The Telescope

Issue Date: 10/26/09

Horror Show

Four lesser-known but awesome horror flicks

By Alejandra Jackson

Media Credit: Randy Bishop - MCT Campus

Halloween and horror movies go together like candy corn and cavities, but it's hard to know what to watch. There are always the classics: "Friday the 13th," "Halloween," or "Nightmare on Elm Street" - but who hasn't seen those a million times? Instead, check out some lesser known horror flicks that just might become the new classics.

Dead Snow

"Dead Snow" follows in the wake of the many "so-bad-it's completely-amazing" horror films that have come before it with a premise straight out of fan boy dreams (or nightmares).

The film follows seven Norwegian medical students as they travel up to their friend's mountain cabin over Easter break. One night they are approached by a mysterious traveler who informs them of the mountain's dark past.

During World War II, Nazi soldiers were stationed in the local village were they looted and terrorized the inhabitants.
Eventually the villagers took up arms and drove the Nazi's out and up into the mountains, were they presumably froze to death.

But as any zombie fan knows, what's dead doesn't usually stay dead. From there on all, logic, plot and good sense goes completely out the window and what follows is an hour of senseless blood, gore and one of the most creative use of entrails of any movie in recent memory.

This movie is not for the squeamish or for those who take their zombie flicks too seriously but for the horror movie buff who collects low-budget, B-movies like fine wines; this will certainly be like the 1982 vintage to their collection.

Eden Lake

The younger generation is scary and not just because they will probably be the ones defragging our computers or changing our diapers in 50 years. If the news is to be believed, they are violent little terrors who are bringing guns to school and engaging in schoolyard brawls just so they can film it and put it on YouTube and now a film has come along that taps into that fear.

When kindergarten teacher Jenny and her boyfriend Steve decide to go away for a romantic camping trip next to an idyllic lake, they are hell-bent on enjoying themselves, even in the face of a gang of loud and rowdy teens they decide to stay rather than be bullied away.
Unfortunately for the two lovers and especially for Steve, who is planning on proposing - this group of kids isn't about to leave these two.

After the accidental death of one of the teen's dog at Steve's hand the nightmare really begins. Steve and Jenny are forced to battle for their lives against an enemy they never saw coming.

"Eden Lake" provides some legitimate thrills and doesn't bank on blood and special effects to get its message across which is a refreshing change of pace.

The movie also refuses to end on a positive note, the ending of this movie will stick with audiences for days after and leave them looking over their shoulder the next time they pass by a group of teenagers late at night.

Fido

There is something inherently wonderful (and kind of wrong) with a movie the opens with asking a group of schoolchildren, "So, how many of you have had to kill a zombie?" Such is the world of "Fido," a movie that asks audiences to believe in an alternate 1950s era universe were irradiated gas clouds passed over Earth's atmosphere and brought the dead back from their graves with a hunger for flesh.

What follows is a zombie war (Max Brooks would be so proud) that only ends once a scientist for Zomcom creates a collar that transforms the ravenous killers into docile servants.

Enter the Robinson family, which has just gotten their first zombie to avoid being labeled as freaks by the rest of the neighborhood which has long ago jumped on the "zombies-as-pets" bandwagon.

"Fido" isn't the average zombie movie; this movie is smart, like really smart, something you don't often see in the recent string of "torture porn" films society had become so enamored with.

"Fido" has a lot of fun smashing '50s stereotypes to a pulp and making jaws drop with an implied affair between Mrs. Robinson and her zombie.

Let the Right One In
In the all-encompassing media firestorm that was last fall's release of "Twilight," it might have been easy to miss another vampire romance, one done with a lot more subtlety and terror than its teen counterpart.
Like "Twilight," "Let the Right One In" centers around a hyper-intelligent, super agile teen vampire with moral qualms against drinking blood. Unlike "Twilight," Eli is 12, a girl, and if she steps out into the sun, she really will burst into flames.

The object of her affection is Oskar, a lonely teen with an apparent fascination with knives and unsolved murders. A match made in heaven.

What this movie lacks in action it makes up in suspense and quiet intensity. It always feels like it's just about to boil over but it never does.

Even the most gruesome deaths are done with an apparent sense of nonchalance. Take middle-aged housefrau Ginia, who gets attacked by Eli but manages to escape.

One morning she wakes up in the hospital after realizing that she has become a vampire. Rather than live her life as a monster she asks the doctor to open the blinds and then simply bursts into flames.

No dramatic music, no build up, just the image of a woman flailing and screaming as she is engulfed.

For two hours "Let the Right One In" creates this tension filled romance against the stark white night of a Swedish winter. The ending could be seen as happy but really it's just kind of open ended.

The movie never really provides any resolution to how this human-vampire love story is supposed to play out so die-hard romantics need not apply.