Movies | Lorelei By Starlight

One of the directors that I am always excited to see something new from is Guillermo del Toro. His films always seem to manage to strike a deep chord with me. There is a mixture of fantasy, horror, and beauty that is undeniably addictive. I think the first film of his that I saw was Cronos, about a delightfully creepy piece of scarab jewelry that likes to latch onto people and suck out their blood. (Interestingly enough, this only increased my interest in scarabs.) In return, it provides youth, but of course there is always a price for that sort of thing. And, in this case, there is someone else who wants the cronos device. Murder and mayhem ensue.

My favorite del Toro film, though, is The Devil’s Backbone, which I don’t think many people know about. It may be because this is foreign language film, and I think that they can often be overlooked. This, however, is one of the best ghost stories that I think I’ve ever seen. The setting for this film is an orphanage in the Spanish War. Carlos is the newest boy and, guided by a ghostly presence, stumbles upon a secret. This movie is scary. The lighting and cinematography is perfect, as always in del Toro films, and the ghost boy is just really creepy looking. However, the feeling of abandonment and desolation that is communicated by the setting and the theme of the orphanage just add to the overall atmosphere.

Pan’s Labyrinth — another foreign language film, which won three Oscars — is what really made del Toro popular. I love this movie, too. It shows off del Toro’s mastery of the dark fantastic at it’s best. From the grotesquely beautiful creatures that populate the fantasy world, to the stark, bleak realism of Ofelia’s existence in the household of her fascist stepfather, this movie is dark beauty. It’s an interesting take on Shakespeare, too. In this film, though, Ofelia’s fantasy world becomes visible to the viewer. We are able to see her reality and understand her attempt to escape and her hopes for an alternative life in which she is valued and loved.

In ventures into the mainstream, del Toro was successful in directing Mimic, with that creepy bug/man monster. I’ve watched that movie at least five times just for the thrill of horror at the scene where the darkness shrouded profile of a man morphs into something less than human. Shudder. He also directed the first two Hellboy films, and has been announced as the director for a third. These movies are an unbelievably fun blend of comedy and dark fantasy. Both films showcase the same interesting and haunting monsters that have begun to define del Toro, but the second film — Hellboy II: The Golden Army — which includes interactions with the dark fey and the fantastical underworld, really showcases the beauty I associate with a del Toro film. The lighting is always perfect for the scenes, and I especially like the depictions of the underworld characters and settings.

In addition to directing great films, there have also been several “Guillermo del Toro Presents” films that have been successful. These are typically films in which he has been involved as a producer, and this label has begun to be a good advertisement for the type of film to expect, since they do a great job of representing the dark fantastical and horrific that del Toro uses in his own work. The most recent of these was Mama, which twisted the lengths to which a mother would go to “care” for her children. Before that there was Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which provided me with some very good reasons to be afraid of the dark and avoid exploring small, enclosed spaces. This is a movie that shows in detail how all of the bad fairy tales can definitely come true and that the fairy creatures might not really be so nice and beautiful as we have previously been led to believe. Additionally, it is proven (once again!) that a cheaply obtained decrepit mansion is to be avoided at all costs.

But, before either of these, was yet another foreign language film that I haven’t heard many people talk about called The Orphanage. I think this is possibly one of the most haunting films that I have ever seen in my life. I own the film and have not been encouraged to rewatch it — the memories are enough. The plot focuses on a couple and their young son who have purchased a large house (yep, creepy large house at a bargain!) near the ocean. They intend to use the house as an orphanage for disabled children. However, on opening day, a child with a strange baglike mask over its face appears, disrupting the opening celebration and terrorizing the mother. Subsequently, her young son goes missing. The way that the story plays out is unexpected to say the least. Seriously, I think this one scarred me a little! (However, I would still definitely recommend it!)

So, with my love of del Toro and del Toro Presents films, I was excited to find the trilogy of books written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The Strain takes the pandemic and vampire apocalypse tales and adds a twist. Vampires have have arrived, taken over, and begun capturing humans and creating farms to ensure that they have enough blood to feed themselves. These books focus on how this depressing state of events starts, progresses (The Fall), and then comes to an end (The Night Eternal). These books are dark, like the vampire version of The Walking Dead. Humans have been reduced to a bare minimum of survivors and are resorting to eating cat food and, gulp, rats. These vampires definitely don’t “sparkle” and they are not busy becoming rock stars, they are organized and focused on taking over the world and completely enslaving the human race. We see a rag-tag team of heroes try to take on these monsters, and there is plenty of violence, blood, and gore. I definitely liked these books, but there was none of the redeeming beauty, dark as it may be, that we see in del Toro’s films. There is a blanket of hopelessness that covers these stories, and they were not a trilogy that I could have read quickly, one right after the other. So … great horror! It looks like there are plans for a TV mini-series in the works, so we may see The Strain on the screen soon. I highly recommend checking out the books first, though.

Also, don’t miss del Toro’s take on The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror couch gag!

I have been having a love affair with the Phantasm franchise for probably more than 20 years now. It started out innocently enough, just another horror movie that I hadn’t ever seen before, and then, of course, the two sequels — Phantasm II (1988) and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) — followed later by what appears to be the final chapter, Phantasm IV : Oblivion (1998). The original came out in 1979, and I have no idea how long after that it actually was until I saw it, but I immediately fell in love with the flying silver orb, whizzing along the hallways with that supersonic keening sound, just dying to chunk itself into someone’s forehead so it could churn out that gout of blood. Whoever came up with the orb really added something to the horror movie culture!

(Photo from DVDActive.com)

And, I was young enough to have a huge crush on Michael — he was so cool. Riding his motorbike in the cemetery, driving that black muscle car around and knowing how to work on it. (Seriously, Jody, your younger brother is the one fixing your car?).

(Photo from IMCDB.org)

Once I’d watched the first one, I was hooked. I especially remember the trailer for the second one, and remember watching it with a roommate who also liked horror movies.

I kept re-watching them until the third one came out. At that point, I was older and wiser and had realized that Reggie was definitely where it’s at. He could drive and fix that awesome black car, and was weaponized to the hilt. (And, by the way, all of us Supernatural fans owe a huge debt to the second and third Phantasm movies. If you doubt me, just check them out.) Reggie’s charm and skills always got him the babe (at least for awhile, until she went weird), and the bald with a ponytail thing just seemed to work for him somehow. Who knew that a simple ice cream vendor that just wanted to strum some guitar tunes in his free time would end up being the biggest hero of the series?

Reggie ready for battle (Photo from Chud.com)

Waiting for the fourth installment felt like it took forever. At one point I cycled through all the previous films in a week’s time. I was like an addict, or maybe an 8-year-old with their favorite film (or maybe those are both kind of the same thing). Once it finally came out, it was clear that Michael (the original Michael!) had grown up and was ready to take on the Tall Man in a final battle. He was back from the beyond, and you could tell that it had changed him. He was sadder, tireder, ready for it to be over. While this last installment wasn’t the best movie in the series, I was still pretty much just happy to revisit all those characters and themes, and to let Michael and Reggie have a final say.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

So, what’s kept me re-watching these movies over the years? Well, all of the above, but Angus Scrimm’s Tall Man keeps me coming back, too. No one else can growl “Boy!!” in quite the same way. And, what about all those awesome slo-mo sequences of him walking? Or driving that hearse like a madman? Or just appearing out of nowhere, and towering and glowering and grabbing at you with those clawed hands? I love the special edition DVD of Phantasm, because it starts out with Angus Scrimm introducing the movie and talking about being asked to audition for the part. The director told him he would be playing an “alien”, which Scrimm took to mean “foreigner”, until he got the script!

There’s also the overall mood and ambience of the movies – it’s always dark or darkish and it feels like the town or place the characters are in could be the last inhabited area on earth. This is especially so in the second and third installment. And, of course, there’s the Phantasm theme. It’s got a really 70s, Dario Argento feel to it that works for me. There’s the other creepy characters that keep popping up, like the girl and her blind, fortuneteller grandma in the first movie, or the girl that keeps seducing guys at the bar and taking them out to the graveyard to get it on (and sometimes her face looks like the Tall Man’s), or the girls that are horrifically transformed in the second and third movies. There’s the weird gateway to the other dimension that just begs for you to put both hands on it, and the chaos that ensues once someone finally does. Oh, and there’s the crazy squashed hooded creatures that the Tall Man is apparently stockpiling and using as slaves, which are constantly running through the bushes or rolling out from behind things in the basement of the mortuary.

I guess that for me these movies just have an originality to them. There’s nothing else out there quite like them. A sense of isolation, loneliness, and an impending doom worse than death permeates them. A helplessness runs throughout, from Michael’s inability to stop what he knows is happening in the first film, to Reggie’s inability to save Michael and his persistence in fighting something no one else seems to know is happening in the second and third, to the final fight of Reggie and Michael in a battle where they both know it’s unlikely there will really be a win, and where, again, Reggie will not be able to save Michael. The idea of our world being systematically plundered while no one is looking is frightening, as is the idea of a doorway to another dimension that might exist right in the next room. The Tall Man’s absolute disdain for humans, his overwhelming strength, his seeming ability to be everywhere or anywhere, and his delight in using those clearly technologically advanced spheres of murder is monstrous. There is no appealing to this creature for mercy. His ponderous, long gait is patient in the knowledge that he will eventually get you, no matter where you run, how deeply you hide, or how savagely you fight back.