Day 2: The Monster (1925)

Kelley 2016, 31 Days of Horror, Classics, Part 4, Reviews Leave a Comment

For my first contribution to ItsJustAwesome’s 31 Days of Horror series, I was tasked with watching 1925’s silent classic, The Monster. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I am not typically the most enthusiastic watcher of silent films. I’m more of a 1930s and 1940s gal, as you may have gathered from previous, non-horror reviews (or listening to me sing the many praises of Barbara Stanwyck in The Good, The Bad, and The Podcast). I think it has a lot to do with my love of witty banter and well-crafted dialogue. When you’re limited to what can be read from a title card, that delicious element is …

Day 1: Häxan (1922)

Charles 2016, 31 Days of Horror, Classics, Part 4, Reviews Leave a Comment

We’re officially starting this year’s 31 Days of Horror with Häxan, which is a silent horror film from writer / director Benjamin Christensen. It’s an interesting movie because it’s sort of an enigma by seemingly being all things at once. It’s a documentary and history lesson about witchcraft but it’s also a fictional horror narrative with “reenactments” of the torture methods used on those found guilty of being witches. It’s both very tame and approachable, yet it also could never have been released in the US at the time it was made due to the sexuality, violence and nudity on display (even in Sweden, where it was made, film censors …

100-Book Challenge (Part 2)

Mark 100-Book Challenge, Blog Posts, Classics, Reviews Leave a Comment

Hello again readers! Mark here with the second installment of my 100-Book Challenge. One of the (many) motivations for this undertaking was to get to those novels I felt embarrassed not to have read yet, so books 11-20 bring us some literary heavy-hitters like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Austen, Morrison and more. That said, I do not intend my reviews as scholarly commentary, just the opposite; I want to give general readers a quick impression of each work and how much it lends itself to an enjoyable and fulfilling read. Of course, you could teach a full college semester on many of these novels, but we’re not here for that! We’re here …