Technically more grotesque than gory, but the grotesquerie is profound and disturbing.

Well, we'll see. I'll likely save it for last.

And now for the monthly Criterion expiration report. Not a ton leaving on October 31 that I feel I need to see. A few classics I've seen but wouldn't mind seeing again, a few collections I'm not really interested in (Jackie Chan, Albert Brooks), and a number of things I've never even heard of. And then of course the inevitable "homework" films I feel I should see. I must say, however, the longer this hellscape that is 2020 lasts, the more I lean toward watching by whim. So I think, beyond the movies I've flagged in the 70s Horror collection (which I presume will expire end of Nov/Dec), I won't be adding too much to my queue.

Somewhat intrigued by:
Don Siegel: The Killers (I don't know that I need to see another version of The Killers, but I usually like Siegel)
Peter Yates: The Deep (Is this as bad as the Rotten Tomatoes score would indicate?)
Alain Delon collection: Once a Thief (mostly because it takes place in SF)
Sofia Coppola: The Virgin Suicides (I didn't like this the first time I saw but I did read and like the book recently so I want to give it another chance.)

I tried to watch It's Alive in recent years and couldn't make it halfway through the movie. I do recall the marketing back in the 70s scaring the bejeezus out of me, however.

I do recall the marketing back in the 70s scaring the bejeezus out of me, however.

I know where I was living when I saw it, and that I saw it in my local 99c theater, but I was pretty surprised when I saw the release date and realized what that must mean in terms of my viewing age. My memory is so vivid because right after I watched it, I walked home, and just when I got into my yard I heard a baby crying and it scared the living daylights out of me. I can only be thankful it didn't have the long term effect that seeing Psycho and Jaws far too young seems to have had, though I still find that bassinet image very creepy.

I'm also really surprised The Exorcist wasn't on that list.

I think they must be carefully avoiding anything that's part of a franchise. No Alien, no 70s Living Dead movies...although including Chainsaw kind of argues against that, hmm. Maybe it's just about what they have the streaming rights for.

It's not really horror (not gross horror, anyway) but I love the 1940s Uninvited with Ray Milland. I don't think it's available anywhere but on DVD, though. It's just a good ghosty, atmospheric movie.

I had a weird craving to see Ghost Story recently, the 1980s one with Craig Wasson and Alice Krige. But I might be better off reading the book again. Early Peter Straub was always great.

Oh, Ghost Story was such a good, creepy book. My parents let me read it when I was 10!

I know where I was living when I saw it, and that I saw it in my local 99c theater, but I was pretty surprised when I saw the release date and realized what that must mean in terms of my viewing age.

If it helps any it only opened in one theater in 1974. It was re-released and came to public attention in 1977.

If it helps any it only opened in one theater in 1974. It was re-released and came to public attention in 1977.

Ah, that would make way more sense. Still too young but I was seeing more movies by that point at least.

Any one else seen This Property Is Condemned? It was made in the mid-'60s but set in Mississippi in the '30s. Mama Starr runs a boarding house for railroad men with the help of her daughters, the beautiful Alva and the tomboy Willie. One day, Owen Legate arrives at the boarding house and turns everything upside down -- he's a railroad man who has to make recommendations on who will and won't continue to work for the railroad during the Depression, and then Alva falls in love with him.

I was surprised that this one isn't better known. Natalie Wood and Robert Redford play Alva and Owen, with Mary Badham (she played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird) as Willie. Charles Bronson plays Mama's boyfriend (Papa Starr is long gone before the movie starts), and Robert Blake has a minor role. Tennessee Williams wrote the one-act play that inspired the movie. Francis Ford Coppola has a writing credit, and Sidney Pollack directed.

Wood's performance as the Tennessee Williams heroine is amazing -- she clearly would have made a superior Blanche DuBois. Redford seems content to let Wood carry the movie, which was probably a wise decision even if it is hard to believe that he loves her as much as she loves him.

The plot has a few twists, even if most of them won't surprise anyone familiar with Williams' work -- imagine Amanda Wingfield and Blanche DuBois as mother and daughter, and you're halfway there. But it's far too well done to be forgotten as it has been.

Where did you see it, Fred? I've always meant to watch it -- I like Natalie Wood and Robert Redford together.