The Shining Thoughts and Observations

Runtime: 146 minutes

Release Date: May 23, 1980

Rating: R

Director: Stanley Kubrick

*Let me preface this by saying that I am not a fan of The Shining, despite the fact that I own a copy. I actually own all of King's movies and all his books except for maybe the two most recent, but I've only actually watched The Shining maybe three times, including this most recent viewing.

*When Jack went into the room and the woman climbed out of the tub naked, some guys next to us started honking their horn like crazy and screaming, “tits!” over and over again. Needless to say, they got pretty quiet when she transformed into the other version of herself.

*I never realized quite how annoying some of the characters are in this movie! Wendy is so meek and whiny that I wanted to just punch her in the head a few times, and Danny is just a complete brat at times.

*The twin girls are oh so creepy, but I remember them being in a lot more scenes. They show up when Danny first arrives at the hotel and only appear maybe two more times, including one scene where they are dead on the ground.

*I'm a much bigger fan of the how the book ends. Jack winds up dying when the boiler in the hotel explodes, and Dick survives to get away with Wendy and Danny. The book also had some pretty cool scenes involving topiary animals that come to life. Kubrick switched the animals to a hedge maze because the animals would cost too much money.

*If you haven't see the television remake, I highly recommend it. It's obviously a lot longer, but it sticks more faithfully to the book and even ends in the same way.

*I scared the piss out of two women in a car a few rows back. They had never seen the movie before and were completely on edge. I was coming back from the bathroom, and they didn't see me until I was right at their window. One literally bounced right out of her seat. It gave me a secret thrill LOL.

*Dick is easily my favorite character in the movie, which is why his death actually made me pretty sad. I wish Kubrick stuck with the book ending.

*The most disturbing scene is probably the one that takes place in the room between Jack and the dead woman. It's far more gruesome than anything that happens to Danny.

*The Shining, like a lot of Kubrick films, goes on way too long. I went to the bathroom twice just because I couldn't handle sitting still for that long, especially given that there were large chunks of the movie where it felt like nothing happened.

Stick around for more thoughts and observations on classic horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and People Under the Stairs. Next weekend is a tribute to Wes Craven!

After Midnight Movie Review – Like Trilogy of Terror

Runtime: 90 minutes

Release Date: November 3, 1989

Rating: R

Director: Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat

Two college girls decide to take a class on fear, though one of the girls keeps having visions and nightmares that make her think this might be a bad idea. After the professor makes one of their classmates literally pee his pants in front of everyone, the stereotypical jock decides to get even when the professor treats his students to a night in an old house. "After Midnight" then segues into several shorter films.

There are a few different stories here: one involves a group of friends who get lost in the middle of the night, one surrounds a couple who wander into an abandoned house after their car breaks down, and one tells the story of what happens to the professor and student. My favorite story is the last one, "All Night Messenger."

Alex works at a company that records messages and passes them along to clients. When she comes back to work after vacation, her boss lets her know that she had to fire some other workers, so Alex is stuck working the phones all by herself. Things seem fine, until a random man calls with a weird message for a woman. When Alex calls the woman to pass along the message, she breaks down and tells her that the man keeps stalking her. The man then decides to start stalking Alex, leading to some truly spooky moments.

I really loved this segment, and it's not just because it stars Marg Helgenberger and her former husband Alan Rosenberg. No, there is just something really entertaining about this one. It starts off on a lighter note and quickly turns into this dark and interesting story. It's also one of those films that you can scream at the television. Why doesn't she take the time to call downstairs to the security guard and warn him that someone is threatening her? Why doesn't the other woman call the cops and tell them that some stranger keeps calling her and stalking her?

The other stories aren't nearly as strong as "Night Messenger." Most of the stories in "After Midnight" are just ordinary 1980's stories that you watch once and forget about, but damn it if that one story isn't worth watching again and again.

The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare Movie Review

Runtime: 94 minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: November 1988
Director: John Hough

Marie Adams (Romy Windsor) is an author who admits that she gets her book ideas from visions and dreams that randomly come to her. After one particularly frightening vision, her friend and agent Tom (Antony Hamilton) comforts her in a way that friends shouldn’t. Richard (Michael T. Weiss, The Pretender), her husband, talks to her doctor and they decide that she needs to get away from the city for awhile. Cut to Richard renting a cabin for her.

Tom takes her on the drive to the cabin, which annoys Richard. The two men puff up their chests for a few moments before Marie asks him to stay and he slinks back to the city. Almost immediately, she begins noticing weird things around town. She starts having visions of a nun inside the cabin, the same nun she saw at the beginning of the film. She also hears wolves howling in the woods, and she meets an odd artist named Eleanor who seems to know her husband a little too well.

Before long, Marie meets Janice (Susanne Sevreid, Don’t Answer the Phone) who acts like a fan of her books. Janice later admits that she was a nun and that she’s investigating the disappearance of another nun who died after rambling about the original town where the new town now sits. When Marie learns that the woman is the same nun she has visions about, she realizes that something dark lurks in Drago.

I can’t remember the first time that I saw Howling IV, but I think it was when I was a kid. One of the rental stores had a 3-$1 special, and we used to rent dozens of horror movies. I watched it again a few years ago, and when I popped it into the DVD player, I was prepared to fall asleep at anytime. Instead, I discovered that it really isn’t as bad as I remembered.

Granted Howling IV isn’t going to win any big awards and it’s not even the best werewolf movie that I’ve seen lately, but it really isn’t that bad. The biggest complaint seems to come from people who complain that it doesn’t have enough werewolf scenes, but I can overlook that given its low budget. Plus, I get to see Weiss in a mullet.