October 18th 2012. Pick Of The Day.

Yes, the Film Forum concludes its concurrent week-long run of two different masterpieces, David Lean's first assertion of style unique to himself BRIEF ENCOUNTER, and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, whose only description warranted resides in its title. Plus it's in 3D! Yes, John Ford's influential and nearly unequivocal masterpiece THE SEARCHERS screens today as part of MOMA's Ride, Boldly Ride series, and one should never get tired of viewing this late-innings masterpiece from a man who did so much to invent the very language of film as we know it. YES, MOMA's 50 Years of Bond series gets its second and final spin of the month with franchise kicker DR. NO tonight, and that's aweshome! Yet NONE of these eminently worthy offerings persuade. My Pick Of The Day is reserved for a truly unique and utterly bugfuck guilty pleasure. Actually this may be one of the first modern films that intentionally strove for guilty pleasure status. Read on...

Dan Curtis is to this day beloved and well paid (courtesy of one Tim Burton) for the grand invention of his life, DARK SHADOWS, which remains a unique television experiment and respected industry gamble; a soap opera about vampires and witches that proved as popular as the Beatles in terms of ratings and merch sales. It actually still remains a boatload of fun. I know. I re-watched the first 20 Barnabas Collins episodes on Netflix when the Depp version was imminent. Attempting to compound this new-found success Curtis then sought to brand his name in the horror genre. Directing two motion picture adaptations of his TV horror soap, he next returned to the tube for production duties on the two Darren McGavin Kolchak flicks, THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER. Both huge. He followed that with another televised effort that would remain a cultural touchstone for those of my generation and a legit boogah boogah for the nightmare prone, the horror anthology TRILOGY OF TERROR, which contains one of the more haunting final images this side of a David Lynch series. Trust.

After all this he somehow found time to make a uniquely American take on the British horror macabre of the late 60's and early 70's, and managed to not only lasso in all the tropes but the actual stars of the genre from both sides of the pond. Even the title gives with the happy chills. BURNT OFFERINGS concerns a haunted mansion, a clueless upper class family claiming residence therein, and Bette Davis. As Bette Davis. Shudder.

The reinvention of the old dark house flick came in the wake of the post-war horror film revolution in the UK, begat by one Hammer Studios, which anticipated not just the British Invasion of the 60's but more importantly the sexual revolution of that era. As garish and elevated as they were, the copycats would only get sillier. By the time Amicus gained a foothold specializing in anthology horror flicks in the early 70's camp had begat camp had begat camp. So these trivialities had become goosebump silliness. And it took, no hubris intended, American indie auteurs to truly revitalize the horror film that absolutely scared the holy bejeezus outta ya.

But Curtis would have none of this American indie spirit. He wanted to ape his Brit antecedents, and ape he did. BURNT OFFERINGS remains one of the most garishly entertaining of camp horror delights you will ever enjoy, replete with possessions, malevolent psychic powers and increasingly inventive methods of murderous dispatch. Not satisfied? Need more crazy? The parents are played by Oliver Reed and Karen Black. Oliver Reed and Karen Black. I won't type that a third time, you read it right.

Tonight it has been deemed big screen worthy by the folks at the Chelsea Clearview Cinema. I wonder why. Showtimes are at 7pm and 9:30pm. You will regret missing this, I swear.

Oh yeah, by the way, did Kubrick ever admit to having seen this flick? I mean, he's always been the caretaker here...

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