Halloween 2022: October 5th

Rope (1948)

As the forties came to a close, Alfred Hitchcock was already a master of the cinematic arts. He kicked off the decade with his "Rebecca" winning Best Picture at the Oscars and spent the next several years making classic after classic. Yet Hitchcock was always experimenting with the form and function of movies. "Spellbound" featured a lengthy sequence of surrealism. "Lifeboat" confined itself to the titular location. In 1948, the director would form his own production company, Transatlantic Pictures. The first film made for it would be "Rope." It was Hitch's color debut, made use of groundbreaking long takes, told its story in real time, and was also contained within a single location. It was not well received at the time but has gathered the reputation of a classic in the decades since. 

Brandon, who often talks of being the superior man, convinces his friend, Philip, to murder their roommate, David. They strangle him to death with a rope and, afterwards, Brandon decides to stash the body in a chest. A party is arriving to the apartment immediately afterwards and Brandon covers the chest with a tablecloth, candles, and food. Philip is extremely nervous to have evidence of the murder so out in the open but Brandon is convinced he's pulled off the perfect crime. To further test this theory, among the party guest is Rupert Cadell, their former professor with a brilliant mind. As the party goes on, Philip growing more uncertain and Brandon getting more conceited, Rupert begins to suspect the ghastly truth. 

"Rope" is based on a 1929 stage play and that's fairly obvious. Not just in its adherence to a single location but more so in its catty dialogue. The characters in "Rope" talk in an erudite, stylized fashion. They spend much of the first half trading bon mots and verbally sniping at each other. There's a playfulness to the dialogue, as Rupert and Brandon subtly mock a party guest who can never remember the name of anything. Brandon delights in teasing out David's true fate, to his often unaware guests. There's a lengthy, high-minded conversation about the nature of murder. At times, "Rope" threatens to become as stuck-up and pretentious as its villain protagonist, utterly impressed with its own brilliance. 

This is avoided by several smart decisions. First off, the script – which features a story credit by beloved character actor Hume Cronyn – is genuinely funny and smart. Mostly, though, it's Hitchcock's brilliant camerawork that makes the movie as visually stunning as the script is witty. The long take gimmick is boldly cinematic, never letting the single-setting location hold back the visual potential. The cinematography teases the viewer as much as the villains tease their guests. At one point, the chest containing the dead body is in the foreground of a shot, in the corner, while our attention is directed to the far end of the apartment. This visualizes the idea that the evidence of Brandon and Philip's crime is always there, always reminding us of its presence. The camera constantly moving in and out of the actors further creates a voyeuristic feeling, as if we are an invitee to this get-together as well, watching and unraveling the events as much as Rupert is. The long takes lull us into such a hypnotized state that the handful of traditional cuts in the film are like an exclamation point. When combined with an expressive use of color during the sunset region of the story, and an intentionally artificial backdrop outside the window, "Rope" has a playful and inventive visual atmosphere that proves utterly captivating. 

"Rope" is, of course, based on the sensationalistic crimes of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Like the real life Leopald, Brandon is obsessed with the idea of being a superior man. He sees himself as an Nietzschean ubermensch, who can do as he pleases to the inferior common man. Nietzsche is mentioned by name in the script, as is his supposed popularity among Nazis. Rupert speaks flippantly of similar theories, forced to confront at the end that his sarcastic words influenced the boys to murder. Yet, for all of his rhetoric, it's increasingly clear through the film that Brandon murdered David because he wanted to. Because it gave him a thrill, to prove he could get away with it, to rub everyone's faces in his brilliance. Thus, "Rope" refutes the philosophies it discusses and instead argues for a common empathy. Don't be a smarmy little bastard like Brandon or Nathan Leopold. You won't get away with it. 

While I'm sure countless term papers have been written about the philosophical ramifications of "Rope," that's not what interest me the most about the film. After the titles, we cut to the pulled curtain of the apartment and hear David's dying scream. It's almost orgasmic in its pitch. Brandon and Philip's jittery appearances immediately after the crime is both nervous and exuberance. They've gotten away with something forbidden, a visceral and physical act that involved themselves and another boy's body. That's both thrilling and terrifying. The sexual undertones of the crime are apparent throughout. To embarrass Philip, Brandon mentions his childhood habit of choking chickens to death. This meant all very literal but it also reads as a reference to masturbation, which explains Philip's stymied reaction. 

Afterwards, Philip attempts to play piano during a tense conversation with Rupert. In between the boy's nervousness, the professor's incisive and probing questions, and the passionate, mechanical beat of the metronome, it all reads as a failed seduction of sorts. It seems fitting to play Rupert as a heroic homosexual, even getting the beloved and all-American Jimmy Stewart to play him, to dismiss any notions of deviant sexuality. Rupert is queer, an outsider like the boys who has thoughts considered offensive to polite society. But he wouldn't kill anybody. In fact, his outsiderdom makes him brilliant enough to uncover the killing. "Rope" argues how essential a queer outlook is to society while also capturing the twisted sexual thrill its killers so clearly got from their crime. 

"Rope" did poorly in theaters in 1948. In the years afterwards, both Hitchcock and Stewart would dismiss it as largely a technical exercise that failed on any other level. Rights issues kept it out of theaters until the eighties. Yet it's clear now that "Rope" is a brilliant and bold piece of cinema. Its script is sharp and witty yet full of deeper angles to consider and discuss. Its visual construction is captivating and eye-grabbing, while supporting the strengths of the story. Its performances are perfectly pitched and it's efficiently paced, running all of eighty minutes long. Ya know, I think this Alfred Hitchcock guy might've known what he was doing. [9/10]

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

I don't know how far in advance the “Paranormal Activity” series was planned. Most horror franchises make it up as they go along. Clearly, from early on, Blumhouse and company thought Oren Peli's tiny little film had franchise potential. By the time the second movie came out, they were clearly laying more clues for possible future entries to build on. When a third movie came about, with the directors of “Catfish” behind the cameras, it was a prequel. Katie and Kristi mentioned their troubled childhood in the second movie but I don't know if going in this direction was a carefully considered plan... Or if the producers looked around at the scraps of story they had and decided “Let's go with that.” Either way, “Paranormal Activity 3” came out reliably in theaters a year after the second one.

Beginning shortly before the events of part two, we see that Katie and Kristi had extensive VHS recordings from their childhood, which was stolen during the break-in. Part three shows that footage of Katie and Kristi's childhood days, as documented by Dennis, their wedding photographer step-dad. As Kristi begins to talk to an imaginary friend called Toby, her mother and stepfather begin to notice unusual events around the house. As the haunting increases in intensity, all of it captured by Dennis' cameras, it's clear that “Toby” isn't just a figment of Kristi's imagination. That something very real, with connections to the occult and the family, is happening here.

Only three – or four, if you count the Japanese one – films into the “Paranormal Activity” series and a formula has already been established. There's going to be stationary nighttime shots of people sleeping. Objects will mysteriously move around until people are flying across the room. A lady will be possessed by a demon before the end. Part three features all these hallmarks of the series. However, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman do find a couple of clever riffs on the expected events. The 1988 setting doesn't effect things much. However, Dennis creating a camera rig out of an oscillating fan is a nice, low-tech technique that produces one wonderfully creepy scene. The scenes of Kristi playing with “Toby” at night, while her family sleeps, produces at least one stand-out moment. When she seemingly leaps off a banister. More probably could've been done with it but I like the Bloody Mary legend being incorporated into the story.

Overall though, I found “Paranormal Activity 3” relies far too much on obnoxious jump scares. The first half features something even worst: Fake jump scares. Dennis' wife leaps out of a closet to scare him, Kristi is suddenly in front of the camera, a slamming door has mundane origins. Once the  jump scares turn supernatural, they are often underwhelming. Too frequently, a loud sound simply blares in our ears. Everything in the kitchen falling from the ceiling feels too overdone. The finale piles on the loud and shrieking scare sequences, with the nadir clearly being a little girl's face twisting into a CGI demon expression. You'd think this series would've realized by now that such contortions are dreadfully silly, not frightening.

Then again, you'd think the “Paranormal Activity” producers would've also figured out that nobody gives a crap about why all this spooky shit is happening. Instead of just letting ghostly motivations be vague, the franchise continues to double-down on the demonic mythology discussed in part two. In fact, part three goes even further. A definite motivation, revolving around daughters and firstborn sons, is provided for the demonic antagonist. Who now has the unassuming, childish name “Toby.” If an invisible spectre with a commonplace name isn't creepy enough for you, part three also introduces a coven of witches, who bring an instantly recognizable occult symbol with them. Because, ya know, explaining why a ghost or demon does something always makes it scarier, right? 

For what you'd expect from the third entry in a low budget horror franchise, “Paranormal Activity 3” actually got great reviews upon release in 2012. I remember the press was especially impressed with the oscillating fan scene. To this day, a lot of people consider this among the best of the franchise. Yet, for me, this is when the wheels started to come off the “Paranormal Activity” train. The series slides into the doldrums of formula, seemingly checking off  a list of required elements, while also building far too much of its shock value around predictable jump scares. It also over-invests in a lore that couldn't be more tedious. And, seriously, if you're going to pretend your movie is set in 1988 and filmed on VHS, you should do a better job of replicating the look and feel of an old tape. [5/10]

Shadows: After School

There's a great reoccurring feature on Bloody Disgusting called Series of Frights, highlighting individual episodes from different genre anthology shows. Writer Paul Lé digs deep too, into obscure programs from all over the world. That's how I learned about “Shadows,” a spooky anthology series designed for young viewers that aired on British television from 1975 to 1978. The second episode is “After School” and was highlighted in Lé's article. Set in a Welsh mining community, it follows two schoolboys accidentally locked up in their school after a displeasing encounter with their P.E. teacher. The boys try to pass the time by taking career aptitude tests. They find their answers strangely synced while noticing increasingly poltergeist activity in the school. Soon, they descend down into the school's basement, in search of answers.

Much like the “Leap in the Dark” episode from yesterday, the production values here are limited, the pacing is slow, and the accents are often thick. Examples of the first point is evident when one of the boys describes something that's happening to him off-screen, instead of it being shown. Most of the half-hour is confined to the single room too. As for the accents, you just have to get used to them. Despite these setbacks, “After School” does create a suitably creepy atmosphere. The room is dark and the slow escalation of ghostly events, beginning with a pencil rolling off a table and rising to doors and windows slamming, is well done. Both boys are likable leads and you enjoy watching them unravel this mystery. The ending gets a bit didactic, in the way kids show sometimes can, but this one still left me with a nice creepy feeling. 

What I most liked about “After School” is the way it captures the pressures of living in a dead end town, especially when you're young. Neither boy wants to grow up to be miners but signs all around them seem to suggest it'll be their fates. (Including a literal sign advertising work in the mines.) The answers to the tests synching up turn out to be a message from the ghostly presence. Yet it also suggests a world where, no matter what you want, your future is decided. The roof threatens to cave-in on the boys and the poltergeist activity includes a thumping, mechanical noise like an incoming steamer. Both of these suggest the mines. The ending is hopeful, as the boys at least help the ghost find peace. I don't know how the rest of “Shadows” stands up but this episode is pretty strong, especially for something intended for a young audience. [7/10]

The Munsters: Herman's Rival / Grandpa's Call of the Wild

Another reason to prefer “The Munsters” over “The Addams Family” is that the Addams were rich while the Munsters are working class. In “Herman's Rival,” Lily discovers Herman is overdrawn at the bank, after giving her swindler brother Lester a loan. She decides to get a job as a palm reader to help support the household, keeping it a secret to save her husband's pride. Grandpa and Herman quickly misunderstand what's happening, fearing Lily is having an affair. In “Grandpa's Call of the Wild,” Eddie complains that his parents have never taken him fishing. This prompts the entire Munsters brood to go on a camping trip. Being out in the wilderness prompts Grandpa to turn into a wolf and he's soon captured by the fish and game department, forcing Herman to rescue him. 

“Herman's Rival” has a great set-up. Once again, the audience knows the perfectly reasonable explanation for everything but we get to watch the characters stumble through these misunderstandings. There's the big physical gags you expect here. Such as Herman's frustration with a stoplight or the titular rival (Lily's employer) fainting at the sight of him. Yet there's some good old fashion puns too. Lily's job interview is hilarious, strictly because Yvonne De Carlo is so dead-pan with her vampire-related responses. Sometimes these two approaches combine, such as Fred Gwynne's perfectly casual reaction when Grandpa drops Herman through the floor. The performers really seal this show for me, as Gwynne's reaction when Ramon faints is golden. And for all the people who have joked about why a Frankenstein and a vampire's son is a werewolf, the show itself answered that question here: Lester is a wolfman, suggesting lycanthropy is a recessive gene on Lily's side of the family. He looks more like “The Werewolf” than Lon Chaney Jr. and sounds like Groucho Marx. 

Those silly sight gags take precedence in “Grandpa's Call of the Wild.” Herman's attempt at fishing grab a fish frying in someone's pan. There's an extended bit about Herman hammering stakes into the ground for a tent or moving a tree around. Once Grandpa gets stuck in his wolf form, this results in a number of silly moments. The best of which is probably how the family smuggles him out of the park. (An adorable husky plays the Count in his wolf form.) The dog provides some solid laughs, when Herman translates his barks and howls back to English. Probably the comedic highlight of the episode is when Lily attempts to explain the situation to the baffled park ranger. [Herman's Rival: 7/10 / Grandpa's Call of the Wild: 6/10]