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#368 Spirits of the Dead/Histoires extraordinaires

Watched: October 7 2025

Director: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim

Starring: Jane Fonda, Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda

Year: 1968

Runtime: 2h 1min

Spooctober continues (we expand it into November as well. And occasionally December. Not to mention January! There’s nothing scarier than a blank slate and new opportunities, after all…), and coincidentally there are quite a few fitting films coming up on the list. Such timing! In Spirits of the Dead, three directors have each made a short film based on the works of our child- and adulthood hero Edgar Allan Poe. Artistic liberties have been taken, but in each entry Poe’s spirit is present. And he is in fact dead. So the (English) title checks.

We like to think his spirit still roams wild on Hampstead Heath. Close to the meat.

Director Roger Vadim is behind the first segment, “Metzengerstein.” Here, cruel, oversexed countess Frédérique de Metzengerstein (Fonda) falls for her cousin/enemy/rival/neighbour Wilhelm Berlifitzing (also Fonda, but this time Peter), burns down his stables when he rejects her, then grows obsessed with a horse that appears out of nowhere just as Wilhelm accidentally dies in the fire. Well, technically the horse seems to appear out of a tapestry. Either way, clearly a supernatural horse. It does not end well for her.

There’s a joke in here somewhere about stallions and getting wet, but we’re better than that.

The second adaptation, Louis Malle’s “William Wilson,” follows the titular character (Delon) as he is confronted by kindness and positive qualities, things he himself does not possess in the slightest. As he goes around bullying and torturing school mates, trying to start a serial killer career by dissecting a random (and still alive) woman he picked up from the street (with a willing audience of equally psychotic medical students, it seems? WTF, guys???), and cheating at cards (ok, this one sounds relatively mild compared to the others, but he does it in order to strip and whip a woman (Bardot) in front of yet ANOTHER audience of men before offering her up for them to rape. So the cheating really was just a means to an end), he is repeatedly thwarted by a doppelganger (or the Jekyll to his Hyde, if you will). And Wilson is pretty darned indignant about it! It does not end well for him.

We see you, guys in the background who just stand by. You’re all equally culpable.

The final, and in our opinion best, entry is Fellini’s “Toby Dammit,” based on the story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” Now, while it might be the segment that diverges the most from the story on which it is based (it is also the only one where they did not keep the title or the historical setting), it is also the most successful (in our opinion). Toby (Stamp) is a messed up, alcoholic actor visiting Italy to star in a Catholic western and drive a Ferrari, who keeps seeing the devil everywhere. This devil is in the form of a little girl with a ball as opposed to Poe’s old man with just a girly hairstyle (actual quote: “his hair was parted in front like a girl’s”). Toby’s behaviour becomes increasingly unhinged as he falls deeper into the bottle as well as his own visions, climaxing in a wild Ferrari ride. It does not end well for him.

“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have,” they say. “Dress like a sickly Byronic vampire and reap the consequences,” we say.

Poe’s original story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head” is a hilariously passive aggressive response to his critics who accused him (and/or his tales) of lacking morals. So he wrote the most blatantly moral tale he could come up with. It is definitely worth reading if you have not – the tone is hilarious. However, it may not be the easiest story to make into an interesting film, so Fellini’s decision to basically keep only the ending and a slightly morally dubious protagonist is an understandable one. And as stated, this entry was our favourite, despite us being Poe-purists at heart.

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night” What a legend!

While the three shorts have varying degrees of connection with the source material, they have all definitely tried to sex it up quite a bit. Poe wasn’t really known for his spicy content – he was more about the implied incest and necrophelia than explicit sexual stuff. So, much more pure. In Vadim’s “Metzengerstein,” the young count Frederic has become sexy Frédérique, and the old neighbour Berlifitzing has become young, alluring, and a cousin to boot. So at least Poe’s incest motif has been honoured, we guess. William Wilson, while always an unlikable character has, in Malle’s version, become a sexual sadist in addition to your ordinary, run-of-the-mill everyday sadist from the short story.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since we read “Metzengerstein.” It is entirely possible that Frederic wore this exact outfit in the story and the adaptation is true to its source material.

We loved the costumes, Terence Stamp, Jane Fonda, the Devil, the stressful Ferrari ride, the Catholic Western that Toby’s set to star in (complete with cowboy Jesus and all), the award ceremony and basically everything about Fellini’s entry. We also enjoyed the fact that these filmmakers have chosen relatively unknown Poe tales to adapt (at least, lesser known compared to “the big ones”). This may of course be related to the fact that there were supposed to be more directors and stories filmed for the series, but one by one they all dropped out, leaving the three we have today. While the project may not have reached the heights originally envisioned, the ones that were completed are definitely worth a watch, and the film is a perfect choice for Halloween (which, as you all know, is celebrated from October 1st through (at least) November 30th).

I believe we just found this year’s costume

What we learned: Dammit, Toby! Also, if you stand by and do nothing, or participate in the slightest, when people are trying to rape or kill, you’re as culpable as the perp. Do better!

MVP: Terence Stamp. And Edgar himself, obvi.

Next time: The Boston Strangler (1968)

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Bonus: Ramaskrik 2025

October is spooky month, and those who have followed us for a while are probably familiar with Norway’s scariest film festival – Ramaskrik in Oppdal. It’s been a tradition for us to attend this annual event in Spooctober for a while now, and the festival has been going strong for 15 years. Relatively small, it is an amazing horror movie bonanza filled with scares and laughs. As per (sort of) usual, here’s our recap and personal highlights from this year’s festival. Plus a bonus rant for those who enjoy these sort of things…

Overall, we managed to fit in 15 feature films as well as a couple of shorts between Wednesday and Sunday. The highlights for us were definitely Good Boy (2025), No dejes a los niños solos (Don’t Leave the Kids Alone – also 2025), Bernadette Wants to Kill (2024), Hallow Road (2025) and Onsen shâku (Hotspring Sharkattack – 2024).

Honorable mentions go to The Toxic Avenger (2023), Primate (2025, aka. Julius the horror version if you’re Norwegian), Trizombie (2024) and Exit 8 (2025), all of which we also thoroughly enjoyed.

There were others which we liked, but did not quite live up to their potential or just paled a bit in comparison with the others. However, the biggest (and frankly only) disappointment turned out to be this year’s biggest movie, The Black Phone 2 (2025). Now, we usually prefer not to talk too much about the movies we don’t like – we understand the concept of personal taste, and we don’t want to discredit the hard work put in by a lot of people to make any movie happen, and all of that. But we both (individually, without communicating) found ourselves getting increasingly angry while watching this. So allow us a moment to rant (and just skip reading it if this is not your thing – we won’t blame you).

It is important to note that we both loved The Black Phone (2021), and our MVP in that was definitely Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen. So a sequel focused on her should be a win, right? (Spoiler alert: it was not.) (Actual spoiler alert: if you haven’t seen it, we strongly advise you to do that before reading any more, as we will be discussing some important plot points.) Ok, so first off, the originality of the first movie is completely lost in this. Instead of a new and exciting story, we get a mash-up of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (or, probably more accurately, Nightmare on Elm Street part 3: Dream Warriors – 1987) and Stranger Things (2016). The (now dead) Grabber has become a masked Freddy Krueger, capable of invading people’s dreams and kill them inside them. (Except he doesn’t really do that much – he just shows up, scares them, stumbles around, makes threats, and then just disappears again or is easily thwarted by the kids. He is made less scary every time he makes an appearance, completely defeating the purpose.) The only one who can fight him (eventually), is the formerly headstrong and resourceful Gwen, now reduced to a scared and insecure teenager who worries about going mad and needs boys/men to protect her and tell her what to do and how to do it. A complete character assassination in other words. Even her “sassy” retorts, insults and swears seemed forced in this iteration, and not in keeping with the rest of her character as it appeared in this film. And let’s not even get into the stupid retconning of the circumstances of their mother’s death. Who thought that was a good idea?!?

You can see the difference in the posters as well: the attempt to make the mask look scarier in the sequel has only succeeded in turning it into a generic evil devil mask. The very human eyes and glasses featured in the original make it so much more unsettling.

Our other grievances include the dialogue – it felt like it was written by someone who had never had a human conversation in their lives; how easy it was to find the bodies of the missing boys who disappeared once someone ACTUALLY LOOKED FOR THEM! IN THE AREA THEY DISAPPEARED!!! (It took them two nights… After 30ish years… Sheesh. Clearly, nobody cared about finding them before); the stupid and unnecessary backstory of the Grabber, demystifying him and again making him more generic; and just the general soullessness of the entire thing. Is it all bad? Well, no. The production value is there, and the grainy dream sequences look good (despite their contents being utterly stupid for the most part). It starts off ok, and the acting is decent enough. But we’re left with the feeling that this was an entirely unnecessary movie which to some extent ruined the original which we really, really enjoyed. There, rant over.

Anyway, come to Ramaskrik next October! It’s great fun! In addition to showing new (and old) horror and horror-adjacent movies from all over the world, there are always special events and guests. For instance, this year there was a screening of Jaws (1975) in the pool, Troll Hunter (2010) in the woods, and The Descent (2005) with a visit from Neil Marshall, among other great happenings. It’s also cosy as fuck.

Tell us this doesn’t look like the perfect place to watch horror movies for a few days. And yes, it looks like this all the time, all over Oppdal. True story.

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#367 Rosemary’s Baby

Watched: October 6 2025

Director: Roman Polanski

Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Emmaline Henry

Year: 1968

Runtime: 2h 17min

Rosemary Woodhouse (Farrow) and Guy (Cassavetes), her aspiring actor-husband, move into a beautiful apartment in an old, infamous apartment building, “The Bramford.” They then proceed to completely ruin the vibe by painting everything white.

Crime in progress. Viewer discretion is advised.

From the start, the omens are ominous. There are cryptic writings left by the previous tenant (an old lady who died, though not on the premises), closets blocked by furniture, the brutal death (suicide..?) of another tenant, and chanting coming through from the neighbours’ place. Add to that the Bramford’s reputation for witchcraft, baby-eating, creepy sisters and scary men, and we can sort of understand why Rosemary decided to brighten the place up. But we can never forgive.

“I’m not saying all I’m about to subject you to is punishment for destroying this amazing place (albeit with my apparent blessing), but I’m also not saying it isn’t…”

Not long after moving in, Rosemary is invaded by dreams or visions of nuns in her sleep, and by nosy neighbour Minnie Castevet (Gordon) in her waking hours, both equally distressing. Being a polite young woman, she accepts Minnie’s first invitation to dinner, and to all of their surprise, Guy takes a fancy to Roman Castevet (Blackmer). Soon, the neighbours are entangled in their lives, and Rosemary has lost any sense of peace, quiet and privacy she may have otherwise enjoyed in her huge apartment.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that nosy neighbours must be in league with the devil

On paper, the Woodhouses are on an upward spiral – Guy’s luck as an actor takes an unexpected turn as a rival suddenly goes blind which gives him a leading role in a play, and Rosemary becomes pregnant after a creepy night of coersion, marital rape and even more disturbing visions than the other disturbing visions she’s been having since moving in. What’s the problem? They wanted a child, right?

“I didn’t want to miss baby night. A couple of nails were ragged.” “You? While I was out?” “And it was kinda fun – in a necrophile sort of way.” – Actual quote from the movie… Guy has bigger problems than his deal with the devil.

The claustrophobic atmosphere keeps building throughout the pregnancy. Guy and his new besties, the Castevets and their weird friends, control what she eats, which doctor she sees, where she goes and pretty much everything in Rosemary’s life. In addition, Guy gaslights, guilts and manipulates his wife to comply with pretty much everything they put her through. She does push back though, and occasionally succeeds. A vindicating scene is her party for her old friends, including her supportive girl squad who puts Guy in his place for an evening, but her victories are small and short-lived. She is also way too trusting of her husband and shares all her fears and suspicions about the neighbours with him. As if it isn’t perfectly clear that he is in league with them!

You should have pulled that knife out the second he insulted your haircut

Rosemary’s Baby is one of those movies that we have seen several times, and it just gets more sinister and frustrating every time. Rosemary is a precariously balanced character who is potentially hard to like, but Farrow makes her very charming and likable, and manage to balance her out: had she been more assertive, she might have gotten away from the situation. However, had she been less assertive, we would have lost some sympathy for her. She has some defiance in her – she tries several times to rescue herself, she just never takes it far enough. In her defence, we guess it takes a while to get used to the idea that your husband is in league with evil baby-killing witches and that everyone around you is part of a conspiracy to steal your child.

It’s never a good idea to befriend your neighbours. We avoid ours like the plague, and have yet to be impregnanted by a single demon!

It’s a great movie with so many amazing details that we can’t possibly list them all. The fashion, the slow escalation, Mrs Castevet’s table manners, the use of scrabble pieces, and Rosemary’s gradual evolution from child to adult woman are all great. Turns out the men in this (with the notable exception of our man Hutch) are even worse than we remembered from previous viewings – especially Guy and the two doctors. Take out the entire antichrist subplot, and we’d still have an infuriating movie about the lack of female autonomy, as well as domestic abuse being perpetuated by male professionals who refuse to take women seriously. The literal devil is more of an afterthought to this very real threat. (Not that the devil isn’t a real threat… Please don’t come for us, Satan! We assure you we have a healthy fear and respect for you and your minions.)

Sidenote: do we think Aunt Glady in Weapons (2025) was inspired by this gal..?

What we learned: Never be a Catholic, no matter how lapsed. It’s always the Catholics who are possessed or tricked into giving birth to devils. Also, when in trouble, call the girl squad! And don’t trust your ambitious husband who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rape you (or, as it turns out, have you raped) in order to further his career. And who also thinks going through a hard pregnancy and then giving birth at home only to be told the baby died is the same as “no one gets hurt.” Damn, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this movie.

MVP: Girl Squad! Or, they could have been, had she contacted them earlier… Hutch, then. RIP.

Next time: Spirits of the Dead (1968)

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#366 Pretty Poison

Watched: September 26 2025

Director: Noel Black

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland, John Randolph, Dick O’Neill, Clarice Blackburn

Year: 1968

Runtime: 1h 29min

Dennis Pitt (Perkins) is released from the psych ward where he has been treated for “dangerous fantasies.” Foreshadowing, thy name be… well, “delusional fantasies,” apparently. Deemed ready to rejoin society as a productive member, he promptly starts his new life by creeping on a high school drill team, specifically 17-year-old Sue Ann Stepanek (Weld).

The title sequence really should have been our first hint that this will not go the way it initially seems. Mea culpa.

He eventually plucks up the courage to approach her, but not as himself. Oh no, under the guise of being a secret agent – one in need of an assistant on his top secret, not at all fake mission – he tricks her into joining him to expose the environmenal crimes of the factory where he (actually) works. However, he may have bitten over more than he can chew with innocent high schooler Sue Ann.

“You work for the CIA but they do not provide you with a car, any equipment or a partner for what you say is a two person job? That does not sound suspicious at all. Hopefully, neither is my eagerness to join forces with you.”

We went in blind on this one, and we definitely recommend it – this was a wild ride from start to finish. In fact, you may want to watch it before reading this review… Pretty Poison is less well known than several other dark comedies from the era (at least to our knowledge), and it deserves a wider audience. Perkins is disturbingly good at being innocent and creepy at the same time, a perfect Dennis, and Weld is charming, chilling and chaotic as Sue Ann.

Additional shoutout to Perkins’ ability to look simultaneously 20 and 40 years old. We have absolutely no clue how old his character is supposed to be…

To us, it’s unclear how much of his fantasies and lies Dennis actually believes, and how much is just a way to manipulate a high school girl into a relationship with him. Whether or not he believes his own fantasies, we cannot escape the fact that he drugs and rapes Sue Ann, and then convinces his case officer to let him stay after breaking his parole because “he’s in love.” With a child. And that is apparently a good thing. What a world.

“I know I skipped our weekly meeting and moved away, thus breaking the conditions of my release, but you see I have met and fallen in love with a teenager, who I have convinced that I am a secret agent in dire need of help on my mission, help only a high school girl can provide mind you, and I have even tricked her into sleeping with me and I think I’m in love and you know that love is the great cure-all, so I clearly will not be a threat to society anymore!” “Well, why didn’t you say so? Go on and enjoy your life, my lad! I see no red flags here.”

Despite the sinister nature of Dennis’ manipulations and actions (regardless of his intentions and possible delusions – his reactions towards the end make us lean towards him being a manipulator and complusive liar rather than a mentally ill man who actually believes his own stories), things are not quite what they seem, and the twists and shifts in power dynamics make this a movie worth watching. The increasingly atonal march that keeps playing throughout the movie is a great illustration of Dennis’ breaking psyche, and we loved both their performances, Sue Ann’s car, Dennis’ landlady Mrs Bronson (Blackburn), and the dark humour which occasionally made us laugh out loud. Overall, a great watch.

Dennis is about to learn a lesson for the ages: nothing is scarier or more dangerous than teenage girls. This goes double for the pretty and popular ones…

What we learned: Don’t be fooled by a pretty face. Or a clearly fake cover story of spies and secret agents… And for god’s sake – don’t let your unstable, delusional ex-patients break all the rules of their parole because they enter a relationship with a minor! That is not a good sign!

MVP: Mrs Bronson. We just enjoyed her whole vibe. Or Sue Ann. What a ride!

Next time: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

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#365 Planet of the Apes

Watched: August 13 2023

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly, Linda Harrison, Robert Gunner, Jeff Burton

Year: 1968

Runtime: 1h 52min

Three astronauts crashland on an alien planet 2000 years after leaving earth. Luckily, hibernation pods have kept them from aging despite the years spent in deep space. Even more luckily, this random planet’s atmosphere is sufficiently earthlike for them to survive. That’s pretty much the end of their luck, though. They soon learn that a fourth crewmember, the only woman on board, did not survive the crash. In addition, their clothes are stolen and destroyed by what appear to be primitive human beings. And then the hunt begins…

Men. Absolutely no sense of danger or concept of personal safety. “Oh, look at us, stranded on an alien planet. Let’s abandon our things and go skinny dipping. I’m sure those life size Blair Witch monster thingies on the hill are completely harmless and not a bad omen of things to come. And while we’re at it, why don’t we eat this random fruit. La la la!” Please…

Gorillas on horseback raid the fields full of people, kill one of the survivors, Dodge (Burton), and capture the other two, Taylor and Landon (Heston and Gunner, respectively). Taylor is shot in the throat, impeding his speech, and then taken to a research facility in Ape City where he is made into a lab rat by intelligent chimpanzees Zira and Galen. It’s a world gone topsy-turvy!

“OK, since we’re both here, how about we propegate the species? It’s for the greater good, I assure you.”

Once the scientists discover that Taylor can talk, their entire world view changes. Perhaps human beings are not just savages after all, but capable of culture and reason? (They’re only about halfway right…) Soon, Taylor finds himself in the middle of an ape culture war. And Landon finds himself lobotomized.

It was either that or join a gorilla barbershop quartet. The choice was easy

The success of Planet of the Apes sparked a whole series of sequels, prequels and other -quels. And while many of them are worth watching (there are definite variations in quality), the original remains the best one, in our opinion. The score is great, the costumes, make-up, sets and landscapes are all very impressive, and the plot is compelling and intriguing.

The characters are fine as well, but again, as mentioned. who in their right minds would see these things, on an alien planet nonetheless, and then proceed to just frolic in the water?!? We question their judgment and the clearly lax screening process for becoming (fictional) astronauts in the sixties.

The first hunt is chaotic, brutal and shocking, as are several of the revelations throughout and the treatment our main character receives. Does Taylor make for a sympathetic protagonist? Well, not necessarily. He’s a bit of a cynical douchebag with seemingly no qualms about rape, for instance. Still, even he has some very good points to make about humanity and the society he left behind as well as the one in which he now finds himself. In addition, Heston had ridiculous presence on screen, which makes you root for him despite some of his character’s less desirable qualities…

Believe it or not, in this instance beastiality is a major positive step in his character development! (Discussion point: Is it still beastiality if the “beast” in question shares your level of intelligence and communication skills? Taylor’s so-called relationship with Nova, the mute and primitive human woman he “courts,” seems a lot more problematic than this one, for sure.)

We love horror and sci-fi as social commentary and (unfortunately) the themes in Planet of the Apes are still (or again?) current and relevant. The people in power, and pretty much everyone over a certain age, are conservative zealots who’d rather erase anything and anyone that do not support their world view than be open to changing their minds. Thank the gods we as human beings have moved on from this and are now governed by reason, compassion and altruism.

They would be so proud of us

What we learned: Religion has no place in science. Or in politics. Or in law making. In fact, like genitals, your own are best kept private until asked to share.

MVP: Zira

Next time: Pretty Poison (1968)

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#364 Once Upon a Time in the West

Watched: August 14 2023

Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Harmonica’s harmonica

Year: 1968

Runtime: 2h 45min

Mrs McBain (the recently departed Claudia Cardinale) arrives in Utah to find her brand spanking new husband and stepchildren dead. The main suspect: notorious local bandit Cheyenne (Robards). But is he being framed? Other dodgy characters in this classic western include drama queen Harmonica (Bronson) and gun-for-hire Frank (Fonda).

Claudia Cardinale in all her glory. We seem to remember enjoying her character immensely!

So, full disclosure: we watched this over two years ago, but then never got around to actually writing the blog while it was still fresh in our minds. And now, due to everything leading to us taking a hiatus from the list in the first place, we have a little bit of amnesia. We did, however, take notes while watching it! Thus, we present to you: Our Impressions Of And Thoughts On The Film Based On Cryptic Notes Written Two Years Ago (or OIOATOTFBOCNWTYA for short):

Pictured: characters from the film. About 99% sure that’s Henry Fonda up front. And they definitely look like the bad guys, so that tracks. Probably about to do some serious mischief.
  • Very good at creating tension! (we’re pretty sure we’re talking about Leone here)
  • Love when people make their own soundtrack! (referring to Harmonica, probably?)
  • #Harmonica4Lyfe! Such a drama queen. Love!
  • Absolutely love the “vastness” of the production – epic scale. Good world building.
  • He (probably Leone again) just loooooooves people staring at each other.
  • Beautiful, epic, suspenseful and possibly a tiiiiiny bit too long… But hey – if you wanna be dramatic about it and make an absolute epic, you go girl! (We guess we’re referring to Leone here as well…)
Harmonica doing god’s work providing (more or less) appropriate ambient sound to a dramatic scene. Again, we suspect that’s what’s going on based on vague, watercolour memories.
  • With the notable exception of the Lord of the Rings-movies, very few films need to clock in at almost three hours…But this stays interesting and engaging throughout, so it kind of pulls it off.
  • So. Much. Staring.
  • Ok, even on Blu-Ray, film is definitely different from digital. The texture of this! Hard to describe… It feels substantial and kind of gritty.
  • Was this movie sponsored by the oil industry? The car industry? Never seen so much vilifying of railways.
  • Sometimes it’s best to just stay a single, rich widow.
“I know you’re developing some Stockholm syndrome feelings for me, but I’m saving all my sexual tension for my new best bud Cheyenne. Besides, Clark Olofsson won’t be born for half a century yet, so I don’t even know what Stockholm syndrome is.”

What we learned: Never trust Big Railway™

MVP: Ennio Morricone, Cheyenne and Harmonica’s harmonica.

Next time: Planet of the Apes (1968)

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#363 Night of the Living Dead

Watched: February 16 2023 (We know, we know… It’s been an intense few years, ok?)

Director: George A. Romero

Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Russell Streiner

Year: 1968

Runtime: 1h 36min

Heeeeey guys… So it’s been (another) minute, but we’re finally back in a place in our lives where we want to try to revive the blog. How fitting then, to talk about a movie where things refuse to stay dead and buried! It’s almost as if we planned this (we didn’t. Planning is not really part of our skill set..).

In Night of the Living Dead, siblings Barbra and Johnny expect nothing but a peaceful afternoon on their yearly road trip to place flowers on their father’s grave. Which just goes to show that expectations are meant to be crushed. Instead of a routine 6 hour trip of bickering about the inconvenience of their father being buried so far away (rude! Of him, we mean. Bury yourselves close to your relatives), they find themselves caught in a new and exciting situation: the dead walking the earth and armageddon being nigh! Well, Barbra does at least. Johnny is a lost cause from the beginning and the first one to die. But his sister makes a valiant, if somewhat hysterical, effort to escape the slooooowly creeping dread that surrounds her.

POV: the most unsettling game of Grandma’s Footsteps ever (possibly apart from the one played in Royston Vasey)

We probably don’t need to say much more about the plot – a bunch of strangers end up together in a house trying to survive, and make sense of, an inconceivable and dangerous situation. Some with more luck than others.

50+ years later, the zombies themselves might not pack the same punch (bite?) they once did, but Night of the Living Dead is still incredibly entertaining, creepy and stressful. This is the movie that cemented the modern zombie; not the Haitian undead slaves, but flesh-eating monsters with brains on their… well, brains. Interestingly enough, the word “zombie” is not used in the film – the undead are referred to as “ghouls” throughout. But you don’t fool us – we know what you really are!

A zombie, by any other name, would bite as hard

Shockingly to a lot of white audiences back at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement (and even now because the world sucks and people suck even more), the most constructive and reasonable person in the film is an African American man. Ben deals with what must be dealt with and gets shit done. Of course, once the Middle Aged White Man™ emerges from the deep dark basement, he tries to take over the leadership position. Fortunately, there are some Radical ’60s Teens™ around to help the cultural progress in the US (a.k.a. the house) and support Ben.

You don”t mess with Ben. He came there to chew bubble gum and kick undead ass. And he’s all out of bubble gum.

Progressive as that may be, the main female character is still mostly useless, prone to hysteria and easily distracted by shiny things. We can’t blame her too much, we suppose. Her reaction is pretty natural considering what she’s just gone through, which includes, but is not limited to, watching her brother be eaten by some guy in the cemetery. And as entertaining as it can be to watch characters quipping their way through mortal danger and trauma; apathy, irrationality and terror are probably more common responses to zombie apocalypses.

Flam – flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths… Heathing…

We love this movie – it’s a regular rewatch for us, especially during spooky season (happy Halloween-month to all who observe!). From the first notes of the creepy score it is clear that this is going to be a scary ride, which it is. Not so much because of the zombies as the people and the racism, but isn’t that always the case… Night of the Living Dead is entertaining yet very dark with shocks, twists and turns. Its legacy is also undeniably significant; where would we, as a society, be without zombie movies in our horror canon? Definitely less entertained, that’s for darn tootin’.

Personally, we would hate to live in a world where every minor or major inconvenience was not met with the line “Let’s go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over.”

What we learned: Blades don’t need reloading, and stagnation means death.

MVP: Ben. Obvi.

Next time: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)