Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Dr. Strange is a tough act to follow, and here I am following it with another major studio's massive spectacle about sorcery. But as a fan of both the Harry Potter books and the accompanying booklet of the same title, I eagerly accepted my parents' invitation to see it with them on Thanksgiving.

Given the booklet's existence as a mere fictional bestiary, this could not really be an adaptation in the same sense as the HP movies. Instead, it's about a brief adventure of wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in 1926, the year before his bestiary is said to be published. Since Harry's main set of adventures takes place in the '90s, we get none of the same actors and very few familiar names -- apart from Newt, just occasional mentions of headmaster Albus Dumbledore and his fugitive former friend Gellert Grindelwald. Author J.K. Rowling did write the story, so we can still count on it for fidelity -- and indeed, it still feels like the same realm.

At this point, Newt's not doing any biology research exactly. He comes to New York City in order to look for a rare beast to acquire. Unfortunately, he brings several other magical beasts in a magical suitcase that is not as secure as needed. This garners the undesired attention of random non-wizard Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and disgraced policewitch Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), the latter of whom would have Newt punished and Jacob's memory wiped immediately if not for compromising circumstances. The bigger problem comes when something publicly kills in a way that no normal animal could. Newt insists it's none of his pets, but he takes it upon himself to determine what it is and how they can stop it before the whole city knows that magic exists.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Due to participation in NaNoWriMo, my viewing has dropped sharply, hence the scarcity of my reviews this month. But as some of you know, I'm a sucker for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There seemed no better way to take a break from writing a novel.

I was not previously familiar with the character of Dr. Stephen Strange (yes, that's his "real" last name -- not to be confused with Dr. Hugo Strange of DC Comics). He starts out as an arrogant surgeon, not far off from Dr. House. Leave it to Benedict Cumberbatch, actor of Sherlock Holmes and Alan Turing, to play yet another insufferable genius, even with an American accent for a change. You thought Tony Stark obnoxious at the start of Iron Man? You'd seen nothing yet. It's kind of painful to watch his interactions with co-worker and ex-girlfriend Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams, who incidentally played a love interest for a different Sherlock Holmes).

Then an accident damages the nerves in his fingers, killing his career. His search for a cure leads him to a secret location in Nepal, where the self-described Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) teaches people to unlock the powers of their own bodies -- and the multiverse. She is reluctant to teach him because of his similar character to a former student who went dangerously rogue, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), but student Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) talks her into it. Strange learns that the true purpose of the sorcerer training is to combat enemies, including, yes, Kaecilius, on a plane the Avengers don't frequent.

Solaris (1972)

After Andrei Rublev and Stalker, I thought I might never take another chance on director Andrei Tarkovsky, especially with one of his long works (167 minutes). But since this piece was remade in the U.S. in 2002, it seemed to have more potential to appeal to my tastes. Besides, I was running low on Halloween-type options, and a sci-fi with someone appearing to come back from the dead, however unscarily, could fill the void.

Based on a Polish book, the film takes place mostly on a space station orbiting the titular planet. When some scientists go missing and another reports seeing a person whom their instruments do not detect, psychologist Kris Kelvin accepts an invitation to investigate. He finds the remaining researchers negligent, unhelpful, and bleak if not self-destructive. More importantly, he too sees people who shouldn't be there -- including his departed wife, Hari, who doesn't just appear but behaves lovingly toward him. Clearly, something external is causing the insanity, if that's the right word.

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

I wasn't sure I could still enjoy mockumentaries, as the last one I did was A Mighty Wind in 2003. Sacha Baron Cohen struck me as largely tasteless, and shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation turned me off in no time -- something about the combination of social awkwardness and shaky cameras, I guess. Was it them, or had I changed? Regardless, a focus on vampires promised something different.

Netflix describes the theme as three vampire housemates, but for most of the movie, four or five share the house. These five are all men who somehow wound up in Wellington, New Zealand. Don't ask me why they agreed to be filmed when they otherwise try to keep their vampirism a secret. By agreement, the cameramen carry crosses just in case, but vampires aren't the only supernatural danger to turn up....

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

This tends to get classified as sci-fi rather than horror, as befits what we think of '50s flicks, but the premise sounded pretty scary to me. Unlike Ant-Man or the Atom, the protagonist herein does not shrink voluntarily, nor does he regrow. And as the poster shows (although that exact moment never happens), his experience should not be watched by arachnophobes. I'm not one, but even knowing about the spider, I gasped when it appeared.

What I didn't know going in was how gradual and accidental the whole affair was. Scott just happens to be the only person exposed to a radioactive mist at sea. Neither he nor his wife Louise notices anything wrong for six months. You might call the slowness merciful -- it's not like he suddenly finds himself naked -- but it does no favor for his attitude. For the first maybe half of the movie, he is feasibly short, if infeasibly proportioned for that height (as is the alleged circus midget he meets), garnering unwelcome fame. By the time he can live in a dollhouse, he has to worry about forces of nature such as the household cat and...well, see above.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

A few years ago, I was surprised to see an article listing many reasons that this was the #1 Halloween flick. I hadn't even heard about it since I saw the trailer in a theater. Besides, it had a middling rating on IMDb and a green splat on Rotten Tomatoes. But after encountering multiple citations of the haunting pseudo-lullaby "Come, Little Children," and simply not having a lot of Halloween-type movies on my Netflix queue, I decided to give it a try.

After a setup conveniently set exactly 300 years before the rest of the movie, we see teen Max (Omri Katz) missing L.A. now that he's moved to bully-infested Salem. His bratty but ultimately likable sister, Dani (Thora Birch), strong-arms him into accompanying her for trick-or-treating. When he sees an opportunity to get closer to his crush, Allison (Vinessa Shaw), the three of them break into an abandoned museum that had been the home of the Sanderson sisters -- Winnifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) -- before they were hanged for murderous witchcraft. Max doubts the folklore until after he follows instructions to revive the weird trio. The young heroes must prevent them from draining the life force from any kids before the resurrection spell wears off at dawn. Their only ally is Thackery, a former teen interloper cursed to eternal life as a black cat.

Kwaidan (1964)

Yup, another 1960s horror set in feudal Japan already. But there are key differences, starting with the fact that this piece is a compilation of four stories, with no recurring characters between them. I hadn't seen a film like that since before I started this blog.

Might as well summarize them in order of presentation. In "Black Hair," a samurai gets a divorce against his wife's pleas, not because there's anything wrong with their relationship, but because he's seen an opportunity to marry into wealth; as you can imagine, he lives to regret it. In "The Woman in the Snow," a frosty demoness spares a man's life on the condition that he never tell anyone about her, which gets tempting when he falls for a reminiscent beauty. In "Hoichi the Earless," a blind shamisen player gets unknowingly solicited by ghosts to play a ballad about the battle that killed them, prompting his caretakers to fear for his place in the land of the living. In "In a Cup of Tea," a samurai sees a face clearly not his own reflection in (wait for it) a cup of tea, and his reaction does not please the owner of that face....

The Lodger (1944)

The earliest movie by this title, from 1927, was the only Hitchcock silent I've seen. That had been a modernized (for the time) take on a Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes novel based on Jack the Ripper. The 1944 film must be more faithful to the source material, as it takes place in the Whitechapel district of London in the late 19th century.

The presumably titular lodger (Laird Cregar) goes by Mr. Slade. While the infamous murder spree is in full swing, he manages to find on short notice an available flat owned by the Bontings (Cedric Hardwicke and Sara Allgood). Another lodger, incidentally, is Kitty Langley (Merle Oberon), an up-and-coming musical actress. In the course of investigation, John Warwick (George Sanders) of Scotland Yard meets and develops mutual feelings for Kitty, hoping especially to protect her from the Ripper.

Day of Wrath (1943)

Ah, Carl Theodor Dreyer, it's been a while. When you're not dabbling in artistic horror, I can count on you for some sort of religious message. This film, based on a play, is more drama than horror, but it seemed appropriate for my October lineup due to a focus on witches.

It's set in 1623 small-town Denmark, which apparently had the same problem as 1692 Salem. Early on, a woman begs Rev. Absalon to get her off the hook for alleged witchcraft, as he did for his eventual mother-in-law. He shows concern only for her soul, not her life, even when she threatens blackmail if not a posthumous curse. The thought weighs heavily on him after her execution, but it's rather incidental to his most immediate problem: His young wife, Anne, who apparently married him for convenience and not love, falls for his son from a previous marriage. What's more, Absalon's mother has suspected from the get-go that Anne takes after her mother in wickedness.

Army of Darkness (1992)

It's unusual for me to watch a threequel (well, third entry, anyway) before either of its predecessors. Perhaps I was tempted by the title, which suggests a big departure from the unappealingly named The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. I've mentioned my concerns that director Sam Raimi tends toward more grotesque violence than I like, but I heard that this outing was relatively comedic.

What I had missed was the setting. Apparently, tampering with the mysterious forces associated with the Necronomicon tome not only arouses the wrath of the undead; it can open a time portal. Protagonist Ash (Bruce Campbell) gives us a brief synopsis of his past troubles to explain how he came to be chained up in the Middle Ages. Fortunately, his modern technology, knowledge, and general badassery get him out of immediate trouble and into good graces. Unfortunately, he's not quite sharp enough to reuse the tome properly. Soon he brings danger to the castle of one Lord Arthur (not necessarily the king; Ash estimates the year 1300) and must decide whether he cares enough, particularly for one Lady Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), to help rather than flee.