Robert Forto

London

31 Nights of Horror. Night 20: The Shining

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Jack Nicholson in the famous “Here’s Johnny” scene
Jack Nicholson in the famous “Here’s Johnny” scene (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Shining (1980) is one of my favorite movies. I have watched it so many times that I can practically cite it line-by-line. It is a great story, even though is does not stay on pace with Stephen King’s story all that much.

Jack Nicholson is brilliant. He nailed the role of “Jack” and set a standard for every other creepy stalker guy in film today. Did you know that he ad-libbed the now famous, Here’s Johnny!, line and it wasn’t in the script?

Danny (Danny Lloyd) is great as well. Did you know that he was told during filming that the movie was a drama so that he wouldn’t get scared.

Also did you know that the outside shots of the hotel are actually the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon? Contrary to popular belief the hotel Estes Park, Colorado, The Overlook Hotel, was not the hotel in the film. It was used for the made-for-tv version of the movie.

Also did you know that almost all of the movie was filmed on sound-stages in London.

What is your favorite scary movie?

 

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31 Nights of Horror. Night 9. Dracula

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”]Cover of "Bram Stoker's Dracula [Blu-ray]...

In Francis Ford Coppola’s version of the classic tale of a blood lusting vampire, Dracula (1992), he takes a unique spin on the franchise that has been scaring us at the theater since the early 1920s with Nosferatu.

In Dracula, Coppola tries his best to make a masterpiece that closely follow’s Bram Stoker’s original story about a man gone mad when his beloved fiancee comits suicide while he is off to war. The story takes the viewer on a journey through time in which Dracula seeks out his maiden in a very gory and sometimes very naked wandering through Victoria-era London.

While this version of Dracula is a bit more of romantic story than most, it is done masterfully. Coppola used very little special effects in the film and relied heavily on camera angles and old-school camera trickery.

This is a must have for anyone that loves, not only horror but film in general.

What is your favorite scary movie?

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Scary Movie Bracket: Nosferatu vs. Dracula

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Here at the Fort we love sports, March Madness and scary movies. Play along with us and find out what is the scariest movie of all time, voted on by you, my rabid readers!

See who’s winning and the “official rules”

Scary Movie Bracket Round 2: Nosferatu vs. Dracula

vs.  

 

 

 

Nosferatu

Wisbourg, Germany based estate agent Knock dispatches his associate, Hutter, to Count Orlok’s castle in Transylvania as the Count wants to purchase a isolated house in Wisbourg. They plan on selling him the one across the way from Hutter’s own home. Hutter leaves his innocent wife, Ellen, with some friends while he is away. Hutter’s trek is an unusual one, with many locals not wanting to take him near the castle where strange events have been occurring. Once at the castle, Hutter does manage to sell the Count the house, but he also notices and feels unusual occurrences, primarily feeling like there is a dark shadow hanging over him, even in the daytime when the Count is unusually asleep. Hutter eventually sees the Count’s sleeping chamber in a crypt, and based on a book he has recently read, believes the Count is really a vampire or Nosferatu. While Hutter is trapped in the castle…

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Dracula

After a harrowing ride through the Carpathian mountains in eastern Europe, Renfield enters castle Dracula to finalize the transferral of Carfax Abbey in London to Count Dracula, who is in actuality a vampire. Renfield is drugged by the eerily hypnotic count, and turned into one of his thralls, protecting him during his sea voyage to London. After sucking the blood and turning the young Lucy Weston into a vampire, Dracula turns his attention to her friend Mina Seward, daughter of Dr. Seward who then calls in a specialist, Dr. Van Helsing, to diagnose the sudden deterioration of Mina’s health. Van Helsing, realizing that Dracula is indeed a vampire, tries to prepare Mina’s fiance, John Harker, and Dr. Seward for what is to come and the measures that will have to be taken to prevent Mina from becoming one of the undead.

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Scary Movie Bracket: From Hell vs. Psycho

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Here at the Fort we love sports, March Madness and scary movies. Play along with us and find out what is the scariest movie of all time, voted on by you, my rabid readers!

See who’s winning and the “official rules”

Scary Movie Bracket Round 2: From Hell vs. Psycho

vs. 

 

 

 

From Hell

It is 1888 in London, and the unfortunate poor lead horrifying lives in the city’s deadliest slum, Whitechapel. Harassed by gangs and forced to walk the streets for a living, Mary Kelly and her small group of companions trudge on through this daily misery, their only consolation being that things can’t get any worse. Yet things somehow do when their friend Ann is kidnapped and they are drawn into a conspiracy with links higher up than they could possibly imagine. The kidnapping is soon followed by the gruesome murder of another woman, Polly, and it becomes apparent that they are being hunted down, one by one. Sinister even by Whitechapel standards, the murder grabs the attention of Inspector Fred Abberline, a brilliant yet troubled man whose police work is often aided by his psychic abilities. Abberline becomes deeply involved with the case, which takes on personal meaning to him when he and Mary begin to fall in love…

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Psycho

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

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31 Days of Horror. Day 29: 28 Days Later

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Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon everynight of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

Not my favorite movie of the month. While it has the potential to be a good flick, Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionarie) just doesn’t hit the mark, in my opinion. A lot of people would think of this film sort of a tribute to the zombie-movie-master, George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, et. al.), but without a good point of reference from a lot of movie watchers, 28 Days Later is more of a take off on The Crazies.

Plot: Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twenty-eight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. After finding a church, which had become inhabited by zombie like humans intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately, heroics, with nice subtext about mankind’s savage nature.

What is your favorite scary movie? Leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you.

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