To say a group goodbye to winter, Keith decided we should screen four films set in the wintery cold. Films to make us feel as if we were still freezing.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
In some ways this seemed like two distinct mini-sessions to me. The first two films were distinctly out of my wheelhouse. The Werewolf and the Yeti was a Spanish Production starring Paul Naschy. While Naschy is a favorite of some -- often ranking right up there with Peter Cushing or Lon Chaney Jr. -- I have never really warmed up to him. And this, a story about a Yeti expedition gone awry, just kind of left me cold. The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas was a much better film. And it benefitted from starring Peter Cushing and (pre F-Troop) Forest Tucker. It could almost have been called a buddy movie as the mismatched pair lead an expedition into the Himalayas. It's better thought out than the first film, though the anti-Western message hits with all the subtlety of a flying mallet. It was a very well-done movie even though it was, in many ways, not my cup of tea. I gave it a reasonably high grade on that basis.
The last two weeks were much more along the lines of what I like -- American-made (admittedly, one was Canadian, but in this realm, that's largely the same) horror from the '70s and '80s. I saw The Brood some (ten?) years ago at an all-night horror festival. It's a deeply creepy story with mutant kids running amok. It really gets under the skin. And, surprisingly, it kind of all makes sense by the end. But my favorite of the session was The Thing, a remake of a 1951 classic. It tells the story of researchers in the Antarctic trying to survive with a shape-shifting space alien on the loose. That was really good stuff, and it allowed this session to end on a high note.
The Werewolf and The Yeti (1976)
The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957)
The Brood (1979)
The Thing (1982)
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