Videos
Eric San Juan
October 26, 2010
Many of the films we dive into during this week o’ horrors will be silent films. Not this one. House on Haunted Hill is an influential B-movie from 1959 starring the legendary Vincent Price. So influential, in fact, it was one of the inspirations for Alfred Hitchcock’s slasher classic, Psycho. House on Haunted Hill tells the kind of story you’ve probably heard before. Five people are invited to stay in a house overnight. Guests who stay until morning win a boatload of cash. But staying is dangerous, and terrible, terrible things begin to happen. The film is in the public domain, and that means you can watch it right now: A few things to note: * The film was re-made in 1999, starring Geoffrey Rush,…
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Eric San Juan
October 25, 2010
This creepy, dreamlike film from 1920 is based on the old Jewish folklore of the Golem, an artificial creature made of inanimate matter and brought to life. (Shades of Frankenstein’s monster there.) In this moody German production, the creature comes to life and, naturally, wreaks havoc. This variation on the tale — the full title is The Golem: How He Came into the World — is one of the great examples of German impressionist cinema. Both the story as well as the approach to visual storytelling in this film proved highly influential, guiding the work of legends like Alfred Hitchcock. Since the film is in the public domain, you can check it out yourself right here: * The film is available to download (legally) right…
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Eric San Juan
October 24, 2010
Halloween is coming, so this week I thought I’d share some great bits of old film that fit into the Halloween theme. These are amazing pieces of our cultural history, many sadly forgotten. We’ll start with a 1910’s Frankenstein. Produced by Edison studios (though Edison himself had nothing to do with it), this adaptation of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein was long thought lost. For decades, only a few stills existed. In the 1970s, it was discovered in a private collection, where it had sat since the 1950s, the owner unaware of just how rare the film was. Though it had been released to DVD earlier, the print was only fully restored and released back in March 2010. The film is in the public domain. Here it…
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Eric San Juan
February 1, 2009
I’ve lately had a weakness for female British pop singers. Amy Winehouse is a deliriously talented train wreck of a woman with one of the best albums of the last five years (Back to Black). Lily Allen is a charmingly fun lad dressed as a quirky young faux-cockney gal, and her songs are darling. (Sorry, but if you don’t like “LDN” or “Alfie,” you’re dead inside.) Beth Orton (who is more folk than pop) is a songwriter who may one day eclipse the great Carol King. But Kate Nash. I don’t know where this 20something came from, but she needs to not go away, ever. She needs to keep making her wonderfully awesome music. No, it’s not because she’s a freckled redhead (though that’s ALWAYS…
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