We kicked our month of frightful Halloween fun off with two
movies from opposite ends of the spectrum… Our advice… don’t let them take your
friend to the morgue alone and watch out for razors!
Movie #1: Sweeney Todd (2007,
Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter)
My Johnny finally earned a Golden Globe for this performance
and impressed me with his singing. There
are classic Tim Burton touches all throughout this movie—the bits of vibrant
color amongst a faded sepia-toned background. Odd characters that, if at all
possible, Burton made even odder. This
was originally a London “urban legend” that became a popular Penny Dreadful
(for you non-literature majors out there, that’s popular Victorian stories,
mainly salacious horror, published weekly for a penny), then a theatre
production ending up on Broadway starring Angela Lansbury in the Mrs. Lovett
part. Short version—average barber and
his family… barber is wrongfully imprisoned, festers a need for vengeance for
decades, then becomes a psychotic homicidal maniac slicing throats. To add a bit more lusciousness to this
macabre story… his neighbor uses the corpses to provide meat filling for her
famous pies. There is a tragic twist at the
end that I shall refrain from detailing for anyone who may want to see this for
the first time. This is a musical, so
while the story itself is just deliciously (pardon the pun, but actually it’s pretty
good…) horrific, the music does help lighten that. (However
after seeing this in the theater release, my friend was able to scare the
living daylights of his wife for a solid two weeks by sneaking up behind her
with a butter knife!)
What we liked: 1. The chemistry between Sweeney and Mrs.
Lovett (Johnny and Helena)—they really were good together. 2. The “cannibalism song”…. You’ll know it
when you hear it! 3. That Mrs. Lovett's hairdo is actually Helena Bonham Carter's normal, everyday hairstyle. 4. Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall.... those two actors can really pull off creepy villains.
Sponsors: The
Tuesday Night Movie Nuts would like to acknowledge and thank Karo Syrup for the
production of this movie. Without their
support, the gallons of spurting blood released by Sweeney’s hand would not be
possible. Karo Syrup… good for
everything from pancakes to candy brittle to fake blood. (This is a fact… Tim
Burton used corn syrup dyed with orange food coloring for all the blood.)
Little Known Facts: I was Mrs. Lovett for Halloween 2008, complete with Victorian dress (made myself), crazy hair, and rolling pin!
Ratings: Jason 4, Kathy 3, Me…3.5
Movie #2: House of Wax (1953,
with Vincent Price)
Oh my! This is a
classic. Of course, after watching Sweeney Todd, this was a bit…. Tame. Although, we are adamant not to judge all
movies alike because they aren’t. You,
my friends, know this. So therefore, in
the spirit of seeing a film for what it was at the time it was created, we look
at House of Wax. We begin with a brilliant and eccentric
artist. His sculptures are exquisite,
yet his partner just wants a return on his investment.
There’s arson, insurance fraud, wretched deformity, lost masterpieces…
AND THEN—bodies start disappearing from morgues. A new wax museum opens. Well, you see where this is going,
right? I think that this is more of a
suspense movie than actual “horror”. It’s
also very reminiscent of Phantom of the Opera,
if you’re familiar with that story. Jason
was a little disappointed because the biggest “thrill” was more towards the
first half of the movie, and based on all the previews and things for this
movie, it looks like there’s more “horror” involved than is actually presented,
although for the time this was probably fairly shocking given the inferno scene at the beginning and the potential waxing of a live, naked woman at the end (nakedness implied not actually shown).
What we liked: 1. This is classic Vincent Price, and he’s
elegantly creepy as always. 2. The fire scene.
Ratings: Jason 3, Kathy 4, Me …3
**Note... I'm doing this a week after we saw these, and I think I have Jason's ratings right. Any misquoted ratings are my faulty memory.
Alan Rickman is creepy. (no disrespect intended to Alan Rickman)
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