Time to celebrate the best horror films of all time – and this time, a celebration of psychological horror!
There are so many great horror films – and many that are neglected classics….here are a couple of examples of classic horror!
Want to get soaked in dread?
Then it is time to go to Amazon and celebrate cerebral horror – creepy movies that get under your skin and makes it crawl – and build to shocking climaxes – you know. classic horror…
Rosemary’s Baby.
The CLASSIC horror film with the tag line: “Pray For Rosemary’s Baby…” check out the trailer, which sets up the premise of this shocker well:
Mia Farrow is Rosemary, and John Cassavetes is her husband Guy Woodhouse – they move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. Their neighbors are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet…yes, VERY FRIENDLY, and Guy begins to spend a lot of time with them.
Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the laundry dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote and distant. And of course, there is that horrifying dream about lovemaking she can’t shake…
Then Rosemary gets pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbors have special plans for her child. Oh, she also has the WORST pregnancy of all time!
Director Roman Polanski uses the city of New York as a character – every building looks evil, and the city in a sense swallows Farrow up and is part of the conspiracy against her…
When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, “no one’s going to hit a pregnant woman”. The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it.
Cue Evil Frank Sinatra!
It was on the set of this film that Mia Farrow received divorce papers from then-husband Frank Sinatra. He was angry that filming was taking too long and demanded she quit the film. When she didn’t, he divorced her!
Minnie Castevet, the elderly neighbor, has chilling words for Rosemary:
“He chose you, honey! From all the women in the world to be the mother of his only living son!”
And as Roman Castevet, one of the “friends” says:
To 1966! The year one!
No matter what Rosemary tries to do, EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is against her…
This movie build to a shocking climax, as Rosemary knows that something is wrong – very wrong, with her baby…
Rosemary Woodhouse: What have you done to him? What have you done to his eyes, you maniacs!
Roman Castevet: He has his father’s eyes.
The film is out on blu-ray, so order now! The Criterion Collection has a special release including the following:
New high-definition digital restoration, approved by director Roman Polanski, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interviews with Director Roman Polanski, actor Mia Farrow, and producer Robert Evans
Komeda, Komeda, a feature-length documentary on the life and work of jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda, who wrote the score for Rosemary’s Baby…
1997 radio interview with author Ira Levin from Leonard Lopate’s WNYC program New York and Company on the 1967 novel, the sequel, and the film…
Finally, the special edition includes a booklet featuring an essay by critic Ed Park and Levin’s afterword for the 2003 New American Library edition of his novel, in which he discusses its and the film’s origins – what a great collection!
“Rosemary’s Baby” is a classic horror film – A-list acting and directing – a perfect Halloween movie – and now, here is an obscure horror classic just as great!
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death.
How can you not love a horror movie with this tagline:
“Something is after Jessica. Something very cold, very wet…and very dead.”
Check out this trailer:
Here’s an obscure movie worth finding! A recently institutionalized woman has bizarre experiences after moving into a supposedly haunted country farmhouse and fears she may be losing her sanity once again.
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death stands as one of the most subtle, yet truly scary films ever made. It just gets under your skin, despite a sensational title that suggests one of those “let’s do something to get her inheritance” contrived plots.
It is a masterful example of believable horror that has all the haunting lyricism needed to keep its motor going and draw the audience into Jessica’s surreal nightmares.
Zohra Lampert’s performance is superb and one of the most realistic portrayals of mental instability we have in the genre. Does it all really happen or is it in Jessica’s mind? In the end, she still doesn’t know and neither do we. Simply put, that is the triumph and beauty of this wonderful thriller.
The Overlook Film Encyclopedia calls Let’s Scare Jessica To Death a “poetic and persuasive film” that “borrows from both the gothic and post-Night of the Living Dead traditions to depict the death of the love generation as a group of dropouts who find rural America less than accommodating.”
Is Jessica going crazy again? Is something in the lake? And is it coming after her?
This is a very effective little horror movie – that is more than anything a look into the madness that envelopes a woman and just won’t let go…unless everything happening to her is real…this is a very little-known film, but worth finding!
This movie has such a reputation now that there is an official website celebrating it! Check it out here:
http://www.letsscarejessicatodeath.net/
And how can you not love a movie with a classic movie poster like this one!
Categories: 70's Cinema, Academy Awards, Action Films, Awards, Books / Media, Golden Globes, Great Films, Grindhouse, Halloween, Horror films, Independent Cinema, Movies, Obscure Movies, Revenge Movies, Talent/Celebrities, Uncategorized
Cool post! Great breakdown. I love these types of films from this era. Haven’t seen Jessica in a very long time. Nice job, John! (I need to get that Overlook Encyclopedia!)
I got a copy of “Jessica” from a “hard to find” website, but now Warner Archive has it too…the story around it is fascinating as well…thanks for reading!