Category: horror

Classic Films · horror

The Birds

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: The Birds, 1963

I used to think my biggest fear in life was birds. The claws, the beaks, the unpredictability: all of it nightmare fodder.

Then came Birdfy.

Thanks to this incredible technological advancement, I now have a tiny camera in our backyard owl house which produces content more interesting and engaging than most of the Best Picture nominees. Have I officially entered my birding era?? One final test remains: watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (Disc/Download) without covering my eyes or hiding under a blanket.

Without Tippi Hedren’s iconic green suit, I might not have given The Birds a fair shot. But the Edith Head design is pure 1960s perfection, so I guess I can suffer through avian attacks in the name of fashion. Thankfully, Hedren doesn’t change her wardrobe for basically the entire movie. Don’t get me started on what kind of wacko buys a pair of lovebirds for a man she just met in a pet store, drives them sixty miles to his house on the coast, BREAKS INTO THE HOUSE to leave the birds, then decides to stay in his ex-girlfriend’s guest room without so much as a change of underwear. Like, what was the plan here??? This woman is wild. I’m not sure if her mere presence sends the local birds into a tizzy, or if it was the adorable green lovebirds (were they jealous of the flamboyance? mad about the gilded cage?), but something makes them want to commit murder. Hitchcock does a great job of building tension before each attack, starting with one bird, then two, then ten, then suddenly fifty or a hundred. They arrive faster than anyone expects, leaving the humans utterly defenseless. Tippi and her doomed green suit never stood a chance.

Brandy seems to be the liquor of choice for the shell-shocked residents of Bodega Bay, and there’s something lovely about the idea of snuggling up next to a fireplace in Northern California with a warming glass of spirits… as long as that fireplace doesn’t become an entry point for hundreds of murderous sparrows. While watching The Birds, I recommend drinking this riff on the Jungle Bird, the Bodega Bay Bird.

Bodega Bay Bird

2 oz brandy

¾ oz Campari

¾ oz simple syrup

1 oz lime juice

1 oz pineapple juice

Pineapple leaves (garnish)

Combine all ingredients except leaves in a shaker with ice. Shake well to chill, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with more crushed ice on top, and pineapple leaves.

Bodega Bay Bird

I’m happy to report that my eyes remained open throughout this entire movie, even during the horrific scene where Tippi is pecked and scratched by live crows. Maybe it’s the fact that my nervous system has already been completely destroyed and desensitized after fifteen months (and counting) of American fascism, but somehow, a bunch of birds doesn’t seem that scary anymore. The owls picked a perfect time to move in. Cheers!

NOTE: If you’re a fan of physical media, I highly recommend this Alfred Hitchcock box set. It’s a great collection at a very reasonable price, and you’ll never again have to rely on the whims of tech oligarchs to watch your favorite Hitch flicks!

horror

Suspiria

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Suspiria, 1977

Summoning all my courage and pouring a stiff drink, I finally took a reluctant step into the world of Giallo horror this week. The entry point: Dario Argento’s tale of a coven of murderous witches at a German ballet school, Suspiria (Disc/Download). Having already watched and enjoyed the 2018 remake by Luca Guadagnino, I felt comfortable with the subject matter, but fearful about the level of horror awaiting me. Were things a lot more gruesome in 1977? I was about to find out.

Starring Jessica Harper as the naïve dancer who unknowingly steps into the coven’s lair, Suspiria is visually stunning from the very first frame. It’s like if Wes Anderson teamed up with Gianni Versace to make a picture that’s all symmetry, color, and gold leaf. The rooms have intense red lighting, garish murals, and neoclassical styles mingling with baroque, but the way it’s shot is very controlled. The school is both scary and beautiful, and the same could be said about the movie itself. Yes, there are grisly scenes, such as a girl being trapped in razor wire while her throat is slashed, a rain of maggots falling from the ceiling, and a truly horrifying bat attack, but with the arresting soundtrack by prog-rock band Goblin and the otherworldly set designs, you just deal with the gore because it’s all part of the experience.

Speaking of gore, I’m still mulling over the sticky red drink served at the school, which looks suspiciously like blood. Maybe it’s Campari, but… maybe not???  While you’re watching Suspiria, aim for something more appetizing with this Serpent’s Eye cocktail.

Serpent’s Eye

1 ½ oz Apple Brandy

1 ½ oz Dark Rum

½ oz Campari

1 oz Lime Juice

½ oz Grenadine

2 oz Blood Orange Juice

Blood orange slice (Garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a blood orange slice.

In addition to its impressive visuals, Suspiria also offers an interesting commentary on power. The only way to eliminate the coven is to remove its leader, which is akin to cutting off the head of a snake. One wonders if it works that way in real life with other dangerous cults and movements, or if history is always doomed to repeat itself with new snakes and new heads. By the end of this movie, I was cheering for the world of Argento: a world where evil can be defeated by a powerful American woman. That’s the world I want to live in, maggots and bats and all. Cheers!

Classic Films · horror

I Walked With a Zombie

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: I Walked With a Zombie, 1943

I love ghost stories with a touch of gothic romance almost as much as I love tropical cocktails, so when I discovered that Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked With a Zombie (Disc/Download) is a Caribbean-set riff on Jane Eyre, I was all in. Finally, an excuse to break out all the rums in October!

Classic horror has always been my go-to during spooky season because it’s generally more psychological horror than visual horror. Even in this film, which has the word “Zombie” in the title, it’s quickly communicated that the zombie is actually just a very sick woman who is unable to speak or communicate after battling a tropical fever. The terror comes from everything around her: the checked out husband, the fiery, drunken ex-lover, the naïve Canadian nurse, the resentful locals descended from slaves, and even a mother-in-law masquerading as a Voodoo priestess. In one poignant scene, the newly arrived nurse remarks to her cab driver with tone-deaf cheer that even though his ancestors came to the island chained to the bottom of a ship, “At least they came to a beautiful place!” His response: “If you say so, miss.” With one line, everything we assumed about these characters and this setting has been upended. We now understand who and what is evil on this island.

Looking back through my Cinema Sips archives, I’m a little surprised I haven’t featured a Zombie cocktail yet. However, the Caribbean setting of this film makes it an ideal match for the classic Tiki drink adapted from Don the Beachcomber’s original recipe. While you’re watching I Walked With a Zombie, I recommend drinking a Zombie.

Zombie

1 ½ oz Jamaican Rum

1 ½ oz Puerto Rican Rum

1 oz Overproof Rum

¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup

½ oz Grapefruit Juice

½ oz Velvet Falernum

¾ oz Lime Juice

¼ oz Grenadine

2 dashes Absinthe

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Mint Sprig

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a tiki mug or tall glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

If you came to I Walked With a Zombie expecting rotting flesh and slow-moving corpses, you might be disappointed to find only melodrama and chiaroscuro lighting. But for those of us who understand that our world has been built on a lot of scary, unpleasant history, this is the true horror watch. Cheers!

horror

Scream

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Scream, 1996

So okay, I don’t want to be a traitor to my generation and all, but before this week, I had never watched Scream (Disc/Download). However, in the name of research for a manuscript I’m currently working on, I finally had to bite the bullet and give Skeet Ulrich a chance. After all, great art requires great sacrifice.

Before you start questioning how I could have gone this long without watching Ghostface slash his way through a group of teenagers, keep in mind that when this movie came out, I was thirteen and only interested in three things: My So-Called Life MTV marathons, my VHS copy of Clueless, and Sweet Valley High paperbacks. Why would I want to watch Neve Campbell fighting off a knife attack when I could watch Neve Campbell falling in/out of love while raising her orphan siblings on Party of Five? I probably could have gone the rest of my life without watching this meta horror franchise, but when the need arose, I sighed and stepped up to the challenge. I watched the original, as well as the reboot, skipping a few in the middle. I saw Neve get chased, I saw Courtney Cox usher in an era of tabloid journalism as reporter Gale Weathers (that name!!!!), and I saw a lot of annoying film studies majors share their VERY STRONG OPINIONS on the genre. Thankfully, there was alcohol involved during this experiment.

Thinking about an appropriate cocktail for the Scream franchise, I wanted to choose something fall-inspired because these are great movies to watch in the month of October. Smoky Mezcal simulates the feeling of being around a campfire (although here in Texas we’re still hunkered around the air conditioner), and a riff on the Last Word cocktail is appropriately named for a movie that gives its murder victims a shocking amount of dialogue. While watching Scream, I recommend drinking a Famous Last Words cocktail.

Famous Last Words

1 ½ oz Mezcal

¾ oz Yellow Chartreuse

¾ oz Lime Juice

¼ oz Maraschino Liqueur

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a twist of lime.

So what’s the verdict, then? Am I glad I finally watched these? Overall, yes. I’m never going to be a true fan of the slasher genre, but the nineties nostalgia kept me engaged, and it was fun to see all the teen stars who continue to age gracefully on our streaming apps. We may have all gotten older, but the Ghostface mask will always be timeless. Cheers!