Watching old, old movies part 8

It's been a while since I watched any old movies, but here we go again :)

(Going through this list) (Here are my previous posts)

22. House of Wax (1953)
Vincent Price ♥ I saw the remake of this movie years and years ago, and I don't remember much from it. Yet this movie felt quite flat to me. Everything was obvious. From who burned down the wax museum, to who the burned freak was, it was all so obvious. The only scene that really stuck with me was in the beginning when the wax museum burned down and they showed the wax dripping off the faces of the models and their glass eyes popping out of their skulls. That was kind of creepy. The rest, not so much. I was kind of intrigued, though, when I found out from the credits (displayed before the movie for some reason at this point in time) that Carolyn Jones would be in it. The original Morticia Addams! But it was just for such a short amount of time in the beginning of the movie that it didn't really matter. Also, I think if they portrayed deaf people today the way they did in this movie there'd a public outcry.

23. Freaks (1932)
I love freakshows. I don't want them to return, but I love the whole legend surrounding them, much as I love the legend surrounding Jack the Ripper (but that doesn't mean I support murder, ok?) So I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I read up a bit about the movie beforehand and realised it had been banned in a lot of countries upon its release, and that it was the direct downfall of director Tod Browning. But when it was re-released in the 60's it quickly became a cult classic. The story of the movie was quite flat, and it seems like the purpose of the movie was more to show the world of the freaks living with freakshows rather than actually telling a story. And the ending was just bizarre. I came away from this movie feeling disappointed, because except for showing off the "freaks" it didn't actually do much.

24. The Birds (1963)
A classic that I've heard of but never actually seen. I have a light ornitophobia specifically aimed at gulls and pigeons, so when the gulls started attacking my skin started to crawl. To me this is one of the scariest movies on the list. I really liked the main character, she had some spunk. This movie had the most hilarious moment of "I love old time movie makeup" in a long time; a guy had his eyes pecked out by the birds - makeup solution: black eyeshadow in circles over closed eyes. The movie was eventful enough and scary enough that I'd call it great, if it wasn't for that ending. It explained nothing, resolved nothing. They just rode off into the distance in the car while the birds continued to flock to the town. No explanation where they came from and what made them attack or why the attacks came in waves. No solution or resolution to the problem, except a small mention that the military was going to move in and had put up roadblocks. But what's the military gonna do? Shoot every bird in existence? That's not possible, which is also explained in the movie. Apart from that ending, the movie was really, really good.