Universal Horror: Ranking the Classic Monsters

by Cláudio Alves

Halloween may be (technically over) but the spooky season continues (if you'd like) via various streaming services. The Criterion Channel programmed a selection of titles from Universals' Horror canon from the 1930s through the 1950s. Universalhelped typify the American horror genre while also creating screen monsters whose iconography prevails. Six creatures stand above the others – Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the mummy, the invisible man, the wolfman, and the gill man. That sextet is represented in this Criterion Channel collection, so it's an excellent opportunity to delve into those horrific franchises. Consequently, I spent the better part of October watching all the movies in each of those classic monster's series, seeing every feature they starred in from 1931 to 1956. In the end, since everyone loves lists, I decided to rank the creatures…

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Horror Costuming: Black Swan (2010)

by Cláudio Alves

Unintentionally, this year's Horror Costuming miniseries has featured a lot of designers' partnerships. In both Hellraiser and The Cell, we explored how one person created a fantasy world while another cared for the mundane existence and its subtler evils. Those films showed how exemplary collaboration could produce unforgettable movie wardrobes. Now, with Black Swan, we arrive at a more disharmonious sort of alliance, one that fell apart after the fact, as the media celebrated some designers' work while ignoring the other, and the awards bodies did the reverse. It's a pity how much the controversy came to dominate conversations on the film's costumes. But, beyond the acrimony and scandal, Black Swan is a superbly designed horror movie whose costumes deserve analysis, applause, awards too…

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Horror Costuming: The Cell (2000)

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, when exploring the wonders of horror costuming, I sang the praises of Eiko Ishioka's Oscar-winning Dracula designs, a heady mixture of Nipponic fantasy and Victorian fashion. While that's a cinematic wardrobe for the ages, it's fair to say Eiko's most crucial big-screen collaboration wasn't with Francis Ford Coppola. Instead, that would be her decades-long teaming with Tarsem Singh. Indeed, the Japanese artist's work with the Indian director became so intrinsic to his filmography that she could be considered a co-author of those movies. Her vision is vital to their final form. So much so that, after her death, Tarsem's cinema lost some of its spark. He's yet to return to the visual heights he had achieved with Eiko. Of the four features they did together, The Cell's the only adventure in the horror genre, a nightmarish plunge into a serial killer's psyche…

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Winona Ryder @ 50: "Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice"

Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder this week as she turns 50.

by Ginny O'Keefe

He’s the ghost with the most, babe. It’s Beetlejuice. The wacky, morbid and over the top 1988 Tim Burton joint  revolves around Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) a couple living in an idyllic Connecticut countryside. They are tragically killed after their car swerves off a bridge and into a river. The thing is the film keeps following them and their perspective. Tracing their steps all the way back home which is when they realize…they’re dead! Once home they discover a book titled "Handbook for the Recently Deceased". Soon enough their house is sold to the Deetz family. Charles, his wife Delia and their daughter Lydia all moving out into the country from New York City. They begin to tear apart the house and make it their own. Barbara and Adam want them gone so it’s time to start haunting. Eventually they turn to someone (or something in the form of Michael Keaton) they never should have for help: Betelgeuse (pronunciation: beetle juice). 

The greatness of this film is its supreme wackiness. Nothing is too out there for this movie. It’s got sandworms, moving sculptures, Harry Belafonte musical numbers, dead caseworkers, Catherine O’Hara wearing gloves as a headband, goofy production design, and a perfect balancing of message and escapism. My favorite character in the film is Lydia played by the great Winona Ryder...

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Almost There: Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly"

by Cláudio Alves        

Last week, you were asked to choose a horror movie performance to be analyzed in the Almost There series. From the ten possibilities, the pick was Jeff Goldblum in David Cronenberg's The Fly. Telling the story of a scientist who accidentally gene-splices himself with a housefly, the movie is the platonic ideal of body horror and probably the title most readily associated with the subgenre. Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis' makeup is justly legendary and won the pair an Oscar. One would think horror would be a mainstay in that particular category, but AMPAS rarely embraces it, even there. Hence why The Fly's awards success feels so thrilling. Unfortunately, it's also why Goldblum's transformative work was ignored...

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