Letterboxd — Your life in film

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Horroctober 2012

I believe that this city is at the mercy of a madman whose body is an engine of destruction.
-Dr. Felix Benet

A great campy sci-fi horror film directed by Lambert Hillyer who also did the ambitious Dracula's Daughter the same year. It also marked the third collaboration between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Here we get the treat of seeing Karloff turn into a full fledged obsessed mad scientist as Dr. Janos Rukh, a role…

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Horroctober 2012

I have to complete the mission.
-Dr. Ownen

For me the original [REC] is the best "found footage" film I've ever seen and my favorite one, and while I think [REC]² is an excellent film in the genre, I also think it does a poor job of continuing the tone of the original. I think they tried to do an Aliens type sequel to their excellent first film and I fully understand why.

Honestly I think…

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Horroctober 2012

Why are you looking at me that way? Will I do?
-Lili

An oddity of a sequel to the 1931 Dracula. Edward Van Sloan is the only returning actor as he reprises the role of Prof. Van Helsing (now spelled Von Helsing for some odd reason). The movie starts off moments after the original finishes as the police find the bodies of Renfield and Dracula, arresting Von Helsing for murder as a result.

This is hardly…

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Horroctober 2012

Cleanse them. Cleanse the world of their ignorance and sin. Bathe them in the crimson of... am I on speakerphone?
-Mordecai

Even though I enjoyed this even more on my second viewing, I'm extremely happy that my first viewing was on opening night before this movie was overhyped into the stratosphere. This film is not a "game changer", it's not the second coming of Michael Myers and it certainly did not reinvent the genre. I am…

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Horroctober 2012

We have to tape everything, Pablo.
-Ángela

I hadn't revisited [REC] since watching the remake, Quarantine, earlier this year. I found the remake to come off as extremely staged compared to the original. I later thought that maybe it came off as staged because I knew the story already and therefore the original wouldn't hold up on rewatch. Happy to find out that isn't the case.

[REC] was made using actors that look like real people,…

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Horroctober 2012

Sometimes I have wondered whether life wouldn't be much more amusing if we were all devils, no nonsense about angels and being good.
-Dr. Pretorius

I already wrote a flimsy review for this movie earlier this year so I'll just point out a few things I might have missed.

Boris Karloff's performance as the monster is criminally underappreciated in this day and age. In a film filled with memorable performances, it's Karloff's that is the heart…

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Horroctober 2012

The werewolf is neither man nor wolf, but a Satanic creature with the worst qualities of both.
-Dr. Yogami

To my surprise earlier this year I learned that The Wolf Man (1941) wasn't Universal Studio's first werewolf film. It wasn't even their first werewolf film during the Universal Monsters era. That distinction goes to the often overlooked Werewolf of London.

The film is quite a different experience then one would expect from a werewolf movie. Obviously…

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Horroctober 2012

The raven is my talisman.... Death is my talisman, Mr. Chapman. The one indestructible force. The one certain thing in an uncertain universe. Death.
-Dr. Richard Vollin

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff's second collaboration together, they would have 8 in total, is often argued to be their best by some. I find though they have three or four films that are extremely close for the top spot, this is still definitely one of them.

Even though…

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Horroctober 2012

We shall play a little game, Vitus. A game of death, if you like.
-Hjalmar Poelzig

It's highly appropriate that the first film to feature Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi together on screen is unlike any horror film Universal Studios had ever produced before or since. It was a visionary director's first and last film for a major Hollywood studio, marred by interference and controversy, it's a compromised masterpiece.

The film's hero and heroine are you're…