Stumptown Horror

news: STH Changes.

Just a quick announcement today. For the last 18 months covering 200 posts and 20,000 page views, Stumptown Horror has striven to provide the discerning Portland horror fan a definitive source for all things horror here in the Rose City where other sites such as the "pipeline" service fail us as a community. An analysis of local web traffic and interaction within the site has produced negative findings in relationship to the amount of effort this site has demanded from me over this period of time. With other, higher profile opportunities opening up for me to apply my writing efforts, I'm here to inform all you lurkers that updates on STH will become less frequent. Instead of up-to-date reporting on all upcoming horror in our beloved city, I will instead re-focus the site more on my own personal reviews, lists, and experiences as they relate to Portland horror. Its been a great ride, will continue to be so in a new form, and here's to seeing you fine folks out in the community doing what you do. Thanks.

showing: 2/15/13 through 2/21/13

The new year finally sees a lull in horror releases, but that doesn't mean that a plethora of horror isn't still playing in local theatres. Its weeks like this that give us all a chance to catch up on all the great video releases we've yet to see or catch one of the numerous films in theatre that life has prevented us from partaking in (locate the "now Showing" tab at the top of the page to get a complete listing of everything that is still on screen in the Portland area).

As far as this week, the only new showing I have for you is a single showing at 8pm at the Clinton Street Theatre on Thursday the 21st of Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973):

Currently without a score on RottenTomatoes.com

From watching the trailer I'm sure you're able to grasp whether this is your kind of film or not. If you've never watched a spaghetti horror flick before, I'm not sure this is the best way to ease you into the cannon instead of scaring you away from future films in this vein, but I coud be wrong having never seen this picture myself. Over on the CST site they did a great job putting this film in context [link], so I'll just quote them here:

Black magic. Possession. Decapitation. A séance gone wrong. A sickle. The living dead. Supernatural talismans. A haunted painter. And Paul Naschy (in a double-role!). Director Carlos Aured takes all these classic Euro-horror ingredients and mixes them into 1971’s HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB (aka El espanto surge de la tumba).

Dorado Films presents HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB at the Clinton Street Theater as part of the Spaghetti Fest, a monthly series featuring the best in cult European cinema. Spaghetti Fest: Horror nights are introduced by Portland podcaster Derek M. Koch. You can find him at Mail Order Zombie, and 1951 Down Place.

Paul Naschy is best known for playing Waldemar Daninsky, the tortured werewolf in films likes FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR and CURSE OF THE DEVIL, but in HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, he plays Alaric de Marnac, a 15th-century sorcerer sentenced to death for practicing black rites, drinking human blood, and performing human sacrifices. His head is separated from body (and buried apart from it!). As Paul Naschy says later in the film, “In this madness, almost anything can happen.”

Alaric’s modern day descendant Hugo de Marnac (also played by Paul Naschy) and his friends return to the de Marnac estate looking for hidden treasure. But instead of finding valuables, they find Alaric waiting to rise from the dead and exact his vengeance on the living. No one gets in his way, and not everyone makes it to the end of the film (and it’s not who you expect!).

The Internet Movie Database calls Paul Naschy “the king of Spanish horror cinema,” and with good reason. Not only did Naschy play multiple roles in HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, he also wrote the screenplay and provided the lush winter locations for the production as the film was shot at Naschy’s family home.

Other stand-outs in the film include Helga Liné as Alaric de Marnac’s just-as-devlish-and-eager-for-vengeance mistress Mabille; Víctor Alcázar as Hugo’s friend Maurice, a painter whose warning visions shouldn’t have been ignored; and Emma Cohen as Elvira, Hugo’s lover who might have the key to their survival.

That sickle gets put to good use, and not just for beheadings. The gruesome special make-up effects play nightmarishly well against a haunted soap opera-like film score by Carmelo A. Bernaola.

Thanks for once again for choosing Stumptown Horror as your source for what's playing on Portland screens each week. Be sure to add us to your blog reader of choice and/or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+. May your popcorn be as salty as your opinions.

on video: 12 February 2013

The Tuesday is upon us and new films are released today for the home video market. Some interesting tidbits below, so please give the titles a chance -- its how genre gems are mined.

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) oddly is being released staggered from its 3D version. I suppose to trick fans into accidentally buying the first then having to re-buy again for the 3D version they didn't know was coming. Seems like a dick move to me. Then again, there are discerning home video costumers such as yourself whom read informative sites such as this to not fall for their corporate pit trap. As well, if you follow the site, you know that the STH underground theatre is fully 3D optimized for such releases so we'll definitely wait to rent this pic until the next disc drops.░

Rise of the Zombies (2013) is originally a SyFy channel zombie movie intended to cash in on AMC's success with its own zombie property. The movie makes its way to Blu-ray Disc this week and fits in the same mold as most movies released by The Asylum. If this sort of durdling is your thing, then thank me in the comments below for pointing you further in that direction.░

Mimesis (2013) is the movie on this list I am the most excited to see, have been actually since I first saw its trailer [link] months ago, but it never got off of the festival circuit. The premise being that horror fans have gotten so sick/twisted that movies are no longer enough to get their rocks off so real-life scenarios have to be created to put the genre fan into the stories themselves. Already this sounds like it hits it's notes better than that sophomoric outing about sac'ing coeds to appease some CG'ed, underground Titan.░

Our last four releases are from Redemption and are a collection of films from British director Pete Walker. A contemporary of Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, and other early 70's genre practitioners Walker's films were tended toward equal parts horror and sexploitation. This time period in the genre marked the movement from fanciful and gothic horror into horrors more rooted in the tangible world around us all. Just reading the synopsi for these films confirms that Walker's stories, outside of knowing their actual executution, are as develop as any that would be coming out a decade later. I'll copy-paste those descriptions posted on Amazon's pages next to the films below as reference.

The Comeback (1978): Seeking a little peace and quiet to write some new songs, a washed-up American singer (''The Love Boat'' theme crooner Jack Jones) moves into a secluded English house. But his mind isn't on a new romance when he's contacted by his ex-wife's ghost, whose clues about her murder lead Jones to a confrontation with the killer.░

Schizo (1976): A little girl watches helplessly as she is the sole witness to her mother's murder. Years later, that little girl has grown into the beautiful skating star Samantha Gray (Lynne Frederick). But after her wedding announcement is published in the local newspaper, a man who becomes more and more obsessed with her begins turning up everywhere she goes. Samantha's fear mounts as one by one her friends are murdered, and she becomes convinced that the stalker is no stranger!░

House of Whipcord (1974): A beautiful model is taken prisoner and held in a bizarre private prison where ''immoral women'' are subjected to brutality and degradation.░

Die Screaming, Marianne (1971): Marianne (Susan George, Straw Dogs), following the sudden death of her mother, stands to inherit the family fortune, along with several documents that could incriminate her corrupt judge of a father. Now, her sister and her father both want their hands on Marianne's inheritance and they'll stop at nothing, even murder, to get it!░

Thanks for stopping by once again. Be sure to add us to your blog reader of choice and/or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+. We look forward to talking show with you in the horror section at the video store.

showing: 2/8/13 through 2/14/13

Every Friday we post here on STH the newest horror films that will be opening in our beloved theatres this week. The write-up this time around is a bit fringe in nature, as all the movies opening are not generally seen as specific to the horror genre Rather, this group of films share a lot of overlay with our genre in the ven diagram sense which is cause enough for their inclusion on these pages. After all, the purpose of this site is to present horror-relevant material that might not be fully on your horror loving radar.

John Dies at the End (2013) will be playing all week at the Hollywood Theatre:

Currently 56% Fresh on RottenTomatoes.com

This, of all the features presented here this week, is probably closest to being a true horror flick. From director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep) we here at STH have eagerly been awaiting its arrival in town, especially after the Hollywood's teaser showing of Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) the week before last.

Side Effects (2013) opens this week in all first-run theatres in the greater Portland area:

Currently 85% Certified Fresh on RottenTomatoes.com

Director Steven Soderbergh last touched the genre with Contagion (2011). One of the great directors of today, it is always of interest here when his work flirts with the horror genre. Like you, all I have is the trailer to pique my interest currently and looking forward to seeing this picture to see if it maintains a horror relevancy to continue being talked about on these pages.

Concluding the releases for the week is a triple billing of Taxi Driver (1976), Blue Velvet (1986), and Fight Club (1999) being showing at Cinema 21 under the title "Notes from the Underground:"

Currently 98% Certified Fresh on RottenTomatoes.com

Martin Scorsese directs Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle, one of many caught in the madness fostered by living in down-and-out '70's New York City. Bickle is the accessible killer in training as opposed to the world of psycho killers we've grown accustomed to since who seem to be the extreme opposite of who we perceive ourselves as being. This isn't a man drove crazy by way of his upbringing, but rather a man who can't figure any way out of the world he's been born into.

Currently 92% Fresh on RottenTomatoes.com

David Lynch hit a grand slam with this outing and established himself as a creative force with a distinct way of viewing our world. Like the other films being shown at Cinema 21 this week, walking the line of sanity is the true binding holding these three films together. Watching Kyle MacLachlan's portrayal of a high school aged sleuth that peeks behind the curtain of small town America discovers a realm that moves fast and is being crushed under its own weight. The viewer is left to figure out what decree this experience permanently damages our impressionable youth.

Currently 81% Certified Fresh on RottenTomatoes.com

And finally, the David Fincher masterpiece. Definitely, the least horrific of the three films being discussed here, but just as well invested in the madness required by an individual to escape the world as has been presented. Fight Club is dangerous in a way that the other two above were not by making its psycho the uber-relateable, everyman of contemporary, pre-9/11 America. Taxi Driver showed us how a person trapped on the cusp of acceptable society loses touch with the more accepted national values, Blue Velvet warned that this same dark world exists everywhere in America, and Fight Club finishes in its call to action -- to tear down the charades and embrace the chaos of the underworld. It is the artificial value system we've been spoon fed that is sick, not our inborn desires. That bad things happen when those two worlds butt heads.

That's all for my rant this week. Thanks for stopping in for our weekly coverage of new showings. Be sure to add us to your blog reader of choice and/or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. I look forward to sharing a theatre with all of you soon.

on video: 29 January 2013

Welcome to another Tuesday look at the films being released this day for the home video market. We look to compare the newest features side-by-side as we have in video stores since our youth This serves multiple purposes such as seeing if we can find a gem that didn't receive the theatrical attention it should have, staying on top of special limited releases, or just catching those pics that for one reason or another we couldn't make it to the cinema to experience This week sees the release of four new horror and horror-related films onto Blu-ray discs, the greatest format yet known to man -- short of having access to your own 35mm projector.

Hotel Transylvania (2012) was the third horror-related, computer-generated family film to play in theatres last year and was the only one of the three that I didn't get a chance to see. This is the first feature film directing gig for Cartoon Network regular Genndy Tartakovsky, whom is already signed on to make this film's sequel. With so many iconic figures (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, The Mummy, and the Invisible Man) I'm surprised that this wasn't a Universal Pictures effort to re-brand their classic monsters for a new generation. This film is being released today both in standard Blu-ray, which you can always find by clicking the image to the left, and in 3D BRD which can be found by clicking this [link].░

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) sees the return of Paranormal Activity 3 co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. I find the fact that they've helmed these two projects is interesting, given their other work, quite interesting. Joo-Shu made a documentary called Catfish (2010) that was turned into an MTV show by the same name concerning misrepresentation of self to prospective mates primarily through the internet. Somehow the use of low-budget, hand-held digital cameras postioned Joo-Shu perfectly to take over this series. One can only hope that their gentle framing of complex human interaction and tight editting translate to the genre well for I now have reason to watch these later entries in the series.░

The Awakening (2012) seems to be a pretty standard British ghost story. My favorite bit of ephemera around this picture is the condensed version of Roger Ebert's review of this film as it appears over on Rotten Tomatoes [link] which simply reads, "Whatever." Perhaps this tale is a bit too standardized at this point in time, which is a shame since I like the use of characters out to debunk magic and superstition in films. The non-believer provides a rational gateway into an irrational world. Look back to Sleepy Hallow (1999) or The Legend of Hell House (1973) as case in point. Its hard for me to believe that such an approach has already been milled of all its interesting approaches and will most likely being seeing The Awakening to understand its own particular approach.░

Citadel (2012) is a film I have been waiting quite a while to see. It is the tale of a man who's wife is attacked by hooligan and the psychological trauma he must now deal with. She passes after giving birth and, from what I've read, he ends up at a point where he's not ever sure if the original hooligans were even human. Just reading the synopsis calls to mind other great movies like Jacob's Ladder (1990) or Don't Look Now (1973) as opposed to hooligan fare such as Eden Lake (2008). First chance I get I'll be taking this one down into the STH dungeon theatre for a viewing.░

Its not very often that all of our BRD releases for the week are films that were just in theatres, but that's how it went this time around. Thanks for stopping in for our weekly coverage of new video releases. Be sure to add us to your blog reader of choice and/or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. We look forward to running into you at the video store.

list: 3D Horror on Blu-Ray Disc

Welcome search engine web travelers to Stumptown Horror's ever updating list of 3D horror and horror-related movies that have been released on Blu-ray disc in the US. The list is chronological, newest first, and all images are linked to their listing on Amazon.com. Enjoy the reference guide.