague was performing before he committed suicide. Along with his wife (Catriona MacColl), who’s in a constant state of upset, and flop-top son (Giovanni Frezza), Dad discovers their new house harbors a deadly secret: the zombified Dr. Freudstein, a madman who performed diabolical experiments in the house 100 years earlier – and who needs fresh body parts to remain reanimated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of excessive Italian horror at its hysterical best, House by the Cemetery<\/em> is Fulci firing on all cylinders. The movie might appear to be just another run-of-the-mill Amityville\/Shining<\/em> wannabe – there’s a subplot involving the son’s (unexplained) psychic link with the spirit of Freudstein’s young daughter (Silvia Collatina) – yet Fulci’s unique style and eye for detail makes the movie work wonderfully. Fulci’s hallmarks are all over this, including extreme close-ups of maggot-infested body parts, a beautiful but nonsensical narrative, heavy atmosphere, and the always hilariously bad dubbing. Where else will you see a blood-drenched, two-minute bat attack? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plugging into the then-popularity of Nightmare on Elm Street<\/em>, the THE HORROR SHOW<\/strong> is a 1989 entry in the \u201cIs it a dream?\u201d sub-subgenre. Detective McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) is haunted by dreams of deranged serial killer, Max Jenke (Brion James), who he helped capture and witnessed executed in the electric chair. But Jenke, whose spirit has invaded McCarthy\u2019s home through some form of electric phenomena, won\u2019t stay dead and terrorizes the family by slashing up their friends and framing McCarthy for the murders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally planned (and released overseas) as House III<\/em>, this seems to have been an attempt at creating another Freddy Krueger, but it takes itself way too seriously and just comes off just a dumb rip-off. Henriksen gives the film more credit than it deserves and James is pure ham, but this does predate the similarly themed Shocker<\/em> by several months. The<\/em> Changeling <\/em>and House by the Cemetery<\/em>: B<\/strong>+ Horror Show:<\/em> C<\/strong>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month I\u2019ve decided to dive into haunted house\/supernatural invasion movies, and to kick things off I watched the 1980 classic, THE CHANGELING. An old-fashioned ghost story, The Changeling stars the always good George C. Scott as a music professor who, after the death of his wife and child in a car accident, seeks a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hauntings","category-retrospective","category-reviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}