They certainly knew how to title films in the old days, didn't they? This one is (if memory serves me right) the oldest film we've looked at here at Film Gutter, and might well be one of the oldest we ever get the chance to look at, especially if you roll with the argument that 1963's Blood Feast was fundamentally the first gore film. This movie certainly has built up a cult following, and stars none other than Lon Chaney – the Wolfman himself, among many other roles – so let's take a look what it's all about.
 
The story follows the Merrye family, a strange band of children look after by their chauffer, Bruno. We begin with an intro telling us all about 'Merrye Syndrome', the rare psychological disorder the family suffers with, before we see the two girls of the family kill a mailman delivering them a letter.  That letter says that some distant relatives are on their way to visit the family, along with a lawyer, to see them again and check the kind of lives they are living. Bruno strongly encourages them to behave and be normal whilst all this is going on, but of course things do rather go horribly wrong when a normal element of society comes calling...
 
It's funny to think this movie is fifty years old, because there were many elements here than I had seen in much newer films. The concept of creepy or killer kids practically pervades modern horror, but was relatively new at this point in time, and the younger members of the family are certainly memorably portrayed (including a young Sid Haig in the role of Ralph). Chaney is also pretty likeable as the put-upon Bruno, trying to bridge the gap between the troubled kids and the real world that unexpectedly comes to their door.

But this was the 60s, and while there are moments that are pretty creepy and points that are somewhat disturbing, it's to no small extent played for laughs. At heart Spider Baby is a good horror comedy, playing with many of tropes and doing so with panache as well as love and respect from them – a lot of horror comedies, for me, miss the mark because their parody of the genre is too unpleasant and comes from a place of not understanding what it is that makes the genre great. Jack Hill's offering nods to plenty – including a couple of sneaky Wolfman references in honour of Lon Chaney – whilst having its own identity and freshness.

Overall, it's an enjoyable little film, although I was left with an overall feeling that it probably could have been creepier than it ultimately was. The start and the end deliver a good bit in terms of unsettling moments, but the middle focuses more on the comedy – which isn't bad, but it does feel slightly unsettled as a movie. If the horror and comedy were woven together a bit better throughout, I think I would have liked this even more. It has energy and it has some great performances but it's a little too disjointed to really hit the heights.
 
RATING: 7/10. Spider Baby is certainly quirky, and I can understand why it has built up a cult following over time – it's got a lot of good qualities to it, and it's hard not to like to at least some extent. Lots have liked it more than me from the looks of it, but it feels as though an unnerving opening and closing are bookending a central section very much focused on comedy. All those segments work, in their own way, but it leaves the movie feeling a bit odd in terms of pacing. So it's a very decent 7/10 for this cult favourite.

I've long been a fan of short films, and have had the pleasure of watching and reviewing some absolute beauties in my time reviewing at Film Gutter. Like short fiction, there's often a great deal you can say within a very limited scope of time and the truncated form can often pack quite an emotional punch. Which leads us to today's short entry, The Stylist.

Often with short films there are many unfamiliar names floating around, but director Jill Gevargizian is a talent who seems to be gathering a head of steam, and the lead role in this one was played by Najarra Townsend, who showed she was quite an actress with her role in Eric England's alternative zombie movie Contracted. Her presence as an actress also helped to carry this movie, and I expect to see more of her in the future.

In The Stylist, Townsend plays Claire, who is waiting for her last client of the day at the hair salon, Mandy. When Mandy finally arrives, she's a gregarious, go-getting, high-flying executive type who needs to look perfect for an office function – and when I say gregarious I mean she really talks. Claire sets to work, even offering Mandy a glass of wine as she unwinds. But of course the wine isn't just wine, and as the haircut goes on Mandy finds herself drifting into unconsciousness...

Unfortunately Mandy doesn't stay out cold long, and wakens to find that Claire has already scalped her, leaving her devoid of hair and skin on her head. That's an effectively shot scene, although how Claire silences Mandy in the end is a little hard to believe for me. In our final scene we see Claire getting home to her house, going down to the basement and trying on the 'wig' (IE skin and scalp) that she took from Mandy and spitting out a few of her wealthy, over-privileged lines of dialogue.

It's a short film that I want to like more than I do – Townsend has a great presence in the lead, although her only counterpart actress in Jennifer Plas is nowhere near as effective in her role for me. It's also slightly hard to discern what the aim or message is meant to be – maybe there's something about escaping into someone else's life for a while, but it's a fairly muddled message if that's the intention. It's shot well, the colour scheme throughout is great and there's a handful of really potent visuals, it just seems to somewhat lack the substance to go with the style.

RATING: 7/10. If a movie ever lived up to its name, it's this one – the director to this one is clearly a stylist and has a great handle on that side of this short film. However an unclear meaning for what we see, and a few other minor quibbles, mean I can't give this one top marks, despite all the promise that is on display. I'd certainly be interested to see what Gevargizian could do in the long form should she ever turn her hand to it, and I'm happy to give this one a 7/10.

 
Short film is a popular medium in horror, arguably more so than most other genres. There's a lot you can do in the space of 10 or 20 minutes in horror when it's done well. Extreme horror is no exception – and we've looked at great entries such as the impactful Cutting Moments, the nauseating Aftermath and the bizarre short films of Shaye St John. Today's offering comes from South Korea, which is certainly a part of the world to have produced many great films before. Human Form runs at only 12 minutes but for me creates a vivid dystopian world and is very effective in its short film format. Maybe there could be more to it, but in this case I'm not persuaded that a longer examination would help this one along – the sense of feeling slightly lost in a strange future world is captured excellently here.
 
Our lead here is In-Hyung, a South Korean schoolgirl who we see visiting a surgery clinic of some sort, where she's told she doesn't have the money to afford what she is looking for. It's only when we see the face of the person she is talking to that we realise something is pretty wrong – because the face isn't truly human, but a horribly plastic(?) facsimile of what a human face should be.
 
Now I'm not going to lie, this movie really got to me. It's not as extreme as many others I've had the good fortune of watching over the years, but that one visual of all the mask-like faces of everyone around In-Hyung really got to me. Only on rare occasions have I ever properly shouted at my TV while watching something – sure, I screamed at Thanatomorphose to 'please just end' and Vace de Noces saw me shouting at my lead to stop eating his stored faeces out of jars. Those are pretty rare moments, but with Human Form I couldn't help but vocalise just how bloody creepy and weird that image was. I have a bad feeling this is one that's going to rather haunt my dreams in the weeks and months to come.
 
Still, everybody around In-Hyung had the same look to them – her whole family, people on the street, her friends – and that's why she wanted the procedure so desperately. She'd love to have it done before her yearbook photo, but her family flat out refuses. On her way home one day, she sees an advert on the wall which (I think) offered an experimental form of the procedure. There's kind of a dream moment where she has the 'perfect' terrifying face which is rudely interrupted by a rapid sense of something going wrong...
 
In a wonderful final shot, In-Hyung comes to the dinner table in a hoodie, sits herself down and her family all look intently at her. We never see just what has become of her face – whether it is newly-made, or as it was, or something else entirely – which is a great moment to close on and one that perfectly bottled the sense of displacement and unease that runs throughout. It's a gloriously simple concept that is excellently delivered, with solid performances and a great sense of visual panache. It feels a bit of a shame to me that the director hasn't yet made the transition to feature films, with only one other short to their credit. If we could have had more in this vein I'd have very happily watched it indeed.

RATING: 9/10. A really powerful short, with striking visuals and a strong core theme and message all the way. It's a great glimpse into a strange future world in which looking the same as everyone else is seen as superior to looking different, which you could take as a metaphor for a number of things. Whatever you take out of it, it's very well made and certainly made an immediate impression on me – and I expect will leave something of a lasting impression to boot. A fantastic 9/10.

Ah, the creepy clown. An old staple of horror cinema, and I would generally tend to say not one of my favourites – not in the sense that it creeps me out (like the very idea of the little girl/little boy ghost does) but in that it's not something that gets me excited or interested in a movie. I don't even mean that to pick on the trope, but I think a lot of these kind of archetypes get rather used to death and lose their freshness as time goes on.  And so it was I came to Terrifier with relatively low expectations, although I had to admit that the screen shots I had seen of this particular clown were pretty good and pretty unnerving. I was also aware that this was the start of a cinematic journey for said clown, so this felt like the place to begin.

So, for the sake of clarity, before I go on, this is the 2011 short film of Terrifier – there is an extended, full-length version from 2017 which I will come to in very short order, as well as the All Hallows' Eve movies.

Terrifier begins with our unnamed female lead character driving at night on a deserted road before being forced to stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Again, it's pretty typical horror fare, although nothing offputting as a viewer. In fact the scene at the gas station works really well, with our first glimpse of the clown as a sort of weird, mischievous elf spreading his own faeces on the wall to the chagrin of the attendant. However it's not long before he takes an interest in our intrepid traveller, but not before calmly killing and decapitating the gas station attendant.

What follows from there is an old-school chase as our female protagonist tries to escape her freakish pursuer. While at first I thought this was just going to be a psychotic human in a clown outfit, it's obvious there's at least something of a supernatural element as the clown continues to pursue her through all sort of impossible odds and obstacles. There are a few cliches as you go along, but I feel like it has enough energy and verve to get away with them and still be perfectly watchable.

There's certainly a sense of pace throughout, as well as some good old jumps to go along with it. The visuals are effective, and the clown – Art, who would reappear in more than one feature film in due course – is a little different to plenty that have come before. Mike Giannelli does a great job in that role in particular, treading a fine line between the comedic elements as well being proper scary on a number of occasions. The black and white colour scheme also gives a sort of harlequin effect which is a little bit away from the typical circus clown.

RATING: 7.5/10. Overall I can see why this was an effective launching point for what came afterwards – it's neat enough as a complete project at twenty minutes, but serves as a solid introduction to an interesting horror villain and does leave you wondering more on the backstory and what else there might be to it. There's certainly nothing too revelatory or genre-redefining – in fact there are a number of scenes that you will have seen a resemblance to elsewhere – but it's delivered with enough of a sense of fun and with enough genuinely creepy moment to make it worth seeking out. They're not clowning around with this one, so it's 7.5 out of 10 from me.