Movie Corner: Barbarian

By HOWARD MCQUITTER II

20th Century Studios 2022
Horror

Barbarian is a very well-rounded horror film that, with its unpredictability and contradictions, is genuinely scary. For what seems like a normal house with normal trappings, below it is a house of horrors. Prepare to squirm in your seat when you see Barbarian.

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit (1980s) for a major convention. Finding hotel space full to capacity, discovers her Airbnb service has been double-booked at a “nice” house in a rundown neighborhood. It is night and pouring rain. Such a perfect setting for scares, a perfect place to be in the wrong places. She rings the doorbell to find another occupant is there. His name is is Keith (Bill Skarsgård, who played the murderous Pennywise the Clown) and he is as puzzled as she. He invites her to get out of the rain as everything seems to be “normal” inside the house. Understandably, Tess is wary of Keith; and Keith nervously tries to make her comfortable. He’s a perfect gentleman, offering her to sleep in his room while he sleeps on the couch. In the middle of the night, she awakes to find her door open.… Read the rest “Movie Corner: Barbarian”

Movie Corner: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

By HOWARD MCQUITTER II

Warner Bros. 1962
Black &White Drama/Horror Thriller

The drama/ thriller feels so much like Alfred Hitchcock, but it is directed by Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen [1967], Emperor of the North [1973]). To this day, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has aged quite well.

The story of two sisters starts as children in vaudeville in the early 1900s before becoming movie stars in Hollywood’s pre-Golden and Golden Ages. As for Jane (Bette Davis), her movies are often riddled with being difficult to work with besides her heavy drinking which will carry into her years long after acting. Blanche (Joan Crawford) on the other hand, is much easier to get along with in general and is a better actress than her cranky sister.

The camera moves fast forward several decades later where the two two sisters who never married live in Rudolph Valentino’s old mansion which looks more inviting from its façade than it does inside. By this time, Blanche is wheelchair bound and she depends partly on a very attentive maid Elvira Stitt (Maidie Norman), the only major African American in the movie, who makes two or three visits a week. But the majority of the time, Blanche is subjected to verbal and physical abuse by Jane.… Read the rest “Movie Corner: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”