Our friends at the Horror Film Club are back after a short hiatus and boy are we excited to see the chills they have in store for us. The HFC has been screening monthly, free double features at the hippest new spot in Somerville: Cuisine en Locale (stay tuned for the Hassle’s own Scorched Ear show there on 6/13). The best part (as if watching two sick, twisted films with your friends isn’t the best already) is that some awesome dinner is ALWAYS served.
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. This month, the HFC is focusing on our favorite pointy hat wearing denizens of the dark – witches – and the movies they chose couldn’t be better.
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First up, we have Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (1977):
Dario Argento is Italy’s slasher king – beautiful young co-eds getting cut up with gloriously gratuitous red fountains of blood EVERYWHERE. But SUSPIRIA is more than just a simple slasher – it’s the creepiest world I’ve ever been forced into by a movie. I love it. It’s one, if not the best, of my favorite films. In fact, right now I’m thinking about how I can convince my housemates to watch it with me every night. I could probably write a thesis on this film, but instead I’ll just leave you with a still and few words:
With its almost German Expressionist architecture and peculiar red, green, and blue lighting, the ballet school our young heroine Suzy (Jessica Harper) finds herself at is absolutely alien and entrancing. This is a school secretly run by a coven of witches and, well, the plot is essentially that witches like to inflict pain and misery for the fun of it (especially when you start figuring out what they’re up to). The mood is made all the more sinister with a masterful score composed by the legendary prog rock group GOBLIN. This is a movie you can’t look away from, as if under the spell of the previously mentioned witches themselves, and I guarantee it will be haunting your dreams for days to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8zbV_fFkYs&feature=kp
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The second of this double feature sinistro is Rob Zombie’s THE LORDS OF SALEM (2012):
If you take ride 30 minutes north of Boston, you’ll find yourself in Salem – ye old towne of witchcraft. The venerable heavy metal demon Rob Zombie (director, writer, and producer) brings us yet another scare fest set in this rundown bastion of New England lore. Coming from the fame producing HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003) and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS (2005), Zombie is known for his sadistic characters and a sense of circus fun pervading everything he touches. This is strange – metal is rough around the edges and certainly these movies have that element, but there’s something so amusing about the worlds that Zombie creates. He is a master crafter of the likeable psychopath.
And it’s good to see that he’s back with THE LORDS OF SALEM, a film about alternative lifestyles and how all the women in Salem are cursed to be witches. Literally, all of them. But what really happens in this movie? Our protagonist is a young woman (played by director’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie) who, in stark contrast to the innocent Suzy in SUSPIRIA, is a recovering drug addict and radio DJ. She stumbles across a record that brings chaos as witch town prepares to welcome Baby Antichrist to town.
Expect laughs, over-the-top face paint, and gruesome violence for this one. Okay, maybe, mostly laughs.
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SUSPIRIA (1977) DIR. DARIO ARGENTO // THE LORDS OF SALEM (2012) DIR. ROB ZOMBIE
6/6 – 6PM Dinner, 8PM Film – FREE
Cuisine en Locale
156 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143
