What a Horrible Night to Have a Crush
Some romances involve sunlit walks on the beach and morning coffee dates. Other love stories are set under the pall of night, with mysterious strangers lured by longing into a strange demimonde. Perhaps some aren’t romances at all, but tales of obsessive lust or heartbroken tragedies. This Halloween season, we’re highlighting horror movies featuring romantic relationships. Sometimes love triumphs over fear; other times a relationship is the source of terror.
This month we will be showing films centered on two such films about love and monsters. On October 7, we will be showing Twilight, an adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s hit novel Twilight, in which a teenage girl (Kristen Stewart) falls in love with a vampiric classmate (Robert Pattinson). On October 21 we will be screening Obsession, the summer horror flick in which a shy young man (Michael Johnston) makes a wish with a novelty gift to cause his crush (Inde Navarrete) to fall in love with him, unwittingly cursing her. All movie events will be held at 6:00 PM in Room 406.
After a chance meeting at Central Park Zoo, engineer Oliver (Kent Smith) and Serbian illustrator Irena (Simone Simon) fall in love. Their romance is frustrated by a legend from Irena’s village: she and her kinsfolk are cursed to transform into a man-eating panther when inflamed with passion. Oliver dismisses this as mere superstition, yet Irena is afraid to consummate their relationship, lest she be overpowered by the beast within. (1942, dir. Jacques Tourneur, 73 minutes)
Hélène Delambre (Patricia Owens) has accepted responsibility for the death of her husband, André (David Heidson), found crushed in a hydraulic press in his home laboratory. André’s brother François (Vincent Price) is incredulous: Hélène has no motive to kill her husband. When François entertains her newfound obsession with insects, she unspools a tale of woe that began when her husband’s teleportation research had unintentional side effects. Based on the short story by George Lengelaan. (1958, dir. Kurt Neumann, 94 minutes)
Widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) moves into a picturesque seaside cottage despite rumors of a haunting. The ghost of the previous owner, the roguish Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison), appears to her and they make a deal. She will finish and publish his memoirs, providing her with an income and him with an agreeable inhabitant of his former home. Based on the novel by R.A. Dick. (1947, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 104 minutes)
Larry (Andrew Robinson) and Julia (Clare Higgins) move with their daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) into a house once owned by Larry’s late playboy brother Frank (Sean Chapman). Unbeknownst to the family, Frank was destroyed when he opened a puzzle box connected to a dimension of sadomasochistic beings. A drop of blood awakens what remains of Frank, and he enlists Julia, his former mistress, into completing his resurrection– by whatever means necessary. Based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. (1987, dir. Clive Barker, 93 minutes)
200 years ago, despondent Louisiana plantation owner Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) was attacked in the woods and transformed into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise). Now in contemporary San Francisco, Louis tells his tale to an eager biographer (Christian Slater). Louis, unlike Lestat, is repulsed by his compulsion to devour humans, prompting Lestat to try to win him over by turning an orphan girl (Kirsten Dunst) into their vampire “daughter”. Based on the novel by Anne Rice. (1994, dir. Neil Jordan, 122 minutes)
An anthology of traditional Japanese ghost stories, half of which feature elements of romance. In one tale, a poor samurai (Rentaro Mikuni) divorces his wife (Michiyo Aratama) to marry a wealthy woman (Misako Watanabe), only to long for his previous, more loving relationship. In another story, a beautiful snow spirit (Keiko Kishi) spares the life of a young traveler (Tatsuya Nakadai) on the condition he never speak of their meeting. Other episodes relate to a blind musician (Katsuo Nakamura) tricked into performing in a graveyard and a samurai (Kan’emon Nakamura) frightened when he sees a face within his tea. Adapted from stories collected by Koizumi Yakumo/Lafcadio Hearn. (1964, dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 183 minutes)
Vampires Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) have been married for centuries. Adam, currently an underground musician in Detroit, is deeply depressed by the direction of modern human culture. He rarely leaves his mansion and its trove of vintage music, preferring to send his mortal lackey Ian (Anton Yelchin) on errands. Recognizing his despair, Eve leaves her Tangier hideaway to reunite with her lover. Unfortunately, their debauched idyll is disrupted Eve’s little sister (Mia Wasikowska), whose blood gluttony threatens their privacy. Available online only. (2013, dir. Kim Jarmusch, 123 minutes)
In the hidden government laboratory where she works, mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins) goes about her janitorial work mostly ignored. She and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover one day that the lab’s newest acquisition is a fish-man from South America (Doug Jones). With the help of her neighbor (Richard Jenkins), Elisa rescues the creature from painful experiments and keeps him in her bathtub. As she and the fish-man become emotionally close, their plan to return him to the ocean could be ruined by lab manager Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon). (2017, dir. Guillermo del Toro, 123 minutes)
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