The last two comments on this blog have been kind of negative. I really would prefer to keep things on a happier note. And so I am beginning a project: The William Malone Lovefest.
William Malone is a writer and director. His big moment to shine was the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill. He has been directing (formally) since 1981’s Scared to Death.
My introduction to his work was no doubt his turn at the Director’s Chair on the television show Freddy’s Nightmares. Freddy’s Nightmares was a near religious experience that was worth staying up all hours of the night to watch. So what if I was in sixth grade and the show didn’t come on until 2:30am? I was a die-hard fan of the show, and can say with certainty that his work was enjoyed in the middle of the night on my brother’s 12″ black and white television set.
House on Haunted Hill was an oddity of the 1990s. The movie was not a slasher, and not a comedy with some blood thrown in. House on Haunted Hill was a roller coaster ride custom built for the big screen and for the large, loud speaker system playing along with it. Nearly every aspect of the film was designed to scare the audience. The house creaked and moaned constantly. The set design featured the most deviant basement everyone never wanted to go into. The ghosts lived in their own world of terror that bled into ours. Finally, the movie did not shy away from gore. I am by no means a gorehound. Yet when neither shied away from or added gratuitously, a good deal of gore can turn an unsettling moment into a terrifying one. (Also see Clive Barker’s Candyman for the excellent use of well-timed splatter.)
These are the reasons why House on Haunted Hill still remains the single most frightening movie experience I have had in a movie theater. The 90s were a sinkhole of comedic horror films and unwatchable slashers. Malone and Barker stood out as the only two directors to even frighten me in that entire decade.
So what brings me to this point is Malone’s newest film, Parasomnia. I fell in love with the artwork on the site. This is classic, beautiful, and a style all-but given up on by the current crop of horror movies. This appreciation for both Malone’s prior work and the art for Parasomnia ultimately inspired a quest of sorts. The quest has led to a poster for the film, signed by the writer / director himself.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will load up my laptop, put one of Malone’s movies in the DVD player, and review the movies. House On Haunted Hill and FearDotCom enough times that those films will probably be enjoyed with the Director’s Commentary enabled. As much as I wish a proper release was available for Freddy’s Nightmares, or that finances allowed the purchase of Tales from the Crypt Season 6 on a whim, this project will be committed to Malone’s longer works:
- Scared to Death
- Creature
- House on Haunted Hill (1999)
- FearDotCom
- Masters of Horror – The Fair Haired Child
- Parasomnia
These movies will be reviewed in roughly chronological order. There is a good chance that Creature will still be the first movie tackled. Scared to Death is currently on its way from Amazon, and will be reviewed no later than second.
Parasomnia will be released on DVD in the United States on July 31, 2010 as of this writing. It has already found European distribution, and I will have no problem paying for two different pressings of this movie.