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Il demonio [The Demon] (Brunello Rondi, 1963)
Oct
6
exorcism
While several men hold her down, Purif (Daliah Lavi) sticks out her tongue to the crucifix held up to her. DP: Carlo Bellero.
[A favourite] exorcism film*
“Blood of Christ. Demon. A curse upon this man. A curse that he will never forget me. Blood of my body. Until the grave. A curse that he will never forget me.”
– Purificazione
When a rejected young woman puts a curse on her heart's desire, the locals see nothing less than witchcraft. It is decided that Purif must be possessed, and exorcised.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Soy leyenda (Mario Gómez Martín, 1967)
Oct
3
zombies
Robert Neville (Moisés Menéndez) looking out over an empty rooftop. DP: Jesús Ocaña.
(A favourite) zombie movie*
Now, settima. Of all the zombie movies in the world you had to pick a vampire story? Why yes. Yes I did.
“Again he shook his head. The world's gone mad, he thought. The dead walk about and I think nothing of it. The return of corpses has become trivial in import. How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it enough!”
– Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (1954)
Just like my actual favourite zombie film, that one from 1968, Soy leyenda is based on Richard Matheson's post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend (1954). The story describes a world where the living have become undead vampire-like creatures. A lone man tries to rationalise that new world through reason and science, and legend.
In the man's mind, the undead become the familiar, the vampire. In our mind, watching this, we believe to see the foreshadowing of the popculture zombie. The abandoned well-known landscapes, the ceaseless repetition of what the old life had instilled, the normalcy of the grotesque. Oh how familiar they have become.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Vampyros Lesbos (Jesús Franco, 1971)
Oct
2
Dracula

A favourite Dracula movie. As my very most favourite Dracula movie has been claimed, I go with its nearest competitor that somehow also features my favourite Jesus*
Linda (Ewa Strömberg) has been summoned by Countess Nadine Carody (Soledad Miranda) to handle a real estate inheritance from a certain Count Dracula. Spellbound, she finds herself on a small island, and helpless in the Countess' embrace.
“You are one of us now. The Queen of the Night will bear you up on her black wings.”
– Countess Nadine Carody
A film that can easily hold up against Jean Rollins' dreamy vampire erotica, this love letter to Soledad Miranda's brooding torment is a delight to watch and a pinnacle in Jess Franco's filmography. Its influence on neo-Giallo Amer and Dario Argento – particularly his Suspiria – is evident, and that in itself should give you enough clues of how much of an essential chapter Vampyros Lesbos is in adult European filmmaking.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Medium (Jacek Koprowicz, 1985)
Oct
2
A man in an impeccable, light-colored suit. His nose is bleeding. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Wit Dąbal.
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Gothic (Ken Russel, 1986)
Oct
1
Frankenstein
Percy Shelley (Gabriel Byrne), Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and Dr Polidori (a deliriously delicious Timothy Spall). DP: Mike Southon.
A [favourite] Frankenstein film.
One wet, ungenial summer in 1816, lovers Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, visited a dear friend at Villa Diodati. That friend was Lord Byron, exiled and residing in the Swiss villa with his physician Dr John Polidori
“There are no ghosts in daylight. You'll get used to our nights at Diodati. A little indulgence to heighten our existence on this miserable Earth. Nights of the mind, the imagination. Nothing more.”
– Lord Byron
Forced indoors, over the cause of three days they turned to the occult, to laudanum, to stories from the Fantasmagoriana, and the horrors of their own. That summer, Frankenstein saw the light of day.
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ノーライフキング [No raifu kingu / No Life King] (Jun Ichikawa, 1989)
Sep
23
Nintendo – 1889
Makoto and his friends play with their video game console (via). DP: Osame Maruike.
Home video games: Nintendo was founded on this day in 1889.
It's the late 80s and Japan is in the midst of an economic and technological bubble. Like so many kids, Makoto (litt. “truth”) and his friends are obsessed with their game console. In anticipation of the release of the fourth instalment of their favourite game, rumours start doing the rounds. Some cartridges are cursed with the “No Life King”, meaning players who cannot complete the game, will die. The curse appears to spill over into the boys' real world. What if when you die in the game, you really really die…?
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Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (David Hinton, 1989)
Sep
14
Patrick Swayze – 2009
Dancing, or Patrick Swayze who passed away on this date in 2009.
“I caused dreams which caused death … this is my crime.”
– Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Nilsen was a lonesome, closeted gay man in Thatcher's London, whose desperation lead to multiple horrific killings. He'd ritually bathe and dress the bodies, and held on to them for company. Radical dance troupe DV8's interpretation of Nilsen's transgressions explores the horror of the act in suffocating beauty.
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海底から来た女 [Kaitei kara kita onna / Woman from the Sea] (Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1959)
Sep
4
The mysterious sea woman (Hisako Tsukuba, who under the name Chako van Leeuwen went on to produce the Jawsploitation franchise Piranha) and a bewitched Toshio (Tamio Kawachi). Note how the boat's sail resembles a shark's dorsal fin. DP: Yoshihiro Yamazaki.
A strange woman appears in the life of a young man. He falls in love with her, but the fishermen know. She's the wife of a shark killed years ago. And she's out for revenge.
Doing Hooptober parallel to Bales. Expect some contamination of the September/October posts.
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The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)
Aug
20
A rather disgusting looking zombie carrying a young brunette in a flower dress. DP: Arthur Grant.
“I, I find all kinds of witchcraft slightly nauseating and this I find absolutely disgusting.”
– Sir James Forbes
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Aug
18
1973
“Travel in the country, long-range plans, and upsetting persons around you, could make this a disturbing and unpredictable day. The events in the world are not doing much either to cheer one up.”
your August 18 horoscope